Cherokee-Bartow-Pickens County GaArchives Church Records.....Pleasant Valley Baptist Association Copyright Date September 1894 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: M Chatham mfchatham@msn.com August 27, 2010, 11:51 pm The Pleasant Valley Baptist Association was established in 1889 in Pine Log, Bartow County, Georgia. The churches that remain in the association today are in Bartow, Cherokee, Cobb & Floyd Counties. Every year since the establishment of this association, a circular letter has been written by a man appointed by the delegates, usually an ordained minister, concerning a subject of the choosing of the writer. The letters often give us a look into the thoughts of the people of the churches in that day. 1894 Circular Letter "Dear Brethren, As I was appointed to write a circular letter, by the grace of God, I will do the best I can. Text: John, 13th chapter and 34th verse: “That ye love one another as I have loved you.” This is Christ’s own language the night He was delivered into the hands of sinners to be crucified. He always made manifest His love to His disciples, notwithstanding, He rebuked them when He wnet into the temple and found them selling doves and making the temple a house of merchandise. He overthrew the money changers and took a scourge of small cords and drove them all out; said His house is a house of prayer, and they had make it a den of thieves, and at other times rebuked the disciples on account of their unfaithfulness, yet he taught them to love one another as He had loved them. He made manifest His love in feeding thousands with a few loaves and two fishes, and in raising Lazarus from the dead, and in restoring sight to the blind, and He made manifest His love to the twelve disciples that memorable night in which He ate and drank with them; He said He had long desired to eat that Passover with them, but He would eat and drink with them no more until He should eat and drink with them in His Father’s kingdom. John 13th: “When Jesus knew His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end and supper being ended, the devil having now put it into the heart of Judas to betray Him He rises from supper and laid aside His garment and took a towel and girded himself; after that He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. “If I then, you Lord and Master, have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one another’s feet; ye ought to love one another as I have loved you; If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” Now, brethren, you see the promise is you shall be happy if you do them; it is not the hearer of the word that is justified, but the doer of the word. The Master says ye ought to do as He has done unto you. “The servant is not greater than his lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” (John 15:17) “These things I command you, that ye love one another; if a man loves me, he will keep my words; if ye love me keep my commandments; and if a man loves me he will keep my words.” And Christ said He loved His disciples, and He made manifest His love by getting down and washing their feet, so as Christ loved us, we ought to love one another-show our love as Christ did, by getting down and washing one another’s feet. (James 2:18) “Show me thy faith without works, and I will show my faith by my works.” Now brethren, you see Christ shows His love by His works, for when heaven was searched, and the earth was searched, and under the earth, none were found worthy to loose the seals, and open the books. So Christ loved the world so much He died for the world of mankind. No wonder John said: “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we might be called the children of God, or the sons of God.” So when you look at the love the woman had for Christ, she anointed His body with the precious ointment and washed His feet with her tears, and wiped His feet with the hair of her head; this, he said, should be told in all the world for a memorial of her. So brethren, you see the woman loved the Master good enough to wash His feet with her tears, and we ought to love one another as He loves us. Love covers a multitude of faults. So Christ loved the church so much he gave His life for it, and we ought to lay our lives down for the brethren; so when you go back to the days of the prophets, you can see they loved one another after the same manner. When their brethren would come to their houses, they would show their love for them by washing their feet. This was typical of the spiritual love and the spiritual feet-washing that Christ would set up in the visible church on earth. I will say, brethren, love one another as Christ loved us. So I will say to the Pleasant Valley Association, continue in His love." Henry G.B. Turner Moderator of the Association Member of Olive Vine Baptist Church Additional Comments: A Short Biography of Rev. Henry Green Berry Turner follows: Birth: Jan. 5, 1836 Spartanburg Spartanburg County, SC Death: Feb. 15, 1923 Pine Log Bartow County, GA Reverend Henry Green Berry (HGB) Turner was the son of Middleton Turner and the grandson of James Turner. James Turner served as a scout for Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox), he butchered beef for General Daniel Morgan in preparation for the Battle of Cow Pens and he fought at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781. Rev. HGB Turner served as a Private in Company. A, 43rd Georgia Infantry, in the CSA during the Civil War. He was captured on May 17, 1863 at Champion Hill, Virginia, and he was part of a prisoner exchange that took place on July 4, 1863. He helped constitute several Baptist churches including the Pleasant Valley Baptist Association of Churches in North Georgia. He was Moderator of the Association (1889-1894)(1909-1910) and he was married (4) times. He is buried in Olive Vine Baptist Church Cemetery in Pine Log, Georgia. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/cherokee/churches/pleasant365gbb.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 6.5 Kb