USA > Georgia > Bibb County > Macon > Georgia Baptists: historical and biographical > Part 39
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He was ordained about the year 1854, and for ten successive years he labored in preaching Christ to the people with great earnestness, zeal and simplicity. His discourses were uniformly short and well-timed as to the surroundings, and were never known to weary his audience, but generally left the impression with the most fastidious that, though the speaker was not a great preacher nor a learned man, yet he was a good man, and was doubtless deeply in earnest in all his unaffected and simple appeals to the hearts and consciences of his bearers. He was
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pastor of Rock Branch church several years, and was greatly respected and beloved by his flock and congregation. At the time of his death he was also pastor of Bethel church. He preached his last sermon on Sunday, (preceding his, death on the following Friday,) at a school-house a few miles from his residence, during the delivery of which he was observed to be unusually solemn. His disease was brain fever, which produced delirium, so that he was deprived of the privilege of bearing dying testimony to that religion which he had illustrated so well in life. Eternity will doubtless disclose that he, and such as he, accomplished more real good in life, and by the example they have left behind, than many brilliant men whose eloquence has entranced thousands, but whose lives lacked the savor of real godliness.
JACOB KING.
A biographical sketch of this eminent servant of Christ, by Rev. B. F. Tharp, was published in 1864 by Rev. W. C. Wilkes, in pamphlet form. The author is principally indebted to that publication for what follows, and he takes the liberty of trans- ferring not only the facts, but sometimes even the language, without further notice.
In what county Jacob King was born, is not known to the author. But he feels safe in saying he was a native Georgian. His birth occurred September 6th, 1796, and he died in Upson county August 9th, 1862, being nearly sixty-seven years of age. He was hopefully converted to Christ in June, 1820, and was baptized by Rev. John M. Gray into the fellowship of New Hope church, Jones county, the first Sabbath in July following. He was married to Matilda Wilson, January 8th, 1817.
Soon after his conversion he was impressed with the duty of preaching the gospel, but was restrained by a sense of his un- fitness and unworthiness until 1825, when, having settled on Flint river, in Upson county, his spirit was so stirred within him by the prevailing destitution, that he was constrained to make the attempt in the name of his Master. Having once put his hand to the plough, he was not the man to look back. His first sermon was from the words, " He that believeth in me,
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though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." John xi. 25, 26.
In 1826, he was ordained as pastor of Bethlehem church. John Hambrick and Henry Hooten composed the officiating presbytery, his ordination having taken place on his birthday, he being then thirty years of age. In the following October, he took the care of the Fellowship church, in which a great revival of religion was experienced and many were added unto the Lord. Throughout his life he was one of the most labori- ous of ministers. He generally preached to four churches, often supplied others on week days, and was indefatigable in his efforts in supplying the most destitute neighborhoods with the word of life. His zeal in this last particular exceeded that of any preacher the writer has ever known, and was, perhaps, never surpassed by any man of any age or country. The peo- ple of Upson county and the regions around will testify that there was not a " dark corner " which he failed to penetrate, nor a destitute neighborhood to which he did not bear the glad tidings.
He was a powerful and fearless advocate of the temperance cause. In that frontier region, as it then was, intemperance prevailed to an alarming extent, and was unfortunately counte- nanced and encouraged by the example of many professors of religion, if not by the preaching of some ministers. The author has a vivid recollection of a "passage at arms " between Mr. King and a venerable minister of the anti-missionary order, the first time he ever heard the former preach. It occurred at an Association in Talbot county, in the fall of 1834, and on Sabbath forenoon, in presence of an audience consisting of thousands. The good brother preached the first sermon, in which he pro- tested that he believed " sperits " was one of "God's good cree- turs," to be received with thankfulness, and said "he had a pain under his short ribs that morning, which he was confident might have been relieved by the use of some good sperits ; but, unfortunately, there was none to be had at the house where he staid, and so he was still suffering from the pain." As was the custom of the times, he was immediately followed by Mr. King, without an intermission. He announced his text : "And as he (Paul) reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to
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come, Felix trembled." His sermon, taken altogether, was a masterly effort; but especially when he came to speak of tem- perance, and the evils of dram-drinking, placing his hand upon his side and bending that long, lank form as if he was in great agony, he turned to his old brother and exclaimed, " No, sir! I wouldn't drink the stuff if I did have a pain under my short ribs." The effect was overwhelming, and his antagonist seemed utterly demolished. During the remainder of that meeting no one dared to advocate the use of "sperits," at least not pub- licly. His manner was inimitable; and the foregoing statement gives but a faint idea of its effect on the occasion alluded to. Those who ever heard him may form some conception of it- none others can. His genius and fertile imagination never left him without the means of enforcing his views on this subject powerfully and successfully. One of the best temperance lec- turers in the State, who frequently heard Mr. King, said he had never met any man who could present the cause more attrac- tively and cogently.
In the unfortunate division which took place in the Baptist denomination in Georgia on the subject of missions, he espoused the cause of benevolence, and urged its claims to the day of his death. He was surrounded by a powerful anti-influence, yet he maintained his cause with such versatility of talent, and with such powerful scriptural arguments, as to secure for it a steady advance and final triumph within his sphere of labor. When the division was consummated, one of the opposition said to him, " We shall see who are in the right, by the blessing of God, which shall follow the right." King accepted the test, and often pointed to the abundant blessing of God upon the labors of missionaries to prove to the opposition that ours is the right cause. He thought for himself on all subjects. No man was further from adopting an opinion upon the " say so " of an- other ; and it is believed to have been this natural independence of thought that led him to approve the plan of conducting mis- sions adopted by the Rehoboth Association, which was through the agency of a committee, and not through the Boards of the Southern Baptist Convention. He thought he saw in Conven- tions a power which might be abused, and, for this reason, did not favor them, nor often attend them. Believing that churches
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are the only organization necessary for the evangelization of the world, he was willing to unite churches in this work for the sake of the strength secured by such union, but beyond that he was not willing to go. Hence, he was an earnest advocate of the first motion made in his Association to send out and support a missionary in Africa; and when, after years of trial, it was found that two directors to the same work did not advance, but rather hindered it, he was equally earnest in advocating a sep- aration from the Boards. Yet no cause was dearer to his heart than that of missions, and to the world's salvation he gave the whole of his converted life, with the zeal and devotion of a primitive Apostle.
His talents were of the first order. If we were confined to one word in describing the character of his mind, we should select genius. He thought, spoke and acted just like no other man ; and yet, all he said and did seemed appropriate and be- coming. It was appropriate in him, but would not have been so in any other man. He never aped any man, and whoever attempted to ape him, made himself simply ridiculous. Yet there were a few who would run the risk. Like most of his cotemporaries, his literary advantages in early life were quite limited, yet he acquired a fine command of language, and wrote correctly and beautifully. He had an inexhaustible fund of an- ecdote, which he knew how to use with telling effect. To all these rare faculties, he added an iron will. No man can be great without this, and this he possessed in an extraordinary degree. When he resolved to do a thing, it was sure to be done, unless it proved to be an impossibility. This force of will made him a man of great decision of character. He was tall of stature, exceedingly slender, and predisposed to pulmonary disease. At the time of his ordination his health was so feeble as to render it necessary for him to withdraw, during the sum- mer months, from his field of labor, and spend the time among the mountains of upper Georgia. He returned in the fall; but the ensuing summer it seemed imperatively necessary that he should again seek the recuperative influence of mountain air, and mountain scenery. He accordingly started on horse back ; but while on the journey, thinking of the destitution he was leaving behind, he come to the conclusion to return and die at
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his post, if that should be God's will. And return he did, but not to die; his health immediately improved, and he never again had to desert his people for want of physical strength. This incident reminds us of that eminent French general and patriot, Hoche, who, while in command of the army of Ger- many, and meditating a second invasion of Ireland, suddenly failed in health. Calling his physician to him, he said, "Give me a remedy for disease, but let it not be rest." Thus it was with our christian hero, he sought a remedy, but said, "Let it not be rest !" His bodily sufferings were often great, but the soul within nerved him with strength until he reached a good old age. How favorably does his conduct compare with that class of dyspectic pastors of fashionable city churches, who must needs have an annual summer vacation for travel and amusement, especially if the city is under a visitation of chol- era or yellow fever !
Mr. King had a most fertile imagination, and descriptive powers of the first order. At a session of the Flint river As- sociation, about the year 1840, and when he was in his prime, he preached a sermon on the text, "Come thou, and all thy house into the Ark," of which the author received an account from the lips of that eminent saint and gifted minister, Rev. C. D. Mallary. He pronounced it one of the most masterly. efforts he had ever heard. His congregation was made to see the stupendous fabric of the ark advancing to completion for one hundred and twenty years. They listened to the contempt poured upon Noah by his neighbors for building such a vessel on dry land, and to the awful warnings he gave them to pre- pare for the coming wrath. Yet they went on in their infidel- ity, "marrying and giving in marriage, 'until the day that Noah entered into the Ark." They were held spell-bound, while they were made to see the beasts of the field, even the wildest and most ferocious come flocking in. Finally the door is shut mysteriously as by an unseen hand; and then the clouds · assume an unwonted aspect, the thunders roll, the lightning's flash, rains pour down from above, water-spouts send up their floods from beneath, storms howl over the face of the deep, ocean breaks over her bounds, and her maddening waves come rolling over valley and hill-tops, and mountains engulphing an
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unbelieving world in one common ruin. And then they were reminded that all this was but a faint figure of the deluge of God's wrath which awaits the wicked, and that Christ is the only Ark of safety. And when, finally, he reached out im- ploringly those long arms, and cried with that trumpet voice, while tears were streaming down that benevolent face, " Come thou, and all thy house into the Ark," his audience was said to have been swayed as by a mighty wind. The writer has heard a description of another of those efforts for which his ministry was remarkable. He had commenced a protracted meeting appointed by one of his churches, and had labored hard for several days. Finally the Sabbath found him with a prayer- less church, and a large but careless and unfeeling congrega- tion. In vain did he try to arouse their attention and impress their hearts. The meeting-house was situated in a forest with piles of granite rock here and there. Suddenly turning his back upon the congregation, and throwing open the window in rear of the pulpit, he began a most pathetic and touching ap- peal to the rocks and trees, calling upon the rocks to feel and the trees to weep over his unfeeling church and congregation. He continued in this strain some ten or fifteen minutes, and then, facing his audience again, raised his hands as if about to pronounce the benediction. A brother, springing to his feet, exclaimed with deep emotion, "Stop, brother King; don't dis- miss us; preach to us now, and we'll try to pray for you, and for sinners "-or words to this effect. Taking advantage of the attention he had thus awakened, he did preach to them, and that with such unction and power that the meeting was pro- tracted, a glorious revival ensued, during which many were hopefully converted and added to the church. A volume might be filled with incidents like the foregoing, which occurred in the history of this remarkable man.
He was naturally a logician ; not that he understood and prac- ticed the science as taught in the schools. He was above these rules by nature's own gift. He saw, at a glance, the meaning and force of a proposition, and few were more ready to turn a point upon an opponent. On one occasion he had gone to hear a Universalist preacher, and when the reverend gentleman closed, Mr. King arose, and, hat in hand, uttered one short,
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pithy, logical sentence, which brought the Universalist's whole effort into ridicule and contempt.
His theology was just what such a man would be expected to believe and teach. He held to the universal and total depravity of human nature, to man's utter inability to recover himself, to the efficacy of the Spirit's work, and to the sufficiency of the atonement of Christ. He held to universal and unlimited invi- tations of mercy as being consistent with limitation in the ap- plication of the atonement. When listening to his discourses on the power of the cross, the hearer would be convinced that no man ever loved the Saviour more sincerely. Upon hearing him in his happier moments, it would seem that if Paul had risen from the dead, he would have found nothing to condemn. His sermons were generally short, and he left his hearers wish- ing they had been longer. They were, however, formed after no model. It was impossible for such a mind to be trammeled by rules. Perhaps his sermons would have been liable to criti- cism, judged after the method of the schools, but none of the masters could have brought an audience to any given point with more order and certainty than he. He was eminently a great preacher, if by great be meant one who vindicates the whole truth, converts many souls, and ably recommends Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of sinners. Few men in the same time have preached more sermons and baptized more converts, and his converts generally wore well. His knowledge of hu- man nature made it difficult to deceive him, and there were few men who knew him who would have had the temerity to at- tempt it. Impostors and hypocrites generally give such men as he a wide berth.
As a presiding officer he was affable, punctual, prompt, well informed and impartial. He presided over the Rehoboth Asso- ciation as its moderator from its organization until called away from earth by the Master of Assemblies. He never failed to attend its sessions, and, it is believed, was invariably elected by a unanimous vote. He had an uncommon share of "com- mon sense "-a faculty so very uncommon, that it ever makes distinguished philosophers statesmen, warriors or divines. If it was necessary at any time to administer reproof, it was done in such a manner that no one could take offense, and yet it never
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failed of its object. The author was a visitor to the Rehoboth As- sociation when its business meetings were held in a female col- lege, the church being given up for preaching. Mr. King noticed that some of the delegates and spectators were defiling the floor with tobacco juice. Rising in his place, and standing si- lent a moment, he pointed with that long bony finger at those signs of indiscretion, which were but too plainly visible, and remarked, " They tell me this is a female college-that is, as I understand it, a college for females ; before I would thus defile a woman's floor, I would walk down the street a hundred yards and spit in the sand !" A general smile passed over the audi- ence, but there was no more spitting on that woman's floor on that occasion.
Mr. King was a true patriot. He loved his country. In the late struggle of the South for independence, his whole heart and soul was with the Confederacy, believing that the interests of the black race, as well as that of the white, were involved in the issue. No man was ever more kind to his servants, or considerate of their welfare than he. He plainly foresaw what has since been realized, that emancipation would be the ruin of the black man, and for this reason, if for no other, he sacrificed and prayed for the success of the Southern cause. Whenever a company of soldiers was to leave his county for the field of carnage and death, he was sure to be at the depot to give them words of encouragement, and to offer prayer on their behalf. He did not live to see the downfall of his people; God merci- fully took him away in time to escape the impending evil.
But his end drew near. Faithful to the last, he had preached in the open air, with more than his ordinary fervor, and thus contracted the disease which terminated his useful life. His death was such as might have been expected in the case of such a man-peaceful, happy, triumphant.
He left no children. His widow survives him-a woman every way worthy to have been the wife of such a man.
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JARED SANDERS DENNARD.
MISSIONARY TO AFRICA.
The author acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. John Smith father-in-law of Mr. Dennard, for the use of papers and letters which are of inestimable value to his family, and which are, o. themselves, exceedingly interesting. Among these is a sketch by Rev. A. T. Holmes, D. D., of which he makes free use, as if written by himself. No man was better qualified for the task than Dr. Holmes.
The subject of this notice was born in Twiggs county, Geor- gia, October 28, 1818, where he was educated in an excellent academy, under Mr. Milton Wilder. In 1834, he removed with his parents to Houston county, and soon joined a company of volunteers, raised to protect the settlements from hostile Indi- ans. He served as a soldier about three months, and secured the confidence of his companions by his fearless and manly deport- ment. On his return home, after spending some months with- out any positive employment, he studied law under Kelly & Rice, in Perry, and was admitted to the bar July, 1839. He continued the practice of law about five years, and his friends were encouraged to hope that he would distinguish himself in the honorable profession which he had chosen. But "He who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," and who makes kings, as well as soldiers and lawyers, his willing sub- jects in the day of his power, had other and more important work for him to do. Some time in the spring of 1845 he was made to feel that he was a guilty sinner. Under his deep con- victions, he mingled with the people of God and listened to the preaching of the gospel as one who felt that he had a special interest in the glad tidings which it proclaims. In good earnest he sought the forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ, and was soon enabled to rejoice in an humble hope of peace with God.
In the commencement of his christian career, he seemed to realize, in a peculiar manner, the spirit of the Apostle, and his inquiry was, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" To sub- mit to the authority of his Divine Master, to obey his com-
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mands, and to consecrate himself to his service, seemed to constitute the spirit of his religion. He took a high position at once as a christian, and secured fellowship with the people of God, as one whose elavated purpose was to adorn the Sa- viour's doctrine, and to walk worthy of his high vocation. He was baptized by Dr. Holmes some time in the month of Octo- ber, 1845, and soon thereafter, yielding to his convictions of duty, he engaged in the important work of the christian minis- try. His knowledge of theology being quite limited, and being desirous of showing himself " approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed," he became a diligent and prayerful student of the scriptures. It soon became obvious that he had entered upon the study of this Book of books with the full con- viction that it contained the will of God respecting himself and those among whom he expected to labor. With childlike sim- plicity he sat at the feet of the Great Teacher and learned of Him, and as he learned, he taught. In December, 1846, he was ordained, at the request of the Baptist church at Perry, and en- tered at once upon the work of an evangelist.
After spending two years in closing up his business as a law- yer, he left the State of Georgia and settled in Alabama, when he abandoned the legal profession and devoted himself exclu- sively to the work of the ministry. He was soon called to the watchcare of four churches, his connection with which was characterized by prayerful faithfulness not only to them, but also to the unconverted of their congregations, for while he fed the flock of God, he manifested deep concern for the salvation of sinners. He continued in the service of these churches about three years, during which time they prospered greatly. From the time of his conversion, however, he had been im- pressed it was his duty to bear the news of salvation to be- nighted Africa. These impressions finally ripened into a fixed resolve, and he set about in earnest making the necessary pre- paration. It was believed that married men stood a better chance of success in that field, and, finding in Miss Frances Smith, daughter of John M. and Nancy H. Smith, one of kin- dred views on the subject of missions, and one whom he be- lieved would prove an "help-meet" to him indeed, he sought her hand in marriage. The following extracts from a letter to
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her father are expressive of his views and feelings on this sub- ject : " For years the subject has been impressed upon my mind in such a manner as to make me dissatisfied in every situation in which I have been placed, and often to make me unhappy. I reasoned upon the subject in this way : Our blessed Lord and Master commands us to 'go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.' The benighted heathens are God's creatures-for them a Saviour has died. They have never heard the gospel. Under the command of Christ, it is the duty of somebody to go and preach it to them. Why is it not my duty as well as that of any one else ? Who can determine this solemn and important question ? Can relations or friends do it ? Can they think and feel as I think and feel on this vastly important subject ? Can they come in as judge between me and my God, and decide what is my duty ? Will that release me from the obligations I owe to Christ, who says to me, and to all who would follow him, 'If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.' 'He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.' Are they prepared to make an impartial decision ? Who, then, was to decide this question ? I, and I only, could decide it. I have decided it, prayerfully and rightly, I trust. Go I must, whatever the cost may be."
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