OLDEST MINISTER IN THE WORLD.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 25 June 1908, Page 8

OLDEST MINISTER IN THE WORLD.

1 1 ' , CENTENARIAN WHO r STILL , ' , PREACHES. The Rev. Thomas Lord, who is probably the oldest minister of religion in the world, entered upon his 101 st year in April, and received the iollowing telegram from the King:— Buckingham Palace. I am commanded by the King to congratulate you on the attainment or. your hundredth year after a most useiull^' KNOLLYS. On his hundredth birthday a deputation of townsmen presented Mr Lord with a portrait of himself with an inscription setting forth the occasion, and regording the^endowment of a local nursing iund to commemorate the day. Afterwards he received a deputation from the-local Congrega-' tional-Church, who presented an illuminated address, aria was also visited by a • deputation from the local Free Church Council. Mr Lord acknowledged each of these presentations with a vigorous.speech. The centenarian minister, Who, save for failing eyesight, has all his faculties unimpaired, has no intention of leaving off work, and will continue to preach whenever he can. Talking to an Over-seas Daily Mail representative at his daughter's house at Horncastle, Lincolnshire, where )ie lives, the venerable old man, -when asked for the secret of old age, replied with a smile: "I haven't got one," adding reverently, "I have never tried'-to lengthen my days. The secret of my vigour is with God." He recalled some interesting incidents of his life. He went to Sunday school in Northampton in 1816. where he learnt to write. Previously he had learnt his letters^ at a dame's school. He has a clear recollection .of the bitter winter of 1813-14, when the i'rOst lasted three months, and they roasted, a^i ox on the Thames, and of the rejoicing occasioned by the victory at Waterloo. When old, enough he was apprenticed to shoea«aking, and became a Congregational minister 74 years ago, writing the notes "for "his first' sermon on a bit <of leather, the text occurring to him while he was making shoes. "There was no idea of ministers having holi-days-in my younger days". During 44 years' pastorates, here' and there, I never had one month's holiday." "I 'reckon I nave preached over 9000 sermons in my time," he remarked, "and I have addressed at least 10 meetings. My people tell -me', I ought not to take more than one. setvice in a day, but a fortnight ago'l took two at Wainflee, but di<T not feel 'any more tired, than I do now."