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SISTER SILENA MOORE HOLMAN (1850–1915)
BROTHER LARIMORE'S TRIBUTE TO MRS. SILENA MOORE
HOLMAN.
(GOSPEL ADVOCATE, 14 October 1915,
1027–8) (Reprint from the Nashville Tennessean.)
Following a beautiful prayer of gratitude that Mrs. Holman had
been permitted to live and work in our world, Elder Larimore talked from
the text: “She hath wrought a good work....She hath done what she
could.” He said in part:
“It is difficult for me to understand my own emotions upon
this solemn and important occasion. We are here to perform a sad service.
Our Savior, in Mark 14: 6–8, said to his disciples of the woman who
loved him and showed it by her services to him: 'She hath wrought a good
work....She hath done what she could.' That is the sum and substance of
all I may with propriety say to-day. When I apply these sentences to our
dearly beloved and wonderful sister who has finished her earthly career, I
say only what the tens of thousands who have loved her know to be true, as
true of her as of the woman of our Savior's example. While I am seven
years her senior, I have been practically her lifelong friend; and she was
my valued, true, and faithful friend.
“I saw her for the last time in this life August
26—three weeks and three days ago. I was conducting a series of
meetings at Lewisburg. She was excessively busy, as she always was, but
she came to Lewisburg to see me, and we were the guests of Mrs. Collins.
We talked freely of things of mutual interest. Mrs. Collins and I were
principally listeners because we loved to hear her talk and because what
she said was practical, important, and exceedingly helpful. She was then
optimistic, bright, and hopeful, not only because of past triumphs for her
cause, but for future prospects. She seemed as if she would take wings and
fly away. She alluded modestly to her life and cheerfully to death, even
to the sad events culminating to-day. She told Mrs. Collins she desired me
to make the talk at her funeral, impressed it upon Mrs. Collins, paused,
and said: 'I want Brother Larimore to do it; for I want no man to
apologize for my work, and I know he will never do that.' There was no
dark shadow, no tinge of doom, but that tide of thought swept over her
though she spoke with cheer and even laughter. She then seemed able to
continue her wonderful work many years. Why should any one apologize for
her work? As well apologize for the fragrance of beauty and songs of the
birds, for the light of the moon, for the glittering of the stars, for the
shining of the sun, /1028/ for the purity of sweet infancy, and almost for
the perfection of heaven itself.”
In referring to her early life, Elder Larimore said:
“She was a worker almost from the cradle to the casket. In
her eleventh year came the home-wrecking, heart-breaking war that
devastated our sunny Southland. She was thus deprived of the protection
and companionship of her brave father, who was called away to defend his
fireside, his family, and the country he loved. It took him not only for a
short time from all that he held dearest, but the same grim war ended his
life. Before Mrs. Holman was fifteen the war closed, leaving the South a
land of widows and orphans, and little else but sorrow, honor, glory, and
graves. She was the oldest of five children, and she managed by diligent
exercise of her wonderful intelligence to become qualified to teach and
take care of the family. The old family home had slipped away, but she
earned and saved two thousand dollars to buy back the home they loved, but
had lost. She passed through that terrible period of war as a mere child.
We who wore the gray and followed the waning fortunes of the Lost Cause
sometimes thought our lot hard, but it was blissful compared with what the
women and children at home had to endure; hence they should certainly not
be honored less than the veterans of the cause they loved.
“She continued this honorable and industrious life, and at
the age of twenty-four became the wife of Dr. T. P. Holman, the husband
who is to-day lonely and broken-hearted because of her
departure.”
In speaking of her great life work, Elder Larimore continued:
“Thirty-five or forty years ago she became interested in
temperance, an interest which soon became the mainspring of her life. She
took hold of this work with renewed vigor when the State Woman's Christian
Temperance Union numbered less than two hundred, a membership which during
her fifteen years' presidency increased to four thousand or more. To her
belongs more honor for this work than to any one else, living or dead. It
was never her desire to meddle with politics. The elimination of evil was
the object of her life, and along that line she achieved success that
lasted and grew as long as she lived.
“Her work as a child, as a daughter, as a sister, as a
teacher, her loyalty and fidelity as wife and mother, all justify my text.
Her seven sons and one daughter are proof positive that their father and
mother faithfully discharged their parental duty, bringing them up in the
'nurture and admonition of the Lord.' Mrs. Holman became a Christian in
early childhood, and her faith never wavered. She was a Christian more
than fifty years. When she was told a few days ago that the end was
approaching, she was not disturbed or moved from her calm composure, her
perfect resignation, and the sweet assurance to her loved ones that all
was well with her soul. She loved her work, her sisters in the work, her
loved ones at home, the church of Christ, and the brotherhood of man. She
met death without dread, saying, just before she lapsed into
unconsciousness: 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that
day.”
“In all her work, she was never known to employ harsh means.
Not a newspaper in Tennessee, I have been told, ever refused to print any
of her manuscripts. In her last conversation with me she spoke of men who
had been bitter foes of her work, speaking not unkindly, but in the spirit
of charity, and I want to commend that spirit to all who are here. Her
last communication to the press was a letter in regard to the present
senatorial campaign in Tennessee, in which she urged the candidates to
treat each other as gentlemen in kindness of spirit, saying nothing which
one would not like to have said of himself. If her advice, based on the
Golden Rule principle, should be adopted, it would revolutionize
politics.
“In her death, her family, her friends, her coworkers, the
church of Christ, and the brotherhood of man have sustained a great loss.
'She hath wrought a good work. She hath done what she could.'”
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