USA > Virginia > City of Norfolk > City of Norfolk > Centennial of Court Street Baptist Church of the city of Portsmouth, Virginia > Part 5
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Before entering the Seminary he visited his family on his native island. On his return to this city he fell in love with one of the most fascina-
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ting young ladies of that day. No one could censure him for loving such a girl and no one could censure her for reciprocating the love of such a youth. It was`a desperate love match ; so desperate that it turned his head and his heart from the ministry and from the Seminary. Had that young man pursued his studies, entered the ministry and then married that same interesting woman, I am quite confident that he would be to- day the most distinguished and popular of all the ministers who have gone out from this Church.
A few years after he abandoned the idea of preaching he became indifferent and skeptical and walked no more with the people of God. He is not a member of the Church now. I said that I believed he was a child of God when he was bap- tized and joined this Church. If a child of God then, he is a child of God now. The Lord never disowns His children. I feel in my heart the assurance that before he dies God will heal his backsliding and restore unto him the joys of His salvation, and that he will testify for the Lord be- fore he goes hence. Do not be startled at my theology. We must not forget, my brethren, that the Holy Spirit is the Teacher, the Comforter and the Sanctifier. He may leave a child of God as the Comforter, so that for many years he shall know
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nothing of the consolation there is in Christ, and wander far away from the Lord. But the Holy Spirit as the Teacher and Sanctifier never leaves him. He is always after him, reminding him of his vows, recalling his past experience and aiming to bring him back.
The poor prodigal was just as much his father's son there among the swine, in rags, poverty hunger and desolation, as when he was at home, and the father's heart was constantly with him. The poor boy "came to himself" one day and got back to his home and to his father's arms. So I am persuaded it will be with this child of God. If I should hear of his restoration and witnessing for Jesus at any time I would not be surprised, for it is just what I have been praying for and expecting to hear these many years. I have not given him up, nor must you. I am sorry, oh! so sorry, that I cannot mention his name among the ministers sent out by this Church.
There is another Portsmouth boy now in the ministry who went out from this Church, He was baptized by the Rev. Thos. Hume 17th Septem- ber, 1837, licensed to preach in 1838 and ordained in 1843. I have already made allusion to his conversion and uniting with this Church.
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The Church saw fit to encourage the idea of his studying for the ministry. He went to the Rich- mond Seminary, to the Columbian College, D. C., and to Newton Theological Seminary, Massachu- setts. He commenced his ministry at Jerusalem, Southampton County, Va., and Smithfield, Va., and Hebron, Southampton County, as a mission- ary of the Portsmouth Association .. He organ- ized the Church at Jerusalem and built the meet- ing-house there. Preached his first sermon in a new house at Hebron and then induced them to pull it down and build larger. He was in the field some two years or more, then went to Lynchburg, Va., where he worked hard in every sense of that word for nearly three years. Quite a number were added to the Church and order brought out of confusion. The miserable old meeting-house was pulled down during his pas- torate there, one of the best things he did in that place. He left before the new house was finished, after he had traveled from Dan to Beer- sheba begging money to build it. While in Baltimore on his begging tour, he preached a few times and made a favorable impression on the members of the First Church. They gave him a unanimous and enthusiastic call which he ac- cepted. He has been there thirty-eight years and
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eight months and is there yet. This man has been pastor of only two Churches-the First Church in Lynchburg and the First Church in Baltimore. He did not consider himself a pastor, but a missionary to the other Churches in his first field of labor. So if there be any special honor in being the pastor of many Churches, then this man has but little honor of that kind, for he insists upon it that he has been pastor of but two Churches.
Some five years ago he preached a sermon which has been published-on the "Secrets of a Long Pastorate; or, Reminiscences of a Pastor- ate of Thirty-three Years in One Church." At the close of his thirty-seventh year he preached on " The Trials of a Long Pastorate." If he is spared to the close of his fortieth year he will preach on " The Blessings of a Long Pastor- ate." When these are published, if any of you wish to know more about the ministerial career of this Portsmouth boy you can learn it more fully than it would be prudent for him to mention in this presence. Do indulge with a few reflections and I will relieve you.
First. Let parents, Sunday-school teachers and pastors learn from this discourse not to despise the day of small things. Do not always judge
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what a boy may become by his origin, his sur- roundings and his personal appearance.
Many a most unpromising boy, when he joined a Church, has become a most prominent and useful minister of the gospel. Scarcely any one of the ministers mentioned on this occasion had much promise in the beginning. In your families and in your Sunday-schools there may be those whom God designs to fill some important niche in His Spiritual Temple. Act upon this supposition in family training, Sunday-school instruction and preaching. Honor childhood and determine to make the best of it.
Second. Be careful, very careful, how you en- courage young men to enter the ministry. Much harm has been done by disregarding the exhorta- tion, " Lay hands suddenly on no man." But the harm often antedates the ordination. It began when the man was encouraged to study for the ministry before he had given proof to satisfy the Church that he was called of God. Pastors often assume too much responsibility in this mat- ter. Many a man has been pushed into the pulpit who should never have left the pew. Many a good layman and excellent deacon has been spoiled by making a poor preacher out of him. Many a man has been a blessing to his pastor
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and to his Church so long as he remained in his pew, but a positive affliction to himself and to all concerned after he ascended the pulpit.
I could write a book made up of facts from my experience and observation showing the import- ance of caution in encouraging men to enter the ministry. Ambition for numbers in membership has been a great affliction to our Churches. Ambition for numbers in the ministry has been equally as great an affliction. Not every man who thinks he can preach, or thinks he is called to preach, or who has the gift of utterance, or whom we may love and esteem and would like to see a preacher, should be encouraged either to enter the ministry at once, or to pursue a course of study with reference to the ministry. Let him prove himself by his character-by his spirit of consecration-by his desire and efforts to save souls. So prove himself that the Church may be impressed that he is called of God. Then help him by your sympathy, prayers and money. On the line of ushering men into the ministry we ought to make haste slowly. I think I have kept more men out of the ministry than I ever induced to enter it. And I have lived long enough to see I neither sinned nor stumbled in so doing. While we should pray far more than we do for "The
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Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest, and encourage and help all whom the Lord may call, yet emphatically we should watch as we pray. Watch that we dis- courage none whose duty it may be to enter the ministry. Watch that we encourage none who should never attempt to preach.
When a Church has been thus cautious, as I believe this Church has been in the main, and it sends forth a goodly number of useful, conse- crated ministers, it has done a great work. And it is proof of its growth in wisdom, piety and power.
If this be so, then your growth in these Chris- tian graces has been much greater in the last fifty years than in the first fifty. In the first half of the century the Church did not send forth a single minister. During the last half it has sent out thirteen ordained ministers and five licentiates. And the first minister this Church ever sent forth is here this evening to announce that fact, and he is a young man yet. May the Church in its next hundred years quadruple the first hundred, both in the quantity and the quality of the men it shall send forth to preach the glorions Gospel of the blessed Lord.
There is the name of another minister con-
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nected with this Church, that I must mention before I take my seat. He was not sent forth from this Church, but was received into its mem- bership after he had become a minister. He has been with you eighteen years. He has been proven and found faithful. God has blessed him and you have loved him. So long as this is so you ought not to send him out. The question should never be a long pastorate, but a useful one.
No eighteen years of the one hundred have been more abundant in good works and good results than those during which Rev. A. E. Owen, D.D., has been your pastor.
Now, my brethren, standing almost on the very spot, where, fifty-two years ago, I accepted Jesus as my Saviour, Teacher and King, and gave Him my heart, my life, my all, I can say with heart emphasis, " By the grace of God, I am what I am," and can testify to the goodness and the mercy of God. I have never in all these years regretted that act of consecration. My only regret has been that I have not been more faith- ful.
I then thought religion was a good thing-now I know it. That which was the guide of my youth is now the support of my age.
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The longer I live and the more I serve my Divine Master, the more closely I study two books-God's book and the book of my own experience. The one tells me what He will do for me, the other tells me what He has done for me. When these two agree I feel the rocky ground of my position and can say with heart emphasis, " I know whom I have believed and am persuaded He will keep that which I have com- mitted to Him against that day." And now may you and I and all of us so live, so redeem our covenant vows, that God, even our God, may bless us in life, in death and in eternity. Amen and Amen !
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