The American Missionary - Volume 39, No. 03, March, 1885

Excerpt

DEATH OF REV. G. D. PIKE, D. D.

In the death of Dr. Pike, which occurred in Hartford, Conn., Jan. 29, the American Missionary Association has lost a most earnest and successful worker. Repeated and protracted attacks of throat and lung troubles during the last two or three years, terminating in an illness that confined him to his room for three months, gave warning to his friends of the approach of death. But with the hopefulness peculiar to the disease, and especially characteristic of himself, he entertained almost to the last the expectation of recovery. Yet death had no terror; on the contrary, while he wished to live for the sake of his family and the Association, he personally welcomed death with the most joyful feelings.

Dr. Pike was born in Topsfield, Mass., Aug. 6, 1831, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1858, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1861. He was ordained associate pastor with Rev. Austin Richards, D. D., of the Olive Street Congregational Church, Nashua, N. H., April 23, 1862, and remained in that position till May 1, 1865. He was acting pastor at East Hampton, Conn., from 1865 to 1867, and during the latter year he entered the service of the Association as agent, residing in Rochester, N. Y. In 1870 he became District Secretary, a position which he filled till his death, and to which he devoted the best energies of his life. His peculiar gifts fitted him for some special services. During the years 1872-4 he accompanied the Jubilee Singers in a tour through the United States and Great Britain. They were welcomed by the royal family and by the nobility, and by large and enthusiastic popular audiences. Their success, in its pecuniary results, finds a fitting monument in the substantial and commodious Jubilee Hall, at Nashville, Tenn.; and the untiring industry, the skill and tact and energy of Mr. Pike as business manager contributed in a large measure to this gratifying result. Before returning to America he made a rapid trip through Egypt and Palestine. In 1881 he assumed the editorship of the American Missionary, and brought to that service a degree of variety and breadth that gave a new impulse to the usefulness of the magazine. He devoted much thought and research to the condition of Africa, and became so well acquainted with it that editors of leading journals in this city and pastors of churches sometimes sought information from him in regard to it. He wrote two volumes on the History of the Jubilee Singers, which have had a very wide circulation.

Dr. Pike was eminently social and was blessed with unusual conversational powers, and gave to others and won from them to himself strong personal friendships. As a public speaker he was earnest, animated and eloquent, and was gladly welcomed in the pulpit and in the meetings of Associations and Conferences. His leading characteristic was that of an organizer. He was perpetually devising plans for active work and was diligent and untiring in his efforts to carry them out. He was a man of prayer and of faith in God, which sustained him in his constant labors, in his days of trial and in his sickness and death....