James Robinson Graves was a US Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 preacher, publisher, evangelist, debater, author, and editor. He was born in Chester, Vermont

Chester, Vermont

Chester is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,044 at the 2000 census. The town was originally chartered by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth as Flamstead in 1754. The terms of the charter were not met and the town was re-chartered as New Flamstead in 1761...

, the son of Z. C. Graves, and died in Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

. His remains are interred in Elmwood Cemetery

Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)

Historic Elmwood Cemetery is the oldest active cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. It was established in 1852 as one of the first rural garden cemeteries in the South.-Origins:...

 in Memphis.
Though raised in a Congregational background, he joined a Baptist church at age 15. He is recognized as one of the most influential men in the Southern Baptist Convention

Southern Baptist Convention

The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...

 in the 19th century, and the chief promulgator of the Landmark movement. Graves was one of the Convention's most gifted speakers. Thomas Treadwell Eaton wrote, "We have seen him hold a congregation packed uncomfortably, for three hours and a half without any sign of weariness on their part. This was not done once or twice, but scores of times." Denominational leader J. B. Gambrell described one of Graves' sermons at a small church in Mississippi as "The Greatest Sermon I Ever Heard."

Works by Graves

• The Desire of All Nations
• The Watchman's Reply
• The Trilemma
• The First Baptist Church in America
• The Great Iron Wheel
• The Little Iron Wheel
• The Bible Doctrine of the Middle Life
• Exposition of Modern Spiritism
• The Little Seraph (song book)
• Old Landmarkism, What Is It?
• The Work of Christ in Seven Dispensations
• Intercommunion Inconsistent, Unscriptural, and Productive of Evil
• What Is It To Eat and Drink Unworthily?
• John's Baptism: Was It From Moses or Christ?

Resources

• Burnett, J .J., Sketches of Tennessee's Pioneer Baptist Preachers
• George, Timothy, Baptist theologians
• Hailey, O. L., J. R. Graves, life, times and teachings