Biographic etchings of ministers and laymen of the Georgia conferences, Part 10

Author: Scott, William J
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Atlanta, The Foote & Davies co.
Number of Pages: 650


USA > Georgia > Biographic etchings of ministers and laymen of the Georgia conferences > Part 10


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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 was, may be, under God, the key to all his after history. In 1877, one year 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 frequently by electing him to the legislature of the state. And for four consecutive 12


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terms he was elected to preside as speaker pro tem 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 of them-were astounded at the step he was taking, which some of them characterized as the "climax of follv." 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 twenty 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


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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 hisfellows the peer of the noblest and the best. Endowed with fine native gifts, polished by the culture of the schools, broadened and well-


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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 by 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 nouc 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 ability, 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."


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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 by 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 trium virate, 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-


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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 up on geography-although a graduate of Emory College, we believe, with honors, and a gifted young 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. These continuous labors brought him to a sick bed and ultimately to saving faith in Christ. The story of his con- ยท 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 Clayton had been sceptical of the truth of Christianity. Though always respectful to those who made a profession of religion, yet he had never submitted


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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 we were particularly 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, Ienquired 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


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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 toward his Maker had been neglected. Now he had en- quired what had kept him from being a Christian, and having learned 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 hefelt had so long prevented his becoming a Chris- tian, he manifested the greatest meekness and do-


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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 takeit 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.


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FRANCIS BARTOW DAVIES.


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 to Palatka in 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 missionary 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


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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 very 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., that suggests 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- lev 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.


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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- mately known in Alabama, where at one time I had been engaged in teaching. It was at this time that I made the personal acquaintance of Bro. Foote, who was the Methodist pastor of that flourishing 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


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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 occupy 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 year.


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 was not marred by commonplace discussions, nor did he indulge in vapid declama- tion. But on some occasions he was thrillingly eloquent in his utterance, while 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


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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 deeply 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 Trinity church.


ROBERT M. LOCKWOOD.


We have been 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-


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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 were obvious points of resemblance in their preaching, but quite often there were striking points of divergence and even dis- similarity.


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


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


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 was the handsomest and brightest lad she had ever known in her infant class.


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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 always 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, why might not this great man at wide inter- vals be suffered to drawl without the penalty of adverse criticism? 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." Itmight 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."


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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 years, 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 tribute is 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


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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 eves, 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


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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 fancy cowers in astonishment.


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"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. Itshould 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




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