Luther Burgess Bridgers was born in Margaretsville, North Carolina, on February 14, 1884. His family attended the local Methodist church where Luther’s father taught a Sunday-School class. The family moved to Georgia … and by the age of 17 Luther had begun preaching.
Whilst studying at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky he met Sarah Veatch and married her.
He was ordained as a Methodist minister and then came invitations to conduct ‘revival’ services across southern USA. He also did mission work in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Russia.
In 1910 – at the age of 26 – while in Kentucky conducting a two week series of evangelistic services, he was at the peak of his popularity. Just at the close of those meetings a long distance phone call came in the dead of night to tell him that a disastrous fire at the house of his father-in-law had taken the lives of his wife and three sons.
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And Luther Bridgers wrote a Gospel song …
There’s within my heart a melody
Jesus whispers sweet and low:
“Fear not, I am with thee, peace be still,
In all of life’s ebb and flow”
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus –
Sweetest name I know –
Fills my every longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.
At the age of 30 he was appointed General Evangelist for his denomination – and married Aline Winburn. He pastored in Georgia and North Carolina before retiring in 1945 in Gainesville, Georgia.
He died in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 64 on 27 May, 1948.
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This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com
Tags: evangelist, luther burgess bridgers, methodist, tragedy
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