consecutively. My recollections of the service in the Master's cause at this dear church and with her people are the sweetest of my life; it was here that four of my children found the Savior and were brought into the fold of Christ, and the funerals of two of them were also preached by the pastors of this church. And now, after more than fifty-three years of service in the Master's cause, I can say that it has indeed been joyous, and my regret is that I have done so little and that I had not started in many years sooner.

For several years before leaving Kentucky I was pretty regularly in attendance at the annual State Baptist General Associations, and have kept it up since coming to Missouri. For the past twenty years successively I have attended as delegate our Southern Baptist convention.

"My Christian experience, have I one? Yes. Where and when did I obtain it? I did not know. Where and when will it end? I am sure I don't know that either. I do know though, that it is the greatest treasure and joy of my life; it is ever old and never new; it is always new and never old. It has been with me through the long vista of time, all the days and years of my past life oftentimes my way has been rugged and hard; sore afflictions and trials have crossed my path, but my faith has never wavered, and words or language fail to express the joy and comfort of that experience and unshaken confidence of a better life and land than this. My mind goes back as but yesterday, to the time when a little boy of five years in the old log house home by the open fireplace with its cheerful light, the homemade rag carpet on the floor, the sainted old grandmother in her accustomed chair, between the fireplace and her bed, with my little trundle bed drawn out from under her, ready for me to be put away for the night; instinctively I kneeled at her feet, my forehead resting on her lap, one of my hands clasped in one of hers, and her other hand placed on the head of the orphan boy; slowly and distinctly she taught me to repeat the Lord's prayer; when the last sentence was uttered, and the amen said, rising I looked up in those sightless eyes and beaming countenance, a sight fit for angels to look upon. Can I ever forget it, or will its beauty and loveliness ever diminish? Nay, never. It seems now as but last night, when I beheld the scene. It has ever been a constant treasure and joy,

[Continued on page 440]

Thanks to Candy Hearn for transcribing this page.