Revivals in Winter

When I was a boy, local churches held revival meetings in midwinter. Always there were converts. Always the Baptist and Christian converts were baptized as soon as the meetings closed.

There were no indoor baptisteries in those days. To administer the ordinance of baptism, it was necessary to take the candidates to a creek, river or pond. Usually, large sections of ice were removed in order that minister and convert might get into the water.

As a rule, women would be dressed in white, while the men went forth in their shirt sleeves. As minister and convert entered the icy water, the crowd on the bank would being to sing:

 

Happy day, happy day,

When Jesus washed my sins away!

He taught me how to watch and pray,

And live rejoicing every day.

Happy day, happy day,

When Jesus washed my sins away.

 

The wonder always was that neither minister nor candidate shrank from the ordeal. On the contrary, they entered the frigid water as blithely and as joyously as if midsummer conditions prevailed. Singing would cease as the convert was being immersed, following which it would break out at an even more fervent pitch. The minister led the next candidate into the water while eager hands helped the dripping one out to the bank, where a blanket was thrown about the shoulders and a place made in the waiting wagon or buggy that was to take them back home. So far as I can recall, no ill effects ever followed those midwinter immersions in ice cold water.

As a preliminary to administration of the ordinance the preacher always went out into the river with a long cane or staff, testing the depth at each step to make sure that nobody would be taken beyond the safety zone.

Methodists and Presbyterians baptized by sprinkling instead of immersion, and their converts went through life total stranger to the heroism incident to a baptism in the river during zero or near zero weather. Occasionally, a Methodist convert would ask to be immersed and the Methodist pastor would comply with the request. I recall a case of this sort when Rev. M. L. Bibb was pastor of the Baptist Church at Paris. The Baptists had a baptistery in their church at that time. The Methodist minister asked for use of it, only to get this reply:

“We are not taking in washing.”

The Methodist minister and convert had no other recourse but to go to the river.

 

Source: When I Was a Boy by Jack Blanton