October 14, 1811 • Jacob Bower's Life-Changing Promise

wenty-five year old Jacob Bower did not realize what a promise to his father could mean. It made him a masterful frontier evangelist.

As a tender-hearted lad living first in Pennsylvania and then in Kentucky, he had longed to know that he would go to heaven; he was sure his mother had. However, when his prayers for forgiveness of sins did not work any change in him, he adopted the view that all people would be saved (Universalism). This theory made him wild and careless. While in this spiritual state, he married. Early in October 1811, he and his wife visited his father.

On this day, October 14, 1811, when the two left for home, he felt unusually solemn. His father accompanied him about four miles to a large creek, and the time came to part. Jacob put on as cheerful a face as he could, for his father's holy life disturbed him. He urged his father to share a drink. "Perhaps it may be the last we shall ever drink together."

"I don't want to drink a drop. I have something to say to you, Jacob."

"Well Father," answered Jacob, "what is it?"

"I want you to promise me that you will serve God and keep out of bad company."

"Well Father, I will," answered Jacob.

In an autobiography that he was later asked to write, Jacob said, "I started to go across the creek, which was about thirty yards across, and as my horse stepped out of the water to rise the bank, instantly my promise stared me in the face." He could not get it out of his mind.

That night, Jacob could not eat. He paced restlessly, hiding his face in his hands and sighing a lot. The Baptist they stayed with that night soon discovered what was the matter and urged him to trust in Jesus, quoting many scriptures. It was all dark to Jacob.

Next morning Jacob met a number of blacks going to an execution of a murderer. Jacob wondered "How does that man feel, knowing that he must die today?" Suddenly, it was as if someone had asked him the same question. "You don't know but that you may die before he does." His "crumbly foundation of Universalism" gave way. "I discovered a God, who, I thought, could not save me and remain just. I could see no way of escaping eternal punishment."

Jacob wrestled and prayed for months. The great earthquakes that struck the midwest in 1811 and 1812 heightened his terror. He could not sleep for fear. Not until February 1812 did he realize that because Christ suffered on the cross for him personally, he could be forgiven. He was flooded with peace and joy. It was the beginning of his evangelistic career.

Two years later, Jacob became a Baptist minister. In his long, hardworking life, he rode over forty thousand miles carrying the gospel to others, organizing churches and ordaining new ministers. He had to overcome serious opposition from Baptists opposed to mission work. Such was the impact of a father's counsel given on this day in 1811.

Bibliography:

1. Bower, Jacob. The Autobiography of Jacob Bower: A Frontier Baptist Preacher and Missionary, 1857.
2. Burrage, Henry S. Baptist Hymnwriters and their Hymns. Portland, Maine: Brown, Thurston and co., 1888, pp.262-264.
3. Fremantle, Anne. The Protestant Mystics. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964.
4. Various internet articles.

Last updated June, 2007.