Dear Brother Thompson: You have already been given briefly the sad intelligence that our dear fellow-laborer, Elder Lemuel Potter, had passed from the scenes and labors of earth to be with us here no more. A more extended obituary has been promised and is due the brotherhood at large, and is incumbent upon us who were more intimately connected with the labors of this eminent and faithful servant of God. His death occurred at 11:30 on the morning of December 8, 1897, he being a little more than fifty-six years of age. His health had steadily declined for a year or more and it became evident that the outward man was perishing day by day. His strength and energy had been so marked, and his life so promising, that his friends hoped for many years of usefulness yet to come, until his unexpected and rapid decline gave warning that their hopes were vain.
In 1863, when twenty-two years old he was married to Miss Lydia Jane Humphreys, and to this union were born seven children, of whom five survive with their mother to mourn his death. He joined Providence Primitive Baptist Church in Wayne County, Illinois, in the year of his marriage, and four years later was ordained to the work of the ministry. It was a good day for our people when Brother Potter took his place as a laborer in the gospel field. From the first he withheld nothing in promoting the cause he had espoused. All he had, mental and physical - his strength and intellect - his vigor of body and mind, his plans and promises of life, he laid before the church and at the feet of his Lord and Master, the King of saints. He had entered the war where there was no discharge and thought not of drawing back from this cross of labor till the race was run. More than half his life was spent in unremitting toil in the Lord's harvest field. Who can estimate the worth to our churches - the influence for good - of thirty busy, faithful years of labor from such a man?
He was so widely known and so universally beloved that it would seem almost superfluous to speak of his character or work. He traveled much among the churches and associations and labored untiringly wherever circumstances placed him. I can say of him, and our churches will attest its truth, that he was no extremist upon any point nor fond of hobbies, but simply an old-fashioned, well-balanced, and consistent preacher of the cross of Christ. His ambition and desire was to serve with fidelity and zeal the Lord God of Israel, and we believe by his ministry the name of the Lord God was glorified and his grace extolled. The impression made by his public teaching will remain long after his body has returned to dust, and it may be said in years to come, he being dead yet speaketh. While he was fearless and steadfast in maintaining the doctrine of God's free and sovereign gtace, he was courteous to all, and to his brethren the gentlest and most lovable of men. Circumstances drew him to engage in many public discussions, and it can be said that the utmost kindness and fairness characterized his course on all these occasions. Having learned in the school of deep experience the knowledge of sin and his need of mercy, and also the preciousness, and fullness, and sufficiency of almighty grace, he made these truths the keynote of every sermon and every public utterance of life. He was thus compelled, in the matter of salvation, to utterly reject the finger-prints of man, standing aloof from all modern enterprises as throwing discredit on God's revealed word, and staining the finished and glorious work of the Redeemer. - Primitive Monitor, by Elder James H. Oliphant, who preached the funeral discourse.
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