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Gc 975.8 Sco8b 1998956
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02301 4431
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/biographicetchin00scot_0
BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS . . . OF ...
MINISTERS AND LAYMEN
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., ist chap., 5th verse.
ATLANTA: THE FOOTE & DAVIES CO., PUBLISHERS. 1895.
78 7281 15
Scott, W J Biographic etchings
Palm Beach
1998956
COPYRIGHTED 1895, BY W. J. SCOTT.
'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 asmuch of 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 ourchurch paper, but I ventured to substitute the committee's work for
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
2
BIOGRAPHIC 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 Bascombe excelled him in the thunderous oratorythat 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 chiefest 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,
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
"Onction," and the old Methodists, "Liberty," and you 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 Wesleys.
With him, however, it was something more than a mere theory, 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 underlay 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, were 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.
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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 any 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 was 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. Letit not besupposed, however, that he at all countenanced the notion of extemporaneous thinking. On the contrary, he was diligent in preparation for his pulpit work.
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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. Theformer 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 ministry 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 strictly 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
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BIOGRAPHIC 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 hisdying 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 amlying 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
-
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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.
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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 dav'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 meus." "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."
9
OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
JESSE BORING-THE SALVATOR ROSA OF THE PULPIT.
The life of Jesse Boring. if fully and graphically 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 Dannelly 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
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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 connectional 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 Californias. If the "saints in light" take knowledge of earthly happenings, how must the old Doctor have rejoiced when the missionary rain, some years ago, sped its way, with singing
11
OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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 ~tages 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 Æneas 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 Jeremy Taylor that he was "the Shakespeare of the English pul- pit." Why may not I be justified in saying Bor-
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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- mint, 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 was 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
-
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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, are there few 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, che 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-
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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 hest 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
15
OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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 plator m 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 was 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-
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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 mar." 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
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
1
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. 2
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