Mary Rankin Typed Biographical Sketch of John Rankin to Lucien V. Rule, [after 1886]

"but again - "at times I had joyful hope and when I was but
a boy I united with the church, but my doubts would at times
return".

From his earlest recollection he had hoped to be a minister
and he continued his studies through all this period of
spiritual struggle, held back only by a sense of his un-
worthiness. When he was about twenty he had the opportunity
to study Latin for three months under Rev. David Weir, and to
do so he rode horseback fourteen miles a day.

He continued his studies at home till his father was able
to send him to Washington College, some sixty miles east of
his home, where he studied under Dr. Samuel Doak the founder
of this first institution of classical learning west of the
Alleghanies. Dr. Doak's plan was to let the young men of
his school advance as rapidly as possible without regard to
classes, so that the young John Rankin finished his course
in two and a half years. During this time his health was im-
paired and extreme nervousness brought on a feeling of "dif-
fidence", as he describes it, that was not overcome for
several years. Six months before he graduated from College he
was taken under the care of Abingdon Presbytery and after a
year of reading prescribed by Dr. Doak he was licensed to
preach.

A few weeks before his graduation he married Jean Lowry, a
grand daughter of Dr. Doak. By her trade as tailoress she
supported him through the remainder of his college year and
his supplementary study for the ministry. There were many
times after that when her skill supported the large family
(thirteen children) when the salary came in slowly or not
at all. He writes of her later - "In all our pilgrimage she
has never placed an obstacle in my way of preaching the gospel.
But few women have filled so well the place of minister's
wife. She contributed greatly to my success in the sacred
office."

Mr. Rankin began to supply pulpits in the churches of East
Tennessee, but as there was no opening for him there, and as
he hated slavery, he determined to go north and seek a home
and a church in free territory. With his wife and son, a
horse and carriage and a hundred dollars in silver, he set out
in the Fall of 1817. Stopping at Paris, Kentucky, to call
on the Rev. John Lyle, he was examined by that gentleman con-
cerning his beliefs, and being found free from taint of
"Hopkinsonamnism", he was urged to stop and preach to the Con-
cord church near Carlisle. He agreed to stay for the winter
and then became their paster and remained for four years.

Two sermons a week soon exhausted his supply of memorized
sermons, and in a panic he complained to his wife that he
lacked "capacity" to preach and would have to give it up. She
believed in him and encouraged him to perserve. It was then
that he adopted a plan which he always followed. "I selected
sufficient number of texts to give me enough to speak, for
I never had a talent for speaking on nothing as some seem to
have. I then placed in memory the order to be pursued, the
doctrines to be discussed and the texts to sustain them. I
never opened my Bible to read a proof text. I took no notes
into the pulpit and read only the text. When I began to
preach in this way people begam to speak of my improvement
in preaching". He wrote no sermons but often "discussed the
doctrines of the gospels "with his pen in order to facilitate
expression." He felt the necessity of study the more keenly
because the Concord Congregation were a superior class of
people, and because they had been seriously disturbed by
the preaching of a former pastor, Barton Stone, leader of