In the year 1921, two of my daughters, Hannah and Iris, were living in Middlesboro, Kentucky.  One day my wife said to me that she would like to go and visit them.  We lived at that time in Jellico, Tennessee.  On the following Monday we both went to Middlesboro and stopped at the T. Russ HILL home.  He married my youngest daughter, Iris.  A Baptist revival was going on that week and was being held in a tent on Cumberland Street.  When the evening came on, Russ asked me to go the meeting.  I told him I did not go to revivals nor did I attend church much.  I noticed a fine large library that Russ owned with many books that would please me to read.  Russ was a literary man and a lover of books and a great reader every day and evening.  Russ asked me to go to the meeting with him.  My wife and daughter attended the meeting regularly.

On Wednesday evening, I laid the book aside that I was reading and did some thinking.  I was putting questions to myself.  Am I doing right in sitting here alone, when it would please my wife and daughter if I were with them.  I decided that I was an unpleasant visitor, and I made up my mind that if Russ should ask me to go with them tomorrow evening I would go.  Russ did ask me the next evening.  It was Thursday evening.  The meeting was being held in a large tent.  There was a large crowd in attendance.  I was introduced to several nice people.  The singing was good and I enjoyed it.  The preacher was Dr. F. F. BROWN, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Knoxville.

For the reader to understand me fully, I had a habit of looking a speaker over and judging him; wondering does he fully believe himself, what he trying to make others believe? On my first, second and third hearing of Dr. BROWN, I was impressed with his sincerity and his quiet way of explaining his thoughts and reasoning to others.

The following Sunday morning I was sitting in an auto with my daughter, Hannah.  Dr. BROWN, with some others was passing by on the sidewalk.  My daughter called to him.  He came to us.  I sat in the front seat with the window down.  As he came close up, I was introduced to him.  After we exchanged greetings I said to him, "Doctor, I have heard you speak three times and I believe you tell us with sincerity in your voice, of the things we should do in this and eternal life.  I would like to ask you a question.  Can you tell me absolutely and without any doubt in your mind that you are a saved man?" He looked at me for a moment and then turned his face partly away from me, looking downward.  Then turning around and looking at me with thought in his eyes he said, "Mr. FRANCIS, I can not say absolutely that I am a saved man, but this I can say, that I have put my trust in Jesus."  I reached my hand out of the car window and placing it on his shoulder I said, "Dr. BROWN, that is the best answer I have ever received."  I can not tell why I was prompted to put that question to him.  I have heard other preachers say that they knew they were saved.  To me that did not reason out right.  To my way of thinking that would be making judges of ourselves here on earth.  We must stand before the Great King of Kings and be judged and not till then will we fully know that we are saved.

Dr. BROWN's answer to me was agreeable.  It told me his humility as a preacher by placing his trust in Jesus.  That simplicity makes him lovable to those who know him.  Yes, you may say, I can quote scripture that tells us how we can know we are saved.  You are not dead yet.  You may commit sin while in the flesh that may not be forgiven.  Life is short and you may not have time to ask for forgiveness.  As I came out of the tent Sunday evening, I noticed a very large man standing alone and looking anxiously toward the speaker's stand where a few men stood talking together.  When I got close to him, I said, "We had a good sermon."  He answered, "Yes."  Again I spoke to him.  "It is a good thing to live by and a good thing to die by," and again he answered, "Yes."  The expression on his face made me linger.  Again I spoke and said to him, "I do not know where you stand, but if you stand where I stand it is time to make a change", and again he answered, "Yes."  Thinking that he was waiting there for someone, I left.

That same evening I spoke to my son-in-law, Russ HILL, about him. Russ told me he was well-to-do and that he owned considerable property.  He had been a gambler and a saloon keeper and was not afraid to face any man.  He was a man to be left alone.  He took a liking to me.  He was waiting to see me as I came from the speaker's stand.  I have spoken to him about his soul.  I feel he will change soon.  He is thinking about it seriously.  This he has told other men.  "I will strike fire out of a rock with my fist for Russ HILL."  That was his way of emphasizing his friendship for anyone he liked.  Russ gave me his name as Harrison AUSMUS.