Thursday, December 28, 2017

The Early Life Of Bishop Charles Harrison Mason

By Scott Bennett


Although there is so much that is said about this prominent figure in the Pentecostal Holiness denomination, there are still many who do not quite know the full story. It is hard to tell the complete story of Bishop Charles Harrison Mason because he achieved so many great things in his life, all while having plenty of very human struggles along the way. In spite of these, he went on to found one of the biggest churches of its kind.

Mason's life had humble beginnings in a small area in Tennessee habitated by sharecroppers that had not been incorporated into a town. His father Jerry and his mother Eliza has both been slaves before getting their freedom and becoming sharecroppers. His early life did not include a regular education, but rather gleaned all the knowledge he could from his parents' religion.

The first time anyone joins a church is a very special experience, and it can change a person's life. It can be all the more special when the person carrying out the baptism is a relative or someone special in the person's life, and so it was a very special ceremony when Mason's half-brother baptized him. This was in 1879 at a Baptist church, and he was twelve.

Trouble arose in 1880 when both tuberculosis and yellow fever were spreading around the area of Shelby County, and Mason fell sick to tuberculosis when he was fourteen. In those days, hospitals would not treat African Americans, and the medical centers for African Americans didn't have enough money or trained experts. The result was many people needlessly dying, including Mason's father Jerry.

It can be very difficult to recover from the loss of a loved one. Sharecropping was no longer a possibility for the family, so they had to move to Preston, which is in Arkansas. This was a very hard move on Mason's health, and he was only getting worse when his family all prayed for him to get better, and he did.

It may seem like this many has wanted to be a minister since the day he was born, but that would not be quite true. There was a time in his youth when he felt that he would do better as just an ordinary member of the congregation in the church, and that's what he told his parents. However, when God heard the prayers of his family and healed him of tuberculosis, he took it as a sign that he should be a minister.

It was in 1893 that Mason's license to be a minister was acquired. He was 27, and it marked the first step of his career that would last the rest of his life. From there, his work took him to a Baptist church in Arkansas, which would be his first hands-on experience as a minister.

One of the hardest things to do in professional situations is to disagree with one's peers. Since Mason knew firmly what he believed in and wanted to represent it and nothing else, he was able to take action and left the first Baptist church he was working at after only being there a short time. He felt that their views were too liberal.




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