William Keele’s Jubile Sermon

I recently purchased Life of Rev. William Keele: a Noted Preacher of the Baptist Church for Fifty-five Years (John D. Ewell, Noah, TN: W. J. Stephenson, 1884). I hoped to find some historical gems concerning the Duck River Baptists. Keele, with other preachers, led in forming the Duck River Association of Baptists in 1826. I was very disappointed on that count. His biography contains very little of a specific nature about how the Duck River Association was formed. However, it does contain interesting stories of his life. Here is one.

When he [William Keele] had procured his license from the Primitive Baptist Church, he preached his first sermon in the open air, on a rock that is about six or seven miles southward from Murfreesboro. This sermon was delivered in the year 1806, the text being appropriately selected; and just fifty years from the date of the first sermon, he preached a second sermon from this same rock, from the same text. This rock is situated near the place now called Norman’s Camp-ground. When he preached the first sermon he belonged to the Primitive Baptist Church; but when he preached the second, he was the leading minister of the Separate Baptist Church, which Church he himself had founded, from causes and reasons which will now be stated. (Life of Rev. William Keele, pp. 53-54)

Republican Banner (Nashville, Tennessee), Friday, August 01, 1856, page 3

At the request of Elder J. M. Honeycut, we would state that the text from which the Rev. William Keele preached the two sermons on the rock in Rutherford county was Matthew xvi. 18: “And upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Life of Rev. William Keele, p.242)

[Note: Ewell’s use of “Primitive Baptist Church” is somewhat anachronistic, in that Baptists did not commonly use that adjective at the time William Keele began to preach. Concerning Separate Baptists, he also writes, “We may find it convenient to speak of the Rev. William Keele as the founder of an organization of Baptists; but this can only mean that he was a conspicuous leader in such organization. Both he and his co-workers were Baptists before they began such organization. The Churches organized by the assistance of the Rev. William Keele and his co-workers, in 1826 and thereafter, recognize no name except Baptist; but for the sake of distinction among the several branches of Baptist organizations, we are forced to use such improper terms as Primitive Baptist, Separate Baptist, Missionary Baptist, etc., for which we would apologize.” He also explains the use of “Reverend” as his choice as “an appellation of respect” while the “Baptists usually call their ministers elder.” (Life of Rev. William Keele, p. 3)]