EV. JOB S. SWIFT was a member of the North Carolina and Virginia Conference. He was educated for the Episcopal Ministry, but united with the Christian Church.

      In 1841, at Apple's chapel in Guilford county, North Carolina, he was elected clerk or secretary of the North Carolina and Virginia Conference. At this Conference the committee on ordination recommended that J. S. Swift, G. G. Walker, and Lovick Lambeth be ordained Elders, and Elders Kerr, Bland, and Craven were constituted the ordaining presbytery. Rev. Job S. Swift was appointed on the committee "to investigate the nature and design of the Elder's office, and to report at the next annual Conference," and also on the committee on education.

      At the Conference at Apple's chapel, in Guilford [209] county, in 1845, he was on the committee on education, which recommended "consent to the formation of an educational society, to be composed of those who may voluntarily aid in the promotion of this object, and that Conference limit its efforts to sustaining the itinerancy and the 'Christian Sun.'" In 1848, at New Providence, he was enquired about as to his location and employment. He was at Bowling Green, in Virginia, and made a visit to Washington, D. C. And again, the Conference met at New Providence in Alamance county, in 1855, and he was in attendance and served as chairman of the committee on education and of that on Sunday schools. Among the recommendations of the committee on education is the following: "That the Standing Committee or Board of Education be appointed that shall be authorized and empowered to devise and execute any practical plan for raising funds to endow a preachers' home, Biblical school, or make any other suitable provisions for the wants of the Church in this respect." The report on Sunday schools contains this recommendation: "That the American Sunday School Union be requested to send an agent among the churches, or to appoint one nominated by this Conference to act in this capacity."

      The Graham Institute opened January 10, 1856 with Rev. J. S. Swift as principal and E. W. Beale assistant. How long he continued as principal, we are not now informed.

      At Union chapel in Alamance county, in 1857, the Secretary was requested to correspond with Rev. Job S. Swift, and enquire into the cause of his long absence and report to this body. He having been absent a number of years without reporting, in 1869, at the Conference at Wake chapel his name was ordered to be erased from the roll of ministers.

      He was a fine scholar and preached a very lucid, logical sermon, but his preaching was above his [210] congregations. This story is related of him: "He said to Rev. D. W. Kerr on one occasion, 'I can't get up enthusiasm when I preach like you do.' Said Brother Kerr, 'You must stamp your feet and clap your hands while preaching.' He thought of it on one occasion and began to clap his hands and stamp his feet, but the enthusiasm failed to come." He was much mortified.

      From an Address, entitled the 'Protestant Standard,' we give the following:

      "The Bible, the Bible," says Chillingworth, "is the religion of Protestants." If this be true, Protestantism is the defence of the Bible against all that stands opposed to the system of government and will of God which it reveals. . . . . . . The carnal mind is the source of all selfish and unscriptural views, and all that stands opposed, both in Protestant and in Romish churches, to the religion of the Bible; because it is the most important proof of the correctness of Chillingworth's assertion, that Protestantism cannot be severed from pure primitive and scriptural Christianity, which has for its object the cleansing of the sanctuary in the heart and in the church, by a baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. The complete establishment within us of that kingdom which is to consume all other kingdoms; the complete subjugation of all wills and all understandings, to the will and wisdom of God, as revealed in his word; so that all the power and all the government may be of God. Protestantism is merely the welfare of the Christian church, armed in the defence of the faith once delivered to the saints, against Antichrist; armed, too, with the sword of the Spirit against all errors at all times, the carnal mind is the seat of this warfare, and hence to be successful must be prosecuted in the strength of Him who fought for Israel and the saints of old. This, indeed, is a sine qua non for our foes none else can vanquish; the carnal mind none else can destroy. It is the [211] Lord alone who can destroy that wicked one, by the brightness of his coming. Thus much by way of showing that the assertion of Chillingworth must be true ex necessitate rei. I might now fill volumes with extracts, which most satisfactorily demonstrate that our author used the language quoted at the head of this article advisedly, inasmuch as it expresses the sentiments of the most eminent Protestant reformers and divines. From the history of the Reformation, as well as from the various orthodox confessions, might we prove that the Bible is universally admitted by the organs of Protestant Christendom to be the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Fortunately for us, however, Goode (in his late work in vindication of the Bible as the rule, etc., against Puseyism and Romanism), and many others, have rendered this labor needless. But if the Bible be indeed the religion of protestantism; if it is in reality the Protestant maxim that this is the only infallible rule of faith and practice; why do we see so many systems adopted by Protestants besides the Bible? True, echo answers, why? Nevertheless this fact has only to demonstrate the truth of their own maxim, as it certainly has their own absurd inconsistency. For is it not true that wherever any system has been thus adopted, besides the Bible, that system has, by rival and contending sects, been exposed as fallible, at least, if not decidedly erroneous. No reflecting man who hears or reads the denunciations with which sectarians assail each other in the public and private controversies, as well as various polemic writings, can come to no other conclusion, than that they are fallible, all err, not sufficiently knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God; and furthermore, that all this will result in the verification of such scriptures as, "If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye do not consume one another." "If a kingdom or a house be divided against itself, it [212] cannot stand." The number of conflicting systems, and consequently sects that adopt them, prove that they cannot all be right, and probably all wrong. What better proof, in short, could Protestants give of the correctness of their maxim than they have given, in their exposures of each other; than they have given in their whole past history and present aspect; and still give in their universal agreement in regard to the Bible, and that, too, upon the very best evidence, as the word and truth of God.

[LCM 209-213]