" As the stars are dimmed and lost sight of in the
brilliancy of the rising sun, so earthly pleasures, riches and honors
fade and dwindle in the glory of the Cross. As God was pleased to use
the writer as an instrument in getting brother Penn into this work, so
it seemed proper that a few incidents and facts which led to it, as
remembered in our associations together, should be stated.
It was in Jefferson, Texas, where our brother then resided, that I first
saw him, in May, 1874, during the session of the Southern Baptist
Convention, at that place. But it was in June, the year after, at his
own home and during a series of meetings in the Baptist Church, that I
began to know more of him, as he brought up in our social interviews a
review of his life religiously--as he told of the time when, in the
ardor and vigor of youth, in Tennessee, at a meeting, he sought to defy
and brave a gospel message from the venerable brother James Hurt, by
taking a front seat; and then how his soul was convulsed and his heart
melted, as God's message wrenched the bolted door of that heart; how he
struggled with the agonies of conviction for sin, during the long, weary
hours of night; and how the joys of pardoning love through Christ came
to his soul with the brightness of the morning.
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