50.

TESTIMONY OF THE BRETHREN.

E cannot close this record without appending the "Testimony of the Brethren." It is their right and privilege to speak.

All the lights in the temple of humanity will go out when they who love are not permitted to speak their loves. I have been taught from a child to respect, never to speak evil of, and to give place to the brethren. I rejoice that they have sat down with me, and assisted so fluently and fully in the estimate of my father's life. I am now a child again, respectful and obedient, and waiting to hear what the brethren shall say. Bishop McTyeire comes first: "And now to speak of his death. This I should not characterize as triumphant; it is enough to say it was peaceful. There is a difference according to sovereign grace; and it is not always according to eminence in usefulness, or even in piety. Some do triumph-they rejoice and are exceeding glad in the prospects of the grave; they have ecstasies and transports in dying. Our brother had not these. The end of this man was peace. The psalmist thought that was enough even for the perfect and the upright. I sympathize with the

sentiment of the Rev. Dr. Few, of Georgia, when he lay a-dying. A brother sang for him that hymn which has this refrain:

I hope to die shouting, the Lord will provide!

Said he, I don't ask to die that way, but peacefully, as the sun goes down.' So died Dr. Green. We had the privilege of more than one prayerful intercourse with him. He believed that he was nearing the end when others had hope.

"Doctor, you have done a great deal of preaching; how does it appear now as you look back on it? There was no remark of self-depreciation, as that he might have done it better, or more of it, but this was the deliberate reply: 'I am impressed with its truth! What I have been preaching is true!'

"At another time, on leaving to be gone a few days in West Tennessee, he intimated a desire that I should not go where a message could not reach me, as something might happen. All the while he expected to die, saying-the visit before my last'My course is run!' And yet there was no trepidation, no fear. He was as serene in the contemplation of death, and all the realities which death was about to unfold, as though the signal had been given at the camp-meeting and he was leaving the preachers'-tent to fill his appointment. Already the singing had begun at the stand, and the people had gathered, and he was ready.

"About two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, July 15, 1874, he asked his son Frank to turn him on his side; and without gasping for breath, or

death-rattle, or any struggle, he was dead. While we lament his taking away, let us be thankful that he was ever given."

Dr. D. C. Kelley speaks: "A week before his death, as I was about leaving the city, I asked-contrary to the general directions of physicians-that I might see him. I felt that I must hear one more utterance from him. To a question, 'Are you suffering much?' he replied, 'Only physically; there is no mental or moral trouble!' What is the outlook, Doctor?' Answer: All beautiful! Not only heaven, Christ, and faith are beautiful, but I have been thinking to-day of death, and the grave, and the grave-yard where a whole family sleep grouped together, and this, too, has grown beautiful to me!' After a pause, he added: "The gospel we preach is true-salvation is for all;' a pause, and then, with emphasis: But it is all the grace of God!'

"To those of us who have heard him more than a score of times-even in his happiest moments in the pulpit-say, 'I love life; I joy to think of eternal life; I love light and the day-time, but I hate night; I do not love death; I hate the grave,' to hear him now calmly saying that the sheen of light which his faith had shed over his active life was, in the hour of need, casting its brightness over the grave, was a note of the profoundest triumph; not the mere triumph of emotion, but the deeper triumph of a victorious faith."

Dr. T. O. Summers speaks: "Dr. Green is dead! The tidings strike a doleful sound

On our poor heart-strings!

We can hardly believe it-we cannot make him dead.' Yet he is dead. He died on Wednesday afternoon, July 15, 1874, at two o'clock. Dr. Eve came to our office in the morning and told us that he considered him in extremis. In company with Bishop McTyeire and Doctors Redford and Young, we instantly repaired to the home of Mr. Thomas D. Fite, son-in-law of the Doctor's-where he had so long lived, and where he was about to die; but we could not then have an interview with him. A few hours later Brother W. H. Evans came after usthe Doctor was dead! We hastened to the house of mourning, where we found Dr. Hargrove, Dr. Eve (who, with Dr. John W. Maddin, was present at his death), and other friends, with the family. We mingled our sorrows, and tears, and prayers. The scene was inexpressibly impressive.

"A few days before his death we had a pleasant interview with him. On remarking to him, 'The doctors say you are better-are you better?' he replied in his usual tone, like Bishop Soule, 'No, sir!' 'Your mind is kept in perfect peace?' 'Yes, sir!' He was very feeble, but he conversed with considerable ease, and gave us the cheering assurance that all was well. He asked us to unite with him in prayer, and he responded very heartily to our petitions, except such as referred to his recovery. The call seems to have been whispered to his heart, and he was preparing to remove,

And leave the dull body below,

And fly to the regions above.

"He was himself all through the final scene.

During his years of extreme suffering no one ever heard him complain or repine. He would converse, write, preach, and make speeches-do every thing the occasion required-and none but his intimate friends would suspect there was any thing the matter with him, except as there would be an uncontrollable effort to relieve himself of the tormenting pain which he endured."

Dr. J. B. McFerrin says: "My last interview with him-not long before I left home-was very pleasant. He was calm, peaceful, resigned, and full of hope in view of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. When I said, 'This mortal must put on immortality' (pointing to his emaciated frame), he said, 'That is beautiful!' and spoke of the resurrection of the body with rapture. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the faith vouchsafed to him, he felt that Christ had blessed the graves of all his saints, and that he was going to rest with his dying Head."

I remember that in this last interview Dr. McFerrin put a question to my father, as to the future state, which he answered by saying, "All is as clear as glass!" I mention this because it was one of his favorite sayings when in health.

Dr. Young says: "The day before he died, learning that I was to leave the city, he sent for me to come in. Giving me his hand, he said, 'I wanted to say to you that all is right!' These were his last words to me."

In the autumn of 1874 a memorial service was held in Gallatin, in memory of Messrs. Maddin,