Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-03-18

REV. SAMUEL JONES.
| years ago to Mrs. McIllwane of Kentucky.
| For several years he was hayward in his
| life, and dissipated periodically, but on the
| death of his ia Their in 1872 he was brought
| to knowledge of his situation and was
| converted. Since then, having joined the
| Methodist Church, North Georgia Confer
| ence, for about nine years he was enga ged
on circuit and station work in Georgia,
| and was everywhere known as a faithful,
| fearless preacher.
He has always had his present style of
| preaching, and it is not matter OF recent
| development or growth, but natural. The
| last three years he confined himself to con-
| ference work. The fortunes of the North
| Georgia Orphans Home were in q preca-
| rious condition, and the conference made
| him its general agent, and in this way he
| began to travel beyond his conference
bounds to build up his present fame and
| power preacher. So rapidly has this
| been done that he is in demand in al
| most every city east OF the Rocky mount
aims of any considerable population. He
redeemed the Orphans Home from debt,
| furnished it with new buildings, and still
| maintains it by his own efforts. 1t cares
| for a very large number of the orphan chill
| dren OF the poorer classes. He has held a
| great many successful meetings, prominent
| among which were those at Talmage's
| Brooklyn Tabernacle, January, a year
| ago; at Waco, Tex; Memphis, Tenn;
| Nashville, Tenn; Plattsburg, Mo-; st. Jo-
seph, Mo-; Birmingham, Ala; Knoxville,
| Tenn; st. Louis, Mo-. and Cincinnati.
Sam Jones is of smallish stature, rather
| slight, dark complexion dark hair. light
| dark must ache. clear-cut features and
| bright piercing eyes. His tirm-set under
| jaw typifies the strength and resolution of
tba Ha 10 full Of I'm wit and
humor, in the pulpit well as out OF it.
He has not been "a great reader as to guam
| tity, but has read many of the best works
| in the English language, and is familiar
| with the best moral visits of the world.
His vocabulary is almost purely Anglo
| Saxon and in that fact consists the great
pungency and strength of his speech.
! Jones is very plain and outspoken in his
dealings with religious and moral ques-
| tions. He has an intense hatred for all
shams and hypocrisy, and believes in peo-
| pie living up to the apostolic standard OF
righteousness. His sermons and methods
| of work have made a good many critics,
| and sometimes make people mad, but the
earnestness and brotherlv love of the man
| triumph over all these things, and they
| come back and hear more. Gradually
| he gets wonderful hold upon them.
| His idea in meetings like these is always to
| get the church people right first. He says
| he wants the Lords crowd and the devils
| crowd separate before he brings on the bat
! tie, and he is as merciless upon the sins and
| sham of church people as he is upon those
| of non -profcssors. He is a hard-worker in
| all his meetings, preaching two and three
| times day, and has great powers OF phys
| ical endurance. His habits are simple and
| regular. His health is generally good. He
! is very popular throughout all the com
| munities he has ever visited, and is admit
| ted now, through the size of his congrega-
| tions, the reports of the newspapers and
the circulation of his sermons. to be preach
| ing to more men and oitener than any man
now living.
SMALL.
The following sketch is taken frotn
| pamphlet issued by the Chicago Inter
| Ocean:
| Mr.. Samuel Small, the brilliant Southern
| journalist-evangelist is native of Knox
| vile, Tenn. He was born in the Big Bend
| State July 3, 1850. He is, therefore,
| thirty-fve years of age. He was in early
| life the recipient of an education and cult
/ ure which are strikingly apparent in all his
| pulpit efforts. His parents were pious peo-
| pie, and he early indoctrinated in Bible
| truth which stands him splendidly in hand
| now, and which is clearly shown in his
| great familiarity with the Scri ptures. His
| careful home training was strongly supple
t mented by a course of several years dura-
! ton spent at Emory and Henry College, a
Methodist institution in Virginia.
! Soon after leaving college he began his
| life newspaper man. He wrote the
| first "Old ST" papers in 1876, and these
! speedily found their way into the leading
| journals of the United States. In 1878 he
| went to Europe as an attaehe of the Ameri-
| can Commissioners to the Universal Expo
! sition at Paris, and the breadth and obser-
| walton which that transatlantic journey
| impaired were not lost upon the young
| humoriSt.
| The story of his conversion is character
istic of the man. On Sunday, September
/ 10, 1885, he took his wife and children
| from Atlanta, Ca, down to Gainesville,
! some fifty miles away, to hear Rev. Sam
| Jones preach. That great revivalist was
| then holding services at an immense camp
/ meeting at Gainesville. So Sam Small
/ went there from his home at Atlanta to en-
Joy the Sabbath in kind of picnic style.
! He heard Mr.. Jones preach, and straight
way was convicted of his own sinfulness.
But his was not a nature to give up with
out a struggle. 1t has been said that every
strong believer has at one time or other
j been strong doubter. Small went home
and did what might have been expected, as
he himself confesses; he drank deeply to
| drown his conviction, and remained intox-
icated until Tuesday afternoon, September
rs. Then the change came; he believed on
Christ Jesus as his redemption, and arose
from his knees q converted man. The first
thing he did was that which every young
convert does when he gets to that point in
his experience. He began to consider it his
duty and privilege to tell Others what a
change had been wrought in his nature. He
had three thousand hand bills printed and
circulated. announcing that that very night
he would preach at prominent public
square in Atlanta, to all who desired to
listen. A great crowd assembled. Small's
reputation as q humorist probably at