Biographic etchings of ministers and laymen of the Georgia conferences

Columbia (Hntomitp

mtyeCtipoOtogork

THE LIBRARIES

Bequest of

Frederic Bancroft

1860-1945

14.-, S

Biographic Etchings

. OF . .

MINISTERSandLAYMEN

OF THE . . .

Georgia Conferences.

BY

W. J. SCOTT, D. D.,

Author of " Lectures and Essays," " The Story of Two
Civilizations," " Historic Eras," Etc.

" Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets,
do they live forever? — Zech., \st chap.^th verse.

ATLANTA;
The Foort & Cavils Co., P'jm i^kJers.

■

- •• ■ •

1 '

-

> ,

93f<

Copyrighted 1895, by
W. J. Scott.

-

*

i • ■ • . . ..

•

* ' - c *• «

PREFACE.

In the preparation of these character sketches we
decided to eliminate the usual obituary features.

For several of the best of these papers I am in-
debted to the kindness of my ministerial brethren.
Dr. Hinton's sketch of President Bass, Dr. Mixon's
sketch of Dr. Anderson, Dr. Heidt's sketch of
Josiah Lewis, Sr., Dr. Cook's sketch of Presi-
dent Ellison, Dr. Glenn's sketch of Dr. Potter,
Gen. Evans' sketch of Benjamin Harvey Hill, Dr.
Christian's sketch of Dr. Clark, are one and all ad-
mirable papers, which contribute greatly to the in-
terest of the volume. Without their timely assist-
ance I hardly see how I could have accomplished
my work. God bless them abundantly for their
"labor of love."

I may say quite as much o f that beautiful sketch
of my dear old friend, Walter R.Branham, written
by a committee consisting of Bros. M. S. Wil-
liams, H. H. Parks and W. D. Shea. I had pub-
lished a sketch of my own in our church paper, but
I ventured to substitute the committee's work for

ij- % V- 1

IV

my own, as on some accounts it was more satis-
factory to myself and probably will be to the
reader.

It is, to me, a matter of profound regret that
for lack of space I have been forced to omit a
number of ministers and laymen whose names de-
served recognition. In a second edition it is the
purpose of the author and publisher to supply this
lack should the demand warrant its publication.

BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

OF

MINISTERS AND LAYMEN

LOVICK PIERCE, THE NESTOR OF GEOR-
GIA METHODISM.

When the history of American Methodism shall
be fully written, few names will occupy a more
prominent place than that of Lovick Pierce.

This illustrious minister sprung from obscurity,
and his educational advantages were exceedingly
limited. In despite of this, however, he early
reached the highest distinction as a preacher. It
is true that he never attained to Episcopal honors,
nor did he ever wield a commanding influence in
the General Conference. Not less than Edmund
Burke, he was ill adapted to the leadership of de-
liberative assemblies.

Indeed, it is but just to say that he was some-
what deficient in the faculty of organization, and
possessed only moderate administrative ability.
As Whitfield, the prince of pulpit orators, founded
no sect, so Lovick Pierce consummated no great
reform in the economy of Methodism. Eminently
conservative, as he was, in reference to the funda-
mental doctrines of the church, he was evermore

Z UIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

full of plans for the improvement of its polity.
Nearly all of these proposed reforms were lost in
the committee on revisals.

We come now, however, to speak of Lovick
Pierce, simply as a preacher of the everlasting
gospel ; and in this respect he had few equals,
and no superiors in the American pulpit. He had
neither the thorough scholarship, nor the ana-
lytical power of Stephen Olin ; John Summer-
field surpassed him greatly in the mere art of
persuasion. Bishop Bascorabe excelled him in
the thunderous oratory that reminds us of an ocean
swell. Yet as a preacher, in the Pauline accepta-
tion of the term, he was not a whit behind the
chief est of his contemporaries.

It would be difficult to say, definitely, wherein
lay the secret of his immense pulpit power. It cer-
tainly was not due to the vastness of his literary
resources, for these were circumscribed ; nor could
it be attributed to anything that savored of sensa-
tionalism, for no man despised more heartily the
tricks of the pulpit mountebank, who is more intent
on winning applause than on winning souls.

Somewhat of his rare excellence as a preacher
may be justly ascribed to his imposing presence.
His voice was a natural, not an acquired, orotund,
his articulation was uniformly distinct, and his
modulation perfect. His manner of delivery was
sometimes vehement, but never offensively bois-
terous. Add to all this what the French term,

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 6

"Onction," and the old Methodists, ''Liberty,"
and}rou have our idea of his elocution.

One grand element of his success was his apos-
tolic saintliness of character. He believed and
preached the doctrine of holiness, as handed down
to us by Fletcher and the Weslej^s.

With him, however, it was something more than
a mere theor}7, he illustrated it in his daily life. I
have yet to see the man who more studiously
avoided every colloquial impropriety, whether
slang or vulgarity, who was more prayerful in
spirit, and more circumspect in all his deportment.
While, at times, he had an air of moroseness, there
underlay7 this harsh exterior a sympathy as genial
as the breath of spring-time, and as far-spreading
as the blue sky above us. His charity had no
bounds. Never was there a more appreciative
listener to the commonplaces of the pulpit or a
more enraptured hearer of the platitudes of com-
mencement orators and essayists.

Next to his personal purity and thorough con-
secration to his ministerial work, was his mastery
of the Holy Scriptures. The Bible was the armory
whence he drew the weapons, which, on many a
hard-fought field, wrere mighty to the pulling
down of strongholds. We would not intimate
that he was neglectful of polite literature. He
was indeed familiar with the standard English
authors, and was always abreast with the current
phases of philosophy.

4 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

But, beyond all else, he studied the Bible — not
detached portions, as the manner of some is, but
every part and parcel of it. He knew the Penta-
teuch as well as the four gospels. He was as fully
conversant with the weird visions of Ezekiel, and
the mystic imagery of the Apocalypse, as with
the simpler Messianic prophecies of Isaiah.

He had well nigh committed to memory the
Psalms of David, yet he was hardly less familiar
with the Proverbs of Solomon. If any portion of
the Divine Revelation was more highly esteemed
and carefully studied than anv other, it was
the Epistles of St. Paul. His understanding of
the Pauline system was critically exact and his
exegesis of the Epistles to the Romans and He-
brews was more than masterly, it partook of the
supernatural. With such resources as these, it was
no matter of marvel that he was a master of as-
semblies.

Only secondary to these two elements wras his
wonderful gift as an extemporaneous speaker.
He had, as was well understood, an invincible
aversion to written sermons. Now and then he
has been known to inveigh against them with an
earnestness that left no room for doubt as to the
strength of his convictions. Let it not be supposed,
however, that he at all countenanced the notion of
extemporaneous thinking. On the contrary, he
was diligeut in preparation for his pulpit work.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. O

I have personal knowledge on this point, on more
than one occasion. Still he had so trained himself
to extemporaneous speaking that his spoken style
was far better than his written style. The former
was terse, at times epigrammatic, always spark-
ling; the latter was labored, involved, and, fre-
quently turgid. It is to be deplored that he did
not cultivate writing until advanced life. Rich-
ard Baxter, a laborious pastor, and a life-long in-
valid, left material for forty folio volumes; Dr.
Pierce scarcely left sufficient material for a single
duodecimo.

During his earlier ministry7 his toil and travel were
immense. Like St. Paul, he was in perils both in
the city and the wilderness. His districts embraced
a larger geographical area than the Apostle trav-
ersed in his first missionary tours. These abun-
dant labors left him but little opportunity for
striethT literary work, and furnish ample apology
for his apparent shortcomings. Besides, he fell
on evil days, when Methodism was everywhere
spoken against; when the spirit of a confessor and
the courage of a martyr were needed to confront
the enemies of Methodism. Luckily for himself and
the church, he was cast in the same heroic mould
as Francis Asbury and William McKendree. He
faltered not for a single moment in the face of
opposition, but steered right onward to the goal.
The usual order of Divine Providence is, "That
one soweth and another reapeth," but he survived

6 RIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

this era of depression, and lived to see Method-
ism the dominant religious organization of this
continent and the leading religious denomination
of the Protestant world. It was, indeed, gratify-
ing to witness the distinguished consideration with
which he was treated in his old age, in all the
annual and general conferences of the church.
This was no constrained tribute to rank , or wealth ,
or power; but the spontaneous recognition of
intellectual and moral worth of the highest order.

Dr. Pierce did not lag superfluous on the stage.
He wrote or preached almost to his dying day. It
is true that the last weeks of his life were marked
by great nervous prostration. At times he seemed
bowed down with sorrow, but the reaction was
always speedy. It was in one of his jubilant
moods he sent that message to the churches, "Say
to the brethren I am lying just outside the gates of
Heaven." An utterance worthy to be mentioned
in the same breath with Paul's exclamation in the
depths of the Mamertine prison, "I am now ready
to be offered." Not less inspiring than the last
words of Wesley, "the best of all is, God is with
us."

Not a great while before his departure it was
my privilege to visit and talk with him in his
death-chamber. In response to my enquiry about
his health, he said: "I am lying here a wreck upon
the coast of time, trying to look into the eternal
future." It is somewhat singular that the great

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 7

Webster used almost this identical language to a
friend during his last illness. That friend replied :
''Say not, Mr. Webster, a wreck, but a pyramid on
the coast of time." My reply was different ; I said:
"Doctor, for many years you have been getting
ready for this hour." After a little conversation
his eyes brightened, and he said: "I have some
well-matured views on the subject of faith which
I desire to submit to you." I said : "I have but a
little while to remain, as I must leave on the next
train." He glanced at the clock and said: "I see
you haven't sufficient time to hear me." He, how-
ever, gave me an outline of his views, and I urged
him to have them written and published for the
edification of the church. Thereupon he gave me
his blessing, and I withdrew. He lived but a few
weeks after this interview. There is a beautiful
fitness, or rather I ought to say a wise Providence,
in the death-scenes of great and good men. Elijah,
the wild-eyed Tishbite, who rebuked kings and
smote false prophets and idolatrous priests with
the edge of the sword, must needs have a chariot
of flame and steeds of fire to bear him aloft to the
Paradise of God. It was a fitting close to a most
stormy career. But for Lovick Pierce there was
appointed a more quiet hour. Calmly, he lay down
to his final rest. He nestled his weary head on the
bosom of Jesus, and with hardly a pang or a
struggle, his ransomed spirit went "sweeping
through the gates," to his exceeding great reward.

8 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

How broad the contrast between such a de-
parture and that of Cardinal Wolsey, who was
abandoned in his old age by his sovereign because
of his refusal to sanction his matrimonial in-
fidelities.

Lear, when he trod alone the blasted heath
amidst the pelting of a pitiless midnight storm
was not in a more sorrowful plight than this illus-
trious ecclesiastic — when after a wearisome day's
travel he approached the postern gate of Leicester
Abbey .

Addressing the Abbot, he said :

"Father Abbot, an old man, broken in the Storms of State
Comes to lay his bones among ye; A little earth for pity's
sake."

Not many hours after his arrival he died with no
attendant but an obscure monk who ministered to
him the sacrament of the dying.

But yesterday he had as the motto of his signet
ring "Ego et rex raeus." "Now lies he there and
none so poor as to do him reverence."

What think ye of the cardinal and the preacher?
How apposite the language of David: "I have
seen the wicked, in great power, spreading him-
self like a green bay -tree, yet he passed away and
lo ! he was not ; yea, I sought for him and he could
not be found. Mark the perfect man and be-
hold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 9

JESSE BORING— THE SALVATOR ROSA OF

THE PULPIT.

The life of Jesse Boring, if fully and graphical^
written, would read like a romance. His was
an adventurous spirit; hardly less so than
that of Francis Xavier, the apostle of the Indies.
Nor was his life less eventful than the Episcopal
career of Francis Asbury, the pioneer bishop of
the United States. It was no foolish boasting but
simple matter of fact, when on one notable oc-
casion he exclaimed on the conference floor:
"Bishop, I am the founder of five annual con-
ferences, and I have the right to be heard in this
or any other ecclesiastical presence."

This remarkable man, with the exception of
Bishop Capers — whom I had heard preach in my
childhood — was the first of the great lights of the
Methodist pulpit to whom I had ever listened. It
was some time in the thirties at the old Harris
camp-ground, of which Uncle Dick Dozier was the
presiding genius, and of whom the rude boys of
that vicinity had a most wholesome dread. There
were present, at the time, such other notabilities
as James Datinelly and Samuel K. Hodges, but
Jesse Boring was the cynosure of all eyes. Even
at that early period, he was physically feeble,
seemingly almost a wreck. At the Sunday night

10 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

service he delivered a characteristic appeal to the
Impenitent that captured the congregation, and
caused the sturdiest sinner to quake with alarm.

Many years elapsed before I again heard this great
preacher, whose matter and manner were so un-
like any man of his generation. Meanwhile his
reputation had become conneetional and to him
was committed the task of planting Southern
Methodism on the Pacific coast. One of the old
Forty-niners, who had often met him in those
years of terrible exposure and hardship, spoke of
him as the bravest and truest man he had ever
known. He assured me that the most desperate
gamblers of Sacramento and San Jose, reverenced,
but feared this Boanerges of Methodism. The
seeds planted by Doctor Boring did not instantly
spring up, but watered by the tears of Fitzgerald,
Bigham, Aleck Wynn and the Simmons brothers,
they were gradually quickened into life. The inter-
vention, however, of the civil war, which isolated
the California mission from the mother church,
well-nigh destroyed its vitality.

But after these years of slow development, there
is now a flattering prospect that under the gallant
leadership of Bishop Fitzgerald our Southern
Methodism will yet possess a large area of terri-
tory in both Calif ornias. If the "saints in light"
take knowledge of earthly happenings, how must
the old Doctor have rejoiced when the missionary

rain, some }^ears ago, sped its way, with singing

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 11

and shouting, across the continent to its destina-
tion at Los Angeles.

It will be remembered by the older Methodists >
that after his California adventures, Dr. Boring
was transferred to Texas, with his headquarters
alternately at San Antonio and Galveston. At
both places he did much to organize Methodism for
the aggressive work which it has since so well and
wisely prosecuted until the church in all that
vast region, has become an immense, spiritual fed-
eration of a half dozen annual conferences.

While stationed at Galveston he had one of
those remarkable experiences which have marked
several stages of his ministry.

Starting in the Caribbean sea, a typical cyclone
swept with its uttermost fury the entire gulf coast,
from Key West to Vera Cruz. At Galveston it
was especially severe, submerging very much of
the city and island. As the pious /Eneas bore
upon his shoulders the aged Anchises, from the
flames of Troy, so Dr. Boring carried in his arms
his frail wife, through that dreadful midnight
flood to a place of safety.

Leaving these "moving accidents by flood and
field," we come to speak more at length of his pul-
pit power.

Poetry and painting are in no small degree kin-
dred arts. Some one has said of Teremv Tavlor
that he was "the Shakespeare of the English pul-
pit." Why may not I be justified in saying Bor-

12 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

ing, at his best, was the Salvator Rosa of the
American pulpit? His intense earnestness, his
startling emphasis of speech and gesture, his
sepulchral intonations of voice, specially fitted
him for painting the darker side of human destiny.
Who that once heard his exposition of the parable
of Dives and Lazarus can ever forget his portrait-
ure of that heartless voluptuary, who was more
neglectful of the beggar lying at his gate than
were the dogs that followed him in the chase. It
was enough to freeze the marrow in our bones.
What wonder that upon one occasion, in Colum-
bus, when he was preaching on the general judg-
ment, many of the congregation fled terror-stricken
from the sanctuary? Said one who was present,
"The scene baffled description. The atmosphere
seemed stifling, the lights burned dim and for one,
I momentarily expected to hear the 'crack of
doom.' " In all this there was no trick of oratory.
It wras the simple grandeur of the theme and the
terrific earnestness of the speaker. Not a printed
line of this great sermon has been preserved, but
the tradition of it will linger for another hundred
years.

I have heard many great pulpit orators in their
best moods— what we might call their times of
plenary inspiration. I was caught up almost to
the third heaven of joyousness while listening to
Marvin on "Christ and the Church." My nerves
fairly tingled when I heard Bishop Pierce on "the

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 13

Second Coming of Christ," years ago at the Macon
Annual Conference. Indeed I have heard not-
able sermons from men of less renown and later
date, but never heard a more powerful discourse
than one by Dr. Boring at the Tabernacle camp-
ground, Sumter county, Georgia, 1858. His topic
was the obstacles to personal salvation, based on
the question, "Lord, aretherefew that be saved?"
He was in his best estate spiritually, intellectually,
and we might add physically. As he proceeded
to show the difficulties, the narrowness of the
way, the straightness of the gate, the majesty of
the divine law, and the inexorableness of its de-
mands, the wiles of the devil, the seductions of
the flesh, the glamor of worldliness, it looked like
heaping Ossa on Pelion until the mighty moun-
tain barrier rose heaven-high, with its frowning
crags and steep acclivities.

It occurred to me that Hannibal's passage of
the Alps before there was a St. Cenis tunnel was
an easy matter compared with the task set before
the Christian, in his heavenward aspirations.
When he reached the climax of his argument a
breathless awe pervaded the congregation. Not
a few of them seemed half paralyzed with these
master strokes of oratory. But suddenly pausing
for a single instant, he exclaimed in a jubilant
tone, "Blessed be God— there is still a ray of hope
that comes to us from Calvary." The transition
was so abrupt and inspiring that I almost un-

II BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

consciously cried out, " Hallelujah " — to which Dr.
Tom Stewart vigorously responded, Amen!
Whereupon a wave of exultation passed over the
great assembly and the veil was lifted. Nearly
twenty years later I asked him to repeat this ser-
mon in my pulpit. He did so, but while the ser-
mon was still admirable in its leading features, he
himself realized that it had lost a measure of its
old-time force and fervor.

Some of his best pulpit and platform work was
done while he was representing the Orphans' Home
enterprise in various parts of the connection.

The matter lay near his heart, and in the next
century it will be rated as the greatest of his
ministerial achievements.

I was present when he introduced the orphanage
question in South Georgia. He met with serious
opposition. Some of the conference leaders seemed
reluctant to embark in the enterprise, but he car-
ried the question by one of those masterful ap_
peals for which he was distinguished.

It is no longer an open question, and former dif-
ferences should be buried. We must needs have,
at no distant day, a well prepared biography of
this great man— not ponderous, but concise and
spirited. George Smith, or Sasnett, or Elder Big-
ham could do good work on this line.

He once urged me to edit a volume of his ser-
mons, which I declined to undertake because of
other pressing engagements. I would have been

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 15

disposed to decline partly for his own sake. I
greatly question the practicability of reproducing
in cold type the distinctive utterances which made
his continental reputation.

Robert Hall never but in a single instance had a
published sermon that was worthy of his fame.
Preachers like William Jay and Charles Haddon
Spurgeon could stand the test, but few others
besides them. It would be an easier undertaking
to imprison a sunbeam or to paint the perfume
of a violet than to give an adequate idea of Whit-
field's or Bossuet's oratory by that curious con-
trivance, the lineograph. Edison's phonograph
givesthe minutest tones of the Marsellaise as ren-
dered by the United States Marine Band, but the
invention comes too late to perpetuate the oratory
of the demigods of the pulpit and platorm of by-
gone generations.

JAMES E. EVANS,

THE MODEL PASTOR.

As an all round preacher I have not known the
superior of James E. Evans. He wavS not a genius,
but pre-eminently a man of affairs.

Considered as a stationed preacher -a presiding
elder — as a member of annual and general confer-

16 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

ence boards— organizer of circuits — builder of
churches and colleges, he headed the list of my
conference acquaintances. He was not an orator,
and yet he was not lacking in a boisterous elo-
quence that captured the multitude. He was not
a logician, and yet he routed opponents in debate
by the score. In visiting from house to house
and in keeping accounts he was next to Haber-
sham J. Adams. Here we might leave the matter,
and yet it is proper that I should enter more into
details concerning this wonderfully versatile man.
Alfred Mann, long ago speaking of Brother
Evans, said to me, "Evans is a well-conditioned
man." Not a little of his phenomenal success was
due to his superb physique. His step, until he
was nearly seventy, was elastic, his pulse beat
was equable, and as a sleeper he was not a whit
behind Webster, who boasted that he slept soundly
after Hayne's reply to him in the Senate cham-
ber. I have been with him at camp-meetings,
where he would sing and shout and exhort until ten
o'clock, seldom later, when he would go to the
preachers' tent — quietly undress, saying his pray-
ers— go to bed, and while the battle at the stand
was still raging would in five minutes be as soundly
asleep as a healthy boy after his evening romp.
No insomnia about him — how we envied him his
gift. His appetite never flickered at the most
frugal board. He had some relish for dainties,
but if they were not within reach he could fare

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 17

.sumptuously on hog and hominy. As for dyspep-
sia ailments he knew as little of them as of sum-
mer vacations — neither of them, indeed, was
known to his ministerial vocabulary. Eupepsy
was his normal condition — his liver aplomb, and
his stomach in good working order. Let it not
be inferred that he was a gourmand, on the con-
trary he was rather abstemious and scrupulous
in his observance of the quarterly fast. He was
an anti-tobacconist of the straitest sect, and made
no bills with the apothecary.

I remember once when he was staying with us
at the Milledgeville parsonage, he was somewhat
ailing. After much persuasion I got him to take
a single dose of medicine. This treatment relieved
him greatly, so that he preached a morning ser-
mon of remarkable power. A good "pulpit sweat"
completed the cure, so that he was in good plight
when the dinner hour arrived.

By every visible token he might have lived a
hundred years, but he died younger than Boring
or Lovick Pierce.

Brother Evans was not a scholar in the pres-
ent acceptation of that term, yet he was a reader
of many books. Especially was he familiar with
the standard literature of early Methodism.
Wesley's sermons he had almost committed to
memory — and he had Fletcher's Checks at his
tongue's end. He made it a matter of conscience
to study the discipline and our authorized Hymnal.

18 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

In a word, by reading and absorption as well, he
acquired a large fund of miscellaneous informa-
tion which he handled to advantage in the pulpit.
As a conference preacher he was most esteemed as
a revivalist and pastor in its old-time signification.
In his younger days he was a flaming evangelist,
and the conversions under his ministry were num-
bered by the thousand. His singing was one ele-
ment of his strength. He was, however, his own
.Excell and Sankey. for while he knew but little
of music as an art, he had a voice of vast compass
and exceeding sweetness. He knew just when and
where to bring in " Wrestling Jacob" and "Amaz-
ing Grace" and the best of the camp-meeting melo-
dies. The masses of his day preferred such sing-
ing to the "fugue tunes" and other operatic airs
;so much in vogue with fashionable church choirs.
To this gift of song he added the gifts of prayer
and exhortation in a notable degree. In the former
he might be classed with Sam Anthony and John
P. Duncan ; in the latter he was almost without a
peer, unless amongst the old-fashioned laity, like
Uncle limmie Stewart and MatthewT Rvlander of
Southwestern Georgia. In his happiest mood
these hortatory appeals were punctuated by amens
and hallelujahs from the enraptured congregation.
But perhaps his greatest distinction was his
house to house visitation. In Augusta, Savan-
nah, Charleston, Columbus and Macon the whole
population in this way felt his magnetic touch.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 19

Man}7 a time, even at the dead of night during
seasons of pestilence, did his ponderous footfall
wake the slumbering echoes of Green and Broad
and Bull and other less aristocratic quarters,
as he hurried to the bedside of dying saint or re-
pentant sinner. At this point the Methodism
of today has sensibly weakened. Nor has this lack
of apostolic service — witness Paul at Ephesus —
been supplied by more elaborate pulpit prepara-
tion. If usefulness is the end of aim and en-
deavor it will be best attained by blending pulpit
preparation with pastoral visitation, giving the
latter the preference. At one period of his life
Brother Evans was regarded, not by himself, but
others, as good "bishop timber." When many years
ago, he was elected to a connectional office, he
was thought to be on the high road to the distinc-
tion. But after a brief experience as a book agent,
he resigned and returned to the pastorate. This
we have always thought was a wise decision.
Having been twice in his district, we cheerfully
bear testimony to his rare administrative ability,
and what is better still, we can testify to his sym-
pathetic nature, which greatly endeared him to
the preachers of whom he had a quasi-episcopal
oversight.

We have before intimated that to us his death
seemed premature. Certainly it was sudden ;
so that it might be almost literally said that he
ceased at once to wrork and live.

20 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

It was but a single step from the pulpit to his
death chamber. All through the latter years of
his ministry he held a conservative view of the
holiness question, which, after all the pros and
cons of subtle disputants, is thoroughly Wesleyan
and to the same extent scriptural. Thousands of
old friends hailed the coming of this saintly man
to his rest and reward on the other shore. May
Georgia Methodism never lack for men of his sort,
who understand the needs of our Israel.

ALEXANDER M. THIGPEN.

I desire, in this connection, to speak briefly of
another dear friend and most useful minister,
Alexander M.Thigpen. He first came prominently
into notice as a chaplain in the army of Northen
Virginia. In all of the campaigns of Lee .and
Jackson, he was noted for his devotion to duty
and his unflinching courage in every emergency.
Such was the brilliant record he had made during
the war, that in 1865 he was appointed to Wesley
Chapel, Atlanta.

I saw a great deal of him during the two years
of his Atlanta pastorate and at his request, assisted
him in making a roll of the membership, the old

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 21

church register having been destroyed during the

Federal occupation of the city. He exhibited
great energy in looking up the scattered flock and

in bringing them back to the fold. His preaching

was quite satisfactory to his charge ,and a goodly

number were added to the church.

In after years he held several responsible posi-
tions, chiefly the Dalton district and the Rome sta-
tion. In these, and other important charges, he
fully sustained his reputation as an able preacher
and as an efficient worker in all departments
of ministerial duty.

In his social and domestic relations he was a
model for the Christian minister. His tenderness
to his invalid wife through years of suffering was
one of the most beautiful traits of his noble
character. And so in the sick room of poor and
rich, his presence was like a sunbeam, and his
prayers had help and healing in their utterances.

On the street he had a pleasant greeting for
every acquaintance, so that when the eye saw
him, it blessed him, and when the ear heard him,
it honored him.

Strangely enough, such a life of usefulness and
unselfishness was deeply shadowed in its closing
days.

Let us not stumble at these mysteries of Provi-
dence.

22 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

JOHN W. GLENN— THE CONFERENCE

LEADER.

Forty years ago there were three men, W. J.
Parks, John W. Glenn and Samuel Anthony, who
were the recognized leaders of the old Georgia
Conference. In some sort they formed an ecclesi-
astical triumvirate whose influence was prepon-
derant on all important conference issues.

This was not the result of personal ambition or
of any striking intellectual brilliancy. It was
due largely to their thorough consecration to the
work of the ministry and only in a less degree to
their judicial mindedness. It was a high compli-
ment that Bishop McTyeire paid to the memory
of John W. Glenn when he regretted that he had
not known him longer and more intimately, for,
said McTyeire, "he was endowed with legal ability
on church questions beyond any man of my ac-
quaintance."

These illustrious Georgians, especially Parks and
Glenn, had passed the meridian of their lives when
I met them at the Atlanta Conference in 1854.
At thaf/time, Walker Glenn, as he was familiarly
called, was rotund in figure, with a head of almost
preternatural size, which he carried on one side,
indicating, as the phrenologists would say, a com-
bative'disposition. The proof of this was seen in

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 23

his capacity and fondness for doctrinal disputa-
tion. Let it not be supposed, however, that
because of this leonine look he was wanting either
ingraciousness of manner or sweetness of temper.
Indeed the lion, couchant, is the most amiable of
beasts. It is only when deeply aroused that he
passes into the rampant stage and fairly shakes
the desert with his roar. So with Walker Glenn.
In his better moods, a child could fondle him, but
when confronted by some great error of doctrine,
or when in the presence of some great practical
wrong, he was a most formidable antagonist.
While his mastery of invective was thus remark-
able, he was uniformly courteous in debate. He
neither scolded nor railed, but yet, spoke with
both deliberation and emphasis. These special gifts
fitted him in an eminent degree for the work
of a presiding elder. This seems to have been fully
realized by the Bishop and his cabinet. Strangely
enough, he was assigned to the charge of an im-
portant district at the very conference that admit-
ted him into full connection. Nor is it less note-
worthy that in this office he spent four-fifths of
his active itinerant life.

He was one of the General Conference delegates
as early as 1844, having for his colleagues such
men as the Pierces, father and son, Judge Long-
street and W. J. Parks. He retained a lively re-
membrance of the autocratic methods of the
majority on that memorable occasion, and never,

24 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

to his dying day, had the slightest fancy for the
organic union of the two Methodisms. As a con-
ference debater he was never self-assertive, and
stuck closely to the specific matter in hand. He
seems to have thought with a famous parliament-
ary leader that the one aim of a speaker was to
forward the business of the house. For this rea-
son, chiefly, he was always listened to with great
deference, and, asalready suggested, seldom failed
to carry a majority with him. I can now recall
but one sermon which I heard him deliver. It
was in Rome, where he was a universal favorite.
It was an able discussion of the character of Abra-
ham, with special reference to the sacrifice of
Isaac. There was no effort at pulpit pyrotechnics,
and yet there were some portions of this sermon
which quickened the religious sensibilities of the
congregation to a most fervent glow, eliciting
warm responses from the "Amen corner."

Father Glenn died at his own residence, near Cave
Springs, in the seventy -first year of his age. Bishop
Haygood, who was with him much during his
last illness, wrote and published shortly after his
death a charming memoir of this master in Israel.
From this we take but a single excerpt bearing
exclusively on his domestic life. Says the BishojK
"He was unlike those public men who spend all
their good humor upon society, reserving all their
moodiness and unsociableness for the fireside. He
was genial and entertaining everywhere, but the

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 25

very life and center of the home circle. There he
offered the richest libation of cheerfulness, light
and love." This tribute, based as it was on frequent
personal observation, is one of the highest he
could have paid to the memory of this venerable
minister. It quite naturally recalls to the student
of Christian biography, the scenes at the English
fireside of Matthew Henry. It revives likewise the
memory of the moss-grown manse of Samuel
Rutherford where he was wont to catechize the
family, not forgetting the servants or the way-
faring guest, when on one Saturday night he un-
wittingly had amongst his catechumens Arch-
bishop Usher, the Lord Primate of Ireland.

This incident is deserving of reproduction at
a time when the household altar has greatly
fallen into decay, even in Methodist families.
While this "Saint of Scotland," as Rutherford was
worthily named, was catechising his wife and chil-
dren and servants, there. was a sudden and sharp
rap at the door. Mr. Rutherford supposing that
some belated wanderer craved his hospitality, at
once suspended the services, opened the door,
inviting the stranger in and furnishing him a
chair at the ingteside. Explaining to the visitor
that they were in the midst of their Saturday night
devotions, he proceeded with his work. In his
turn he questioned his unlooked-for guest as to the
number of the commandments, who modestly re-
plied, "eleven." Mr. Rutherford answered, "I had

26 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

supposed there were but ten in number. If you
please, which is the eleventh?" In an instant came
the rejoinder : "A new commandment I give unto
you, that ye love one another." Of course in due
time the mystery was cleared up. The next morn-
ing the Irish Archbishop occupied Mr. Rutherford's
pulpit, and spoke charmingly on the eleventh com-
mandment.

Mr. Rutherford often referred to this strange
occurrence as one of the gracious providences of
his life.

SAMUEL ANTHONY.

I have hardly space left in this article for a
proper etching of Samuel Anthony, a contempo-
rary and bosom friend of Walker Glenn.

General Toombs, who was not addicted to ex-
travagant laudation, was heard to say that at
times Sam Anthony was the greatest orator he
ever heard in the pulpit. It was my good fortune
to be much thrown with Brother Anthony during
the middle period of my active ministry, and with
less than a half dozen exceptions I could indorse
the statement of that great Tribune. In personal
courage "Uncle Sam" was as brave as Mar-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 27

shal Ney. He was indeed a stronger to fear,
arid yet I have seen him shake like an aspen leaf
for the first five minutes of a sermon. On one oc-
casion I ventured to expostulate with him, because
of this nervous trepidation. He replied that it
was a weakness he could not control.

Not tmfrequently, however, these physical
tremors were followed by such Holy Ghost preach-
ing as I never heard from any lips but his own.

Talk of "Hallelujah licks," a phrase of question-
able propriety, but when this great man was fully
anointed, his face shone like that of St. Stephen
before the great council, and every tone and ges-
ture and utterance, however ungraceful and tin-
classical, seemed inspired.

His gift of prayer was one of his transcendant
endowments, only equaled, in my experience, by
John W. Knight. In a camp-meeting altar, or
kneeling at a mourners' bench, he prayed and
spoke with a power and pathos that was often-
times overwhelming. He had an abundance of
that charity which "thinketh no evil." His breth-
ren, indeed, sometimes thought that his intense
sympathetic nature led him astray. But while he
had pity for the wrongdoer, no man was less dis-
posed to compromise with moral evil or less spar-
ing in his denunciations of the incorrigible offender.

Brother Anthony was of ten elected to the General
Conference, but his native modesty restrained

L'S BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

him from taking a conspicuous part in the actings
and doings of that great Senate of Methodism.

In the Church Conference at Louisville, Ken-
tucky, in 1874, he had an almost fatal illness. In
my turn I was called upon to nurse him through
the night which proved to be the crisis of his dis-
ease. The next morning the attending physicians
pronounced him decidedly better. He continued
to convalesce until his health was re-established.
But it is not improbable that the Louisville at-
tack of pneumonia was the remote cause of his
death.

ALFRED T. MANN.

Alfred T. Mann was an acknowledged leader in
the old Georgia Conference. His education was
thorough, and in general literary culture he had
few equals in the Methodist ministry. His par-
entage was distinguished for its old-fashioned
zeal and consecration. His father, Uncle John-
nie Mann, was one of the pillars of the "old St.
John's" church of Augusta, from the early years
of the present century, and his mother was one of
the elect ladies of thatGideon'sband, composed of
Sisters Waterman, McKean and Glasscock, who

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 29

never faltered in their church allegiance. With
such an ecclesiastical pedigree, it would be strange
indeed if Brother Mann had been otherwise
than "blameless in life and in official administra-
tion." My personal acquaintance with him began
at Columbus in 1855. We were, on the occasion
of his visit to that city, often thrown together
in a social way, and I learned both to love and
admire him as a genial companion and a high-
toned, Christian gentleman.

It was probably in 1857 that, while stationed in
Marietta, I renewed my intercourse with Dr.
Mann. He and his accomplished wife, a daugh-
ter of Dr. Lovick Pierce, spent two or more weeks
with Mrs. Mildred WTaterman, who had known
Bro. Mann from his childhood. During his stay in
Marietta he twice occupied the Methodist pulpit,
preaching to the delight and edification of packed
houses. A few years afterwards I heard him
deliver a sermon of great power during the first
Annual Conference held in Rome. His theme was
the Divinity of Christ, which he handled with con-
summate ability. Some of his leading observa-
tions I was able to recall until recent years, but
they have now dropped out of my memory. My
estimation of Dr. Mann, as a pulpit orator, is
based largely on these discourses heard when he
was in his intellectual prime.

His style on these great occasions seemed to me
a trifle too ornate and his elocution a bit too

30 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

dramatic, for the average audience. But there
was no lack of spiritual fervor in his classical ut-
terances, nor was there in his delivery any sem-
blance that he was acting a part.

On the contrary, all through the period of his
active ministry he was a favorite, not less with the
ruder population of the Rome district than with
the more cultured congregations to whom he minis-
tered at Macon, Savannah and Augusta.

For a few years he was put in charge of the
leading church at Memphis and won fresh laurels
amongst the denizens of the Bluff City.

Returning to Georgia somewhat broken in health
and enfeebled by increasing years, he contented
himself with less responsible positions.

I had him but once as a presiding elder, and
found him dignified and discreet in his administra-
tion, and both in and out of the pulpit an ecclesi-
astical functionary of rare ability and strict per-
sonal integrity. He survived to a green old age
and at last, "leaving no blot on his name," joined
the great majority on the other shore.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 31

EDWARD H. MYERS.

Edward H. Myers was a contemporary and
bosom friend of Dr. Mann. If I mistake not they
were fellow collegians at Randolph-Macon College
in the old days of President Garland. At any
rate, they were not unlike in their personal tastes,
nor in their mental make-up.

Dr. Myers was most widely known by his six-
teen years editorship of the Southern Christian
Advocate, and his subsequent presidency of the
Wesley an Female College. He filled both these
responsible positions with credit to himself and
with great profit to the church.

As an editorial writer he compared favorably
with his distinguished predecessors, Bishop W7ight-
man and Dr. T. 0. Summers. Whilst he was
neither so learned as Summers, nor so brilliant as
Wightman, he was quite the equal of either or
both of them in real journalistic ability.

As an educator, Brother Myers was deserving
of high praise. Indeed, no president of the Wes-
ley an, from Bishop Pierce downward, did more for
the discipline of that institution and to improve
its standard of scholarship.

As already intimated, his labors in these two
great departments of church work brought him
fame, and what is better still, secured him the

32 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

sincere respect and cordial admiration of his
brethren throughout the boundaries of connec-
tional Methodism. As respects his pulpit work,
it was of such merit as to place him in the front
rank of the Georgia ministry. This, not so much
because of his oratory, as on account of his clear
cut conception of Gospel truth, which he was care-
ful to apply and enforce with great fidelity. This
holds good especiallv of the later years of his
ministry, when, disconnected with the worry of
the editorial sanctum and the wearisome hum-
drum of the recitation room, he seemed to acquire
fresh inspiration for his ministerial work. Thence-
forth his preaching was emphatic and pro-
foundly impressive. Sinners were often cut to
the heart and believers seemed to get more than
a taste of the grapes of Eshcol.

The crowning success of his life was his Savan-
nah pastorate, where he was in great favor with
the Mclntyres, the Heidts, the Walkers, the Mil-
lers, and others who had long been leaders in the
Methodist circles of the Forest city.

In 1876, being infirm in health, he went North
for a month's recreation.. Hearing, however,
that the yellow fever had become epidemic, and
some of his own parishioners were amongst the
sufferers, he abandoned his summer vacation and
returned to the city against the protest of his
official members. He entered at once on the work
of visitation amongst the sick and dying, and

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 88

contracting the disease, became a victim of that
terrible epidemic. Such heroism well deserves to
to be perpetuated in church history.

It would be inexcusable to omit all reference to
the services of Dr. Myers in connection with the
General Conference and the Cape May commis-
sion. In both positions he won no little distinc-
tion as a judicious and safe counsellor and legis-
lator.

W. H. POTTER— THE PRINCELY MIS-
SIONARY.

The life of Dr. Weyman H. Potter was compar-
atively quiet and unobtrusive, but it has left a
broad and strange influence that will abide and
work its results in the history of the world. He
was a master in manv circles, and in them all his
presence was felt by a sense of sauetification and
safety, and his words were ever honored as the
words of wisdom.

As we usually estimate the powers of thinking,
Dr. Potter was often considered a slow thinker;
but when we understand how he thought the
marvel is that he thought so. rapidly. His mind
was a comprehensive one in the true sense ; grasp-

34 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

ing all, or more nearly all than is usual, that per-
tained directly or indirectly to the question at
issue. Many times I have looked into his face as
he was revolving a question, and noted the signs
of intense mental action in the effort to reach the
truth in its fullness. To many of his hearers, too,
the first parts of his discourses were often heavy
and tedious. But to those who followed him
from the beginning there was always a rich re-
ward not to be had from the more brilliant but
surface discourses of the day. He had a clear
appreciation of the range of questions and the
many elements that entered into the truth in
regard to them. Because of this, time was neces-
sary to bring these elements into their proper
relation and to consider their bearing on each
other and on the point before him.

Hence while he may have appeared to be slow,
there was compensation in the end, in that his
opinions were generally correct, and his presenta-
tion of themes was rich in the material gathered
along the way and in the triumphant conclusions
to which he lead.

Something of the elements of the Iron Duke
comes to the mind of one who was wrell acquainted
with Dr. Potter as he contemplated the trend
of his character and life. He was by no means
perfect, but looking at his life as we mortals have
the right to look, the virtues of this man rise
hrough and above his imperfections like a splen-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 85

did temple amid the rubbish that was left from
its structure. His virtues were great in them-
selves but taken together, blended and fitted into
each other, they made for him a character of iron
integrity and a life of more than ordinal*}' sym-
metry and power.

But it was in the career of a missionary that the
life of Dr. Potter shone most conspicuously. He
realized more fully than most men that he and all
others had a divine commission to accomplish in
this world and in every department of duty that
commission seemed to be before him. The great
command — "Go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel" — seemed to have taken hold on him
and possessed him wholly, and to have given
shape and direction to all of his doings. He gave
intelligent and earnest consideration to the busi_
ness and incidental details of the church, because
he regarded them as a part of the subordinate
machinery that was to work out the divine com-
mission and carry the gospel to all men.

The great thought that seemed to consume his
whole being, as he grew older, was to present the
advantages that we had for spreading the king-
dom of God, and to arouse the church to an ap-
preciation of its high calling in the royal mission
of sending the gospel of salvation to all nations •
When the Master went away and said, " Occupy
till I come," he left to humanity an enterprise, the
highest that is known to man, and as royal in its

6 KIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

dignity as the eternal kingdom itself. It is the
enterprise to lift every head with hope and inspire
every heart with the desire for the true life. No
man can ever be himself or enter upon his high
estate until he hears that command and turns his
life, with some earnestness and energy, to its
elevating and royal ends. No church can ever
attain to the dignity and character of a true
church in any degree, unless there is in it some
lively appreciation of the scope of meaning in this
command as it reaches out after the fallen world
and impels the heart in that direction. Dr. Potter
manifested his princely nature by entering into
this great truth and trying to appropriate its
divine virtue to his own life and to get all others
to do the same.

For many years before his death, he saw the
magnitude of the gospel work ; he saw the royal
mission of the church and its human and divine
fitness for that mission ; he accepted the promise
of God for blessings on the cause, he realized the
beauty and glory of the final triumph; and he
made the great commission the theme, the sweet
and soul-inspiring song of his life. No one could
doubt that who heard the broad, comprehensive,
fervid discourses which he delivered during his
latter years, and the triumphant tone that ran
through them all. Those discourses were like
mighty torrents, sweeping toward the gates of
God's kingdom and carrying every hearer with

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 37

them, while music from the heavenly city was
falling on their ears all the time. They were the
soul-stirring shouts of a great general, with the
banner of victor}7 in his hand, trying to lead a
hesitating army to sure and complete triumph.

His life was one of continuous study and train-
ing for the royal ends before him ; but when he
entered upon the duties of missionarv secretary,
he seemed more than ever to be the prince in God's
kingdom to which his great soul had all along
been tending. It was then that he entered with
all of his accumulated energies into the spirit of
the mission of the Son of God, the Saviour of the
world. It was then that he grasped with con-
fidence the scepter and ascended the throne of the
kingdom to which he, with all of God's children,
was called in canning on the government of life
and salvation, while Christ, the great King, was
gone away. It was then that more fully than
ever he became a prince among men, a prince in
Israel, a princely missionary in the great Church
of God.

38 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

G. J. PEARCE.

G. J. Pearce was one of the notable men of the
Georgia Conference when I was received on trial
in the class of 1854. From our first acquaintance
we were friends, and oar friendship was never in-
terrupted for a single moment, hut deepened as the
years rolled by. I shall never forget his tender
sympathy when I lay a physical wreck at Trinity
parsonage nearly twenty years ago. His own
health, never vigorous, was at the time badly shat-
tered, but, from time to time, he visited my par-
sonage home and greatly refreshed me with the
sunlight of his presence and conversation. On
these occasions his godly counsel and his fervent
prayers were a benediction to my entire household.

In a former number of the series of biographic
etchings, we spoke of Jesse Boring as the Salva-
tor Rosa of the Georgia pulpit, because of his lurid
word painting of the judgment scene and of the
endless doom of the wicked. In some respects Jeff
Pearce might be likened to Sidney Smith of the
English pulpit. Without the scholarship of that
eminent divine he had, in no small degree, the caus-
tic wit and the metaph} sical brain which distin-
guished the gifted author of the Peter Plymley
Letters.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 39

We have heard him on more than one occasion
when he preached not with gush, but with a chas-
tened enthusiasm that touched every heart, and
yet, in a twinkling, there were flashes of wit that
well-nigh convulsed his audience.

Later on, his metaphysical gifts were brought
into exercise in the analysis of some grave prob-
lem of Christian philosophy, so as to command
the admiration of every thoughtful listener. Some
of the older preachers like Cotter, Rush, Adams,
Hinton and McGhee, well remember his spirited
controversy with McFerrin during the Atlanta ses-
sion of 1861. Brother Pearce resented in a very
emphatic way, the great Tennesseean's arraign-
ment of the Georgia Conference for its alleged dis-
loyalty to the Southern Publishing House. I have
seldom witnessed on the Conference floor such a
lively discussion as followed. The breach threat-
ened to be serious, but after mutual explanation,
was healed by a generous indorsement of the Nash-
ville House. Brother Pearce struggled for many
years of his adult life with a throat trouble wmich
unfitted him somewhat for the constant stress of the
pastorate. For this reason mainly he served for a
long term as agent of the American Bible Society.
In this capacity he won the cordial approbation
of the managers of that great charity, and was
retired from his position at his own urgent request.
Subsequently he was elected to the presidency of

40 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

the LaGrange Female College, and did much to
elevate its standard of scholarship.

While serving these two institutions he traveled
widely and preached with much success from Look-
out to Tybee.

These evangelistic labors were followed in some
communities by extensive revivals, which greatly
strengthened the church. Such arduous labors
were at times very exhaustive to a man who was
a sufferer from invalidism, nor is there room to
doubt that they contributed to the ultimate col-
lapse. But I must sa}rthat his ill-advised transfer
to the South Georgia Conference, with its disap-
pointments, had a most injurious effect on his ner-
vous system. I urged him not to make the change,
but other counsels prevailed . At any rate, it proved
a pivotal period in his life. From that time for-
ward his health steadily declined, and it was evi-
dent to his most intimate friends that there was
but slight hope of his recovery.

He still worked as best he could in the Master's
vinej^ard, now and then exhibiting the old-time
fervor, with an occasional glimpse of his former
intellectual JDOwer. In his last days he was sus-
tained by a steadfast taith, and soothed by the
sweet ministries of a dearly loved Christian home.

When at last the end came, his ransomed spirit
went sweeping through the gates amidst the harp-
ings and hallelujahs of the glorified.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 41

WILLIAM ARNOLD.

I am quite sure it was in the summer of 1839
that while a boy attending the popular Harris
county camp-meeting, I first heard "Uncle Billy
Arnold" of the old Georgia Conference. As I
recall him, he was of imposing presence, the im-
personation of neatness, and distinguished for a
suavity of manner that won the hearts of all who
came in contact with him. He seemed a born
versifier ; so much so indeed that if he had been
reared in Italy he would have been reckoned an
improvisator.

His sermons were interspersed with snatches of
Wesleyan hymns and with other verses which he
produced upon the spur of the moment, greatly to
the delight of his congregations. Some of these
verses of his own coinage would have pleased the
critical taste of Isaac Watts or Philip Doddridge.

Nor was he less skillful in the use of a rhetoric
that roused the religious sensibilities and made
him a favorite amongst all classes of hearers.

Added to this was a glow of deep personal piety
that constituted him one of the most effective
revivalists amongst his contemporaries. His son,
Rev. Miles W. Arnold, still in the flesh, and his
late grandson, Rev. Willie Arnold, both inherited
some of these special gifts of their illustrious an-
cestor. While stationed in Milledgeville in 1860,

42 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

I was hoping to have him with me every third
Sunday in the month, but he sickened and died
almost at the beginning of my pastorate, so that
I missed his valuable help. Father Arnold has
left few written memorials of his pulpit work, but
all through Middle Georgia there still linger tradi-
tions of his great moral worth, and of his minis-
terial usefulness.

His wide-spread popularity as a preacher of
funeral discourses was a striking feature of his
ministry. A few of the older citizens, who heard
him at sundry times on these sad occasions, tes-
tify that in this respect he was without a peer
in his generation.

After a life cf spotless integrity, he long ago
entered a world where "the inhabitants shall
never say, I am sick.'' Where "no mourners go
about the streets'' of that golden city, whose
walls are salvation and whose gates are praise.

REV. WM. J. PARKS.

My first glimpse of "Uncle Billy Parks" was in
1833, the year of the great meteoric shower, the
likeof which will not probably be seen for another
hundred years. He was, at the time, a resident
of Franklin county and came to Salem, Clark

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 43

county, to place his son, Harwell H., in the village
academy, of which my father was the widely-
known rector. Harwell was, as I remember him,
a quiet, studious boy, but tough of muscle, as
some of us learned by a practical test at boxing
and wrestling.

Brother Parks was then the oracle of the moun-
taineers of North-eastern Georgia, over whom he
wielded an influence unequaled by any of his early
contemporaries. He was, neither by taste nor
training, a society man — was ungainhT almost to
awkwardness in his manner ; and yet he had all
the instincts of a gentleman, and a politeness that
would have done no discredit to Chesterfield.

Like most of his ministerial contemporaries, he
entered the conference with little educational outfit
beyond a smattering of grammar, geography and
arithmetic. But he had in him a fixed purpose to
improve himself by study, as far as was compati-
ble with large circuits and hard horse-back travel.
He moreover resolved to make himself familiar
with the sacred Scriptures and with the Discipline
of the church. In these respe ts he was eminently
successful; indeed, far more so than many who
have been trained in our later theological semi-
naries. In a few years his profiting was apparent
to his brethren of the ministry and the laity, who
came to regard him as "mighty in the Scriptures,"
but without that other gift of Apollos— eloquence
of speech.

\A BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

If we were to attempt a strict analysis of his
mental make-up, we should sa}^ that his perceptive
faculties were largely in excess of his reflective
powers. All through his ministry, he was noted
for his intense practicalness. He loved truth in
the concrete better than in the abstract, and pur-
posely avoided that theological hair-splitting

"That could divide
A hair 'twixt North and Xorth-west side."

Brother Parks was, however, like most of the
great Methodist leaders in that controversial
period, a skillful disputant. In proof of this wre
have a small volume which he wrote on "Apos-
tas3r," which pla\7ed havoc wilh the Calvinistic
dogma of "Final Perseverance." It is now prob-
abhT out of print, but wre enjoyed and profited by
the reading of it in our youthful days. The Scrip-
tural argument, and the stj'le as well, ought to
have perpetuated it until the close of the century.*

His personal influence as before intimated in
these series, had great weight with the annual
conference.

He had, besides other qualifications for leader-
ship, a faculty of close observation wThich made
his estimate of men almost infallible. He was a
rough-hewn, stern-featured man,wTith a brow like
a craggy mountain cliff, which gave him at times
the appearance of an austere man. Never was there
a greater misapprehension, for back of this there

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 45

lay a kindly heart and a large generosity. Several
times, especially when he was representing Emory
College, 1 had him as a welcome guest at my own
fireside. Although my senior by many years, I
found him a most companionable spirit, and quite
a favorite with my wife and children. The last
time I saw this venerable servant of God, was at
his delightful home in Oxford. I was on that oc-
casion, a member of the board of visitors to that
excellent institution, and on Sabbath night took
tea with Brother Parks and his family. I saw at
a glance that his was a well-ordered household,
and that he had, in a good degree, the Christian
virtue of hospitality. Soon after the evening de-
votions, which were never omitted, I was com-
pelled to withdraw to meet a pulpit engagement
at the village church. He walked with me to the
door, and expressed his deep regret that because
of his feeble health he would be unable to hear the
sermon. If possible, I was more than ever
charmed by the gentleness of his spirit, and the
graciousness of his manner. He was evidently on
the verge of heaven, and I could almost seethe
aureole resting on his thin, white locks.

Only a little while and the veteran was "num-
bered with the saints in glory everlasting."

If I wanted to characterize the preaching of this
grand man, I would say in a few words, that
while in his pulpit ministrations there was the
absence of the "genius of gesture" and all the

46 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

rodomontade that phrase implies, there was a well-
defined individuality which made himamost strik-
ing figure in any religious assembly.

REV. JAMES B. JACKSON.

I must of necessity greatly condense what I shall
have to say of another dear friend and very able
minister. I refer to the Rev. James B. Jackson,
who may be fitly styled a diamond in the rough.

My acquaintance with him began and almost
ended with my two years pastorate in the thriv-
ing and delightful little city of Americus. Brother
Jackson was my presiding elder, and never was
there the slightest want of brotherly affection be-
tween us. He seemed devoted to me and lam quite
sure I loved him as though he had been my twin
brother. He was as shrinking as a country girl
and utterly void of self-assertion. He was fully
persuaded that a majority of his preachers were his
superiors in the pulpit, yet not one of them was
his equal as a theologian or logician. In the
graces of true oratory he did not excel, but in
solid sense and powertul reasoning I have rarely
in earlier or later times seen his peer.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 47

He frequently spoke to me of the disadvantages
under which he labored in the outset of his career.
He was full seventeen years of age when he en-
tered a log school-house, I believe in Jackson
county, armed with Webster's spelling book. But
from the start his progress was rapid and con-
tinuous. At his first circuit appointment he broke
down from sheer timidity, and would have retired
from the work if the older brethren had not urged
him forward. The scene as he described it to me
when he stood in the pulpit at this appointment,
and, with tears, entreated some brother to " take
the books" as he could not preach, was exceedingly
pathetic. But such was his rapid advancement
that before the close of the year the best and
wisest of his parishoners were clamorous for his
re-appointment .

Brother Jackson had no gift of exhortation,
and was consequently lacking greatly in evangel-
istic force. Very few apparently were brought
into the church by his personal ministry, and yet
I doubt not that he turned many to righteous-
ness in his quiet, unpretentious way. At Cuthbert
and Lumpkin, where he was stationed, he had a
host of admirers, and all through South-western
Georgia and Florida he was esteemed as one of the
ablest presiding elders even known in all that vast
stretch of territory.

In the Apostolic Church he would have ranked
high as a pulpit teacher, and with a better educa-

Is BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

tional equipment he would have graced the chair
ot' dogmatic theology at Princeton or Vanderbilt.
His death was sudden and in some of its aspects
unspeakably sad. It was caused by a railroad
accident as he was returning from a district ap-
pointment where he had preached with great
power. It is with me a pleasant anticipation,
that I shall one day meet this dear friend and
honored brother in some quiet nook or on some
sunny slope of the heavenly Canaan. Long ago
he has greeted Sam Anthony and Lovick Pierce,
two of his most cherished friends, amidst the fel-
low-ship of the glorified.

REV. JOHN P. DUNCAN.

My impression is that John P. Duncan was a
native of Pennsylvania and that hecame South to
engage in teaching. He was fairly educated,
and throughout his life was a reader of the lighter
English and American literature.

He had great fondness for poetry, Robert
Burns being his favorite and then John Milton,
Edward Young, Alexander Pope and others, very
much in the order named. He was not less wed-
ded to vocal music, and some of his renditions of

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 49

the hymns of Burns and Tom Moore would have
done honor to a professional. His knowledge of
the Wesleyan hymns was thorough, nor less so
his acquaintance with camp-meeting melodies
and revival songs. He had a sweetness of voice
whether in song or sermon which I have seldom
known equalled. He entered the conference when
Bishop Pierce was still an under-graduate, and
for long 3'ears they loved each other as did David
and Jonathan. In his earlier ministry Brother
Duncan was a revivalist of great distinction. His
converts on a circuit or station were numbered not
by scores but by hundreds. His gifts of song, ex-
hortation and prayer were inimitable. As a ser-
monizer he was as little successful as he was when
in the presiding eldership, and yet I have met men
of average intelligence w^ho regarded him as the
equal if not the superior of the best preachers
amongst his contemporaries. When in the
vigor of middle age he was immensely popular as
a pastor. Like Barnabas he was a son of consola-
tion. In the sick room, on a funeral occasion,
and wherever aching hearts were to be soothed
and strengthened he was in his right element.

This facultv mav have been a source of weak-
ness to him as an expositor of the Hohr Scriptures.
And yet he knew the Bible, at least its verbiage,
from lid to lid and quoted it with marvelous facil-
ity and accuracy. He only lacked greater power
for consecutive thinking and argumentative skill

50 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

to have attained for himself a foremost place in
the Methodist ministry. During my pastorate at
Americus, his wife and children were in my charge
and I occasionally sat at his fireside and some-
times shared his bountiful hospitality.

In his later years he was the subject of sore
affliction, his family dead or scattered, his
property consumed, his eye-sight well-nigh de-
stroyed, and he an itinerant lecturer, greatly ad-
mired, but poorly paid.

These mutations of worldly fortune did not,
however, sour his disposition ur shake his stead-
fast trust in God. Somewhere in Alabama he sud-
denly passed away and joined the vast multitude
of whom it is so touchingly said, "These are they
that have come out of great tribulation."

Thousands still live who were brought to Christ
through his exceptionally effective ministry.

As for myself, in looking back upon our two-
score years of delightful intimacy, lam inclined to
inscribe on his grave stone this pious wish, which
other thousands would gladly echo :

'•Green be the turf above thee,
Friend of my better days."

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 51

JOHN W. YARBROUGH.

When a boy I sojourned for a time with an uncle
in McDonough, Georgia. This uncle was a staunch
Methodist with a warm side for the Presby-
terians because his excellent wife was a member of
that communion. At the time of my stay in his
household, John W. Yarbrough was in charge of
the McDonough circuit, and he had no firmer
friend than "Uncle Billy White." Brother
Yarbrough was then, as ever afterwards, an ag-
gressive preacher, not afraid to denounce in fitting
terms the drink habit, the dance room, the horse
races and other evil practices condemned by the
General Rules of the church. In so doing he
provoked no little opposition from the rude boys of
the community. For a season he had rough sail-
ing, but m}7 remembrance is that his plain preach-
ing, as often happens, was followed by a gra-
cious revival, the results of which are still felt and
seen in that Middle Georgia circuit.

It was quite a number of years before I again
met him as my presiding elder on the Atlanta dis-
trict in 1861. In the meantime he had grown gray
in the Master's service, and had become a preacher
of very considerable prominence in the conference.
He was then at his best in the pulpit, and was a
favorite with all classes, in town and country.

52 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Brother Yarbrough had enough Irish blood in
his veins to make him a commanding orator in
an j presence.

I recall an illustration of this fact in connection
with a visit of William L. Yancey to Atlanta during
this eventful war period. Col. Ben C. Yancey and
his wife had been received into the membership of
Wesley Chapel during the summer of 1861, and
were regular attendants on its ministr}'. Quite
naturally the distinguished Alabamian accompa-
nied them to church. On one of these occasions
the services were conducted by the presiding elder.
Bro. Yarbrough remarked afterwards that he was
not aware of Mr. Yancey's presence, otherwise he
would have been greatly embarassed. He preached,
however, one of his ablest sermons, based on
Abraham's intercession for Sodom. The whole
congregation was greatly delighted, and after the
benediction Mr. Yancey came forward seeking to
be made acquainted with the preacher, and
thanked him most heartily for his very able
discourse. This was no small compliment, coming
from one of the most gifted orators of the
South.

Brother Yarbrough was not a scholar in the
technical sense of that term, but his reading had
been wide in its range, and this was especially
true of the standard theological writers of
Methodism.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 53

There was, in most of his preaching, a blend-
ing of humor and pathos that rarely failed
to please his rustic audiences and those he was
most frequently brought in contact with, as his
conference appointments were exclusively on
circuits and districts.

The last months of his life were spent in suffer-
ing from a malignant cancer. But he bore his
afflictions with true Christian fortitude and died
in peace in the presence of his devoted family.

WM. M. CRUMLEY.

William M. Crumley, from want of early educa-
tional training, started at the bottom round of
the ministerial ladder. And yet, by patient study,
he became one of the ablest preachers of the Old
Georgia Conference.

When I was associated with Dr. Eustace W.
Speer as junior preacher at Columbus in 1835,
Brother C. came on a visit to his former parish-
oners of that Methodist strong-hold. On the fol-
lowing Sabbath he occupied the pulpit of the
present St. Luke's church, to the delight of
a vast congregation. He was slowly rallying
from an attack of yellow fever, from which he

54 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

suffered during the previous autumn while pastor
of Trinity church, Savannah.

His sermon very properly related to his pastoral
experiences in the sick room during the preva-
lence of that terrible pestilence. Not the least of
Brother Crumley's pulpit gifts was a faculty of
delineation that was strikingly graphic in its
style.

His description of the death scene of his colleague,
Rev. Joshua Payne, a promising and consecrated
young minister, melted the audience to tears.

His own experience when he seemed nearing the
spirit world, followed as it was by a tranced con-
dition, during which the watchers by his bedside
believed him dead, was thrillingly eloquent.

Indeed, his experience was almost identical with
that of Mr. Tennanl , of New Jersey, a Presby-
terian divine of the last century, except that it was
of much shorter duration.

Brother Crumley, on two or more occasions?
described to me the ebb of the life-current until he
was hovering on the very border of the better
land. Meanwhile, his sensations were delightful
beyond expression. He was conscious when the
crisis was past and he began to return to life.

At no period of his eminently useful life did
Brother Crumley do better ministerial w-ork than
while he was on duty as chaplain of the Georgia
Hospital at Richmond, Virginia, during the late
war. His sympathetic nature, his ripe, religious

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 55

experience, his gentleness of manner, bis per-
suasive style of preaching, and his power in prayer
all contributed to fit him for the arduous work
to which he was assigned. Probably hundreds of
the bo\rs in gray were brought to Christ through
his ministry in the wards of the hospital. He ac-
complished a vast amount of good likewise by
visiting the battlefields and in preaching, as he
had opportunity, to the soldiers in camp. These
rough experiences in Virginia may have helped
greatly to shorten the term of his effective minis-
try. It was obvious to his friends that after the
war his old-time vigor had somewhat abated.
A few years later he began to meditate on the
propriety of retiring from conference work be
cause of his physical disability. He shared in a
measure the life-long disinclination of Dr. Pierce
to go upon the superannuated list. Both of these
venerable men preferred location to superannua-
tion. Dr. Pierce, althoxigh for many years virtu-
ally superannuated, was, at his own urgent re-
quest, kept on the effective list. Brother Crum-
ley, however, yielded gracefully to the inevitable,
and for a number of years was a superannuate;
but, according to his own desire, never received an
allowance, as he had an ample estate for his own
support. These amiable idiosyncracies were
creditable to both, and are mentioned simply as
matters of historj'.

56 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

For some years before his ascension he was a
complete wreck, resulting from parah^sis. All
through this sad period of suffering he bore him-
self with great humility, much beloved by thou-
sands of his friends and warmly cherished by his
devoted wife and children.

One of the most touching scenes I ever witnessed
was a visit he made to the First Baptist Church in
Atlanta that he might see and hear Mr. Moody,
the great evangelist. He was carried into the
church by the assistance of his friends, and was
held up in their arms that he might see the dis.
tinguished speaker. It was possibly his last appear-
ance in the sanctuary', where in the days of his
strength, he had so often preached with over-
whelming power. It struck me as a fitting close to
a life of spotless purity and remarkable useful-
ness.

JOSIAH LEWIS, JR.

Josiah Lewis, Jr., was a youth of mark and like-
lihood from the day of his graduation.

Not a few of his wisest friends predicted for
him a brilliant career, which unhappily was cut
short by a premature death. Whether occupying

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 57

the professor's chair or the pulpit he was evidently
a man of superior gifts and of large resources.
As chancellor of the Southern University he proved
himself a man of excellent administrative ability,
enjoying the esteem and confidence of the faculty,
and of the board of trustees. Circumstances
which he could not control led to his resignation,
and to his entrance on the pastoral work. For
three years he had charge of the church and con-
gregation of LaGrange, where he won golden
opinions from all the Christian denominations.
His health, which had been declining for several
years, retired him from the active ministry to his
own discomfort, and to the regret of the whole
conference.

I heard him preach but two sermons, both of
which were of a high order indicative of scholar-
ship and of thorough consecration to the service of
the gospel.

He had both intellectual and moral integrity.
In some instances these qualities are disjoined,
and in all such cases there is the lack of a well
rounded character. Like his venerable father,
Josiah Lewis, Sr., he had a moral courage that
never cowered in the face of criticism or opposition.

A few weeks before his death I spent an hour in
conversation with him at the old homestead in the
vicinity of Sparta. He had but little expectation
of recovery from the sickness that was slowlv

58 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

but steadily sapping the foundations of his life,
but his resignation to the divine will was perfect.

Before separating we joined in prayer at the
home altar, and at the close of our interview he
spoke of the heavenly rest which awaited him,
while tears of gladness sparkled in his e3res.

It is no fulsome praise to say that, take him all
in all, the conference has seldom had his superior
on its roll of honored and illustrious men.

ROBERT WARREN DIXON.

Robert Warren Dixon was admitted into the
conference in December, 1856. His first appoint-
ment was the Hamilton circuit, and his last the
Thomasville district. During the intervening
years he served several of the best circuits and
stations, and was very highly esteemed, both in
the pulpit and pastorate.

While he was not eminent for intellectual gifts,
he was an all-round man whose usefulness exceeded
a large number who were more widely known
and more liberally applauded. He was studious in
his habits, and there is little doubt but that too
much reading by lamplight brought the eye trou-
ble that ended in his ministerial disqualification.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 59

My association with Bro. Dixon was limited, but
I saw and heard enough of him to admire his excel-
lent character.

Col. Herbert Felder, of Cuthbert, has made this
record of him which deserves to be perpetuated.
This distinguished jurist characterizes him in the
words following: "A man of study and research
in all that pertains to true, Christian philosophy,
of masterly intellect and commanding eloquence,
mature judgment and mild but unyielding de-
cision. His public and private life without re-
proach and in harmony with his sacred office."

W. D. MARTIN.

Rev. W. D. Martin was in charge of the Harris
circuit during the period of my adolescence. I was
frequently drawn to the church by his ministry,
and while 1 was not religiously impressed by his
preaching, I greatly enjoyed his original manner
of presenting and enforcing the doctrines of
Methodism.

My recollection is that he was associated in the
work of the circuit with Rev. Ben Clark, who was
possibly a reformed inebriate, certainly one of a
class whom Bunyan was wont to call a "Jerusalem

60 BIOGKAPHIC ETCHINGS

sinner." They were good yoke-fellows in the
ministry, but their pulpit methods were quite dis-
similar. Brother Martin was educated to an ex-
tent not usual with the Methodist clergy of fifty
years ago. Neither in garb nor manner was he a
typical preacher of the old school, but he was not
wanting in evangelistic fervor nor in genuine
humility.

On the other hand, "Uncle Ben," as he was affec-
tionately styled, was decidedly illiterate, but had
a boundless zeal, a volume of voice only equalled
by that most excellent man and useful preacher,
Wesley P. Arnold.

"Uncle Ben" had no conception of a syllogism,
but he had an experience that was worth more
than logic in moving the masses of a backwoods
congregation. This personal experience, which he
knew how to relate with telling effect, made his
congregations both laugh and cry, a result that I
could not then well understand. But, blessed be
God, this spiritual phenomenonis no longer a mys-
tery.

But I find mj'self drifting away from the matter
in hand. Coming back to Brother Martin, we re-
member to have met him and to have had much
pleasant intercourse with him when we were both
serving on the Board of Trustees of the LaGrange
Female College. He was a man of fine, practical
sense, and at one of the annual meetings of the
board, we co-operated in defeating an effort to

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 61

restrict the mathematical course of the college to
arithmetic, with a smattering of algebra and
geometry.

It may have been at this time that I took tea
with him at the hospitable home of Uncle George
Heard, the father of Rev. Peter Heard and of
Mrs.James M. Beall.

Brother Martin was, through much of his life, a
great sufferer from nervous debility. This afflic-
tion compelled his retirement from the itinerant
ministry. He died may years ago on his farm
near Greenville, Georgia. His widow still lingers,
waiting the call of the Master. Her son, who has
man}' of his father's traits and accomplishments,
is at the old homestead, and is the stay of his aged
mother.

JACKSON P. TURNER.

One of the most gifted and devotedly pious
ministers of his day was Jackson P. Turner. I
have no vivid recollection of his preaching, except
possibly, his second year in the ministry. He was
reared, like many of our best preachers, in North-
eastern Georgia, and despite his lack of early edu-
cational advantages, he became a man of reputa-

62 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

ble scholarship. I have been told that while he
was an industrious student, yet he learned seem-
ingly by intuition.

His speaking gifts were of a high order, but
more solid than showy. With these pulpit endow-
ments, he combined an administrative ability which
made him a most efficient and popular presiding
elder.

The late Rev. James B. Jackson, who was him-
self a capable and conscientious critic, regarded
him as one of the great lights of the conference.
He often spoke of him to me as next in rank to
Billy Parks and Walker Glenn as an ecclesiastical
jurist. He thought that but for his early death
he might have reached the highest position in the
church. I never heard him preach after his
second year in the conference, but even then he
gave promise of great excellence as a preacher.
I have understood that he exhibited a fondness
for controversy that discounted him in some de-
gree, but on what special lines I am not definitely
informed. It was nothing, however, which af-
fected his ministerial standing or general accepta-
bilitv.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 63

W. H. EVANS.

W. H. Evans belonged to a somewhat later
period in the conference. He was less widely
known than his more distinguished brother,
James E. Evans, but was himself a man of excel-
lent gifts. I came but little in contact with him
in my early ministry, but was well acquainted
with his reputation as an indefatigable worker in
planting and building churches. Many years ago
Atlanta was, for a time, the field of his ministry,
where he won all hearts by his gentleness and good-
ness. Evans1 Chapel, since called Walker Street
church, was named for him. While engaged in
founding that church, he was greatly assisted bv
Rev. Lewis Lawshe, one of the most enterprising
and esteemed local preachers known in the history
of Atlanta Methodism.

My most intimate acquaintance with Brother
Evans was when he was presiding elder of the La-
Grange district. While he was serving on that
district, I was called to preach the commence-
ment sermon at the LaGrange Female College.
Brother Evans held the reins, and against my
vigorous protest, he required me to conduct both
preaching services and to fill an afternoon appoint-
ment at which that grand man, Bishop Andrew,
was to have officiated. I was struck with his

64 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

good-humored persistence, and had finally to suc-
cumb. I said to him that he was a born ruler,
with a bit of Napoleonism in his make-up.

During the next two or three da37s of the com-
mencement exercises I ver\r much enjoyed his
genial fellowship. Strangely enough, I never
heard one of his sermons which, I was informed,
were uniformly edifying and enjo3rable.

From that time onward our paths seldom
crossed, and I only met him at the sessions of the
Annual Conference. He was then in vigorous
health and bade fair to attain a serene old age. I
am informed, however, that not many years there-
after his physical strength commenced to wane,
and that, in Oxford, he died suddenly, but of a lin-
gering disease, and was buried at Oxford, Georgia.

He was a lovable man in all the relations of life,
and his death was much regretted by thousands
of our best people of all denominations.

W. A. FLORENCE.

When I first knew William A. Florence he was
the Principal of a flourishing acadetm7 at Mc_
Donough, Georgia. He was then in the local
ranks and a preacher of considerable popularity in
the village. Some years afterwards, perhaps in
1844, he entered the conference and for along term
of years was quite effective as an itinerant.

OF MINISTERS AM LAYMEN. 65

Few men in the conference were his superiors in
Biblical knowledge or general information. A
smaller number still were better qualified to dis-
cuss the distinctive tenets and usages of Method-
ism or, when occasion demanded, to deal sledge
hammer blowsat the dogmas of Calvinism.
This was all done, however, in good temper and
rarely offended those who differed with him. In-
deed, he possessed beyond most men the ''orna-
ment of a meek and quiet spirit," and if he had
enemies the}- w^ere ashamed to avow it. No mem-
ber of the conference kept a closer watch on the
proceedings of the annual session, and yet strange-
ly enough he never seemed to understand the drift
of the discussion or the precise status of the busi-
ness in hand. His mistakes were sometimes ludi-
crous. He was clearly not fitted for the wrork of a
parliamentary leader, and yet, like some others we
have known, he wTas frequentl\r on the floor. But
he had the grace and good sense to yield when some
shrewder parliamentarian knocked him out of the
arena b\T a good-natured witticism.

In the pulpit, where no reply was allowed, he
spoke consecutively, compactly, and, as we have
already intimated, with pith and power.

Brother Florence, in the closing years of his
pilgrimage, became more and more Christlike in
his personal bearing in the church and in the com-
munity. In 1876, at the ripe age of seventy-two,
he died in great peace at Social Circle.

66 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

MILLER H. WHITE.

Miller H. White was a member of the conference
for more than a full half century. From the be-
ginning of his ministry he exhibited a preaching
gift that was unusual and that gave promise of no
little distinction. During this time he occupied
several prominent positions. But disease of a
bronchial sort arrested him almost at the thresh-
old of his maturer life, and he ceased to be effect-
ive for quite a number of years. During this inter-
val he became highly useful and even successful as
a medical practitioner, at the same time serving,
as he had strength enough, the churches where he
resided. Several years, howrever, before his death,
he so far recovered his health that he was made
effective.

It was in this last period that I became best
acquainted with him, and on two occasions
traveled with him around his circuit, alternating
with him in the work. I learned to love him
much because of his brotherly kindness. I saw in
these 3rears the proofs ot his ministerial ability.
There was no little in his style to remind one of
Bishop Pierce in his latter days. Indeed, in tone
and gesture, and even facial expression, Dr. White
might have almost passed for a twin brother of
the great bishop. I have sometimes thought that

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 67

his intense admiration for the bishop, and his life-
long intimacy with him, may have influenced him
to imbibe, unconsciously to himself, somewhat of
the bishop's mannerism.

Dr. White, when I last saw him, began to show
signs of failing health, and yet he lingered for
awhile in the borderland, having reached the ad-
vanced age of nearly fourscore years at his death
in 1891, in Grantville, Ga.

JOHN COLLINSWORTH AND LEWIS H.

MYERS.

John Collinsworth and Lewis H. Myers were
recognized leaders in the old South Carolina Con-
ference, but their ministry was almost exclusive!}'
in Georgia. Both of them were sticklers for the
old time usages of Methodism, and they stood
squarely and unflinchingly for the enforcement of
its discipline. Myers was the abler man of the
two, and for many years was a delegate to the
General Conference, holding a conspicuous rank in
the committee on Episcopacy. As Collinsworth
opposed the brass buttons of George Pierce, so
did Father Myers protest against the premature
marriage of James 0. Andrew.

(38 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

The tribe of these veterans is now extinct.
Allen Turner was the last representative of this
class, and made his last conference fight on Alfred
T. Mann for shaving on Sunday— at the confer-
ence of 1854.

Uncle Allen was nonplussed when Capers, the
presiding bishop, stated that the English Wesley-
ans were nearly all in the same condemnation.
Thereupon Uncle Allen groaned audibly, which
performance brought a smile to the face of Sara
Anthony, and even Uncle Billy Parks relaxed the
muscles of his usually stern visage.

Let us not cease to revere the memories of these
fathers in Israel, who, after all, were giants in the
earlier years of the present century.

A little more of their conservatism in this pro-
gressive age might save the Church from evils that
disturb its peace and menace its stability.

JOHN M. BONNELL.

JohnM. Bonnell was a handsome and a scholarly
young Pennsylvanian, who joined the conference
in 1846.

He speedily became quite a favorite with the
brethren of the ministry and laity.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 69

While his pulpit gifts were much above the
average, he soon developed an educational capac-
ity that made it desirable that the Church should
have his service in that direction.

No man, indeed, of that period, contributed
more to organize public sentiment in favor of the
higher education throughout the state.

He had thoroughly mastered the theory of peda-
gogies before the word itself had come into popu-
lar use, and when as yet its signification, and
still less its full import, was comprehended by
professional teachers. He contributed a paper of
great merit to Scott's Monthly Magazine on the
study of English Grammar, which attracted much
attention.

He had, in a striking degree, an analytical mind,
as shown in all his published discussions of the
methods of teaching.

His best work as a teacher was done in the pres-
idency of the Wesley an Female College, and he
has left his impress on thatnobleinstitution, whose
work for a half century has been a benefaction to
Southern Methodism.

Dr. Bonnell, never in vigorous health, died in
1873, being literally exhausted by his abundant
labors in behalf of education.

He was a high-toned and sweet-spirited Chris-
tian gentleman, whose great worth will be better
appreciated as the \rears go by.

'0 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

WESLEY P. PLEDGER.

Wesley P. Pledger was my conference classmate,
and for that reason, in part, I watched his minis-
terial career with deep interest, and toward its close
with painful solicit tide. Hehad the "genius of ges-
ture" and no mean gift of oratory. If in early
life he had enjoyed the advantage of thorough
mental training, he would have impressed his
generation hardly less than some of the most
distinguished men of the conference. Like other
gifted men, Brother Pledger inherited a perilous,
nervous temperament which embittered and final-
ly wrecked his useful life. His occasional rest-
lessness of disposition, which was at times the
subject matter of ungracious comment, was the
outcome of disease. For two or three years be-
fore his sad death he needed the rest and regimen
of a first-class sanitarium. I urged him when on
the Rome district, where he was greatly beloved
and admired, to desist for at least a twelve
month from pulnit work.

Others of his closest friends approved the sugges-
tion, but he failed to realize the imminency of his
peril.

Brother P. was in the main a charming preacher,
and there were occasions when his declamation
had some of the ring and range of Bishop Pierce.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 71

He struggled heroically against what appeared to
be manifest destiny, but "Stern melancholy had
marked him for her own," and he went forward
slowly and }Tet steadily to the final scene.

Let it not be supposed, however, that his was
altogether a blighted life. In the spirit world he
met hundreds who were brought to Christ by his
ministry'. Long since has he forgotten the trials
of the way in the raptures of his glorified estate.

GEO. H. PATTILLO.

Geo.H. Pattillo belonged to the fourth generation
of Georgia preachers. In 1860 he rendered me
valuable service in a gracious meeting atMilledge-
ville, the memory of which is still fresh and fra-
grant to many of the citizens of the "old capital."

He was from that time my fast, personal friend,
and, although he was quite young, I recognized in
his preaching the promise and potency of great
pulpit usefulness.

Brother Patillo was an Emory student, and the
effects of his collegiate training were visible in his
ministry. He indulged in few oratorical flights,
but was practical in a remarkable degree in the
trend of his thought and the manner of its pres-

72 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

entation. His vSermons were edifying, which is
but another word for uplifting, or, better still,
upbuilding. He was careful, however, to lay the
right foundation, and, as a consequence, the
structure he reared was neither rocked nor racked
by the fury of the winds or the turbulence of the
waves. Religious character, as he shaped it, was
neither the card house of the nursery nor the air-
castle of the visionary.

Unfortunately he embarked at one period of his
life in secular enterprises of a reputable sort, but
we doubt if they contributed anything either to
his fame or fortune.

This, however, was but a brief divergence. He
returned to his loved employ with a larger equip-
ment and a fuller consecration. It is probable
that the latter years of his laborious life, especially
when serving on districts, were the most fruitful
of his ministry.

Meanwhile, his hard work had made its impress
on a constitution not originally robust, and he
began to totter down the hill of life to an early
grave. As he neared the end his personal piety
shone with increasing lustre, when, after a rather
protracted illness, the silver cord was loosed and
he passed away with a lively hope of the heavenly
rest.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 73

GEORGE E. GARDINER.

George E. Gardiner was another minister who
died early, of whom it might be soberly said that
he was "a gentleman and a scholar." Well edu-
cated at the outset, he was quite studious in his
habits, and while yet young he had mastered a
great deal of the best literature native and
foreign.

He was elaborate in pulpit preparation, and his
sermons, while lacking somewhat in brilliancy
were noted for accuracy.

He was not wanting in the social instinct, and
was everywhere popular as a pastor. To these
excellent qualifications for ministerial usefulness
he added a personal piety that secured the cordial
esteem of all classes and denominations.

His death, long before he had reached the ma-
turity of his intellectual powers, seemed a calamity
to the church, and was indeed a crushing blow
to a devoted and most interesting household. His
wife, the daughter of my old and honored friend,
Hon. H. P. Bell, was helpful to him by her sjjiritual
graces and mental accomplishents. Brother G.,
when looked at from a human standpoint, had a
most inviting prospect before him ; but the Mas-
ter called, and he was ready for the summons.

BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

JAMES H. BAXTER.

Jaines H. Baxter, whose recent death was so
widely and deeply regretted, was a preacher much
above the general average of the conference, both
as to gifts and graces. He was a growing man
to the last hour of his existence.

Some year ago, I was lying in the peachers'
tent during the Dal ton camp-meeting, and Brother
Baxter came to me and said: "Bro. Scott, 3'ou
are a man of experience in the ministry; I
wish you would tell me what was wrong in the
matter and style of my sermon last night." I
replied: "My brother, I am loth to criticise
another minister's preaching, but as you have
asked me a direct question I shall make a cate-
gorical answer. The matter of your sermon was
better than I looked for from so young a man; in-
deed, I might say it would have been creditable to
a much older head. But I must say its effect
was marred by your carefulness to dot every land
cross every T. Give yourself more latitude in re-
gard to comparative trifles. In public speaking,
think more of what you say and less of how you
say it and you will realize better results." He re-
ceived the criticism very kindty and assured me he
would endeavor to profit by it. He told me, some

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 75

years afterwards, that it had been of great ser-
vice to him.

Brother Baxter was rarely at his best as a sta-
tioned preacher. His proper place was the presid-
ing eldership, in which responsible office he was
painstaking and progressive beyond most of his
contemporaries.

At the time of his last sickness he had reached a
deservedly prominent position in this office. If he
had been spared through another decade he
would probably have ranked with theforemost of
his class. The last time I met him was on Peach-
tree street, and I was for an instant startled by
his ghastly appearance. He, however, seemed
hopeful. It was during that visit to Atlanta that
he requested Rev. Dr. Anderson to officiate at his
funeral, wherever it should occur. The time was
indeed close at hand when the solemn burial
service should be read over his lifeless and ema-
ciated bodv.

RUSSELL RENEAU.

Rev. Russell Reneau. was, by birth and breed-
ing, an East Tennesseean. Like very many of his
fellow countrymen of that Switzerland of America ,
he was of stalwart build both physically and

76 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

intellectually. His early school advantages were
fair, and these were made the basis of much read-
ing and reflection in after years. He was in mid-
dle life when he was transferred from the Holston
to the Georgia conference, and entered at once on
district work in the mountainous section of the
State. While he was but little known at his com-
ing, it was not long until he secured recognition
as a vigorous thinker, especially on the line of a
doctrinal preacher.

Forty years ago East Tennessee was an excellent
training school for polemical theology. The Bap-
tists and Presbyterians were both eager disputants,
and the Methodist itinerants were not reluctant to
accept the gage of battle. Rusell Reneau exhib-
ited special gifts for disputation, and was fre-
quently brought forward as a defender of the
faith. Almost invariably he routed his adversary.

Soon after his arrival in Georgia he was engaged
in a public discussion with C. F. Shehane, a Uni-
versalis t preacher of considerable celebrity. Not a
great while before the controversy, I dined with
Bro. Reneau in Atlanta. I remarked to him that
Shehane — whom I had personally and intimately
known when he figured as a Bible Christian — was
an adroit debater, and he would seek to draw him
into a criticism of Greek terms and Hebrew roots.
I shall never forget his broad smile, as he replied :
1 'Never be uneasy, Brother Scott. I promise you to

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 77

make him thoroughly sick of his Greek and Hebrew
before I am through with him."

Reneau's friends claimed that in the debate which
followed, Shehanee, to borrow a slang phrase
of the prize ring, was "severely punished." Whether
any real good came of the contest is exceedingly
questionable, but it produced almost as big a sen-
sation as the "Great Iron Wheel" controversy be-
tween Graves and Brownlow.

Let it not be inferred that this controversial
trend of Bro. Reneau's mind unfitted him for
general pulpit usefulness. As a preacher on the
evidences and cardinal doctrines of Christianity,
he was surpassed by few of his day.

Unluckily for himself, however, and for the
church, he drifted into journalism, and at a later
period, into curious speculations about Second Ad-
ventism. Shortly after this new departure he
took Greely's advice and went West, where he
died, I believe in the presiding eldership.

Under a rough exterior he carried a heart as
generous as ever throbbed in a human breast. His
charity was as broad as humanity, but never, at
any time or anywhere, was he willing to compro-
mise with religious or political error.

One of his strangest fancies was the writing and
publication of a volume which he named "The
Reign of Satan." It was certainly a dolorous
picture of the times, and would have satisfied the
inmost soul of Schopenhaur, the high-priest of

78 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

pessimism. It is long since out of print, nor is its
ghost ever likely "to revisit the pale glimpses of the
moon."

This much deserves, in conclusion, to be said of
him, that all through his arduous wayfaring of
sixty odd years, he never shrunk from any peril
or hardship that confronted him in the path of
duty. He died as he had lived, a staunch Method-
ist in his religion and a typical Whig in his poli-
tics.

GEORGE BRIGHT.

George Bright was a preacher of like gifts with
Russell Reneau. They were both men of rather
coarse intellectual fibre, and were both admirably
fitted for the rough-and-tumble fight of the old
time itineracy. Such men are not yet antiquated
but the demand for them is less urgent than in the
Arcadian days when there was less of what is now
called culture. It would be a fool's bargain,
however, to exchange that heroic virtue for what
the sage of Chelsea was wont to style dilletanteism,
limp alike in brain and muscle. Brother Bright
spent the greater portion of his life on big circuits,
and mountain districts. In these localities he was

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 79

greatly admired for his abilit}r, nor less so for his
aggressiveness, which has left an abiding impress
on that whole section of the State. Out of his
labors, and those of his contemporaries has come,
in part at least, the great educational movement
which has developed into the Young Harris Insti-
tute, and the Reinhardt Normal School.

Our personal association with him was confined
to the Annual Conference session, and we are
poorly qualified to speak of him from personal
observation. The statements, however, of others
who had better opportunities of knowing him, are
of a flattering sort.

His preaching was logical, and yet there was no
lack of a native eloquence that sometimes stirred
the multitude like a "war-denouncing trumpet."
Toward the close of his life I was brought in
closer contact with him and learned to love him,
not only for his sturdy manliness, but for his gen-
tler traits. As often happens, increase of years
had mellowed his spirit, and I could hardly realize
that he was altogether made of the "sterner
stuff" of which I had heard no little in the earlier
days of my own ministry.

On one or more occasions afterward I heard
him preach with great earnestness and power.
But while he was virile he was not virulent in
speech or manner.

Brother George Bright was an elder brother of
John M. Bright, who, in the days of his strength,

BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

was also an able minister. Barring some eccentric-
ities that marred his usefulness, his conference
record was without blemish.

I wish I had more data in regard to these two
brothers, but I have not. Nor, do I know at this
present writing where or how I conld procure the
needful information.

J. B. C. QUILLIAN.

J. B. C. Ouillian was quite a favorite with all
classes oi North Georgia people, whether in the
pulpit or at the fireside. Meek in spirit, he disarmed
all opposition, and old and young had always a
pleasant word to say about "Uncle Chap."

At times, brother 0. was a preacher of rare ex-
cellence. His style was. it may be, a trine too or-
nate, having a kind of family likeness to Dr. Lat-
ta's "Sacred Wonder^." When fully aroused, he
had a sing-song delivery, deeply pathetic we might
say, weird as autumn winds as they wail through
a forest at midnight.

These seemed to be his moments of inspiration ;
and on these occasions he stirred deeply the relig-
ious sensibilities of his hearers.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 81

Brother Q. dearly loved a camp-meeting, and
several times in the years gone have we had
pleasant talks at the door of the preachers' tent,
long after the entire encampment was wrapped in
silence and sleep.

He had read quite extensively in early English
literature, and his writings and sermons were in-
terspersed with choice quotations from some of
the best of these old masters. He was the
author of several small volumes that were read
with much interest both in town and country.

With better health, he might have been immensely
useful; but even as it was, he was a blessing to
thousands, having learned "in suffering, what he
taught in song and sermon."

ALEXANDER MEANS, D. D.,L.L.D.

Alexander Means held a deservedly high rank in
the Methodist ministry of forty years ago. He
was distinguished for scholarship, chiefly, however,
in the line of physical science. In chemistry he was
not less an expert than was the Elder Silliman, of
Yale — and in astronomy he might be fairly likened
to Dr. Dick, whose "sidereal heavens" has always
been the delight of the average star-gazer.

82 BIOGEAPHIC ETCHINGS

Dr. Means was at his best when discussing from
the platform some educational or moral question
which allowed him to utilize his vast scientific ac-
quirements. He was all his life, a zealous advo-
cate of popular education, and his contributions
to the press did much to help forward a move-
ment which, in these latter days, is crowned with
success.

He was moreover, one of the earliest and ablest
champions of the temperance reform, and stood
shoulder to shoulder with Chief Justice Lumpkin
and Dabney P. Jones when they were paving the
way to the local option triumphs of recent years,
which have well-nigh rid the State of the licensed
whiskey trafic.

Dr. Means was only in a nominal sense a mem-
ber of the annual conference, but he w^as abundant
in ministerial labors, and frequently occupied our
best pulpits. In this capacity he was immensely
popular, and by very many was regarded as one
of the great lights of Georgia Methodism.

He was, much of his life, connected with the
faculty of Emory College, of which institution
he was a devoted friend until his dying day.

During many years he was an honored member
of the faculty of the Georgia Medical College of
Augusta, and this writer has often heard the
alumni of that institution speak of his inimitable
lectures on chemistry, and his masterly manipula-
tion of the apparatus of the laboratory. Like

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 83

his old friend, Judge Longstreet, he was fond
of music, and was quite as gifted with his violin
as Longstreet was with his flute. Dr. Means was
an occasional writer of verses, which were not of
the highest order, but by no means lacking in liter-
ary merit. A few of his hymns are still found in
the old collections of sacred songs, and are still
sung with delight around the old camp-fires of
Methodism.

If he had been less exhuberant in metaphor, his
reputation in literature and oratory would have
been wider and more enduring.

Georgia Methodism will, at least for another
century, cherish the memory of his noble virtues
and splendid abilities.

ALLEN TURNER.

"Uncle Allen Turner" was one of the fathers of
the conference long before I was admitted on
trial. At our first interview7, he rallied me on my
whiskers, which he regarded as decidedly un-
Methodistic. This he did, however, in a half
humorous way, which robbed the criticism of its
sting. Dear old man, he was an "Israelite indeed ;"
and while there were peculiarities that bordered

84 MIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

on crankiness, he was treated by the older and
younger brethren with the utmost reverence. There
was a saintliness in the expression of his face
which I never saw in any other man. It was not
long-facedness, still less was it sour godliness, it
rather resembled the expression which is seen in
the pictures of Medieval saints. "Uncle Allen's"
earW ministry was prosecuted in the face of priva-
tions and hardships that would have staggered
the faith and shaken the constancy of many of us
that came after him. But neither the perils of the
wilderness, nor scant salaries, drove him from the
field. When at last physically disabled, he bowed
gracefully to the action of the conference, and re-
tired from the effective list. He lingered some
years, occasionally preaching and exhorting with
great power, and died at a ripe age without a
single blot on his name.

CHARLES R. JEWETT.

Charles R. Jewett had a pious and intelligent
ancestry — fair scholarship — a pleasing address
and no mean oratorical gifts.

There was, however, a declamatory drift in his
sermonizing which impaired his efficiency in the

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 85

pulpit. Quite a number of the educated young
men of his day affected — it may be unconsciously
— this style of preaching. Pierce and Milburn and
Maffit achieved distinction on this line and others
we must say copied a bad example.

Bishop Pierce, in speaking to ine on this subject,
stigmatized this sort of preaching as a species of
"hifalutinism" of which, in his maturer yearsr
he was heartily ashamed, and which he had de-
liberately and prayerfully abandoned, not with-
out some sacrifice of reputation with the masses.

But what he lost in one direction he had more
than gained in greater simplicity and increased
spiritual power.

I was pleased to note a like improvement in
Brother Jewett, as he attained a riper experience
and a fuller consecration.

The last sermon I heard him preach at Monte-
zuma, was a masterly argument on the "Tempta-
tion of Christ."

It exhibited close research and a breadth of
thought which I had seldom beard equaled by our
ablest conference preachers.

I met him no more, but Rev. T. T. Christian tells
me that his last preaching was the best. That as
he neared the crossing he seemed like Barnabas ,
full of faith and the Holy Ghost.

I am quite sure that I never knew a purer and
more unselfish spirit. Nor have I known but few
pastors who were more endeared to the congrega-
tions that they served.

86 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

JOHN W. TALLEY.

A somewhat notable man in his generation was
John W. Talley. Brother T. was not distinguished
for learning or brilliancy, but for working quali-
ties of a high order, and a piety that challenged
the confidence of both clergy and laity.

When I had not reached my legal majority, I
attended a temperance jubilee at LaGrange, where
Brother Talley wTas stationed, already well-ad-
vanced in years. He made the address of wel-
come in behalf of the community, and I was as-
signed to the duty of making one of the responses.
This was the beginning of our acquaintance and of
a life-long friendship.

Brother T. was a man of what was then con-
sidered a liberal education. His preaching was
such as to make him acceptable on our average
stations. This, combined with his affability and
otherwise pleasant address and his excellent pas-
toral qualifications, made him quite a favorite
with all denominations.

Many years ago, perhaps after his superan-
nuation, he removed to Texas to be with his oldest
daughter, an 1 there his faithful life was crowned
with a triumphant death. In his far-off Western
home he still cherished roseate memories of his

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 87

ministry in old Georgia. At intervals he sent love
messages to his brethren of the conference,
amongst whom he had served with signal fidelity.

JOHN W. KNIGHT.

Amongst the twelve apostles there was a strik-
ing diversity of character. How sharply con-
trasted were Matthew the staid, mater-of-f act tax-
gatherer and the impetuous Simon Peter, the
Galilean fisherman, who was ready by turns and in
quick succession too, to fight or flee.

Neither are all Methodist preachers fashioned
after any given pattern. Allen Turner and W. J.
Parks had few traits in common. John P. Dun-
can and Russell Reneau were thoroughly antipodal.
This brings us to remark that John W. Knight
had well marked individuality, and was quite un-
like any member of the Old Georgia Conference.
Who amongst us, at an annual session, ever saw
him inside the bar of the conference? Who ever
heard him speak on any issue, great or small,
that might be the subject matter of debate? Usually
he sat apart, brooding over some problem in the-
ology, or some question in metaphysics, seemingly
oblivious of the bishop's gavel and of the secre-

88 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

tary's announcements. I was both startled and
stumped on two or three occasions, when, on
leaving the conference room, he called to me and
asked me some question about a Hebrew construc-
tion on a Greek text. I had been, when a boy,
pretty thoroughly drilled in Greek, but my knowl-
edge of Hebrew, after only a few months' study
under a Baptist divine, was exceedingly limited.
I told Brother Knight that I knew less about He-
brew than he did, a statement that he found it
difficult to credit.

I mention this as illustrative of his peculiarities.

Did 3'ou ever hear him preach when the Holy
Ghost overshadowed him? What unction, what
sweep of the imagination — and then his hortatory
appeals, how they reminded one of the wind of
Ezekiel as it swept over the valley of Dry Bones.
Bishop Pierce was not a bad judge of preaching,
and it is well known that he was enthusiastic in
his praise of John W. Knight. Better than his
preaching, however, were his prayers for penitents.
Many years ago, at one of the Griffin Conferences,
he was asked after the sermon, to make the prayer
for a number who had gathered at the altar. At
first there was some hesitancy, a not infrequent
thing, but as he warmed to the occasion he seemed
almost to shake the heavens with his supplications
for divine mercy. Before he concluded there was
weeping blended with hallehijahs, from the pulpit
to the door; then came the shout of new-born

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 89

souls, and we had more than a glimpse of Pente-
cost.

The last time I saw the dear old brother was at
the State Lunatic Asylum. I had gone through
some of the wards with one of the assistant
physicians, and as I walked down the long corri-
dor I inquired about Bro. Knight, and expressed a
desire to see him. Just then the physician re-
marked, " Yonder he is, now" — but before I caught
more than a glance at him he turned into his room
and shut the door.

The physician informed me that for some days he
had been unusually excited, and when in such
moods he refused to see all visitors, especially his
old friends. I passed the door, which was slightly
ajar, and heard his delirious mutterings. How
deeply pathetic.

Not long after this occurence he died, a mental
and physical wreck.

J. BLAKELY SMITH.

•

J. Blakely Smith was a thrifty merchant when
divinely called to the arduous work of an itinerant
preacher. He promptly responded to that call,
and to the end of life was a useful and laborious

90 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

member of the conference. For a long term of
years he served with great efficiency as the con-
ference secretary. Few men have been more
universally beloved by his brethren, nor was
there one of their number who was more thor-
oughly consecrated in heart and life. On circuits
and districts his work was honored of men and
signally blessed of God. As a preacher, he made
no claim to learning or brillianc}-, but in point of
effectiveness he had few superiors in his immediate
generation.

He was often styled a weeping prophet because
his sermons were characterized by great tender-
ness, and quite often were baptized with his tears.
We would not intimate that they were lacking in
vigorous thought, but the emotional was largely
predominant in his ministry. I found him on more
•than one occasion a valuable helper in a revival
meeting, and his services in this capacity were
everywhere in demand. When the conference was
divided in 1867, he was greatly grieved. As a
token of brotherly appreciation the members of
the old conference presented him with an elegant
gold watch as a souvenir of the days when they
were an unbroken band.

He was deeply touched by' their kindness and it
contributed somewhat to soothe his wounded
sensibilities.

But he was too good a man to be a "sorehead,"
or to repine long about a result that many of us

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 91

had long known to be alike desirable and inevit-
able.

I saw but little of him after the division of the
conference, but he continued to be a good man
and true until the end of his pilgrimage.

CALEB AY. KEY.

Fortv years ago, Caleb W. Key was one of the
most enterprising pastors and solid preachers in
the Georgia Conference.

He wras not a genius, but, better than this, he
had an unusual working capacity which served
him in good stead on several of our leading sta-
tions and districts.

He was a man of fine address — of great per-
sonal neatness, and wielded a large influence in
the business affairs of the annual conference ses-
sions.

He had enjoyed better educational advantages
than a majority of the old panel of our preachers,
and he was careful to improve those advantages
by reading and observation.

I heard him preach as far back as the early
forties, when he was pastor at LaGrange, then
and now one of strongest stations. Even thus

92 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

early in his ministry, he was highly esteemed in the
pulpit and the social circle. As the years went by
he grew in strength and popularity until he was
disabled by "age and feebleness extreme."

We have already intimated that Brother Key was
not noted for brilliancy, but there were occasions
when in revivals and camp-meetings he had very
considerable preaching power.

I remember an instance of the sort in connection
with a visit I made to the old Putnam camp-meet-
ing in 1860. A prominent young merchant, a mem-
ber of his charge at Eatonton, had suddenly died
on the camp-ground. The friends of the deceased,
who was greatly beloved throughout the country,
desired the funeral service to be held at the camp-
ground. Brother Key officiated. He had a good
theme and handled it with marked ability. His
closing appeal to the young men of the congrega-
tion was wonderful, and was thought to have
resulted in wakenings and conversions. Brother
Key was greatly blessed in his domestic relations,
and had a good show of financial prosperity, for
a man who gave himself wholly to the work of
the ministry. Our present Bishop Key, whom all
Georgia delights to honor, did much by his filial
devotion to brighten the last days of his venerable
father.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 93

JAMES O. A. CLARK, D. D., L.L. D.

This great and good man passed away at 9:30
a. m., on Tuesday, September 4th, 1894.

He was stricken with paralysis about three
weeks before his death, after which time his
family and friends had no hope of his recovery.
He had not been strong, physically, for some
years, but always strong mentally. His pen
was not allowed to rest. His great mind
was as busy and his thoughts were as clear and
bright as when in the full vigor of manhood.
Two books, in addition to those already published,
were almost ready for the press when the lamp
went out. His energy was boundless. As presid-
ing elder of the Macon district he continued his
work until the peremptory command from his
physician required him to desist. He loved to
work, and especially did he glory in his vocation
as a preacher. In the pulpit he was the peer of any
among us. He was, indeed, a great preacher! As
a scholar he was easily in the front rank with
the highest. No one who knew Dr. Clark, who
had read his books, or heard his sermons, will sus-
pect extravagance in anything that has been said.

He was at the time of his death about sixty-
seven years of age. He was admitted with the
writer of these lines, into the Georgia conference,

94 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

held in Atlanta, Georgia, December, 1854, Bishop
Capers presiding. Next December, 1894, will be
forty years since this dear brother, in company
with Bishop 0. P. Fitzgerald, Wm. J. Scott, D. D.,
Jno. W. Burke, G. G. N. MacDonell, James T.Ains-
worth, Alvin J. Dean, W. W. Tidwell, John W.
Turner, Thos. T. Christian (and others whose
names cannot be recalled at this writing) were re-
ceived into the Georgia conference. Dr. Clark is
the third member of that remarkable class who
has finished his work.

Dean and Turner have been dead several years.

Dr. Clark has occupied every position of honor
in the church except the bishopric. In every place
he showed superiority as a man and a christian
minister. He was both great and good. He was
fixed and settled in his religious views, and knew,
experimentally, thelove of Christ. The Methodist
church has lost one of her ablest and noblest de-
fenders.

The prayers of the church will go up to God in
behalf of his precious wife and children in this
hour of deep bereavement.

The funeral service took place at eleven o'clock
a. m., at the First Presbyterian church. This was
on account of the fact that Mulberry Street Metho-
dist church was undergoing repairs. A large con-
gregation was present. Dr. Monk, pastor of Mul-
berry, preached a most touching and appropriate

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 95

sermon. Dr. J. W.Hintonand Rev. Geo. G. N.Mac-
Donell delivered short but beautiful eulogies of the
deceased. At the close the body was carried to
Rose Hill cemetery and laid away until the rtsur-
rection morn.

JAMEvS 0. ANDREW,

OUR MARTYR BISHOP.

This eminent divine was a Georgian by birth
and culture.

Although not like the Mercenas of Roman his-
tory of royal lineage, yet, he was what was better
still of pious parentage, being a descendant of the
Dorchester colonists, who after divers migrations,
settled at Midway, Georgia.

Like Obadiah and Samuel of sacred memory, he
feared the Lord from his youth. While his educa.
tional opportunities were but fairly good yet he
early exhibited an aptitude for learning which fitted
him for the ministry before he had attained his
majority. In a few years his services were in de-
mand in leading stations of Georgia and South
Carolina, including Augusta, Charleston and
Savannah. At all these ooints he was greatly be-
loved for his piety and not less admired for his

96 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

pulpit ability. It was, however, somewhat of a
surprise when, in 1832, he was elected to the
Episcopacy over the heads of a number who were
his seniors in age and his superiors in ministerial
rank. On all sides, however, he was regarded as
prudent in life, sound in doctrine and thoroughly
loyal to the polity of Wesley an Methodism. His
reputation in these respects was in nowise sec-
tional, but extended from Maine to Texas. And
yet so rapid was the spread of anti-slave^ism that
in a dozen 3rears he was immolated on the altar of
that fierce fanaticism.

At the time of his accession to the Episcopacy he
stood on the border line of the heroic age of
American Methodism. Its romance had wellnigh
ceased with Asbury and McKendree. But for-
tunately for the enlargement of its domain there
were men like Soule, Roberts and Hedding who
stood ready in fellow^ship with their junior col-
league to push its victories to the Mississippi
and to the vast regions beyond. We had met him
at Annual Conferences and admired him greatly,
both as a presiding officer and preacher. But in
1862, while occupying the Wesley Chapel parson-
age in Atlanta, he was our honored guest for
nealv a week. "No man," says the French prov.
erb, "is a hero to his valet de chambre" The
Bishop at least was an exception. We saw him en.
dishabille. Despite the disparity of age, he un-
bosomed himself to us as a brother. Now and

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 97

then, without undue self-assertion, he volunteered
words of fatherly counsel. Yet, in these graver
and more thoughtful moods, there was no Sir
Oracle dogmatism. For our entertainment he
occasionally fought over the battles of his minis-
terial life, and modestly showed us how fields were
won. As Desdemona was charmed by Othello's
recital of his travels, history, and ' ' the battle sieges,
fortunes he had passed," so we were deeply fasci-
nated by his unpretentious narrative of the ex-
periences and adventures of a long and eventful
itinerant career.

At this time he gave us at our own urgent re-
quest a minute account of his virtual deposition
by the General Conference of 1844.

He interspersed the general history with vivid
sketches of the leaders of both sections, wTith oc-
casional side glimpses that revealed the true in-
wardness of the grand conflict. There was, how-
ever, neither in word nor manner, the slightest ex-
hibition of unseemly temper. But it was evident
that the wounds inflicted by some envious Casca,
or some beloved Brutus, were not yet fully cica-
trized.

Henceforth we deeply venerated the man and
were evermore jealous of his fame.

The General Conference of 1844 was the central
event in the history of Bishop Andrew. It was to
him what the synod of Dort was to Arminius,
what the Council of Constance was to John Huss

98 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

and Jerome of Prague. Never did the Bishop ex-
hibit such sublime moral courage as when, after a
momentary weakness, he confronted with the
heroism of a martyr the ruthless majority arrayed
against him, and intent on overwhelming him by
sheer dint of numbers. This might well serve as a
companion piece to that of Luther as he stood
face to face with Charles V. in the Diet of Worms.

In that august assemblage of 1844 there were
such master spirits as Winans, of Mississippi, and
Smith, of Virginia, whose forceful arguments
and mighty appeals smote upon the ear of a con-
tinent like the ponderous blows of a trip-hammer.
There, too, was the younger Pierce, his face aglow
with the light of genius, if not inspiration, as he
exclaimed: " Let New England go." It was but
little short of the thrilling eloquence with which
Cicero scourged the guilty Pro-consul of Sicily, or
drove Cataline and his fellowT-conspirators from
the Senate Chamber. Indeed, New England had
long troubled our Methodist Israel, as she had been
from the beginning a rankling thorn in the national
body politic.

There, too, was Capers, the founder of negro
missions, and glorious McFerrin and Henry Bidle-
man Bascom, and in the back ground a noble con-
stituency stretching from Maryland to Texas.

That picture has an intrinsic value that can
hardly be estimated. The time may come when
Macaulav's New Zealand artist shall sit on the

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 99

broken arches of London Bridge and sketch the
ruins of St. Paul's, and when New York, like
mighty Babylon, shall be "a habitation for dragons
and a court for owls;" for the ruins of empiresare
amongst the common-places of history, and the
seats of commerce and wealth are unstable and
shifting as desert sands. All this may transpire
ere that scene shall fade from the canvas of history.
Indeed, all material grandeur is changeful as the
imagery of cloud-land, but truth outlasts the
pyramids, for the eternal years of God are her in-
heritance.

DeQuinc}r, a time-serving essayist, sneered at the
action of the Free Church of Scotland in 1843.
A procession of several hundred clergymen, headed
by Thomas Chalmers, going forth from St. An-
drew's Church, Edinburgh, for the sake of Christ
and the purity of his church, was hardly a spec-
tacle for a clownish jest or a fiendish grimace.
By this act they abandoned all hope of political
emolument or ecclesiastical preferment. Very
many of them were gray-haired veterans who
thereby surrendered the churches they had founded
and the comfortable manses they had builded. They
went forth into a moral wilderness to lay anew
the foundations of a church unpolluted with the
stain of Erastinianism, and unfettered by the
chains of lay patronage. Were they right? Let
the records of its marvelous growth during the
forty intervening years answer the inquiry.

100 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

This Edinburgh picture in 1843 was duplicated
in New York in 1844. New England must be pro-
pitiated even though Andrew's Episcopal head
should fall. The same spirit that pilloried and
scourged the Quakers, and drove Roger Williams to
Rhode Island and Providence plantations, that mas-
sacred the Pequods and Narragansets, and sold the
miserable remnant into slavery in Barbadoes ; the
same Massachusetts and Rhode Island, who for
mercenary purposes, helped to extend the African
slave-trade twenty years over the heads of Dela-
ware and South Carolina. These men, whose
sires had waxed fat on the traffic in human flesh,
were now in hot pursuit of Bishop Andrew for the
sin of slave-holding, not by purchase, but by in-
heritance. To this deep-mouthed baying of the Bos-
ton kennel there was added the shrill cry of Tray,
Blanche and Sweetheart from the other hostile
conferences. Upon this accusation, without the
semblance of a trial, but by a simple resolution of
the body, he was suspended indefinitely from his
Episcopal functions. In vain did the Southern
minority protest against this monstrous iniquity-
The Moloch of anti-slavery fanaticism must be
appeased at the expense of justice and every other
cardinal virtue of heathen and christian morality.
It was done by the tyrrany of a mob, or else the
ruling of a star-chamber tribunal. The majority
may accept either horn of the dilemma. After no
little diplomatic maneuvering, a formal separa-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 101

tion was agreed upon, subject to the ratification
of the southern conferences. Even this measure
of pacification was repudiated by the succeeding
northern general conference. The southern
church finally secured her chartered rights, at the
end of a tedious and expensive litigation. But
even a supreme court decision could not curb the
rapacity of the northern church. In solemn coun-
cil, our church, from the bishops downward, were
adjudged guilty of treason for defending against
invasion their altars and their fires.

Some of the northern bishops invoked the aid of
military satraps to eject us from our churches
and parsonages. In numerous localities we were
stigmatized from our own pulpits as graceless
reprobates and Christless rebels. The sober second
thought of the nation rebuked this proscriptive
spirit.

Failing in this scheme of military seizure, they
sought by means of missionary appropriations and
intimidation to disintegrate and absorb. To that
policy they owe their limited success in a few of
the backwoods settlements of the South. An-
other change has come over "the spirit of their
dream." Their only hope now is to compass their
object by organic union. This project, plausible
as it may appear to some, is a predestined failure.
It at least, can only be consummated by the utter
disruption of the southern church. For right confi-
dent are we that an overwhelming majority of the

102 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

clergy and laity of that church will never submit
their necks to the yoke of a northern majority.

But to return to Bishop Andrew. This grand
man "did not lag superfluous on the stage," but
labored with indomitable will to the utmost of his
failing strength. His life-wrork completed and
rounded into beautiful symmetry, he was ready
for his translation. As Bacon says, "the sweetest
canticle is nunc dimittis to one who has obtained
worthy ends and expectations." Pelopidas was
reckoned by Plutarch the best of the Greeks. So
likewise did Mark Antony characterize the mighty
Julius who fell beneath the daggers of conspiracy
in the senate house as "the noblest Roman of
them all."

Not less may it be said that in no dubious sense
James 0. Andrew was the last bishop of the As-
buryan t}'pe. He, too, was the victim of con-
spirators like those who slew Caesar at the base
of Pompey's statue.

Now that he sleeps amidst the classic shades of
his beloved Oxford he deserves a monument, to be
erected, not by any single conference, but by the
joint contributions of southern Methodism from
California to Florida. Nor could it bear a wor-
thier inscription than this simple but significant
phrase:

HERE LIES
JAMES O. ANDREW,
OUR
BLESSED MARTYR BISHOP.

•

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 103

DANIEL D. COX.

It was largely through the pious persuasion of
Daniel D. Cox that I was influenced, in 1853, to
abandon political journalism and cast my lot with
the Methodist church and ministry. Bro. C. was
neither learned nor eloquent, but he was distin-
guished for grace and goodness, and wherever
known was greatly beloved by all classes and de-
nominations. At the time referred to he was pas-
tor of the First church in Rome, where his two
years' ministry was crowned with abundant suc-
cess. It is due, in no small degree, to his earnest
labors, that this church is now one of the largest
and most influential in the North Georgia Con-
ference.

His earliest years in the ministry were spent in
South Carolina, and several of them in missionary
work on the large rice plantations on the coast. It
wras interesting to hear his account of these colored
missions. While such abolitionists as William
Loyd Garrison were seeking to incite the slaves to
riot and bloodshed, Brother Cox and his fellow-
laborers were engaged in a diligent effort to Chris-
tianize them. About 1850 he was received into
the Georgia Conference, and for thirty odd years
was actively engaged on circuits, districts and sta-
tions. When I last met him he was residing with

104 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Mrs. Judge Bull, of LaGrange, the mother of his
last accomplished wife. He was then quite feeble
in health, but rejoicing in the God of his salva-
tion. He did not long survive this interview. His
death chamber was said to be quite on the verge
of heaven, and some of his unconverted friends
were deeply impressed by the closing scenes of his
eminently useful life. His death occurred some-
what unexpectedly while visiting an old friend at
Gainesville, in which community he was univer-
sally honored and beloved. His remains were
brought to LaGrange and deposited by the side of
his beloved wife, the solemn services being con-
ducted by Rev. B. H. Sasnett in the presence of a
large congregation.

WM. S. TURNER.

The class of 1854 was one of the largest ever
received into the Georgia Conference.

I trust I may be pardoned for saying that in
some respects it was one of the best.

Several of them earned no little distinction in
the ministry. Amongst this number we reckon
the richly-endowed Fitzgerald, humorous and
sweet-spirited Burke, who, as a man of affairs,

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 105

has left an indelible imprint on Georgia Method-
ism, the scholarly Clark, whose labors with his
pen have been abundant and valuable to his own
and future generations, the genial and accomplished
McDonnell, the eloquent Pledger, clear-headed and
warm-hearted Christian. Besides, there were
others of less note, but not lacking in usefulness.
Of this class was William S. Turner, who had a
good report in all the churches he was called to
serve. He was studious in his habits and indus-
trious in the pastorate, and his preaching was
of that sort that met with general acceptance.

After all it is the average man who often ac-
complishes the best results.

The meteor that for a single instant "splen-
dors the sleep}' realms of night" is not compara-
ble to the "maidenliest star that twinkles in the
firmament." There is more glow but less steady
shining, and quite often these showy pulpiteers
move in an eccentric orbit that carries them far
away from the central "sun of righteousness."

That gifted man, Melville, for years the marvel
of the London pulpits, has in his published ser-
mons a suggestive discourse on the man of "two
talents." It may serve to reconcile some of us
to the fewness of our gifts when it is borne in
mind that this average man was no whit behind
his fellow-servants who had the five talents, in the
percentage of his gain and his reward.

106 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

I have attempted no detailed account of Brother
T's pulpit labors because I have but little personal
knowledge in the premises. What I have stated is
based upon information gathered from outside
sources, and is of necessity' meagre and not alto-
gether satisfactory.

WESLEY P. ARNOLD.

Weslev P. Arnold had a stentorian voice,
which he looked upon as a serious misfortune. It
was not only the subject matter of humorous
criticism, but in some degree marred his useful-
ness.

But back of this there lay a fund of common
sense and a consecrated life, that made him a
general favorite in town and country.

He was a man of humility and self-denial, and
was one of the few pastors of recent }rears who
traveled his circuit on foot. This may have been
at times the result of choice, but of tener than
otherwise was the result of stern necessity.

His was an independent spirit that shrunk from
receiving favors which, Emerson says, al\va3rs
places the receiver at a disadvantage. Fortunately,
he was muscular and active, and a tramp of five

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 107

or ten miles over a country road did not unfit
him for the pulpit. I had a very limited experience
of the same sort on two or three occasions many
years ago, nor was I damaged by it, neither men-
tally nor physicalhr. Emerson, to whom we have
just referred, says that since horses and vehicles
have become so abundant, men have lost, in a
measure, the use of their legs.

Recurring to Brother Arnold's ministry, we
would characterize it as intensely fervid and
thoroughly practical. We have heard him when
he waxed eloquent and moved his audience to
shouts and tears.

He helped me greatly during a revival meeting,
in the sixties, by his earnestness and amiableness.
As was said of Barnabas, so it might be said of
Wesley Arnold, "He was a good man, full of faith
and the Holv Ghost."

LUTHER M. SMITH.

Luther M. Smith was more widely known as an
educator than as a preacher. Perhaps more than
two-thirds of his life was spent as president or
professor in some prominent institution of learn-
ing. His work in Emory College was deserving

108 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

of high praise, nor less so his later labors as chan-
cellor of the Southern University at Greensboro,
Alabama. Few men had a better faculty for the
administration of college discipline. He blended
mildness and firmness in due proportion, and
thus secured both the respect and love of his
pupils. Hundreds of them cherish the memory of
his manifold virtues.

His gifts on the lecture platform and in the pul-
pit were of a high order.

On some special occasions I have heard him
preach with very great ability.

At times he was thrillingly eloquent, and seldom
have I known him to be lacking in unction and
tenderness.

If his whole life had been consecrated to the
ministry, he would have been as useful as his
ablest contemporaries.

His physical infirmities were, however, of a sort
and a degree that incapacitated him for continu-
ous labor in the itinerant work. These infirmities
shadowed his latter years and made him of a sor-
rowful spirit. But through it all he had sustain-
ing grace, and when the end came he had an
"abundant entrance" into the everlasting kingdom.

Not many have left to the generations that fol-
low, a better reputation for saintliness than my
dear old friend, Dr. Luther M. Smith.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 109

ARMINIUS WRIGHT.

Arminius Wright had but recently returned to
the conference when I first met him as the sta-
tioned preacher at Griffin, in 1858.

I visited that thriving }'oung city in response to
an invitation to deliver the commencement ser-
mon of the Griffin Female College, under the joint
control of Revs. W. Rogers and A. B. Niles.

Brother Wright was then in the prime of life,
and had partially recovered from a severe sickness
which had previously induced his withdrawal
from the itinerant ministry. He had the advan-
tage of a liberal education, and his scholarship
was quite respectable.

As a preacher he was in great favor with his
congregation at Griffin, and during the next decade
occupied several of our leading pulpits. He had
indeed the gift of oratory in no small degree, and
but for a dyspeptic ailment which clung to him
for years, and which finally shortened his life, he
would have risen to great distinction.

He left a most interesting family, and amongst
them a son who inherited some of his father's
best intellectual endowments.

110 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

FRANCIS A. KIMBALL.

Francis A. Kimball was a transfer from the
Tennessee to the North Georgia Conference during
the war period. He had, as I remember it, been
a chaplain in the western army, and had done
valiant and faithful service in that capacity.

Just after the war he was appointed to Wesley
Chapel, Atlanta, where during his pastoral term,
he conducted a gracious revival. He filled other
important conference positions with acceptability.
He, like Bros. Pierce and Wright, had a hard
struggle with a refractory liver, complicated, in
his case, with a grave bronchial trouble. But
Brother K. had a large share of energy, and never
succumbed to disease until his vital forces were
utterly exhausted. His preaching was good to
"the use of edifying,'' and quite a number were
brought to Christ by his pathetic pleading. His
devoted wife, who still survives, is one of our
best Sunday-school workers in the infant depart-
ment.

Brother Kimball was ardent and unswerving in
his friendships, and is pleasantly remembered by
many of his brethren of the old Georgia Confer-
ence.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. Ill

JAMES L. PIERCE.

James L. Pierce was no ordinary man. He was
one of the early graduates of Randolph-Macon
College. His record for scholarship and general
ability during his colle e days was one of the best.

After completing his collegiate course he applied
himself to the study of law, and was in a fair
way to professional eminence when he decided to
enter the ministry of which his father and elder
brother were such distinguished ornaments. Not
long afterwards he was called to the presidency
of the Madison Female College. Under his man-
agement that institution became one of the most
prosperous and influential in the conference. I
have never forgotten his baccalaureate address in
1858. It was a literary gem, not unworthy of
Bishop Pierce in his palmiest days. His minis-
terial life was checkered, owing largely to his
delicate, nervous organism. He was somewhat
deficient in the elocutionary qualifications which
contributed so much to the pupit excellence of the
other members of the family.

As a theologian the "Old Doctor" always rated
him above any of his sons, not excepting
"George." He was not singular in this estimate —
many of our best conference critics were like-
minded. I am quite sure that his expository

112 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

preaching sometimes reminded me of the best per-
formances of his venerable father.

It was often remarked by his most intimate
friends that the closing years of his life were
characterized by a humility and gentleness which
clearly evinced that his bodily and mental suffer-
ings had been sanctified to his spiritual growth and
enlargement. This was especially noticeable at
Conyers, one of the last appointments that he
served .

Two or three years before his death he removed
to Texas where he spent his last days in the home
of his son, who had achieved great success as a
minister of the Gospel.

Thus, far away from his native Georgia, and
quite aloof from his old conference associates, Dr.
Jas. L. Pierce entered into rest.

WM. A. SIMMONS.

Wm. A. Simmons was neither a learned divine
nor a specially attractive preacher, and yet he
was not wanting in good ministerial gifts. His
piety was deep and fervent, and he drew hundreds
to Christ and the church because his zeal and conse-
cration were known and read of all men who were

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 113

brought within the sphere of his personal acquaint-
ance. He, together with such kindred spirits as
his brother John and Wynn and Fitzgerald and
Bigham, were in the first batch of missionaries
that went forth to the Pacific coast under the
leadership of Jesse Boring. They were one and
all good men and true, and they planted Southern
Methodism where it still flourishes, but not to the
extent that it so well deserves.

After a few years, however, he returned to his
old conference, which received him with open
arms.

His wife, although a life-long invalid, was a
woman of rare accomplishments, and to her he ex-
hibited a devotion that was really sublime. Brother
Simmons was inevitably hindered in his pastoral
work by the protracted illness of his gifted wife.
Her condition demanded change of climate, and
compelled his removal to South Georgia and
Florida, where he spent a few of the later years
of his life.

He occasionally supplied other charges during
this period, and did it acceptably.

As his years increased his growth in grace was
striking, and the power of his ministry was pro-
portionately enlarged and intensified. It was for
this veteran warrior a glad day, when in his sixty-
seventh year, the messenger, with a love missive
from the Master, called him to the fellowship of
the just.

114 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

WM. G. ALLEN.

These etchings would be incomplete without a
passing reference to that useful man, William G.
Allen .

It so chanced in the order of divine providence
that I visited him on his deathbed in the parson-
age at Forsyth. He was extremely ill, but his trust
in God was fixed and he became unspeakably happy
as we communed together in prayer and praise.
He had a most interesting household, which he
ruled with the law of kindness.

Brother Allen died when yet in the prime of
manhood, but he lived long enough to do excellent
work on some of the best circuits of the confer-
ence. His preaching was of a sort that edified
alike the young and the old, the cultured and the
illiterate. He was, as more than one of the old
presiding elders used to say, "a safe case."

He was sound in faith and practice, and like a
Spanish-milled dollar was everywhere current at
a hundred cents.

Some day his old companions in distress will
greet him on the golden shore.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 115

JACOB R. DANFORTH.

Jacob R. Danforth was a man of rare declama-
tory power in the pulpit. Indeed, he was one of
the best of the old school orators.

His father and mother were amongst my
parishioners at St. John's church, Augusta. They
were both poor and pious in a good degree, and
in their last days were largely dependent on their
son, Oliver H. Danforth, one of the staunchest
Methodist laymen of my former acquaintances.

"Brother Jake" as he was familiarly called, was
not without a measure of crankiness — one of the
characteristics of genius.

I remember to have read on the door posts of the
old Mulberry street church at Macon, this inscrip-
tion by some prof ane scribbler : "On the second
Sunday in May, Brother Danforth prayed thirty-
five minutes by the watch." I am not sure as to
the date, but I am confident that the length of the
prayer as stated is exact. Brother Danforth 's ser-
mons, as George Smith avers in his History of Geor-
gia Methodism, were remarkably eloquent and for-
cible, but they were exhaustive both to himself
and his audience. He seemed in his best mood to
be completely oblivious to the flight of time,
whether he prayed or preached. I was once in at-
tendance at a camp-meeting with him in South-

116 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

western Georgia, and strongly urged the preacher
in charge to put him up at the 11 o'clock service
on Tuesda}-. "Well," he said in reply, "Brother
D. is a wonderful preacher, and if I knew he
would not exceed two hours I would gladhr do
so." I left the encampment, but understood after-
wards that he preached with great power and
with unprecedented brevity. It is probable some
brother had kindly admonished him of his infirmity.

Brother Danforth had quite a reputation as an
educator ; but even in the recitation room he was
noted for his occasional absentmindedness. It
was often said of him that he very narrowly
missed being a first-class preacher and college pro-
fessor.

As respects his piety, it was of a very high order.
Such at least was the universal testimony.

THOMAS H. JORDAN.

Thos. H. Jordan preceded me in the ministry by
several years, and yet I was probably his senior
by three or more years.

He was of excellent Methodist lineage, well edu-
cated, a ready speaker, and in all respects a man
of striking personality. From the beginning of

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 117

our personal acquaintance we were warm friends,
and so continued until the end of his somewhat
checkered career.

During his pastorate in Marietta where he suc-
ceeded me as preacher in charge of that delightful
station, I spent two weeks, I think, in the summer
of 1859.

Aly intercourse with him was exceedingly pleas-
ant, but I feared from the course of reading that
he was pursuing, and from some incidental re-
marks that he let fall from time to time, that he
was drifting away from the old theology.

On the second Sabbath of my visit I occupied
his pulpit morning and evening. In the evening
I spoke from the text, "Because sentence against
an evil work is not speedily executed," etc. At
the close of the service he urged me to spend the
night at the parsonage. I consented to do so, and
during that evening he unbosomed himself to me
in regard to his religious experience and especially
in regard to some speculative difficulties that had
worried him no little for the past few months.
I found he had been reading such works as
"Comte's Positive Philosophy, " "Strauss' Life of
Jesus," and others of a similar trend. He said
to me: "I would give the world if I had the un-
questioning faith which you seem to have from
your preaching to-night." I replied: "Tom, I
know how to sympathize with you. Will you be-
lieve me when I tell you that from sixteen years of

118 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

age to my twenty-first year, I boxed the entire
compass of infidelity? I read all the books of
which you speak and a score besides. Like Asaph
'my feet were almost gone, my steps had well-
nigh slipped.' But," I continued, "by a singular
providence I got hold of a copy of Watson's Insti-
tutes. Its theology was a revelation because I
had read but little religious literature except of a
Calvinistic sort. Watson lifted the veil from my
spiritual understanding and m}' speculative
doubts, which had brought me to the verge of
atheism, all disappeared, and from that time for-
ward I was in theory at least a Christian." I
begged him to quit the study of infidel wrorks and
go back to Watson and the Bible. He seemed
deeply moved and we spent a few minutes in
prayer before retiring.

My next special interview with him was in At-
lanta, in 1862, when I was in charge of Wesley
chapel. I was just ready to begin the sermon one
Sunday morning when a handsome cavalry officer
entered the church and was shown to a front
seat. I instantly recognized him as my old con-
ference friend, and went down and invited him to
preach for me, which he declined, and also my in.
vitation to occupy a seat in the pulpit. He made,
however, an earnest closing prayer. After the
service he walked with me to the parsonage and
remained to a pleasant half hour's conversation,

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 119

but could not stay to dinner as he was compelled
to leave on the next train.

I never saw him after this conversation.

Brother J. spent his closing years in Southern
Georgia, principally in Savannah, where he
had, in his youth, married a daughter of Dr.
Saussy, a leading physician of the Forest City.

His last illness was somewhat protracted, but
through it all he bore his sufferings with meek-
ness and resignation. His last hours were peace-
ful and at times triumphant.

He now rests beneath the moss-draped live-oaks
of Laurel Hill, awaiting the resurrection of the j ust.

SAMUEL J. BELLAH.

Samuel J. Bellah had no genius except for godli-
ness. His education was limited, but his knowl-
edge of the Scriptures was exact, and he was wrell
versed in the standards of Methodist theology.
When I first made his acquaintance, many years
ago, he was feeble, suffering at wTide intervals
with hemorrhages from the throat or lungs, and
yet he continued, as he had strength, to travel
poor circuits. Talk of heroes and martyrs ! Here
was one little known outside of a small circle of

120 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

friends, whose zeal and faith went beyond many
whose names are printed in the calendar.

During my residence in Marietta and my occa-
sional visits to the Marietta camp-ground, I saw
this lowly servant of God. He usually preached
at the eight o'clock service on the Sabbath, and
his neighbors, who knew his manner of life, always
gathered at the stand to hear him. I seldom, if
ever, missed his sermons. He was not literary,
still less was he learned, but I was always re-
freshed and edified by Uncle Bellah's simple minis-
try. Like Enoch, he walked with God, and his frail
bod}7 was a veritable temple of the Holy Ghost. I
could see in the soft radiance of his eye somewhat
of the look of the Master when He broke Peter's
heart. His voice was shattered, but it was deeply
sympathetic and sometimes thrilled my inmost
soul. He belonged to a class of preachers that
are not often met with nowadays in the older
conferences. The stipend he drew from the con-
ference when a superannuate kept him, with other
contributions, from actual want, but the dear
old man was doubtless sore pressed at times.

I wish I may have as bright a crown in glory as
Uncle Bellah, but I know I don't deserve it, and it
may be sin ul to wish it.

Oh, these old brethren, the Bellahs and Andrew
J. Deavors, and John P. Dickinson and Andrew
Neese, who carried me round his circuit when I was
making my first efforts to preach, and Alfred Dor-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 121

man and such like, how thememory of their heroic
virtues makes me ashamed of ray petty ambi-
tions before God had humbled me as in these
later years.

There are men, however, in the mountains and in
the wiregrass that are doing the same work to-
day that these old fathers did. The Lord help us
to honor them and sympathize with them and ma}r
their tribe increase as the exigencies of the
church may require.

JOHN H. HARRIS.

John H. Harris was a preacher of much more
than ordinary gifts. In 1875 he was stationed
at Evan's Chapel, Atlanta, and rendered me valu-
able assistance in a revival which I was conducting
at the time in the Trinity congregation.

His preaching wras not simply emotional, al-
though that was probably the predominant
feature; but it was besides Scriptural and force-
ful, and as a consequence, effectual in awakening
the impenitent and then leading him to Christ.

Before coming to Atlanta he had served several
important circuits and stations, and was every-
where greatly beloved.

122 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

My remembrance is that he was at this time a
sufferer from a chronic throat disease induced by
exposure and overwork in his earlier ministry. He
was of a fervent spirit, and this led him very often
into a vehement delivery and an excess of vocifera-
tion that has blighted many a promising minister's
life or shortened his term of active service.

Brother Harris was even then rapidly nearing
his end, and died early in the following }Tear, 1876,
of a disease which it is now fashionable to call
heart failure, but another name for a sudden
break-down of the vital machine^ .

ALEXANDER SPEER.

Alexander Speer, the father of my old co-pas-
tor, Dr. E. W. Speer, and of that distinguished
jurist, Alexander M. Speer, was for a few years a
member of the conference. I had some intimacy
with him in 1852, and wrhenl retired from the edi-
torship of the LaGrange Reporter he was my suc-
cessor.

Brother Speer was a remarkable man. He was,
in his early life, a conspicuous figure in South
Carolina politics. At one time he was Secretary
of State in that Commonwealth and was one of

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 123

the ablest and readiest political debaters known
to its history. In the pulpit he was a man of
mark.

He was more argumentative and only a shade
less classical than his son, Dr. Eustace Speer.

He was a great favorite as a preacher with the
LaGrange congregation, and several times I
listened to him with delight and profit.

There can be little doubt that but for the over-
shadowing influence of Mr. Calhoun he would
have risen to great political eminence in his native
State. Both Petigrue and Legare were kept out
of the political fields by this same influence, and
they were both men of vast ability. At that date
Federalism, or to call it by a milder term, Whig-
ism, was reckoned a political felony for which
there was no absolution. We dare say that
Brother Speer was in the end all the happier by his
withdrawal from politics. Certain it is that his
last days of ministerial consecration was *the
period of his greatest usefulness. He deliberately
made'the choice of Moses, and long ago he reached
the same exceeding great reward.

124 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

GEORGE W. LANE.

George Smith, in his valuable history of Georgia
Methodism, notes the fact that George W. Lane
came to the conference in 1835. He was the son
of a prominent preacher of the Philadelphia Con-
ference who for years was connected with the
Book Concern.

Young Lane was liberally educated and naturally
a gifted preacher. Being in delicate health, he
was assigned to St. Augustine, Florida, wThere he
made full proof of his ministry. Afterwards the
church needed his services in the educational field,
and he was elected professor of languages in
Emory College where he contributed much to the
upbuilding of that young institution.

I am not sure that I ever met Bro. Lane, but the
traditional accounts we have of his work in the
pulpit and in the college entitle him to a high
rank.

He died in 1857, before he had reached middle
life, and his death was universally regarded as a
calamity to the church. He was the father of
Prof. Charles Lane, of the Georgia Technological
school, who inherited a goodly share of his father's
best gifts. •

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 125

JOSEPH J. vSlNGLETON.

Joseph J. Singleton was a graduate of the State
University and was an honor to his alma mater.

It was always a perplexity to me that a man of
his rare gifts and graees seldom attained to
prominent conference positions.

This may have been partly due to his quiet, un-
obtrusive disposition, which at times bordered on
shyness and even awkwardness. Perhaps it may
have resulted in no small degree from his thorough
unselfishness. He certainly was free from that
prurient ambition, wThich in the church as elsewhere,
wins its way to preferment, whilst modest merit
languishes in comparative obscurity. It was in
keeping with his character that he not only uttered
no word of complaint but accepted his Provi-
dential lot with a cheerfulness befitting a child of
God and an heir of glory.

Dear good fellow, as he was, I was never more
impressed by the sweetness of his spirit than when
at the last conference we were domiciled together
at the house of an excellent Baptist brother.

As to his preaching, it is needless to say, to those
who were familiar with it that it was both re-
freshing and edifying. In the main it was, as
Bishop McTyeire was wont to say, "meat and
greens." Yet it was no rehash of threadbare pul-

126 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

pit sayings, but always clear-cut and forcible. His
style was such classical English as adorns the
pages of the Spectator, but there was no display
of rhetorical flourishes, such as pass in some quar-
ters for tine preaching.

That was a striking tribute of Sir James Mac-
intosh to "Butler's Analogy" that it contained
"the best philosophy of Christianity" that was
ever published. While I do not accept this extrava-
gant estimate, yet I have sometimes thought that
Brother Singleton's matter and manner of speech
was not unlike that of the bishop of Durham.

His scanty^ salaries, ofttimes painfully inade-
quate for the support and education of a large
family, constrained him at some periods of his life
to resort to secular employment. He was in de-
mand as a practical geologist and as an expert in
the location of gold deposits and other valuable
ores. While this was to be regretted, he was con-
scientious in all he did, and was never neglectful
of any ministerial work which he had in hand.

His success in the work of conversion was not
phenomenal, yet down to his last day he was
everywhere beloved and admired by the people of
his various pastoral charges. His children who sur-
vive him are usefully employed and not unworthy
of their pious father.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 127

WALTER R. BRANHAM

Was born in Eatonton, Ga., November 18, 1813,
and left this world from his home at Oxford, Ga.,
on Sunday afternoon, September 2, 1894. Another
member of our Father's family, part on earth and
part in heaven, has crossed the flood.

There are sad hearts on this side the river,
And tears have been shed at the going of our brother;
But while we mourn the departure of the loved and lost,
The redeemed are greeting the saint that has crossed.

Brother Branhamwas a son of Dr. Branham, of
Eatonton, one of the most distinguished physi-
cians Georgia has ever produced, and who was also
one of the wisest and purest of her public men.
He represented Putnam county in the house of rep-
resentatives of the general assembly of Georgia for
a number of years, and was then elected to the
state senate.

Brother Branham graduated at the University of
Georgia in 1835. Among his classmates was that
brilliant orator and brave soldier, Gen. Francis S.
Bartow, whose life was an early sacrifice to the
"lost cause," and that eminent physician, Dr. Craw-
ford W. Long, "the discoverer of anaesthesia."
An important event in the life of our deceased
brother occurred the year of his graduation. Of
that we will let the venerable Dr. A. H. Mitchell, of

128 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Alabama, a witness to the scene, be the chronicler.
Writing of Brother Branham in the Christian Ad-
A-ocate, of January 24, 1891, he said: "The
mention of this name brings up memories, 0 how
precious, how ancient, yea, almost forgotten.
Walter Branham ! Why, Mr. Editor, I received
him into the church in 1835. He was then a
student in college at Athens, Ga. I was not sta-
tioned at Athens, but was traveling the Gaines-
ville circuit. Richard Mosley was stationed at
Athens, and he proposed to change appointments
with me for a time. While at Athens I opened the
door of the church, and to the astonishment of
many — for there was no special revival going on —
Walter Branham came up and gave his hand for
membership in the church. Many, very many
precious souls I have had the pleasure of receiving
into the church ,• and have long since forgotten,
but I have never forgotten young Branham, and
with what dignity and manly bearing he took
this first step in a religious life, and how quietly
and gracefully he has moved along through all
the changes and responsibilities of the itinerancy."
Brother Branham was licensed to preach in Octo-
ber, 1836, by Rev. William J. Parks, presiding
elder of Macon district, and in December of the
same year, at Columbus, he was admitted on a
trial into the Georgia Conference, and sent to
the Watkinsville circuit wTith John W. Glenn, then
in the second vear of his ministry. The W7atkins-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 129

ville circuit was in the Athens district, and Wil-
liam J. Parks was the presiding elder of that dis-
trict for 1837. Bishop James 0. Andrew presided
over the conference which admitted Brother Bran-
ham and the men who joined with him. Among
his classmates was that courtly gentleman, that
finished scholar, that princely preacher, and that
spotless Christian, Dr. Alfred T. Mann. There was
another, the pathetie tones of whose musical voice
linger in memory yet. Who among us could ever
sing as John P. Duncan sang?

Where eyes are never dim,
He sings the crowning hymn,
While angels listen to the strain,
And wonder at the sweet refrain.

Then there was that profound theologian, Rev.
Josiah Lewis, Jr., who was as well-equipped for
the chair of a quarterly conference as he was for
the pulpit of a camp-meeting. These were some of
the men who with Walter R. Branham entered
the old Georgia Conference on December 18th, and
who with him have left to us the undying record
of their labors. The future historian of Georgia
Methodism will place these Christian heroes side
bv side with the earliest defenders of our faith,
and the pioneer preachers of Wesleyan Arminian-
ism.

Let us take a glimpse at the Georgia Conference
of 1836. Among the prominent members of that
body were Lovick Pierce, William Arnold, Wil-

130 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

liam J. Parks, Isaac Boring, Jesse Boring, John
W. Tally, George F. Pierce, Caleb W. Key, Sam-
uel Anthony, James E. Evans, Whitefoord Smith,
John W. Yarbrough, Alexander Speerand John W.
Glenn. On the superannuated list appear the
names of such men as Lewis Myers, Allen Turner^
Samuel K. Hodges and Ignatius A. Few. All of
these men have left the earth, and not a single
member of the conference of 1836 is now with us
December, 1836 ! An immense amount of Meth-
odist history has been made since then. That year
the old Southern Christian Advocate was born
and in 1837, Samuel J. Bryan and Thomas C.
Benning were collecting funds to erect buildings for
Emory College. The ministerial life of our sainted
brother stretches across all of the years of the
existence of our conference college. And though
he was an alumnus of the State University, yet our
own college had in him a true friend. His vener-
able form will be missed by the boys that return to
Oxford. The following appointments were served
by Brother Branham : 1837, Watkinsville, with
John W. Glenn; 1838, Augusta, with Isaac
Boring; 1839, Clinton and Monticello, with N H.
Harris; 1840-41, Milledgeville; 1842, Athens
and Lexington, with Daniel Curry; 1843, Law-
renceville; 1844, Madison ; 1845, Eatonton, with
John P. Duncan; 1846, Eatonton; 1847-48, Yine-
ville; 1849, Macon; 1850-51, Savannah; 1852,
professor in Wesleyan Female College; 1853-54,

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 131

supernumerary; 1855-56, Covington and Oxford;
1857-58-59, Atlanta district; 1860-61-62-63,
Griffin district ; 1864-65, Atlanta district ; 1866-67-
68, Athens district; 1869-70, Griffin district; 1871,
Washington ; 1872-73-74, Oxford and Social Cir-
cle; 1875; Covington and Mount Pleasant; 1876,
Covington; 1877-78 Social Circle; 1879, Jackson ;
1880-81, Oxford; 1882, Atlanta city mission.
Here his active itinerant ministry of forty-six
years, save one year as professor in Wesley an
Female College, and two yea s of rest necessitated
by feeble health, ended. At the conference of 1882
he was placed on the superannuated list, where he
has since remained. After more than forty years
in the ranks of effective preaching, he gracefully
retired, carrying with him the love and respect of
all of his brethren . For the past twelve years he has
gone in and out among us, illustrating the power
of sanctifying: grace. Having fought a good fight,
having kept the faith, he came at last to the
"grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cora-
eth in his season."

"Servant of God, well done !
Kest from thy loved employ,
The battle fought, the vict'ry won,
Enter thy Master's joy."

M. S. Williams,
H. H. Parks,
W. D. Shea,

Committee.

132 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

MILES W. ARNOLD.

Rev. Miles W. Arnold was born in Putnam county
Ga., October 10, 1829, and died about the same
day and month of the jTear at his residence in
Walton county, Ga., in 1894. He suffered great
pain and discomfort during his last illness. As
I am advised, he was next to the youngest son of
the venerable William Arnold, whose reputation
for piety and pulpit efficiency was commensurate
with the limits of the old South Carolina Confer-
ence. Both the late William Arnold, his emi-
nent father, and himself had a considerable share of
the poetic gift and were both sweet singers in Is-
rael. Brother Miles W. Arnold was in his prime a
revivalist of marked ability. Few preachers of his
day, whether on station or circuit, exceeded him
in the number of conversions under his ministry.
In temper he was one of the most affable men
whose acquaintance I ever made. His genial dis-
position and warm-heartedness made him a favor-
ite among all classes in town or country . Especially
were the children devoted to this man of God,
who had imbibed no little of the spirit of Christ
when he said, "Suffer the little children to come
unto me, and forbid them not." Among children
of larger growth, young men and maidens, he

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 133

wielded an influence that endeared him to them all
through the }rears of his checkered life.

Brother Arnold was twice married ; once to Miss
Martha Baskin,a most excellent Christian woman
of Carroll county, Georgia, by which marriage he
was blessed with a group of interesting children,
only two of whom survive — Lawrence, the busi-
ness manager of a prominent institution of learn-
ing in the city of Atlanta ; and Sallie, the wife of
a substantial citizen of Warren county, Ga.

Brother Arnold in dying left no blur on his
name, and his last moments were sweetened by
the tender ministry of his second wife, a Mrs.
Nowell, who heroically shared with him the hard-
ships of his later itinerant life. If I may be par-
doned for a personal remark I will add that
I never had a more constant friend, whether in
sickness or health. Thank God that

"While there is no fellowship on earth
That has not here its end,"

yet beyond the stars the blessed associations of
this life will be renewed and perpetuated for ever-
more.

134 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

W. B. MOSS.

Rev. W. B. Moss was a native of North Caro-
lina and entered the ministry in 1841.

He had the advantage of a good academic edu-
cation and was a student of the standard English
and American literature. His pulpit gifts were
excellent, and but for feeble health, he would have
reached a high position in the ministry. Even as
it was he occupied several good positions in
Hamilton, Carrollton and subsequently at Augusta
where he died, leaving an excellent wife and two
sons, the elder of whom died during the late civil
war, the younger still surviving — the bookkeeper
of The Foote & Davies Co., the well-known At-
lanta publishers.

M. D. C. JOHNSON.

Rev. M. D. C. Johnson died at Griffin, Ga., in
July, 1849, in the 42nd year of his age. He
served a number of churches in the Georgia Con-
ference, amongst them Washington, Madison,
Covington and ultimately failed from broken

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 135

health at St. Augustine, Fla. Several years of his
life were spent at Culloden, the headquarters
of both local and itinerant Methodist preachers, a
half century ago. While here he was an intimate
friend of Bro. Cook, the excellent father of Dr.
W. F. Cook, who is still a leader in the Georgia
Conferences.

Bro. Johnson was likewise a cordial friend of
Bishop Pierce when the latter was in his prime.
The bishop esteemed him an able preacher, and he
only lacked health to have made him a minister
of great distinction.

The venerable relict of Bro. Johnson still sur-
vives at the ripe age of eighty-four and is a model
of consistent piety. Two of her sons, Mark W.
and Joseph, are favorably known in the business
and ecclesiastical circles of Atlanta and its vicinity.

JOHN HOWARD.

In no small measure the founders of American
Methodism set great store by that quality that
our English ancestors denominate "pluck." From
Asbury, the pioneer bishop, to Jesse Lee, the apos-
tle of New England, and Richmond Nloley, who
died in the swamps of the Mississippi of a mala-

136 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

rial fever, they were strangers to "any fear of
mortal man." Hope Hull, Lewis Myers, and John
Howard, were in this apostolic succession, and
with other early leaders of Georgia Methodism,
esteemed moral courage as the chief est of the car-
dinal virtues. During the first year of my minis-
try, when stationed in Columbus, T heard mar-
velous accounts of the preaching of John How-
ard, and hardly less of his wonderful gift of
prayer. Added to these intellectual endowments
he was, in shape and voice and gesture, remarka-
bly well-adapted to sway the vast congregations
that flocked to his ministry.

Nor was his celebrity of a local character, but ex-
tended throughout the conference. His success in
bringing penitents to the altar was surpassed by
few, if any, of his contemporaries. His stirring
appeals would often lift an audience to its feet,
and were made more impressive by a voice of
vast compass that seemed to sweep the entire
gamut of the minor scale.

Dr. George Smith, who has searched ever nook
and corner of Georgia Methodism as with the lan-
tern of Diogenes, has said so much of his distin-
guished kinsman that we may be readily excused
from further details in this biographic etching.
We simply add that he was not the least conspicu-
ous of the American Howards who are remotely
descended from the flower of the English nobility,
who figure largely in the chronicles of Froissart
and in the historical plays of Shakespeare.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 137

WM. HOLMES ELLISON.

Wm. Holmes Ellison first came into notice
among Georgia Methodists as president of Wesley-
an Female College, Macon, Ga.

He succeeded Dr. (afterward Bishop) Geo. F.
Pierce, and was at the head of that institution for
ten years of its early history. It soon became evi-
dent that no better selection could have been made
for that important position. There were but few
men in the entire connection, at that time, who
combined so well as he the qualities required to
popularize that new educational enterprise of the
church, and push it out on a career of permanent
usefulness and prosperity.

Born and reared in one of the best Methodist
families of Charleston, S. C, he had what com-
paratively few of his Methodist contemporaries
enjoyed, the advantage of a regular collegiate
education. Soon after finishing his college course,
he was licensed to preach, and joined the South
Carolina Conference.

The second year of his ministry he was stationed
in Charleston, his native city, and subsequently
at Wilmington, N. C, and Georgetown, S. C.

In the mean time he had married the daughter of
Bishop Wm. Capers, of South Carolina.

138 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

At the close of his term at Georgetown, he was
called to the chair of Mathematics in LaGrange
College, Ala., then presided over by Dr. Robert
(afterward Bishop) Paine.

From this point he was called to assist in the
organization of the Wesleyan Female College at
Macon, Ga., and after serving as a member of the
faculty for two or three years, was elected presi-
dent to fill the place, as we have seen, made vacant
by the resignation of Dr. Geo. F. Pierce.

Dr. Ellison was a charming preacher, a most
lovable man, a model college president. He ma3rbe
said to have been a pioneer in the higher educa-
tion of girls. The institution over which he pre-
sided was the first chartered female college in the
world. He devised and signed the first diploma
ever given to a girl graduate. To him, more than
to any educator of his time, was committed the
task of formulating the right conception of edu-
cated Christian womanhood and of embodying
that conception in living examples.

It is not too much to say, that the Wesleyan
Female College, under the presidency of Dr. Wm. H.
Ellison, furnished the first instances of the very
high type of Christian womanhood which to-day
is the brightest ornament and richest treasure of
our church at large. After ten years of most ardu-
ous and successful service in the college, he found
his health giving way and decided to turn aside
awhile and rest. Accordingly, he resigned the

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 139

presidency of the college and moved to Alabama,
intending to lead, for a time at least, a retired life
on a farm.

But he was not permitted to remain long in re-
tirement. In the course of a year or two we find
him president of a female college that had been
established at Chunneenugge, Ala., under the aus-
pices of the Alabama Conference, to which con-
ference he had been transferred on his removal
from Georgia. Here he remained four or five
years, bringing the new institution up to a very
high standard as a church school.

The next twenty years ot his life he gave to the
regular work of the ministry as a member of the
Alabama Conference.

He was in demand for the best stations and dis-
tricts of the conference, and continued to do effec-
tive work until he had passed his three score
years and ten. His old age was rich in the fruits
of a wide range of study and observation, com-
bined with long experience in the deep things of
God.

He was just entering his eightieth year of age,
after fifty-seven vears of faithful and efficient ser-
vice in positions of highest trust and responsi-
bility, when the Master said, "It is enough, come
up higher."

140 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

WILLIAM P. HARRISON,

THE LEARNED SCRIBE.

For more than thirty j^ears I was intimately as-
sociated with this eminent divine, whose recent
death has brought profound sorrow to thousands
of friends who admired him for his rare ability,
and loved him for his excellent social qualities.
For two years, 1866-67, I was, by episcopal ap-
pointment, his assistant at the First Methodist
Church, of Atlanta. During the first year of his
pastorate I supplied his pulpit for three months,
while he went to a number of Northern and Western
cities on a canvassing tour in behalf of a new church
which he had projected, and which, after grave
discouragements, he ultimately completed. From
his own lips, during our frequent interviews, I
gathered the story of his boyhood while a merry
and ubiquitous sprite in his father's printing office
in Savannah. Hehad few educational advantages
in his youth except such as were afforded him at
the compositor's case, where he acquired the rudi-
ments of his mother tongue, which in after years
he mastered to a degree scarcely equalled by his
foremost pulpit contemporaries. As opportunity
offered he became an insatiate reader of books,
and as he phrased it, he "was not always discrimi-
native" in his selection of them. He was excess-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 141

ively fond of folklore, and not less so of such writ-
ings as ''Robinson Crusoe," the "Arabian Nights"
and DeFoe's "History of the Devil." But he soon
developed better tastes and higher literary aspira-
tions, becoming a voracious student of history
and biography.

From the start he exhibited also the qualities of
bibliophilist, commencing the accumulation of a
library which in his lifetime resulted in a library
of ten thousand volumes, very many of them rare
and costly books which he purchased in Europe.
If he had any weakness it lay in this direction.

I have sometimes suggested to him in a playful
mood, as we sat and smoked in his study, that he
had as great a craving for books as Jack Falstaff
had for Dame Quickley's cup of sack. "Ah, me,"
he would reply, "these, Scott, are my working
tools." When I rejoined, "But, Harrison, you
forget what Wesley said of the Homo unius libri,"
and then, quick as a lightning flash would come
the surrejoinder, "True enough, but then you seem
to have forgotten that Wesley himself wrote a
dozen different grammars of as many languages^
and sermons by the hundred. He was far himself
from being a man of one book." And thus we
spent hours in like pleasant interchange of views,
uniformly conducted in the best of temper. Look-
ing back to these ambrosial hours when we were
both young, and then recalling his late intermentjat

142 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Linwood cemetery, we feel almost like saying with
Hamlet, in the graved iggers' scene: "Alas, poor
Yorick, I knew him well!" For although in many
respects unlike the king's favorite jester, he, too,
was a man of infinite jest and marvelous fancy
when in companionship with congenial spirits at
the fireside or the dinner table. But I fear I am
indulging more than is seemly in this autobio-
graphic vein.

But his chief literary aim was to become a lin-
guist. Without a master he acquired Hebrew and
its cognate dialects, in which he made great pro-
ficiency. So likewise, with Greek and Latin he
was only less familiar.

Several of the modern languages, especially
German, French and Spanish, he was fairly ac-
quainted with, reading Goethe and Schiller with
considerable facility and Don Quixote and Racine
with equal readiness. When it is remembered that
he had comparatively little scholastic training,
these were remarkable achievements.

This is, we believe, a just critical estimate of his
philological attainments. He was neither a Max
Muller nor a Mezzofanti, but with equal collegiate
advantages, he would have been worthy of their
fellowship.

Dr. Harrison was prone to burn the midnight oil
and this, in part, accounts for his chronic invalid-
ism through much of his life

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 143

As early as the close of his first pastorate at
First Methodist church he was well-nigh a physical
wreck. The conference was in session at Atlanta,
he being bedridden by nervous prostration. He
sent for me two or three nights before the adjourn-
ment.

I obeyed his summons, went to the parsonage
and found him greatly dispirited. He told me he
was anxious to remain in Atlanta, and he knew
that his congregation desired it. I knew that fact
quite as well, for he was a great favorite with all
sorts and conditions of men throughout the city.

He then asked me, as a personal favor, to con-
tinue my present relation to himself and the
church, assisting him in the pulpit until his health
was re-established. I replied that I was not ready
to abandon my connection with the conference,
nor to give up the publication of my magazine.
Indeed I could not do the latter, as I was legally
obligated to my partners to continue in the edi-
torship. But that to assist him in the present
emergency I was willing to give him occasional help
in the pulpit without compensation, as I derived
a fair income from the magazine. He thanked me
heartily and said : "Scott, I want you to go at
once and see Bishop Pierce and say to him what
you have said to me, and I think the question will
be settled." I did immediately as he requested and
had a private interview with the bishop at his
hotel on Alabama street. When I spoke to the

144 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

bishop, he replied that he thought of sending me to
Griffin. I rejoined: "Bishop, as you well know,
I always obey orders, but I trust you will not
make that appointment, as my business interests
would greatly suffer." "Well," said the bishop,
"First church cannot support both of you."
"Well, bishop, I promised Harrison that if you
would not remove him I would still assist him
without charge as far as circumstances would pos-
sibly allow." "I think," answered the bishop,
"that I see light, and there is no good reason why
it should not be done."

I think, however, that it was probably a fore-
gone conclusion to remove him, not for any dis-
satisfaction in the church, but for his own sake to
transfer him to the milder climate of the South
Georgia Conference. I believed when the transfer
was made it was a mistake, and so it turned out.
As for myself, I was appointed to a half station at
Acworth, where I had a delightful three years' pas-
torate that yielded me a half support for preaching
two Sundays in the month. No pastoral work was
required of me and I had ample time for pushing
the interests of the magazine. Dr. Harrison,
meanwhile, returned to North Georgia, and with
the aid of several warm personal friends, located
on a truck farm near Marietta, Ga., where he strug-
gled for two years with an agricultural experi-
ment that yielded him very unsatisfactory re-
turns.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 145

But while as a financial venture it was a failure,
his health was greatly benefited, and for the next
two years he was appointed to the Rome dis-
trict, where he did some of his best work.

The next \rear he resumed his pulpit work in At-
lanta to the evident gratification of his former
charge. It is now in order to speak of him as a
preacher, and yet so well-established was his repu-
tation in that regard that I shall not enter into
details.

His preaching was uniformly of a high order,
but there were special topics upon which it was
wonderful alike in force and eloquence.

Amongst these was his sermon on Christ's collo-
quy with Peter at the sea of Tiberias. In that
sermon he drew the distinction between the Greek
verbs agapo and phileo which was at times unfavor-
ably criticised. Another was his notable discourse
on Paul's address on Mars Hill, in the course of
which he spoke learnedly of the different schools of
Athenian philosophy. Another, which Rev. Peter
A. Heard esteemed his most masterly effort, was
when the Saviour said to the seventy disciples :
"Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you,
but rather rejoice because your names are written
in heaven."

I have sometimes said to him that his plain
gospel sermons were his best, when he occasionally
rose to the high-water mark of Bishop Pierce.
Sermonic literature, as I once said to Bishop Hay-

140

BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

good, is not much in demand but a small collec-
tion of Harrison's sermons could find readv sale.

As an author he merits no little fame. His first
venture of this sort was the publication of "The-
ophilus Walton," a reply to "Theodosia Earnest,"
a popular rather than learned treatise on the Bap-
tist controversy which some years ago swTept like
a prairie fire throughout the South and West.
This was the era of the Graves and Brownlow
controversy. These athletes exhausted the vocab-
ulary of slang and vituperation and left the
question where they found it. His next publica-
tion was ''The Living Christ," which added but
little to his former reputation. Indeed, neither of
the books referred to form any considerable part
of his literary inheritance. As a writer his endur-
ing fame will rest on his splendid contributions to
the ''Editor's Table" of the Methodist Quarterly
Review. This was always a favorite department
with the best readers of that ponderous publica-
tion. From it might be compiled a large volume
that would outlive its century and rank its author
with the best historical and theological writers of
M ethodism

We had purposed to enlarge on his social quali-
ties. These might be compared to those of Oliver
Wendell Holmes, the self-stvled "Autocrat of the
Breakfast Table," or Charles Lamb, the "gentle
Elia," leaving out the broad churchism that charac-
terized the latter vears of the former and the

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 147

ribald jests of the latter when he was saturated
with gin or opium. He was best seen, however,
in a circle of intimate friends — for, like Addison,
he thought that conversation was impossible in
a promiscuous assemblage.

Less than a year ago I had a brief correspon-
dence with him respecting my last contribution to
his review. Of these there were several during
the period of his editorship, for which he always
compensated me liberally.

In that last correspondence he spoke meekly of
his failing eyesight and his cancerous affliction. .

It was a little singular that he was never elected
a delegate to the General Conference until 1882,
when a member of the Baltimore Conference and
stationed at Winchester, Va. It was, however,
due to no lack of appreciation by his ministerial
brethren, but chiefly because that he evinced no
liking for parliamentary proceedings. He was
seldom even within the bar during the conference
sessions and less frequently did he take part in
the debates of the body. The General Conference,
however, made amends for this seeming neglect by
electing him to three terms of service as book editor
and editor of the Quarterly Review, a position for
which he was splendidly endowed. This place he
would have retained for another quadrennium but
for the rapid decline of his health, foreshadowing
his death at an early date. Amidst all the mutations
of worldlv fortune — the death of several members

148 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

of his household and his intense bodily suffering,
he clung to his trust in God. The ministry of a
faithful wife, and the sympathy of a host of
friends illumined his death chamber so that he
passed away

"Gently as to a night's repose,
Like flowers at set of sun."

JOSIAH LEWIS.

When the Georgia Conference held its fifth an-
nual session at Columbus in December, 1836, four
young ministers asked to be admitted into the
itinerant ranks. They were duly received and be-
gan a long career of marked usefulness which has
deeply impressed the moral and religious history
of the "Empire State of the South." They were
alike in their devotion to the cause they espoused,
but as different from each other in natural tem-
perament as the crystals of the falling snow.
Walter R. Branham was the "beloved disciple,"
delighting ever in the message, "little children love
one another;" John P. Duncan was the Asaph of
his day, singing his way to the hearts of men
that he might bring them into harmony with God.
Alfred T. Mann was the Apollos of his church,

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 149

swaying b}r his matchless orator}7 and winning by
his passionate appeals ; Josiah Lewis was na-
ture's masterpiece, stern but tender, grave but
cheerful, humble but courageous, trustful but
mighty. He was unique in his individuality,
creating a suspicion of eccentricity, but a simpler
stronger nature has seldom been known among
men. A man of clear convictions, his opinions
were well-grounded and boldly held. His mental
cast was logical, arguing from premises, and reach-
ing conclusions wrhich he was prepared to defend.
His intellectual character, like his religious life, was
moulded by familiarity with theBible. He thought
in the terse utterances of the word of God, and
expressed himself writh telling force. Those who
frequently heard him in the pulpit have often
been aroused into wonder at his power of state-
ment compacted into discourse. The preachers of
the "rifle, axe and saddle-bags" period were men
of "one book." "They eave attendance to read-
ing, to exhortation, to doctrine," and qualified
themselves by the careful study of the "one book."
Brother Lewis was no exception to the rule, and
yet he had supplemented the limited educational
advantages of his youth by adding to his mental
store a liberal knowledge of the classics, both
ancient and modern. indeed, as opportunity
offered, he delighted to make excursions into the
tempting fields of general literature. Nevertheless
the Bible was his chief study. It was a real fasci-

150 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

nation to him— a charm that was never broken.
It engaged him and all his powers. For hours
each day I have seen him digging deep into the
mines'of truth, and like the miners of Cornwall,
he found the ore richer and brighter, as with the
light of God's spirit, he penetrated farther. Now
and then he seemed to arouse from his absorbing
search, and a positive glow would rest upon his
stern features, and mellow light would sparkle in
his dancing eyes. It was as if he had met his
Lord in some divine vision of His will and word.
Such preparation gave him the well-merited power
of exegesis. Bishop Pierce was accustomed to
consult him as he would a commentarvon difficult
passages, and prized his interpretations as those
of a master. A story of the earlier days has come
down, that on one occasion in the presence of
Bishop Pierce and other ministers, Bro. Lewis
undertook the elucidation of a much controverted
text. Perhaps the doctrine had just been dis-
cussed at the fireside, and deep interest had been
awakened, our hero observing his usual reserve un-
til called on to speak. The hour for preaching
had come and abruptly broke off the discussion.
The exegete was the preacher that day, and to
the surprise and delight of the ministers he
announced the passage whose mysteries they had
been trying in vain to solve. Without unneces-
sary delay he ''launched into the deep." Sentence
after sentence in tersest, strongest words fell like

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 151

flashes of light through the lowering clouds, col-
lation and comparison of related doctrines famil-
iar as a song of childhood cleared the opening
sky, until in briefer space than is often used in in-
troductions to what are called "fine sermons," the
heavens rolled before the astonished company in
azure blue, and the sun of truth was shining in
wondrous revelation. His task done he cast his
glance upon the preachers present, and quaintly
said, "Now, if any of you can beat that, you may
have a chance to try." Nobody tried, the contro-
versy was ended.

A commentary on the Bible from his pen would
have taken much time from his preferred field
work, but such a book would have been a rare
addition to ''Helps in the study of God's word."
The Arminian view of theology was his natural
correspondence. His straightforward, manly,
mental movement easily fell into this form of
doctrinal truth. He believed it from his heart,
and preached it with unwonted power. Calvin-
ism had no place in his thoughts except to find
arguments to destroy it. He felt that it was lit-
tle less than sin, God was dishonored by it, and
men should not believe it if he could helpit. Some-
times he was severe in his denunciation of the
"awful heresy." On occasion he would rise with
the might of a conqueror, and upset every founda-
tion on which it was built. When Calvinists were
present in his congregation he seemed most on fire

152 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

to speak the truth as he saw it. I remember one
bright Sabbath when all the congregations of a
little city crowded into his toenjo\r a day with the
Methodists. Baptists and Presb\'terians were
there in force. It was communion day, but no
matter, Arminius must be supported and Calvin
driven from the field. The argument began
quietly with premises well laid. The building
went up stone on stone. The corner columns
stood together in clasped embrace. The great
builder saw the completed structure, perfect and
strong. His whole nature swelled and bounded
with the tides of feeling and confidence and rising
upon the highest billows of his impassioned soul,
he knew no limitations, but boldly declared in a
very outburst of fervor, "Arminianismis true, and
John Calvin has done more harm than any six
infidels that ever lived. If he was saved at all it
wasb3Tthe skin of his teeth." The Methodists had
close communion that day.

Though he reveled in "forensic eloquence" it must
not be inferred that he was confined to this form
of pulpit power. In no sense was he a one-sided
messenger of the truth. Devoting himself wholly
to the work of the ministr}', never turning aside
from its demands upon him, never resting through
the forty years of his itinerant life, he was a
preacher in the completest sense, and nothing but
a preacher of the whole gospel, in every phase of
it. I have heard him discourse on Love, and his

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 15B

tones were as tender as a flute, while his words
were as choice and pure as crystal streams. His
sermon on "Charity never faileth," was a breaking
of the alabaster box of precious ointment, mellow-
ing the heart and leaving a long perfume. It was
a matchless presentation of the high theme. His
unfaltering courage and uncompromising fidelity
were of the quality to stand any test. No mere
circumstances affected him. He could say with the
emphasis of the apostle to the Gentiles, "None of
these things move me, neither count I my life
dear unto myself." No form of evil escaped his
denunciation. No fear of men restrained his
rebukes. In a certain county in Georgia while
slavery existed, his trusty old horse took fright
at a group of half -clad ragged negro children on
the road. He was going to camp-meeting, and
got a message on the way. At the principal hour,
in the presence of thousands, many of whom were
large slave-owners, his the me was theduty of mas-
ters to slaves. He toldthe incident of the neglected
children, and the frightened horse, and cried
aloud, sparing not the inhumanity of masters
to their slaves, and demanding reform. There
was no mincing of words, no cringing that
"thrift might follow fawning."

He waxed warmer and grew bolder as he found
he was denouncing an evil, alas, too common in
that section. The sermon produced a sensation.
The guilty were excited to the highest pitch, and

154 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

they turned their wrath toward the preacher.
Threats of violence were freely made, and reached
his ears. Without a fear he moved among his ene-
mies, and when the storm had passed, the daunt-
less prophet lived to see a great reform. No sketch
of Josiah Lewis would be at all lifelike that
did not at least make mention of his love of
humor. He had the keenest appreciation of the
ludicrous, often finding it where the ordinary
observer would fail to see it. I have seen him con-
vulsed with laughter, and "when he laughed he
laughed all over." Once, passing down the princi-
pal street of a city, he had a vision of fun. It
was too much for him. He stopped still, and sup-
porting himself on my shoulder, his great body
shook with emotion, until tears poured down his
glowing cheeks. His support soon failed him
under the law of contagion. He once enj'03'ed a
huge joke on the two weather prophets of a
Georgia town. It came about in this way. During
a long, dry summer in the seventies, he was help-
ing the pastor in a protracted meeting, spending
a week among the brethren. One day four or five
of the officials joined him and the pastor at a din-
ing. After dinner, sitting on the veranda, the
party naturally bewailed the heat of the weather,
and the poor prospect for rain. One brother said
the dry spell would continue for some time, as
Maj. A. had announced that there would be no
rain for six weeks, and Judge P. had agreed with

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 155

his fellow-seer, except that he thought we might
be refreshed with a shower in foar weeks.
There was no need of a weather bureau in that
town when these oracles spoke. Their prognosti-
cations were a law unto many. "Uncle Joe" heard
what was said. He was weather-wise himself.
With a curious twinkle in his black eyes, he looked
up into the sky. A little to the southwest there
was a cloud no bigger than a man's hand. He
kept watch on it. At last under an excitement
which he could not conceal, he said, "if the wind
does not jump the corner, we will have rain in
less than twelve hours." This was a bold
prophecy in that town, but he made it, and now
it was prophet against prophet. The company
sat together an hour or more, now and then
recurring to the weather. Meanwhile the cloud
grew, and the wind pla\red true. Uncle Joe's ex-
citement became intense. The air was changing

CD O

in temperature, and nature threw out her signal
of the near approach of rain, and then in a few
minutes more the great drops began to fall.
With an air of triumph our old Elijah arose, and
warned the company that "if they did not hurry
home they would get a wetting." All bade adieu
to the host and hastened down the street. On the
way a hea\w fall of rain ran the party into the
stores for shelter. While standing in the door re-
joicing in the refreshing from the clouds, some one
pointed out to Uncle Joe, Maj. A. and Judge

156 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

P., both big and fat, running for dear life to get
out of the rain. That was joy enough for him.
The false prophets had fallen.

There was no service that night on account of
the rain. Next morning the sun arose bright and
beautiful and every tree beamed with gems in
raindrops on their leaves. The prayer-meeting
was rich in songs of praise, and happy hearts were
full of gratitude. Uncle Joe began his prayer in
these words. "Oh Lord, we thank thee for thy
goodness, remembering us when we forget thee.
We especially thank thee for the refreshing-
showers that have fallen upon the earth, in spite
of the prophecies of ungodly men, who cannot
trust thee in thy providence."

In his latter life Bro. Lewis leaned upon a staff
with a head of gold. It was a present to him from
his friends who were attending the commence-
ment exercises of Emory College. Inscribed on
the precious metal were these words :

"Rev. Josiah Lewis,
Our Model Patron."

One after another, seven noble sons have
graduated' with the honors of the institution, and
each one took a manly place among men. Two
have joined their father on the other shore.
Others of them are honoring his name on earth,
perpetuating the work which he began. He lives
in them and theirs, and "his works do lollow
him."

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 157

W. C. BASS.

Often have I made eulogies on my deceased
brethren ; never have I responded more cheer-
fully than on this occasion, sad as it is for maru'
reasons. There is a strange juxtaposition here.
The report which I have just read by request of the
committee on memoirs was not from my pen; it
was written by the late Dr. Clark, in expectation of
an earlier departure of Dr. Bass, and it was printed
before either of them passed into the beyond,
Dr. Clark going first. The report is fully endorsed
by me except as to two immaterial facts of
date and place. Bishop Pierce's first sermon was
delivered in Monticello, Ga., after announcement
by that stentor, Wesley P. Arnold. So the bishop
himself told me, remarking, "and everything that
could get on a shoe came out." Let me say no
wonder, for he was the son of Lovick Pierce, the
prince of preachers.

Again, the South Carolina Conference was
divided (setting off Georgia) in January, 1831 — not
at the close of the year. George F. Pierce joined at
the first session of the Georgia Conference, Janu-
ary, 1831. These alterations are very small and
amount to nothing but to be more accurate.

Capers Bass, as he was always called, was a
South Carolinian, though born in Augusta, Ga.

158 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

lie was educated at divers places, but chiefly at
Cokesbury, S. C, and Emory College, Georgia.
Being six years older than Dr. Bass, I was at
Cokesbury several years in advance of him. I
first saw him on the stage at Emory College. A
powerful young man in bodily strength, with a
most commanding voice. It was a Sophomore
exercise and he declaimed Webster's great speech
on the Union. His physical and vocal powers
made this very appropriate. But it was strange
for a South Carolina boy, feeling as he did with
his State, to speak Webster, the most national man
in America. South Carolina at that very date
was attempting secession which was effected ten
years later.

Dr. Bass had many fine traits. Of some I will
speak freely. As a preacher he was highly
respectable.

He had a marked fondness for preaching on
parables and narratives and herein he wTas an
adept. His chief distinction, however, was as an
educator. After serving at Greensboro and Madi-
son, he came to the Wesley an Female College as a
professor of natural science. This chair he filled
fifteen years under divers presidents. When Dr. E-
H. Myers resigned, Dr. Bass was advanced to the
presidency. He filled this office twenty years — in
all he was in the Wesleyan College thirty -five
years. The college was run on the leasing plan,
and he and Dr. Cosby W. Smith were the lessees.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 159

Smith had less ambition than any man of learn-
ing I ever knew. He was the senior of Bass but
did not want the presidency and gladly surren-
dered his claims to the junior partner. They
were like David and Jonathan, in perfect accord,
until six years ago when Dr. Smith suddenly died.

Dr. Bass must be viewed as a man of affairs
having very great executive talents. During my
long residence in Macon — twenty-five years — I
have never heard of a servant or teacher, or mer-
chant or bankercomplaining of Dr. Bass for even
tardiness, and he carried this vast load. His corps
of professors respected and even admired him.
The internal affairs of the college ran srnoothly
under his control. When it became necessary to have
a final settlement with him (I speak as a trustee),
it was found that he had advanced money for the
trustees beyond his duty, and a balance of three
hundred and fourteen dollars was due Dr. Bass,
which we admitted and paid.

Dr. Bass was a very generous and unselfish man,
and very much of an altruist — he did not live for
himself, but to do good. How many poor young
women he has educated free of tuition and by
reduced board none will ever know. These women
owe him a debt of gratitude they can scarcely
pay, but they should make an endeavor. Let
the hundreds trained by him now rich unite to
honor his memory by erecting a lasting monu-
ment in the form of a science hall, the most impera-

160 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

tive want of the college. ] am safe in saying no
man in Georgia has done so much for female edu-
cation.

You do not think it strange that Dr. Bass did
not grow rich, in view of what has been stated —
he cared little for money.

It was a dismal day in April last when the trus-
tees met at his request to accept his resignation.
Like a day without sunshine, it was a day of
gloom. There was no alternative, for he was
nearing the grave. Dr. Branch, president of the
board, myself, chairman of the executive board,
and Col. Isaac Hardeman were appointed to seek
a new president. We went to Virginia for him
and Mr. E. H. Rovve was proposed and elected.
May he wear the mantle of Bass well and in
honor.

The speaker could be fuller, but this is enough.
President Bass wras a man of rare combination.
His broad, bright smile, like a sun beaming
through rich windows, we shall see no more; his
powerful voice, suited to the command of martial
battalions, will nevermore be heard in pulpit or
on the stage at conference or college. He lived
well for God and mankind, died in honor and peace
to live forever.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 161

LEWIS J. DAYIES.

Few men of his day were better equipped for
effective pulpit work than Lewis J. Davies. His
school advantages were excellent, and he was
reared in a community where he naturally acquired
a fondness for art and literature.

His reading in after life took a broad range in
theology and in philosophy. What he read he
thoroughly digested, and there was in his preach-
ing no evidence of mental dyspepsia, but a clear
and vigorous statement of divine truth.

He was especially gifted in expository preach-
ing, which he esteemed the best method of pulpit
teaching. I shall always remember a sermon
which he preached in Wesley Chapel in 1861, dur-
ing a memorable revival, the gracious results of
which still abide in the membership of the First
Church. His theme was the fall of Jericho, and
the sermon fairly electrified the crowded audience.
It was often said that the manner of Davies, in
the delivery of a discourse was quite like the man-
ner of Jesse Boring. But while there was a sort
of intellectual affinity between these able men,
neither was a copyist.

As for Davies, he had a most striking individu-
ality. I have even heard him charged with heresy

because some of his theological views were not in

11

162 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

harmony* with the prevailing denominational
sentiment. As a stationed preacher he was not
very much in demand by the larger churches. His
forte was district work, and his best preaching
was probably done tinder the shadow of Yonah,
or Currahee or within earshot of Tallulah, as it
lifts its thunderous psalm of praise to Him "who
girded the mountains with strength."

One of the last and best sermons which I ever
heard fall from his lips was at Little River Camp-
ground, in Cobb count}', where he had a host of
admirers, to whom for many years he made an
annual visitation. It was an elaborate discussion
of the atonement in which he ventured to dissent
from the current belief of the majority of his
ministerial brethren. His doctrinal divergence
was not, however, so wide as to constitute a
stumbling block to any sincere believer.

With all his gifts, Brother Davies was modest
almost to a fault. This doubtless, may have
circumscribed his influence and hindered his ec-
clesiastical preferment. But he enjoyed the esteem
and confidence of his brethren in a high degree,
and his death was reckoned a calamity to the
church he so faithfully served. He was happily
wedded to a daughter of Rev. John C. Simmons,
himself a man of deserved prominence in the con-
ference. To her he was indebted greatly during
his seasons of bad health consequent on nervous
prostration. This excellent Christian woman still

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 163

survives to serve the church in some of its most
important enterprises.

The familiar lines of Halleck on the death of his
poet friend, Joseph Rodman Drake, might be
justly applied to Lewis J. Davies:

" None knew him but to love him,
None named him but to praise."

JAMES B. PAYNE.

James B. Payne was like John W. Knight, "a
brand plucked from the burning." They were
both combative in their instincts and apart from
converting grace were better suited to the prize
ring than to the pulpit. After their conversion
and entrance into the ministry, they were mili-
tant saints, after the fashion of Peter Cartwright
and Gideon Ousley.

They were valiant in defending the truth and
made no compromise with sin, whether in high or
low places.

I first heard "Uncle Jimmy" preach at Rome in
1854, just after the death of his son in Savannah.
His sermon was on the sweet uses of providential
affliction. In the conclusion he referred to his late

164 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

bereavement in a way that brought alternate
shouts and sobs from the audience.

This brings us to the remark that despite the
occasional prosiness of his style, there were times
when his mastery of a congregation was perfect.

When stationed atLaGrange many yeras ago he
conducted one of the most wonderful revivals
known in the history of Western Georgia. From
that period the LaGrange church became one of
the wealthiest and most influential in the Geor-
gia Conference. The Ridleys, the Bulls, the
Heards, the Turners, the Hills, the Morgans, the
Bealls, the Greenwoods, and a dozen other fami-
lies besides were not less distinguished for culture
and piety than the leading Methodists of Athens
and Columbus.

In the years following, Brother Payne occupied
prominent positions on districts and stations,
and more than once was chosen as a delegate to
the General Conference.

For several years towards the close of his use-
ful life he was a resident of Atlanta, greatly
honored and beloved by all the denominations.

Perhaps his last effective service was in connec-
tion with Payne's Chapel, to the organization
and upbuilding of which he contributed largely.

At the time of his death he was a citizen of
Upson county. We need not add that his death
was triumphant.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 165

BISHOP JOSHUA SOULE.

"Once upon a time," as the old story-tellers were
wont to phrase it, I spent an evening with Bishop
Joshua Soule, one of the foremost men of Ameri-
can Methodism. A native of "the district of
Maine" which Massachusetts for many years
treated with true stepmother policy, he was of a
lofty stature and of an imperial bearing that were
suggestive of leadership. He was stopping a few
hours at the old Washington Hall of Atlanta, which
occupied during the war the present sile of the
Markham House. His destination was Mont-
gomery, Ala., whither he was going on an episco-
pal visitation to the Alabama Conference. The
bishop was fortunate in having that rarely gifted
man, Dr. T. 0. Summers, as a traveling compan-
ion. The bishop was bent with age and not less
bowed down with grief at the distracted condition
of affairs in church and state.

While in full sympathy with his adopted section,
the South, he was apprehensive that the secession
movement would result disastrously.

In 184-4 he had deliberately withdrawn from the
northern wing of the church, because he regarded
the Finley resolution which virtually decapitated
Bishop Andrew, as a blow aimed at the episco-
pacy. Rather than acquiesce in such palpable

166 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

wrongdoing, he turned his back on the memories
and associations of his childhood and riper years,
and, like Abraham, went forth into an alien land.
He never wavered in his allegiance to the southern
church, and, while he was physically unfitted for
heavy work, he never shirked duty or responsi-
bility. We have always regretted that it was never
our good fortune to listen to a sermon from that
master of assemblies who promulgated that great
sermon on "The Perfect Law of Liberty." Near
the witching hour of night, Dr. Summers and
mvself assisted this venerable man to his train.
There I took leave of him to meet him next, I de-
voutly hope, where " there is no night."

BISHOP HOLLAND N. McTYEIRE.

My earliest acquaintance with Bishop Holland
N. McTyeire was at an episcopal reunion held in
Atlanta in connection with the annual meeting of
the parent board of missions in 1862. By cour-
tesy, I was invited, with other Atlanta pastors,
to a seat in the bod}-, with the privilege of discus-
sion, but without the right of voting. Bishops
Andrew, Pierce and Paine, were present, and so
were Drs. McTyeire, A. L. P. Green, L. D. Huston

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 167

and Wadsworth. Several prominent lay brethren
were present whose names I have forgotten.

The General Conference set for May of that
year was indefiniteh' postponed and only such
matters as were urgent and did not admit of de-
lay were disposed of in an informal way.

At that time McTyeire impressed me as a man
of superlative abilit}^. It was not until 1866 that
he was episcopally ordained, but by every token,
except "the technical laying on of hands," he was
then as much of an episcopas as though he had
been consecrated by His Grace of York or Canter-
bury.

My next meeting with the late bishop was in
the spring of 1866, at which time he was the pas-
tor of the Methodist Church in Montgmery, Ala-
bama. I was invited to a tea at the parsonage,
when I first saw that thoroughly original, if not
eccentric divine, Dr. Joseph B. Cottrell. It is not
often that one is brought in contact with such a
pleasant host and fellow-guest. The memory of
that scene is still fresh, and has lost but little of
its fragrance. It was enlivened by choice bits of
humor, and spicy discussions of the ecclesiastical
situation which just then was not the most
promising. No one of the part}', however thought
that a reaction would ensue, and that the south-
ern church would emerge from her fiery trial puri-
fied and animated with loftier aims.

168 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Very many people were wont to esteem Bishop
McT\'eire as wanting in sociability. This was a
misapprehension. While he usually had an air of
hauteur, it was more the result of his physical
make-up than of any real lack of the amenities of
good fellowship. His whole nature was full of
sunshine, and there was about him a keen relish
for wit and pleasantry. His Scotch inheritance of
common sense was proverbial. But behind this
there was a play of fancy, and even a sweep of
imagination, which at intervals would thrill his
audiences.

I remember well a district conference sermon on
"The Minor Ministries of the Sanctuary," which
might well rank with the best efforts of the British
or continental pulpit.

As a writer, he was not voluminous, but his his-
tory of Methodism, lacking somewhat in elabora-
tion, is the best of its class. He has written some
sketches which remind us of Longstreet — this is
especially true of his "Uncle Cy." A more satis-
factory and truthful delineation of the old plan-
tation patriarch that Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom."

While he was not a ritualist in any offensive
sense, he had great respect for the prescribed order
of services in the ministration of the Lord's sup-
per. On one occasion he reminded the pastor,
who officiated at the holy communion, that he had
omitted some parts of the service; adding in an
admonitory way, "Take care, lest you fall into
/

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 169

habit of abbreviating the services." So in his
death chamber at Nashville, he said to the minis-
trant from whom he was to receive his last sacra-
ment, "Be sure and read the whole service."

This regard for what some esteem trifles was
characteristic of this great man. He disliked a
perfunctory method in the sanctuary. "Decently
and in order" was his motto, and he was true to
it, whether he was reading a h}rmn or pulverizing
a heresy under the trip-hammer of his invincible
logic. Having referred to his sketch of "UcleCy,"
we subjoin a few paragraphs, which we are sure
will be read with no little zest.

"Uncle Cy owed much to his wife — an honest,
truthful and virtuous woman. She was the best
nurse I ever saw, and ministered with unspeakable
fidelity and tenderness to my parents, and brother
and sisters on their deathbeds. 'Aunt Bess' was
the first woman I ever heard praj' in public. She
was a leaven and a light. Some influence and
honest pennies she gained by practicing that deli-
cate profession which the Egyptians, in Moses'
time, turned over to their women. Only once did
she fail me. When the Federal armies were getting
into Alabama we proposed to put our silver
spoons and such things in her keeping. 'Well,
master, in course I'll do it if you says so, but I can't
be 'sponsible. Dem Yankees is a coming, and I
hearn tell how dey carries wid 'em somethin' like
a pinter worm, and when it's sot down dey tells it

170 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

to pint wha any money or silver things is hid,
and it pints jest as straight as a gun.

•'Uncle Cy's family pride was a trait character-
istic of the old regime. I have seen him take his
wife down by reminding her that he had been in
the family longer than she. Once I had arranged
with a neighbor, Squire Fowler, to get a swarm
of bees. Uncle Cy was hollowing out a gum, and
with some hesitation said. 'Master, don't you
know some people can't get into bees? Our
family is too industrious for bees. Old master
tried to git into bees, and I 'member well how old
master before him tried, and dey never could. It's
only lazy, poor white folks has any luck raising
honey. And he made numerous citations in sup-
port of his position. But his flattery was not to
balk my experiment. I got into bees At first,
they went in and come out of the little hole at the
bottom of the gum briskly. After awhile, few
and fewer; then only a straggler or two. We
knocked off the top and found a triangular-shaped
piece of comb, but no honey. So ended my first
and last attempt at getting into bees.

"Farewell, faithful, loving,. dear old Uncle Cy.
I'm sure he loved me and prayed for me. Indeed,
they tell me that he has been in the habit of pray-
ing for me, by name, in public meetings. My
family have joined me every 3^ear in making up a
box for Uncle Cy and Aunt Bess, filled with half-
worn clothes and various things new and old, such

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 171

as they liked or needed. Christmas is coming, but
no box goes that way any more. Our children,
and the generations following, can never know
the sentiment that sprung up between the two
races under the system of domestic slavery. It
had its evil and it had its good. Both are gone
forever."

WM. D. ANDERSON.

At the request of friends and relatives of the late
Dr. Anderson, I come, with sad heart and hesita-
ting pen, to offer my feeble tribute to his name
and memory. A few days since, as I stood amidst
a weeping throng, met to perform the last sad
rites to his dead body, as I saw that body lowered
into its final resting place, memory was busy
with these lines, written upon the death and burial
of a wise and good man of the long ago.

"Ne'er to those dwellings where the mighty rest,
Since their foundations, came a nobler guest."

This couplet — as applicable to the present case —
will be stripped of seeming exaggeration when it is
remembered that true nobility does not spring up

172 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

out of circumstances of birth or material sur-
roundings, but from excellencies of character —
virtues of heart and life. By virtue of the fact
that our lamented friend and brother exemplified
in life and labors the elements of a true Godlike
manhood, let him stand forth as the peer of the
noblest and the best. Through the ages past
many of high repute in civil, social and profes-
sional life — kings, warriors, statesmen, poets and
philosophers — have lived, died and been laid to
rest in grand mausoleums, amid the tears and
sobs of a nation, while —

"their deeds as they deserve

Receive proud recompense."

But true wisdom — wisdom which God honors —
looks beyond time and estimates final results. In
the last day many of the so-called great of earth,
whose names, perhaps, have been sounded far and
wide by the "loud-mouthed trump of Tame," will
dwarf into nothingness while others, far less
known and honored, will stand forth robed and
crowned with royal splendors. God loves and
honors those who love and honor him. For such
only are of princely stock — of the royal blood of the
Son of Mary. Yet how many, in their moral
blindness, fail to see and appreciate the fact.
Many so-called titles to nobility are without God's
"image and superscription," Beneath many of
these claims to fame and fortune may be found,
written with invisible hand "Weighed in the bal-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 173

ances and found wanting." And why so written?
Because that which constitutes the essence and in-
carnation of all true greatness is wanting. Very
many formulate opinions and are governed by the
maxims of time and sense. But God does not so
scan the outer bulk and surface. He is looking
outside of the charmed circles of social distinctions
and exalted worldly station, and is inquiring after
the great-hearted — those who love God and love
their f ellow-men— those who, iftneed be, are willing
to die for the truth and for conscience sake. While
men are formulating opinions and passing judg-
ments according to externals, God searches the
within looking for triumphs over self in the battle —
field of the heart — the realm of the motives and
affections. "He that ruleth his spirit"— through
divine agency obtains the mastery over himself — "is
better" — therefore in God's estimate, greater ' ' than
he that taketh a city." Victory over self, through
Christ, is true liberty — exaltation into citizenship
in the kingdom of the Lord Almighty. While on
the other hand, a man of self-seeking — a lover of
fame and pleasure more than of God — may ascend
to the dizzy heights of worldly greatness; but
does not, cannot reach the summit of true wis-
dom and real fame.

These thoughts in the present connection, may
appear to some to be out of place. But when we
take into account the high native gifts and ac-
quired abilities of our deceased friend, together

174 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

with the possibilities before him of brilliant
achievements in professional and civic life, we can
have only a dim conception of the battle he fought
with himself before he obtained the consent of his
mind and heart to forsake all and follow Christ.
It takes a hero — a man possessed of elements
which enter into the composition of which mar-
tyrs are made — to turn aside from thepathway to
fame and distinction, and become an itinerant
Methodist preacher. At his Master's bidding, he
literally "sold all" — so far as human opinion goes.
1 desire to stress this point, for it indexes his great,
true character. One long and favorably known
to the deceased — himself long prominent in public
life and official station — said to me a few days
since: "I have never known a man who turned
away from prospects so flattering as those almost
within the grasp of William D. Anderson. A seat
in congress and the governor's chair were easy
possibilities just ahead of him. If you write of
him, stress this fact."

What a contrast between the subject of this
memoir and the "certain ruler" who came to
Christ, saying, "Good Master, what shall I do,
that I may inherit eternal life." The last, learning
the conditions, refused to comply, going away
"sorrowful" while the first, after a severe strug-
gle with himself, and a fierce conflict with Satan,
obeyed the call of God, and, like Abraham of old,
"went forth, not knowing whither he went." He

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 175

recognized the call of God as the highest call to
men, and he obeyed. He understood well what
this act of obedience implied and involved. A life
of sacrifice on the one hand and of laborious,
often unremunerative toil on the other. But, with
eye of faith, he saw at the end of the race-track
upon which he was entering a crown of final re-
joicing. Toward this he pressed with unfaltering
step, and would have pressed although to receive
that crown might subject him to the stroke of
Nero's bloody axe. Decision was a strong point
in his character. I stress it because it was the
pivot on which revolved the mental and moral
machinery of his well-rounded, well-poised man-
hood. With him, to decide was to do. While he
often consulted with friends and had a ready ear
for the opinions of others, yet he took no step
forward or backward until " fully persuaded in
his own mind." And hence, as this writer be-
lieves, from close, intimate relations, that, at the
call of God — let friends, kindred, the world say
what they might — he would have turned away
from earth's most attractive allurements and gone
forth "preaching and shewing the glad tidings of
the kingdom of God."

The subject of this writing was born at Mari-
etta, Ga., June 24, 1839. He was the son of George
D. and Jane Holmes Anderson. His father was a
judge of the superior court at the time of his sud-
den and unexpected death. His mother was a

176 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

woman of high Christian trpe. So he inherited
good blood and fine brain power from both his
parents. He possessed from the start a quick and
inquisitive mind. His educational facilities were
good. He graduated, with distinction, at the
Georgia University in 1859. Applying himself at
once to the study and practice of law, he soon
won honorable rank at the bar of his native
town. But soon the alarm of war was heard
along the Southern coast. Fearing that the battle
might be over before he should have opportunity
to try his " 'prentice hand," he, together with
four others, hurried away to Charleston, where
he entered, as a private, the Palmetto Guards, of
the Second South Carolina regiment. Soon after
his command was transferred to Virginia, where
he acted a gallant part in many battles now fa-
mous in history — Bull Run, first and second Bat-
tles of Manassas, Yorktown, Millersburg, Seven
Days Around Richmond, Cold Harbor, Mechanics-
ville, Gaines' Mill, Savage Station, Fair Oaks,
Frazier's Farm, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville, Boonesboro, Harper's Ferry,
Sharpsburg and Gettysburg. At the battle of
Cold Harbor he received a wound in his right hand
which he carried with him to the grave. At the
close of his first year, he was transferred to
Phillips' Legion, and elected as first lieutenant of
his company, which he often commanded as cap-
tain.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 177

At the close of the war he returned to the prac-
tice of his profession, at Marietta. He married,
in April, 1865, Miss Louise J. Latimer, of South
Carolina. His wife was a most excellent and pious
woman. To her godly life and pious example was
he indebted more, perhaps, than to all other hu-
man sources for his conviction, conversion and
subsequent career of usefulness in the church.
Her death, which occurred in 1875, was a crushing
blow to him, but wras, msiy be, under God, the
key to all his after history. In 1877, one }Tear
after entering the active ministry, he married Miss
Lula H. Latimer, youngest sister of his first wife.
By these marriages he left nine children— two by
his first wife — fine young men and full of promise
to church and state. May the mantle of the
lamented father fall upon one or both of them!
What a host of saddened hearts throb in deepest
sympathy for the widowed and orphaned ones!

He joined the church in 1867 under the ministry
of the Rev. W. F. Cook. As might have been ex-
pected of one of his firm, earnest nature, he
served the church wisely and well, filling very ac-
ceptably the offices of trustee, steward and Sun-
day-school superintendent.

While in private civil life he never sought after
office. Yet his fellow-citizens, noting his integrity
and fitness for positions of trust and responsi-
bility, honored him f requenth' by electing him to the
legislature of the state. And for four consecutive

12

178 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

terms he was elected to preside as speaker pro tern ^
over the deliberations of that body. The second
year of his fourth term in this honorable position
he resigned his seat and knocked at the door of
the North Georgia Conference as a candidate for
"admission on trial." His friends and admirers
at home and abroad — he had hosts uf them — were
astounded at the step he was taking, which some
of them characterized as the "climax of folly."
But "none of these things" moved him. His mind
was made up.

He was appointed to and served the following
charges: Eatonton, 1876; Cedartown, 1877-8;
Marietta, 1879-80 ; Elberton district, 1881-2 ; First
church, Rome, 1883; Marietta district, 1884-6;
First church, Athens, 1887-90; First church, At-
lanta, 1891; First church, LaGrange, 1892;
Oxford district, 1893-4.

Here his life-work ends. Who shall estimate the
value of such a life? A life full of good deeds done
by the "right hand," which the "left hand never
knew." Who shall gather the "bread" he "cast
upon the waters?" Who shall garner the harvest
grown from gospel seed which he sowed upon
valleys and hillsides wherever he went? After
making his first round for the new year upon the
Oxford district, a district of twent\r appoint-
ments, in the space of five weeks — a task to test
the toughest muscle and most robust health — he
returned to his home in Marietta to fold his

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 179

hands and enter into sweet rest. His last illness
was severe and brief. But in the delirium of dis-
ease his mind seemed absorbed in his loved employ
— the "ruling passion strong in •death." He
preached, prayed, sang and counselled the brethren
of his quarterly conferences as though they were
present before him. The day before he died his
delirium left him and he became fully conscious.
He said to his brother-in-law, who stood at his
bedside: "Pierce, what do they say is the matter
with me?" Pierce answered, "A very severe cold
with pneumonia tendency." "Well," said he, "I
know I am a very sick man ; every inch of me
from head to feet feels sick."

Soon after he fell into a profound slumber and
awoke no more. About 6 o'clock, February 19th,
without a struggle or groan, he sank into the
arms of death. He left no dying testimony.
None was needed. His pure, noble, consecrated
life was enough. As to how he was loved by the
ministry and laity, the multitudes who attended
his obsequies abundantly testify.

Dr. Anderson as a friend was frank and faith-
ful; as a father, firm yet considerate; as a hus-
band, loving and tender; as a Christian and
minister, zealous and true. In short, as to all the
elements of a noble manhood, he stood out
amongst his fellows the peer of the noblest and the
best. Endowed with fine native gifts, polished by
the culture of the schools, broadened and well-

180 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

drilled by reading and study, he forged steadily for
ward till he stood in the front rank of the ministry
of his church. ^His ability and personal popularity
are attested b}r the official honors his brethren be-
stowed upon him. Secretary and treasurer of the
aid society, president of the legal conference, chair-
man of the board of managers of the Wesleyan
Christian Advocate; trustee of Emory and of the
Wesleyan and LaGrange female colleges, also of
the Young Harris Institute ; thrice elected a delegate
to the general conference; honored with the title
of D. D. by the trustees of Emory College. Enough
surely to gratify ambition — if ambition he had.
But he had none in the sense of desire for mere
honor's sake. He rather shunned than sought the
distinctions men confer. If he had aspiration it
was to know the truth, not for himself alone, but
that through his knowledge of it, he might make
the pathway to heaven luminous and attractive
to others. But self-respecting as he was, he was
modest and diffident as to his own worth and
abilit/v, and he has died and passed away without
knowing in what high regard he was held by his
brethren and the church at large.

His death leaves a blank hard to fill ; but still
God knows what is best. "The workmen die but
the work goes on."

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 181

A SPLENDID TRIUMVIRATE.

Three of the most notable conversions of which
we have any record in the history of Georgia
Methodism were those of Ignatius A. Few,
Augustus B.Longstreet, and Augustin S. Clayton,
three distinguished jurists. The first named was a
native of Columbia county ; a graduate of Prince-
ton, a lawyer of special prominence at the Augusta
bar, and until he reached the meridian of life, a
thorough sceptic, whose conversion was largely
due to the personal ministry of Rev. Joseph
Travis.

In his fortieth year he left the bar to enter
the pulpit, where he made a reputation unsur-
passed by any man of that period. He was the
first and perhaps the ablest president of Emory
College. In honor of him one of the two literary
societies was called the Few and its hall is embel-
lished b}r his portrait. In front of that hall is a
tasteful monument erected by his "brethren of the
mystic tie."

He was succeeded in the presidency by Dr.
Longstreet who was worthy of his mantle.

The second of this triumvirate, Judge Longstreet,
surrendered the judgeship for the ministry, pursu-
ing the four years course of study in the conference
with marvelous success. Dr. George Smith, how-

182 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

ever, testifies on the basis of a conference tradition,
that "he tripped on English grammar." This
writer has perhaps better authority for saying, as
he was chairman of the examining committee,
that years afterwards Dr. John W. Heidt slipped
tip on geography — although a graduate of Emory
College, we believe, with honors, and a gifted
3'oung barrister. Judge Longstreet was not only
a great preacher, but in four states, Georgia, Louisi-
ana, Mississippi and South Carolina, was presi-
dent of several leading colleges, state and ecclesi-
astical. Dr. Heidt, who failed on bounding Africa,
had also a brilliant career as an educator in Geor-
gia and Texas.

Judge Clayton was one of Georgia's ablest
statesmen and jurists, having served in the state
legislature, in the Federal congress and for three
terms on the circuit bench. Tliese continuous
labors brought him to a sick bed and ultimately
to saving faith in Christ. The story of his con-
version as we find it in the funeral discourse of
Dr. Whiteford Smith, at that time the pastor of
our church in Athens furnishes an eloquent ac-
count of this remarkable conversion. We copy
it from the printed sermon which cannot fail to
interest our readers of all classes :

"For the greater part of his life Judge Cla3rton
had been sceptical of the truth of Christianity.
Though always respectful to those who made a
profession of religion, yet he had never submitted

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 183

himself to the cross of Christ until within the last
twelve months. During the month of August,
1838, he was attacked with paralysis and for a
short time lost the use of one hand and his arti-
culation became very indistinct. Upon the day of
his attack I visited him. Knowing that the fears
of his family and friends were awakened for his
safety and probably judging from my presence
that wre were particular^ anxious about his
spiritual state; he addressed me as well as he was
able in these words 'I think I may safely say I am
prepared for the event.' I replied that I had per-
ceived in his conversation from time to time some
familiarity with the Bible and hoped he had made
it a matter of study. His answer was : 'No, but
in all my dealings with the world and in all my
acts I have always had regard to the existence of
a just God ; and if there is a man I have wronged
I do not know him.' Having endeavored to di-
rect his mind to the Lord Jesus Christ as the sacri-
fice for sin and to the necessity of the merit of his
atonement, I enquired if it was his wish that we
should pray; and, he desiring it, the family as-
sembled and we prayed. No opportunity offered
(from the nature of his affliction) for some days af-
ter for religious conversation . Some short time sub-
sequently, however, when he had so far recovered
as to be able to go about, understanding that he
desired to see me, I called, accompanied by one of the
ministers who was in attendance at a protracted

184 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

meeting then in progress. The subject of religion
was now introduced and never had I witnessed so
great a change. He who but a short time before
had been dwelling complacently upon his own
virtuous deeds and even meditating an entrance into
eternity with no other preparation, now sat be-
fore me overwhelmed with grief and tears at the
recollection of his ingratitude to God for all his
mercies. He had been employed in reviewing the
past, and though he found that his conduct to-
ward the world had been equitable and just, he
had also been convinced that his duties tow7ard
his Maker had been neglected. Now he had en-
quired what had kept him from being a Christian,
and havinglearned the true state of his own heart,
this was his candid confession and at the same time
his avowal of his purposes : 'Sir, I am determined
that pride of opinion which has so long kept me
from embracing Christianity shall keep me away
no longer.' Nor was he insensible to the difficulties
which must be met in turning to God with repent-
ance and faith. 'In pursuing this course,' said
he, 'at every step I am met by a committal; and
every act contrary to religion is a committal to
vice. But shall I permit these things to deter me
when I see the extended arms of my God ready to
receive me?'

"Having abandoned that pride of opinion which
he felt had so long prevented his becoming a Chris-
tian, he manifested the greatest meekness and do-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 185

cility in the reception of the truth. Sensible that in
trusting to the merit of his own good works he had
rested upon a frail and weak foundation, he now
desired to place himself upon another and a surer
basis. And upon the eternal foundation of the
prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being
the chief corner stone, there was but one way of
successfully building and that was by the exercise
of an humble and confiding faith. How simple
and how sincere was his reception of the Gospel
may be best learned from his own words: 'Sir,'
said he, 'I view myself as though I had been a
heathen shut up in darkness and superstition;
and you as a missionary of the Cross (for all
ministers are or ought to be missionaries) were
presenting me for the first time with the Bible, and
although I do not comprehend all that may be in
it, yet I receive it all by faith. I throw away, as
the heathen would his idols, all my old systems and
views and adopt this for my creed. I take it all.' "
The thoroughness of his moral transformation
Was exemplified when a few weeks after this inter-
view he went to the sanctuary in great bodily
weakness and was formally received into the fel-
owship of the Methodist church. His precious
wife who survived him for a number of years was
verily one of the noblest matriarchs of Methodism
whrm it was ever our good fortune to know.

186 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

FRANCIS BARTOW DA VIES.

Francis Bartow Davies was a native of Savan-
nah, of excellent parentage, and was early brought
into the communion of the Methodist church. At
the beginning of his adult life he engaged in secu-
lar business, but in a few years responded to the
Spirit's call, entered the traveling ministry and was
appointed by Bishop Paine toPalatkaiu the Flor-
ida Conference, in which body he served effi-
ciently for several years His health then became
shattered and by the advice of physicians and
friends he retired from the itinerant work.

During this season of rest he had so far re-
cuperated that, upon the division of the Georgia
Conference in 1866, he returned to the regular work
and was successively stationed on some of the best
circuits of the North Georgia Conference and in
all respects did satisfactory work for the people
of his several charges. One who had the best op-
portunities of knowing, has said that he was
eminently and deservedly popular both in the pul-
pit and the pastorate. His mission ar\^ work
around and in Atlanta merits special commenda-
tion. He laid the foundations of the highly pros-
perous Park Street Church at West End. He was
at that date in the meridian of life. His ministry

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 187

was then characterized by a persuasiveness that
foreboded years of great future usefulness.

But as has often happened in ministerial experi-
ence, his disease assumed a more malignant aspect.

In 1881 his health again failed, and verv- much
to his own regret and that of his numerous friends,
he was compelled to relinquish active work. His
strength continued to decline until in the forty-
seventh year of his age his useful career was closed.

The last days were marked by perfect peace and
joyful resignation to the Master's will. Indeed,
there was somewhat in that quiet death-chamber
at Decatur, Ga., thatsuggests the departure of the
saintly Bishop McKendree from the humble farm-
house in Kentucky, where the burden and refrain
of his dying testimony was "All is well."

Bro. Davies seems also to have had angelic visi-
tants to illumine his pathway through the val-
ley of the shadow of death. Amongst his latest
words which he whispered to his wife and brother
were these touching sentences : "Oh, how peaceful
— It is all Heaven."

No wonder that we are taught to sing —

"How blest the righteous when he dies."

Or that another veteran hymnologist should re-
buke our lack of trust by the inquiry,

"Why should we start and fear to die?"

Thank God that these good brethren have so
often helped our faith by their testimonies to St.

188 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Paul's declaration that "Death is swallowed up
in victory." No higher compliment could be paid
this devoted servant of God than when Gen.
Clement A. Evans, in an obituary notice of him
shortly after his death, said: "His voice was
musical, his delivery gentle and yet earnest,
and his thoughts were wise and always clearly
expressed. As a pastor his people found in
him a wise counselor, a conservative ad-
ministrator and in their sufferings a son of con-
solation." Such a tribute from such a high source
may be well prized by his surviving family and his
host of friends.

WM. R. FOOTE.

In December, 1854, while on my way to Colum-
bus, I spent, with my wife, two or three days at
West Point with a family whom we had inti-
matelv known in Alabama, where at one time I had
been engaged in teaching. It wras at this time
that I made the personal acquaintance of Bro.
Foote, who was the Methodist pastor of that
nourishing village.

Our friends were members of his charge and
Bro. Foote kindly called to see us and before leav-
ing invited me to preach for his congregation on

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 189

Sabbath morning. I told him that I was quite a
novice in the ministry, having only attempted to
preach a half-dozen times. But he insisted that I
should occup3r the pulpit either morning or evening
as might best suit me.

We very soon agreed that he should occupy the
morning hour and that I would do my best at the
night service.

I was quite interested in his morning discourse.
It was evident that he was a thinker of great
clearness and a speaker of excellent gifts. Indeed,
I found that he was in great favor with his con-
gregation, whom he was serving for the second
3rear.

In the following years I frequently met Bro.
Foote at the Annual Conference, a few times at
camp-meetings, and heard him from time to time
preach admirable sermons.

He was a scholarly man in no ordinary degree,
and especially was he gifted as an expositor of the
Scriptures.

His preaching wras not marred b\' commonplace
discussions, nor did he indulge in vapid declama-
tion. But on some occasions he was thrillingly
eloquent in his utterance, w7hile voice and manner
both indicated profound spiritual emotion.

I think he was several times connected with our
educational institutions and for some years he
was the agent of our orphans' home, in which de-
partment of church work he did good service. I

190 BIOGEAPHIC ETCHINGS

doubt if his health was ever at any time vigorous,
and this was probably a hindrance to him
through the greater portion of his life. Judge
John L. Hopkins, who was his neighbor and close
friend while Bro. Foote was a resident of Edge-
wood, commended him to me as a wise, sweet-
spirited and deepW religious man:

He died in great peace and left a most interesting
family, among them Rev. W. R. Foote, one of At-
lanta's ablest preachers; and the wife of Rev. R.
J. Bigham, the present distinguished pastor of
Trinitv church.

ROBERT M. LOCKWOOD.

Wehavebeen furnished with few details concern-
ing the life of this excellent minister.

He was a native of Virginia, but for a number of
years was engaged in business both in New York
and Baltimore, where he was held in high esteem.
At the close of the civil war, he came South and
was received into the membership of the South
Georgia Conference probably in 1866.

He enjoyed a large share of the love and confi-
dence of his conference brethren, whom he served
for a series of years as their general Sunday-
school agent. He besides occupied several im-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 191

portant positions in the pastorate. Amongst
these were Bainbridge, Brunswick and Hawkins-
ville, in all of which places he was greatly be-
loved. He died several 3'ears ago, having
" served his generation by the will of God" alike
acceptably and usefully.

GEORGE FOSTER PIERCE.

THE CHRYSOSTOM OF THE CONFERENCE.

More than half a century ago it was a vexed
question in conference circles whether the "Old
Doctor" or his son "George" was the greater
preacher. We question if the good-natured con-
troversy was at any time definitely settled nor
shall we now undertake its final adjudication.

Very much, indeed, depends upon the standpoint
from which we consider it, and hardly less upon
the definition of what is meant by pulpit oratory.

To illustrate our statement, William Jay is fre-
quently referred to as the " Prince of Preachers,"
and 3ret never at any time did he approximate the
majestic sweep of Robert Hall's imagination in his
grand sermon on "Modern Infidelity7 Considered."
You might as well compare the nightingale's song
from some neighboring hedgerow to the scream of

192 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

an eagle as he soars right onward to the sun, as to
compare the father, when he talked on Ezekiel's
Valley of Vision, to the son, when he described the
Transfiguration as portrayed in Raphael's world-
renowned masterpiece.

Not infrequently there wrere obvious points of
resemblance in their preaching, but quite often there
were striking points of divergence and even dis-
similarity.

But we forbear further allusion to this compara-
tive estimate and speak of the bishop as we heard
him in our boyhood during his presidency of the
Wesley an Female College.

Some business engagement brought him to
Hamilton, Ga., where my father, his old preceptor
at Greensboro, was in charge of a flourishing
acadenry.

I went with the family to the night service at
the Methodist church. I recall his text from the
Book of Proverbs, "Ponder the paths of thy feet
— let all thy ways be established." The discourse
was largely didactic, but there was a rich vein of
eloquence pervading it that produced no small
stir in that village congregation.

The next morning before resuming his journey
to Columbus he called to see my mother, who was
his first teacher, and who often said that little
George Pierce wras the handsomest and brightest
lad she had ever known in her infant class.

I

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 193

From that time on until he had passed his
seventieth year, I heard him at annual and dis-
trict conferences, always with singular delight
and never without spiritual profit.

No one was more deserving than he to be styled
the " silver-tongued orator." And yet his sermons
were not alwrays of uniform strength and
beauty. In a few instances, indeed, they were in
some measure disappointing to his most ardent
admirers. But if Homer was at times allowed to
nod, wh}r might not this great man at wide inter-
vals be suffered to drawl without the penalty of
adverse criticism0 In the main he was "in shape
and gesture proudly eminent." His voice had, as
a musical critic would say, a marvelous register.
On some occasions it thrilled an audience like the
staccato notes of a trumpet, and in another in-
stant it was soft as the whisper of an angel in
the ear of sleeping childhood.

In fine, his vocal apparatus was without a flaw
in its utterance until age and disease had made
him a physical wreck.

It was said of a great poet that he "lisped in
numbers," and even "thought in rhyme." It might
be as justly said of Bishop Pierce that in his best
estate he was the incarnation of oratory.

Richard Malcolm Johnston, himself a man of
splendid endowments, has this to say of Bishop
Pierce's "oratorical excellence."

13

194 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

We cull it from a letter addressed to Bishop
Haygood which we find in Dr. George Smith's .ex-
ellent volume on the "Life and Times of Bishop
Pierce." "Scores of times," says Mr. Johnston,
"have I heard him preach in the little Methodist
church at Sparta, and at the camp-meeting south
of the village during a period of twenty }'ears, in
the which time I have listened to outbursts of
oratory such as I do not believe were surpassed
on the Bema of Athens or in the Forum of
Rome." This tributeis in no degree overwrought,
as thousands of hearers in all parts of the Republic
will testify. In a railway' conversation with Bishop
Peck, his rival in the General Conference of 1844,
he spoke of Bishop Pierce in terms of unstinted
praise as an orator. But we are minded to say,
not without thoughtful consideration, that the
platform rather than the pulpit was his throne
of power. Notably great as he seemed in the
latter, yet in some of his commencement and mis-
sionary addresses he was superlatively great.
His early college-mate and lifelong friend, Sena-
tor Toombs, was heard to say that the grandest
effort of his life was his commencement address
at the University of Georgia. Concerning that
address it is related that it was prepared in a
single night after a hard day's travel.

But I prefer in this connection to submit an
extract from his great Bible speech in New York
which, in one shape or another, has almost made

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 195

the circuit of the globe. For this I am likewise in-
debted to Dr. George Smith's "Life" of the bishop.
It was the anniversary of the American Bible
Society. Attendance from all parts of the coun-
try was exceedingly large. In this throng there
were representative men from all the evangel-
ical churches, and the consensus of opinion was
that young Dr. Pierce's oration had never been
surpassed on that platform, if indeed, ever equaled
in that august presence.

For lack of space we submit but two extracts as
samples of the whole :

"The Bible deals not in subtle analogies and
cold abstractions, but in the healthful virtues of
life; it comes home to the heart, and makes its
truths the subject of consciousness whereby we
exclaim: 'That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the Word of Life.' It
commends itself to every man's conscience in
the sight of God, by the excellence of its law and
the conclusiveness of its testimony, so that even
human depravity when it walks amid its precepts,
is compelled, like devils among the tombs, to ac-
knowledge the purity of its morals and the holi-
ness of its presence. The genealogy of its proof
demonstrates it to be the same yesterday, to-day,
and forever. The faith that justified righteous
Abel, and whereby Enoch walked with God, the

196 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

faith by which Abraham kept the covenant, the
importunity by which Moses prevailed, and the
penitential sighs of David, still attract the notice
of heaven, and call down the blessing of God. The
baptism of the Spirit still attends on the minis-
tration of the Word ; and though no cloven
tongues of fire flame from the lips of proselytes,
the heart still palpitates beneath the warm breath-
ings of the Holy Ghost, before whose stately step-
pings the human reason falls in reverence, and the
human fancv cowers in astonishment.

"It is the sin of the nations and the curse of the
church that we have never properly appreciated
the Bible as we ought. It is the book of books for
the priest and for the people, for the old and for
the young. It should be the tenant of the academy
as well as of the nursery, and ought to be incor-
porated in our course of education, from the
mother's knee to graduation in the highest univer-
sities in the land. Everything is destined to fail
unless the Bible be the fulcrum on which these
laws revolve. Can such a book be read without
an influence commensurate with its importance?
As well might the flowers sleep when the spring
winds its mellow horn to call them from their bed ;
as well might the mist linger upon the bosom of
the lake when the sun beckons it to leave its dewy

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 197

home. The Bible plants our feet amid that angel
group which stood with eager wing expectant
when the Spirit of God first hovered over the ab}7ss
of chaos and wraps us in praise for the newborn
world when the morning stars sang together for
joy. The Bible builds for us the world when we
were not ; stretches our conceptions of the infinite
beyond the last orbit of astronomy; pacifies the
moral discord of earth; reorganizes the dust of the
sepulchre, and tells man heaven is his home and
eternity his lifetime.

"What, sir, was the Reformation, but a resur-
rection of the Bible? Cloistered in the supersti-
tion of mediaeval Rome for a thousand years,
its moral rays had been intercepted, and the intel-
lect of man, stricken at a blow from its pride of
place, was shut within the dark walls of moral
despair, and slept the sleep of death beneath its
wizard spell. Opinion fled from the chambers of
the heart, and left the mind to darkness and to
change. But Luther evoked the Bible and its pre-
cepts from its prison-house, and the Word of God
breathed the warm breath of life upon the Valley
of Vision, and upon the sleeping Lethean sea. In-
tellect burst from the trance of ages, dashed aside
the portals of her dark dungeon, felt the warm
sunlight relax her stiffened limbs, forged her fet-
ters into swords, and fought her way to freedom
and to fame.

198 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

"The Bible, sir, is the guide of the erring, and
the reclaimer of the wandering; it heals the sick,
consoles the dying, and purines the living. If you
would propagate Protestantism, circulate the
Bible. Let the master give it to the pupil, the
professor to his class, the father to his son, the
mother to her daughter, place it in every home in
the land ; then shall the love of God cover the
earth, and the light of salvation overlay the land,
as the sunbeams of morning lie upon the moun-
tains."

The enthusiasm aroused by the speech was im-
mense. Dr. Jefferson Hamilton was sitting by
Dr. Lovick Pierce, and, carried awayby his excite-
ment, he said eagerly to the doctor: "Did you
ever hear the like?" "Yes," said the fond father,
complacently, "I hear George often."

Speaking, however, not only for myself but for
hundreds besides, lam inclined to think that never
on amr occasion was he more eloquent than in his
missionary address at Wesley Chapel, Atlanta,
during the Annual Conference of 1861.

Dr. McFerrin, of Nashville, who preceded him,
was in his happiest mood. His account of his
preaching long years agone amongst the Cherokee
Indians and of the conversions that often followed
was strangely beautiful. Not a few of his pas-
sages were as graphic as if he wielded for the time
the pen of Macaulay or the pencil of Rubens.
At intervals the rafters of the old church fairly vi-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 199

brated with the hallelujahs of his enraptured
audience. This was particularly the case when he
interspersed his address with his Indian songs so
wildly plaintive that they resembled the soft yet
weird notes of a wind-harp when swept by the
fingers of an evening zephyr. When McFerrin
resumed his seat and Bishop Pierce arose to speak
many feared that he might not fully meet public
expectation. But his first utterances showed that
his foot was on ''his native heath" and instantly
electrified his eager hearers. At a single glance of
his eagle eye he swept the whole extent of the
missionary field —

"From Greenland's icy mountains
To India's coral strand."

His glowing tribute to Bishop Coke, who gave
his large fortune and sacrificed his noble life to the
establishment of Methodist missions in the far
east — his allusions to Judson, who planted Chris-
tianity in Birmah, where it spread until it well-
nigh became a state religion — to Carey, who
wrought twenty years for a single convert on the
shores of China — likewise his thrilling references to
Henry Martyn, who abandoned the promise of
high ecclesiastical preferment in the Church of
England to die on the wayside of Persia, the
ancient home of the Fire worshippers — nor least
of all forgetful of Reginald Heber, whose beautiful

200 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

hymn has become the Marsellaise of the mission-
ary enterprise in all parts of the heathen world —
these, one and. all, were delivered in his best style.
But when in conclusion he came to depict the gather-
ing of the scattered tribes of Israel to Mount Zion,
the rebuilding of Solomon's temple on the site of the
Mosque of Omar, the enthusiasm of his listeners
knew no bounds, but broke forth in sobs and shout-
ings that in no small degree recalled the scenes of
Pentecost with its sound of a rushing wind and
its glow of cloven tongues of fire. The bishop at
the close of the doxology was overwhelmed with
congratulations. From that memorable night on-
ward there were "Episcopal Journeyings" stretch-
ing through nearly thirt}r years of arduous toil
and dangerous travel and then the golden wedding
with its hallowed memories and its social festivi-
ties in which prayer and praise were a conspicuous
feature.

But last scene of all that ends this eventful his-
tory, the death chamber where the bishop put on
his ascension robes, meanwhile saying to his two
brothers, James and Thomas, "I am so happy."
Soon thereafter followed the funeral dirge in the
village church and the eloquent funeral discourse
of Bishop Haygood on the appropriate text, "No
man liveth to himself nor dieth to himself." We
are constrained to say that this statement or
sentiment, which ever we may choose to call it,
and indeed it is partly both, applies well to this

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 201

Christian bishop whom we have likened to the
"golden-mouthed orator of Byzantium."

It might not be altogether the proper thing to
speak of him as has been so often said of the
First Napoleon, that he wasthe"man of destiny."
We rather prefer to speak of him as the man of
Providence. Perhaps no man in all Georgia has
done so much to carry forward Methodism to its
present pre-eminence. He was well-fitted to enlarge
and perpetuate the work so auspiciously begun
under the joint leadership of Andrew and Hull
and Lovick and Reddick Pierce and Capers and
others of the old South Carolina Conference.
We verily believe that God called and endowed
him for this special service. Call it fancy if you
will, but we are of that number who accept the
philosophy of the great poet :

"For never an age when God has need of him
Shall want its man predestined by that need.

To pour his life in fiery word or deed,
The strong archangel of the Elohim.

Earth's hollow want is prophet of his coming."

SOME NOTED
METHODIST LAYMEN,

SOME NOTED
METHODIST LAYMEN.

COL. JAMES M. CHAMBERS.

Having completed my series of " Biographic
Etchings of Ministers," I propose now to write a
supplementary series on some of the old-time lay-
men of the Georgia conferences. One of the best
of these was Col. James M. Chambers, of Co-
lumbus.

I met him first in 1855, and very soon learned
to love and admire him. He occupied a splendid
residence in Wynnton, a suburban annex to the
Falls City.

On several occasions I enjoyed the elegant hospi-
tal^ of himself and his charming household.
Col. Chambers had an imposing physique, sugges-
tive of the Virginians, of whom Thackeray has
drawn such a striking picture in one of his most
popular novels.

He was evidently of patrician blood, and yet he
had none of the class prejudice of Coriolanus, who
loathed with such unspeakable disgust the plebs
of the seven-hilled city. On the contrary, he was
Chesterfieldian in his bearing to the rich and poor,
and seemed especially polite toward such godly

206 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

women as Sis terHillyer, who were poor in worldly
gear but rich in faith. Several of these were
weekly attendants on his class-meeting, which for
many years was a powerful auxiliary to St. Luke's
church.

Col. Chambers was a model churchgoer, and
it was a very wet or cold day when he was absent
from his class-room or from his seat in the sanc-
tuary directly in front of the preacher.

I remember on one occasion that Dr. Pierce
preached in my stead at the morning service. He
began by saying that he proposed to preach in a
more discursive style than was his habit. It was a
wonderful discourse. At the close of the service
Brother Chambers took me aside and whispered
in my ear : "Please tell the doctor for me that I like
his discursive style best of all." At a proper time
we communicated the message, which the old
doctor greatly enjoyed, coming, as he said, from
a grand Methodist layman.

Col. Chambers did not relish a "free" gospel, but
for those early days was a liberal supporter of the
ministry. I think it was his custom to assess
himself one hundred and fifty dollars annually
for that special purpose.

He was a prominent advocate of family religion,
and never neglected the daily sacrifice at his fire-
side altar. It is not to be wondered at that he
had the gift of prayer in a large measure. He
died as he lived, being st ong in the faith and
giving glory to^God.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 207

HON. T. M. FURLOW.

When I was stationed in Americus, in 1858-59,
Hon. T. M. Furlow was the leading steward of
that excellent pastoral charge. He was a wealthy
planter and contributed largely of his ample means
to the support of every interest of the church.
His beautiful home had its "prophet chamber," and
he and his excellent wife dispensed a full-handed
hospitality to their numerous guests.

In the great revival of 1858 he renewed, as he
told me, his consecration to God, and notwith-
standing his fortune was wrecked by the war, he
remained steadfast in his loyalty to the church.

He was several times a representative of his
county in the State legislature, and at one time
was a candidate for governor, but was defeated in
the contest. He was reluctant to take part in
the public exercises of the sanctuary, but would do
so on the call of his pastor. He usually led the
singing of the congregation, and on a few occa-
sions he conducted the prajer-meeting, but usually
he shrank from prominence in these distinctively
devotional services.

He was deeply interested in Sabbath-school
work, and was seldom absent from his post of
duty.

The closing years of Brother Furlow's life
were shadowed by severe physical suifering. It is

208 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

sad to think that one who had done so much for
the alleviation of human suffering should himself
be a chronic sufferer and actually pass away under
the surgeon's knife. But his departure, though
sudden, was peaceful and happy.

JOSEPH WINSHIP.

Joseph Winship was a native of Massachusetts,

but came South in , settling first at Clinton, in

Jones county. There he established a gin factory
and laid the foundation of his worldly fortune.

At a later period, about 1848, he came to At-
lanta, then in its infancy and projected a manufac-
turing enterprise which has gradually developed
into the present immense plant of the Winship Ma-
chine works, under the joint ownership of his two
sons, Messrs. George and Robert Winship, whose
business now covers no small part of the South-
ern States.

"Uncle Joe," as he was familiarly known, was
thoroughly Methodistic in his religious tastes and
habitudes, and not less thorough in the cleanness
of his business methods. Nobody that knew him
ever questioned his personal integrity, for his word
was in any market as good as his bond.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 209

In the run of a dozen years he accumulated a
snug fortune, but he suffered serious financial
losses by the disasters of the civil war. He came
out of the furnace, however, with unsullied honor
and unimpaired credit, and although he had long
passed the meridian of life, he resumed his work
with undiminished energy.

As to his churchmanship, which was the best
side of his life and character, it was never shaken
by these reverses. One of his noblest traits was
his steadfastness of aim in matters alike temporal
and spiritual.

Few of the pioneer citizens of Atlanta did more
to build up not only Methodism but Christianity,
in the city than Joseph Winship. His contribu-
tions to church enterprises in all parts of the city
and amongst all denominations were generous in
proportion to his ability.

In his attendance on the church he was both uni-
form and prompt. He did not like to be conspicu-
ous, but when duty required it he never faltered.

He was a man of excellent practical sense and
his judgment was rarely at fault, whether in re-
gard to men or measures.

We have alluded to his Northern birth, but his
fidelity to the South all through the war and
through the reconstruction period which followed,
was unwavering. In this respect he was like his
younger brother, Mr. Isaac Winship, who was
likewise faithful to his adopted section. Both

14

210 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

these brothers were amongst Atlanta's worthiest
citizens and were staunch pillars in the structure
of Atlanta Methodism .

H. V. M. MILLER, LL. D.,

"THE DEMOSTHENES OF THE MOUNTAINS."

Few men in Georgia are so widely known or so
generally admired as the distinguished subject of
this biographical sketch. His days are now in the
sere and yello w Jleaf , he ha ving passed the four-score
years of the Hebrew psalmist, and }?et he seems
in the main to be hale and hearty, with a buoy-
ancy of spirits and a capacity, whether for labor or
endurance, that not many men retain who have
barely passed the sixtieth milestone in the journey
of life.

Dr. Miller is a native of South Carolina, and was
born near the present town of Walhalla, April,
1814.

His ancestors in the paternal line, were staunch
whigs of the revolutionary period, one of his grand-
uncles having fallen in the battle of the Cowpens.

Andrew Miller, his father, commanded a com-
pany in the second British war, being attached to
the regiment of Colonel Homer Virgil Milton, a

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 211

gallant officer, from whom our subject derives his
unwieldy prenomen.

Andrew Miller was a man of fair education, but
a farmer by taste and practice. He removed from
South Carolina to Tennessee valley, in Rabun
county, Georgia, when his distinguished son was
only five years old. In that sequestered region, far
away from the centers of commerce and advanced
civilization, young Miller grew up to manhood.
The school advantages of this rural section were
exceedingly limited, but the future orator and
medical scientist was blessed with a mother (nee
Miss Cheri) of Huguenotic descent, and besides a
woman of liberal culture. This mother, who was
a Virginian by birth, devoted much of her time to
the education of her son, and to her he was in-
debted for a thorough training in the rudiments
of the English language. In the absence of public
school facilities, his father employed a Mr. Mc-
Mullen, a graduate of the University of Dublin, to
take charge of the higher education of his two
boys, of whom Homer was the younger. He was,
as might well be supposed, a bright lad, who made
rapid strides in his studies, and at an early age had
mastered the usual academic course in Greek,
Latin and mathematics. Like a majority, how-
ever, of really great men, he was in a large meas-
ure self-educated.

Having access to his father's well-selected li
brary, he devoured with avidity very many of the

212 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

English classics, and acquired thereby a style of
writing and speaking which in after life has been
characterized by force and elegance. Shakespeare
and the English Bible were especial favorites and
from the world's great dramatist, and King
James' version, and we may add from the moun-
tain peaks, notably ''Pickens' Nose," that towered
above his valley home, he drew much of that in-
spiration which enabled him at a later period to
sway the stormiest popular assemblies, and won
for him the well-deserved title, "The Demosthenes
of the Mountains."

But we anticipate. When Dr. Miller was a boy
a party of United States officers sojourned for a
time at his father's house.

This party consisted of Captain Bache, after-
wards connected with the coast survey, Lieuten-
ant Pleasanton, distinguished during the late civil
war as a cavalrv commander, and Lieutenant
Wragg, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin.

These officers were sent out by the Federal gov-
ernment to survey a canal route to unite the wa.
ters of the Tennessee and the Savannah. Like the
Cumberland mountain road and other similar en-
terprises, it was designed to establish better social
and commercial relations between the Atlantic
slope and thetrans-Alleghany department. There
existed ihen, partly because of the political in-
trigues of Aaron Burr and General Wilkinson, a
lively and perhaps reasonable apprehension that

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 213

these two great divisions of the national territory
would drift apart to such a degree that in some
unlooked-for political convulsion there might be
territorial dismemberment. That, indeed, in the
early years of the present centur\r, was a sectional
issue searceh^ less patent and alarming than that
other issue which afterwards disrupted the Federal
union.

Nothing practical ever came of this proposed
survey, but the same object has since been sought
to be accomplished b\r the construction of the Ra-
bun Gap railroad.

During the stay of these army officers at the
elder Miller's house, they were struck by the brill-
iancy of his younger son, and plied the father with
earnest entreaties that when of a suitable age he
would send his son to West Point for a military
training. The suggestion was not unpleasant to
either father or son, and for some months was a
topic of fireside discussion with the famih'. But
the lad, not a great while thereafter, was thrown
from his horse, sustaining a severe fracture of the
thigh, disabling him for a military career. Hence-
forth the thought of West Point was dismissed
and young Miller turned his aims and aspirations
towards the medical profession. In carrying out
this purpose he entered the office of Dr. Thomas
Hamilton, a resident of Troup county, and fifty
years ago one of the most eminent physicians of
Georgia. In 1835, after the usual attendance on

214 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

lectures, he graduated at the medical college of
Charleston, S. C. He was a first-honor man and
also won a prize for the best English thesis. His
subject was Clwlosis, and he defeated not less than
seven contestants. At the commencement exer-
cises, the young doctor was booked for a reply to
the presentation speech of Professor Moultrie, who
awarded the prize on behalf of the college faculty.
In this, his first appearance as a platform speaker,
he brought down the house by his wit and elo-
quence. After graduation, he located at Cassville,
Ga., a thriving up-country town, and subsequently
married Miss Harriet Clark, a niece of Hon. John
W. Hooper, the judge of the Cherokee circuit.
This wife of his youth not long ago passed away,
but sacred memories of her devotion yet abide
to brighten and bless the evening of his useful life.

In order, however, to finish his professional edu-
cation, Dr. Miller spent two years (1837 and 1838)
in Europe, chiefly in Paris. Here he enjoyed the
lectures and attended the clinics of such medical
savants as Velpeau, Ricord, Neliton and others of
only less distinction.

While reading in Paris he acquired the French
language which he still speaks with readiness and
correctness. At the same time he gave consider-
able attention to the best French literature.

Returning to his home in Cassville, Ga., he very
soon secured a large and lucrative practice. Such,
indeed, was his professional reputation that in

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 215

1847, when but thirty -three years of age, he was
elected to the chair of obstetrics in the medical
college at Memphis, Tennessee. Here he served
with success for three years, when he met with
the saddest bereavement of his life — the death of
his daughter, little FI037, a sweet promising child
of ten 3^ears. This domestic sorrow led to the res-
ignation of his professorship at Memphis. In the
following year he accepted the chair of physiology
and pathological anatomy in the Medical College
of Georgia, at Augusta. This connection was con-
tinued sixteen years, until his removal from Rome
to Atlanta in 1867. Since coming to Atlanta he
has been a professor in the Atlanta Medical Col-
lege, and much of the time an editor of the Atlanta
Medical Journal. As a lecturer on almost any
branch of medicine or surgery, it may be questioned
if he has a superior on the American continent.
He has contributed at wide intervals to the press,
medical and political, but his writings have been
mainly of a fugitive sort, whether the result of
modtsty or mental indolence, as some have sur-
mised, we shall not undertake to decide. This
writer, who has known him for nearly half a cen-
tury, has more than once gently chided him for
the failure to discharge a duty which a great
English jurist declared that every man owed to
his profession. To this soft impeachment he has
almost uniformly replied : "I never wrote but one
book of about 200 manuscript pages, and a pet

216 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

dog seized it and dragged it through the mud until
it was illegible, and that was the beginning and
end of my authorship." There is another aspect
of Dr. Miller's life-work, which is by no means less
interesting than that which we have just con-
sidered.

From the outset of his public career, even if not
at an earlier period, he had a decided taste for
politics. Andrew Miller, his father, while a thrifty
planter, was likewise a politician. He was at
least of sufficient prominence to be placed on the
whig electoral ticket in the Harrison campaign of
1840, as one of the electors for the State at large-
It was not strange that his son should have a bias
in the same direction. As early as 1844, Dr.
Miller, then thirty years of age, received the whig
nomination for congress in the old Fifth district.
He was selected because of his ability to lead a for-
lorn hope, the Fifth being the Gibraltar of the
democracy.

Hon. John H. Lumpkin, his opponent, was a gen-
tleman of unblemished private character, of fair
scholarship and a political tactician of no mean
ability. At the same time, like George Washington
and other worthies, he was troubled with "an inade-
quacy of speech" that rendered him utterly help-
less on the hustings, when confronted by such an
antagonist as Miller.

A great many very laughable things are still told
hy the older residents of the district, of that

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.

217

memorable campaign. Miller was thoroughly
equipped for the fray. His resources, whether of
sober history or sparkling anecdote ; wThether of
overwhelming argument or thrilling appeal, were
seemingly inexhaustible. He kept country and
towrn, from the Tennessee line to the Chatta-
hoochee river, in a roar of laughter at the expense
of his opponent. On other occasions he made
his mountain audiences stare with wonder and
shout themselves hoarse writh thunderous applause
as he achieved those sunward flights of oratory
that w^ere not unworthy of Sergeant S. Prentiss
in his palmiest days. Hitherto Miller's fame as an
orator had been provincial — confined to village de-
bating societies or count}' conventions — but when
he stepped on a broader arena it soon became state-
wide, and in some degree, national in its extent.
Very naturally, comparisons were instituted be-
tween Miller and his wThig contemporaries, Toombs
and Stephens, and such comparisons wrere rarely
to his disadvantage. Having had some knowledge
of all of them, I am free to say that whilst intone
and gesture and majestic statue, Toombs wras
grandly pre-eminent, and whilst Stephens was un-
equaled in incisiveness of speech and forceful-
ness of appeal, yet it is no injustice to the dead
tribune or the dead commoner to say that the
oratory of Miller, when at his best, wras more
magnetic than that of either, or both of them.
Perhaps it was Sir James Mcintosh who said of

218 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Charles James Fox, that he was more Demosthe-
nian than any orator since Demosthenes. In his
prime Miller belonged to the school of Fox as a
popular orator. It is a significant fact that the
democratic party adjudged it necessary to rein-
force their greatly badgered and closely beleagured
candidate in their strongest democratic district.

Among the able debaters sent to the rescue was
Walter T. Colquitt, who crossed swords with
Miller on divers occasions. At such times it was a
battle of giants. Colquitt, we believe, was the
first to christen his opponent "the Demosthenes of
the Mountains." In reply to Colquitt's story of
the "Texas Filly," which alwa3'S produced yells of
laughter, Miller charged that both Lumpkin and
Colquitt deserved a vote of censure for neglecting
to introduce a bill for the admission of Texas in
the usual way. He alleged that the proposed plan
of admitting Texas by treaty was clearly uncon-
stitutional. This scheme for the annexation of
Texas, first suggested by Miller, was the plan ul-
timately adopted by the Polk administration.

Of course, the contest between Lumpkin and
Miller could have but one issue. The former en-
tered the fight, backed by a party ma jorit\r of nearly
four thousand — but that majority was greatly re-
duced at the next October election. It is barely
probable that but for the annexation plank in the
democratic platform, even that reduced majority
might have been wiped out, and political gravita-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 219

tion turned the other way in that ancient demo-
cratic stronghold.

At an}T rate, Miller was overwhelmed with con-
gratulations and crowned with laurels.

Henceforth he was a principal figure in all the
State campaigns. He canvassed actively for Gor-
don in his contest with Bullock, and we have rea-
son to know that our former noble governor
highly appreciated his able and valiant services.

In 1868, Dr. Miller, along with Flynn, Angier,
and Dunning, was elected from Fulton to the con-
stitutional convention of that 3-ear. In thatbod}%
ably assisted by Trammell, Waddell, and many
others, he rendered invaluable service to the com-
monwealth. This he did chiefly by keeping under
restraint the sans-culottic elements, as well as the
aggressive doctrinaires who were for the time be-
ing in the ascendancy. The result was that the
constitution then framed and subsequently adopted
required very little correction or amendment in
1877. The same year (1868) there were two sena-
torial vacancies at Washington that needed to be
filled by the legislature. Miller, without the usual
buttonholing and lobbying of the demagogue ,
was nominated by the democratic minority of the
legislature for the short term. E. F. Blodgett was
nominated hy the opposition. At the same time
ex-Governor Brown was nominated by the repub-
licans for the long term. Hon. Joshua Hill be-
came an independent candidate for the saine posi-

220 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

tion. Miller was elected on the second ballot by a
handsome majority, receiving the democratic
strength, a considerable portion of the conserva-
tive republicans, and a single vote from the colored
contingent.

Brown was defeated by a very small majority,
and Miller and Hill were granted the executive
credentials.

Meanwhile, congress adjourned, and no oppor.
tunitv was afforded the newlv-elected senators to
present their credentials until the following De-
cember.

During this interval the Georgia legislature ex-
pelled the colored brother, and this quite naturally
raised a howl of indignation throughout the North.
As a consequence, the credentials of both Miller
and Hill were lodged for a long time in the com-
mittee room.

A new reconstruction scheme was inaugurated.
A. L. Harris, a fresh importation from Ohio, was
designated to reorganize the legislative depart-
ment of the government. He proceeded to rein-
state the negroes, and at the same time to remove
obnoxious democrats. After this the legislature
elected another pair of senators — H. P. Farrow
and Richard H. Whitely. In the end, however,
Miller and Hill were admitted, the latter, -who was
a thorough republican, after a few months delay,
the former an avowed democrat only seven days
before the expiration of the term for which he had

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 221

been chosen. When sworn in, Miller was the only
Southern democrat in that august body. During
his protracted stay in Washington, Dr. Miller had
secured the personal friendship of the leading re-
publican senators, and as no partisan purpose
could be subserved by his longer exclusion, the ma-
jority voted to seat him at the eleventh hour. He
made not a single speech during his brief senato-
rial term, but it was arranged by the democratic
minority that, in a certain contingency, he should
speak on some pending measure. Unluckily for
the country at large, that contingency never arose.
From that date Dr. Miller's personal connection
with State or national politics came to a close, ex-
cept that he occasionally addressed the people dur-
ing presidential campaigns. During the Greeley
campaign he spoke to a packed house in Atlanta,
and the memory of that remarkable oration yet
lingers. An eminent jurist has recently said that
it was the grandest speech to which he ever list-
ened. In the same campaign he made a wonderful
speech in Raleigh, N. C, which Governor Graham
pronounced the ablest ever made in that city. In
Columbus, Ga., and Knoxville, Tenn., he likewise
made phenomenal speeches.

Having briefly commented on the leading events
of his long and somewhat chequered life, it is in
order to attempt some general estimate of his
character and capacity. This estimate must needs
be brief, as we do not propose to transcend our
prescribed limits.

222 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Aside from his native endowments which are
confessedly of a high order, Dr. Miller is noted for
his multifarious learning. His information on
almost every subject is not only very large as to
the amount of it, but it is thoroughly accurate.
He has read more extensively than almost any
Georgian of his generation, and he retains every-
thing that he reads. He is unquestionably more
familiar with ancient and modern history than
any man, young or old, that we have chanced to
meet in the course of a long lifetime. This is not
said for a present purpose. On the contrar}',
years ago, in a contribution to a leading daily
paper, we stated that he might be properly styled
the " admirable C rich ton" of his time.

The late Mr. Grad}^ held a similar opinion in re-
gard to the vastness and variety of his attain-
ments. In every emergency he sought his advice,
and every great speech of his life was submitted to
his criticism. There was something touching in
the close and confidential relationship of these two
great men. They had some gifts alike and Mr.
Grady did not more reverence his venerable friend
than did Dr. Miller admire Grady's brilliancy and
thorough originality. He has been known to say
that Mr. Grady was developing more rapidly at
the time of his death than during any former
period of his life.

It is proper to add that Dr. Miller deserves a
high rank as a conversationalist. His perfect self-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 223

poise, even in the presence of such men as Macaulay,
Thackeray, Calhoun, Clay, and lesser lights, and
his absolute and ready command of his intellecual
resources fitted him to shine in anv circle.

a/

The beauty of his private life is next in impor-
tance to his strong religious convictions. He has
little sympathy with a progressive theology, but
warmly affects a simple, old-fashioned gospel, such
as he heard in other days from the lips of Glenn,
Payne, Parks, and the Pierces. Some years ago
he retired from his official position as a lay preacher
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This
step was taken against the protest of very many
friends, but he was moved thereto by his strong
sense of duty. He has never wavered in his at-
tachment to the church itself, and is still a con-
sistent and liberal member of the Trinity congre-
gation of this city.

As may be learned from a previous statement in
this sketch, he is now eighty-one years of age, but
still occupies responsible positions as medical lec-
turer, practicing physician, and trustee of thirty
years standing of the University of Georgia. It
may not be said of him, as is said by inspiration
of Moses at a riper age, that his eyes are not
dimmed nor his natural force abated, but thou-
sands throughout Georgia and the whole South
will in regard to him join in the pious wish of the
Latin poet:

"Serus in czlum rede as. n

224 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

DR. T. O. POWELL.

This distinguished superintendent of the Georgia
Lunatic Asylum at Milledgeville, Ga., has held
that highly honorable and responsible position for
a series of years.

Under his able supervision it has steadily grown
in popularity. At this date the inmates of both
races, aggregate nearly two thousand in number.

For this class of unfortunates Dr. Powell has
the warmest Christian sympathy and spares no
effort to contribute to their well-being, physically
and spiritually.

This latter feature of his administration is deserv-
ing of special commendation, and in it he has the
earnest co-operation of Rev. J. M. White, the
chaplain of the institution.

Dr. Powell is a native of Brunswick county,
Virginia, of gentle birth and thorough religious
training.

His educational opportunities were good from
the outset of his academic career. After leaving
college he began the study of medicine and in due
time graduated with a very high class-standing.

From that period he has grown in public fa^or,
both in Virginia and Georgia.

Now, when but slightly past the meridian of his
professional life, he has the prospect of many years
of activity, crowned wTith yet greater honors.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 225

In his specialty his reputation is national, nor
indeed is it confined to this country. In Europe
he is well and favorably known through the me-
dium of his annual reports. These have often re-
ceived the hearty endorsement of the ablest med-
ical journalists in both hemispheres.

Dr. T. S. Powell, of Atlanta, his elder half-
brother, is himself likewise a Virginian of the
"bluest blood," andaphysician and churchman of
deserved celebrity.

He is very generally known as the founder of
the Southern Medical College, which, under his
efficient presidency, has become a leading medical
institution in the Southern States. He has given a
large share of his professional attention to gyne-
cology in its modern acceptation. His lectures
on this and its related branches have attracted no
little attention in various towns and cities of the
South.

His two lectures on "Medical Ethics" and "The
True Gentleman" have been widely circulated.

The literary material for an elaborate volume
on professional topics will probably at some fu-
ture day be issued from the press.

It is rarely the case that two brothers have
won like prominence in the same or similar lines of
professional work.

15

226 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

WALTER T. COLQUITT.

This singularly gifted man was known to me in
ray early boyhood.

At that date he was famous throughout Geor-
gia as a local preacher of the Methodist church.
At the same time he was a statesman who ranked
high as a democratic leader in both branches of
congress, and who at an earlier period had been
distinguished as a circuit judge, and possibly the
only one who opened the sessions of his court by
thanksgiving and prayer.

In these several capacities he won great renown,
especially on the rostrum during the Polk and
Dallas campaign in 1844.

I heard him on two or more of these occasions
when he swayed his audiences by a style of ora-
tory not thoroughly classical, but forceful as the
deliverances of such old-time orators as "honest
Nat Macon" and TomCorwin, of Ohio, with both
of whom he differed politically, but whom he re-
sembled closely in his mental characteristics.

There were times, both on the platform and in
the pulpit, nor less when addressing a jury, when
he spoke with the fervor of the Roman Gracchi.
I have seen him more than once get on his knees
before a leading juror and talk to him for five
minutes with an impassioned earnestness that

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 227

carried conviction with it and probably won the
verdict for his client.

Many who knew him longest and best thought
that his greatest speech was delivered in 1848 at
Temperance Hall, Columbus. I heard the perora-
tion only, but will never forget how it was greeted
by thunders of applause. When I entered on my
ministry at Columbus, in 1855, I found him utterly
prostrated by age and disease. During my fre-
quent visits to his sick chamber he often spoke of
his political and ministerial career. He as-
sured me that at no time, even when the political
campaign was the hottest, did he ever waver in his
allegiance to his divine Master, nor consciously
compromise his character as a minister of the
gospel.

Only a few months thereafter he died in Macon,
but his remains w^ere brought to Columbus for
interment. An immense congregation attended
the funeral obsequies.

His old friend, Dr. Lovick Pierce, preached the
sermon with a power and a pathos seldom heard
on such an occasion.

228 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

BENJAMIN HARVEY HILL.
Georgia's greatest senator.

It is difficult to portray- in a sketch the remark-
able life of Benjamin Harvey Hill, so as to reveal
clearly the greatness of the man. It can be said
that he was a jurist of unsurpassed ability, but
in order to give a just conception of his great
powers as a lawyer, it would be necessary to pro-
duce the easily-found evidences of his forensic
achievements. A sketch may announce his states-
manship in terms of eulogy, which would only
whet the desire for the many proofs that can be
given of his great grasp of public questions. He
was eloquent almost beyond comparison with
other men, and yet that declaration does not sat-
isfy the wish for ample description of the won-
derful witchery of his tongue. Conscious that not
the shadow of justice would be done him in the
use of platitudes so often employed in the flattery
of men, and also in accordance with the scope of
the sketches included in this work, this brief mem-
orandum will deal mainlv with his life as a lavman
of the Church of Christ.

Christianity is not nattered by the allegiance of
great minds, and it does not need that rulers shall
believe in Christ in order to insure its success

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 229

among men. The simple wa}rfarer, the humble
poor, the undistinguished peasant, are equally the
honored witnesses of the Truth as it is in Christ
Jesus, and such as these have hitherto set at
naught the wisdom of the world. Nevertheless,
the faith of men like Chief Justice Jackson, Thos.
R. R. Cobb, Joseph E. Brown, A. H. Stephens, L.
Q.C.Lamar, Alfred H. Colquitt, Benjamin H. Hill,
and multitudes more princely spirits such as these,
put to shame the infidelity which denies the reason-
ableness of the soul's great trust in Jesus Christ
as the Saviour of the sinner.

In commencing this tracing of a great la3rman's
life, one's interest is excited by the fact that his
father, John Hill, was one of the early fruits of pio-
neer Methodism in North Carolina . Converted and
imbued with the fresh spirit of the religion wThich
A sbury taught, the young North Carolinian, and
his equally pious wife, Sarah Parham, made their
first home on the farm at Hillsboro, Jasper county,
Georgia. There, John Hill became a steward and
class-leader of his church, a trustee of the school,
president of the temperance society, and in gen-
eral a leader of the people in every righteous move-
ment. There, too, in the home of this honest, intel-
ligent farmer and his wife, their seventh child wTas
born, September^, 1823, whom they named Ben-
jamin Harvey Hill. Ten years afterward, the Hill
family moved to Long Cane, in Troup county,
Georgia, to a farm in the woods, where the house-

230 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

hold, working together, made a bountiful sub-
sistence out of the soil. Ben did his part with the
hoe, and held his place at the plow, until the sum-
mer school of the neighborhood opened, when he
as diligently mastered the rudiments of education.
His rapid progress inspired his fond mother with
the desire to have him receive a college training,
and in order to overcome the obstacle of limited
means, devoted the income of her special patch to
his use, and made his clothes at home. A good
aunt gave a small additional sum, and it was
agreed that their son should have the advantages
which he craved.

Accordingly, in 1841, Ben came to Athens,
dressed in gray jeans ; tall and slender, with a
pale and thoughtful face, and rather shy and
awkward. But he was graduated with the first
honor, and made a valedictory^ speech, of which
an eminent man said: "That speech stamped
the young orator as a man of wonderful power."
The best record of his college life, however, is thus
stated by Dr. G. J. Orr, who was one of his class-
mates : "He was a pure and exalted boy, through
all my college acquaintance with him. There was
not the slightest shadow of immorality in his
character." In fact, he had gone to college a con-
verted Christian, and member of the church. His
boyhood had passed amidst the influences of the
Christian home, his principles were established
through the precepts of his father, and his heart

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 231

-was steadied by the love of his mother, so that the
seductions of college life failed to corrupt him.

Commencing the practice of law, he chose most
happily as his companion for life, Miss Caroline E.
Holt, whom he often lovingly alluded to as "the
mainspring of my life." The home of the young
couple was fixed at LaGrange, and into that new
household there entered the salutary influences of
the old homestead at Long Cane. The same Bible
teaching, the family altar, the welcomed pastor,
the love of the church, the domestic honor paid to
Christ and his cause in the presence of their
children, showed that the reverence for the faith
and practice of their ancestors had not departed
from the hearts of the young people. Both be-
longed to the church, and both, in name and deeds,
worked together in the benevolent offices of their
religion. Mr. Hill was soon made superintendent
of the Sunday-school, and we may well conceive
how well qualified he was for that position. His
activity in the work of his church, and in all local
movements for the benefit of the splendid commu-
nity at LaGrange, manifested his religious as well
as his patriotic spirit.

Very quickly his brilliant ability as a lawyer,
his eloquence as a public speaker, and his moral
worth, became the admiration of Troup county,
and, contra^ to his own inclinations, he was
pushed into political prominence from his early
manhood. But this sketch will not permit us to

232 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

follow him in that shining path which defeats
could not obscure, and where victories merely
opened the way to wider usefulness. His political
life covered the most exciting and deeply important
period in the history of our country. Commencing
at the bloom of his young manhood, in 1850, this
era went on through a decade which led up to the
Confederate war, and afterward included the sub-
sequent years of Reconstruction — a rare era, which
demanded rare men, and among them there was
no greater than himself. He was a worshipper of
an ideal Union, a true lover of his country for his
country's sake — a typical patriot ! After Georgia
seceded from the Union, he was elected as one of
its senators in the Confederate Congress, where he
maintained with eminent ability the cause of the
South, and was the trusted counselor of President
Davis. His genius, always luminous, grew in
brilliancy amidst the struggles of the new nation,
and became still more intense during those years
of trial, which followed the defeat of the Confed-
eracy. His greatest thoughts are in "The Notes on
the Situation, "written during this perilous period.
His greatest speeches were made in Georgia, and in
the United States Congress, after the war was
over. He was at the zenith of his cumulative
abilities, when a mysterious malady touched his
tongue, and arrested his useful life.

In all this remarkable career as a public man, Mr.
Hill held fast to the faith of his youth. His grow-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 283

ing household so enjoyed his loving attention that
his children blessed him rather for his fatherhood
than for his fame, and his ever tender wife thought
of him more as her husband than as the leader of
his people. His liberality to the church was so
marked as to induce a certain reliance on his aid
in every enterprise. The orphans' home, the su-
perannuates' fund, the subscriptions for church
buildings, the support of the preacher, and, indeed,
every other cause of Christ, had no readier and less
ostentatious giver. He made money with ease, he
lost it without care, he gave it with hearty liber-
ality.

The closing of his notable life in "the sad mys-
tery" of the unimagined malady of cancer, has
only these consolations, that it brought out clearly
to public view how dearly he was loved by the
people, and furnished a true witness of the power
of Divine grace and truth. For many months, and
amidst the most heroic efforts to stay its progress,
the dreadful destroyer of his earthly life went
steadily on in its fatal work. During these months
of suspense, he calmly confronted the possibility
of death. Speaking to his wife and children, he
said : "It is astonishing how the horrors of death
diminish as it approaches. How riches, honors,
position, the world's applause, dwindle into insig.
nificance. I lean upon the everlasting arms, and
my trust is in Christ." Unable at length to speak
distinctly, he wrote upon the leaves of a pad when

234 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

he would converse with his family or friends. For
one friend, he wrote these words : "My future is
uncertain as to time, but not as to fact. I am per-
fectly resigned ; God will take care of me." For
another, he wrote: "I believe that God is a living
God, and that Christ came into the world to save
sinners, and He will save me." And again, upon
another slip, he traced these words of faith in the
power of the resurrection: "If a grain of corn
wall die, and then rise again in so much beauty,
why may not I die and then rise again in infinite
beauty and life? How is the last a greater mys-
tery than the first ? ' '

"The world has possession of his last words. It
was a few hours preceding his death, when he was
rapidly sinking and had not written or spoken a
word for many hours. Opening his eyes and
arousing himself for a moment, the light of life
came full into his eyes once more, and, with a
slight effort, he spoke out in clear, triumphant ac-
cent, the deathless legend of a soul conquering
through Christ and in full view of heaven — 'Almost
Home!'"

"Men are greatest when they give the greater
glory of all their achievements to God, and so
live that when the}^ fail on earth, they find a home
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 235

JOHN WESLEY STANTON

Was born in Monroe count\r, Tenn., December
23, 1823. His parents moved to Murray, now
Whitfield county, Ga., when he was ten years old.
He was converted and joined the Methodist
Episcopal church when he was about 18 years of
age, under the pastorate of Rev. Wm. Hickey,
then a member of the Holston Conference. Since
that time he has been an active and prominent
member of the church, serving in the various
offices held by laymen. His house has always been
a home for Methodist preachers.

His ancestors, on both sides, at least for three or
four generations, were Methodists. In their
homes Methodist preachers not only found a rest-
ing place, but often preaching places. Among
these preachers was Bishop Asbury, who often
preached in the homes of both of Mr. Stanton's
grandfathers. His father also entertained the
bishop in his home, and the bishop used him very
freely. One time he sent for him to pilot him to
one of his appointments, and when he came the
bishop playfully remarked : "John, I have made
your will without consulting you."

Mr. Stanton's mother was a Douthit before her
marriage. You can see from his journal that
Bishop Asbury often stopped in his home. Also

286 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

preached there. Once when he reached their home
in South Carolina (they first entertained him while
thev lived in North Carolina) after a trying journey
across the mountains of Tennessee and North Caro-
lina, he recorded in his journal that he then "bade
a farewell for awhile to filth, fleas, rattlesnakes,
hills, mountains and rivers." When she was a girl
of five years she used to bathe the bishop's feet when
he came in from his long, wearisome journeys.
She thus in the true way "washed the saints'
feet." Her brothers, James and Samuel Douthit,
were for years members of the South Carolina Con-
ference. On circuit and district James served in Vir-
ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia,
with faithfulness and great success. In a limited
way Samuel was an author. "The Zion's Travel-
er: Hymns and Spiritual Songs by Doctor S.
Douthit, 1835," is a book of 148 pages, contain-
ing 84 hymns and several essays.

The subject of this sketch married Miss Lucinda
White Hale, of Bradley county, Tenn., March,
1843. They lived in what is now Whitfield county,
Georgia, until 1863, when they moved to
Gordon county, Ga., where they now live. They
raised nine children, six boys and three girls; all
of whom are now living, and gathered at the old
home in a family reunion only last year. They
are all members of the Methodist church except
the oldest son, and he is a prominent layman

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 237

in the Baptist church. Two of his sons are mem-
bers of the North Georgia Conference.

Mr. Stanton was in the Confederate arm}' dur-
ing the civil war. Whether in camp or on battle-
field, he was regarded as a brave soldier and
Christian gentleman. Though always taking a
livel}T interest in politics, he was never a politician.
Nor was he ever an office-seeker, biit served his
county in the legislature in 1866-67.

JAMES JACKSON.

THE CHRISTIAN JURIST.

This eminent layman was a lineal descendant of
that far-famed governor of Georgia, who, Prome-
theus-like, brought down fire from Heaven that he
might consume the records of the memorable
"Yazoo Fraud." For this act of disinterested
patriotism and unswerving official integrity his
memory will be honored by all true Georgians to
the latest generation.

Chief Justice Jackson, during his lifetime, from
his first entrance into political leadership and all
through his judicial career, exhibited a moral cour-
age not unlike that of his illustrious ancestor. As a

238 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

statesman he won high rank in the halls of legisla-
tion, but his crowning distinction was the purity
of his private life and his incorruptible integrity
as a judicial officer. For both these reasons he
might be justly named the Sir Mathew Hale of
the "Georgia bench. To these general statements
we subjoin these other details :

Nearly fifty years ago, this writer, then in his
boyhood, met him for the first time during a
session of the State legislature at Milledgeville.

He was at that time an aspirant for judicial
honors, for which his friends made a vigorous and
successful canvass in his behalf. He was backed
by the solid Cobb and Jackson influence, which
even then was well-nigh omnipotent in State
affairs.

From that date he was conspicuous as a
popular leader, and seldom failed to secure the
suffrages of a handsome majority of his fellow-
citizens.

Thoroughly educated, an orator of striking en-
dowments, and better than all, a churchman de-
voted to the doctrines and practices of old-time
Methodism, he had on every occasion a large and
influential following.

Early in life he wedded Miss Addie Mitchell,
daughter of Hon. Walter H. Mitchell, a prominent
state official. This beautiful and accomplished
woman was the mother of his children and
shared with him the trials and triumphs of his pro-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 239

fessional life until God called her to a better estate
in the heavenly home. This domestic bereavement
brought him into closer communion with God,
and henceforward his religious life was adorned
by the choicest gifts of the Holy Spirit.

On all proper occasions he was ready to testify
for the Master, and his fervent appeals to sinners
were characterized by a pathos and a power
that made him not less useful as a lay preacher
than he was renowned as a jurist.

The older members of First church, Atlanta,
have not forgotten his class-meeting talks, and
the echoes of his exhortations at the midweek
prayer service still linger in the basement of the
mother church.

The closing years of Chief Justice Jackson were
spent on the bench of the supreme court, a
branch of the public service to which he was emi-
nently adapted by reason of taste, temperament
and professional acquirements.

His death wras regarded by his countrymen,
especially by the legal fraternity, as a public ca-
lamity.

His second wife, who survives him, was a sweet-
spirited mother to the children of his first mar-
riage, and did much to soothe and cheer him in
the disease and suffering of his old age.

240 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

W. R. HAMMOND.

The professional career of this gifted Methodist
la\rman has but few parallels in the history of the
Georgia judicial.

Graduating at the State University at twenty-
two years of age he not only carried off the
highest honors of that institution, but secured the
highest class mark ever attained by any student up
to the time of his graduation. Entering at once
on the study of the law in his father's office he
made such rapid progress that in less than ten
years he w^as a conspicuous figure at the Atlanta
bar, wTith a lucrative practice.

Two years thereafter he was chosen by the State
legislature to fill the unexpired term of Judge
George Hillyeron the Atlanta circuit and at the en-
suing election for the full term of four years.
Such had been the brilliancy of his past ad-
ministration that he was again elected by the
legislature, practically without a dissenting or
an opposing ballot, in the joint session of the
general assembl}'.

Considering the weighty responsibility attached
to the judgeship of the Atlanta circuit, this result
was well-nigh without precedent in the judicial
record of the commonwealth.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 241

At the close, however, of the first year of this
second term of judicial service he felt constrained
by the inadequacy of the salary, to retire from the
position. Thereupon he resumed his law practice
in connection with Hon. John I. Hall, one of the
ablest jurists of Georgia, and at present assistant
to the attorney general of the United States. The
firm of Hall & Hammond is still, however, intact.

For a number of }-ears Judge Hammond has
been retained as leading counsel in some of the
most important cases which have been adjudi-
cated in the Atlanta courts. Notunfrequently, also,
his arguments in the supreme court have been com-
plimented by the presiding judges of that emi-
nent tribunal. One instance of this sort occurred
on the final hearing of the writ of error in the
celebrated Cox case. The lower court had found
the defendant guilty, and he was sentenced to a lite
term of imprisonment. On the review of the
case in the supreme court Judge Hammond, by
arrangement, appeared in the role of leading
counsel. His argument was a notable one, so
much so that he was profusely complimented by
bench and bar. A majority of the court affirmed
the decision of the court below, but Judge Warner
delivered a very able and elaborate dissenting
opinion. A distinguished member of the Atlanta
bar states that Judge Hammond's speech was one
of the most masterful to which he had ever listened ,
and that be3^ond question it elicited the dissent-

16

242 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

ing opinion of Judge Warner, which opinion after-
wards led to the pardoning of Mr. Cox by Gover-
nor Stephens.

On more than one occasion Judge Warner is
credibly reported to have said in private circles
that the Hammond speech in the Cox case was
equal to the best he ever heard in the supreme
court.

This was a notable tribute from a high quarter,
and yet it was full}' merited, if our information is
reliable.

WTe refer to this particular case for the reason
that it awakened a wide public interest, and for
the additional reason that it involved great princi-
ples of criminal jurisprudence.

In both these respects it deserves to rank with
the memorable Crowninshield casein Massachu-
setts, in which Mr. Webster won as many laurels
as in his grand argument in the Dartmouth College
case. This forensic achievement of Judge Ham-
mond in the Cox case is alone sufficient to entitle
him to very high consideration as a well-equipped
and successful advocate.

In this pen picture of one of Atlanta's foremost
jurists, we may not overlook the fact that Judge
Hammond has, from his early manhood, been a
student of standard literature. Few men are bet-
ter versed in history, poetry and the best class of
fiction. From these sources he has drawn inspira-
tion for the lecture platform and the popular as-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 243

sembly. I was several years ago one of a large
audience that heard, with great satisfaction and
profit, a commencement address which he delivered
at the LaGrange Female College on "Memory and
Hope."

While the main drift of this admirable address
was didactic, yet it was embellished with flights
of thrilling oratory, and now and then enlivened
with choice bits of the best humor. From time to
time its deliver}- was punctuated by hearty ap-
plause, showing that he was en rapport with his
delighted audience. At another time he presented
the Sophomore prizes at Emory College commence-
ment, and from that address we have been permit-
ted to make but a single brief extract. His well-
chosen theme for the occasion was "The Condi-
tions of Success in Public Speaking."

"The art of the orator, young gentlemen, con-
sists chiefly in compelling the attention of an in-
different or even unwilling hearer. Some of you,
I am quite sure, have heard of the question which
the bishop of London propounded to David Gar-
rick, the Roscius of the British stage. 'How is
it,' asked the bishop, 'that \^ou who speak fiction
can powerfully arouse the emotions of an audi-
ence, while I, who speak to them of the weightest
matters, can scarcely get their attention?' 'Be-
cause,' wras the reply, '37ou speak truths as if it
were fiction, while I speak fiction as if it were
truth.' If the bishop had given as much study to

244 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

the art of expression as the great actor had done,
he might have found that his delighted audience
would have heard him gladly.

"The manner of serving our thoughts to others
ma}7 be likened somewhat to the manner of serv-
ings meal. Food may be of the best quality and
rendered thoroughly digestible by suitable cooking,
yet be served in such a way as not only not to
tempt, but to be utterly repulsive. On the other
hand it may be so daintily arranged and so deli-
cately served as almost to compel the appetite of
the weakest invalid.

"But I wrould not wish to be understood as un-
duly emphasizing the mere external graces and
embellishments of oratory. There is a deeper and
more subtle element which enters into and exer-
cises a controlling influence over the orator's man-
ner which is far more important. It is that which
gives him individuality, and that almost indefin-
able thing which we call personal magnetism, by
which he establishes a direct communication, be-
tween his own spirit and that of his hearers. He
thus comes into harmony with them. When thus
catching the gleam of intelligent apprehension and
the glow of responsive feeling in their faces, he
gets an inspiration which enables him to rise to
the loftiest and grandest heights of eloquence."
These few terse sentences embod\- the whole art,
and philosophy of elocution.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 245

Less than a year ago Judge Hammond delivered,
during the session of the Southern Teachers' Asso-
ciation in this city, an excellent address on "Moral
Instruction in Primary Schools." By general
consent it was considered one of the most edify-
ing deliverances of that interesting occasion.
During his long connection with the Atlanta
Board of Education he has bestowed much though t
on methods of teaching, and our public school
system has been greatly benefited b\T his judicious
counsels. In the outset of this sketch we made in-
cidental reference to Judge Hammond's consecra-
tion to Christian duty, and some enlargement on
that phase of his character is not only allowable,
but imperative.

For more than twenty years he has been a
worthy office-bearer of Trinity church, and has al-
ways been ready for sacrifices or service when the
opportunity was offered.

Emerson says that the average Englishman,
greatly honored Lord Palmerston, because on
every Sabbath morning he was seen wending his
way to church with his prayer-book under his
arm. A visitor to Trinity Sunday-school wTill
rarely miss the pleasant face of this Christian
jurist, nor will he often find his pew vacant at the
morning or evening services. This means much
or little according as we measure life or estimate
character from a religious or an infidel stand-
point.

246 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

WM. A. HEMPHILL.

Nearly thirty years ago, when stationed at
First church in Athens, I heard this then young
Confederate soldier often commended for his in-
dustrious habits when at home, and his gallantry
after he went to the battle-fields of Virginia.

He seems to have been from his earliest boyhood
a promising lad, who did much to assist his aged
parents in their declining \Tears. He was recog-
nized b}T the best citizens of his native town as
destined to a life of enterprise and usefulness.

These anticipations were realized, when, after the
war, he embarked in business in the city of Atlanta.

It was singularly fortunate that he conceived
the project of founding the Atlanta Constitution,
long since become one of the most prosperous
journals of tlie South.

This is but one of the leading business schemes
in which he has invested both money and labor.

He has seemed to appreciate and accept the ad-
vice of Mr. Wesley to his preachers "never be un-
employed, and never triflingly employed." His
working qualities are remarkable, and much of his
time he does the labor of two or three men.

This, however, is but the business side of Brother
Hemphill's character. He carries the same methods
of activity into his churchmanship.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 247

He was a leading steward of Trinity church
twenty-five years ago, and he is always consulted
in the management of its financial affairs. For
fourteen years he has been the superintendent of
Trinity Sunday-school, which is much the largest in
the city, and conducted with singular skill in all its
departments. He is likewise active in the social
meetings of the church, speaks well in the love-
feast and conducts the prayer-meeting at times
with great satisfaction to the pastor and congre-
gation.

He has, in the progress of years, accumulated a
nandsome fortune, and has expended no little of his
gains in public and private benefactions.

He made a single contribution of five thousand
dollars to Emory College, and half that amount to
the Barclay mission, one of the noblest charities of
the Gate City.

Nor is he proportionately less liberal injudicious
almsgiving.

The Atlanta Constitution, of which he is the
financial manager, stands ready, in seasons of
general depression and suffering, to do its full share
for the relief of the poor of the citv.

Tn all these respects Brother Hemphill has been
mindful of the precept "to do good and to com-
municate forget not."

-4S BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

COL. W. W. BOYD.

My first knowledge of Bishop Andrew as the
president of an Annual Conference was at Ameri-
cus, in 1856.

As we came out of the Conference room at the
close of the morning session, he remarked to me,
" Brother Scott, a private word with you." We
stepped aside in the churchyard and he said with a
smile, "I am glad to be informed that your Mari-
etta charge desire very much your return for the
second year." I replied, "Bishop, I should be sorry
to think that my official board had made any
formal application of the sort, for I enjoined upon
them to leave the whole matter in your hands." "I
understand that," he said, "quite perfectly, but I re-
ceived to-day from the Georgia Military Institute
a petition signed by every cadet very respectfully
asking for your re-appointment. It is," said he>
"my first experience of the sort, and is gratifving
to me." I subsequently learned that my excellent
friend, Col. W. W. Boyd, the commissar\r of the In-
stitute, was foremost in the movement.

This gentleman and his pious wife were mem-
bers of my charge, the latter having been Miss
Brem, of Charlotte, N. C.

Col. Boyd wras a man of splendid physique, of
liberal culture, and during the late civil war was

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 249

greatly distinguished for his personal gallantry in
some of the hardest campaigns of that four years'
conflict.

He commanded the 19th Georgia regiment at-
tached to the famous fighting legion of General
William Phillips.

Col. Boyd was a South Carolinian by birth and a
devoted friend of General Frank Caper, for a num-
ber of years the able superintendent of the Georgia
Military Institute. A large number of those who
graduated under his tuition, amongst them Gen-
eral P. M. B. Young and Col. John Milledge, made
reputations during the war, both in the east and
west. The McCleskey boys, of Athens, and Dr.
Todd, of Atlanta, were in the number of the jun-
ior cadets that won their spurs at Resaca, Gris-
woldville and Oconee bridge.

The last named Dr Todd, is a staunch Method-
ist and leading physician of the Gate City, who
carries in his "empty sleeve" the badge of his
youthful bravery.

Col. Boyd did not linger many years after the
war, but died, leaving behind his estimable wife.

His son, Wallace W.Boyd, is a prominent manu-
facturer of Atlanta, and an official member of the
First Presbyterian church, of that city.

He is a worthy son, with a noble lineage and a
charming Christian household.

250 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

GREEN B. HAYGOOD.

Green B. Haygood, Esq., was a lawyer of promi-
nence at the Atlanta bar, when the present city was
but a babe in the woods with undreamed of
possibilities.

At the same time Brother Ha3rgood was a Method-
ist of the primitive type before the higher criticism
had invaded the pulpit, or the pew had been in-
fected b}7 the spirit of worldliness and lost its relish
for the fervent response of the amen corner.

Looked at from a phrenological standpoint, he
combined the lymphatic and bilious tempera-
ments, with a clear preponderance of the former,
as indicated by his massive physical and mental
structure. He was somewhat lacking in enthusi-
asm, but his religious convictions were deep
and abiding, and whether in storm or shine, he
was true to his church, and a valiant champion of
the right in things great and small, as he wTas
enabled to see it.

As a jurist, he ranked with the foremost of his
contemporaries, reaching his conclusions by a
slow but sure process of reasoning.

He was always in sympathy with the masses,
but as far removed from demagogism as the
veriest patrician of the Coriolanus stripe. For this
reason, mainly, he was seldom called to any official

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 251

position outside of church affairs. In these ecclesi-
astical matters he was always at the front in de-
vising and executing schemes for the enlargement of
the visible kingdom of Christ.

When Wesley Chapel was no longer adequate to
the demands of Methodism in both North and
South Atlanta, he was one of the first to enlist in
an effort to establish Trinit\r church. In this en-
terprise he had the hearty co-operation of E. E.
Rawson, Frank Richardson, Rev. Lewis Lawshe,
and other leading southsiders. For some while
the school-room of Mrs. Haygood,on McDonough
htreet, was occupied for religious services. After-
wards, precise date unknown, a building lot was
purchased fronting on what is now Capitol
square, and a brick church of antique style was
erected, named Trinity, where the congregation
worshiped for many years, steadily growing in
wealth and numbers.

The outcome of this movement is now seen in
the splendid edifice which adorns the junction of
Whitehall street and Trinity avenue.

Brother Haygood was blessed in his domestic re-
lations with a discreet,]pious wife, whose praise is
known in both hemispheres through the worth and
work of Bishop Ha\rgood and that extraordinary
woman, Miss Laura Haygood, of our Chinese mis-
sion. This elect lady survived the husband of her
youth, who went to his heavenly reward more

252 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

or

to

than thirty years ago, while the nation was bein
stricken with the throes of a great revolution.
Brother Haygood died as he lived, without a blot

on his name, leaving but little else than this as a
heritage to his wife and children.

Y. L. G. HARRIS,

UTHE MAN OF ROSS."

This distinguished Methodist layman was strik-
ingly averse to newspaper notoriety.

As far as practicable he hid himself from public
observation except when duty called him before
the footlights. Then he was self-possessed, but
never self-assertive, and impressed all classes by
his admirable bearing and excellent judgment on
all questions of general interest.

Of course, he was not free from mistakes, but
they were usually on the side of a charity both
Christly and courageous.

Now that he has gone to his heavenly rest and
reward it is altogether proper that the press,
secular and religious, should speak reverently and
lovingly of his memory.

Indeed, his life and character furnish an object
lesson for the careful study of a generation more
appreciative of intellectual greatness than of moral

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. I_;.")3

goodness. It would, however, be a grave error to
suppose that he was deficient in culture. His
knowledge of books and men was both exact and
extensive, and he had a stock of reserved force
that availed him in every emergenc}7 of his long
and chequered life.

In many respects he was not unlike Samuel
Budgett, the Christian merchant of Bristol, who
accumulated a princely fortune and whom an
English writer has ranked with the great men of
the present century.

We are not at present concerned with dates or
events, but purpose to speak of the more striking
traits of his character. Not the least of them was
his methodical habits in both religion and busi-
ness. This was one great secret of his life success.

During the fifty }rears that he was superinten-
dent of the Sabbath-school, it is mathematically
certain that except in sickness or necessary ab-
sence from the city or intensely bad weather, he
was never five minutes late in reaching the school.
During the nearly thirty years that he was presi-
dent of the Southern Mutual Insurance Company,
that from a lowly beginning he built up into an im-
mense corporation, he was as punctually at his
desk as the stroke of the University bell.

No one better understood the value of minutes
and the equation of time.

254 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Of excellent social qualities, his engagements of
that sort were never suffered to interfere with his
business.

He read the Scriptures and said his family and
private prayers by the clock. This was from no
love for method for its own sake, but because he
recognized its importance as a means of accom-
plishing the work of the day.

Sir William Hamilton attributed his success as a
philosopher to the stringency of his method, and
Judge Harris has more than once said to me that
without it his life would be a failure, so many and
urgent were the demands on his time.

But there wTas another side to his character. His
personal piety was of a hi^h order, and through-
out the fifty odd years of his church membership
he enjo3Ted the utmost confidence of his brethren,
amongst whom were such men as the Hulls, the
Popes, the Carltons, the Cloptons and the Har-
rises, of Athens.

Judge Harris had in an eminent degree a devo •
tional spirit. He loved the sanctuary and its or-
dinances as did David and the aged Simeon. Espe-
cially did he love theprayer services, and formany
years he was, in the observance of them, the ac-
knowledged leader of the midweek prayer-meeting.

Few of our ablest ministers had a better gift of
prayer. Like Asbury Hull, he was a model class-
leader, and both of them, although not so desig-
nated officially, were excellent la3T -preachers.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 255

In the noonday prayer-meeting, of which Bro.
Harris was the main support, he very often exhib-
ited rare ability as an expositor of the Scriptures.

But after all, his chief distinction lay in his
abundant charity. He was a thorough Methodist,
and yet he loved all the true disciples of the Mas-
ter. Not a Christian in Athens of any denomina-
tion but can testify to this fact. No feature of his
character has attracted more attention than his
liberal almsgiving and his large benefactions to
churches and colleges. He built, single-handed, the
first Southern Methodist church in China at a cost
of several thousand dollars. From that date he
went forward with increased liberality, building
other churches, endowing colleges and public li-
braries, until it has been estimated that in the last
thirty years of his life his contributions to public
and private charities have aggregated consider-
ably more than one hundred thousand dollars.
There seemed to be no limit to his generosity.
While he left an estate valued at one hundred
thousand dollars, yet it will be probably found
that he has made other bequests that have not
been divulged.

Truly this is a noble record, not equaled in the
history of Georgia. Having known him for sixty
years, I can truthfully say that in all the relations
of life he was an Israelite indeed in whom there
was no guile.

256 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

In the matter of his deeds of charity he was not
less self-sacrificing than a noted layman whom
Alexander Pope, in his "Moral Essays," has called
"The Man of Ross," and of whom he has most
beautifully sung in this wise :

"Who builds a church to God and not to fame,
Will never mark the marble with his name;
Go search it there, where to be born and die,
Of rich and poor makes all the history."

DENNIS F. HAMMOND,

JURIST AND LAY PREACHER.

This widely-known gentleman was a native of
South Carolina, having been born at Liberty Hill,
inl819. He received a good classical education at
Cokesbury, a former educational center of Method-
ism. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted
to the bar at Newnan, Ga., and rose rapidly in
the ranks of his profession.

In 1844 he married Miss Adeline Robinson, a
daughter of Mr. John Robinson, a prosperous
planter, who long resided near the present site of
Tallapoosa, Ga.

For twelve or more years Judge Hammond was
a most successful legal practitioner, traveling the
circuit in the olden style, principally on horseback,
his saddle-wallets stocked with briefs and law

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 257

hooks. In after years Judge Hammond had many
a laughable story to relate of his experiences
while making his semi-annual rounds on his cir-
cuit.

In 1855 he was elected judge of the Tallapoosa
circuit, and very soon acquired a reputation for
all-round ability seldom equaled in the history of
the Georgia judicial .

One conspicuous feature of his official adminis-
tration was his unswerving integrity and his unfal-
tering personal courage in the enforcement of the
law against a class of moral desperadoes which at
one time menaced the personal safety of the
bench, and at other times kept even the grand
juries in awe.

An incident occurred while he was presiding for
Judge Joseph E. Brown in the superior court of
Paulding count}% which deserves a place amongst
the memorabilia of criminal justice in the fifties.
His coming to the county was hailed with delight
by the law-abiding citizens of that community, and
stirred up the worst element of the population
with the liveliest apprehensions.

He opened the term with a charge to the grand
jury, the traditions of which still abide with
the early inhabitants of that vicinage.

He was particularly emphatic in his charge
against the prevalent practice of carrying con-
cealed weapons. He instructed the jury to make
diligent inquiry and true presentments against all

17

258 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

such offenders. "No man," he said, "but a low-
liung braggart and an arrant coward will turn
himself into a perambulating armory in the midst
of a civilized community, and if such moral repro-
bates are brought to the attention of the court,
I promise to execute the law without fear or
favor." The whole charge was a bold arraign-
ment of a class that for years had terrorized the
better class of citizens in that county.

The clamor of the rabble was so boisterous and
threatful after the delivery of this charge, that
at the close of the morning session, when the
sheriff offered to escort him in the usual waj7 to
his hotel, he promptly declined, saying with a
significant look, that the court needed "no body-
guard."

The next day one of the roughs, wrhose case was
before the grand jury, made an effort to intimi-
date one of the grand jurors. The matter was
reported to Judge Hammond, who at once ordered
the offender to be brought into court. After a
quiet investigation he directed that the offender
pay a fine of five hundred dollars, and for better
safe-keeping be conveyed to the jail of Heard
count}' for six months' imprisonment. When the
sheriff suggested the probability of a rescue mob,
Judge Hammond instructed him to secure a posse
of five men, armed with double-barrel shotguns,
charged heavily with buckshot, as an escort to
the Franklin jail. The judge emphasized his in-

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 259

structions by telling the sheriff that if he was
molested in the discharge of his duties he must
shoot the marauders "until their hides wouldn't
hold shucks."

It is needless to say that the fine was paid and
the full term of imprisonment served.

These stringent measures were equal to reading
the riot act in Paulding, and a large petition was
prepared and presented to the next legislature,
asking that body to annex Paulding to Judge
Hammond's circuit.

This incident is but a single illustration of
his judicial methods when he was called to deal
with rowdyism. In the matter of decisions his
rulings in both civil and criminal causes were al-
most uniformly sustained by the supreme court.
As an evidence of his great popularity on the
bench it deserves to be mentioned that he defeated
for the judgeship that able jurist, Hon. Hugh
Buchanan, by an overwhelming majority.

He resigned, however, during his second term,
preparatory to his removal to Atlanta in 1S62,
when he formed a partnership with Judge S. B.
Hoyt. This law firm did for years a heavy prac-
tice, civil and criminal. As an advocate Judge
Hammond had no superior at the Atlanta bar.
When it was known that he was to address the
court or jury on any important issue, the forum
was invariably packed to overflowing. While he
was at times strikingly eloquent, he was uniformly

260 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

incisive in statement, forcible in argument, and,
when the occasion demanded, was humorous to a
degree not excelled by any of his legal contempo-
raries. We have heard it stated that Judge Hop-
kins now and then lost his judicial solemnity, while
the lobby went wild with uproarious laughter
which neither the sheriff nor his bailiff could
readily restrain.

His utterance was so rapid that no stenographer
could report his speeches or sermons.

And this brings us to the observation that this
able judge and advocate was for thirty years one
of the best local preachers known in the annals of
the Southern Methodist church. His blameless
life gave him the confidence of both ministry and
laity, and he was heard everywhere with pleasure
and profit. He was not in sympathy' with pro-
gressive theology, but had a decided preference
for "old-time religion." He was most at home,
therefore, on a camp-meeting platform, where
we have heard him do some of the best preaching to
which we ever listened . We alluded to his impetuous
delivery . He certainly never drawled in our hear-
ing. Indeed, his vocabulary was exceedingly
copious, and if the fitting word did not come at
the instant it was due, like a sensible man, he
coined one for the occasion, and usually it was
worthy of Webster or Worcester.

Not the least beautiful side of Judge Hammond's
Christianity was seen in his home life, where, like

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 261

the Master, be was, in his humbler sphere, prophet,
priest and king. He maintained family religion
by precept and example. Scripture reading, song
and fervent prayer were familiar sounds under his
rooftree. In all this he had the hearty co-opera-
tion of his excellent wife. Is it strange that his
children honor him in the great usefulness of their
lives, and that to them his meraory is as fragrant
as "ointment poured forth?"

I ought sooner to have mentioned his single
term of service as mayor of Atlanta. In this capac-
ity he was the conservator of peace and good
morals, and while he was not autocratic in his
methods, he was, as when a circuit judge, a terror
to evil-doers. This was Judge Hammond's last
official position. He continued, however, for
several years thereafter in laborious practice,
much of the time in connection with his son, Judge
W. R. Hammond. In 1881, he removed to Orlando,
Fla., mainly in search of the balmier winter
temperature of the peninsular state.

While there he resumed his law practice, having
his youngest son, Hon. Ed. Hammond, as his as.
sociate.

There, as already stated, his strength gave wray
under the burden of threescore and ten years.

His remains were brought to Atlanta, and then
interred at his old home in Newnan in the presence
of a large concourse of his old friends. His w7ell-
spent life is a rich legacy to coming generations.

262 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

GEORGE T. QUILLIAN

Was one of the most thoroughly consistent
Methodist laymen that I ever met during the
whole period of my active ministry. He was em-
phatically a man of pra}rer, and while he was a
frequent reader of religious books, his Bible was
his special delight.

Uncle Billy Parks and Samuel Anthony were his
pulpit models, and he was never weary of talking
of their wonderful exploits in the heroic days
of Georgia Methodism.

During the pendency of the civil war he was a
gallant soldier, noted for his stubborn fighting
qualities when called into action.

These traits of character distinguished him as
a member of the church militant. He endured
hardships, and was ready at all times for faithful
service and personal sacrifice. In his latter days
he had many friends, amongst them Messrs.
Hunnicut and Bellingrath, who revered him and
loved him and contributed much to his comfort
when his health was greatly shattered. u Uncle
George" left a name untarnished and a memory
dear to a great multitude who knew his intrinsic
worth as a man of God, and his incorruptible
integrity in all his business and social relations.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 2C8

DR. R. A. T. RIDLEY.

Dr. R. A. T. Ridley, of LaGrange, was f or many
years widely known in political and professional
circles, and hardly less so as a Methodist official of
deserved prominence.

He was a native of Granville county, North
Carolina, coming to Georgia in early life and set-
tling in Troup county, where he was a general
favorite with the inhabitants of that desirable
portion of Western Georgia.

For years his medical practice was both exten-
sive and lucrative. On various occasions, how-
ever, he was somewhat diverted from his pro-
fesional work by his election to the State legis-
lature, serving alternately with distinction in
both branches of that important body.

As I am advised, he was converted under the
ministry of Rev. James B. Payne, during a notable
revival in the thirties. He took a lively interest
in the educational enterprises of LaGrange, and
especially was he a liberal and devoted friend of
the LaGrange Female College when it was strug-
gling upward to its present proud pre-eminence.

In politics he was a pronounced Whig, and a
fast personal friend of Ben. Hill, with whom he
was on terms of confidential intimacv. When the

264 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

civil war ended so disastrously to his native South,
he was w7ell-nigh crushed in heart, as well as
fortune.

All through the doleful era of reconstruction he
suffered not less from blasted expectation than
from failing health. The two combined gradu-
ally wrecked his once stalwart manhood. His last
days were deeply shadowed except as they were
brightened by the tender nursing of his immediate
family and the sympathy of a large circle of
friends, who honored him for his noble record as
a Christian gentleman and as a faithful public
servant.

His wife, nee Miss Mar}^ Morris, who had shared
his prosperity, clung to him with true womanly
devotion in his days of physical feebleness and
mental depression.

My last interview with him was in one of the
corridors of the old capitol in Atlanta. He re-
marked to me that he could hardly realize that
the piebald concern that occupied the senate
chamber was other than a travesty on the Geor-
gia senate, when Andrew J. Miller, Bob Trippe,
Ben. Hill, Herschel V. Johnson and men of their
sort were the conscript fathers of the common-
wealth." Drs. Ridley did not linger long after that
interview. He left three sons, Dr. R. B. Ridley, of
Atlanta, and Dr. Charles and Frank Ridley, of
LaGrange, who have since been distinguished for
their professional skill and eminent civic virtues.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 265

FERDINAND PHINIZY, ESQ.

Amongst 1113' earliest acquaintances and staunch-
est friends in Athens was Ferdinand Phinizy, Esq.,
a man whose business record was hardly equaled
in the State. He was a prosperous planter,
prominent bank and railroad director, who accu-
mulated a very large fortune by his administrative
ability".

My first intimate acquaintance with him grew
out of his serious affliction in the death of his first
wife, a most excellent Christian mother, the
daughter-of Hays Bowdre, Esq., of Augusta Ga.

She was a member of my pastoral charge at
Athens, and her sudden and unexpected death in
the summer of 1863 was a severe shock to a large
circle of friends in various parts of the State.

Brother Phinizy was well-nigh crushed by this
domestic bereavement, and during this period we
were brought into relations of tenderness that
lasted until the close of his life.

For many years he was a liberal supporter of the
Methodist church, contributing largely to its
various collections. Besides his annual contribu.
tion to the conference claimants, he made frequent
donations to several of the older preachers and
their families. These deeds of charity were done>

266 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

however, without the blowing of trumpets or
similar Pharisaic display.

He was a staunch advocate of old-time religion
and a pronouced opponent to innovations on old
Methodist usages. Bishop Pierce was his model
as a preacher, and between them there existed a
most cordial intimacy.

It is quite remarkable that he did not unite
formally with the church until a few months before
his death. He announced to me his purpose to
join the church the last time I met him in At-
lanta. For years he had been held back by a sense
of personal un worthiness. I know that it cost him
many a struggle before he obtained the victory
over his doubts and fears. He said to me in that
Atlanta interview that his long delay had been
the mistake of his life. He distinctly realized that
he had missed many golden opportunities of
Christian usefulness, but that thereafter he would
consecrate himself to the work of the Master.
After all, his life was one of which his family and
surviving friends may be proud, and his reward in
the spirit world has doubtless been exceeding great.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 267

DR. JOHN URQUHART.

Dr. John Urquhart, of Columbus, was a physi-
cian of rare skill and a Christian gentleman of
proverbial politeness. His wife was a worthy
helpmeet to him in both professional and religious
duties.

Asa physician he enjo37ed the patronage of the
best circles of the city, and yet he was always
ready to serve the humbler classes as opportunity
offered.

His characteristic modest\r was a hindrance to
his efficiency as a Christian worker. He was not
so timid, however, that he failed to bear witness
for Christ, whether in the class-meeting or the
great congregation .

He was for many j^ears a steward in St. Luke's
church, and not one of his fellow officials were
more ready to devise liberal things for the sup-
port of the ministry and for the usual conference
collections.

Dr. Urquhart's wife preceded him to the spirit
world b\' several years. She was a daughter of
General Shorter, who was prominent in the poli-
tics of western Georgia while as yet the Indians
were in possession of eastern Alabama. Sister
Urquhart was a gifted woman, and together with
Mrs. Judge Colquitt, she was ready for any good

268 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

word or work. Her last 3'ears were spent in
suffering from a cancerous affection.

After a few 3'ears her devoted and childless hus-
band followed her to the grave lamented by the
entire citizenship of Columbus.

DAVID ROSSER ADAMS.

David Rosser Adams was a typical Methodist,
both by inheritance and thorough conviction of
sin, followed by an old-time altar conversion. His
father was a local preacher of the best pattern.
His piety was approved by all who knew him and
his pulpit gifts wrere above the average. His chil-
dren, as far as I have been advised, wrere consis-
tent church members and were of good business
capacity.

Rosser Adams, the subject of this sketch, was a
leading churchman, liberally educated and the
best leader of congregational music I have known
in all my experience. Several times have I par-
taken of his hospitality, and his elegant home at
Eatonton was a center of taste and refinement.

I have seldom met in commercial circles his
equal in Biblical knowledge and general literary

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 269

culture. His very presence was imposing, and his
whole bearing indicated that he was one of Na-
ture's noblemen sanctified by divine grace.

While I had comparatively few opportunities of
cultivating his personal aquaintance, I am satis-
fied that my estimate of him will be accepted
amongst his fellow-townsmen who knew him
best and longest.

Our church at Eatonton is greatly indebted to
his strong common sense and his blameless life for
the influence which for more than half a century
it has wielded in that Middle Georgia community.

EDWIN M. PAYNE.

Edwin M. Payne was by birth a Virginian whose
parents died when he was a small lad. He was
fortuneless, but luckily not friendless, and by these
friends he was apprenticed under a decree of the
pi obate court to the cabinet business. In chair-
building he became an expert, and a pioneer citi-
zen tells me that some specimens of his handi-
craft are still to be found in Atlanta that are
more than a half century old.

On reaching his majority Brother Payne came to
Georgia, stopping for a short time in South Caro-

270 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

lina, and then settling in Newton county, where
he married a Miss Barnes, the mother of his two
oldest children. After the death of this wife of
his youth, he married Mrs. Cureton, the mother
of that late excellent Christian ladv, Mrs. C. W

•

Hunnicutt, and also the mother of Columbus D.
Pa}rne, one of Atlanta's worthiest citizens. He
was married a third time to Mrs. Hoyt, the
mother of Judge S. B. Hoyt, and also of Mr. Ed-
die Payne of the George Muse clothing house.

Brother Pavne came to Atlanta in 1843, and was
active in the construction of Wesley chapel, the
mother church of the city. He donated to the
congregation the ground on which the First church
now stands. That lot, at present market valua-
tion, would probably bring a round hundred thou-
sand dollars. Being a carpenter as well as a chair-
maker, he wrought at the building of the old
church like a day laborer, but without fee or re-
ward. Afterwards he donated the ground on
which Payne's chapel and parsonage now stand
and contributed liberally to its erection. Uncle
Eddie was, indeed, in that generation a veritable
Haggai without the gift of prophecy.

While this venerable gentleman was not deficient
in spirituality, he had no sympathy with sour-
visaged godliness. Down to his latest breath he
was fond of a clean joke, and, like ancient Yorick,
would often set the table in a roar of innocent

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 271

jollity. He died about 1875, leaving a good record
and a gracious influence which still abide upon his
descendants to the third generation. First church
and Payne's chapel are his best monuments.

ROBERT BATTEY, M. D., LL. D.

Forty years ago, Robert Battey, M. D., LL. D.,
professed religion and united with the Methodist
church at Rome, Ga. This interesting event oc-
curred in the midst of a remarkable revival con-
ducted by the late Rev.D. D. Cox, in which he was
greatly helped by Drs. H. V. M. Miller, W. H. Fel-
ton and other divines of lesser note.

From that time onward Dr. Battev has been
recognized as a leader in the religious circles of the
Mountain City, which so snugly nestles at the junc-
tion of the Etowah antl Oostanaula rivers.

Few men of the present generation have been
more distinguished for a broad, Christian philan-
throp}'. Only a few weeks ago, he donated aAralu-
able medical library of one thousand volumes to
the State library at the Georgia capitol. For the
past quarter of a century Dr. Battey has been a
surgeon of national reputation, but of later years
he has achieved a world-wide distinction as a
gynecologist.

272 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

As a specialist in normal ovariotomy he has
won golden opinions from the foremost medical
faculties of both Europe and America. In all
branches of abdominal surgery he is reckoned as
an expert by the best writers and practitioners,
and "Battey's operation" is approvingly discussed
in all the text-books of the two hemispheres.

More than two years ago his health became im-
paired by the nervous tension consequent on inces-
sant professional labor, but he has so far re-
covered that he has partly resumed the personal
supervision of his large and splendidly-equipped
infirmary at Rome. In this arduous work he has
now the earnest co-operation of his son, who has
inherited some of the special gifts of his father.

In church work Dr. Battey is in nowise remiss.
Indeed, in his social relations he is an eminent ex_
ample to the 3'ounger brethren.

No worthy enterprise of his own or another de-
nomination fails to secure a generous response
when it appeals to him for financial aid.

In his relations to society at large his deport-
ment is such that he is a favorite with all classes
and conditions. It is to be devoutly hoped that
his life of singular usefulness will be prolonged to
full fourscore years without abatement of natural
strength and without the usual experience of pain
or sorrow.

His most excellent wife deserves a like blessed
experience for her fidelity and helpfulness in every
good work.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 273

HUBBARD WOODSON COZART.

Hubbard Woodson Cozart was one of the pio-
neer Methodists of Atlanta. He was the contem-
porar3' of the Winships, Rawsons, Lawshes,
Hammonds and like representative men of the
early fifties. Brother Cozart emigrated from
North Carolina, his native State, to Georgia
when a young man. For quite a number of years
he resided at Eatonton, where he accumulated a
snug fortune in the mercantile business. His edu-
cational advantages had been fairly good, but his
most striking traits were his sterling ousiness in-
tegrity and his unswerving devotion to the church.

Besides these good qualities he had a large stock
of common sense that made him a safe counselor
in all the relations of life.

He had but little patience with men who did
not pay their debts, and yet he was likewise a
man of large liberality to the church and to all
worthy objects of charity.

As a steward and class-leader he was untiring,
and always enjoyed the implicit confidence of his.
pastors and of his brethren.

He had a hearty relish for wit and humor, and
his anecdotes, which were alwa}'S clean and yet
piquant, made him a favorite in social circles.

His domestic life was not without its shadows,
but it was marked by the presence and power of

18

274 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

religion and a hospitality that endeared him
alike to rich and poor.

In all this his excellent wife was a helpmeet after
the pattern of those godly women of whom fre-
quent and honorable mention is made in the Scrip-
tures.

All through the trying war period his patriot-
ism was unshaken by the adversities which befell his
beloved Southland, and while himself too infirm
for militai}7 service, his heart and hand were open
to the bo}^s in gray.

His wife and daughters, especially Mrs. Harral-
son and Mrs. Bass, were active workers in the
hospitals of the city.

Brother Cozart died soon after the surrender at
Appomattox, beloved and honored by all his fel-
low-citizens who were so fortunate as to know
him and his manner of life.

JAMES M. BEALL.

James M. Beall will be kindly remembered by
every Methodist pastor who has been stationed
in LaGrange during the last forty years.

His wife, a daughter of Maj. George Heard,
was one of the most devout Christian matrons of
her generation. To her he was greatly indebted

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 275

for his personal piety and his thorough devo-
tion to the church. Brother Beall was a man of
excellent judgment, of sterling business integrity,
and the most uniform attendant on the social
meetings of the church that I have known during
my long pastoral experience.

Unless for strictly providential reasons he was
never absent from the midweek prayer-meeting
or the quarterly love-feast.

As a steward he looked closely after the collec-
tions, and was always in full sympathy with the
pastor and his family.

He had, indeed, a kind word for his preacher at
all times, and as a patient and intelligent hearer
of the gospel he had few equals. Naturally of a
phlegmatic temperament, he was less aggressive
than some of his official brethren, but could be re-
lied upon in ever\^ emergency.

One feature of nis work deserves special men-
tion. He is entitled to more credit than any one
man to the present existence of the LaGrange Fe-
male College. He was not so large a contributor
to its treasury as some others, but he never failed
to do the best that he could according to his
means. In the darkest hour of its history he wTas
unshaken in his loyalty to the college, and it was a
gracious Providence that spared him to see its
rehabilitation, which was accomplished in the face
of no little adverse criticism.

276 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

A most beautiful trait in his character was his
devotion to the memory of his wife, a woman of
rare excellence as a wife and mother. Through
years of loneliness he cherished the memory of her
virtues, and when he lay down in death by her
side he was the same as when he led her to the
bridal altar.

N. C. BARNETT.

Col. N. C. Barnett was during much of his long
life a prominent State official. He served under not
less than a half -score of gubernatorial adminis-
trations as keeper of the great seal of the Com-
monwealth, a special function of the secretary of
state.

Such was the clearness of his official record and
the uprightness of his private life that he was
spoken of in the highest and humblest political
circles as "honest Nathan."

He was a nephew of the great William H.
Crawford, whose fame extended through both
hemispheres. Not less than Ben Franklin or Tom
Jefferson he was the idol of the French people,
and but for a paralytic stroke he would have been
the presidential successor of James Monroe.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 277

My first intimate acqaintance with Col. Barnett
began during ray pastorate at Milledgeville,in 1 S60.
The strength and influence of that once strongest
station in Georgia had greatly declined since its
pulpit was occupied by Capers Howard, Lovick
Pierce and other notabilities. During that year,
howrever, it was blessed with a memorable re-
vival, and from that date it has advanced to one
of the leading appointments of the North Georgia
Conference.

Col. Barnett wras a man of courtly address, of
liberal culture and strongly wedded to old-time
Methodism. He kept his Christian reputation
untarnished until his closing days, and it may be
truthfully said that both politically and ecclesias-
tically he died in the harness.

No little of his success in life was due to his wTife,
a daughter of Dr. David Cooper, a veteran of the
second British war and a former superintendent
of the State lunatic asylum. Mrs. Barnett still
survives, greatly beloved by a large number of
her old friends of earlier davs.

RICHARD LANE.

Hon. Richard Lane, the venerable uncle of Broth-
ers Richard and Sterling Harwell, was a good
man and true in the best sense of that often misap-
plied phrase. Brother Lane started in life as a vil-

278 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

lage merchant, but nearly sixty years ago he was
chosen clerk of the superior court of Troup coun-
ty, in which position he remained until his re-
moval to Walker county, in Northwestern Geor-
gia. He purchased a large and most valuable
tract of land in McLemore's Cove, and in a few
years he erected a strikingly handsome residence,
where he enjoyed every comfort that wealth and
ample means could procure.

Here he remained until he was forced to refugee
by the incoming of the Yankee armies to the balm-
ier regions of Southern Georgia. On one or
more occasions Judge Lane, as he was usually
called, represented his fellow-citizens in the State
legislature, for which position he was admirably
fitted because of his rare stock of "horse sense."

In his political views he was conservative, and
yet no man was more thoroughly committed to
the Southern movement by word and deed.

As a churchman he was modest, but his purse
was always open to the legitimate demands of
the church. He contributed at various times
thousands of dollars to church enterprises, and his
hospitality was unstinted. On two occasions
when I was serving a district he carried me thirty
and forty miles to quarterly conferences. These
special occasions he greatly enjoyed, chiefly the
love-feast and the Lord's supper. In these jour-
neyings his favorite horse, " John," furnished the
motive power. He seemed to be as careful of

OF MINISTERS* AND LAYMEN. 279

John's comfort as of his own. I think that in his
last will he provided for the rest and provender of
this faithful steed. This may seem a small affair,
but it had a significance worthy of note, according
to the plain meaning of the Scriptures.

This dear old brother was not a critical, but a
sympathetic hearer of the gospel. Very often he
would give expression to his approval of a state-
ment or sentiment of the pulpit, not in an audi-
ble way, but by a significant nod of his gray
head. To me this characteristic plaudit was a
stimulant and an inspiration. I felt quite sure that
I was not far wrong in my theology when Uncle
Dick endorsed it after that manner. His afflicted
wife, who was the joy and comfort of his old
age, survived him but a few years, and then re-
joined him in the home of many mansions.

JOSEPH A. EVE, M. D.

Joseph A. Eve, M. D., was a distinguished and
eminently pious official member of St. John's
church, of Augusta, Ga. Like St. Luke, he was a
''beloved physician," and the homes of the poor,
as well as of the rich, were gladdened by his pro-
fessional visits.

For very many years he was an honored profes-
sor in the Georgia Medical College, and was quite
a favorite with the faculty and the large classes

280 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

of students that nocked to that widely-known in-
stitution.

In social life he was aifable and polite beyond
almost any man of my past acquaintance. He
was generous in his support of the church, and
charitable in his gifts to all in distress. It was,
however, in the domestic circle that his character
shone brightest. His devotion to the comfort
and happiness of his household, including the serv-
ants, was boundless.

Not more blessed, in a religious sense, was the
house of Obededom, which for months was the
dwelling-place of the ark of the covenant before
its final removal to the tabernacle which David
had erected on Mount Zion.

Dr. Eve was not demonstrative in his piet}r." On
the contra^, he was reticent on the subject of his
personal experience, and was seldom heard in the
assemblies of the church. But his pastors and his
brethren, and indeed, the whole citizenship of
Augusta, knew the excellence of his character and
the blessedness of his life.

As far as the heavy demands of a very large
practice would allow, he was a faithful attendant
on the services of the sanctuary. Especially did
he prize the sacrament of the Lord's supper, and
it seldom occurred in the course of a long lifetime
that he was absent from its monthly administra-
tion. St. John's church, from the earliest times,
never had a more worthv communicant.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 1> 1

ASBURY HULL.

Hon. Asbury Hull, of Athens, was the eldest son
of Rev. Hope Hull, one of the great lights of Geor-
gia Methodism in the earlier years of the present
century.

Brother Hull and his younger brother were edu-
cated at Franklin College, and were both for many
years closely identified with the fortunes of their
alma mater.

Dr. Hull, who filled the chair of mathematics,
was a gentleman of rare ability, but modest al-
most to a fault.

Asbury was better fitted for public life, and his
political career was an honor to himself and a
blessing to the State. When I first knew him he
was approximating the prescribed limits of hu-
man life, and in a measure had withdrawn from
business activities, except as they related to the
management of the Southern Mutual Insurance
Company and his own private estate. He was
still, however, in church affairs, full of zeal and
energy. In some important departments of
church work he was an acknowledged leader. He
was wise in counsel in quarterly conference
matters, and his opinions were sought after and
nearly always deferred to by his brethren, and yet

282 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

he was in nowise aDiotrephes who aspired to pre-
eminence.

He had in large measure the gifts of prayer and
exhortation. He was often invited to lead the
devotions of the congregation, and in this service
he never failed to be fervent and edifying. In the
class-meeting his hortatory gift was remarkable
for its quickening and impressive qualities. In
all these respects he w7as perhaps the equal of
Carvosso and kindred celebrities.

His domestic life was singularly fortunate. His
children were amongst Georgia's best citizens, and
his bachelor son, William Hope Hull, wTas almost
without a peer at the Georgia bar.

He was twice married. His first wife, the mother
of his children, was a woman of piety and culture.
His second wife, whom I knew quite well, was
worthy to share his heart and hand and to be the
mistress of his delightful home.

Brother Hull, from my earliest acquaintance
with him, w^as robust in figure and seemed to be
in vigorous health to his dying day.

Indeed, his departure was sudden and unlooked
for. He had just finished the family devotions,
and was seated in his study reading his morning
lesson out of the Holy Scriptures, when suddenly
God touched him, and he fell asleep in Jesus. He
had often expressed a desire to die the death of
the righteous, and his wish was graciously granted
him.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 283

He seemed to have passed away without a pang
or a struggle, with possibly the utterance of a
single unconscious groan.

I was indebted to him for many kindnesses, and
I shall alwa3Ts cherish and revere his precious
memory.

WILLIAM EZZARD.

Hon. William Ezzard was one of the purest of
men. As was said of Nathanael, he was "an Israel-
ite, indeed, in whom there was no guile." My per-
sonal knowledge of him went back to my boy-
hood, and when far advanced in years, I was one
of several of his former pastors w7ho officiated at
his funeral.

In the legal profession he won a conspicuous
position, serving for at least one full term as a
judge of the superior court. In this high office he
so demeaned himself as to enjoy the confidence
of the bar and the warmest respect of witnesses
and suitors. As steward and class-leader in the
First Methodist church, he was surpassed by none
of his contemporaries in fidelity and practical
ability.

In his latter years he was elected to important
municipal and count\r offices, and through them
all retained the cordial esteem of his fellow-citizens

284 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

of all classes and creeds. Indeed, the man who
would have impugned the integrity or worthiness
of Judge Ezzard would have been scouted from
decent society.

We but voice the sentiment of every former pas-
tor of the First Methodist church, when we say
that this model Christian gentleman was in his
moral make-up one of the grandest men whose
name adorns the annals of Atlanta Methodism.

FIELDING DILLARD.

"Uncle" Fielding Dillard, as he was best known in
his latter vears, was a man whom I honored and
loved at first sight. When an invalid agent for

•

the Orphans' Home, I was cordially received one
Saturday afternoon at the country residence of
Dr. Hutchinson, another most excellent Methodist
of the old school. On the next day I had a pleas-
ant jaunt with the doctor to Cherokee Corner,
where I met a fine congregation, composed of
many of the best people of that vicinage. They
had but slightly rallied from the disasters of the
war and the reconstruction period, but they re-
sponded liberally to my appeal in behalf of our Con-
ference orphanage. None were more in sympathy
with this splendid charity than " Uncle" Fielding.
His contribution,! think, was twenty dollars; a
large sum for that day of small things, when the

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 285

institution was struggling for existence against
\er}' heavy odds.

God be praised that through the labors of
Brothers Jones and Crumley it has reached a large
and wealthy place compared with its straitened
condition when, for three years, Brother Lupo and
myself, he as superintendent and I as agent, were
rowing against wind and tide. I never at an}r
time, however, lost faith in its ultimate success,
and rejoice exceedingly in its present prosperity.

But to resume our account of Brother Dillard.
He was, perhaps, the worthiest patriarch of a
tribe, who have a good record in the annals of
Georgia Methodism. May the tribe increase un-
til they shall become more widely diffused amongst
the ministry and membership of the two Georgia
Conferences.

If they all should share largely in the gifts and
graces of this noble ancestor they "shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge and
love of God."

EMANUEL HEIDT.

Rev. Emanuel Heidt sprung from the Salzburgers
who colonized parts of Effingham and Emanuel
counties early in the last century. They were a
pious generation and partook in a degree of the

286 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

German mysticism, of which Count Zinzendorf
and Herman Franke were conspicuous representa-
tives.

Brother Heidt for many years was a prominent
business man of Savannah, and a ruling spirit in
Methodist circles, first at Old Wesley chapel and
afterwards at Trinity church. He was an ardent
admirer of the old Savannah pastors, especially
George Pierce, Alfred Mann and W. H. Potter.

As a local preacher he was both active and
efficient in his ministry.

He likewise did much to consolidate and enlarge
Methodism in that beautiful "city by the sea,"
which struggled hard for many years against the
preponderant influence of Episcopalianism and
Independentism, before it secured a permanent
foothold.

Rev. T. T. Christian, who knew him well in his
latter years speaks of him as a preacher every-
where acceptable, alike for his gifts and graces.
He was a contemporary and intimate personal
friend of Rev. James E. Godfrey, who was a lay
preacher of considerable distinction.

Rev. Dr. John W. Heidt, one of the foremost
preachers of the North Georgia Conference; in-
herited not a few of his best qualities from this
noble ancestor, who years ago went away to the
home of the angels and the abode of glorified
spirits, made perfect through the discipline of suf-
fering, and clean through the blood of sprinkling.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 287

FRANK M. RICHARDSON.

Isaac Taylor once wrote a life of John Wesley,
as also did Robert Southev, both of them some-
what lacking in reverence for that great reli-
gions reformer of the 18th centnry . Taylor likewise
wrote "A History of Natural Enthusiasm," in
some respects a better publication.

Frank Richardson belonged to this class of en-
thusiasts, especially in Sunday-school work on
the outskirts of the city. He had a warm heart
for the poor, and as far as he had means and op-
portunities, he relieved their wants. As a business
man he was industrious, but never achieved marked
success.

We are almost tempted to say that humanly
speaking he gave too much of his time to charit-
able enterprises. He was in his local sphere a
church extension board before David Morton had
projected his great scheme for building churches
and furnishing parsonages.

St. Paul's, Evans chapel, Pierce chapel, the bar-
racks mission, and kindred organizations through-
out the city felt the impress of his fostering hand.

But we prefer to quote from a recent article of
Bishop Haygood in the columns of the Wesleyan.
Before doing this, however, I will indulge in a rem-
niscence of the early ministry of "Atticus" as his

283 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

venerable father delighted to call him. I was
residing in North Atlanta and having heard many
favorable accounts of his preaching, I determined
to hear him for myself. The place was "Old
Trinity," the time was the summer of 1865.

I arrived just in time to hear his text indicating
a discussion of "Endless Punishment." It was
forceful from the beginning to the close.

After service he voluntered to walk with me by
the way. Just before we separated hesaid, "Broth-
er Scott, you are an older preacher than myself
and I would be pleased if you would tell me if you
observed any serious defects in my matter or man-
ner." I replied that it was rather an ungracious
task to criticize the preaching of a brother minis-
ter.

He rejoined that he was not a bit sensitive and
that he had yet a great deal to learn. I answered
that I enjo3^ed the sermon no little from its be-
ginning to its close, that his argument was all
right, but would suggest that if he was more careful
in placing his emphasis on the right word his
preaching would be more effective. After two
or more illustrations of my exact meaning, he
thanked me for my suggestions and said he hoped
to profit by them. Two or three years after-
wards I heard him again at the First church, Dr.
Harrison and myself sitting together in the front
pew. The misplacement of the emphasis had
ceased to be noticeable. Both of us then realized

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 289

that he was already far on the way to the great
distinction which he has since fairly won.

As germane to our theme we cull the following
notice of Brother Richardson from a late contri-
bution of Bishop Haygood to the Wesleyan :

"When Bishop Pierce — from the Athens Confer-
ence—January, 1865, sent "Sandy" Thigpen
(one of the best and truest of men) to Wesley
chapel (now First church), and me to Trinity, I
found Frank Richardson ready to help me.

Old Trinity was packed full of furniture, left
by the people who were sent away. He helped
me move and provide for that till the owners
came again. There were fifteen people at the first
Sunday morning service. He started the Sunda\T-
school with half a dozen children. Howhe worked
to build up the dismembered, scattered church —
full of faith and ze^l and all-conquering hope —
only a few survive to tell.

"What work he did for the Trinit}' Sunda3r-school
in later years many know. But that did not
satisfy him. Under some trees on Fair street —
hard by a confederate hospital shed, one sum-
mer evening, my old friend helped start St. Paul's
in a Sunday-school. My China sister was of the
little company. Miss Sterchi — a godly Moravian
— was another. Mrs. Miller, nee Miss Sallie
Thomas, another. And his energy was in the
movement that regathered and built up again
"Evans chapel" (named for Wm. H. Evans, who

19

290 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

went to heaven in a minute in Oxford, July 20,
1870 — apoplexy opening the golden gate for him),
now " Walker Street" church. And in "Trinity
Home Mission" he labored after the same style.
And in other localities and in all ways possible to
him to the end. He earned a great deal of money,
but made no fortune. He gave to men — so giving
to God — with the heart and hand of a prince,
when he had anything to give. When he could
not, his heart was sore and sick. It cannot be
questioned that God used him to save the souls
and better the lives of thousands of people. They
will not build monuments of marble or bronze
to perpetuate his memory. It is not necessary ;
his place is secure.''

BARNARD HILL.

When I was yet a youth, but a member of the
legal profession by a special enactment of the
State legislature, I made the personal acquaint-
ance of this learned jurist.

As I remember, he was a New Englander by
birth, classically educated, and of unblemished
moral character.

He was not reckoned a brilliant advocate, but
was highly esteemed as a jurisconsult, and when

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 291

subsequently promoted to the bench, he was re-
garded as one of our wisest circuit judges. He
was in excellent repute as a temperance leader, and,
I believe, at one time was at the head of the order
of the Sons of Temperance, that noble brotherhood
which did a vast deal to inaugurate a healthful
public sentiment on the liquor issue throughout
the State. For many years, however, we resided
in different parts of the State, so that in his latter
days I had but little personal knowledge of him.
He died, however, as he had lived, a consistent
churchman.

His brilliant son, Hon. W. B. Hill, inherited not
a few of his best qualities. The late Chief Justice
Bleckley said to me not long ago that this son
was one of the best equipped lawyers of the
Georgia bar.

SAMUEL JONES.

This Methodist patriarch, whose recent death is
still fresh in the memory of hundreds of friends,
deserves a niche in this memorial volume. As is
well-known, he was the father of Col. R. H.Jones,
a good Confederate fighter, and for a number of
years, an efficient pastor of the conference, but
now disqualified by a chronic disease of the throat.

292 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

Father J ones will be long remembered as the grand-
father of Rev. S. P. Jones, the far-famed evan-
gelist. The subject of this sketch was for many
years an excellent lay preacher. His preaching was
uniformly good to the use of edifying. Both in his
domestic and social relations, he was a great fa-
vorite. Throughout his long and useful life, he ac-
complished great good, especially in the rural
districts, as a champion of "old-time religion."
Like Daniel, he will "stand in his lot at the end of
the davs."

SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS.

From the earliest settlement of the three counties
of Troup, Harris and Muscogee, they have been
noted for their excellent citizenry. A majority
of these settlers were from Greene, Morgan, Put-
nam and Warren counties. In the main thev
were Methodists of the Wesleyan type in their re-
ligious characteristics, and wliigs in their political
affinities.

Most of them had enjo^-ed fair scholastic ad-
vantages, but not many of them were classically
trained.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 208

Amongst them were the Hurts, Joneses and
Flewellens, of Muscogee— the Osborns, Doziers,
Bedells, Pollards and Mobleys,of Harris— the Har-
rises, Coxes, Turners, Ferrells, Maddoxes and Ster-
lings, of Troup. Of these sturdy farmers we desire
to make special mention of

EDWARD MADDOX.

This venerable gentleman, the father of Col.
Robert F. Maddox, a distinguished capitalist of
Atlanta, and one of the most public-spirited of its
many leading citizens, was a thorough Methodist,
although free from sectarianism in an offensive
degree.

He was an ^indefatigable Bible student— a class-
leader of much local celebrity — a model steward,
who devised liberal things for pastor and family
— a church attendant, not only on the Sabbath,
but when duty required, on week days as well,
when he stopped the plows in the furrow, and
the servants scrubbed up and went to preaching.

In the household he was both priest and king,
officiating at the home altar in the morning and
evening devotions, in which he had the earnest co-
operation of his pious wife. He ruled his house-
hold, but not with a rod of chastisement, for "the
law of kindness was on his tongue;" and yet he
was reverenced by every inmate of the family.

294 BIOCxRAPHIC ETCHINGS

I lis hospitality was proverbial, and many a
wayfaring man, especially the itinerant preacher,
found a gracious welcome at his threshold. This
trait of his character was transmitted to his sons
.'ind daughters. His oldest son, Col. R. F. Mad-
dox, is one of the few7 Methodist laymen of the
Georgia Conferences who has made a single dona-
tion of one thousand dollars to the beneficiaries
of his church, the principal of which is to be kept
intact, and only the interest annually expended
for the relief of the poor.

Well may it be said, "I have never seen the
righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread."

" UNCLE REUBEN MOBLEY,"

As he was affection atefy styled Iry the 3rounger
generation, was a solid planter of the same class
whom we knew in our boyhood.

He, too, was a Methodist of the best stamp, who
practiced household religion, and could sing
" Amazing Grace" from a camp-meeting altar
with as much zest as the best of his tribe.

He was the father of a large family, of whom
Hon. James M. Mobley is most widety known.
For fifty years this able jurist has been conspic-
uous alike as a Methodist and Mason.

During several terms of service he was Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, and like

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 295

Dawson, Rockwell, and Lawrence, was well-skilled
in the lore of ancient craft masonry. Although
now advanced in years, his natural force is not
abated so as to disqualify him for his professional
duties.

We must needs have a warm side for this fel-
low law student in the law office of Col. Wm. B.
Pry or more than a half century ago. Our fervent
desire and prayer is that he ma}' still long abide
as a blessing to the church and the county that
he has served so faithfully from his vouth.

"UNCLE DICK DOZIER."

"Uncle Dick Dozier" was another representative
Methodist of the old school who had a pleasant
farmhouse in the southeastern part of Harris
county. His wife, who was as devout as Hannah,
the mother of Samuel, was wonderfully endowed
with the gift of prayer. At the camp-meeting it
was no unusual thing for her to lead the devotions
of the vast congregation at the eleven o'clock
service. Her voice was musical, with a ringing
resonance that could be heard to the outskirts of
the large encampment.

She was a veritable helpmeet to her husband,
and the two reared several intelligent sons who
have been a blessing to church and State. Their
descendants, all of whom, as far as I am advised,
are good citizens, are either Methodists or Pres-
byterians.

29(3 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

FRANK COOK.

Another good layman and local preacher of that
period was Rev. Frank Cook, who was born in
Camden, South Carolina, in 1798. He resided
likewise for some years in Harris county, but af-
terwards removed to Culloden, Monroe county.
This venerable man was honored in his generation
for his good preaching ability and his thorough

piety.

His children and grandchildren are in high re-
pute in the ranks of Southern Methodism. It was
my privilege to visit him in his last illness at
Marietta, and talk and pray with him almost in
his dying hours.

These four godly men, Maddox, Mobley, Dozier
and Cook, and others besides, were of a class of
men who deserve to be remembered through all
generations. May their tribe increase in our
spiritual Israel.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 297

GUSTAVUS J. ORR, LL. D.

THE GREAT SCHOOL COMMISSIONER.

I gravely question whether during the experi-
ences of a lifetime neither short in its duration
nor uneventful in its opportunities of wide observa-
tion, I have ever known a truer man than he
whose name heads this sketch. In his personality
Dr. Orr was a compound of brawn and brain.
Both in his physical and mental make-up he was
characterized by strength and symmetry.

Our personal intimacy was close and largely
confidential, especially in his latter years, when he
held the position of state school commissioner.

I more than once said to him that we rarely dif-
fered on any moral or political issue, except when
we touched on the Blair bill, which he cordially
approved, and which I as heartily condemned. In
our private conversations he sometimes had much
to say of his college life at Mary ville, Tennessee,
and at the University of Georgia, where he was
the classmate of a number of distinguished Geor-
gians. Afterwards he graduated at Emory Col-
lege, where he secured the second honor, although
first in his class-standing.

On other occasions he made me acquainted
with his chequered religious experience, the de-

298 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

tails of which were strikingly unique and thor
oughry interesting. Long after his official connec-
tion with the church he was greatly perplexed
about the evidences of Christian ity, but when the
question wTas settled it was a finalit}7. Hence-
forth he was never troubled with unbelief, and
his religious peace flowed like a broad and bound-
ing river. We used to say to him that in many re-
spects he had shared the experience of the great
and good Chalmers, wrho, in the early years of his
ministry, was buffeted with doubts and harassed
by fears, but afterwards became the mighty thun-
derer of the Tron church at Glasgow.

Dr. Orr occupied several prominent places in
connection with his lifelong educational work.
For quite a number of }rears he was an honored
professor of Kmory College. At another time he
wras elected to a professorship in Oglethorpe Uni-
versity, a Presbyterian institution. Yet again he
was chosen president of the Masonic Female Col-
lege, at Covington. But the last sixteen years of
his life were devoted to the duties of state school
commissioner of Georgia. Dr. Orr is entitled to
the credit of whatever of excellence in the way of
arrangement and equipment may pertain to our
public school system. He found it in a chaotic
condition, and in spite of discouragement from
ever\r quarter, he placed it on a sure footing and
started it on a career of prosperity wrhich in a few
years will root out illiteracy amongst both races.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 299

We must not be understood, however, as sanc-
tioning the obvious inequalities of the system as it
is even now organized.

The vast amount of money abstracted from the
State treasury for the education of the negro at
the expense of the white tax-payers, is a shame-
ful injustice to the whites and an equivocal bene-
fit to the negro.

Instead of lessening the percentage of crime
amongst our negro population, it seems rather to
increase it. This result indicates that there is
something radically wrong in the system itself or
in its administration. Perhaps the evil lies in
both directions. So far the outcome warrants the
statement that the negro needs moral training
far more than the drill of schools or colleges.

When every State is suffered to control the mat-
ter for itself, aside from federal dictation, then
these evils may be in part or in whole materially
remedied.

But we find ourselves digressing and return to
the proper matter of this personal sketch.

Dr. Orr did much valuable church work as an
official of Evans chapel. His piety was of the
primitive type, not lacking in earnestness, but
still conservative in its tone and trend. He set
great store by Bible reading and home training.

In his domestic relations he was a model hus-
band and father. He was conciliatory, yet firm,
in the administration of family discipline, which

300

BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

secured him alike love and respect from the entire
household.

In social matters he was wise in counsel and
conservative in action, and it is but sober truth to
say that he was universally beloved and esteemed.

His glorification occurred in 1887, and shortly
thereafter impressive memorial exercises were
held at Evans chapel. A large concourse was
present, embracing representative people from
several of the city churches. This writer esteemed
it no small distinction to be invited to take part in
these services, and spoke in substance what is con-
tained in this brief .tribute.

Take him all in all we shall not soon look upon
his like asrain.

l&'

Here we close our etchings of noted laymen.
We regret the necessity for omitting such names
as Hon. N. T. Hammond, Hon. John L. Hopkins,
both illustrious at the bar and wherever they
have been called to serve; Hon. T. M. Meri-
wether, a model farmer and wise legislator; Col.
N. Trammell, ex-president of the senate and
present chairmam of the railroad commission ; Hon .
Steve Clay and others of like distinction. I trust
some future "Old Mortality" will supply my lack
of service, growing out largely from recent ill-
health.

OUR
SENIOR BISHOP.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 303

JOHN C. KEENER,

SENIOR BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,

SOUTH.

To those who are even but slightly familiar with
the story of American Methodism, we need not
say that Baltimore is not less the Methodistic
than the Monumental City. It was, indeed, the
birthplace of organic Methodism in the western
hemisphere. For while Methodist societies had been
gathered in many of the original thirteen colonies
prior even to the War of Independence, yet these
societies were feeble and lacking in any proper
bond of organic union. The treaty of Versailles
had severed them from the Methodism of the
mother country, and they were verily as sheep with-
out a shepherd. It was the fatherly solicitude of
Mr. John Wesley for these scattered sheep of the
American wilderness that induced him in one re-
spect to depart from the usage of the English es-
tablishment. It was to meet what he esteemed a
grave providential emergency that, in 1784, he or-
dained Thomas Coke, a presb\rter of the church of
England, to the episcopal office, at the same time
empowering and instructing him to set apart
E rands Asbury to the like function and ministry.

This plan of Mr. Wesley's meeting with the ap-
proval of the first general conference, which met
at Baltimore in December, 1784, was the formal

304 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

inauguration of Methodist Episcopacy, not only in
America, but in the world.

These facts constitute Baltimore the cradle of
American Methodism. Here was fairly launched
that denominational system, which has contribu-
ted more than its full share of money and effort
towards the evangelization of this vast continent.
Its first missionaries trod closely on the heels of
the adventurous pioneer. Before the close of the
eighteenth century these missionaries, who were
in a higher sense than the followers of Spotts wood,
the Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe, had crossed
the Alleghanies, penetrated the wilds of the Hol-
ston country, encamped on the dark and bloody
ground of Kentucky, and carried the gospel into
the regions beyond the Father of Waters. They
had no equipment of spear or sword, but armed
with Bible and saddle-bags, these cavaliers went
forth on their mission of mercy.

The subject of this sketch was identified both by
birth and blood with this early generation of
Methodists, having been born in the city of Balti-
more, of Methodist stock and German ancestry in
1819. '

When quite a lad he was placed by his father in
a classical school at Wilbraham, Mass., under the
management of Dr. Wilbur Fisk, a man of rare
gifts and graces, who was subsequently elected to
the episcopac3r, which office, however, he promptly
and persistently declined.

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 305

Finishing his academic course, young Keener was
transferred to the newly-established Wesleyan
university, at Middletown, Conn.

While yet at the immature age of sixteen years
he was graduated in the first class that issued from
that institution in 1835.

We know nothing of the details of his earlier
life, after graduation, except that he embarked in
the drug business in his native city, and some years
thereafter held a creditable position as a wholesale
druggist.

While thus engaged he was brought under deep
religious impression, which resulted in his con-
version and public profession of the Christian
faith. Conversion in those days meant something
more than moral reformation. In most instances
it was preceded by conviction sharp as a sword
thrust and bitter as the "grapes of Sodom" and
the "vintage of Gomorrah." After this travail of
soul, very often of a week's or a month's continu-
ance, there came a sunburst of joy and gladness
that made an abiding impress on character and
destiny. Bishop Keener's conversion, as to thor-
oughness at least, was of this sort, and almost
simultaneously with this transformation of life
and character there came likewise a divine call to
the arduous work of the Christian ministr}^.
Without irreverent haste, and yet without con.
ferring with flesh and blood, he addressed himself
to his life work. About 1843 he was admitted

Oo

806 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

into the Alabama Conference, where he continued
for the next five years, meanwhile filling ministerial
positions of greater or lesser responsibility.

His transfer to the Louisiana Conference at the
close of 1848 was something of a crisis in his
ministerial life. For long years the Southwest had
been the battle ground of the evangelical churches.
When first visited by the Methodist itinerant it
was, indeed, the "wild west." At a later period
that whole region was overrun by various forms
of infidelity, and even flagrant immorality, which
had intrenched themselves at New Orleans and
other strategic points. To this field Keener went
in the full maturity of his intellectual vigor and of
his physical prowess. The climatic conditions of
the Crescent Citv were unfavorable to health.
These conditions had been aggravated by imper-
fect sanitation. The tone of fashionable society
was in veterately opposed to an earnest religionism.
x\loreover, such popular vices as gambling, horse
racing and dueling were current in what was usu-
ally styled the best circles. Superadded to this
demoralization there was an intense worldliness
begotten of aggregated wealth and its consequent
luxury. These agencies of evil were to be con-
fronted and conquered. For this arduous work
Keener was fortunately well-equipped. In its
prosecution he was from time to time greatly
helped by such fellow laborers as J. B. Walker, Dr.
Linus Parker and the late Bishop McTyeire. These

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 307

men were of divers gifts, but of one aim and pur-
pose, and the results of their joint labors are not
yet fully realized. It is but sheer justice to say
that in all the elements of ministerial efficiency
Bishop Keener was the equal of the foremost.
Both as stationed preacher and as presiding elder
of the New Orleans district, he was greatly useful
and greatly beloved through a term of twelve
years.

At this juncture, his pastoral work was inter-
rupted by the civil war. Early in the contest, the
city was occupied by the Federal army, and then
followed the reign of terror under the Butler
regime. The future bishop had fully identified
himself with the fortunes of his native South,
whether for weal or woe. He therefore withdrew,
or rather, was thrust from the city, and was ap-
pointed superintendent of chaplains of the Trans-
Mississippi department. In this new field, he was
diligent and painstaking in the discharge of his
responsible duties, and speedily won the respect
and confidence of the general officers of the Con-
federate army. He shrunk from no sacrifice and no
peril, whether in field or camp, and by his public
ministration and his private counsel, contributed
greatly to improve the morals of the armies of the
West. Amidst these scenes of strife, he learned a
lesson of endurance; yet never, for a single instant,
did his patriotic devotion suffer any abatement or
exhibit any shadow of turning. During the resi-

308 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

dence of Dr. Keener at New Orleans, he acquired no
little reputation as a graceful and humorous
writer, by the publication of a small volume, en-
titled "Post-Oak Circuit." The secret of its author-
ship, however, was for some years concealed from
the general reading public. In this volume, he dis-
cussed in a terse, and at times philosophical wa}r,
the "ups and downs" of Methodist itinerancy.
Some of its portraits of both laity and clergy have
become historical, and will linger after he himself
has gone to his final reward. As an occasional
contributor to the church press, he was already
widely and favorably known. Partly for these
reasons, the General Conference of 1866, held in
New Orleans, recognizing his fitness for the posi
tion, elected him to the editorship of the New Or-
leans Christian Ad voeate. We were then in the midst
of the dark days of reconstruction, when our
church editors needed prudence, quite as much as
learning. Dr. Keener was in no wise deficient in
that cardinal virtue. It was a time also when
those who molded public opinion must have cour-
age, as well as capacity. Whilst there were not a
few time-serving ecclesiastics, who were disposed
to enact the role of Addison's "Vicar of Bray,"
he kept his honor virgin, and his loyalty to his
section and church untarnished. Ready at all
times for the broadest fraternity compatible with
proper self-respect^he was unalterably opposed to
a temporizing policy-, which might lead to the

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 309

ultimate impairment of the autonomy of the
Southern church. Upon other great issues, which
arose during his editorial term of service, he was
not less judicious and outspoken.

Nor is it strange that at the meeting of the
General Conference at Memphis, in 1870, he was,
by the voice of the church, summoned to a yet
higher position by his election to the episcopacy-
As one of the chief pastors of Southern Method-
ism he has grown steadily in public favor, and
now, after twenty -five years of continuous toil and
travel, he enjoys the unbounded confidence of his
colleagues and of the church at large. In this high
position, as in others less notable, he has shown
himself a man of affairs, capable of planning
great church enterprises and guiding them to a
satisfactory consummation. Perhaps the best
single illustration of this statement is seen in his
inauguration of what is known as the Central Mex-
ican mission. In 1870 Bishop Marvin projected a
Mexican border mission, an enterprise small in its
beginnings which has been gradually enlarged in
its geographical area. It now reaches from the
Rio Grande to Monterey and other capitals of sev-
eral northern states of our sister republic. In 1873,
Bishop Keener, after careful prospecting, secured
for Alejo Hernandez and his followers a perma-
nent foothold in the ancient city of the Aztecs. So
that the land of Anahuac, where Cortez, with the
aid of the faithful Tlascalans, planted in triumph

310 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

the standard of St. Jago, may ere long become a
stronghold of Protestantism . At first the Meth-
odists and other Protestant missionaries were op-
posed with great bitterness, and in a few outlying
localities were foully butchered by the Mexican
rabble. It has happened, however, as in many in-
stances, that the blood of the martyrs has been
the seed of the church. Under the wise adminis-
tration of President Diaz religious liberty is guar-
anteed and practically enforced. The Methodists
and some other Protestant churches are multiply-
ing their converts by the hundreds. Through their
united agencv Mexico will soon cease to be the land
of revolutions, and will become stable and pros-
perous. With the smaller details of his office and
work, we are not at present concerned. From
that point let it suffice to say that no charge of
maladministration has ever been preferred against
this eminent servant of the church. As a presiding
officer, both in Annual and General Conferences, he
ranks with the best the church has known during
the hundred years of its history. As president of
the General Conference, he is always an imposing
figure. He has what some one has called the "true
nobleman look," and yet there is nothing impe-
rious in his manner, but quite enough of dignity
to command the respect of the largest deliberative
body. Only less skilled in parliamentary law than
the late Bishop McTyeire, he is prompt and almost
uniformly correct in his decisions. After all, it is

[ OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 811

in the pulpit that Bishop Keener is seen to the best
advantage. He is no phrase monger, nor does he
affect mere elegance of speech. He brings no un-
beaten oil into the sanctuary, but on the contrary,
thoroughly digests the subjects which he attempts
to handle, and whilst he is fluent in a remarkable
degree, he never substitutes flippanc\r of phrase for
force of reasoning. It has been my rare good for-
tune to hear him almost a score of times on spe-
cial occasions, which have called forth his utmost
strength. At one district conference some years
ago I listened to him with intense interest on three
consecutive days. These sermons were on the great
themes of the gospel, and they, one and all, fairly
bristled with points and throbbed with the puls-
ings of the highest inspiration. After the lapse of
these years I cannot now recall very much of any
one of these masterly discourses, but the impres-
sions produced still abide, as a perpetual benedic-
tion on heart and head. In 1874, in Walnut Street
Baptist church, Louisville, Ky., I heard from the
bishop a Sunday morning sermon which was in
no wise inferior to such pulpit masterpieces as
Bishop Soule's ' 'Law of Liberty" or Bishop Mar-
vin's wonderful sermon on the text, "What is Man
That Thou Art Mindful of Him?" His theme was
"The Inexorableness of Law." The basis of the
transcendant discourse was the parable of the
rich man and Lazarus, wherein the great teacher
lifts for an instant the curtain that hides the spirit

312 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

world, and shows us things that may shortly
come to pass in our own personal experience. As
expounded by the bishop, his audience was brought
face to face with the stupendous verities of reve-
lation. I remember his saying, at least in sub-
stance, that the inscription over the gateway of
Dante's Inferno, "Abandon hope all ye that enter
here," did not so freeze the blood as the rich man's
prayer out of the belly of hell : ' ' Father Abraham ,
send Lazarus, that he may dip his finger in water
and cool my parched tongue, for I am tormented
in this flame." At another time he spoke of the
majesty of the divine law, which was in very truth
the "voice of God and the harmony of the uni-
verse." And then as he spoke of the thunders of
that violated law it almost seemed that the vast
audience vibrated from side to side as if they could
hear the veritable thunderings and lightnings of
Sinai, when the sacred mountain trembled under
the footsteps of legislative God. He urged in con-
clusion with much insistence that heaven and hell
are not the outcome of a divine decree, whether of
election or reprobation, but rather a result of a
divine law which is as inexorable in its ongoing as
the fate of the Greek tragedy — aye, more, as in-
flexible as the throne of God itself.

Let not the reader infer that his utterances are
all of this sulphurous flavor, or that he deals
chiefly even with the sterner aspects of theology.
There are occasions, when describing the joy of

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 313

conscious pardon or the blessedness of a still riper
Christian experience, that his manner is almost
womanly in its tenderness. At these times his fitly
spoken words move his audience to tears and not
infrequently rouse them to an outburst of hosan-
nahs and hallelujahs. Again he discusses the ab-
struser doctrines of Christianity with a logical
clearness and impressiveness that would do no
discredit to Robert South or Isaac Barrow.
Bishop Keener, after twenty years of Episcopal
service, is now the senior bishop of his church, and
by virtue of this official seniority, is the connecting
link between Wilson, Granberry, Hargrove, and
others of the present bench, and their great pred-
ecessors, Wightman, Pierce, Marvin, and their
glorified associates. Apparently he is still in vigor-
ous health — almost robust in his physique — and
has the promise of another decade of usefulness.
During the late General Conference he bore the
heat and burden of the session with no signs of
physical or intellectual weakening. His sermon
preached in Centenary church, St. Louis, at the or-
dination of Bishops Haygood and Fitzgerald, is
regarded by high authority as his level best. It
will be in order, therefore, to incorporate into this
sketch one or two extracts from this published
sermon.

314 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

THE DIVINE SONSHIP.

"We must rise into the grandeur of His sonship
invested as it now is with every attribute of divine
life. And that image of death, which ere while
He showed 'in the body of His flesh through
death' is there, enveloped in the shroudings of
majesty, and amid an all-surrounding ocean of in-
telligent being.

" These are the points, the axes of the divine
ellipse, about which all the universe of salvation
revolves.

"The Holy Spirit draws upon this perfected glori-
fied victim ; this constitutes the treasury deep and
high from which He enriches the world.

"It is not merely that the life is translated into
us, but we into a boundless kingdom of life ; a
kingdom 'within' in the sense of being spiritual,
but not in the sense of limitation.

"The clear apprehension of this 'adoption' was
the beginning of the Wesley an revival. Ever since
that notable month of May, 1738, when the two
Wesleys, Charles and John, were converted; when
the anthem at St. Paul's, 'Out of the Deep Have I
Called Unto Thee, O Lord,' and when at Alder-
gate street Luther's preface to the Romans fell
upon the ear and heart of John Wesley, this tide
of glory has steadily risen. Long since it should

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 315

have been felt in every frith of human life, as it
has been held in the empires of the orient, and
amid the starrv isles of the Pacific.

' ' May yon, my brethren beloved , never be wanting
in a strong, healthy, positive utterance of this
doctrine of life. May no refinement of thought
or sentiment be permitted to minify the one
sublime truth of justification by faith, or the true
nobility of a conscious sonship, testified by the
Holy Spirit to the heart of the believer. So shall
our bow abide in strength, and our beloved Meth-
odism shall continue to be in the future as in the
past, a blessing of God upon the world."

These extracts, better than anything we can
say, will convey to the reader an idea rather in-
adequate of his pulpit style. It was, likewise, the
official duty of Bishop Keener to respond to the
various fraternal messengers from England, Can-
ada, and the Northern Methodist church. In the
performance of this pleasing duty, the senior
bishop was peculiarly felicitous. Especially was
this true of his response to the delegates repre-
senting the Wesley an connection of the mother
country, and the delegate from the Northern Meth-
odist church. There was, in both of these, a blend-
ing of the choicest humor, and the purest good
sense, and this was a happy exchange for the tra-
ditional gush, not to say rodomontade, that very
often mars these platform fraternal addresses, and
the average episcopal responses. Organic union

316 BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS

may be said to have died, not amidst a shower of
tears, but amidst a buzz of ill-suppressed laughter.
Whilst Bishop Keener is not a politician, he is, in
its best sense, a Christian statesman j^and al-
though, as frequently stated, in sympathy with
Methodist fraternity, on a self-respecting *basis,
he is, in common with the great body of our min-
istry and laity, thoroughly averse to the unifica-
tion of the two Methodisms. He still has a lively
recollection of General Banks' special order No.
15, issued at New Orleans, in November, 1863. B37
this militarv order, everv Southern Methodist
church in that department was virtually confis-
cated. Nor has he forgotten the order of Stanton,
secretary of war, under cover of which Bishop
Ames, of the Northern Methodist church, followed
by a troupe of Northern preachers, proceeded to
administer on the estate of the Southern church.
Some of these intruders held on to their ecclesias-
tical position to the last possible moment. Bishop
McTyeire, who was cognizant of all the facts, has
written that the Carondolet Street church, formerly
served by Bishop Keener, was recovered barely in
time for the session of the General Conference of
1866. As might be supposed, these lurid mem-
ories may have suggested to the senior bishop that
not only was organic union a thing not to be de-
sired, but that fraternity itself, as usually dis-
coursed of on General Conference platforms, both

OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 317

North and South, was, in its last analysis, mainly
sentimental and sensational.

If we have in this matter correctly interpreted
the platform and pulpit deliverances of the vener-
able bishop, then wre must regard him as pro-
nouncedly conservative on all lines. He has but
little patience with progressive orthodoxy, as de-
veloped at Andover, and is barely tolerant of the
New South babblement that crops out in some
places and directions. He loves the old church,
and its apostolic doctrine and discipline, nor does
he love less the Old South, with its sacred tradi-
tions.

In domestic life, the senior bishop is a worthy
"ensample to the flock." Three of his sons have
entered the ministry, and are all gifted and
scholarly. In social life, he is affable alike to
3'oung and old, and so courtly in his address and
conversation, that his coming is hailed wTith de-
light in every circle. At this present writing, he is
sojourning at Ocean Springs, for rest and recuper-
ation, after the fatigue and worry of the General
Conference session, and making ready for his sum-
mer campaign of district conferences.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the
expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as
provided by the library rules or by special arrangement with
the Librarian in charge.

DATE BORROWED

DATE DUE

DATE BORROWED

DATE DUE

f'

C28(l149) lOOM

038.6

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

0035521627

Sc8 6

938.6
Scott

Sc86

Biographic etchings of ministers
and laymen of the Georgia
conferences.

PHOTOCOPY