Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/445

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with the sublime sentiment, "the Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep"; and truly and verily he was the good shepherd unto the sheep whose tending was the prime concern of his God-illumined and God-accepted life.


(3)*[1]

Duty and desire, gratitude and affection, have drawn us here together. We are here, I believe, neither to mourn a loss nor to pronounce a eulogy. We are here to affirm a faith and to confirm a hope. The first of those noble messages, so eagerly awaited and so respectfully received, which used to be, for over a decade and a half, the centre of attraction in the programme of the College Day Celebrations, concludes with the touching words: "even when the present shadows close finally around me, I have tho hope that I shall be remembered for a time by some of you,"

  1. * Based on the opening and closing remarks made as President of the memorial meeting at Cocanada (31-7-23).