The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1885-08-22
THE GEORGIA EVANGELIST.
correspondence Times Demo rat. !


correspondence Times- Demo rat
No man in the South has attracted
more attention from the newspaper
press in the past six months than Sam
JONES, and no man is less understood
by those who have not seen him. !
confess :hat l was by no means prepos.
scsscd by the reports had read of his
SermonS--a volume of which has just
been issued from the press. lie must
be seen and heard to be appreciated.
In the newspaper reports of his sermons
that have been so widely reprinted in
the South, special prominence has been
given to the stangy, coarse expressions
that mar his work, while the earnest
rl0uucnce of his more sober periods is
rarely reproduced. In this way an
erroneous impression has gone abroad.
He is regarded hy many rs merely Il
pulpit butloon-jcsting with sacred
things and having no other aim than
to make himself notorious. To see his
earnest face is enough to remove this
| impression. But as q preacher he is to
be admired, not initiated. lie is one
of his kind, aud those who hear him
need never expect to hear another. 1t
would be a dangerous thing for any
theological sprig to take him for n
model and yet he is a great power for
good. The Rcv. DIR. W. Nj. Lcftwich
says Of him: CAN classes, from the
highest to the lowest, from tho mos,
learned and cultivated to the most
ignorant and rouShest, arc alike moved
to repentance and a better life by him,
or rather by tho Holy Spirit through
him. His power over men 0s men is
marvellous, and his power over vast
assemblies is phenomenal. lie is the
master Of assemblies. He despiscs the
mere arts of oratory, as he does all
shams, but he possesses the elOquence
of carnCstness and action, the fire and
glow of passion, the surprises OF
thought, the wit, humor, ridicule,
irony, sarcasm, invective, pathos, sym.
pathy, love, humanity, and faith,
which, expressed in the language of
the shop and field, and illustrated by
the common facts Of life and the happi-
est allegories, make him the most SEM
sational preacher now in the a mcrican
pulpit"
Sam Jones is an Alabama product ;
but Georgia is responsible for his rear
ing. He is now nearly thirty-eight
years old. In his young manhood he
sowed considerably moro than his share
of wild oats. lie was educated as n
lawyer, and began the practice of his
profession, but his habits of dissipation
| We're a bar to his success. Writing of
this period of his life, DR.. Leftwich
says: "Whisky drinking, profanity,
and their kindred evils, swept him
down into the deepest depths, and
made him so reckless that all efforts
for his reformation only maddened
him, until his father, batllod and NOR
tilted, gave up al! hope and then lay
down to die. While on his death-bcd,
his father seized every opportunity tC
talk with him. As death approached,
| the son grew more and more serious
! until the closing scene-~sO triumphant
over death that heaven and earth were
brought together, and the prodgal boy
| fell down at the death-bca and cried
out for mercy" From this scene date :
| the bCGinning Of the remarkable career
| of the ,;rcat evangelist. He was iiccn-
sod to preach by the Methodist Con-
ference, at Atlanta, in 1872. For sew
eral years he had the usual experiences
| of an ilinrrani minister, and it has
only been a comparatively short time
since he began to develop those pccu-
| liaritieS that have made him famous
The marvellous success Of his efforts in
lluntSvlllc, knUNvillc, Nashville, and
other cities, has probably ncvCr before
! been cqual"h in the history 0f rcvival~
| in a mCrira,