To study the past is to free oneself from the
"tyranny of the contemporary." It is to humbly acknowledge
that "we are warming ourselves by fires we did not build."
It also motivates us in the present to imitate these heroes of
old and do greater service for the cause of Christ. One such hero
of a previous generation was J. M. Rine.
James Miller Rine was born October 4. 1856, in
Rine's Ridge, Marshall County, West Virginia. He was married on
September 1, 1878, to Mary Belle Wellman. The Rines were blessed
with eleven children. (Plum, 6).
Rine was well known throughout his native Marshall
county where he was a school teacher for 50 years. In addition
to teaching, Rine was elected to serve as County Superintendent
of Education one term. He was also a successful sheep farmer.
(From the newspaper account of his death).
Rine was baptized at 21 years of age. He devoted
himself with distinction to the cause of Christ. He became a preacher
and later served as an elder for the Salem congregation meeting
near Glen Easton, West Virginia. Rine was intimately involved
with the Salem congregation from its beginning in 1905. He had
invited veteran evangelist T. H. Kirkman to hold a meeting in
Glen Easton in the fall of 1905, but there was an element in the
Glen Easton congregation that would not open the meeting house
to Kirkman since he opposed the missionary society and instruments
of music in worship. Those same members also prevented the meeting
from being held in the local school house. This led to the establishment
of the Salem Chapel congregation, which held their first meeting
with Kirkman in January 1906. The congregation initially met in
Rine's home, then in a meeting house built on farmland donated
by Rine.
Brother Skelton Standiford helped Rine to get
the meeting house built and paid for in record time. (Field report
- Nye, Wv: 12). The members of the Glen Easton congregation derisively
predicted that the small building would soon be only a "sheep
pen." While the "digressives" at Glen Easton disbanded
years ago, the Lord's sheep still meet in the pen provided by
Rine and Standiford.
Rine was noted for his knowledge of the Word of
God. He often was called on to preach for all day area meetings,
which were common in that part of the Ohio valley in that period.
(Field report - Barrackville, Wv: 13). One sermon of Rine's has
been preserved in a book entitled Sermon Outlines, published
by Fred Rowe in 1918. Significantly, it is titled, "The Value
of a Righteous Life." Truly, Rine's righteous life was a
great blessing to many.
J. M. Rine passed away on March 21, 1928. His
funeral service was preached by C. D. Plum. The local newspaper
estimated more than 1,000 people in attendance. His body rests
in the Salem cemetery. His friend and fellow evangelist, Thad
Hutson, wrote the following poem in the Leader in tribute
to Rine.
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Works Cited: Thad Hutson, "J. M. Rine,"
Christian Leader 4-17-1928: 7; J. F. Ice, "Field report
Barrackville, Wv." Christian Leader 9-13-1927:13;
T. H. Kirkman, "Field report Nye, Wv," Christian
Leader and the Way 1-30-1906: 12; C. D. Plum, "A Great
Man Has Fallen," Christian Leader 4-3-1928: 6; J. M. Rine,
"The Value of a Righteous Life," in Sermon Outlines
(Cincinnati: F. L. Rowe, publisher, 1918): 166; "J. M. Rine
Expires at Farm Home," compiled newspaper accounts found
in Patty Diane Jefferson's genealogy of the Salem congregation,
921.