Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-06-04
Rev. John w. Hammer, SIR


On Sunday last the above-named
gentleman delivered a very remark
able and by many considered the
best sermon ever heard in this town.
There is not q man who has arrived
| at the years of discretion in this VII
| cinity who has not at one time and
another heard DIR. Hammer preach.
1t is quite certain that not a single
one of the above class ever heard
him in such mellow aud religious
vein. AT times we have heard
| him when he lowered like q Tener-
| life among men in intellect. This
time his well-trained mind lost none
Ofits fire and vigor, but there was
heart in the effort. This grand
preacher poured forth on this occa-
sion the stores of his mighty memo
ry and the rich inspirations of his
heart in one unbroken stream of
music, melody. eloquence, poetry
and logic, which enchanted and en-
tranced the audience as men and
women are rarely stirred and moved.
He is just what many of us have al
ways thought him, the biggest
Drained and the most variously gift
ed man in the pulpit on this conti-
nent. Compared to the effort of
Sunday, the weekly efasions of Tai
mage and Beecher, able as they are,
seem weak. There is pathOs, an
aptnes5 of illustration, knowledge
of human nature, knack of teach
ing, in this mans makeup that no
other preacher of this country has.
DIR. Young said years ago that if he
were so minded he could excel any
preacher of any age. We recollect
distinctly that he preached q SER
mon in this town just before the
meeting of the General Conference
at Columbus, Georgia, whereat
Pierce was elected and ordained a
bishop, which created great talk.
He preached the same sermon on
the principal day there and capt
ured every hearer and carried off |
the honors of the conference as AL
pulpit orator. Last Sundays effort |
was on the same plane, but had |
more mellowness and religious fer
vor in it.
This last sermon was on the moth
er-hood of God. The former was on
Gods Providence. The first was
from the text, "For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways; saith the Lord |
LV. 80" The sermon
of Sunday was bottomed up on the
text ''As one whom his mother
so will / comfort you.-
Isaiah LXVI,13." Is this last SER
mon to be preached at Nashville in
May next? Is it to create the fur
ore that the Columbus sermon did?
We hope so. Every member of the
church who remembers McFerrin,
Green, Pitts, Moody and many
others of the old warriors and men
of might in the Tennessee Annual
Conference hopes and prays that
this last named conference will send
John w. Hammer, Sr., to the Gener-
al Conference in May next along
with his old colleague MeFerrin.
There are but few Of these giants
left. 1t may be that Hammer will
not be here when the General Con-
ference meets again in the capitol
of Tennessee, q state in which he
was born and in which he has done
more brilliant and effective preach
ing than any man alive or dead. 1t
will be an epoch in the coming Gen
aral Conference to hear him preach.
The mellOwing tinta of time are
showing not at all upon his tremen-
dOus intellectual Vigor, but upon
his head they have thrown a sheen
Of pure and unlocked white, and
around his heart the warm sunshine
which alone comes from the grace
Of the gospel lie so elnquently and so
breaches. 1t will not only
be gratifying TO his friends that he
appear at Nashville as delegate to
The General Conference, but 1t Is ab-
patent to all that the heav-
est work of the ministry should be
again thrown upon his broad Allan
-ean shoulders. He Is better pre-
pared to-day to preach than ever.
He is in the very flower of his prime {
md the work he can do will simply ]
De irreparable if not done.
We heartily hope to see the neces-
'ary steps taken by the proper au-
Lhorities which will cause him to |
20 up and down the country and re-
zindle the glory of his earlier days {
md shed around his declining years ]
/ richer halo of renDwn than even |
his middle age ever witnessed.
"Boss, I want ter buy picter Of I
Jesus" said a Nashville darkey to [
/ Union street picture dealer this '
He was shown one in {
'rame representing Jesus blessing \
title children. "Boss, Is you got
my black ones?" asked the darkey. (
No, Jesus was not a black man."
Oats whar yer wrong, Boss. My q
pastor tole me las night dat Jesus 9
was de 'xact image Oh me-" 'sLook
yer, nigger,' spoke up the colored \
nortos- Of tho house xx,no bo1 ham 1