38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



was a God on high, who numbers the very ^^hairs 

 of our heads and marks the sparrow's fall," and 

 who has explicitly said in His Word, ''Pure re- 

 ligion and undefiled before God and the Father, 

 is this, to visit the widows and orphans in their 

 afflictions, and to keep himself unspotted from 

 the world." 



In August, 1883, he felt that the time had 

 fully come ; they who have the will and make it 

 known to God, God always makes the way. There 

 is no chance work in the Divine j)rovidence; 

 God has fixed everything to move in His own 

 time, and along right lines. The Wake Baptist 

 Association met with First Baptist Church of 

 Franklinton, ^N". C, of that same year, and the 

 Shiloh Baptist Convention met at the First Bap- 

 tist Church of Henderson, N. C, in close prox- 

 imity. This was God's time, and Dr. Shepard 

 was God's man to do the work. Through his 

 influence, committees were appointed by each of 

 these Associations, to take into consideration the 

 establishment of an orphan home. Drs. IST. F. 

 Roberts, Wm. A. Greene, Rev. C. M. Ransom, 

 Joshua Perry, and Prof. Jerry S. Lee composed 

 the committee from the Wake Association ; Rev. 

 Isaac Alston, M. F. Thornton, and Henry Hes- 



