Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/433

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ASA SEVERANCE FISKE
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In 1905 he was contemplating the early publication of " Luther and the Sixteenth Century Reformation," and "The Heroic Period of the Maccabees." He belongs to the Alpha Delta Phi college fraternity, the Masonic Order, the Loyal Legion, the G. A. R., and several other societies, literary and geographic.

He has always endorsed the platform and policy of the Republican party. He is an omnivorus reader, with a taste for literature of every kind, history, theology, science, philosophy, poetry, fiction, economics, sociology, politics — everything which interests an educated American citizen. He has always practised some form of athletics, but of late years tennis and baseball have given way to golf and bicycling. He says, "my personal preference was for the legal profession, but after giving myself to Christ in my senior year in college, it seemed my duty rather to preach the Gospel. To this course the wishes of my mother and sisters and an elder brother doubtless tended strongly." It was his mother's ambition for her children, and her determination, that they should have every advantage possible, which inspired Doctor Fiske in his boyhood and has led to his useful life of ministry. The home with its "blessed companionship" stands first in his thought, in the shaping environment of his life; next, schools, "mainly as they reveal comparative abilities"; then contact with other men in active life as developing, comparing and testing men's powers. He says to young men: "If you believe in God, then serve Him. If you know the difference between right and wrong, then do the right. Be careful about making a pledge, but when you have made it, keep it. Do at once with all your might what you see ought to be done. Earn always more than your wages. Do more than mere duty."

The strong personality of Doctor Fiske, his penetrating and philosophical mind, his warm heart, broad sympathy and genial sense of humor, have been loyally enlisted in all good causes, yet he has never swerved from single-hearted devotion to his calling as a pastor and a preacher of the Gospel.

He was married to Elizabeth Worthington Hand in October, 1860. They have had three children, two of whom were living in 1905.