At Lower Blue Lick, in Robertson County, Kentucky, in the month of
September, 1875, Elder Franklin met his beloved father in the gospel
and veteran in the cause of reformation, Eld. Samuel Rogers. He thus
describes the happy meeting, and expresses his high regard for a true
man of God:
One morning when we were in the stand, waiting a few minutes for
the audience to assemble and become composed, we saw once more the
venerable form of Samuel Rogers, making his way up the aisle. We could
scarcely restrain our emotions when we saw the old saint, bringing
before our mind in visible form what has been our lifetime idea of one
of the old prophets. We met him in the aisle, when he spoke out with
the tears tracing down his noble face: “Bro. Ben, I am in the land of
the _dead_ and _dying_, but shall soon be in the land of the _living_.”
We could give utterance to no words. Peter said, in the mountain of
transfiguration: “It is good for us to be here.” So it was to us on
this occasion. More than forty years had elapsed since we first saw
him, and he appeared to us _old_ then. He is now in his eighty-sixth
year. He sees to read without glasses by holding the print close to
his eyes, and hears better than when we saw him last. He converses
with readiness and ease, and his voice is remarkably good. His plain
and striking comparisons are as ready as ever. He styles a dry and
prosing exhortation, after a good sermon, “snow in August.” He tells a
preacher, trying to be learned and profound in his preaching, that he
“puts the fodder too _high up_ in the rack—the sheep can’t reach it.”
The main trouble is that there is no “fodder” there. He says: “We used
to have _men_ and _women_, but now we have _ladies_ and _gentlemen_.”
He says he still _eats his dinner_ and _supper_ and lets the rest of
them _dine_ and _take tea_.
When at home he spends many hours alone, and some of the friends
inquired whether he did not get lonesome. “No,” said he, “I never get
lonesome. I talk to the Lord and he talks to me. I talk to him in
my prayers, and he talks to me in the Bible.” This is keeping good
company, and a glorious way to keep from getting lonesome. He reads
up and keeps fully posted in all that is transpiring among us, and is
fully alive to all the dangers now threatening the cause—the insidious
steps now tending to undermine and overthrow all we have done. Still,
like Paul, none of these things move him. He is firm as the everlasting
hills. He has settled convictions and purposes, and can not be
turned away from them. He can see, as Solomon says, that “one sinner
destroyeth much good,” but adheres to another saying of much importance
from the same source: “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.” The
Lord is with him and he is as happy as he can be, full of love and
good-will to God and man. Thanks be to God for the faith of Christ that
has the power to bear up the spirit, to console and comfort him in
extreme old age, and opens to his view, now that he is about to let go
this world, “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;” and
now that he is about to surrender up this life, that opens to his view
a life that never ends. Blessed be the Lord who is pleased thus to deal
tenderly and kindly with him in his near approach to another world.