The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1912-1984, 1916-04-14
"GOD ISLOVE AND
NOTHlN ELSE"
"savoyard" Writes Int3 ting Histo-
ry of George o. He<hes, Who
Was Well Below Here

Wa. Well Below Here
Sundays Lexington Leader had
the following written b Savoyard, {"
the famous Washington correspond
ent, which will be fof great interest
here, where the propon5nt of the Cos
pei of "God is love and nothing else"
preached long and was so well be-
loved:
An estimable and hsnored Ken
lucky woman has asked me to write
something about George o. Barnes,
the beloved mountain evangelist"
whose memory is venerated in ten
thousand households of the "Old
Commonwealth" to this day. l gave
it as my opinion the other day that
Matt Carpenter was the greatest or
ator 1 ever heard. / did not have
the pulpit in mind. was speaking
of matters entirely secular, worldly,
political, civic.
We judge orators by many things.
One, and perhaps the chief of these,
is the effect that an address has up
on the audience. Put to this test
Brother Barnes was bysfar the great
est orator l ever heard. He was a
tall, graceful handsome man, with
more of the quality called imagine
tism" than any other Il ever saw
and I've seen Blaine and Beecher and
Bryan-yet he might have been
failure as an orator had he not been
endowed in such abundance with that
other and even more essential quail
ity in a platform speaker, sincerity.
With a highly cultivated, splendid
intellect, with a noble contempt for
the material and sensuous things in
life, with the broadest charity for
all human weaknesses, with sublime
trust in the Master and resolute
courage to do his Masters will, with
the love of God filling his great heart
to overlooking. George O. Barnes
preached the Gospel sof Christ and
planted the love of God and the peace
that passes understanding in the
hearts of thousands of his fellows
heretofore heavy laden and wretch
ed.
/ am only one of thousands who
lean devoutly thank Gt;i e the nafn-.
istry of this great preacher of His
word. Before / heard him my poor
intellectuals were subject to the in
fluence of Tom Paine; but soon he
set me free. Since then / have read
the skepticisms of Bolingbroke and
heard the blasphemous Ingersoll with
out the slightest adherence to either.
George o. Barnes was born in Ken
lucky in 1927, the son of James c.
Barnes, clergyman of the Presby-
terrain faith, yet venerated and be-
lieved in the Bluegrass Region. He
was a John Knox-of-a-man and in
the Masters cause cheerfully he
would have gone to the stake, and
of him might have been said what
Murray said of Knox, che never
feared to look on the face of man."
After graduating at Princeton "Fa-
Their" Barnes found wife and help
meet in Maria Stockton Smith, of
New Jersey, who was even more ex-
traordinary as woman than her hus-
band was as man. To them were
born four children, George Owen the
youngest.
In the material things of this
world the family was very poor, but
it was a household of ten thousand
and that humble roof-tree might well
have excited the envy of the great
who dwell in many palace and sway
many realm. By the exercise of
the most rigid economy George was
enabled to attend the famous Centre
College at Danville, then presided
over by John C. Young, whose SUI
perior as trainer of youth, men,
tally and morally, our country never
knew. After his graduation, young
Barnes entered the office of an emf
nent Kentucky lawyer, Squire Tur-
ner, at Richmond, Madison county,
as student. He was only 10 years
of age and in few weeks there was
call for volunteers to fight in the
Mexican war. He was one of the first
to respond, and in less than three
days Captain Stones company was
raised. In thirty minutes the farm