Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-07-27
4 sTRANeE pEarI1-REp scENE.

commune anu u6dl0.
A STRANGE DEArH-BED SCENE.
How Comfort WAS Administered
TO the Dying with N Telephone.
Christian Leader.
When the Rev. DIR. Il. G.. Brooks,
the late distinguished Universalist
clergyman Of Philadelphia, was
lying near death, his doctor, j. w.
White, obtained 4 telephone to di-
vert him in his constant agony. On
taking the telephone to his house,
DIR. Brooks was found so weak and
so distressed in his breathing that
the physician was reluctant to try
it, but the sick man insisted on the
attempt. The wires were arranged
between the sick man and the
dinining-room down stairs. DIR.
White proceeds: When all was ar
ranged, however, to the best of my
ability, | placed one of the mouth
pieces in his hand, and told him /
would go down and test it, and if
all necessary conditions had been
met he could hear my voice, but
that he would have to ask some one
else to reply, as he was too weak to
to attempt it. Taking the mouth
piece at the other end, / repeated
1.-THE Lord reigneth; let the earth
rejoice; let the multitude of the isles
be glad thereof. "
To my utter establishment in
stantantly came the response:
"Clouds and darkness are round
about Him; righteousness and judg:
ment are the habitation of His
throne ~
1t was the voice of DIR. Brooks,
the tones clear and distinct, the in
tonation and emphasis perfect. |
was amazed. a moment before /
had left him apparently too weak
and too much oppressed to speak
above a whisper. | was fairly
startled. / could not be mistaken,
but / could hardly believe the testi-
mony of my ear. l repeated:
go, come, let.us worship and bow
down; let us kneel before the Lord
our Maker"
Once more, and as promptly as in
a church service, the Doctors voice
responded:
fFor He is our God, and we are
the people of His pasture, and the
sheep OF His hand"
| then repeated a verse from that
grand old hymn of PierpOnt:
Not now on lions height alone,
Thy fervored worshiper may dwell;
Nor where at sultry noon Thy Son
Sat weary by the patriarch 5 we'll
And, just as though it had been ar
ranged before Land, as promptly as
though a set form were being fol-
lowed, the voice from that bed of
sickness took up the strain:
From every place below the skies
The grateful song, the fervent prayer,
The incense OF the heart, may rise
To Heaven, and find acceptance there.
We next quoted the verse of the
familiar hymn:
O for faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by every foe
That will not tremble on the brink
Ofany earthly woe
And the Doctor responded,
quoting the last verse of the same
hymn:
Lord, give us such a faith as this,
And then, whate'er may come,
Wen taste cen here the hallowed bliss
OF an eternal home!
was anxious that the doctors
strength, which was but weakness,
should not be too far taxed, and /
suggested that he had better allow
some one else to speak for him, but
he responded, Zone. thing more"
and then, in slow, measured, dis
tinct utterance-the tone of triumph
unmistakable-he repeated thejubi-
liant testimony of Paul:
1.-THE sting of death is sin; and
the strength of sin is the law. But
thanks be to God who giveth US the
victory, through our Lord Jesus
Christ"
A strange and solemn sensation
stole over me. A few minutes be-
fore l had left DR.. Brooks ''sick unto
death''-sO weak, so oppressed, so
distressed; laboring for breath,
talking in disjOinted utterances
but recently reused, as l had been
told, from a sinking spell which it
was learned would have been his
last. And now, in tones as clear,
as distinct, as well enunciated as
ever heard from him in the pulpit
when in health, and yet minimized
by that strange, weird, thrilling
telephone modification preserving
all that is characteristic in the
speech of an individual and at the
same time giving the impression of
almost infinite distance-came the
triumphant exclamation
"Thanks be to God who giveth us
the victory, through our Lord Jesus
Christ ?'
1 could but fancy that during my
absence from his bedside, the silver
cord had been lOOSed, the golden
bowl broken, and that the eXultant
"Thanks be to God ~ was the out
burst Of the freed spirit. And when
l returned to his room and found
him still in the flesh, felt like one
who Unexpectedly meets him whom
he had thought dead.