Parks, Martin P

Parks, Martin P.

an American minister of the Gospel, who distinguished himself by a most consistent life and great devotion to the Christian cause, was born in North Carolina in 1804 of pious Methodist parents. He chose a military career, and was educated at West Point. While at the academy he was converted under the preaching of Mcllvaine, and after having been over a year and a half in the United States service, felt obliged to enter the ministry of the Gospel by the call he experienced to this holy work. He joined the Virginia Conference, and preached for years with great success. "The force and beauty of his language the fervor of his appeals, and the rapture that kindled in his heart while he preached, were at times almost irresistible; his hearers were borne along on the rapid, sparkling current of his eloquence." He was at the opening of Randolph Macon College appointed professor of mathematics in that institution. But after a time he determined to change his Church relations, and he finally became a clergyman in the Protestant Episcopal Church. In this new relation he was equally successful until disease closed his labors. He died on the ocean while on his way from Europe, whither he had gone to regain his health, in the year 1854. See Bennett, Memorials of Methodism in Virginia, p. 729-731. (J. H. W.)