Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

328
ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
his friends thought of him in his age seems to me well shown
in an editorial from The Christian Evangelist published at the
time of his departure. It says:
It is not our purpose here to speak at length of his work. He is
known better and more widely as a writer than as a preacher. From
the very beginning, and in spite of the obstacle of defective sight,
he has been a close, constant, and conscientious student of the Word
of God and especially of the New Testament in the original Greek.
His original contributions on scriptural themes to our various
journals have always been distinguished for simplicity of style, depth
of thought, and sweetness and devoutness of spirit. He was emphatically
a man of one book, all his studies bearing in some way upon the
Bible; and all the varied riches of his scholarly researches were consecrated
with a beautiful and child-like simplicity and humility to
the triumphs of the Gospel and the edification of the church. We
found him at eighty still a student of the blessed Book, and as eager
as ever to discover "the mind of the Spirit" hidden in some of its
difficult passages — but we are to leave his work for other pens,
while we speak briefly of the man. To know him was to love him.
He combined in rare degree strength of intellect with tenderness of
heart. We had occasion in speaking of him recently in these columns
to call him the "Beloved St. John of the Christian Church,"
and we are confident that everyone who has enjoyed the privilege of
intimate fellowship with him will appreciate the entire appropriateness
of the appellation. He was as gentle and tender and affectionate
as a gracious woman, and as spiritual as St. John himself. His
presence and loving exhortations in the church always brought to
mind the tradition concerning the beloved disciple, that when he
was no longer able to walk he was carried into the church at Ephesus
and closed every exhortation with the memorable words, "Little
children, love one another."
That the estimate here recorded is that of others appears
from the following extracts from letters received from Cameron
and pubhshed in the church paper:
The world has just lost a great and good man. The dear old man,
how we shall miss him! If there ever was a saint on earth, he certainly
was one. Everybody loved him. I think his heart was
overjoyed at the thought of meeting his fellow-workers in the convention.
I never spoke to him without feeling like doing more for
the Master. The last time I heard him speak was upon the day for
Negro Missions. How enthusiastic he became! How glad he was
to aid in the great work! He was faithful to the end.