Henry Cooke (minister) - Character of Cooke

Character of Cooke

Cooke's habits of work would have been impossible without the aid of an iron constitution: he rose at four, needed little sleep, and traveled, spoke, and wrote with incessant energy. In public a dangerous and unsparing (some said an unscrupulous) foe, his private disposition was that of warm-hearted kindness. Relations of personal friendliness between him and his old antagonist, Montgomery, sprang up in their later years. Stern Protestant as he was, none was more prompt to render assistance to a Roman Catholic neighbour in time of need. A strict disciplinarian, he leaned always to the side of mercy when the courts of his church had to deal with delinquents.

Cooke's biographer—his son-in-law, Josias Ledlie Porter, D.D-- quotes from Lord Cairns the saying that for half a century his life 'was a large portion of the religious and public history of Ireland'. Orangemen carry his likeness on their banners (though he was not a orangeman), and his statue in Belfast (erected in September 1875) is still a symbol of the Protestantism of Northern Ireland.

Read more about this topic:  Henry Cooke (minister)

Famous quotes containing the words character of, character and/or cooke:

    “Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.”
    —Angela Davis (b. 1944)

    “We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused—in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible. On the other hand, the lightness of the artillery should not degenerate into pop-gunnery—by which term we may designate the character of the greater portion of the newspaper press—their sole legitimate object being the discussion of ephemeral matters in an ephemeral manner.”
    —Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)

    “Man has an incurable habit of not fulfilling the prophecies of his fellow men.”
    —Alistair Cooke (b. 1908)