FOREWORD

      THOMAS TROWARD

      AN APPRECIATION

      How is one to know a friend? Certainly not by the duration of

      acquaintance. Neither can friendship be bought or sold by service

      rendered. Nor can it be coined into acts of gallantry or phrases of

      flattery. It has no part in the small change of courtesy. It is outside

      all these, containing them all and superior to them all.

      To some is given the great privilege of a day set apart to mark the

      arrival of a total stranger panoplied with all the insignia of

      friendship. He comes unannounced. He bears no letter of introduction. No

      mutual friend can vouch for him. Suddenly and silently he steps

      unexpectedly out of the shadow of material concern and spiritual

      obscurity, into the radiance of intimate friendship, as a picture is

      projected upon a lighted screen. But unlike the phantom picture he is an

      instant reality that one's whole being immediately recognizes, and the

      radiance of fellowship that pervades his word, thought and action holds

      all the essence of long companionship.

      Unfortunately there are too few of these bright messengers of God to be

      met with in life's pilgrimage, but that Judge Troward was one of them

      will never be doubted by the thousands who are now mourning his

      departure from among us. Those whose closest touch with him has been the

      reading of his books will mourn him as a friend only less than those who

      listened to him on the platform. For no books ever written more clearly

      expressed the author. The same simple lucidity and gentle humanity, the

      same effort to discard complicated non-essentials, mark both the man and

      his books.

      Although the spirit of benign friendliness pervades his writings and

      illuminated his public life, yet much of his capacity for friendship was

      denied those who were not privileged to clasp hands with him and to sit

      beside him in familiar confidence. Only in the intimacy of the fireside

      did he wholly reveal his innate modesty and simplicity of character.

      Here alone, glamoured with his radiating friendship, was shown the

      wealth of his richly-stored mind equipped by nature and long training to

      deal logically with the most profound and abstruse questions of life.

      Here indeed was proof of his greatness, his unassuming superiority, his

      humanity, his keen sense of honour, his wit and humour, his generosity

      and all the characteristics of a rare gentleman, a kindly philosopher

      and a true friend.

      To Judge Troward was given the logician's power to strip a subject bare

      of all superfluous and concealing verbiage, and to exhibit the gleaming

      jewels of truth and reality in splendid simplicity. This supreme

      quality, this ability to make the complex simple, the power to

      subordinate the non-essential, gave to his conversation, to his

      lectures, to his writings, and in no less degree to his personality, a

      direct and charming naïveté that at once challenged attention and

      compelled confidence and affection.

      His sincerity was beyond question. However much one might differ from

      him in opinion, at least one never doubted his profound faith and

      complete devotion to truth. His guileless nature was beyond ungenerous

      suspicions and selfish ambitions. He walked calmly upon his way wrapped

      in the majesty of his great thoughts, oblivious to the vexations of the

      world's cynicism. Charity and reverence for the indwelling spirit marked

      all his human relations. Tolerance of the opinions of others,

      benevolence and tenderness dwelt in his every word and act. Yet his

      careful consideration of others did not paralyze the strength of his

      firm will or his power to strike hard blows at wrong and error. The

      search for truth, to which his life was devoted, was