nd county
In divergent fields of labor;
Who have lent their minds and bodies
To the profit of their fellows.
Stubborn facts and dates and figures,
Chime not smoothly in my measure,
Straggling history makes angles,
Which do sharply turn my canto--
Which transform my major canto
Into strains of minor music.
Yet the story must be perfect,
Of the city on the hillside;
Still the awkward miscellany
Must awake my bard to chanting
All the song of fair Lancaster.
'Twas in seventeen hundred eighty,
That there came from old Virginia
To the west, a gifted preacher,
Lewis Craig, a Baptist preacher,
Who became a valiant champion
Of that church in Garrard county.
Gilbert's Creek, his chosen station,
Was the scene of great revivals,
And his voice proclaimed the Gospel,
Till its tones were hushed forever.

In seventeen hundred nine and ninety,
Nathan Hall, a Presbyterian,
Came to labor for the Master,
In this section of Kentucky.

Nathan Rice was born in Garrard,
A strict follower of Calvin,
In his doctrines of religion;
Was a zealous, constant worker,
In the vineyard of salvation,
In the field of controversy,
As debater and reviewer,
Both as pastor and as author,
Labored hard and labored steady.
The debate on modes of baptism,
Sprinkling, pouring, or immersion,
Held with Alexander Campbell,
Caused unlimited excitement
All throughout the Christian churches,
Made a stir and nine days' wonder,
Throughout all denominations.
Universalism doctrine,
And the justice of slaveholding,
Formed two other grave discussions
In the great divine's career.
Dr. Rice is still devoting
His enfeebled voice and gesture
To the Gospel proclamation;
Furrowed brow and locks of silver
Give the glory of religion,
In a portrait true and tender,
Speaking fluent words and holy,
Telling still the "old, old story."
Every prominent position,
In the gift of flock or pastor,
Has been his to grace and honor,
In the field of Christian labor.

J. L. McKee, D. D., proclaimer
Of the Gospel revelation,
Gathers penitents unnumbered
To the mercy-seat of Jesus,
Gathers multitudes of brothers,
In the strait way of salvation.
Earnest, eloquent and faithful,
Heart and mind and will are ready,
Ready by devoted study,
Ready by Divine assistance,
By the milk of human kindness,
By the grace of gentle warning,