REV. JUBILEE SMITH.

EV. JUBILEE SMITH died in 1901 at about the age of seventy-five years, and was buried at Richland, Georgia.

      He joined the Christian Church about 1846, in Harris county, Georgia, when Rev. W. M. J. Elder was pastor--the only Christian church then in the state so far as his knowledge extended. By this church he was licensed within two years to preach. He was ordained by Elder Jacob Callahan and his own father. He soon organized a church in Stewart county, Georgia, with nine members. Thus he began, and soon he organized a church at Red Hill, and one in Randolph county; one at [248] Mineral Spring, and another in Muscogee county. He says, "In 1846 or '47, I heard of a church near Milledgeville, Georgia, and I visited that church. L. J. Smith was pastor. There I met old Father Callahan and two of the O'Kellys (John and James), relatives of the founder of the Christian Church . . . ., we organized the Georgia Christian Conference." A few years later, at a Conference in Stewart county, the name was changed to the Georgia and Alabama Christian Conference.

      In 1870, Rev. Jubilee Smith was president of the Conference, and preached an "excellent sermon" from Luke 12:49-61. It was agreed that he visit the churches in Alabama twice during the year, and that the churches, pay the expenses of the visits. The Conference met at Pleasant Grove, in Chambers county, Alabama, in 1871, and he preached the introductory sermon from Jer. 17:7, 8. He was re-elected president, and was requested to furnish a circular letter to accompany the minutes.

      The following are excerpts from the letter which also contains exhortatory expressions: "You are all aware of the trouble through which we have passed as a church in years gone by. But we were not alone even then, for in our youth and while just entering upon the ministry, our fathers were in the afternoon of their pilgrimage, battling against the doctrines of Alexander Campbell, as advocated by Charles Shehane, who, after destroying the Christian Church in Georgia, turned universalist.

      "After this ever memorable event, our fathers, in their scattered condition, could not rally sufficiently to organize a Conference until we made our appearance upon the stage of life. Then It was that sectarianism brought all her means to bear against us. Then the days were dark, and we earnestly prayed for more true ministers of Christ to sustain the great work begun by our fathers, who now sleep in their graves. This is a sad subject, and vividly brings to mind the loved and [249] well-remembered voices that used to ring out in warnings to us of the future condemnation of the wicked, and paint in glowing colors the reward of the righteous, and whose counsel has never ceased to cheer us in our labors. Brethren, in imagination we still hear the voices of Jacob Callahan, George L. Smith, and W. M. J. Elder ringing in our ears. May the spirit that animated them prompt us to press onward in our duty and encourage us to renewed exertions in our labor for the cause of the Father."

      In 1881, he says, "Our protracted meeting at Providence chapel, Red Hill, Georgia, closed on the 4th Sabbath in September last, with an addition of eight members to the church. We had a glorious meeting. The good Lord was with us all the time, and the church was wonderfully blessed." "Our Conference was well attended and the power and Spirit of the Holy One was there to own and bless." "We want strong men, good men, workingmen and then our cause will move." Having lost one of his daughters, he wrote soon after her death, "Oh, Sir, it is most more than I can bear sometimes."

[LCM 248-250]