GRAVES-L Archives

From: Caroline Faison< >
Subject: [GRAVES-L] Peyton Graves the preacher
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 18:39:36 -0600

Found this on another list ........ FYI...
I have several Peyton Graves in my tree that were in the area. I'm
checking to see if he might be one of them.
Caroline

Forwarded...
From: ELIZABETH RUSSO <>
To:
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 08:15:22 -0500
Subject: [SC-Genealogy-L] INCIDENTS #11

INCIDENTS AND CHARACTERS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF METHODISM

By The Reverend John Elmore DuBois

Edited by Elizabeth A. DuBois (c) 1998 DuBois Publishing Co. All rights
reserved.

[There are handwritten notes indicating that KENNON below may have been
KENNEAR--ed.]

FOUR
Rev. Kennon and Rev. Graves
The Power of Methodist Singing

The Conference of 1822 sent Peyton Graves and Meredith Kennon to
Vernon
circuit. This was a wise appointment.

Graves was a man of superior natural endowments and liberal
culture.
He possessed many of the graces of oratory and other gifts which go to
make up the successful preacher. He studied his subjects and fashioned
many of his sermons after the models of Blair. His language was chaste
and elegant, and his manner of speech fervid and impressive. When he
preached he had an object in view, and that object was the glory of God
and the salvation of souls. With such gifts and such a spirit it is not
surprising that he accomplished his object and reaped the rewards of a
rich inheritance.

As a preacher, Kennon was by no means the equal of Graves, but as
a
field officer he was the peer of any man. What he lacked in preaching
he made up in singing, exhortation and prayer. The bugle note of his
martial song,

"We are going to join the army of the Lord,
We are going to join the army"

as it rolled forth full and clear from the rustic encampment, or the
crowded country church, was the paean of many a victory and the
harbinger of many a shout of joy.

The power, the holy power of entrancing song, is not be measured
by
human capacity. The sermons of Moody have doubtless converted their
thousands, but no more perhaps than the songs of Sanky. The thrilling
eloquence of the Methodist pulpit has done much to set the world aglow
with the revival spirit, but not more perhaps than Methodist singing.
But in these days of fashion and show, we very greatly fear that
Methodist song is losing much of its spirituality and power.

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• [GRAVES-L] Peyton Graves the preacher by Caroline Faison< >