©2006, Cumberland House Publishing, Inc., 223 pages in hardback.

According to Jonathan Edwards, the work of God can be best measured by the moral and spiritual results generated over time.  In light of those words, God did a great work among the blacks with whom Jackson worked while living in Lexington, Virginia, and while fighting on distant battlefields.

Williams provides an insightful history of Jackson’s black Sunday school class.  This contribution of the great soldier is often overshadowed by his battlefield exploits.  This book explores the spiritual warfare he waged  in these Sunday school classes.

The opening chapter is devoted to the moral awfulness of legalized American slavery and the national context that allowed this practice to continue for all too many years.

Jackson was a man of his time.  He owned slaves.  As a Christian he had a genuine concern for their spiritual welfare. God providentially planted seeds in Jackson’s childhood, including exposure to the Gospel, that would later sprout into useful works of kingdom advance.  Williams recounts that Jackson, orphaned at seven, first heard the Gospel from slaves owned by his uncle who had agreed to raise him.

This soldier did not profess to be in the Lord’s army until he served in the Mexican War.  Afterwards he was assigned to Lexington, Virginia, as a VMI instructor.  There he joined the Presbyterian church.  He grew in the Lord and chose this unlikely ministry to the local slaves.

Jackson began his Sunday school class in l855.  He began with approximately fifty members.  The numbers grew thereafter.  In assembling these children each Sunday afternoon, he was in violation of Virginia law.  The law forbade the assembling of blacks and teaching them to read and write.  His concern for Gospel advancement and for their spiritual welfare motivated him to continue the work in the face of possible arrest and prosecution.  This was the only educational opportunity Lexington blacks had until after the War.

Even in wartime, Jackson sent home funds to be used for expenses incurred in the ongoing class instruction.  In fact, after the battle of First Manassas, a letter arrived in Lexington from Jackson.  Inquirers were anxious to hear who had won the battle. The battle was over, but  the soldier made no mention of its outcome.  The envelope contained a check for the support of the class.

Williams relates anecdotes and quotes of eyewitnesses showing how Jackson followed upon absent Sunday school members with passion.  The author, also, brings to light some of the spiritual successes of that work.  Several preachers emerged from this instruction.  Three black churches were formed in Lexington.  A member's son in later years was called to the ministry and organized a church in Roanoke, Virginia, that remains active today.

Jackson’s friendship with blacks extended beyond his class. In a later chapter, attention is turned to the mutual devotion of the General and Jim Lewis who served him during the War until his death near Chancellorsville.  Again, the author draws on the quotations of many contemporaries to reconstruct this special relationship.

Appendices include an article reprinted from an l887 edition of the Sunday School Times in which Jackson’s sister-in-law reflected on his class.  The book includes a number of portraits and photographs of people and places mentioned in the text.

Those interested in Jackson’s life and ministry will want to procure a copy of this book.  Christians may or may not agree with Jackson’s position on the War, but they will find that this unfolding of a greater war–the spiritual war for men’s souls that has raged since the Garden of Eden–is one upon which all Christians can agree.  This volume should be an encouraging read for Christians of any race or denomination.

Review ©2007 Byron Snapp, Hampton, Virginia