Fraternity-Testvériség, 1943 (21. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1943-03-01 / 3. szám
4 TESTVÉRISÉG Lt. LOUIS KOMAROMY 300. Washington, D. C. EMERY J. CSOBADI 300. Washington, D. C. STEPHEN CZIBERE 127. Drakes Congo, O. “AN AID TO THE SHEPHERD”* By Dr. Stephen Szabó Here we are gathered together in impressive silence with deep feelings of sorrow and sincere remorse around the body of our beloved brother, Paul Bacsó, to do honor to his noble soul and blessed memory that will long live amongst us, inspire and urge many of us to work faithfully and labor untiringly in the vineyard of the Lord Almighty. According to the old, traditional, Hungarian custom only the bodies of ministers and men of high and noble birth are allowed to lie in state in the church. Paul Bacsó lies in state in this church of his heart for he was both the minister of God; though never attended any schools of high learning and never had been ordained: and he was a man of noble birth, though not as regards to his body, but as regards to his soul. His family name is an ancient Hungarian word, the mean- in of which is: an aid to the shepherd, signifying that his forefathers in the days of old had been shepherds or Bacsos of the great Hungarian plains. All his life he really was an aid to the shepherd of the flock. For 27 years he was the chief-elder of this congregation and for the same length of time the president of the John Calvin Society. He was a trustee of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America and also of the Lakeside classis of the Hungarian Reformed churches belonging to the “Evangelical and Reformed Church of the United States.” He was an all-in-all active worker in the life of the church of his fathers. Faith and religion with him was not a static and passive experience, as with so many others even inside the fence of the church, but an active force and a dynamic power. He knew the meaning of the Apostle’s principle and earnestly lived up to it: “Faith without works is dead.” Faith for him was a practical realization of God in everyday affairs of life. He knew well the gospel truth: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” and lived accordingly. He knew that without God a man is “the plaything of time and the vagabond of space.” And through hardships of life and tribulations of time he kept and preserved his deep, vital, spiritual religion and fervent love of the faith of his fathers, for which he had done and would have done at any time or under any circumstances more than for anything else in the world. Such a faith makes manhood, honors humanity, crowns Christ and Glorifies God! The village of his birth in Hungary is one of the oldest and most devoted centers of Protestantism. The church in which he was babtized dates back to the times of the great Reforma* Gyászbeszéd néhai Bacsó Pál toledoi főgondnok, érdemes ref. közéleti emberünk fölött. PAUL BACSÓ
