Samuel Porter Jones
1848-1906
(Sam P. Jones)

Sam Jones and his Connections in History
An Analysis by Roy Greenhill

But, it was south Alabama Evangelist Bob Jones, Sr. who deliberately absorbed, and expressed through his thoroughly distinctive personality, the philosophy of religion, ethics and common sense of this 'sallow faced Georgia cracker.' The fierce emphasis on ethics and righteous living made Bob Jones University an anachronism in a century dedicated, in the realm of Evangelical Theology, to a fanaticism, which has, for this entire hundred years, been powerfully and compellingly presented by many otherwise great and devout souls. Even Billy Sunday, in his last years espoused the Darby time-table; and, saddest of all, Bob Jones University itself, to a tragic extent, has marked this awful century as somewhat of  a prisoner of the little known 'original fighting fundamentalist' from Dublin. (It should be noted that the general 'Plymouth' Brethren atttitude toward BJU has been cool, since Darby's interpretation of separatism is to denounce all demoninational names, as well as the concept of a professional ministry.) Darby's influence, for now, far surpasses that of our beloved and revered Samuel Porter Jones of Cartersville, Georgia, and, in my very, very humble opinion, has aborted the highest ministry of the institution that has born so much abuse for perpetuating The Old Time Religion revivalism that definded America and was so effectively propaged by both Sam and Bob Jones.

A popular writer for the Atlanta Constitution, Samuel White Small was converted from a life of dissipation at a Sam Jones Meeting which he was assigned to cover for that newspaper (here pictured at age thirty-seven in 1888). He immediately distributed a message over Atlanta inviting all to the steps of Atlanta City Hall where most a most important news item would be announced. There he told of his conversion and of his dedication to sobriety and gospel service. He became very popular with Sam as a co-evangelist. Sam Small was asked (around 1927, when he was seventy-six) to write  a mission statement and statement of faith for the new college being built by Bob Jones, Sr. (who then was thirty-nine). Though some have pressed for the inclusion of Dispensationalism,  not a word has been changed from Sam Small's inscription , written, immediately, upon Bob Jones Sr.'s request, on the back of an envelope. Hundreds of times a year, that Creed is repeated in the Chapel and Worship services of Bob Jones University.

Protestant Christianity has lost more in this century than in any period since the 5th Century. And it is because of the prevailing view that history is over. This was a view hated and ridiculed by Sam Jones. It is obviously unlearned and uninformed (who could know, and how could anyone know?); a theory dreamed up (literally) by a sixteen year old girl (Margaret McDonald) in Scotland in the late 1820s and fleshed out by the dynamic, combative, egocentric, indefatigable and devout John Nelson Darby, onetime effective soul-winner in Ireland, then, cultish proselytizer and builder of the Empire of Defeat.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, of London, commonly recognized as the greatest preacher in Christian History, shared a low opinion of John N. Darby and his influence. It is interesting, and extremely remarkable, that Sam Jones credited Spurgeon as his teacher of preaching. Jones read and reread the Fifth Volume of Spurgeon's Sermons (Spurgeon is certainly the most published minister in history -- if we discount the works published about the Great Apostle) and learned how to preach by this study (we can be sure this was not the sole shaping force on Jones, for he lived in an age of the greatest pulpiteers). The remarkable thing, and an indicator of the genius of Jones, is that this great Methodist, in his style and content, mirrored Spurgeon, the Calvinistic Baptist, not in the least whit. But both spoke directly from the heart. ("Aim at the heart and undermine the head" was the way Bob Jones, Sr. expressed, in his own distinctive style, one of the sayings of Sam Jones.)

And Jones, like Spurgeon, hammered on a single idea, across every octave in their respective personalities. Alexander Whyte defined preaching as "the transmission of personality, laden with truth," and every effective preacher has demonstrated this axiom. Bob Jones, Sr. was greatly influenced by the knowledge that "one day Sam Jones realized that the pulpit is a throne not a prison--and that day was a turning point in his ministry and life."

Spurgeon's single idea was the beauty of Jesus. Sam Jones's theme was the meanness of sin. "Look to Jesus" the Brit called out, "quit your meanness" the Georgian scolded in a scalding manner. Are any two concepts more needed in any age? And each demands the existence and acceptance of the other. (The distinctive note of Bob Jones's preaching was a very personal relationship--filled with profound love and loyalty-- with a very real Jesus.) Though Sam Jones was, and still is, criticized for not expressing the same emphasis as Spurgeon, the criticism has never been justified. To such a critic, Jones would reply, "Can you name anything that church members need more than a call to quit their meanness?" In every part of the country, ministers of all denominations forgot their criticisms and eagerly welcomed the holy influence of this righteous man who loved the Bible and the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and preached repentance. Christians repent first. Then the unsaved, in and outside the churches. The great T. DeWitt Talmage, even more eloquent that Spurgeon in his preaching of Grace and Heaven, called upon the plain-spoken boy from the South to preach revival in Brooklyn.

Several months ago (1998) John Townsend and I visited Roselawn, the Jones home in Cartersville. There we met another visitor, a Baptist Evangelist who was conducting a revival in alocal church. He was evidently an intense admirer of Sam Jones and his message of repentance and rectitude. He had resigned the pastorate of a large church to emulate the revivalistic ministry of Sam Jones. When we inquired of this evangelist's eschatology, he eagerly espoused the Darbyite line with the sincerest conviction that it was self-evident truth. We did not pursue the subject with this brother, other than to say that we were of another persuasion in that area.. We could have pointed out, had there been an inquiry, that, although the Scofield Bible (Darby's most significant, indirect, legacy) had not yet been printed, Sam Jones was well aware of its deadening doctrines (though often producing great zeal) and Sam thoroughly opposed them. The controlling fact, however, is that, with or without knowledge of Dispensationalism, Jones's type of revivalism was, and is, impossible to flow from such a well. "Repent for the End of the World -- or the End of History --or the coming of a New World Order -- is at hand," produces a vastly different effect than, "Quit your meanness and let God empower you to live right until you die; for after death is the Judgement, and Jesus will not be with you then if you have not let him clean you, transform you and guide you in life." Jones cautioned the careless, who, though professing Christianity, thought that they could approach death with an indifferent and sinful life: "Once in Hell, always in Hell." He held little hope for death-bed penitents; "Get a stiff upper lip, and face Hell like a man."

Can any claim that religion that does no good is any good? That is my summation of Sam Jones, his message and The Old Time Religion.

During the height of Jones work in the final decades of the Nineteenth Century, America welcomed millions of immigrants, mostly Catholic and Jews. Dwight L. Moody, himself an admirer of Jones, ministered to these masses in a remarkable way. Some Evangelicals thought they needed to be opposed in some manner, although they had migrated to America for love. Moody certainly gave love to all. And when Sam Jones was asked why he didn't 'jump on the Catholics,' he replied, "When I get through with the Methodists, it's bedtime."

   ON THE VISIT TO CARTERSVILLE mentioned above, we visited the Sam P. Jones Memorial United Methodist Church. When entering the Sanctuary, one is overwhelmed with the blazing colors of the large stained-glass windows. The first one on the north side (congregation's right) is above a plaque noting Mrs. Sam P. Jones as  the donor. Mrs. Jones survived her husband by some twenty years and taught a Sunday School class in this church during those years. In her classroom is a favorite chair of Sam's. Both John Townsend and I sat for a few moments in his chair. Mrs. Jones wrote a book about her husband which is available at Roselawn, two blocks from the church.

The Jones experienced profoundest sorrow with two of  their children. In those trying experiences, Mrs. Jones was the stern voice of righteousness and Sam was the broken heart of  longsuffering pain. When Sam died at 58, Mrs. Jones excluded the offending children from the home, something not permitted while Sam was alive.

CHRISTIANITY AND  MUSIC are inseparable. Sam Jones co-labored with  a great musician named Edwin Othello Excell. He has several works in the hymnals. 'Since I Have Been Redeemed' is an enduring favorite. Excell was a perfect complement for Jones. He was a great and humble lover of Jesus. And he was music: "The man has swallowed a brass band," was an apt descripton from his admirers. E. O. Excell was two years younger than Jones and died in 1921 while working with Gypsy Smith. How happy and bright Heaven must be with the wit and song of this great team. How blessed Earth would be to have their quality of presence today. Maybe we do, somewhere.

VERY FEW, IF ANY, will have the intelligence to use wit, sarcasm, scorn, rebuke, invective and ridicule as Sam Jones did. The element so likely to be omitted will be universal sympathetic love. It is remarkable that Bob Jones did not try to imitate Sam's personality at all; he learned from him and perpetuated the philosophy of life and religion.

All of us can be comforted in knowing that, even so great a soul as Sam Jones had his imperfections (although Jones did endorse and preach Sanctification as a distinct work of Grace). Like his mentor, Spurgeon, Sam Jones enjoyed cigars. Spurgeon embarrassed himself (requiring public apology) by proclaiming, in response to criticism, that he was going home to have a cigar to "the glory of God;" Jones, responding to critics from the North, gave up the habit, but later resumed it. Most Southern ministers did use tobacco in those days. (Bob Jones, Sr. told me, in 1961, of an incident in Sam's early ministry in which Sam backslid to the bottle for one day, riding into town pitifully drunk. Bob was nineteen when the hero died in 1906. Several years later, Bob Jones spent a summer in Cartersville pastoring the Tabernacle, which had been built for Sam's annual home-town meetings, and where Sam's funeral had been conducted.)

Another question was (is) his racial views. They appear quite strange and bothersome today. But, they were the same as his equally famous contemporary, the great editor and statesman, Henry Grady, who was a hero of a successor, the late Atlanta Constitution Editor, Ralph McGill, a very loud liberal. Grady, whose statue has dominated downtown Atlanta for most of this century, was for progress in 'The New South,' but he did not believe 'Negroes' should be educated. (Of course, they were less than three generations from Jefferson, America's greatest thinker, who, after much thought, could not think of a solution nor offer hopeful predictions on the American race issue.) I am confident that neither Jones nor Grady would cling to those views today. It is tragic that Bob Jones University, though a great distance from the turn of the century views of Jones and Grady, trapped itself in a slow-motion move to cultural reality. But BJU will be there.

I must mention that Sam Jones was a total Methodist; a follower of John Wesley, and he certainly would not have criticized Wesley for making a new translation of the New Testament, which Wesley considered to be more accurate than the King James Version -- though Wesley highly honored the King James. The idolatry of the King James worshippers is something to be ridiculed, and, even though Sam Jones drifted into excess in his invectives (on very few occasions), he, in no manner, is to be classed with the offensive and degrading language of many in this current movement, nor the sense of values represented. These folk should quit their meanness.

(To be Continued)

Cont'd

In a perplexing (to me) decision, Bob Jones, III, President of Bob Jones University decided to omit Sam Jones from the Mural of Evangelists that purports to chronicle the history of evangelism in America. The mural decorates a building dedicated to Bob Jones, Jr. At the same time, the university is now known as an Independent Baptist institution with the odd banner of 'Baptist/Protestant' (This means that Baptists have no roots in the Reformation because they never had any connection with Rome. An idea that Roger Williams would find strange.). This appears to be a major shift and the adopting of the illogical, anti-historical 'Trail of Blood' nostrum that Baptist are the Bride of Christ, never having had to 'protest' because they have their own 'Apostolic Succession'. Peter Ruckman, whom Dr Bob Jones, Sr described to me as the smartest graduate of BJU - as of 1961, holds the distinction of being the most arrogant, self-worshipping individual on Earth; Ruckman says he is no longer a 'Christian' because 'Baptist' is a purer word. The sadness with which I note the move of BJU toward Ruckmanism is beyond expressing. Ruckman hates his alma mater. I pray that BJU will return to the Old Time Religion banner, and admit its debt to Sam P Jones.