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I regret that that Doctor White could not uh participate in this program tonight. And so that accounts for my own presence here, but we are delighted to have this good number. And I believe that I see that the Green family has come in. And so may

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I pause to introduce them? Uh Ruby Green and uh Doctor William Green, Junior, Doctor Ralph Green and Caroline Tucker, will all of you stand together to a number of us. William Green was a marvel, a man who combined within himself, a remarkable

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ability to relate to people across different lines. A man who was humble and at the same time, a very accomplished scholar. I remember first meeting him when I was a graduate student here and a whole group of us with a silly sort of an idea, decided

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that we would make our journey to San Francisco, hopefully to enter into the deliberations or at least to be witnesses to the opening of the United Nations. And uh we landed at the Greens and they received us with open arms as they have so many people

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along the way. And we had a wonderful time together and that began a relationship that I have enjoyed. My wife has enjoyed with this remarkable family. A person probably that most really could present to us a modern account of the life and accomplishments of William Green

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is Doctor Jerry Rushford. Doctor Rushford was closely associated with him as they were living together and working together in Santa Barbara. And the influence of uh Doctor Green upon his own. Uh doctor's dissertation shows as one works through it before I introduce then Jerry fully, I'd

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like for his wife Laurie uh to stand Laurie. Will you stand? It's nice to welcome you here in these lectures. The lecturer decides the subject that he wants to present and then presents it and that's what has happened in our case. Doctor Rushford is speaking on

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the theme, a road beaten hard. The enduring legacy of Doctor William mcallen Green, 1897 to 1979 Doctor Jerry Rushford Frank. Did you walk off with my Bible? Uh Good evening and welcome to the 10th anniversary of the William Green lecture

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series, Kenneth Scott letter it, a great Yale historian who wrote a monumental two volume series on the History of Christianity concluded his first section on the 1st 500 years of Christianity. With this summary line, we have pointed to a few outstanding examples such as Paul and

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Augustine. Were there space. We could name many more from the few records of whose lives have been preserved across the wreckage of the centuries we are on safe ground in assuming that for every one of whom we know there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of whom we

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do not know for most of them were very humble folk who left no written documents behind them. Tonight, we talk about one who knew Paul and who knew Augustine, but who is numbered among the very humble folk whose name we try to keep alive tonight. I

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feel a little silly standing before an audience of people that knew Doctor Green so much better than I did and knew him longer. And when I see Don Miller who first met Bill in the summer of 1916, I can't match that Don, but you're out there.

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And I'm up here and I'm gonna try to represent all of us tonight in the Memories of Bill Green. My title comes from this line which I would never have seen if Bill Green had not shown it to me. He loved John Bailey, the Scotsman who

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taught at the University of Edinburgh. And he often gave me copies of John Bailey's books which are now a prized part of my library. I have especially fallen in love with this little slender volume, a diary of private prayer which John Bailey put together for his

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teenage son in 1936. I read to you now from the prayer on the morning of the fifth day, this line, I thank thee God that this Christian way. Whereon I walk is no untried or uncharted road but a road beaten hard by the footsteps of saints

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and apostles and prophets and martyrs. I believe that I can say that that the road on which I have been privileged to walk my life is not an untried or an uncharted road. There were a great many who walked it before me and one was a

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man named Bill Green and I thank God tonight that he has called me to walk a road that others have walked a road that is indeed beaten hard by the footsteps of Saints. I first heard the name of Bill Green in the early fifties through a

00:07:16.679 - 00:07:36.320

little monthly journal called the 20th century Christian. He wrote articles in it frequently. I especially remember his article on baptism in an issue in 1954. I wasn't old enough to be baptized, but the article touched me, I remembered it. I continued to read his articles on

00:07:36.329 - 00:07:54.079

through the fifties. And then as I grew into my teenage years, he began writing for another periodical that started in 1957 called The Restoration Quarterly. It was a scholarly journal. He was one of the founding seven editors and I began to read that through the sixties.

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And then I ran into a man in Michigan where I was living, who knew this Doctor Green. This man was Doctor Joseph Jones. The day would come when he would baptize my wife into Christ and perform our wedding ceremony. At this point. He was my dean

00:08:09.920 - 00:08:24.579

and I was teaching at Michigan Christian College and he said I knew this Doctor Green. I studied under him during the summers at George Pepperdine College in Los Angeles in 1946. I think it was. And he began to regale me with these stories of Doctor Green.

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I knew that he was still living. I guess I hoped in the back of my mind that I might someday stumble onto him somewhere and meet him. But there seemed little likelihood of that. I came to California for the first time in my life in March

00:08:36.830 - 00:08:51.320

1969 to attend the Pepperdine Bible lectureship, of course, but I didn't see him at that event. And then I went to Europe in the summer of 1971 with a singing group of all things. I can't sing a lick, but I was speaking and they were singing

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and we traveled around Europe and they would put on these concerts and I would speak and we went to church after church and it was toward the end of our three weeks as we worked our way up, we had been down to Venice and we came

00:09:04.570 - 00:09:21.250

up one night into a German City named Karlsruhe. A little below Heidelberg and a man spoke that night named Glenn Boyd and I spoke for a time and our little choral group sang. And afterward, there was a fellowship And as we were having our dessert and

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shaking hands, I overheard someone say, Bill and Ruby Green are here tonight. They're living in Florence Italy. They've been teaching at the Florence Bible school, but they're visiting tonight and my heart began to race and I went over and as fate would have it met Bill

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Green with dessert in his hand, a cherry crisp. I believe it was long after that. Would I hear him say time and time again at our house after my wife would serve him dessert, three chairs for the pie, which was his signal that he would not

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turn down a second slice if it was offered. Or sometimes when he was feeling European Bravo for the pie with his hands clasped like this. That night, I met him with the cherry crisp and we visited long into the night in Karlsruhe Germany. It seems right

00:10:14.830 - 00:10:29.799

to set one's faith in the light of one's debt. And that's what I hope to do in these few moments tonight. I've always appreciated James Michener for doing what he did when President Eisenhower wrote to him and said, come to dinner at the White House on

00:10:29.809 - 00:10:42.039

such and such a date. And Michener looked at his calendar and realized that he could not come and wrote that letter to President Eisenhower in which he said on the night you've invited me to the White House. I had already agreed to say a few lines

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at the dinner, honoring the high school English teacher who taught me how to write. I know that you will not miss me at your dinner, but she might miss me at hers. And Eisenhower wrote back, dear Mr Michener. You made the right choice in a man's

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lifetime. He lives during the administration of a dozen or more presidents. But a great teacher comes into your life rarely. And if you have that kind of debt by all means, don't come to the White House, go pay that debt. Honor that woman who has made

00:11:10.960 - 00:11:32.349

you one of America's great novelist. I think it's a great moment to acknowledge debts and that's what I do so briefly here. I think the biographical facts are well known. But let me give them quickly. William mc mcallen Green was born June 26th, 1897. He was

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a Californian, born in Southern California, raised in Northern California, lived most of his life in California, died in California, buried in California. He loved to walk in the California forest. He loved to hike her mountains and he did so often. Every single view of the ocean

00:11:49.520 - 00:12:05.020

brought cheer to him. He didn't live to uh he didn't know his parents who didn't live long after he was born. His mother died when he was five, his mother when he was 10. He was raised by some grandparents in northern California, but raised in a

00:12:05.030 - 00:12:22.479

Christian home, attended a Bible reading at Forestville in 1907, 1908. When he was 10 years old, a Bible reading was a three month event where you studied for hours every day, for three months and you committed large sections of scripture to memory. And when the three

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months was over, they gave an award to the student who memorized the most scripture. And that year it was to a redheaded freckle faced boy named Bill Green who memorized the most scripture. At the age of 10, he was on his way to becoming a great

00:12:36.130 - 00:12:50.780

Bible student. He went to another Bible reading just before he entered the University of California. This one was in Santa Ana. This one was not taught by Ernest C Love, it was taught by GW Riggs. But again, Bill Green was awarded the prize for memorizing the

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most scripture. He enrolled at the University of California in the fall of 1915, graduated in 1919 for a while he taught school in American Samoa. Then here in the Los Angeles area was principal of a school in Monte, taught in Alhambra for five years. Met George

00:13:10.030 - 00:13:26.090

Pepperdine and several Christians down in this area. But then he returned to Berkeley, which really was to become his home for the majority of the rest of his life. He finished his master's degree in the class of 1927 in Greek and Latin in the classics. He

00:13:26.099 - 00:13:42.979

was immediately asked to join the faculty. He did so. He finished his phd in 1930 writing his dissertation on Augustine. It was shortly after he went back to Berkeley that he met Ruby Lanier up in Santa Rosa where he was preaching. She was a student at

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Santa Rosa Christian Academy. He told me how he surveyed the senior class. She sure looked the best to him. He said their wedding was the first one ever performed at the new church building in Berkeley at the corner of Prince and Fulton, their wedding was performed

00:13:58.679 - 00:14:17.059

by a legendary preacher named Theophilus Brown Larrimore. T TB Larrimore was toward the end of his life. Then when he performed that wedding on April 20th, 1928. Not long after that, in the early thirties, they bought that house that became famous. It was just a plain

00:14:17.070 - 00:14:40.039

house, but it became the Green Hotel. It was where everybody went if they were down and out missionaries on leave went to 1118 Kusa preachers went to 1118 Colusa young students coming to the University of California found themselves invited to 1118 Kusa before their first week

00:14:40.049 - 00:14:55.900

was out. I like what Herman Wilson wrote when he wrote something for the collection of memoirs on Bill Green that I was working on. He said during the 19 thirties and forties, the house 718 Kusa was like an adjunct to the University of California campus. It

00:14:55.909 - 00:15:11.150

was almost a part of the campus and he said I was there night after night as those discussions raged on into the wee hours of the night on philosophy or religion or some topic like that. I thought of Martin Luther's table talks or I thought of

00:15:11.159 - 00:15:27.510

other great champions through the years who have brought their students around them to talk deep into the night. Oh, the camaraderie. The excitement to be a student at Berkeley in those days and to be invited over to the Greens in the letters that I got. I

00:15:27.520 - 00:15:41.590

remember the one from Frances Cole. She described how she was so frightened to go to the University of California, but she had listed that she was a member of the church of Christ. And when she walked out of her French class, the legendary doctor Green was

00:15:41.599 - 00:15:52.559

there to greet her and to see what she needed and to show her how to get to the church building and to offer to take her. And the next Sunday she was at his home for Sunday dinner. I thought of the preachers through the years who

00:15:52.570 - 00:16:04.109

had to preach to him, Mel Powell, who's here tonight? Who told me, can you imagine what it was like to stand up and preach to Bill Green when he would open up his Greek New Testament and stare at you to see if you were interpreting it

00:16:04.119 - 00:16:23.369

correctly. Here was one of the giants in Greek and Latin classics when I sent out my letter asking people to respond to what the greens were like everybody commented on the hospitality and the way that home just bubbled over with activity in those years, I suppose

00:16:23.380 - 00:16:35.719

it must be, have been trying to be one of the three Children who are here tonight to grow up in a home with no privacy. On the other hand, it must have been pretty exciting, I suppose that that home was the center of university life in

00:16:35.729 - 00:16:51.859

those days at Berkeley. He taught there until 1962. And then one year before retirement, he said I was ready for my reward, my dessert. And he said that was to go to Pepperdine. Those were my friends I had been wanting to go for years. Why stay

00:16:51.869 - 00:17:06.640

and teach my last year when my heart was ready to go now and he came in the fall of 62. He was 65 years old. He was retirement age, but he taught here 12 more years until he was 77. I don't even think that's legal, but

00:17:06.650 - 00:17:22.109

no one ever really questioned it. He just taught until he wanted to stop teaching. And then it was that he thought about retiring and that's where I came into the picture. I was preaching in Santa Barbara working on a phd program and I thought, oh, wouldn't

00:17:22.119 - 00:17:34.010

it be great if we could get him to retire here? And it wasn't as if we didn't have some leverage. His son and daughter in law and three grandsons were living in Santa Barbara. But there were other offers you Kai O was pushing a hard case

00:17:34.020 - 00:17:48.469

with Ralph Chase and other cities were all lobbying. So I got into the lobbying business and I lobbied also, that was the hardest negotiation I have ever had in my life. I'll never forget the time we sat down and he said, now, if I was to

00:17:48.479 - 00:18:00.869

come, how would you use me? I said, well, we'd make you an elder of the church. You've been an elder for 36 years already. We don't waste time in Santa Barbara. We'll have you in, as an elder of the church in a couple of months. We

00:18:00.880 - 00:18:14.290

don't believe in, in long periods of, of testing there. Why, why, you know, why test Bill Green after 36? So he was satisfied with that. But he said, now, what would I do on Sundays? I said, well, what would you like to do? He said, well,

00:18:14.300 - 00:18:25.680

I'd like to teach a class and I said, fine, what would you like to teach on? He said, I'd like to do a class in ancient and medieval church history. Well, that was his specialty. That sounded great. It's yours. And we announced it. He said, now,

00:18:25.689 - 00:18:39.199

what will I do on Monday night? I said, well, I don't know. What do you want to do on Monday night? And he says, well, I think I ought to learn Spanish. I said, Doctor Green when you lived in Florence, Italy, you taught in Italian when

00:18:39.209 - 00:18:53.359

you lived at Ibaraki, you taught in Japanese when you were the Dean of that college in Japan. When, when you lived in Munich, you taught in German and, and when you lived in Paris, those two years, you taught in French and you lived in the Samoan

00:18:53.369 - 00:19:07.760

Islands and you mastered that language. Why at the age of 77 do you need to learn Spanish? Well, a lot of people know Spanish and a lot of Hispanics are moving into California and I wanna keep my mind growing and I wanna learn. And I said,

00:19:07.770 - 00:19:22.189

OK, and we went down to Santa Barbara High School and we signed him up for a Monday night class in Spanish at Santa Barbara High School. I thought, oh, this teacher doesn't know what he's getting in a pupil here. And he said to me, what will

00:19:22.199 - 00:19:36.859

I do on Tuesday nights? I said, what would you like to do? And he said, I'd like to teach New Testament Greek for free to any student at the University of California, Santa Barbara that would like to come rich remembers this. We got about 15 and

00:19:36.869 - 00:19:50.819

they met in the fireside room there, the Turnpike road church, we had about 15 students studying New Testament Greek for free from a man who was one of the masters of New Testament Creek. And now in his retirement years was giving Tuesday nights to teaching them.

00:19:51.199 - 00:20:03.819

He said, what will I do on Wednesday nights? I said, well, the church comes together on Wednesday nights. He said, I'd like to teach a class. I said, it's yours. What do you want to teach? He said, I'd like to teach archaeology. I said, have you

00:20:03.829 - 00:20:20.859

ever taught archaeology? He said, no, I said, do you know anything about archaeology? He said, well, I've always wanted to know something about archaeology. I've wanted to study it. This would give me cause to go in and, and really try to master Archaeo. So he did

00:20:20.869 - 00:20:35.290

on Wednesday nights, great class. He said, what would I do on Thursday nights? I said, well, on Thursday nights, the elders remember gonna make you an elder. On Thursday nights, the elders go out and visit, they go into the hospitals, they visit the sick, they visit

00:20:35.300 - 00:20:46.770

those who are struggling, those who are having trouble. He said, count me in for that. I like, I like to be used as a shepherd and he became one of the shepherds. And on Thursday night he visited, he said, what do we do on Friday night?

00:20:47.400 - 00:20:58.050

I said, well, we have small groups that meet all over Santa Barbara. We call them Koinonia groups from the Greek word for fellowship, life groups, fellowship groups. He said, I'd like to teach one of those. I'd like to head one of those up. I'd like to

00:20:58.060 - 00:21:11.140

be the facilitator. I said, it's yours. He said, what am I gonna do on Saturdays? And I said, tell me what you wanna do. And he said, well, first of all, I need to buy a house by the bus stop. Why? Because I don't wanna walk

00:21:11.150 - 00:21:25.459

far to the bus stop. And I want that bus that goes straight to the University of California campus because Saturdays I will spend in the library reading and researching and working on my book. He was working on a book called From Monism to Mormonism. The misuse

00:21:25.469 - 00:21:40.670

of Charismatic gifts from the second century to the 20th. It was a modest little book of several 1000 pages, you know, in which he was going to survey about 1800 years in the misuse of charisma. And he'd already done tons of research. And so we looked

00:21:40.680 - 00:21:53.680

all over and found a house by a bus stop where he could get to the University of California. And so he came with all those promises in the hardest negotiation I ever had. He came and for the next four years as I worked on P on

00:21:53.689 - 00:22:12.339

my phd, he was my mentor. He was my elder, he was my friend. We walked together, jogged together, had lunch at the faculty Senate at the University of California had lunch an awful lot at Sambo's because at Sambo's, you got free refills on your coffee. And

00:22:12.349 - 00:22:30.030

Doctor Green was frugal. Some would say a little cheap at times, but he didn't mind. He said, I, you know, I've got the money, but I'm careful. He did not live a life of self indulgence. He did not live a life of self-gratification. He left behind

00:22:30.040 - 00:22:43.979

him, a pretty good size estate. But the only example I could ever see of when he broke that was in the world of books. He had a marvelous library and gave me a great many of his books and he introduced me to so many books and

00:22:43.989 - 00:23:00.920

to so many writers that I did not know. And then when I moved, uh well, just before I moved, it was my privilege to plan his 80th birthday party. June 26th, 1977. Many of you came. What a great night. It was in Santa Barbara. And the

00:23:00.930 - 00:23:17.520

next year, the 50th wedding anniversary, the golden wedding anniversary on April the 20th, 1978. When I moved here to Pepperdine in April, I knew the visits would be few and far between. We saw each other several times. The last time, less than four weeks before he

00:23:17.530 - 00:23:31.479

died, he came to my home and we have several pictures of the occasion. We went back into my study and we talked at length about books and we brought books off the shelf. It was a thoroughly delightful day, what he would have wanted, what I would

00:23:31.489 - 00:23:51.339

have wanted for the last goodbye. He passed away on a beautiful Lord's Day morning, October 21 1979. Up in the city of Santa Rosa. The family called me to preach his funeral. I preached his funeral three days later on Wednesday, October 24 1979 at the Sonoma

00:23:51.349 - 00:24:08.010

Avenue Church in Santa Rosa. And it was there that I said to the family, why don't we start a lecture program at Pepperdine University? And we'll call it the William M Green, distinguished Christian scholar lecture program. And each year on a date, close to the anniversary

00:24:08.020 - 00:24:23.270

of Bill's death, we will have, we will start at the beginning by having his colleagues speak. The ones who knew him, those older on in life, who, who knew him and who taught with him. And we'll take a collection each year and we'll try to, to

00:24:23.280 - 00:24:36.390

build up an endowment. And maybe after 10 or 15 years, we'll have enough money that we'll never have to spend the principal and we'll just use the interest and we'll start bringing people in uh to be the William Green lecturer and they'll stay two days and

00:24:36.400 - 00:24:51.760

they'll lecture four times and maybe we'll even print the lectures. And so we started off 10 years ago this fall. You see the list there in the back JP Sanders came, I think right on the anniversary of that first year and we began to take these

00:24:51.770 - 00:25:14.979

little contributions of $1000 a year. Sometimes 1200. I checked to see what our account was this morning. The interest mounts up $16,617.54. We'll take a contribution here in a few moments, which is totally voluntary and pretty much designed for the friends of Bill Green. And after

00:25:14.989 - 00:25:29.140

tonight's, we'll be knocking on the door at 18,000. We'll do at least uh, two more years like this. And after 12 years, we'll be well over 20,000. And then in the 13th year, we'll begin to invite somebody to come in and stay on campus two days.

00:25:29.150 - 00:25:45.280

The same way we do the state lectures. 10 years ago, I presented to our President Howard White this idea every fall around the anniversary of Bill Green's death. Let's bring a scholar from the Church of Christ to lecture on the campus and every spring, let's bring

00:25:45.290 - 00:26:01.089

a scholar from outside the church of Christ. And that will be the Thomas F Staley lecture program. The Staley celebrates its 10th anniversary this year too. We started them in the same school year. I honestly believe that 100 years from now, 90 years from now, there

00:26:01.099 - 00:26:23.089

will be advertised on this campus. The 1/100 Thomas Daly lecturer in that year of uh 2079. And that somebody will be privileged to be the 1/100 William Green lecturer in the fall of 2079. Somewhere around the 1/100 anniversary of his death. It's a marvelous thing to

00:26:23.099 - 00:26:38.650

do to keep his memory alive. I was with Bill when we came down to Pepperdine at the lectureship in 74 or five. The night they honored him with the distinguished Christian service award. I'll never forget it. We had been tipped off. I was sitting by him

00:26:40.060 - 00:26:56.550

and Frank, they began describing that night the person they were honoring and Bill was convinced it was you. He told me later, they said tonight, we're going to honor a great scholar and he's a humble man and he's a wonderful teacher and a wonderful writer. And

00:26:56.560 - 00:27:16.020

the, the further they went on, on and on and on. Bill just sat there with so much anticipation because he loves Frank. And when they yelled out the name, Doctor William Green, he was absolutely stunned. He sat immobile. It was like he did not understand his

00:27:16.030 - 00:27:32.170

own greatness. I think all of us who knew him recognized that, that the man did not recognize all of his achievements. He had been asked to translate the city of God in the Harvard classics. And, and those seven volumes are a great tribute to him. And,

00:27:32.180 - 00:27:49.589

and he was one of the three acknowledged worldwide scholars on Augustine, but he wasn't aware of his immense achievement, the herculean task. And so he sat there immobile and then slowly made his way in Firestone Fieldhouse as the, as the applause crescendoed and went up to

00:27:49.599 - 00:28:05.569

the mic and gave the most brilliant address without any notes in which he gave all of the credit to his wife. Ruby for anything that he had ever accomplished and all that he had ever become. It was a great moment and probably, of course, was not

00:28:05.579 - 00:28:23.569

taped when I sent out my requests for stories and everybody sent me back their stories on Bill Green. I was amazed at the commonality. Everybody, I mean, everybody had a story about dishwashing. Bill Green was the most famous California dishwasher of the 20th century. And this

00:28:23.579 - 00:28:37.890

goes back to Ralph Chase who said that I roomed with Bill Green in our sophomore year. He said at Berkeley and we roomed at Mama Sewell's house and he said, and I cooked and Bill washed dishes and they were just sophomores in college and all the

00:28:37.900 - 00:28:51.209

way through the years, Bill was famous for refusing to let Ruby buy a dishwasher. He said, I'm better than any machine and I don't trust a machine and I can do it better and I enjoy doing it. Maurice Hall told me the story of Bill washing

00:28:51.219 - 00:29:05.140

dishes for a whole year in Paris every Sunday dinner during the year. He was on leave in 4950. Wow. We noticed that when he came to Santa Barbara, you couldn't have him over for a meal. He'd slip away to wash the dishes, you know, couldn't have

00:29:05.150 - 00:29:20.680

him for pie. He wanted to wash all of those up. Everybody talked about the hospitality or how much he loved to do menial task. Work on the church building clean the building work on the yard. He was a great swimmer and would have lunch at Berkeley

00:29:20.869 - 00:29:36.229

over by the faculty center and he would dive into the pool and swim underwater all the way to the end just to sort of get ready for a good lunch. His love of desserts was legendary and uh the stories there are too many to tell. I

00:29:36.239 - 00:29:49.939

love the story about Bill the jogger who got up so early at the old L A campus that all the dogs from everywhere in south central Los Angeles came and barked at his heels to where the neighbors were saying, please don't get up so early to

00:29:49.949 - 00:30:03.939

jog. Can't you jog after the sun comes up? And Bill would take his rolled up newspaper and beat those dogs off trying to, trying to keep them quiet in the wee hours of the morning as he jogged around the Pepperdine track, but finally gave up because

00:30:03.989 - 00:30:19.479

he was causing such a holy uproar around the Pepperdine campus and finally had to jog after the sun was up and the rest of the people were up. All the stories of frugality and the stories of watching his pennies are great. The stories of cutting his

00:30:19.489 - 00:30:32.979

own firewood and cutting down the eucalyptus trees in the back. I love the story of when he came in late in college one night with uh Ralph Chase and they lived on the second floor at Mama Sewell's and they didn't want to wake her. And Bill

00:30:32.989 - 00:30:44.359

figured he could get in the second floor window, which is a drop right over the kitchen sink, but he thought he could make it and, and he squeezed in in the darkness and fell into her lap because she was sitting up waiting for them to come

00:30:44.369 - 00:31:00.130

in. But she, she had fallen asleep beneath the sink in a chair and Bill came tumbling down on her lap and there was a scream and a yell. All of these people wrote these stories from around the country and sent them to me. Most of them

00:31:00.140 - 00:31:19.959

were, were funny. Some were quite profound. Joe Betts wrote from Japan to say I first met Bill Green in April of 1946. My first Sunday in Berkeley after being stationed to Treasure Island Naval Base from that time on our relationship was quite close. The Greens sponsored

00:31:19.969 - 00:31:34.589

the young people's class on Friday night, we would go to their house for a potluck supper. And after that, we would play some games and then there would be some book reviews. What kind of youth group is that a youth group getting together on Friday night

00:31:34.599 - 00:31:48.589

for food and book reviews? Only at Bill Greens would that happen? He also taught our Sunday morning class. Maybe it was because he was a professor at the university that made him more strict, but he made us do our homework and he taught at a deep

00:31:48.599 - 00:32:05.920

level and he expected his students to work. His classes were a joy to attend. He stuck to his guns against all odds. This is still from Joe Bets. He said, I remember that it was during that time, 1946 to 48 that a petition was being circulated

00:32:05.930 - 00:32:24.229

all over Berkeley, California in the area where Ralph and Ruby Green lived, calling for all the homeowners to stand solid against selling their land or their property to any black families. Bill not only refused to sign, but he was quite pointed in telling the man why

00:32:24.239 - 00:32:36.469

he would not sign when he showed up at his door. And I thought, isn't that vintage Bill Green? I'd love to have a videotape of that fool who showed up at Bill Green's door saying, will you sign this petition to keep blacks out of our community?

00:32:36.479 - 00:32:53.160

I'd love to hear the speech that came forth from that torrent of red hair and freckles when he really got exercised and he really began to get excited. I liked, um, the letter that came from Herman Wilson who later went on to teach the University of

00:32:53.170 - 00:33:12.510

Washington. The Greens home in those days was an adjunct to the university. Year after year, young men doing graduate work and sometimes serving as preacher for the church, stayed in their home that modest frame home bought in those depression days for a song was a center

00:33:12.520 - 00:33:29.319

of hospitality of camaraderie of long earnest discussions on all sorts of topics, but usually on religion or philosophy. Those men and women who were privileged to stay for a few days or a few months in the Green Home were fortunate. Indeed, some of them went on

00:33:29.329 - 00:33:45.484

to become professors at other universities. Others went off to serve in Africa, Japan, China, Australia. But they all had in common that they had lived at the Green Hotel, even if there was even one spare bed blessed. Are those families who have such generous hearts and

00:33:45.494 - 00:34:05.969

ruby, always the smiling, efficient, warm hearted hostess and housekeeper deserves special praise. I like this one from Edna Biggers. Edna wrote that when she was a student at the University of California that she didn't come from a, a normal church of Christ. She came from an

00:34:05.979 - 00:34:19.260

ultra conservative, she called it a Samurai church after the name Daniel Sommer who had an influence in a lot of churches. So for her to go to the big city of Berkeley was frightening enough and to go to a church that wasn't quite like she remembered

00:34:19.270 - 00:34:36.100

back home. But this is what she wrote. Most of my Christian life had been spent in a small country congregation where the samurai influences prevailed before I enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley. Then I became a student in Bill Green's College Bible class. And

00:34:36.110 - 00:34:53.340

my life took on a positive approach to Christianity. He inspired us by his teaching and his life that there was more to the Christian life than just defending the faith, Ruby and Bill were so generous and such gracious hosts. It was always a thrill and a

00:34:53.350 - 00:35:11.570

pleasure to be invited to their home. I'm certain that their watchful care for the homesick and lonely college students kept many a student faithful to the church. In those years, their zeal and faithfulness influenced us to take a positive look at Christianity and made us realize

00:35:11.580 - 00:35:31.389

how joyous and how rewarding a Christian life can be. The Berkeley church was unlike most churches. There aren't many churches that have a map of the world on their hearts. But the Berkeley church was a mission church. You see, it was always sending missionaries aren't many

00:35:31.399 - 00:35:49.510

like that. But everybody that was a missionary knew that if you wanted to go to Japan or Australia, Africa, China, you came by Berkeley and they would find some way to send you, they would struggle, they would sacrifice. But somehow some way they would send you

00:35:49.520 - 00:36:08.699

out. That spirit of world evangelism is one that Bill kindled in all of his travels. I've told you that he was a Californian. But in 1939 40 he took his first sabbatical and he spent a year in Paris. In 1949 5010 years later, he took his

00:36:08.709 - 00:36:22.250

second sabbatical. It was a, it was a grant with the American Philosophical Society. And again, he spent a year in Paris where he stayed with the halls and greatly helped the church. That must be something starting a church as you and Marie did in Paris and

00:36:22.260 - 00:36:32.550

have somebody like Bill Gray and drop in for a year. I mean, that missionaries don't have that kind of luck. Maurice and, uh, suddenly have him come and say I'm here for a year to study and how, you know, do you have any dishes I can

00:36:32.560 - 00:36:49.330

wash and that kind. In 1959 60 he spent a year at Munich on a Fulbright scholarship Fulbright grant and oh, what he meant to Gottfried Reichel in the Church of Christ in Munich as he taught for them that year. In 1964 65 he taught for Pepperdine

00:36:49.340 - 00:37:09.550

in the Heidelberg Program. In 1967 68 he lived in Japan where he was the founding Dean of Ibaraki Christian College. In 1970 71. He taught at the Florence Bible School in Florence, Italy. And uh he taught two summers at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He taught

00:37:09.560 - 00:37:29.320

many summers at Pepperdine. He taught another summer at Abilene Christian College, even though in some ways he wasn't in the center of the churches of Christ's strength. He became awfully well known through his writings and through his example and through his legendary size, how many phd

00:37:29.330 - 00:37:44.100

S were there in the Church of Christ in 1930 when Bill got his well, there was Hall Calhoun down in Nashville. But Hall Calhoun had just come over to the Church of Christ about 1926 and he would die in 35. So his influence was pretty slight.

00:37:44.899 - 00:37:57.189

I don't know of any others. There might have been one or two, but they weren't in the area of religion. Bill Green was a pioneer and all the young scholars that beat a path to his door. Basil Barrett Baxter and a young Frank Pack and Woodrow

00:37:57.199 - 00:38:12.290

Whitton and James D bales. And, and even in a sense of JP Sanders through the years as they were inspired to go on and do graduate work and to study, I too was inspired as young ministers are want to do. I remember sitting with Bill one

00:38:12.300 - 00:38:25.709

time and saying, I'm not sure about weekly communion bill that you can only have communion on the first day of the week. I mean, there's only the one example, isn't there acts 20 verse seven. The disciples came together on the first day of the week to

00:38:25.719 - 00:38:40.800

break bread back intro as maybe what they were doing in tros is not what they were doing in corn. Maybe they were taking the communion every day, maybe they were doing it monthly, maybe they were doing it weekly. I mean, we just have the one text,

00:38:40.810 - 00:39:03.739

don't we? He listened to all of that. Always so kind. His only comment was to close his eyes and say yes. But isn't it a precious text? And where do you go with that? You know, I, I bit some air for a while and I said,

00:39:03.750 - 00:39:20.639

yes, it's a precious text. And I never questioned that precious text. I asked him who his heroes were. One day didn't give him a chance to think. He said, number one TB Larrimore. I said, why? He said, Larry Moore was born to preach. He was the

00:39:20.649 - 00:39:34.979

greatest preacher I ever know. He, he might have been the greatest preacher of the late 19th, early 20th century. We were so thrilled when he performed our wedding. He was such a Christ like man. He said, number two, it was Jay and Armstrong. John Nelson Armstrong.

00:39:34.989 - 00:39:47.800

I said, wow, that was a surprise. I forgot about Armstrong. How did you know him? Well, he was always out here preaching in meetings in California. Why is he your second hero? Because he knew how to sacrifice. He was the most self sacrificial man I ever

00:39:47.810 - 00:40:03.030

met. He said, he put me to shame. Armstrong knew how to sacrifice. His sacrifice kept hard in college going for years when it would have gone under. And then for the third man, instead of picking somebody that had been dead 30 years like Larrimore and Armstrong,

00:40:03.699 - 00:40:18.500

he picked a guy who was nine years younger than himself. I'll never forget how stunned I was when he said JP Sanders. And I said, J JP Sanders the first time you met him. I mean, he was just getting out of the youth group or something.

00:40:18.510 - 00:40:37.739

And, and you revere him. And I said, why? And he said, because he was my role model. He said he was just transparent. He, he was a man without guile JP Sanders was a Christ like man who did not know how to deceive. He did not

00:40:37.840 - 00:40:58.020

know how to go behind the back. And Bill Green revered him as a role model as a professor and as a teacher, I think this quote in this booklet, a little brochure that we've handed out at the bottom of the middle column there from uh Eew

00:40:58.030 - 00:41:18.830

mcmillan is the one that I would most want to close with. Here. When Ew mcmillan said, I knew him for about 40 years for about 40 years. I knew Doctor William Green as a family man, a teacher, a preacher and a scholar. No one made larger

00:41:18.840 - 00:41:44.449

tracks than he made. And yet the most overpowering heritage he left to others was his humility that was in every single letter that came back to me. When Billy Sylvie wrote her article in 20th century Christian on Bill Green. She included this line, I've talked with

00:41:44.459 - 00:42:04.969

several other people recently and the image is consistent. Bill Green was a Jesus style person, a person of humility, concern for others and service. I think what struck me the most about Bill Green was I never heard him pray when the prayer wasn't centered in Children

00:42:05.689 - 00:42:19.270

it was the only prayer I really remember from him. He's the only one I ever heard him prayed. He prayed it over and over. He loved Children and they loved him and you couldn't stand outside of church after church with her without seeing him surrounded by

00:42:19.280 - 00:42:37.540

Children. He loved his own Children and his grandchildren. But he had such an extended family because he loved Children. I have often taught my Pepperdine students these four points which I learned from him. Here are the rules for the road. Tonight, we walk down a road

00:42:37.550 - 00:42:56.209

that is a road beaten hard by the footsteps of saints like Bill Green. And these are the four rules for the road that I learned from him. Number one, except each day as God's gift to you, Bill Green knew the importance of a day. He did

00:42:56.219 - 00:43:12.620

not live in the past. He could have, he did not live in the future but oh how vibrantly he lived in the present. He lived to be 82 and he was vibrant to the end. He knew the importance of a day. He knew the psalmist. This

00:43:12.629 - 00:43:29.159

is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. He understood. Give us this day our daily bread. He knew the importance of living one day at a time. Number two, he taught me the great lesson. Do not compare yourself with

00:43:29.169 - 00:43:47.830

anybody else. You'll always find others who are better off others who are more gifted, others who are handsomer, others who are wealthier, others who've had greater opportunity. He never compared himself with anyone else. He was content to be. Bill Green suffered through that loss of hearing,

00:43:48.179 - 00:44:03.229

barely could hear. At the end, I can see us now sitting in Carol's restaurant while I shouted to him from 2 ft away and the whole restaurant stared at us wondering why I was doing it. But if I got close enough, he would hear, he said

00:44:03.239 - 00:44:19.199

he always slept wonderfully because he turned his hearing aid off at night and slumbered on. I never knew him to compare himself with anybody else or to moan about any particular love lot in his life. Number three, the lesson he taught was live each day with

00:44:19.209 - 00:44:35.419

gentle judgments on other people. When I interviewed him one day and I replayed that hour and a half tape today, I kept goading him in my questions to say critical things about some people long since dead because as a historian, I wanted to know and Dan,

00:44:35.429 - 00:44:46.520

you would know all these names if I threw them out. Brother Green. What about this person? Tell me about this one? Tell me about this one. Surely they've been dead 50 years. Tell me now the truth. What was it like in the twenties? What were the

00:44:46.530 - 00:45:01.479

issues? What was the, uh, the struggle that was going on? But he refused every single invitation I gave him to criticize, he was gentle in his judgment. And when I would throw out a name that was somebody that I knew he had not appreciated that much.

00:45:01.550 - 00:45:18.620

He would still say he was a sincere man. He served God to the best of his ability. I didn't agree with him in this particular vendetta that he had or this particular campaign, but I think he was sincere. He was gentle in his judgments. And finally,

00:45:18.629 - 00:45:37.399

number four, bring Christ into your daily thoughts. Bill Green brought Christ into his daily thoughts. To be around him was to realize that uh you were surrounded by a person who walked with Christ for years. I've looked for that perfect statement to describe Bill Green. I

00:45:37.409 - 00:45:57.169

finally found it and decided that I would close with it tonight. I found it in a biography of Arthur Samuel Peak by Wilkinson. Wilkinson makes a statement here about Arthur Samuel Peak. That is the perfect statement of Bill Green. I am persuaded. In fact, I will

00:45:57.179 - 00:46:12.120

say tonight on the Pepperdine campus, Bill Green was our A s peak. He was the Arthur Samuel peak of the church of Christ. A S peak was a great Oxford scholar in England. It meant so much to the congregational church over there, but Bill Green was

00:46:12.129 - 00:46:34.879

our A sp and here's what Wilkinson said with a truly Himalayan range of learning and with marvelous powers of exposition. He had the simplicity and the naivete of a little child. It was this quality in him that appealed to Children and found immediate response. He was

00:46:34.889 - 00:47:00.159

fundamentally a lover of simple things in dress, in diet, in recreation. And this was his general attitude in life. The more public worship expressed itself in simple form, in hymns, in prayers, in sermons. The more he was moved by it, he did not care for liturgies,

00:47:00.560 - 00:49:27.209

anthems or the chanting of the Lord's prayer. He was content with the old classic hymns set to familiar tunes for him. Worship was the simple attitude of the child. He himself had learned to express profound truths in simple terms. Well, as

00:49:27.219 - 00:49:53.110

I said, that's the statement of a s peak, but it's the one that I best can find a night to sum up Bill Green. When John Cairns Scottish principal wrote that book about his teacher, Sir William Hamilton. He made this statement. I do not know what

00:49:53.120 - 00:50:19.129

life or lives may lie before me. But this I know that to the end of the last of them, I shall bear your mark upon me. I can say that of William Green. I shall never forget him. I bear his mark upon me. Let's close in

00:50:19.139 - 00:50:52.429

prayer precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh Lord, we adore thee for the glorious company of the apostles, for the goodly fellowship of the prophets, for the noble army of martyrs, for the blessed communion of saints, especially those whom

00:50:52.439 - 00:51:12.889

we ourselves have loved and lost a while and who now sing thy praises before thy throne of grace, help us to know their continued presence with us at every step of the journey on the road that is beaten hard by their footsteps. So that we too,

00:51:13.209 - 00:51:55.250

being encouraged by their example and strengthened by their fellowship. May at the last with them, receive the end of our faith, even life for Evermore through Christ, our Lord. Oh Man, Dr Rushford has already mentioned they policy that was developed at the beginning

00:51:55.260 - 00:52:25.629

of this lectureship to seek voluntary contributions. And so I believe at this time, there is provided for you the opportunity to make these gifts. Uh I don't know who, who has the mhm And these were passed through uh the audience, these gifts that have been made

00:52:25.639 - 00:52:54.280

each year uh have accumulated and gives to us uh the gifts give to us an opportunity uh to have a program that will be very meaningful and beneficial to students and faculty and community. One of the nice things about this lectureship is the fact that at

00:52:54.290 - 00:53:02.540

the close of this day, we are invited through the generosity of our president and his wife to the Brock House. The