GUS NICHOLS

Hugo McCord

Gus Nichols was born January 12, 1892, in Walker County of Alabama. Can you imagine a man without even a high school education baptizing over 12,000 people!

First Gus was a farmer, and then a coal miner, being paid $1.00 for twelve hours of work in the mine. He, like the rest of his family, were members of the Baptist Church. When he was 17 he heard C. A. Wheeler preach New Testament Christianity free of all denominations. He was convinced he should be just a Christian, and he asked brother Wheeler to baptize him. However, he had a rough time at home, and his mother called him a “turncoat.”

But he was determined to let the Bible be his guide, and any time he was not farming or coal mining, he was studying the good book. Therefore, he became a full-time gospel preacher, and in his ministry he studied his Bible four hours each day.

Consequently it is not surprising that his sermons were too long. He thought everybody ought to be as interested as he in acquiring Bible knowledge. He tried to justify hour long sermons by saying that people did not object to two hours at a baseball or football game.

Gus married at the age of 21. He and Matilda became excellent parents of four sons and four daughters. After eight had been born, Gus and Matilda were happy, and Gus said, “Nickels make dollars!” G. C. Brewer asked Gus, “Are you trying to have a dollar’s worth of Nichols?”

One time, when Gus’ heart kept him in bed for a spell, the daughter named Carrie bounced into the room displaying energy and enthusiasm. Gus said to her, “Carrie, I wish I had a heart in me like yours!” Carrie responded, “Daddy, that would not do at all, for every time you saw a sailor your heart would go pity-pat!”

All eight children were baptized and became good Christians. All eight went to Freed-Hardeman college, with three sons becoming preachers and three daughters marrying preachers.

Gus’ daily routine of four hours a day in Bible study filled him with vast amounts of Bible knowledge. His reputation as a Bible preaching man spread all through the South. One time, at a Freed-Hardeman Lectureship, in an open forum, a man asked a Bible question, and the moderator replied, “Gus Nichols is in the audience. Let’s ask him.” The man who had asked the question spoke up again, “I don’t want to know that much about it.”

There was a time, in the Freed-Hardeman Lectureships, that a practice debate was presented, with someone taking the position of erring preachers and someone making a reply. On one occasion Gus Nichols was asked to present the arguments that Baptist preachers use, and a gospel preacher was asked to make the scriptural reply. But the gospel preacher was unable to refute the arguments Gus Nichols presented as used by Baptist preachers. The truth took a sad defeat in that mock debate, so much so, practice debating has been eliminated from the Freed-Hardeman Lectureships.

For 43 years (1932-1975) brother Gus was with the church in Jasper, Alabama. Lois and I were privileged to be in a gospel meeting there August 13-23, 1933, soon after the Nichols family arrived. He encouraged young preachers. When I was in a meeting at Parrish, some 15 miles away, he was in the audience nearly every night.

About 30 miles from Jasper is Carbon Hill. When I was in a tent meeting there the pastor of the Nazarene Church, on the night of July 3, 1938, was in the audience. In the sermon I had mentioned that babies are born sinless, that they do not inherit Adam’s sin. The pastor spoke up from his seat and said I was wrong. I asked him publicly to come back the next night and we would divide the time, and he agreed.

I was a scared young preacher, 27 years old. Gus Nichols was in the audience, and immediately after the dismissal prayer, I went to him, asking him to sit with me the next night to help me. He said he had an appointment the next night at Christian Chapel in Mississippi, but when he saw how nervous I was, he said, “I’ll send Flavil [his eldest son] to fill the Mississippi appointment, and I’ll be here in the morning and study all day to get ready for the debate.”

In the morning brother Gus came, and had brought black oil cloth and white paint, and soon he had prepared some charts for me to use. In the course of the Nazarene pastor’s speech, he said the fact that a baby cries shows he is a sinner. Brother Gus leaned over to me, saying, “That makes Jesus a sinner--Jesus wept, John 11:35.” When I repeated brother Gus’ words publicly, the answer so demoralized the visiting pastor, he got up and walked out.

How I miss that great man of God, Gus Nichols! Two of his preaching sons, themselves being named in memory of two faithful men of God, Flavil and Hardeman, are still living and doing their best to spread the kingdom of Christ.

Here in Portland, a faithful member of the Eastside congregation, is Juanita Boyd. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Juanita had heard Gus Nichols preach in Centralia, Illinois, in 1950.

5-26-99