1958 Fredericton Convocation
Bonnell, John Sutherland
Doctor of Laws (LL.D.)
Orator: Cattley, Robert E.D.
Image
Image Caption
L to R: John George Diefenbaker, John Sutherland Bonnell, John Darley Braithwaite Harrison, Louis-Zephrin Rousseau
Second Image Caption
Source: UA PC-5 no.3(3); Photo by Harvey Studios
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1958
JOHN SUTHERLAND BONNELL
to be Doctor of Laws
Few present will not have heard the voice of the Rev. Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell, Pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City. Reaching out from pulpit, microphone, and platform, his words have brought comfort and inspiration to millions of souls among his many millions of listeners.
This Maritime lad had watched in his earthly parent the tranquilizing touch, the healing accents, which he knew then to be the gift of his Heavenly Father. His own native talents, tutored in the schools of peace and the sterner seminary of war, he proceeded so to burnish in his two Canadian ministries that he was called to one of the famous
pulpits of the United States. A pastorate there of twenty-three years -- the second longest in its history -- has revealed those talents in all their beneficent variety: a keen intellect, a helping hand to the less gifted, a flair for finance (he can ask, it is said, his thousands and collect his ten thousands), a compelling sermon in the glowing tradition of Wesley and Spurgeon, Drummond, Parker and Fosdick.
Yet, great Divine though he is, and though he speaks with the tongue of men and of angels (assent he may to the former even if modesty compel him to disclaim the latter), he has cast out more devils by curbing that silver organ than by giving it rein. To the benign stillness of his counselling room have come - and their name is legion - men and women crushed beneath their secret loads of fear or remorse, anxiety or guilt, who have gradually disburdened themselves to their patient listener, and gone forth, most of them healed, and all of them carrying in their hearts the peace of God that passeth all understanding.
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
JOHN SUTHERLAND BONNELL
to be Doctor of Laws
Few present will not have heard the voice of the Rev. Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell, Pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City. Reaching out from pulpit, microphone, and platform, his words have brought comfort and inspiration to millions of souls among his many millions of listeners.
This Maritime lad had watched in his earthly parent the tranquilizing touch, the healing accents, which he knew then to be the gift of his Heavenly Father. His own native talents, tutored in the schools of peace and the sterner seminary of war, he proceeded so to burnish in his two Canadian ministries that he was called to one of the famous
pulpits of the United States. A pastorate there of twenty-three years -- the second longest in its history -- has revealed those talents in all their beneficent variety: a keen intellect, a helping hand to the less gifted, a flair for finance (he can ask, it is said, his thousands and collect his ten thousands), a compelling sermon in the glowing tradition of Wesley and Spurgeon, Drummond, Parker and Fosdick.
Yet, great Divine though he is, and though he speaks with the tongue of men and of angels (assent he may to the former even if modesty compel him to disclaim the latter), he has cast out more devils by curbing that silver organ than by giving it rein. To the benign stillness of his counselling room have come - and their name is legion - men and women crushed beneath their secret loads of fear or remorse, anxiety or guilt, who have gradually disburdened themselves to their patient listener, and gone forth, most of them healed, and all of them carrying in their hearts the peace of God that passeth all understanding.
From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.
Citations may be reproduced for research purposes only. Publication in whole or in part requires written permission from the author.