Gwinnett County GaArchives Biographies.....Almond, W. D. unknown - unknown
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com July 27, 2004, 6:10 pm

Author: J. C. Flanigan
Rev. W. D. Almond.

	Rev. W. D. Almond, for some forty years the pastor of Haynes Creek 
Primitive Baptist Church, wrote a letter to a friend in 1873, a part of which 
is reproduced here:

CONYERS, GA., JANUARY 1, 1877.

	Now, if you will bear with me, I will talk a little with the children 
who may read this letter. I want to speak to them of my travels in and my 
deliverance from Babylon.

	When I read Brother Gold's letter, I could hardly restrain myself. Oh, 
it did me so much good!

	I wish to give a short sketch of my earlier experience. At a very 
early age, I had thoughts that troubled me about dying and going to the bad 
world; but I soon became reconciled, believing I could do something to make my 
escape. This I intended to do before it was too late. I set times when I would 
commence the work, but when time came, I was not quite ready. This I continued 
until November, 1838, when I was more deeply concerned; and after awhile I 
obtained a little hope. But it did not come in the way I expected it; for I 
had thought if I received a hope, I would know all about it. I labored hard to 
get a better hope, but without success. My troubles were now different and I 
could not recall my former trouble. I was in this condition seven years, and 
became so much distressed that I thought I could not live. I told my uncle, 
Peter B. Almond, of my trouble of mind, and he advised me to go to the church 
and said he believed if he was a Christian, I was also.

	I did so, and was received on July 5, 1845, and was put under the 
water the next day by Stephen Mayfield, and became identified with a 
missionary church, which I thought at that time was the church of Christ.

	I continued with them till July, 1857. During that time, I was like 
other false religionists who care not who Jesus is, some saying he was John, 
the Baptist, some that he was Jeremias, and others that he was one of the 
prophets. But, they could not tell who he was, for they did not know, but, 
blessed truth, there were some who did know by revelation, as Peter did, that 
he is the Christ, the son of the living God. I have not the shadow of a doubt 
about it, but this knowledge is not acquired by being told by other men, nor 
by even reading the Scriptures, nor by hearing some preacher declare it, but 
by being taught by the spirit. We know the things of the spirit just as Peter 
knew that Christ is the son of God, because it is revealed to us by our Father 
which is in Heaven. Truly flesh and blood cannot reveal these things unto us.

	In the spring of 1851, I became very much perplexed about the 
Scriptures. They seemed to me to clash in spite of all I could do to reconcile 
them. It seemed to me that if Jacob was loved and Esau hated before they were 
born or had done any good or evil, I could not see that God was just; nor how 
it could be said of Him that He was no respecter of persons, but that in every 
nation He that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him.

	I called upon my pastor to reconcile these two passages with many 
others I had marked down for him to explain. When I showed them to him, he 
looked at them some time and then said, "Ah, Brother Billy, the doctrine of 
election and predestination is in the Bible, but just let it remain there. 
Secret things belong to God, but revealed things to us and our children."

	I then thought I was probably doing wrong in trying to find out things 
which God did not design for me to know, and I tried to reconcile myself and 
give it up. But I could- not. My mind was running to and fro through the 
Scriptures and continued for two weeks.

	I became so weak and in so much trouble that I could neither eat nor 
sleep but little. I cannot describe the condition I was in. One morning I was 
in the field plowing, when a small voice arrested my attention and seemed to 
roll into my breast. And here my revelation began. How long it continued, I 
cannot say. Nor can I possibly describe the joy I felt. In this glorious view, 
I saw my Saviour, as the mediator between God and man, and also my deluded 
condition. It seemed as though I was taken out of a dark, dreary dungeon, and 
had never seen a ray of light in my life, and then had I been brought out into 
open daylight in the brightest sunshine at noon, it would have been no greater 
change than I experienced in this glorious revelation.

	I saw the camp of Isreal, the church of God, and the shepherd's tents, 
and was filled with inexpressible joy, and was ready to cry, "Glory to God in 
the highest, peace on earth and good will to men."

	I saw the glorious way of salvation as I never saw it before, through 
the dying, risen and exalted Saviour, finished and complete. Let us adore and 
bless our God. Not unto us, 0 God, but unto thy name be all the glory, for 
truly our God is the God of salvation.

	When I came out of this sweet vision, I could not remain in the field. 
When I reached the house, my baby was lying on the bed. I took it up in my 
arms and said, "If you are saved, you are saved by grace; but if not by grace, 
you are lost, for the way of salvation is by grace alone."

	My mind began to expand and to take in and understand the Scriptures, 
to grow, I trust, in the grace and in the knowledge of the truth. Now I could 
see how the good Lord could love Jacob and hate Esau, I could see the harmony 
of the scriptures, and why the preacher could not tell me what he himself 
never knew, and why I could not myself understand.

	Now, however, it looked so plain to me I thought I could tell others 
all about it so as to make them understand exactly how it is. This I attempted 
to do with all my might, but I soon found this was not my work, that none but 
the same teacher who had taught me could instruct others.

	Now, when I came to hear the old Baptists, I found them preaching the 
very same doctrine that I had been taught by revelation, and I was constrained 
to acknowledge that they are the people of God. So on July 6, 1857, I united 
with them and was baptized the next day by dear old Joel Colly, at Bald Rock 
church. I do not consider I was rebaptized, or baptized again, for I never had 
been baptized in truth, nor joined the church of Christ before. I had missed 
the church, and had therefore missed Gospel baptism.

	Now, I can say I never knew .so much of the sweetness of the gospel of 
life and salvation before, and, like Ruth, I can say to the church, "Entreat 
me not to leave thee," and as David said, "One thing have I desired of the 
Lord and that will I seek after that I may dwell with the Lord all the days of 
my life."
                                   W. D. ALMOND.



Additional Comments:
From:

GWINNETT CHURCHES
A COMPLETE HISTORY OF EVERY CHURCH
IN GWINNETT COUNTY, GEORGIA,
WITH SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES OF ITS
MINISTERS
BY
J. C. FLANIGAN
1911

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