Conversion. First sermon. Funerals and Weddings.
From my earliest childhood I have attended Sunday Schools and church
services. I have believed that God is, that Jesus Christ is the son,
and that the Bible is true. Years before I became a Christian I had
desired to be such and worship God with other Christians. But I did
not know which church to join. Mother said, read the Bible and
learn. One leader said do this, another said do that. No two
agreed. I did not know what to do to become one among the
Christians. I prayed to God but if God spake to me in an audible
voice I did not know it. But these thoughts ran through my mind. I
believe and that far is all right, because the Bible so teaches and
so do all the churches. It ran through my mind that I ought to tell
somebody else besides God that I believe, so one day I went down
town, where there were quite a number of people worshipping God, and
they said they were Christians. I said I believe too, and publicly
confessed and told all the men that I believed in God and that Jesus
Christ was God's son. They all, both men and women seem glad and I
was told that all the churches, as well as the Bible, taught that
that was right.
Then again, in my mind, I realized that is was a shame and was sorry
that I had sinned against God and neglected to turn to him. So, I
determined to sin no more but from henceforth to obey God and follow
the Lord Jesus always if possible until death. The Bible approved of
that procedure, all the churches preached that was right.
Then it ran in my mind that I ought to be baptized and in order to be
safe and right, I asked that I might in my baptism be submerged in
water and raised up, for the Bible seemed to talk that way, and all
the churches said that that way would do. So, I asked a man whom the
good people of all the churches so far as I knew, call the Bishop B.
H. Smith (no kin to Joe Smith), to baptize me. He did so my
immersing me in Medicine Creek in Grundy County, Mo., and raising me
up, I came walking up out of the water calling on the name of God.
This occurred on the 18th day of September 1858. Ever since then, a
half century and more I have been serving, God, keeping his
commandments, following his Son, my Load and Master, and praying
always. Now all this the Bible teaches, and so do all the churches.
Now what church do I belong to? You tell. Will I be saved? You
say. Why cannot we all, Christians, take the Bible at what it says,
and what all churches approve and be one church? You answer. You
know we need not worry about the God side. He will do all things
right. It occurred to me that what I did to become a Christian was
that which Christ referred to in his conversation with Nicodemus.
In a few months after my second birth, I commenced to preach the word
of Gospel and chose for my first subject, "Promise to Abraham." To
my surprise when I had finished I had spoken nearly an hour and a
half. I told all I knew from Abraham to Christ. I have preached for
fifty years since then, and while I have learned more, I have never
at any one time preached so long.
It took me, however, a long time to get down to the regulated time of
forty or forty-five minutes. I always had too much to tell. This
sermon was preached sometime in the summer of 1859. One thing I
regret, yes--there may be many things,--but I wish I had kept the
dates of things, such as converts, baptisms, funerals, weddings, etc.
But of these things I kept no account.
A few years ago I tried to recall the number of weddings, and I got
up among the hundreds, and got lost and gave it up. And I am sure
that the funerals were as many or more than the weddings. As a
matter of fact I always had many calls to weddings and funerals. I
have married all kinds of people, of various ages, nationalities and
religions. Among them octogenarians, negroes, and Mormon. Some had
been married from one to five times before. But I never hear of but
two couples who, after I had married them, were divorced. Nor did I
every marry any that had been divorced.
I have preached the funerals of many, Saints and sinners, people of
various ages, nationalities and creeds. I have baptized believers
ranging from nine to seventy-two years of age.
Although I have been preaching for over fifty years, my preaching has
been usually on Sundays. I was a Sunday preacher. I never gave
myself wholly to preaching for a livelihood. Yet, except the last
ten or twelve years, I have missed but few Sundays.
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