On Focus: Missionary Biography

 

Samuel Porter Jones

(October 16, 1847 - October 15, 1906)

Samuel Porter Jones was one of the most celebrated revivalists of his day, at the close of the 19th century. Famous for his wry wit and masterful story-telling, he is credited as a principal influence on Will Rogers. Jones is particularly connected with the history of The Union Gospel Tabernacle, later named Ryman Auditorium. Riverboat captain, Thomas Green Ryman, was converted after hearing Jones on May 10, 1885 at a meeting which he and friends attended with the intention of heckling the preacher. According to the legend, Ryman decided on that day to build a tabernacle in which to hold revival meetings in Nashville, Tennessee (the building was home to the Grand Ole Opry for many years), and he soon approached Jones with the idea.

Early Life 

Sam Jones was born on October 16, 1847 in Oak Bowery, Alabama, the son of lawyer and real estate entrepreneur John Jones and homemaker Queenie Jones, the grandson of Methodist preacher Samuel Gamble Jones, and nephew of four additional Methodist ministers. In 1857, when Sam was ten years old, the family moved to Cartersville, Georgia, where John Jones’ parents had made their home. Jones ended up living there for most of his life. Sam had hoped to attend college, but he purportedly suffered from an unspecified medical condition (his eyes or his stomach, depending on circumstance) and began drinking heavily. Eventually, despite his Methodist heritage which included seven Methodist ministers, Jones decided to become a lawyer. He was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1868. At the age of twenty-one, Sam trekked to Kentucky to claim his bride to be, Laura McElwain (whom he had befriended during the Civil War). Though his reputation as a drunkard had preceded him to Kentucky, and Laura’s father refused to attend the wedding, Laura’s mother convinced her to keep her promise to Sam Jones—the two were wed and became lifetime companions.

Sam Jones did not stay a lawyer for long and, in spite of his hopes that marriage would save him from himself, he continued to drink heavily and destroyed his career. By 1872 Jones was stoking furnaces and driving freight wagons for a living. The death of his infant daughter sobered him for a time, before he fell off the wagon yet again. Then, in 1872, Jones was called to his father's deathbed where his father pleaded with him to quit drinking—Sam promised he would. A week later Samuel P. Jones walked down the aisle of his grandfather’s church, made his confession to God, and became a Christian. 

Sam Jones was known for preaching hard against sin and hypocrisy. He preached once at a Church dedication in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in the middle of the service he stopped his message and asked the congregation how much they paid the Pastor. They were unwilling to tell him, but when the appallingly low sum was finally revealed, the congregation was so embarrassed that the next day he was given a substantial raise.
 

On October 15, 1906, Jones was returning home from a revival in Oklahoma City on the Rock Island Train. While the train was stopped in Perry, Arkansas, Sam suddenly collapsed and died. It is estimated that over 30,000 people came to view him as he lay in state in the rotunda of the Capital in Atlanta. Rev. Samuel P. Jones is now buried at Oak Hill cemetery in Cartersville, Georgia, where a stone monument marks the grave of Sam and his wife Laura.

At the time of Jones’ death, the sanctuary of what was then named Cartersville Methodist Episcopal Church was in the process of being completed. After a unanimous vote, the congregation officially changed the name of the church to Sam Jones Memorial Methodist Church (now known as Sam Jones Memorial United Methodist Church), which is still in existence today.

Evangelistic Career

  

Jones was accepted by the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and began his ministry with the Van Wert circuit, a group of five churches spread over four counties. Before long his talent for preaching had him doing revivals in large cities before thousands of attendees. He was asked to speak not only for religious organizations but for the likes of state legislatures and President Theodore Roosevelt.

(c) Wikipedia

Life In ATeaching Mission

I love teaching very much. It was my life, and if God would give me more time and opportunity to teach again, I would definitely accept it!

I was a college intructor before I was paralyzed almost two years ago. For me, it was the kind of profession where I could work best with people and learn from them also. It was my way of reaching out to students in need of learning. Most of all, it was also my opportunity to tell them in many ways that I have a most wonderful and gracious God.

Through the teaching and learning process, I was able to share my life with my students not just in the lessons I taught them. My break times were mostly used as consultation periods for students to come as friends. I often told them I was their friend and we had proven it many times. I listened to different problems and gave them advices. During these precious times, too, many received Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord in tears.

College Administrations had always been strict with allowing Christian activities to be held openly in schools. I, too, received reprimands because of these activities. Yet, God had His ways so that His plans were materialized. He used legal means for us to perform His calling.

I was used by God in ways I could not imagine. With Christian co-teachers, we participated in activities that used the college as arena for moral recovery programs by the government. These, of course, paved the way for Christian students to form their own student organizations, legally recognized by the college, to bring other students to Christ. God was good to us.

As I look back now, I still see the school as a very potential mission ground for a missionary-teacher, if all true Christian teachers would really care to be used by God the way He did others. A teacher has all opportunities in the classroom. He can then divert these various opportunities into good grounds where Christ is felt and seen in many wonderful ways.

To the Christian teachers, this is a challenge.

(c) October 2009, Luisa Mercado

Remembering David Brainerd, Greatest Missionary

Just a few days ago, Mike told me about the many people of olden days that had inspired him to serve God more through preaching. Those he mentioned I already recognized because I looked at their works in the internet. They were just simple people tremendously used by God because of their entire submissiveness to His will and authority. Their preaching resulted in many saved souls.

But, among these great men of God, who was David Brainerd? I spent many hours yesterday in the internet digging through his short biographies. I ended up reflecting emotionally (and teary-eyed, too) because for me he was, perhaps, the greatest missionary of all times.

I am going to share a "very short" synopsis about his life story (actually in a summarized and non-formal form). Here it is:

• Missionary to the American Indians in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. He was born to a rich and very prominent family in Connecticut in 1718 and died of tuberculosis in 1747 at the age of twenty-nine. John Edwards edited and published his diary.
• He was from his youth frail and sickly, even melancholic throughout his life, and was struggling against tendencies of depression, but these did not deter him from serving God to the fullest.

• His missionary work to the American Indians was not comfortable like the home he was used to because he was living as a poor man in a very hostile, indifferent and poor community with them.
• He thought of himself as incompetent and inadequate for his job, but his devotion and love to the Indians far outweighed his feelings. In his diary, he wrote: “My soul seemed to rely wholly upon God for success, in the diligent and faithful use of means. Saw, with greatest certainty, that the arm of the Lord must be revealed for the help of these poor heathen, if ever they be delivered from the bondage of the power of darkness.”
• Furthermore, he said, “It is impossible for any rational creature to be happy without acting all for God. God himself could not make him happy any other way... There is nothing in the world worth living for but doing good and finishing God’s work, doing the work that Christ did. I see nothing else in the world that can yield any satisfaction besides living to God, pleasing Him, and doing his whole will.”
• Jonathan Edwards wrote of him as “having put his hand to the plow, he looked not back, and gave himself, heart, soul, and mind, and strength, to his chosen mission with unfaltering purpose, with apostolic zeal, with a heroic faith that feared no danger and surmounted every obstacle, and with an earnestness of mind that wrought wonders of savage lives and whole communities.”

• David Brainerd relied solely on God for his work. He never gave up his faith and the ministry that God entrusted him. He prayed simply that the power of the Holy Ghost might come upon him so greatly that the Indians would not be able to refuse the gospel message. Through constant prayers, God worked for Him that in three-year time, He gave him great success in the ministry. Many American Indians were saved!

• He also prayed for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ around the world and especially in America. After his death, his journal and diary inspired countless of missionaries over the years to reach millions of souls around the world for Christ. William Carey (Father of Modern Mission) was among them who read his diary and went to India.
• John Piper wrote of him: “Brainerd’s life is a vivid, powerful testimony to the truth that God can and does use sick, discouraged, beat-down, lonely, struggling saints, who cry to him day and night, to accomplish amazing things for his glory.”

Friends, try reading more of David Brainerd’s story because he sure was a very true man of God. I hope, too, that you will be encouraged to do more for God in His service. You surely see that God can work mysteriously for your life and mine. Who knows He will call you for His service one day soon. Are you ready? Mike and I are.

Reference: David Brainerd: Missionary by Fred Barlow, Missionary Biographies, Worldwide Missions

(c) July 2009, Luisa Mercado