Pastor David Jones served as a Baptist chaplain under General Horatio Gates. There was such a bond between the two men that when, on this day (June 24) 1798, there was a son born to pastor Jones, he named him Horatio Gates Jones.

When Horatio was 21, he was born again. Soon the church of which he was a member recognized God’s call upon him man and she licensed him to preach. When he was later ordained, his elderly father counseled him; “My son, in your preaching, don’t put the rack too high. Some ministers put the rack so high that the little lambs, can’t get a bite. Put the rack low, and the old sheep can get the fodder, and the lambs too.” The young man heeded the advice and the Lord blessed.

After a ministry in New Jersey, Brother Jones moved his family to a site just north of Philadelphia, and began services in “Thompson’s Meeting-house” – property owned by Charles Thompson, the first secretary of the Continental Congress. Although remaining a Presbyterian, Thompson attended the services, and when the congregation grew large enough, he donated land upon which the Lower Merion (Baptist) Church built a meeting house of their own. Horatio Jones pastored that congregation for 45 years.

Jones served the Lord well, and God blessed him with several honors. Early in his ministry, Brown University conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts, and in 1852 the University of Lewisburg made him their first chancellor and bestowed on him their first Doctor of Divinity degree.

Horatio Jones passed into the presence of his Saviour on December 12, 1853.