Lewis Lunsford, our 7th subject in A Noble Company, Volume 5

Lewis Lunsford (1753-1793) “was one of the most distinguished and popular Baptist ministers of the South in the late eighteenth century.” Born and raised in an impoverished rural family, Lunsford’s God-given gifts and abilities led him to rise above his circumstances to become perhaps the greatest preacher Virginia Baptists have ever produced. “He was destined,” wrote James B. Taylor, “with his powers consecrated to the cause of Christ, to be the instrument of extensive good to his fellow-men.” And J. B. Jeter, himself a preacher of note, recalled that Lunsford’s “conceptions were clear, quick and sublime; his style, though negligent and unpolished, was plain, copious, and strong; and his gestures were natural and impassioned. He was unquestionably endued with superior genius, and he rose by native vigor of intellect and dint of application to real distinction.”