Devotion for the Week of April 4, 2016 - HE REJECTED THE TITLE “DOCTOR” FOR “BROTHER”

HE REJECTED THE TITLE “DOCTOR” FOR “BROTHER”

Romans 12:3, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

Dr. Jesse Mercer “was the most distinguished and influential Baptist minister ever raised in the State of Georgia; and it is doubtful if any one, under the providence of God, ever exerted a more beneficial influence among the Baptist of Georgia.”[1]

Born on December 16, 1769, in Halifax County, North Carolina, Jesse was the oldest child of the reverend Silas Mercer.  Jesse’s young life was circumspect in every regard, but at the age of fifteen, he saw himself as a sinner and was converted.  In his seventeenth year, Jesse was baptized and united with the Phillips’ Mill Church.  In his nineteenth year, he was married, and before he was twenty, he was ordained into the ministry and began his fruitful work for the Lord.

For over fifty years, the man of God served as pastor, but he never limited his ministry to only one church.  He traveled extensively preaching the gospel.  The Reverend jesse Mercer felt strongly that only by itinerant preaching could the gospel reach the spiritually impoverished in sparsely settled areas of his state.

Influenced strongly by the Reverend Luther Rice, Mercer became an ardent advocated of missions.  He encouraged mission effort among the slaves, promoted the Sunday school movement, and led in the efforts of the temperance movement.  He served as a trustee of the Columbian College in Washington, D.C., and was the benefactor of education, particularly in the training of ministerial students.

Mercer was used of God in evangelism, and though he was usually given to a pulpit ministry as a pastor, he could preach with great emotion and pathos.  His life was marked with great diversity.  “Jesse Mercer was the recognized leader ot the Georgia Baptist Association and in the Georgia Baptist Convention.  He served as clerk of the association for twenty-one years, as moderator for twenty-three years, and as writer of its history.  He was president of the Georgia Baptist Convention for nineteen years, from its founding in 1822 until 1841, when feeble health made his attendance impossible.”[2]

Mercer purchased “The Christian Index,” a periodical, and served for several years as editor.  The paper was later given to the Georgia Baptist Convention, but mercer continued to greatly influence his state through its pages.  Soon after the turn of the nineteenth century, Mercer published The Cluster of Spiritual Songs, a hymnal used widely in Baptist circles through the state of Georgia.

While Mercer was returning from a meeting of the Triennial Convention where he had preached in 1826, his wife became seriously ill and passed away in South Carolina.  In December of the following year, the Reverend Mr. Mercer married Nancy Simons, a wealthy widow, and together they became generous donors to the cause of Christ.

It is interesting that though Mercer was granted the Doctor of Divinity degree from Brown University in 1835, he preferred not to be called by that title.  Throughout Georgia his friends and co-laborers referred to him merely as “Brother.”

Upon one occasion, after Mercer had been evangelizing during a time of revival, he traveled home with a heavy heart.  He was leaving folks who were enthusiastic in the Gospel and was returning to his own church, which was rather apathetic.  He stood in his pulpit and recounted the blessings of God in his itinerate ministry, for many had called upon the Lord for salvation.  Then, realizing anew the indifference of his own people, he “lifted his hands, [and] exclaimed, ‘O, my congregation, I fear you are too good to be saved!’ and then burst into a flood of tears.”[3]  Many responded; revival was experienced and spread through the association.

“Brother” Jesse Mercer died on September 6, 1841.  May God give us such versatile men in our day!

 
[1] William Catheart, The Baptist Encyclopedia, ed. Louis H. Everts, (Philadelphia: Louis H. Evert, 1881), 2:779
[2] Norman Wade Cox, ed., Encyclopedia of Southern Baptist )Nashville: Broadman Press, 1958), 2:848
[3] Charles O. Walker, A History of the Georgia Baptist Association, 1784-1984 (Atlanta: Georgia Baptist Historical Society, 1988), pp. 69-70

Taken from “This Day in Baptist History” by E. Wayne Thompson & David L. Cummins

 

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