John Leland was a man greatly used by God throughout his life – even in his “old age.” When he was 77, he recorded God’s blessings on his ministry – on July 11, 1831 he baptized 10 new converts, and 4 the next week, 2 the following week and 4 the next (July31). One of those new believers was 82 years old. That must have been an impressive sight. Earlier, in the winter of 1800, he baptized a man who was 90 years of age. God’s blessings continued as evidenced by Leland’s immersion of 20 others before the end of October.
On May 14, 1834, Leland recorded that he had turned 80. “I now have several little preaching tours appointed; but my Maker only knows whether life and strength will be given me to fill them. It is now sixty years since I began to preach, but ah! How little I have done! And how imperfect that little.” In his diary for this day in 1834 he recorded, “this day I baptized five, which are the first I have baptized since I was eighty years old. My baptismal list is now 1524.” Nine months later he wrote: “I have been preaching sixty years to convince men that human powers were too degenerate to effect a change of heart by
self-exertion; and all the revivals of religion that I have seen have substantially accorded with that sentiment.”
– Source: “This Day in Baptist History, III” – Cummins