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2 (Hfe4) THE
hsbti, ins resignation took elfect, not only with
, mutual respect anil conlidence, but with regret
and sorrow. Dr. liayliss was a mail of peace as
well as of conviction and courage.
THE PIONEER EVANGELIST.
it was now Dr. Bayliss' lixed purpose to
spend hi.s remaining life in preaching the Dospel
to the neglected and destitute people of Eastern
lv Oil 111 /ilr \T A n/1 U woo ?? rvol
AW/Uiuvn^ . 1XXIU it nao (t |J(llUCllO SUt'IJi; ? llt'U
this great man, with frail body, but in the maturity
of his great intellectual powers at fortyseven,
moved from Ashland over a long, rough
mountain road and made his humble home at
Grayson, Carter county, Kentucky, in the very
heart of the mountains.
Dr. Hayliss' idea was that the mountains were
not yet ready for organized churches, and so
following the example of the Master, who walked
over the hills of Galilee, sowing .everywhere
precious Gospel seeds, this great evangelist went
forth on horse-back 011 long evangelistic tours
preaching to the people wherever he could
uici iin'111 in cuui uiuiwus, ek;iiuui xiuubes anu ui
humble homes, telling always the simple story of
the cross.
It would be interesting to follow this historic
man of God during the eight years of hard, exacting
and self-sacrilicing service, but the limits
of my story forbid it. The imagination of your
readers must till up the picture. The frail body
at last gave under, and on the 23rd of May, 1875,
he fell asleep amidst the scenes of his life work.
Only eternity can reveal the rich harvest already
gathered and will continue to be gathered as the
\ result of his labors. Sunday schools, mission
stations and churches adorn the paths once trod
by his feet.
7
/RKV. W. C. CONDIT, MODEL PASTOR.
Dr. liayliss was succeeded at Asniand by the
Rev. W. C. Condit, a native Kentuckian, a
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giauuatc ui v cuuc iiuu ui jrruic^Lm
Theological Seminary. Dr. Condit also has been
a most potent factor in the development of Presbyterianism
in this section. The First church of
Ashland was his lirst and only charge. For
forty-six years he has ministered to one people,
and his work has steadily grown in numbers and
influence, until this church is now one of the
largest, most thoroughly organized, best equipped
in either of the two Synods. Its membership
of solid, substantial, generous people now
number.-, about -400, and the Sunday school organized
anil graded along modern lines also num
hers about 400.
During this long pastorate, the longest in the
whole history of l'resbyUrianism in Kentucky,
with the exception of the notable pastorate of
ihs. Schudder and Rout, not counting the short
evangelistic service in the early years of Dr.
Condit's pastorate, there has never been a protracted
meeting in the church. 1ID reliance has
been on the stated services of weekly prayer
meeting, two sermons on Sunday, and the quarterly
communions, with the Saturday preparatory
services. Short, simple, scriptural, earnest
sermons, with the use of the manuscript, and
diligent, faithful pastoral work tell the whole
story of this long and useful ministry. Dr. Condit
from the first, seemed to have sized up
L!^ Z?1 J ] a ? 1 A-l - *V1
xius uem aiiu 10 nave iHKen a careiui measure
of himself. He found out what he could do and
what he could not do, and addressed himself to
his task with the directness and earnestness of
one of the old prophets. He kept in close touch
with the people of all classes, and put himself in
and behind*every movement for the betterment
and mqral uplift of the people. Mr. Evarts at
the {ime the leader of the New York bar was asked
in the presence of a distinguished gathering,
"Who is the most representative citizen of New
ti i , , . i ...
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S
York?" The greatly lawyer promptly responded,
* * -I oliii Hall." It' this question was submitted to
the popular vote ot' Ashland. "Who is our most
representative citizen?" the answer would he.
"Dr. Condit."
Dr. Condit would not claim to he an evan
gelist in the modern sense, and yet from this
strong chureh has gone out influences which re-v
suited in the organization of several mission stations
and churches, the most important of which
is the work at Pik< ville, where there is now a
good, strong congregation worshipping in a
handsome $12,0(10 church, recently dedicated
free of debt, and also splendid church school
with complete equipment, the plant costing about
$75,000 and doing a noble work. This mountain
school has had from the start the munificent
financial support of Mr. J. S. Simpson, a ruling
elder of the First chqrch, Covington. He also
recently gave the Kentucky Theological Seminary
at Louisville a $10,000 scholarship fund.
REV. SAMUEL D. BOGGS, D. D., PASTOR EVANGELIST.
Cattlesburg, at the mouth of the Big Sandy
T>! 1 -1 i '
niver, nas aooui nail tne population of Ashland.
It is the county seat of Boyd county, has a handsome
government building for the Federal Court
and Postoffice. and is a city of wealth and influence.
It, too, is the center from which much
of the influence of the Southern Synod has gone
out into the evangelistic work of the mountains.
The church was organized in 1856, and was a
part of Dr. Bayliss' field. In 1865 Rev. John D.
McClintock, a native Kentuckian and a graduate
of Princeton, one of the saintliest of men, took
charge of the little flock and laid a solid foundation
during the two years of bus ministry. From
Cattleshurg he was called to Columbus, Mississ
ippi, wnere, alter a notaDie ministry, lie ended a
useful career. Several ministers had charge at
short intervals until 1885, when on the urgent
appeal of Dr. T. D. Witherspoon, then Superintendent
of the Synod's evangelistic work, Rev.
Samuel I). Hoggs resigned the pastorate of the
Ilopeville and Clintonville churches in Bourbon
county and moved to Cattlesburg. Dr. Boggs is
u native of South Carolina and a graduate of the
Columbia Theological Seminary and prominently
connected with many of the leading people of his
native State. His removal to Cattlesburg opened
a new era for the local church and for the vast
evangelistic field, both in Kentucky and West
Virginia, for the new pastor caught the spirit of
the great Bayliss. When he took charge at
Cattlesburg the membership of the church was
less than fifty, and the small Sunday school practically
suspended. Sizing up his field, he discovered
that the city itself was largely pre
occupied by stronger churches, and his first step
was to establish the missions, one below on the
Ohio at Normal, halfway between Cattlesburg
and Ashland, and the other above at Hampton on
the Rig Sandy River. Hampton was subsequently
absorbed by Cattlesburg, but Normal developed
to an independent, self-supporting church.
Dr. Boggs preached three Sundays in Cattlesburg,
and gave the third and fifth Sundays each
months to evangelistic work, and for. several
years he preached every night of the week except
one to his mission points. Going down the Ohio
to Greenup he found the old Greenup Union
church four miles in the country practically
abandoned, there being only eleven surviving
members; for three years he preached here one
Ssiinrlov in fViA rpu~ - 1
in iwv uiuuvu. me uiurcn was soon revived
and the membership increased nearly fifty.
Going still further down the Ohio he found
Vanceburg, the county seat of Lewis county,
without any church. After a two weeks meeting
at the courthouse, a church of twenty-two
members was organized and united with Greenup
Union, the two forming a self-supporting
field.
* .. . X.. iii 1 i > Wll 'Hill 'Hnlf 1 *i ' I 1
0 1JTH | March 20, B)12
bike his great forerunner, Bayliss, Boggs, too,
looked across the Big Sandy, and saw a vast
spiritual destitution in West Virginia, for this
was before the day of Booker, and the old Greenbrier
Bresbytery was not then, as she is now,
fully awake to the necessity of progressive evanlistic
work. The N. & "W. railroad, just built,
. running up the Big Sandy and Tug Fork, open
ed up many strategic points, and the work could
not be delayed, lie was the only minister near
by, and so he went to Kenova, the junction of
three railroads, where a prosperous town had
already sprung up. He preached here regularly
Sunday afternoons and week day nights; a thriving
Sunday school was organized, the money
raised for the purchase of the Y. M. C. A. building
as a church, and to-day the Kenova Presbyterian
church has a membership numbering
nearly one hundred, and the Rev. J. B. Waller
is the installed pastor of the flock.
doing up the Norfolk & Western railroad the
evangelist saw that the Williamson station would
soon become an important business center for a '
large section, and he determined to raise there
the standard of the cross. In order to do this he
would leave home oai-lv in tho iwaot
? ?? <?? uuw n vuaj WilCC
days to the work, visit the people and preach in
t lie school house near by. Occasionally he gave a
Sunday to the field. In order to secure a church
building a friend in Catlettsburg generously
agreed to give dollar for dollar to any amount
raised for this purpose. The result was a two
thousand dollar church was soon erected, which
has long since been supplanted by a larger and
handsomer one, and Williamson is now a city of
five thousand people, and the Presbyterian the
leading church.
But the most notable triumph of Dr. Boggs'
evangelistic work has been in Pike county, the
(enter ol the great evangelistic field, Ebenezer
Presbytery; but the length of my story has already
exceeded the limits of your paper, and I
mint reserve what I wish to sav about the work
in this destitute field for another communication.
My object in sending you this paper has not
lx en to advertise these three men, Bayliss, Conditt
and Boggs, but to show how God can use men
of different types and diversified gifts for the
furtherance of his kingdom; Bayliss scholarly,
cultured and eloquent, a great preacher and
teacher, with broad sympathies, stooping to the
lowliest, and reaching out to the destitute and
neglected; Conditt, with his plain, earnest Gospel
preaching, sticking to his one job for forty-six
years, building a great church on a solid and
scriptural foundation, and stronger at seventy
than at any previous period of his pastorate;
Boggs, a typical pastor-evangelist, a strong gospel
preacher, broad minded, warm-hearted,
arousing his own people to enthusiastic co-operation,
with eyes wide open to everything looking
to the UDbuildiner nf fhp phnrv>Vi Uioi of tu?
- M ?0 ?- v?*/ v."?_ ? v"J ov caiuisj at L1IC
end of twenty-one years he resigned his charge.
Catlettsburg had grown in membership to 185,
the Sunday school to nearly 200, the people contributing
with increasing liberality to all the
church causes, and the further result of one old
church revived and five new churches organized.
And now in conclusion may I not raise this
question suggested by the labors of these three
men, the leading factors in the founding and development
of Presbyterian ism in Northeastern
Kentucky: Is not the pastor-evangelist the solu~e
Tr?.? ? * '- w.. ..
i.m'11 wi um lAumt; ifusHiuu pruuiem i witn tne
groat dearth of ministers and candidates the large
number of vacant churches and destitute fields in
all the Presbyteries is not the appeal made to the
heart of every pastor, stated supply, office-bearer
and private member to renewed zeal and consecrated
effort f