Elder Lemuel Potter on Eagerness to Preach

Elder Lemuel Potter in his autobiography titled "Labors and Travels of Elder Lemuel Potter" wrote the following in chapter 24 (See here; emphasis mine):

"I am now in my thirtieth year in the ministry, and my experience is such that I often think if I had my time to go over, I could make many improvements, but it may be if I had my life to live over again, that under the same circumstances, I would do no better than I have. My experience as a minister has been one peculiar to myself. I have found that no other minister I have ever heard talk has had the same experience that I have had. When I first began to exercise in public, my recollection is, that I was more willing to try to preach than was becoming. I thought many times that I would be glad to have an opportunity to try to preach. I was well aware of the fact that propriety would dictate for me to remain silent, and occupy an humble seat, when there were older ministers present; yet that did not suit me all the time, for my desires to exercise in public were such, that if I was invited, I was rather too willing to get up. I frequently feared that the brethren would notice this in me, and I was well aware of the fact that it would be against me if they did. I very well knew that nothing would hurt a young minister quicker in the estimation of his brethren in the ministry, as well as the people generally, than for him to be too anxious to preach. Yet I was distressed frequently in my mind to keep my feelings concealed in this particular. I do not know just how many years I had this evil to contend with, but if the brethren did notice it in me, they seemed to treat me well, and encouraged me to exercise my gift, and invited me to their meetings, as if they did not notice anything wrong."

I find this interesting due to my having had the same "evil to contend with" as he did. I wrote about this in a short post (here) from several years ago. This "evil" happened when I had only been preaching a few years and in my early twenties. In that post I wrote:

"Another time I was told by Newell (I think) that some folks went to Elder Mills (senior pastor at Union Grove at the time) and spoke of how anxious I seemed to be to preach, and they said to Mills - "he is going to preach or bust." Mills responded and said - "let him bust." Now, I have thought about this boot camp experience many times.

I think I said to Newell (we were very close friends) - "was not that the experience of Jeremiah who found that he could not quit preaching (though he tried) and said that the reason was that the word was in him like fire and he could not keep quiet?"

What is wrong with a young minister who has been called to preach being ready and anxious to tell others about the gospel? Now, I never was so anxious to preach or to teach that I pushed myself to preach ahead of others (though this was never really possible any way). But, when called upon, I tried to be ready. Oftentimes I came to church after days and weeks of bible study and had messages to deliver, excited about what I had learned, and desiring to share it. What was wrong with that?"

By "Mills" I am referring to the cult leader of the Bear Creek Association of Primitive Baptists, to which I once was a part of, Elder C.M. Mills. Mills did not put his stamp of approval upon me and many of the Hardshell brotherhood therefore would not fully embrace me. He was the one who partnered with the Powell Valley Association and a few other associational popes to declare non-fellowship against my father and our church (father being himself a leading elder among the Hardshells) for teaching that Satan was an angel who sinned in and fell from heaven. So, when I moved to North Carolina and joined one of the churches in this association, that church later called for my ordination. 

Elder Mills believed that since I was ordained by the church of my membership, pastored by father, after this formal declaration of non-fellowship, that I needed to be ordained properly, the former one not being legal or legit because of the action of the Powell Valley Association. That caused me no small grief. Elder John Robbins of the Powell Valley Association and the clerk of that association traveled several hundred miles from East Tennessee so that we all could discuss "my situation." They pretended to be acting in my best interests in demanding a new ordination, saying that I could travel and preach without a "cloud" over me. But, even then I had a strong intuition or discernment that they were not really interested in my ministry, but were mainly showing their opposition to father and his views. This meeting was in the home of Elder Mills in Charlotte, N.C. I had previously met him a few years before when I traveled with my father to North Carolina to preach in the churches of the Bear Creek Association. That was when father was recognized and in high esteem by most "Primitive Baptist" churches. We spent the day with Mills talking about the church and scripture. 

So, I never got the stamp of approval from Mills, and he being pope, his not giving his stamp led to many diehard Hardshells to distance themselves from me. Mills was a disciple of Elder C.H. Cayce, one of the leaders of the Hardshells at the start of the 20th century. Cayce's interpretations were the standard for all to follow, or else be shunned to some degree. One evidence of this is the opposition of Mills, not only to the view that Satan fell from heaven, but to the view that the story of the death of the rich man and Lazarus was talking about what happens when saved and unsaved people die, his view being that the parable taught the cutting off or death of the old Jewish church (old covenant, represented by the rich man) and the church or Gentiles being brought into Paradise or enjoyment of the new covenant. Cayce was a gross spiritualizer and so was Mills, and so are many Hardshells. 

When I was ordained the second time, this time by the presbytery of the Bear Creek Association, guess what questions were asked me to see if I was qualified to be ordained? You guessed it. I was asked - "do you believe the Devil fell from heaven?" And, "do you believe that the story of the rich man and Lazarus teaches about what happens at death?" I was not intimidated by them. I answered in the way the apostle Paul did when he on one occasion said that he was a believer in a bodily resurrection. (Acts 23: 6-10) To my surprise they ordained me anyway. However, some of the presbyters, deacons and elders, were not very happy about it.

Elder Sonny Pyles was highly favored by the churches of the Bear Creek Association and he annually filled a week's preaching in those churches. Mills and Pyles had a good relationship, owing I think to the fact that the people first fell in love with Pyles and Mills could do nothing but like him too. Sonny became a friend of mine, as he had been a close friend of father (Eddie K. Garrett, Sr.). When he would visit in North Carolina I would get to spend much time with him and even had him as an overnight guest in my house. I also flew out to Graham, Texas and spent four or five days with him. Sonny once told me about the time that he asked Mills why he was not helping me in my ministry by recommendations or otherwise, Sonny trying to help me. I don't remember verbatim what Mills said, but it was basically because he felt not inclined to do so. This is the man who told the brothers "let him bust." So, when I read the above from the highly esteemed Lemuel Potter, I felt a need to write this post. Would Mills have viewed the anxiousness of Potter to preach in the same way?

Later in the same chapter Elder Potter wrote:

"After I had been preaching a few years, there was quite a change in my feelings, so that I became as unwilling to preach as I had hitherto been willing. I thought for a while that if the brethren would not meet me with solicitations, and urgent appeals to come to their meetings, I could remain at home very well satisfied, not to preach at all. I had the care of churches, and when I went to meeting, I really dreaded for the moment to arrive that I should begin services. I often felt while on my way to church, that it would be a great relief to me, if some brother in the ministry would happen to come, who would do the preaching. I suffered a great deal in mind from this state of feeling. I often wished, that as I must preach, I were more willing. I sometimes took my case to the Lord, and begged him, that if it was my duty to preach, it should not be such a burden to me."

Well, the same thing happened to me. However, I do feel that preachers should never lose their zeal to teach and to preach. They should not do it in order to gain a following or draw attention to themselves.

Potter also wrote:

"I think I know what it is to wish very much to preach and not have an opportunity, but I also know what it is to be compelled to preach when I do not wish to. This frame of mind oppressed me for a few years, I do not remember just how long, and then my mind underwent another change. I have since felt perfectly passive in the hands of the brethren, and perhaps as easy upon the subject of preaching as any man among our brethren."

"When I was younger I often contemplated a big sermon for special occasions. and about as often, failed to do any preaching at all. I have, many times, arose to preach when I did not think I could say a word, and it seemed I was blessed with the presence of the Lord, and the power of his might to preach to the edification and encouragement of his people. In fact matters have seldom ever worked out in my experience, as a Christian, or as a minister according to the plan that I have arranged. I have even taken a text thinking that I would present certain points or arguments or thoughts during the course of my remarks, and would spend my time on an entirely different line of thought. "I am reminded many times of what I have heard other brethren in the ministry say, and that is that they never could learn how to preach. I think what I have learned might be profitable to younger men in the ministry, provided they will study carefully what I have said, and examine themselves carefully. I have studied a great deal about preparing notes, or as some men call it sketches, or skeletons of sermons, but I have never tried such a thing, and I think that I would be very awkward at anything of that kind, I feel confident of one thing, that if I were to write out a sermon and read it, I might be as able to read it at one time as another, but I do not think I would be a very good judge as to whether the Lord was in that matter or not. I have written speeches and read them, and my judgment is that if I speak extemporaneously, I can tell better whether I really have the presence of the Lord or not. I take it as an evidence that the Lord is with me when I feel a deep and abiding interest on the subject of which I treat, and that he is not with me when I feel no interest in the subject I am trying to talk about. Be that as it may, there is one thing certain, and that is that I cannot live contented and neglect the ministry."

There are some good things advised in the above words but there are some things that I don't agree with. His view on preaching (what some call "homiletics") reflects a view that was prevalent by the frontier preachers in the 19th century. They judged a sermon based upon the preacher preaching off the cuff, extemporaneously, or as the Lord poured thoughts into their minds while preaching, or in a sing-song or rhythmic manner, and with emotion, etc. To preach with a prepared sermon was taboo to them and showed that the preacher was not depending upon the inspiration of the Spirit. They follow the instructions Jesus gave to his first ministers, which said "take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak" (Matt. 10: 19). 

Potter says the old ministers used to say that they never learned how to preach, and this was a maxim with them, probably as a result of their opposition to theological education (seminaries), accusing their use to be the making and calling of preachers, which they said only the Lord could do. He seemed to agree with that maxim at the time he was writing his biography in his elder years. However, he then, after stating this maxim, goes against that maxim by saying that he was giving advice to young ministers to profit them in their preaching! He also did the same when he advised them to "study" his counsel. He also contradicts the maxim when he says that he "studied a great deal about preparing notes," etc. He also says that he wrote out his speeches for debates, which contradicts his maxim. If he can prepare his speeches for debate on Bible issues, why could he not do it for sermons? Was he not relying on the Spirit in his debate speeches?