He kept walking for Jesus
1833 – John Clark went to be with the Lord having preached his last sermon Sept. 22nd in St. Louis County, Missouri. He was born near Inverness, Scotland on Nov. 29, 1758. At twenty he went to sea and on the second one out he served on was a pirate ship. Next he was the 2nd mate on a ship bound for the West Indies and at Tobago he was conscripted to serve on a British frigate. He and another sailor got to the other side of the Island and gained a position on a ship to England. War was now started with America so they were captured by two Spanish frigates and spent 18 months in Havana, Cuba until released in a prison exchange. Soon Clark was drafted to serve on a British Man-O-War and while anchored two miles off the coast of Charleston, S.C., he and another shipman swam ashore barely making it. While there he got saved under the powerful preaching of two Methodist circuit riding preachers. He went back to his home and found no one living but one sister. While in London he heard John Wesley preach. Back in America, he left the Methodists over the issue of the security of the believer, Episcopal form of church order and infant baptism. He embraced believer’s baptism, taught school to keep body and soul together, and then would walk for miles preaching the gospel. He Walked 1200 miles to Florida, preached daily and returned to Illinois. Later he duplicated his journey to encourage his converts. He suffered many deprivations to make sure he was always on time. His friends gave him a horse but he kept on walking. He almost married at thirty-six but felt that it would hinder his ministry. John Clark just kept walking for Jesus. [William B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1865), 6:494. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. 557-59]
Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon
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