"To you-my beloved brother! who know so well where the 'Eternal Refuge' is, and how to find the 'Everlasting Arms,' I need send no fraternal counsels. But my own dear wife joins me in heart-felt sympathy and our sincèrest condolence.

"I have known what it was to give up beautiful and beloved children -but the trial of all trials has been spared me; and to you the journey of your remaining days will be with these words on your lips

"Each moment is a swift degree

And every hour a step towards Thee.'

"May the richest and sweetest spiritual blessings fill your soul-ever 'unto all the fullness of God!' And your ministry be most abundant in the Lord!

"Please present our kind regards to your children and believe me "Ever yours in Christ Jesus,

"THEO. L. CUYLER."

At this time, perhaps, he prepared that exquisite sketch of Mrs. Palmer's character, which appears in the "Broken Home," subsequently published; and, with the rest, these words of wonderful pathos, sublime submission, and holy aspiration:

"The earthly lights are put out, that no earthly love may come in between Him and us. It is the miracle of love-this stringing of the harp to a greater tension, that the praise may hereafter rise to its higher and sweeter notes before the throne, when we shall carry the memories of earth to heaven and pour them into songs forever. May it be the finishing lesson of the one great sorrow near the end of life -how through the few remaining days to be 'quiet as a child that is weaned of his mother;' and to know the sufficiency of the Divine fulness, before it becomes the joy and the portion of heaven!"

CHAPTER XVII

THE FINAL STADIUM Of service, NOBLE BUT BROKEN. (1888-1902.)

DR. PALMER'S PHYSICAL CONDITION DURING THESE YEARS.-HIS AsSISTANT PASTORS DURING THE PERIOD.-SERMONS PRODUCED.-HIS PREACHING.—PASTORAL WORK.—THE PROGRESS OF HIS CHurch.— WHY THE GROWTH WAS NOT MORE RAPID.-ATTEMPTS TO GET HIM, IN 1892, AT COLUMBIA, AND AT CLARKSVILLE.-SERVICES TO CHURCH THROUGH THE HIGHER COURTS:-OPPOSITION TO FUSION AND TO PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS.-OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. THE LOTTERY.-THE ANTI-LOTTERY FIGHT.-OTHER OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES AND SERMONS.-ORATION AT LOUISVILLE, 1900, BEFORE THE REUNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS. HIS CENTURY SERMON.ETC.

THE

HE thoughtful reader of the closing pages of the last chapter has probably suspected that Dr. Palmer was in a somewhat abnormal condition during the first months after his wife's death; that he was walking in a state of spiritual exaltation too great for his body's strength; and that notwithstanding his extraordinary self-control and a power to continue his labors, he would soon succumb for a time to illness. The precise connection between his wife's death, his grief over it and his efforts to bear his loss as he ought, and his subsequent illness we shall not attempt to trace; but about two and a half months after her death, and upon the "night of his seventyfirst birthday," stricture of the urethra came upon him, like a bolt from a lowering sky. Very soon this was followed by cystitis, and that by the enlargement of the prostate gland. For two or three months he was quite ill, suffering inexpressible agonies. His pain was more tolerable when he was on his feet walking. Thus he took his necessary food, his faithful and devoted daughter, Mrs. Caldwell, walking by his side and feeding him, as together they strode back and forth across his room. He was able to enter his pulpit again in April, 1889: but his trouble continued, with periods of exascerbation and remittance, during the rest of his life. In 1893, for a period of three months, extending from June 1 to September 1, he was seriously ill. Throughout his remaining years till the fatal

street car accident, though always compelled to use a catheter, which was a constant source of grief and annoyance to him, the severities of his malady were so far mitigated that he suffered no overwhelming pain. By the summer of 1896 his failing eyesight had begun to give great concern. As his session had given him leave of absence for July and agast, closing the church for those months, he went to New York in search of professional skill of the highest sort. After an absence of a few weeks he wrote to his session:

"ROCKWELL HOUSE, GLENS FALLS, July 29, 1896. "To the Session of First Presbyterian Church, New Orleans: "DEAR BRETHREN: Ever since leaving home I have desired to' communicate with you, and through you with as many of our beloved people as you may conveniently reach. But up to the present time there has been nothing definite to report in my case, and even now my plans are a little uncertain.

"Immediately upon reaching New York I consulted Dr. Knapp, who examined closely my eyes and confirmed the diagnosis of Dr. Pope, stating that the condition of my eyes could not be changed and nothing remained but to preserve what eyesight I still possessed. He dismissed me with the twofold direction to avoid all glare, and to give my eyes absolute rest for six months.

"As the regular profession failed to give me any hope for the future I resolved to interview a specialist in this place, who, though not recognized by the regular faculty, has had an amazing success in his treatment of the blind. He has established an eye sanitarium with three large buildings on the grounds, and with an average attendance of about one hundred patients. A large proportion of these, like myself, have been dismissed by the regular practice as incurable. "Yet it is stated that seventy-five per cent. go away either cured or greatly relieved. I submitted to an experimental treatment of one week, and then determined to remain a month longer, which will carry me to the 22nd of August. My plan from the first upon leaving home was to return at that date, or certainly on the 29th to New Orleans. "There remains only one contingency; if I should greatly improve with the prospect of entire recovery, with the short continuance of the treatment, I may remain through the month of September. This, however, is not at all probable. I mention it only as a possibility.

"It is needless to say that our dear church is constantly in my thoughts, and it distresses me to know that its doors are closed in consequence of my absence. Nothing but the hope of regaining sight for the better discharge of my pastoral duties affords me any comfort; still I desire in all things to be submissive to the Divine will, and it would be a sad confession if I could not in faith commend my people,

as well as myself, to Him who does all things well. There is only one spectral thought which ever haunts me—the fear that my increasing age with its infirmities should prove an injury to the people who through an unwise devotion still cling to my imperfect service. But this care I also seek to cast upon the Lord, who will direct in all things

"May grace, mercy and peace be multiplied abundantly upon you & — "Ever truly yours in the Lord,

"B. M. PALMER."

Upon receipt of this letter the session at once took action urging him most affectionately to extend his time in the Sanitarium as fully as was needed to test the treatment. September the first found him back at his work in New Orleans, however.

The session offered him a vacation of four months beginning with June 1, for the summer of 1897. He spent June, July and August, as they desired, but the yellow fever and Dr. Palmer appeared in New Orleans, the latter getting in only a few days after the former, in early September. He was an old veteran who could not be kept in the hospital whilst a heavy scrimmage was waging.

His eye trouble was glaucomatous. His vision grew very slowly dimmer and dimmer. August 25, 1898, he wrote: "For two years I have not read so much as five pages of ordinary print. With the aid of a strong glass, good light and large print I can read a little in the Bible." Toward the last he could neither read nor write. This dimness of vision was one, and perhaps the chief, occasion of the fatal street car accident, in the spring of 1902.

Dr. Palmer continued to be a man of great physical powers for such labors as were incident to his calling notwithstanding the maladies by which he had been afflicted. But it was ineyitable that, in view of those maladies and his advanced age, his people should feel it incumbent upon them to contrive some means by which to give him lighter labors. Dr. Palmer urged them in the same direction, out of regard for the welfare of his widespread and onerous pastorate. At his suggestion they elected, December 25, 1891, Dr. J. L. Caldwell, of Bowling Green, Ky., as associate pastor. Dr. Caldwell accepted the call and gave this co-ordinate service from April, 1892, to June, 1893, when, on grounds of climate and preference for a single pastorate, he resigned. As Dr. Palmer was

quite sick during the summer of 1893, the session cast about for an assistant for him, writing to various seminaries for a young licentiate for the post. This effort resulted in obtaining the services of Rev. S. C. Byrd, with whom a contract was made extending through the months of December, January, February and March. By this time Dr. Palmer was in a measure recovered and able to bear his burdens without the aid of a helper. His session requested him, indeed, before the year 1894 was very far along, to correspond with the different seminaries with a view to securing an assistant; and he seems to have done some correspondence, but all without tangible results. In the spring of 1900 the minds and hearts of the venerable pastor and his people were turned toward the Rev. W. T. Palmer, of Dyersburg, Tenn., as an assistant. The invitation extended to Mr. Palmer was accepted by him; and he entered upon the work in May, 1900. In the following December he was elected as co-pastor, a relation which continued till the senior pastor was called to cross over the river. This relationship proved a happy one and lifted a vast load of care off Dr. Palmer. He had long feared that he might be suddenly taken off, and the church suffer greatly before getting a pastor suited to her needs.

From a study of sermons and briefs of this last period, it becomes clear that Dr. Palmer was no longer reading as widely as in former periods, or making as many new mental conquests. There is a larger use of old material. Nevertheless, there is no memtal stagnation. Some noble sermons are born, sermons that marked him a man of his time and all time. His revisions of old briefs, lectures or sermons showed further study and more masterful handling of his themes; and this revision and reuse of old work was not made with the sole purpose of meeting the demands of his pulpit from Sabbath to Sabbath. One cannot refrain from the inference that it was, in part, his intention to put thus a good deal of valuable matter in shape for publication in a permanent form. Some of this matter found its way into the publisher's hands before his death, and other parts of it should yet be published.

He had always been fond of series of sermons, and series of lectures. To his people he now gave certain series, much of which had been given twenty years before. For example