God showed forth his lovingkindness to the Gentiles in that he gave them Paul as their apostle, and he made known his abounding grace unto our Southland by causing Thomas and Alexander Campbell to take up their abode in Virginia, and Barton Warren Stone and Walter Scott to dwell within the confines of Kentucky.

      Surely, then, as to Dixie much has been given, from it also will much

P. Y. PENDLETON.

be required. It is with no boastful spirit, therefore, that we come to add our long list of glorious names to the roll of honor, for, large as is our contribution to the army of heroes, it is perhaps less than the Lord of the battlefield requires.

      If the fabled sowing of dragons' teeth brought the swift reaping of a harvest of warriors, surely the seed germs of these four lives, noblest among the noble and mightiest among the mighty, should have brought forth in the South no small gleanings in the gathered fruitage of the sons of God.

      Here, then, rose up our educators, those first drillmasters of that trained army of Zion whose regiments poured forth their annual stream from Transylvania and Franklin, from Bacon and Bethany, and the sisters of Falls School and the dear old girls of Pleasant Hill.

      Here, then, upon the Southern tablet would we carve in letters deep and imperishable as our love such names as Shannon and Fanning, Milligan and Graham, Richardson and Pendleton, who by faith ran colleges without money, taught students without apparatus, and made polished scholars without libraries. And next below them would we inscribe the old guard which still holds the field. Loos, whose gray hairs are a diadem more honored than a king's, whose clarion voice is still a silver trumpet in the sanctuary summoning worshipers to Jehovah's praise, whose face is as the high priest's benediction. And next to him is McGarvey, the Tachmonite chief of the captains of Israel, whose sword is Goliath's, and [372] there is none like it, and whose fingers, though trained to war, yet move upon the heartstrings of our highest aspirations, with the divine touch of David melting our hearts to joyful tears. And Grubbs, who through faith attained not only unto the thirty, but also unto the three, and sat in the gate in equal honor with his brethren. Honor, honor, honor to them, eternal honor to their name.

      And what shall we say more of the armies which they have sent forth, soldiers of the Southern cross bearing that sacred symbol to all points of the compass, and encompassing the earth with imperial conquests? Verily, the influence of our Dixie land reaches from yesterday spang round till to-morrow, and from the newly greased pole of the North to the neglected and rusty axle of the South.

      But even so, the time will fail us to tell of the laborers in the lands of hemp and bluegrass, timber and tidewater, cotton and orange blossom. Maryland, with her Webb and Jacobs and Henshall, whose constant prayer was that he might be more capable of the work. There old Carman rose among the first men of the East to take his stand upon the Bible alone, and suffer affliction with the people of God. There Launcelot Bell, like Saul of Tarsus, proclaimed the faith which once he destroyed.

      Virginia, with Goss and Coleman and the Ainslies and Henleys and Shelburnes. There Duval and Richards and Atkinson, for their faith, in their Lord's absence, were beaten by their fellow-servants. There Lewis and Craig and Childs were for their faith imprisoned in the common jail. There R. B. Fife first felt the sting of poverty when he found how much he wished to give to the kingdom. There Chester Bullard preached one year without a proselyte and almost without a penny, and yet sustained that faith which brought its mighty work in after seasons. There Higgason and Bagby and Anderson, and a score of others, caused men and angels to rejoice anew while they lifted the light of Jehovah's countenance upon the people.

      The Carolinas and Georgia gave a sparser, but no less precious, harvest. There Jos. D. Erwin raised the Macedonian cry, and Clark and Leggett and Dun led the vanguard to answer it. There J. M. Barnes preached the gospel in neighborhoods where the sects not only excluded the so-called Campbellites, but even excommunicated the meeting-houses once contaminated by their preaching and presence. There Nathan Smith and Hook and Moore and Green consecrated their persons and their lives, their talents and their property.

      Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana did their share. There Butler, lifting his sonorous voice, preached down the songs of contending choirs, and made a silence for the seeds of thought. There Dr. Spain and Hagen won laurels on hard-fought fields. There labored John Hootin, who did not know his alphabet, but by faith overcame the limitations of his ignorance and counted his converts by the hundreds each season. There was found Baxter, who forsook the pen of the poet for the pulpit of the saint.

      Tennessee, where Philip S. Fall, of Nashville, matched Adamson Bentley in Ohio in being among the first of the first to stand alone at the dawn of things and espouse with fearless firmness the cause of restoration. Here was Peyton Smith, who never knew before what it was to be so abused for his faith, and never knew what it was to be so happy. Here was John Mulkey, who had faith unbounded in the success of that same gospel which succeeded eighteen hundred years ago. Here was J. McCall, who swung the sword of the Spirit according to the apostolic rule, and John R. Howard, who from the storms and tempests of the world sought refuge in the ark of the new covenant, guided and steered by the helm of faith, according to the compass of the word of God. Here were a host of kindred spirits who were old in the service and by faith crossed the Jordan with heaven in full view and the glory celestial reflected in their faces.

      And Kentucky! It was here that the women caused Alexander Campbell to remark that the females of the South were generally in advance of the brethren in all the Christian virtues; hear him: "Oh that we had in every State in the Union ten thousand sisters such [373] as Sister Runyan, of Bath; Sister Payne, of Mt. Sterling, and Sister Reed, of Washington; then would the word of the Lord run and be glorified." And he might well have added Emily Tubman, Mary Bullard and Nancy Smith--Nancy Smith, who cried unto the Lord in her troubles and he answered her out of his holy hill and sent his angels to reap her wheat and saved her little ones from hunger. Here were John A. Gano, the Apollos of the West; the Hendricks, mighty in the word of truth; R. C. Ricketts, whose preaching excelled the ministrations of the angel at Bethesda, for it kept the healing waters of baptism constantly troubled; Aylette Rains, who left theories for facts and whose powers waxed stronger as he wore older. Here, like him, the trinity of Rogerses bore the heat and burden of many a laborious day and showed in their deeply furrowed cheeks the scars of many a well-fought fight. Here L. L. Pinkerton, the benevolent, the humane, the indefatigable, became the pioneer of our benevolences and father of our first orphanage. Here, at Louisville, B. F. Hall held a meeting with fifty-six converts and received the princely guerdon and royal remuneration of ten dollars. Here Wm. Morton did so much work that he could never find time to report it. Here T. M. Allen emulated Him who, though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. Here G. W. Elley, when excluded from the houses, made the stile his pulpit and the churchyard his overflowing auditorium. Here was John Roberts, whose vital breath inspired the tottering octogenarians to obey the truth. Here John T. Johnson descended from forum and legislative hall that he might ascend to the ministry of the Word, and his triumphs are a glorious page of our Southland history and his rewards are enjoyed in the heavens. Here was the John Smith, the superb, the inimitable, the immortal, the Randolph of the Restoration, who baptized the sinners and capsized the Baptists and rode for his life in regions where they denied him a cup of cold water or a crust of bread. Here were the Creaths--Jacob, Jr., the faithful, the pure, the devoted, the able, the efficient, the overpowering, and Jacob, Sr., the thunders of whose Jove-like voice woke the echoes of northern Kentucky for more than half a century, and with resistless sway compelled that silence in the soul wherein the still small voice of God is heard propitiating the heart with the overpowering eloquence of almighty love.

      But the half has never yet been told, and time fails us to tell of scores whose names are recorded in that book of life, the honor roll of God. If you wonder that we have not mentioned them, we reply that it is from lack of time, not from lack of love or knowledge.

      These were no heroes of speculation or doubt, of rationalism or destructive criticism; they were, and are, and will forever be, the mighty heroes of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Not heroes of men, but heroes of God. By faith they read the Bible and took from thence the matchless truths of God the Spirit.

      By faith they drew near unto Jesus, and took their commission from him as Lord of lords and King of kings and God the Son.

      By faith they entered into the treasure-house of God the Father almighty, the King eternal, immortal, invisible, and drew thence their supplies of power which have turned the world upside down, and reversed the course of history in its channel, causing the flood of the river of humanity to flow upstream toward the gateway celestial and the throne of God.

      To God be the glory, to them be remembrance, to us be the inheritance.

      "Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. . . . Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe." [374]

[CCR 372-374]