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A Concise History of the Ketocton Baptist Association (1808)
An account of the life and death of Elder Robert Sanders.
ELDER ROBERT SANDERS, a native of Virginia, was born October 1743. During his youth he was accustomed to sport, recreations and diversions, common to youth in the neighborhood and place where he lived; the people being without the light of the gospel, and therefore free indulgence given to sensual appetites - though we never understood he was addicted to swearing and the grosser immoralities. About eighteen he married a reputable woman and formed a family; about this time God in providence directed the gospel into the neighborhood in which he lived, and was pleased to clothe it with power, so that it proved to him not the word of man, but in deed and truth the word of God, which proved the alarming of his soul. A discovery was made to him of the ruined state sin had involved him in, and the dreadful consequences that must follow, without a change of heart, and the removal of his guilt, by the peace speaking blood of Jesus Christ. When the Lord was pleased to remove his burthen of guilt, and impute to him the gospel righteousness, and afford him evidence of an interest in Christ, he conferred not with flesh and blood, but straightway in the twenty first year of his age, repaired to a Baptist minister and related his experience and was baptized; he then sued for admission into the Baptist church, and became a member, where he was singularly useful as a private member, for the following reasons: he was strictly circumspect in his walk, in keeping himself from a wicked and untoward generation, having nothing to do with its sinful customs and maxims, and by a prudent conduct manifested his abhorrence and detestation of the garment spotted by
the flesh; his judgment was well formed, and his principles sound and orthodox; as he was careful of the chastity and sobriety of his life, he was likewise watchful over the lives of his fellow members, lest any root of bitterness should spring up among them and thereby many be defiled; this led to great usefulness in the church. His faithful and pointed reproofs in case of sin committed or duty neglected, compassion being mingled with faithfulness, proved the more successful; timely cautions were frequently administered by him to his brethren as a preventative to future evils; his endeavor was to keep clean the house of God, and that the vessels of the Lord should remain pure, and the wicked have no evil thing to say of them, his zeal for truth led him to exert himself whenever the doctrines of faith met with opposition, and he was ~Il equipped, and his manner well suited to stop the mouths of gainsayers; he was prudent in the pursuit of his temporal concerns, and, when duty required, he was generous, open and free, in whatever might be conducive to the interest of religion.
Such was his conduct in the church that procured the regard and esteem of Zion's citizens; by the world he was feared and respected; after a number of years of private usefulness, he was called by the church to the exercise of his public gifts, which met with their approbation; he was accordingly ordained and sent out; his custom as a preacher was to deal in plain and interesting subjects, and proved of considerable usefulness. He was not accustomed to travel far abroad, but confined his labor to a small circle, within which he proved a great good; he had not been employed but a few years in the work of the ministry before he was taken with a consumption, which continued to prey upon him until the earthly tabernacle was dissolved -he was removed by death, August nineteenth, in the year 1790; being the thirty-seventh year of his age; leaving a numerous family, brethren, friends and acquaintances, to mourn their loss. One satisfaction, although he has quit this region, the remembrance of his exemplary life, is similar to his speaking when alive.
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