The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1885-10-16
RIII ARP ON SAM JONES.
WHAT ONE GEORGIA GENUS
TIINkS OF ANOTHER.
niu Arm Has Heard Sam Jones and sold
u, preach and Gives His Opinion of
,rhcr--IIe also Gives ..OId Si'' Advice.

HiII Arp Has Heard Sam Jones ana oiu
u -, y irarh and Gives His Opinion OF
Tbcm--Iie also Gives sold Si' Advice.
II was 4 curious sight curious to me,
r.rI Nave never seen the like before |
never -aw press reporters at work on a
,,.aehcrs platform until last sunday. |
here Il dozen preachers seated around the |
stage and sam Jones stood III front, and |
the reporters had their round table just |
behind him. and they worked hard and |
worked fast to keep up with him. Some
times he seemed to pause as he looked at
them as though he wished to z We them a
reasonable chance, and once he turned to |
them and said: ''Now, wish the repor
tcr- 10 take special note of what | am go
fnr.tO say about preachers" Sam Jones |
has climbed up pretty high considering |
fhc start he had. The first time ever |
heard II him was about twelve years ago |
during me revival at Rome. one night |
hc was called on to pray and his prayer
was 50 peculiar and aboundcd III such every |
dly tai, Us though he was holding Il little
coufab with an intimate friend that every |
body wanted to know who he was and |
vhefc he come from. It was the TALK Of
The town next day Nobody condemned
il but everybody WAS surprised, for no |
other IN III had ever prayed that way in
that town.
Whatever may be said of Sam Jones,
one thing is certain, he is original IN his
ways and thoughts. He apes nobody. He
borrow, from nobody. He is thinker.
He is m enthusiast He is fearless He
ht- had no help to risc-no thorough cd
ucatiou no theological training, no intlu
,uta fri, nds to press him forward, and !
i,. has preached in tie BROOKLYN tabcr-
uaelr, iu the great tent at Nashville, and !
lutWenty four States, and has calls III every
direction that the compass points. There
certainly IS something in Sam Jones that
The masses like that other preachers have
not. He may have shot up like a little
racket, but he has not come down like a
stick His star is still high and brilliant
sam Jones is not eloquent as some min
i,terS are eloquent. He cannot approach
the cloquence of George Price or Dr.
Means or many of that class He has no
such eiocution as Bishop Beckwth He
has no classical strength of mind, no logic,
no rhetoric. He has no commanding re
yerential presence as he stands before you
ana yet profound thinkers and gifted or
ators are impressed by him, and do not
lire of his words, nor his eccentricity. Sam
Jones IS Tremendously in earnest. He means
business. He always meant business. He
ls Il restless, nervous mortal When he
served the devil he served him with will
and WAS faithful to him. He was ever
Jealous IN what he undertook. II 1t was
Il fox hunt he kept nearest the hounds.
hen Sherman left this region desOlate
and carried off all the horses and mules,
he left behind him ut various points lot
Of broken down stock to be recruited, and
night after night Sam was slipping around
the camp stealing horses and mules, and
by daybreak he would have half a dozen
Ind out in il swamp, and as soon as he
could distribute them safely to the poor
farmers to make their next crop, he did
SO. Many poor man lived to thank him
for his reckless gifts. How many did he
steal r asked of a friend, who knew of
his daring deed. ''Oh, | don't know,
said ne, "a hundred | reckon, may be
more Sometimes he would put on an old
suit OF blue clothes and go into the camp
of the guards as a yankee, and swap lies
with them, and steal a mule or two before
morning Sometimes he would 90 as a
confederate deserter and carry a bottle of
whisky with him and get the guards drunk
lie never fooled away his time and | reck
On hat is the reason why he has no re-
spcct for baseball players. He says it
don't accomplish anything. People al
ways SympathiZe with earnestneSs even
though it be sometimes the zeal of fanat-
iej~m. Earnestness is power III itself.
Most preachers are earnest. but 1t is not
af that kind. 1t comes from stud dy-from
the lamp and the library. and comes to us
every sabbath Just like the sound of the
church going bell always regular, always
comforting and always the same. But
sam Jones knows no Sabbath every day
is sabbath with him. He wants the peo-
pie to shut up their stores and stop their
plows and suspend their courts and come
To prayer, and come running. lie
wants them to come 1T sunrise and bring
their knitting and stay all day and half
the night Ali the religious enthusiasts
Of whom we have re al We're Just that way.
Whitfield was, and so was Wesley and
Jonathan Edwards and John Knox. They
had liked to have made their hearers for
get to eat and to live only upon the bread
of life.
But Sam Jones does sometimes rise to q
high standard of spiritual eoqucnce His
late sermon on charity was tcnderly and
touchingly beautiful and pathetic. 1t was
as melting as charity itself, and no hearer
could withhold his emotions or go away
from the tent without resolve to have
more charity for those around him. If he
were to indulge in such sermons and preach
no other and leave out his rude and crude
metaphors and comparisons and sidebal
expressions, he would not be Sam Jones
long, and would soon be as any other man.
He has got to play Sam Jones according
TO his nature to attract, to draw the peo
pie. They go to be entertained, perhaps
amused, and go prepared to take many a
blow from his sledge hammer, and see
their nabors hammered as bad, and may
be worse. Most everybody wants theil
nabors to be sacrificed, for they know they
deserve it. Give it to EN-, Sam lay il
on thick. You can't hit 'em too hard, " is
the idea. The people like Sam because he
does give it to EN-. They admire his
nerve, his grit his penetration. Last
Sunday he was preaching most solemnl,
about watching and prayer and suffering
tribulation, and he interested my classical
Ignorance by saying that tribulation cam,
from trbulum, which was the threshin,
pole with one end fastened and the othc
extending horizontally over the wheat
and had pestle attached to it and tn
pole sprung up and down with the motiol
Of the hand and brought the pestle dow
Al each spring and SO as the wheat wa
pounded and thrsshed by the tribulum t
separate it from the chatf, just so must tn
Christian suffer from the tribulum that
from tribulatOn so as to have the cha
beaten out of him and leave nothing bu
wheat. This was all very new and intel
estng to me and | might have learned th
same from DR.. Hawthorne or of DR.. Al
son, but Just then Sam Jones said an
there are about 800 Christians here i
soil 10 c,,ffa frjbu ulatin nd fb