The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1896-05-22
AT THE TENT.
Sam Jones is Preaching Some Fine
Sermons.
The People Throng to Hear Him,
And Very Manv Ask for
Prayer

The world shall hear from Samuel Jones'"
Thus spoke the great Georgia
evangelist at school exhibition
when he was only six years old, and
now, after forty years have gone,
this incident of his childhood seems
almost prophetic.
AS most of our readers know, Sam
Jones is now in Columbia. He
preached his first sermon on last
Sunday morning. The day was. as
fair as the sun e'er smiled upon, and
the great tent erected for the Occa-
sion was half filled three times that
same day. morning, afternoon and
evening. Sam Jones methods of
conducting a revival are, like him.
self, unique and original. Accord
ing to his own statement he talks as
much "out of the Bible" as in it,
and breaches more at the people
than to them.
Verify you never know what to
expect when you go to hear Sam
Jones. Sometimes his abuse is eX-
treme; sometimes his sarcasm is
whitening; again his humor is ire
sistable, and then again-when you
least expect it, perhaps-he will
preach a wholesome, earnest SER
mon, to every word of which any
devout christian-Or any honest be-
lever, for that matter-however
orthodox, may utter hearty amen.
The attendance and the interest
have been steadily on the increase.
His sermon Sunday morning was
on Unity" He wished the CO.
operation of the pastors and all the
christian people of the town; he
asked no one to endorse Sam Jones,
but he did want the good people to
cooperate with him for the good of
the town. Columbia needed an &C
tive spirit; he wanted to see it here,
and we could get it by pulling hard
one heart with another, catching
fire. Get'your heart afire, and let it
leap from heart to heart, from home
to home until the whole city is afire
with the love of the Spirit of God.
At the afternoon and night SER
vice, and Monday morning service,
he used his curry comb" fully; said
it was worth more than the corn in
a hide-bound church to loosen them
up and let them go. In his free use
of humorous sayings, anecdotes,
and jokes, he told all those who OBJ
jected to his jokes to take them
home and crack them and they
would find hornet in every one.n
He hit card playing, dancing, thea
ter going, and whiskey every chance
he got. He said: If there is any
thing | hate. and hate with bitter
and uncompromising hatred, it is
whiskey. 1t blights the world, de-
moralizes society, damns souls, and
peoples hell with immortal beings,
l can sort o'put up with a fellow
who drinks whiskey, if he hangs his
head down like dog; but when he
holds his head up and says he likes
to drink it, I have contempt for
him. | can put up with a Metho-
dist who goes to theater or dances,
if he wears hang-dog look; but if
he gets up and argues for them J.
would not wipe my feet on him. |
can sort o'put up with member of
the church when he plays cards, but
when he advocates card-playing |
have a contempt for him. l have as
much contempt for member of q
church that does these things as !
have for a Georgia chain-gang negro,
and that is pretty tough. We need
some old-fashioned preaching. Some
of you may leave and say, i cannot
endorse that man. / don't want
you to endorse me. ] don't think it
would do me any good to be endors-
ed by a One-horse member of a
church. But / want every clerical
and lay brother in town where we
are laboring for souls, to come and
help us"
A Gospel Sermon.
Monday night his sermon on "As
righteousness tendeth TO life, so he
that pursueth evil pursueth it to his
own death, " was grand appeal to
, the hearts and minds of his listen
ers. For more than an hour the
immense audience listened to him
in rapt attention and most profound
= silence.
He said: "When good man dies,
he not only goes to heaven, drawn
thither by the natural force OF
spiritual gravity and by the approval
of God and the angels, but by the
common consent of all intelligent be-
ings in this world. When a bad man