USA > Georgia > Biographic etchings of ministers and laymen of the Georgia conferences > Part 3
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His life was one of continuous study and train- ing for the royal ends before him; but when he entered upon the duties of missionary 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 carrying 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.
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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 our friendship was never in- terrupted for a single moment, but 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 I.osa 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 metaphysical brain which distin- guished the gifted author of the Peter Plymley Letters.
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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 thoughtfullistener. 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 beserious, 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 which unfitted him so newhat 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
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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 say that 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 thechange, 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 vineyard, now and then exhibiting the old-time fervor, with an occasional glimpse of his former intellectual power. In his last days he was sus- tained by a steadfast faith, 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.
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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,
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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 of 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 like of 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
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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 ungainly 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 theconference 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.
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BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS
If we were to attempt a strict analysis of his mental make-up, we should say 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 North-west side."
Brother Parks was, however, like most of the great Methodist leaders in that controversial period, a skillful disputant. In proof of this we have a small volume which he wrote on "Apos- tasy," which played havoc with the Calvinistic dogma of "Final Perseverance." It is now prob- ably out of print, but we enjoyed and profited by the reading of it in our youthful days. The Scrip- tural argument, and the style 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 which made his estimate of men almost infallible. He was a rough-hewn, stern-featured man, with 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
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
lay a kindly heart and a large generosity. Several times, especially when he was representing Emory College, I 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 see the 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
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rodomontade that phrase implies, there was a well- defined individuality which made him a most 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 I am 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 powerful reasoning I have rarely in earlier or later times seen his peer.
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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 thathe 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 wasesteemed 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-
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BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS
tional equipment he would have graced the chair of 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
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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 years 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 who 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 faculty may have been a source of weak- ness to him as an expositor of the Holy 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
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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 or 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, Iam 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."
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
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 hisexcellent 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 my 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.
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BIOGRAPHIC ETCHINGS
Brother Yarbrough had enough Irish blood in his veins to make him a commanding orator in any 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 ministry. 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.
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
` 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
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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. Tennant, 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 work 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
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OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN.
experience, his gentleness of manner, his per- suasivestyle 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 boys 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, although 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 history.
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For some years before his ascension he was a complete wreck, resulting from paralysis. 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. Itstruck 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.
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