One of the best-known preachers of the first half of the last century was J. D. Tant (1861-1941). My Dad knew brother Tant and heard him preach. A few months before Dad died, he was telling me about some of the preachers he had known and some of the things that had transpired in his former days. Among those events was the following story of brother Tant that Dad said took place about 1912.<\/p>\n
Brother Tant was preaching in a Gospel meeting somewhere in south Texas and was baptizing a goodly number of people as they heard the message of truth so powerfully taught. Some ruffians decided to disrupt the meeting, and offered the “town clown” a side of ham and a bushel of corn if he would go forward at the meeting to be baptized, and come up from the water cursing. The brethren “got wind” of what was going to take place and anxiously warned brother Tant. He assured them that he would take care of it if it did occur and for them not to worry about it.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, the stubborn man came forward amidst several other respondents. Closing the service under the old “brush arbor,” by lantern light all made their way to the creek for the baptizings. Brother Tant baptized all the genuine folks first in a very meaningful way, saying something similar to what all Gospel preachers say when baptizing. After all the legitimate baptisms, he then said, “one more man has come tonight, and if he’ll now join me here in the creek, we will take care of this matter.” The man then waded out into chest-deep water to brother Tant with the ruffians mingled in the crowd looking on, all ready to laugh brother Tant to scorn when the man came up from the water “cussing.” But brother Tant, holding the man firmly in his strong arms, said with a loud voice, “For a side of ham and a bushel of corn, I now dunk one of the most worthless characters that ever was born.” Whereupon brother Tant pushed him under the water and held him there for a bit, and when he finally did lift the man up above water level, the fellow was spewing and gasping for breath! Instead of cursing, he realized he was no match for brother Tant and hurriedly and meekly left the scene. Remember, the Bible says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit<\/em>” (Proverbs 26:5).<\/p>\n While the story is humorous, it gives us insight into what tough environs the “pioneer preachers” took the Gospel, and how they handled the situations which arose. Dad said the meeting continued for several more nights with numerous responses, and the church of our Lord was established in another Texas town. Thank God for men like J. D. Tant.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Author Unknown One of the best-known preachers of the first half of the last century was J. D. Tant (1861-1941). My Dad knew brother Tant and heard him preach. A few months before Dad died, he was telling me about some of the preachers he had known and some of the things that had transpired…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[536,671],"class_list":["post-56961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preaching","tag-scoffers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59005,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/larimore-and-tant\/","url_meta":{"origin":56961,"position":0},"title":"Larimore and Tant","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by F. Yater Tant Gospel Guardian, September 22, 1955 In the 1890s the beloved T. B. Larimore held a six-month meeting at Sherman, Texas, and baptized something like 250 people. His prestige there and his influence were almost comparable to Paul's in Galatia at the time the Galatians \"would have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55347,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-bit-of-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":56961,"position":1},"title":"A Bit of History","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant While looking through an old paperback songbook, I found a page written by Austin Taylor, a song leader who often traveled with my grandfather (J. D. Tant) and other gospel preachers to lead singing during gospel meetings. He mentioned the favorite songs of several preachers. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69037,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jefferson-d-tant-j-c-mcquiddy-exchange\/","url_meta":{"origin":56961,"position":2},"title":"Jefferson D. Tant – J. C. McQuiddy Exchange\u00a0\u00a0","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Gardner comments by Jefferson David Tant III Tant was barred from the Gospel Advocate starting in 1909 for some ten years. In Tant's biography, this is attributed to the fact that the Advocate became more \"literary\" with the addition of men like R. H. Boll to the staff.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56719,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-hardships-of-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":56961,"position":3},"title":"The Hardships of Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant The following is an excerpt from the story of my grandfather, J. D. Tant, written by Yeater Tant. I was rereading this portion this morning and thought of the hardships he endured, and how comfortable so many of us are. Would we have such faith? And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37298,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-have-fought-a-good-fight\/","url_meta":{"origin":56961,"position":4},"title":"I Have Fought a Good Fight","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by J. D. Tant (1861-1941) Sixty years have come and gone. I hope and pray that long after I cross the great divide, hundreds will read my sermons, be taught the way of life, and take up their cross and follow Jesus. I am leaving this bit of history that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43111,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pulpit-or-personal\/","url_meta":{"origin":56961,"position":5},"title":"Pulpit or Personal","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant So, what do I mean by the title \"Pulpit or Personal?\" It has to do with the preacher's challenge to preach the gospel. Obviously, there are different ways by which we can shine the light of the gospel into a world full of darkness. We can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}