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John LeLand
“I introduced worship by repeating a hymn, “Oh that my load of sin were gone.” All of a sudden, it seemed as if something from heaven fell upon the people. I could not speak for weeping, for some time. I am but a poor preacher at best, and the sermon which I then preached was hardly middling, but the effect on the people was amazing. Some were crying out, some on their knees, and others prostrate on the floor.” “The Apostles never taught the churches, which they planted, to be incorporated bodies politic, to make use of the civil law to regulate their concerns, nor will we.” “If any number of real saints are incorporated by human law, they cannot be a church of Christ, by virtue of that formation, but a creature of the state …”I introduced worship by repeating a hymn, “Oh that my load of sin were gone.” All of a sudden, it seemed as if something from heaven fell upon the people. I could not speak for weeping, for some time. I am but a poor preacher at best, and the sermon which I then preached was hardly middling, but the effect on the people was amazing. Some were crying out, some on their knees, and others prostrate on the floor.” |
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William Tyndale
“I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the scriptures than thou dost!” “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes.” |
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Shubal Stearns
The Sandy Creek Association was formed in 1758. Morgan Edwards, a Baptist minister who visited Sandy Creek the year after Stearn’s death recorded that, “in 17 years, (Sandy Creek) has spread its branches Westward as far as the great river Mississippi; Southward as far as Georgia; Eastward to the Sea and Chesopeck [sic] Bay; and Northward to the waters of the Pottowmack [sic]; it, in 17 years, is become mother, grandmother, and great grandmother to 42 churches, from which sprang 125 ministers.” Based on the testimony of those who remembered him, Edwards described Stearns as a fervent and charismatic preacher who was capable of inspiring the most powerful emotions in his congregation. |
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Obadiah Holmes
“Three sons they [his parents] brought up aright to the university at Oxford but the most of their care was to inform and to instruct them in the fear of the Lord and to that end gave them much good counsell [sic], bringing them often before the Lord by earnest prayer, but I, the most rebellious of all did neither harken to counsel nor any instruction, for from a child I minded nothing but folly, and vanity … I was not only rebellious against my parents but against the Lord … continuing in such a course for four or five years … my rebellion to my honored parents then looked me in open face, and my dear mother being sick it struck me my disobedience caused her death, which forced me to confess the same to her, my evil ways and danger.” |
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John Taylor
“My eyes and ears were caught by the preaching as the minister was treating on the awful scene of judgment. He stood upon a great white oak stump and preached spiritual life into my soul.” |