The Preacher Who Was Relieved to Be Called a Hypocrite

Rev. Drury Dobbins, a Hardshell (Predestinarian) Baptist preacher and cobbler by trade, rode horseback through Cleveland and Rutherford counties preaching for $24 a year. He loved books and kept one beside him even while pegging shoes. He lived near what later became known as the Drury Dobbins community near Lattimore.

When Dobbins heard people praising him and speaking highly of his work, it troubled him. He remembered the biblical warning, “Beware when all men speak well of you,” and worried that pleasing everyone might mean he was not pleasing God. One Sunday morning, walking through the churchyard before service, he overheard a man say, “There goes that old hypocrite, slender Elder Dobbins.” Dobbins stooped down, his anxiety eased—now he knew he was not pleasing everybody.

Source: Mamie Jones.