The Conversion of Elnathan Davis

The story of the conversion of Elnathan Davis is here repeated by James Taylor, as originally recorded by Morgan Edwards. Davis travelled to mock a baptism and instead came under conviction and found faith in Jesus Christ.

“Elnathan Davis had heard that one John Steward was to be baptized such a day, by Mr. Stearns. Now this Steward was a very large man, and Stearns of small stature, he concluded there would be some diversion, if not drowning; therefore, he gathered about eight or ten of his companions in wickedness, and went to the spot. Mr. Stearns came, and began to preach. Elnathan went to hear him, while his companions stood at a distance. He was no sooner among the crowd but he perceived some of the people tremble, as if in a fit of the ague; he felt and examined them, in order to find if it were not a dissimulation; meanwhile one man leaned on his shoulder, weeping bitterly; Elnathan, perceiving he had had wet his new white coat, pushed him off and ran to his companions, who were sitting on a log at a distance. When he came one said, ‘Well, Elnathan, what do you think now of these people?’ affixing to them a profane and reproachful epithet. He replied, ‘There is a trembling and crying spirit among them, but whether it be the Spirit of God or the devil, I don’t know; if it be the devil, the devil go with them; for I will never more venture myself among them.’ He stood a while in that resolution; but the enchantment of Stearns’s voice drew him to the crowd once more. He had not been long there before the trembling seized him also; he attempted to withdraw; but his strength failing, and his understanding being confounded, he, with many others, sunk to the ground. When he came to himself, he found nothing in him but dread and anxiety, bordering on horror. He continued in this situation some days, and then found relief by faith in Christ. Immediately he began to preach conversion work, raw as he was, and scanty as his knowledge must have been. Mr. Davis was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, 1735; was bred a Seventh-day Baptist, went to Slow river, North Carolina, in 1757; was baptized by Shubael Stearns, at Sandy creek, and ordained by Samuel Harris, in 1764; continued in North Carolina until 1798; when he removed to South Carolina, and settled in the bounds of the Saluda Association.”

Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers (2nd Edition), James B. Taylor, Richmond, VA: Yale & Wyatt, 1838, pp. 13-14

Elnathan Davis was born in 1735 in Maryland and died in 1821 in South Carolina. He was saved during the great Sandy Creek Baptist revival in North Carolina. He helped establish the Haw River Baptist Church and pastored there for 34 years, before moving to South Carolina. He was buried at the Griffin Baptist Church Cemetery at Pickens in Pickens County, South Carolina.