Had
a poll of the people of Simcoe been taken as to who was the most beloved
man in the community, it is all but a inregous conclusion that Canon
Hicks would have received more votes than all the other possibilities
put together. And now Canon Hicks is a memory -- a treasured memory, it
is true, yet a memory. After a few days' illness he has been taken from
us. No more will his good offices be at the disposal of those in need.
No more will he go in and out among us.
Kindly
in his dealings with all, broad-minded, truly catholic in his charities,
same in his views of life's problems; distinctly able as a preacher, and
faithful as the shepherd of a rapidly expanding flock, Trinity Church
has lost a leader greatly esteemed and worthy of the pride and affection
with which he was regarded. Simcoe, too, has lost a good citizen, and
all its causes, that look to the finer and better things of life, are
the poorer because of the death we chronicle today.
Richard
Hicks, B.A., B.D., Canon of the Diocese of Huron, Dean of Norfolk, and
rector of Trinity Church, Simcoe, died, to the great grief of this town,
without respect to class or creed, when Tuesday, April 21, 1914, was a
little more than an hour old. He had been ill just less than a week of
pneumonia. On Easter Monday he attended the annual vestry meeting of his
congregation and had the great satisfaction of presiding
over a
gathering that was encouraged by reports of a year past of steady growth
and prediction of still greater advancement for the year to come. At six
the next morning he was taken with a sudden and violent chill that
proved to be the forerunner of the dread disease that has claimed so
many victim in Canada during the last few months.
Canon
Hicks was born in Blenheim, Ontario sixty-three years ago. He was
educated at and graduated from Huron College, London. His first clerical
appointment was in Goderich; thence he went to Winnipeg, returning later
to London, where he served as Bishop's curate
for six years, prior to
coming to Simcoe in 1891, to fill the vacancy in Trinity Church caused
by the death of the late Rev. John Gemley. Some five years ago he was
elevated in the dignity of Canon, and for nearly a decade he has been
clerical secretary of the Synod of Huron. Shortly after coming to Simcoe
he was married to Ada, eldest daughter of the late Mr. Eishmina Jeffrey
of London. Mrs. Hicks and one daughter, Muriel, are now bereft of
husband and father.
It
is indulging in no exaggeration to say that no death in Simcoe in
years has called forth such universal expressions of regret. The people
of all denominations liked Canon Hicks, for it was his great good
fortune to possess in an unusual degree the faculty of making friends.
Never at any time guilty of the sacrifice of what he held to be of
mem[...], he had wide sympathy for the views of others. There was no
exclusive road to heaven in Canon Hicks' theology. In his belief, all
are God's children and all bound to the same eternity though the paths
may vary. Moreover, he never wore his religion upon his coatsleeve,
though he held most unshaken belief in its essential truths. We trust it
will not be considered as doing him an injustice to express the opinion
that he took more satisfaction in finding an unemployed man work or a
hungry man a dinner, than in the preaching of a sermon or offering a
prayer. And that is why there are salt tears in many eyes in Simcoe
today.
This
afternoon he will be laid to his long sleep in beautiful Oakwood
Cemetery, whither in sunshine or rain, in summer's heat and winter's
cold, he has accompanied the mortal remains of so many of our dear dead.
There let us have him in the hope of that glorious resurrection he so
often preached and so earnestly taught.
