Remembering Uncle Frank
Let us now speak of Uncle Frank.
No, not that one.
My Bartlesville friends already know plenty about Frank Phillips. He’s royalty in Bartlesville. But sometimes the world’s true nobility are found in places we wouldn’t expect. “As for the saints who are on the earth,” the psalmist says, “they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
We learn about another “Uncle Frank” in an 1859 book called Scenes in the Indian Country by Augustus Ward Loomis. Rev. Loomis was a Presbyterian missionary who penned an account of his time spent “amongst the Creek Indians, who are located along the Arkansas river” in what is now Oklahoma.Rev. Loomis introduces us to Uncle Frank, “the black man, whose quarters were in the rear of the mill-house, and who ground the meal. He was entirely blind; had once been a bondman, was now free ... He kept his snug little room in good order, neater than some do who have both their eyes. He chopped his own wood; and some times we found him engaged in mending his clothes, which he chose to do rather than to be the occasion of unnecessary trouble to others.”
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| Augustus Ward Loomis |
Uncle Frank felt his way around with his cane. Often he would come to the missionary and humbly inquire if he could spare a few minutes. “If you please, I would be so much obliged if you would read to me a few verses.”
After hearing a few Bible passages, Uncle Frank would say: “Oh, that is beautiful! Thank you. I am indeed very much obliged. … Oh that delightful book, sir! Strange it is, sir, that we seem to hear it like a new book every time, and to get some fresh light from it every time! Does it seem so to you, sir, when you read it? Or have you learned it to the bottom?”
Uncle Frank would then go “back to his work,” Rev. Loomis tells us, “or to his room to ruminate, and study upon what he has heard, and to employ himself in prayer. … He was always devout, and always cheerful. God’s ways, he said, were all right and merciful, too.
“Occasionally we went to spend a few minutes with him, as he stood at his work, or sat in his door after the day’s work was done, to hear him tell of what the Lord had done for his soul. He was wont to say that he never could express all his thankfulness to God for ever permitting him to hear the gospel, and for causing him to see what a sinner he was, and what danger he was in; and then to see Jesus and to trust in him as the Lamb of God that taketh away sin.”
“The good Lord is taking care of me so well,” Uncle Frank would say, “giving me so good a home, and causing people to be so kind to me, a poor old black man, and blind, without money, relatives, or home of my own.”
What say you, dear reader, when you hear of this Uncle Frank? We sit here in our comfort, with our eyesight, all of us rich compared to most people in the world and ridiculously rich by the standards of world history. Many of us have numerous Bibles scattered throughout the house. All of us are within a short drive of dozens of faithful pastors who preach Christ and him crucified.
It seems to me that, when it comes to gratitude and contentment, we would do well to learn from Uncle Frank.
“Occasionally we went to spend a few minutes with him, as he stood at his work, or sat in his door after the day’s work was done, to hear him tell of what the Lord had done for his soul. He was wont to say that he never could express all his thankfulness to God for ever permitting him to hear the gospel, and for causing him to see what a sinner he was, and what danger he was in; and then to see Jesus and to trust in him as the Lamb of God that taketh away sin.”
“The good Lord is taking care of me so well,” Uncle Frank would say, “giving me so good a home, and causing people to be so kind to me, a poor old black man, and blind, without money, relatives, or home of my own.”
What say you, dear reader, when you hear of this Uncle Frank? We sit here in our comfort, with our eyesight, all of us rich compared to most people in the world and ridiculously rich by the standards of world history. Many of us have numerous Bibles scattered throughout the house. All of us are within a short drive of dozens of faithful pastors who preach Christ and him crucified.
It seems to me that, when it comes to gratitude and contentment, we would do well to learn from Uncle Frank.
[This article appeared in the November 2023 issue of bMonthly magazine.]
