OHN SHACKELFORD was born in Mason County, Kentucky, on the 27th of October, 1834. His paternal ancestors were from Wales; his maternal, from Ireland. His paternal grandparents came from Virginia, and his maternal, from New Jersey. His immediate parents were both born in Mason County, Kentucky.

      At the time of his birth his mother was a member of the Presbyterian Church, but did not believe in infant baptism; consequently, he was never sprinkled. His father and mother united with the Christian Church when he was about ten years of age. His father soon became a leading member in the Church, and his mother was a deeply pious woman, who gave special attention to the religious training of her children. Surrounded by these influences, and having an earnest and impressible nature, JOHN soon became anxiously interested in his spiritual welfare. After carefully studying his Bible, and listening to much parental instruction, on the 5th of March, at the age of fourteen, he was immersed in the Ohio River by Elder JAMES CHALLEN.

      His early school days were spent in Maysville, Kentucky, where he obtained a good rudimental education, and, at the age of eighteen, he entered Bethany College, Virginia. He remained there until July 4, 1854, when he graduated, and returned home, and taught a school in Mason County for two years.

      During this time, he had constantly in view the calling to which he has since devoted his life. Those were years of calm but earnest preparation for the ministry of the Gospel, and, so soon as he felt the time had come to enter upon his chosen work, he at once gave up every thing else, and devoted himself exclusively to the preaching of the Word.

      His first labors were in Mason County, and, for some time, he had charge of the Church in Maysville, the place of his father's residence, where he was greatly esteemed for his faithfulness and earnestness as a pastor and teacher. After having been instrumental in doing a good work in his native county, he removed to Paris, Kentucky, to labor for the [387] Church at that place. He remained there two years, and then accepted an invitation to the pastoral care of the Church corner of Eighth and Walnut streets, Cincinnati, Ohio. His health failing, in the spring of 1866, he gave up his position, and, for a few months, traveled for the American Christian Missionary Society, and, at the annual meeting of this society, the subsequent October, he was appointed its Corresponding Secretary, which position he has held ever since.

      A few words in reference to his success in this last department of labor can not be regarded as improper or out of place.

      When he took the Secretaryship, his friends had many misgivings concerning his adaptation to the work. The prospects of the Society were by no means flattering, and the labor necessary to make it a success fell mainly upon the Corresponding Secretary. Few persons had much faith in the ability of any one to turn the discouraging prospects of the Society into permanent success. One year of faithful labor has been expended, and we need only state the result: A larger amount of money was raised than ever before, while the prospects of the Society are better than at any other time since it was organized. A success like this is not achieved except by earnest, constant, and prayerful work.

      Brother SHACKELFORD is of medium stature, has a delicate, feeble constitution, a highly nervous temperament, and a nature, on the sympathetic side, as tender and susceptible as a woman's. He has light hair, large blue eyes, a mouth which indicates great firmness, and a forehead, though high, less commanding than expressively benevolent. Every feature expresses what he really is--a man of large conscientiousness, deep spiritual longings, and great purity of thought and action. He has very little of the sensuous in his nature, and, so vivid are his intuitions, that he is almost a prophet. As a speaker, if we except his active sympathy with all kinds of suffering, he has few of the elements of a popular orator. His illustrations are generally apt and forcible, but his powers of rapid generalization are not equal to the requirements of a first-class extemporaneous speaker. When, however, the subject of discourse is one that deeply touches his sympathies, he is always impressive, and often truly eloquent. [388]

      "For it is evident our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life."--HEB. vii: 14-16.

HE letter to the Hebrews treats of the priesthood of Christ. Our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood. The priests were selected from the tribe of Levi. This Jewish objection to the priesthood of Christ, the apostle answers by the prophecy in the one hundred and tenth Psalm, of a priest, who should not be called after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedec--a priest not by the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. The Jewish priests were constituted such by their descent and blood; the High Priest of the Christian profession by the eternal fitness of things; because he alone could fill, truly and faithfully, the unchangeable priesthood, of which the Jewish high priesthood was an imposing, yet feeble and inadequate type. Whoever Melchisedec was, it is evident that he was called to his high office by no arbitrary law or consecrated [389] custom, but in consequence of the purity of his life, and the pre-eminence of his gifts and virtues. So with our great High Priest who has entered into the heavens. He is a Priest forever, after the power of an endless life.

      My argument in this discourse is to enforce and illustrate this truth. Every people have their priests. This fact bespeaks a universal want. Man longs for an intercessor with God; and Job uttered a purely human cry when he said: "I have no daysman to stand betwixt me and God, that he might lay his hand upon us both."

      This desire for priestly intercession may spring from a sense of our weakness, and helplessness, and sinfulness; but, whatever its source, it is inherent in our nature, and can not be quenched. In what is the great power of the Roman Catholic Church? Its priesthood and confessional. It meets this want of the soul inadequately, imperfectly, and impurely; but, nevertheless, meets it directly and tangibly. If a famished man is not supplied with proper food, he will seize any thing within his reach; and if the wants and longings of the soul are not lawfully and purely satisfied, they will seek unlawful and unholy gratification, the consequence of which is always a perverted and diseased life. Nature abhors a vacuum; so does the soul. If Christ does not fill the heart, some monstrous idol or human priest will. An insincere and wanton priesthood may proclaim a false peace to the soul dependent on it for religious life, but it can never truly bless and strengthen. Only the perfect Priest can lead the soul to perfect peace and a true life. Christ is the only perfect Priest, the one Mediator between God and man. Speaking on this subject, the apostle says: "The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw nigh unto God." [390]

      There are three qualities which a priest must possess--power, purity, sympathy.

      1st. He must have power or ability to save. He must be invested with the Divine authority. Destroy the confidence of the Catholic girl in the power of her priest to mediate for her and secure the pardon of her sins, and you overthrow her religion; she will abandon the confessional. That the priest must have Divine authority, is a truth that has the force of an axiom. Who has this power? Not the Jewish priests; they were compassed with infirmity. Not the priests of pagan or papal Rome. Who, then? Listen: "But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." He alone is able to save to the uttermost. The Son of Man has power to forgive sins. All authority is his, both in heaven and upon earth. His right arm will never fail him, though it bear across the tide millions of weak, helpless, heavy-laden, but trusting souls. The mercy and faithfulness of our God are with him. He is his first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.

      2d. The soul demands that its priest shall be pure. This manifests itself in the desire for the prayers of good men in our times of trouble. Even a dying man would summon all his energies to spurn the prayer of a hypocrite proffered in his behalf. Such a prayer is an abomination to God and man. This desire, this vital necessity, expresses itself in the universal demand that preachers of the Gospel shall be pure men. A preacher is not a priest, except as every Christian man is a priest; but he is called upon to discharge certain priestly functions, to comfort the sorrowful, support the weak, pray with the dying; and [391] the demand for his personal purity is as righteous as it is instinctive and universal.

      The Jewish high priest wore on his forehead a plate of pure gold, on which was graven, "Holiness to the Lord," God thus declaring the holiness of the office.

      Now, our High Priest alone meets this demand for purity perfectly. "Such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." Mark these words of the apostle: "Such a high priest became us." Not that we have such an infinitely pure high priest; not that it is fortunate that we have, but it is necessary, "such a high priest became us." No other could fill the office of the eternal priesthood.

      Consider, my brethren, the High Priest of the Christian profession. Living on earth, yet undefiled with sin; keeping company with the outcast, but only to bless and save them. Our purity is soon lost; we leave it in our cradles. We lay off our innocence with our child garments. But the Son of Man lived a holy and undefiled life. How beautiful! how wonderful! that human life of pain, hunger, sorrow, thorns, temptation, and death, without sin! "Such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens."

      3d. Sympathy. We need a priest who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. He must be pure, to appear before God. He must be filled with all human sympathies, to win our love and bear our burdens.

      The mother is the natural mediator between father and child. Sometimes the case is reversed, and the woman has the man's nature, and the man the woman's. But the almost universal law is, that the mother has a sympathy with [392] her child that no other being has. And the child will say to the mother, "You ask father," when it has any request to prefer. Or, in case of an infraction of the paternal law, the child will flee to the covert of the mother's arms, and trust to her mediation for mercy.

      Not only in childhood is it so; but when ambition, and passion, and self-will are developed, and the boy is rebellious, and the father is just, it is the wise, gentle, tender, sympathetic mother that makes peace, and wins the wanderer back. It is the human heart of Jesus that qualifies him for the eternal priesthood.

"For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, in things pertaining unto God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." Mark these words: "It behooved him to be made in all things like unto his brethren." These words declare, not simply that he was made in all things like unto his brethren, but that it was necessary that he should be made in all things like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest.

      Again, the Scriptures say: "For we have not an high priest who can not be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Our sympathies are contracted. Men sympathize with their class. The rich often can not sympathize with the poor, the learned with the ignorant, men with [393] children. But Christ can sympathize with all. He understands the heart of every tempted and suffering mortal. He understands the peculiar trials and perils of a child's life. He has borne to the heavens the memory of a childhood spent on earth. The perils that beset a boy's life are many and imminent. Untried, unskilled, pressed by passion, and tempted by the great enemy, the early years of our earthly journey are, perhaps, the most dangerous. Blessed be God, children have a tender and almighty Friend, who can enter into all their sorrows, and succor them in all their temptations. There is no more sublime and beautiful sight than the struggle of a child to be true, and pure, and good. But we behold it with a fearful joy, lest the victory should be lost at last. The passions have a power and urgency to evil much sooner than most parents think, and the knowledge of good and evil comes to us in our very infancy. Let every tempted and struggling child be taught to go boldly to Christ, and find mercy and grace to help in time of need. We need not be afraid to trust the faith of the child because he can not appreciate the evidences of the divine origin of the Gospel. Salvation is in the Gospel, and not in its evidences. Life is in the air we breathe, and not in any knowledge of its causes and chemistry.

      While our Savior can sympathize with a child, he can sympathize with the great and gifted, who, by the very pre-eminence of their gifts, are removed from the sympathies of ordinary minds.

      When Satan showed Napoleon the kingdoms of this world and their glory--seas whitened with the sails of commerce--beautiful cities--splendid temples--waving fields--vast armies, marshaled for battle, swords and bayonets flashing in the light--and said: "All these will I give thee [394] if thou wilt fall down and worship me," in that hour of doubt, and temptation, and conflict, between conscience and ambition, the great soldier might have triumphed if he had sought him who, in "that he has suffered, being tempted, is able to succor them that are tempted." With the guidance and strength of Christ, he might have been a minister of righteousness; without Christ, he was a minister of darkness, and offered a bloody sacrifice to the king of hell.

      Christ was the Savior of Martin Luther. The reformer had the passion and power which belong to all kingly souls; but in the fierce tempests that swept over his spirit, he sought a throne of grace, and found "mercy and grace to help in time of need." So, too, with a grander still, Paul the apostle. He was crucified with Christ, and the life which he lived in the flesh he lived by the faith of the Son of God. So, too, with our dear friend who sleeps at Bethany. Jesus was his friend and deliverer. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL was saved from ambition's crime by the grace of Christ.

      Let men, then, strong, brave, self-willed, tempted men, know that they can have the sympathy and guidance of a nature greater than their own, who suffered their temptations, and is able to succor them in their peril. God gives men great minds and passions, not to ruin them, not for the service of Satan, but that they may strike heroic blows for him and his truth; that they may stand in the breach, and, when men tremble with fear, bear their testimony for righteousness, and smite to the earth iniquity and oppression. Christ has need of great souls, and has left his promises for them, as well as for us. He is the friend and deliverer of men, as well as children--of the mighty, as well as the feeble. Christianity robs a man of no strength, but [395] consecrates it all to the great battle of the Lord against the powers of darkness.

      Christ can sympathize with women in their trials and temptations. When here on earth, the tempted, weary, heavy-laden, found in him a gentle friend and a wise counselor. He had that wonderful dignity which amazed men, and sometimes silenced all questionings; which prompted Simon Peter, like a child, to beckon John to ask him a question. But he had that quick sympathy which drew to him all sorrowing and broken hearts. When Lazarus was dying, Mary and Martha longed for the presence of their friend Jesus; and when he came, (O, blessed history!) he wept with them at the grave of their brother and his friend. He was deeply moved, not at the death of Lazarus, but in sympathy with the sisters. How gentle he was with the sinful woman. Remember, all ye frail and erring, Christ is your only hope and salvation.

      I once baptized a repentant wanderer, a child who had been betrayed and led into a dark and polluted life. She was baptized for the remission of her sins, holding, in a simple faith, that she had God's pledge and covenant of pardon. As she came out of the water, she exclaimed: "Bless God for this hour!" And now how can she triumph, how can she leave that dark, sinful life behind, and reach the light and peace of heaven? Blessed be God, through Christ, who has granted her mercy, and will give her grace to help in time of need.

      The struggle of the drunkard with his appetite seems, sometimes, almost hopeless. Worn out with his debauch, mortified, humbled in spirit, he resolves to abandon his evil habit. But when nature recuperates, and his mortification is past, in an evil hour he looks upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, and, tempted [396] by some siren voice, he falls. His history is a repetition of broken resolutions. Christ is his only hope. If he can learn to rely in simple faith on him, he will conquer. The reason why so many professed Christians, and sometimes even ministers of the Gospel, fall into intemperance, is that, in their weakness, they do not seek Him who is able to save to the uttermost. Our Christian life is enfeebled by our hesitating confidence in the great and wonderful promises of our God. He knows all our sorrows. When dying, he had words of comfort for his mother. Ah, dear woman! who can tell her agony on that dark day, as she beheld her child, the purest and noblest of earth, scourged, tormented, insulted, crucified, as a malefactor, between two thieves? How fully she realized the prophecy of old Simeon, spoken when she came to the temple with her two turtle-doves, to offer sacrifice, according to the law, and to present her child to the Lord. And Simeon said to Mary: "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign that shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also)."

      The dying Savior entered into all the anguish of that crushed heart, that gave him the love of a mother, and the reverence of a worshiper.

      Mother, in your great trial, when watching your dying child, and afterward, when you have laid the sleeping body away, and return with a broken heart to a desolate home, remember you have a great friend in the heavens, who is touched with your sorrow, and who will give you mercy and strength. And in the article of death, when all the living fall us, each of us can look for sympathy and support to him who was dead, and is alive again, and, like Stephen, cry, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

      The Epistle to the Hebrews breathes hope and [397] consolation to the weary and the tempted. It rises, too, to the height of a great argument for the divine origin of Christianity. It discloses the wonderful perfection of our religion. There is, in the infinite power, purity, and sympathy of Christ, that which satisfies our weary human hearts, as the sunlight delights and satisfies the eye. The Bible is a self-illuminated book. The light of infinite love gleams from its pages. The heavens declare the glory of God. Christ reveals the mercy and compassion of the Father of all. It is not more true that there is one God than that there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

      Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. [398]

[TLP 387-398]