Born: Guilford County, North Carolina, 1817.Died: Springfield, Illinois, 1896.
Born: Guilford County, North Carolina, 1817.
Died: Springfield, Illinois, 1896.
Both of Mr. Kane's parents died in his infancy. He grew to manhood in the home of his eldest brother, Morrison Kane. This was in Indiana. At Indianapolis, in 1836, he became a Christian under the preaching of John O'Kane and Love H. Jameson. At twenty-one he began life for himself. He went to Chicago, thence to Peoria, and on to Sangamon County in 1839. His first work there was to assist in building the first bridge across the Sangamon River. By trade he was a carpenter. Uniting with the church in Springfield, he was led by its members to give his life to the Christian ministry, hence, he began the study of Hebrew, Latin, Greek and English Literature under private tutors. Later, he was ordained by the church. Of Mr. Kane's ministry, T. T. Holton has well written:
His field of labor was central Illinois, though he at times passed the border of the State. He went on horseback with his saddle-bags behind him--in one side was his Bible, in the other, baggage. He rode through a country sparsely inhabited and when there were but few settled pastors. No man was better known than he--no voice more widely heard in those early days of the settlement and development of central Illinois. Meetings were held, churches organized, infant congregations cared for, and occasionally an encounter was had with some champion of opposition in public debate. Some of his evangelistic meetings were marvelously successful for the time, and his converts ran into the thousands. He regarded not the clouds or the wind. I have seen him ride up to his door with his ears frozen and his beard bristling with icicles, but never for a moment thinking of quitting his work. It was with great reluctance that within a year of his death, at eighty years of age, he found he must relinquish all further efforts to preach.
Mr. Kane was a passionate lover of the Bible. He devoured its great truths. He was jealous of its integrity and its interpretation. Always abreast of the times in religious thought, he vigorously opposed the trend of destructive criticism. Judge W. E. Nelson said of him:
"He was a most efficient preacher of the gospel--a man of great power--deeply convinced of the authority and sovereignty of God, of the divinity of the Christ and of the force and authority of the Bible."
He was a reasoner rather than an exhorter, but his sermons appealed both to the imagination and the conscience. A careful reader and painstaking student, this master workman was heard by intelligent people, even in his closing years, with delight. A wide-visioned man, he assisted in the organization of the State and General Missionary Societies. One who knew him well said:
"When Bro. Kane stands like a giant before the congregation, shuts his lips together, runs his left hand under his chin, and gives an emphatic look upward and all around, you are going to hear something."
"His life was gentle; and the elements
so mild in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a man."