Asking questions.

Devotions.

crowded by one of the most interesting and interested audiences I ever beheld; and although Dr. Green was then approaching his threescore years and ten, never did I hear more clear, and full, and fresh, and pleasing expositions of divine truth. At the close of the lecture, opportunity was given for the asking of any questions upon any points that were left unexplained, which were always answered with a promptness which showed the remarkable fullness of his mind. upon all topics connected with the exposition or elucidation of the Scriptures. I know not that I ever attended a more instructive religious service. I have learned that it was greatly blessed of God to the conversion and edification of Sabbath-school teachers. He served his generation in more dignified stations, but probably in none more usefully than when expounding the word of life to nearly a thousand young men and women, who, on each successive Sabbath, sought to impress those views received from him on the minds of ten thousand children. Might not this plan be successfully revived in all our cities?

"He was a truly devotional man. His public devotional services were always peculiarly impressive. They were solemn, pathetic, reverential, appropriate, and never unduly protracted. In the family he always commenced morning and evening prayer with imploring a blessing upon the service; and while engaged in them, all felt that he was conversing with God as a man converses with a friend. I have often heard him express his regrets at the little preparation ministers often make for conducting the devotional

My first sermon.

His prayer.

exercises of a congregation, and I have heard him state that in the early part of his ministry he was in the habit of writing prayers with equal regularity as sermons; and, while he never read them, nor committed them to memory, the writing of them furnished him with topics for prayer, and gave to those topics arrangement, and to the expression of them variety and appropriateness. For this thought he may have been indebted to his venerated tutor, Dr. Witherspoon, who always recommended devotional composition to his theological students, of whom Dr. Green was one.

"My first sermon was preached in the Third Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. Ely, and from the text 'Compel them to come in.' Dr. Ely was absent, and to my confusion, Dr. Green entered the church just at the opening of the service. Feeling it better to have him behind me than before me, I sent for him to the pulpit. In my ardor to stimulate ministers and Christians to do their duty, I omitted almost any allusion to the necessary agency of the Spirit to secure their success. He made the concluding prayer, in which, with his accustomed felicity, he converted the topics discussed into supplications, and then brought out most prominently and emphatically the essential truth by me omitted. I felt that the whole congregation saw and felt the defect of my sermon. His kindness was marked at the close of the service. I went to my study, re-wrote my sermon, put into it the prayer of Dr. Green, and it is unnecessary to say that it was greatly improved by the addition.

Studies.

Spirit.

แ

I entered his o'clock. His He request

"My very last interview with him impressed me with the depth of that spirit of devotion which characterized his life. He was feeble, and forgetful, and in a mood to talk but very little to any body. Hearing that I was in the city, he sent for me, that I might attend to a matter of business for him connected with the New Jersey Historical Society. study on a May morning about nine Greek Testament was open before him. ed me to be seated. The business ended, he waved his hand, saying, 'My devotional reading is not yet concluded; I shall be happy to see you at another time;' and as I closed the door of his study, the prayer, 'God bless you,' fell upon my ear; the last words I ever heard him utter. All testify that the closing years of his life were marked by a spirit remarkably devotional.

"He possessed a truly catholic spirit. This assertion, perhaps, will startle some who only knew his public character, and who have only heard of him as an impersonation of Old-school Presbyterianism. Yet it is true to the letter. His own views he held strongly, but in perfect charity to those who differed from him. Although his contributions and exertions were mainly confined to the organization of his own Church, it was out of consistency with himself, and not out of illiberality to others. More than once have I heard him detail an account of a visit made by the venerable Dr. Woods, for so many years the ornament of the Andover Theological Seminary. They compared views on theological and other subjects, and while

Dr. Woods.

Presbyterianism.

they differed a little in the explanations of some positions, they radically agreed. 'Would to God,' I have heard him say, 'that all our ministers and churches held the sentiments of my brother Woods.' And after the disruption of our Church, he never permitted a day to pass without the most fervent prayers to God on the behalf of the brethren to whom he was regarded as being so violently opposed. He had none of the narrow sectarianism that would confine the Church visible to those only who walked with him; and often have I heard him rejoice in the good that was doing by Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, to all of whom, as Christians and as ministers, he could extend the right hand of fellowship, although on all suitable occasions he could strongly maintain the positions on which he differed from them. There is not probably a national society for the spread of the Gospel in this land to which he was not a contributor, and of which he was not a member or a manager; while he may be considered the father of nearly all the Boards and Societies of his own deeply-venerated Church. 'Nobody will question the Presbyterianism of Dr. Green,' said an eloquent divine, during a debate in the General Assembly, as he was dyed in the wool.' 'The brother mistakes,' said Dr. Green, with that promptness of repartee which he possessed; 'the Lord, by his grace, made me a Presbyterian.' And although the principles of his Church were interwoven with his spiritual life, and formed a part of it, yet he had the most cordial love for the children of God, by whatever name called. Never have I heard him speak with

Son of consolation.

Miss Linnard.

more affection of any man than of his friend, the amiable and venerated Bishop White.

"He was remarkably gifted as a son of consolation to desponding souls. This, perhaps, was mainly owing to his own simple views of divine truth, and his rich experience of its power. He had the power of simplifying every subject on which he spoke or wrote, and of doing it in a few words. This is very apparent in his lectures on the Shorter Catechism, prepared for the youth of his own congregation. When anxious or desponding souls applied to him for direction, he first sought out the cause of trouble, and then, like a well-instructed scribe, he so simply presented and applied the remedial truth as to give, if not immediate, yet speedy relief. He acted upon the principle that, 'if the truth makes us free, we are free indeed.' Hence aged, desponding Christians, and individuals asking what they should do to be saved, and from different congregations in the city, were often found in his study seeking his counsels. On such occasions there was a kindness and blandness in his manner which formed the greatest possible contrast with his stern and unflinching position when contending for principles on the floor of the General Assembly.

"A case in illustration of this I will state. Twentyfive years ago, the name of Miss Linnard, whose memoir has since been published, was familiar to the pious female circles of Philadelphia. She shone conspicuously among them for her fine sense, great activity, and deep piety. A minister, still living, preached a preparatory lecture in the church in Spruce Street,