USA > Georgia > Biographic etchings of ministers and laymen of the Georgia conferences > Part 11
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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 abyss 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 medieval 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.
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"The Bible, sir, is the guide of the erring, and the reclaimer of the wandering; it heals the sick, consoles the dying, and purifies 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 away by 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, I am inclined to think that never on any 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-
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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
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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 thirty 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
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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 was the "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. Hewas 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."
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SOME NOTED METHODIST LAYMEN,
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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- tality 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 theclass 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
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women as Sister Hillyer, 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 discursivestyle than was his habit. It wasa 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 Ilike 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.
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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 prayer-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.
7. The closing years of Brother Furlow's life were shadowed by severe physical suffering.} It is
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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, theninitsinfancy 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.
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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 beconspicu- 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
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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 yellow leaf, he ha ving passed the four-score years of the Hebrew psalmist, and yet 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
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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
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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 cavalry 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 the trans-Alleghany department. There existed then, partly because of the political in- trigues of Aaron Burr and General Wilkinson, a lively and perhaps reasonable apprehension that
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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 century, was a sectional issue scarcely 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 by 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 family. 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
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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 Chylosis, 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
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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 Floy, a sweet promising child of ten years. 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 modesty 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
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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 isby 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 by the older residents of the district, of that
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memorable campaign. Miller was thoroughly equipped for the fray. His resources, whether of sober history or sparkling anecdote; whether of overwhelming argument or thrilling appeal, were seemingly inexhaustible. He kept country and town, 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 with thunderous applause as he achieved those sunward flights of oratory that were 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 county 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 whig contemporaries, Toombs and Stephens, and such comparisons were rarely to his disadvantage. Having had some knowledge of all of them, I am free to say that whilst in tone and gesture and majestic statue, Toombs was 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, was more magnetic than that of either, or both of them. Perhaps it was Sir James McIntosh who said of
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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 always 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.
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