Tidings of Antiquity

(May 18, 2004)

Cicero wrote, “History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity.”

The tidings of antiquity revitalized memories of my childhood last Sunday as I journeyed back to Concord Baptist Church in Calhoun County, Mississippi.

When I was a child, my parents made a pilgrimage every third Sunday in May to the all-day-singing and dinner-on-the-ground at Concord. The adults sang Stamps Baxter gospel music in the morning and Sacred Harp music after lunch, served outdoors. My bothers and sisters and cousins by the dozens romped in and out of the church and through the nearby cemetery where my Jenkins grandparents were buried. It was at Concord I realized how many relatives I had, both living and dead.

Every time I go to Calhoun County, I learn something about my ancestors, and ultimately about myself. Calvin Jenkins, my grandfather, died in 1949, the year after I was born. I have no recollection of him, other than through pictures and family legends. His father died when Calvin was only 16. He lived life in hard times amid difficult circumstances. Calvin found spiritual strength at Concord, because I knew he, too, traveled back to Concord every third Sunday in May after leaving Calhoun County in the mid 1920s.

I discovered files this week that recorded my grandfather’s baptism was August 21, 1897. My grandmother, Ann Vanlandingham Jenkins, was baptized a year earlier, September 19, 1896. They joined Concord Church in 1898. Calvin was a lay leader at Concord for a quarter century. Each of their surviving dozen children, plus three more from Calvin’s first marriage (that ended when his first wife died), were baptized at Concord. “Lester Jenkins. Baptized: August 15, 1918.” That was my father.

If “sins of the fathers” may be visited upon their children for generations, then “faith of our fathers” must have an equal, but positive power. The spiritual legacy of Calvin and Ann Jenkins’ faith lives on in their offspring, transcending generations. This serves as a reminder that our loyalty to Christ’s Church is not confined to time and space.

Through the eyes of antiquity, personal faith lives on, illuminating reality, vitalizing memories, and providing guidance in daily life.