This time, from the 1904 Universalist General Convention Board of Trustees report.
The Rev. Andrew W. Cross, of Riverside, California, died at Sierra Madre, May 20, 1904, aged thirty-two.
He was a native of England, and was taken to Scotland when a child. Coming to America, accepted at once its hopeful faith, and soon began to fit himself for the ministry in the Canton Theological School, from which he graduated in 1896. “During his second year at school he began to preach at Fulton, New York, and carried on the duties of pastor there during the rest of his theological training. Upon his graduation he continued the work there until the Fall of 1897, when he was called to Westfield, Massachusetts. In February, 1897, he returned to Scotland and was married to Miss Lizzie Reed of Glasglow. Bringing his bride with him, he continued his labors in Westfield until the following year, when, his health failing, he was obliged to relinquish his work and seek renewed health in the Adirondacks. After remaining there about a year, he became strong enough to take up work at Middleville, New York, where be was a much beloved pastor until late in 1901. At this time he was offered the church at Riverside, California, and feeling that the genial western climate might be beneficial to his impaired health, he and Mrs. Cross decided to take up work there.”
Mr. Cross seems to have secured the love and admiration of the whole community for his many excellent qualities. All credal lines were forgotten and theological differences were not remembered. At the funeral, the venerable Doctor Deere “seemed to have gained a strength which astonished his hearers, as his failing health had for years prevented him from taking such active part . . . He said in faltering tones: ‘I am called again from the pew to the pulpit by love and duty. I stand in the pastor’s place to convey as best I can the impression left upon me by the short ministry of the true spirit, whose remains rest in the silence of the tomb before us. I was shocked when told he had gone, for from the pew I had seen the action of his soul only in speech and prayer. I could not see the signs of decay which gave all the rest of you such distress, and made some of you predict his early departure. I missed none of the spiritual energy of his soul, nor the cheerfulness of his mental culture. Few sentences fell from his lips to which my heart did not respond an empathic Amen, and hs devotional services and prayers were particularly strengthening and uplifting.'”