The Death of Brother Druillard
IN our issue of January 7 we made a brief announcement of the death of Brother A. Druillard. Since that time we have received further particulars of the sad event. The cause of his death was peritonitis. The funeral services were conducted in the chapel of the new Study Hall building of Emmanuel Missionary College, Friday, January 1, and were attended by the entire school and faculty. The burial was in Rose Hill Cemetery at Berrien Springs. Brother Druillard accepted the truths of this message in 1879, and was actively engaged in the work nearly all the time for about twenty-five years, eight of which were spent in South Africa. For about a year and a half he was connected with the work at Berrien Springs. We quote the closing paragraphs of the brief tribute read at the funeral:— “He dearly loved this place, and the principles for which this school stands, and he is the first of its pioneer workers to fall at his post. One of the last desires he expressed was that he might live to see the present unhewn and unfinished condition of things incident to the establishment of any missionary enterprise of this character transformed into symmetry and beauty in every department. ‘The summer assembly grounds,’ he said, ‘must look better next year when the teachers come here in June. I must get all these old trees out, and some flowers planted.’ “In a broader, kindlier, Christian sense, we must not, we can not, mourn his loss, for to him to live was Christ, to die was gain. Our voices must mingle with that of the Master when he spoke of Lazarus to the messengers sent by Mary and Martha, saying, ‘Our friend sleepeth.’ Brother Druillard was indeed ‘our friend.’ He sleeps, but his spirit has returned to God who gave it, and his life for a little while is hid with Christ, to be returned again, when many of those who sleep in the dust shall awake to everlasting life.”