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             When Marshall Keeble died on April 20, 1968 I was running through cow pastures and climbing trees. That year I turned 13 and had not heard of Marshall Keeble, at least not to my recollection. Only in my college years did I know anything at all about the great evangelist Keeble. My knowledge and admiration of him grew through the years. It matured as I collected books about him and by him. First, I obtained a copy of, Biography and Sermon of Marshall Keeble, Evangelist, by B. C. Goodpasture. A few years ago, James Goode gave me an original edition (1931) that once belonged to his dad J. B. Goode. It needed some repair so I bound it into a hard-back edition. It was issued in paperback only.
            Keeble has provided a sermon illustration or two over the years. For example, I have mentioned the time that brother Keeble was preaching and a “gentleman” (Keeble’s words) walked up to the pulpit and hit him with a pair of brass knuckles. Keeble said, “He staggered me when he hit me, but I never stopped preaching. At the invitation, seven men came to obey the Gospel.” People tried to get brother Keeble to press charges against his assailant. He said, “I refused to swear out the warrant. The white church had sent for me to preach to my race, not to fight. I could have sworn out the warrant, but people would not have come and listened to my preaching. I knew I had to take it. Sometimes, we have to take it when we serve the Lord” (His Hand and Heart, 24). Brother Keeble encountered the godless hatred of racism in countless ways, but kept on preaching!
            A few years ago, I obtained CD’s of the sermons of Marshall Keeble. That allowed me to hear the voice I was too young to appreciate when he was active. Keeble was unique. He was scripturally solid, plain spoke and entertaining. Over the years I have read the biographies written by B. C. Goodpasture, J. E. Choate and Willie Cato. From 1960-1967, Biblical Research Press issued a series of books titled, Great Preachers of Today. Marshall Keeble was no less “great” than any of the preachers included in that esteemed list, but was not included. One can only imagine why, and it might not require a great stretch of the imagination!
            My appreciation of Keeble never took the route of another preacher I know. He preached a sermon about Marshall Keeble. No man outside of Jesus, and those mentioned in Scripture, are fit material for any sermon. In reflecting on this brother’s sermon about Keeble I remembered something that the late scholar F. F. Bruce had written. He was once asked to preach a Sunday sermon on King Charles, the martyr. Bruce wrote, “Whatever sympathy I might feel for a fellow-Scot, sentenced to death by an English court in circumstances of doubtful legality, I did not consider that he would provide suitable subject-matter for a sermon, so I begged to be excused” (In Retrospect: Remembrance of Things Past, 155). By way of comparison, and my great respect for Marshall Keeble put aside, I had to wonder with all that is in me why Keeble proved to be “suitable subject-matter for a sermon.”
            An old Firm Foundation editorial by Reuel Lemmons sparked my intention to write this article. His editorial, “Marshall Keeble” (May 14, 1968) appeared shortly after Keeble’s death. Here are some of his reflections:
            “Four thousand years of convulsion finally produced among the yellow race a Confucius. The death throes of Indian dynasty brought to the top among the red race a Sequoyah. The travail of a divided nation produced among the whites an Abraham Lincoln. The contribution of the black race to the world’s good is exemplified by a George Washington Carver or a Marshall Keeble.”
            “No man living, black or white, has done more to break down any racial barriers that might exist than has Marshall Keeble. His death on April 20th is a great loss to both races, and to the church.”
            “He established over 400 churches and baptized more than 40,000 people, most of them of course among his own race, but many of them of other races.”
             “He never led a riot; he never burned out a block of buildings; he never marched on Washington. But he marched toward heaven from the day he obeyed the gospel, young in life, and following him a great throng of peaceable people – black and white – and arm in arm, in the common bond of true brotherhood are headed that way.”
            “We seriously doubt that any man, black or white, has ever been so universally accepted by the people of both races among the brethren. If he ever knew there were segregation lines he never indicated it.”
            “He was an apostle of good will. His teaching was plain, positive and pointed. He convicted and converted. There are a great number of white people in the church today because of his preaching. If more white preachers preached like Keeble there would be more conversions and less church joining.”
            “The church will sorely miss the presence of this great man, as it profits from his influence. Somewhere there must be another like him if the good will he set in motion continues to grow. His protests were against error and ignorance, which, after all, are the bedding grounds of all maladjustment and discontent. Unless these are eliminated we simply pick at the pimples; we do not cure the disease.”