Kerr, James

Kerr, James, a Presbyterian minister, a native of Scotland, was born in 1805, and was educated in the University of Glasgow, where he took his A.B. in 1832. In his twenty-fifth year he emigrated to the United States, and shortly after entered the Western Theological Seminary,; was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Baltimore April 27, 1836, and was ordained an evangelist by the Presbytery of Winchester at Martinsburg, Va., April 22,1837. He labored first as a missionary in Hampshire County, Va., for two years, and was successful in his ministry, planting the standard of the Cross in many portions of that hitherto forsaken country. He was next invited by the Church of Cadiz, Ohio; began his ministerial work in this congregation Dec. 2, 1838, and was regularly installed June, 1839. He died April 19, 1855. Kerr was the author of Mode of Baptism, and a small work on Psalmody. "He was a good presbyter, and made an excellent presiding officer of an ecclesiastical court, to which both the members of the Presbytery and Synod can testify. His decisions were .uniformly correct, and his thorough acquaintance with the government and polity of our Church gave him a superior influence in all her judicial meetings upon which he was called to attend. He was remarkably conscientious in every sphere of life, whether as a citizen, a Christian, or a minister. So decided was he against reading sermons, or even taking the smallest abstract into the pulpit, that he invariably voted against the licensure and ordination of any young man that did commit this 'great mistake,' as he sometimes termed it. As a preacher he was clear and logical, plain and interesting, in his statements of the great truths of the Gospel. His pulpit productions thoroughly partook of his own character, and came forth as the result of close application and much study; and on no occasion would he agree to preach, if it could at all be avoided, without special preparation."-Wilson, Presb. Historical Almanac, 1867, p. 160.