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BATTLE CREEK BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
Mr. Harris was converted in 1815, was ordained a minister of the Baptist church in 1816, and soon thereafter began his labors as pastor of the church in Nassau, his native town. He derived early and great benefit from one of the best of schools for ministerial training—the famous old Shaftsbury Association. Here he came in contact with eminent clergymen, men whose lives shed luster on their church and their profession. Here in the discussions and controversies of this Association, he was often brought into sharp encounters with men of opposite views. It was here, participating in these discussions, that he arrived at those just and clear conceptions on all scriptural questions, that so distinguished him as a preacher. Here too, among these learned theological disputants, the independent thinker, able logician and lucid reasoner was developed.
His pastorate of ten years in Nassau, and nine years at Burnt Hills (South Ballston), Saratoga county, was blest with frequent revivals, a spiritual growth of the churches and large additions of membership.
On coming to Michigan, Mr. Harris began as a pioneer in more senses than one, —first to erect a house and make betterments, and then he began the work of founding churches here in the wilderness. "It was meet that the Gospel keep pace with the plow—that the Rose of Sharon be planted where only the wild flowers had yet bloomed. " His early ministerial labors were for several years with the churches in Battle Creek, South Battle Creek, and Climax Prairie; giving to each a Sabbath once in three weeks. Subsequently he served each of these churches exclusively as its pastor. With the exception of three years with the church at Orangeville, Barry county, his labors for the twenty-eight years of his life in Michigan, were given to one or the other of the three churches above mentioned. The two latter he organized, I think, in 1837.
Michigan
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