Clarence Priser pauses for a photo in his little shop on Main Street in Sparta.

Clarence Priser delivers sermon on 100th birthday

Alleghany resident Clarence Priser turned 100 years old Sunday, and instead of a typical celebration of birthday cake and ice cream, he chose to spend the day preaching at New Haven Church of the Brethren, the first church in the county in which he began preaching about 20 years ago.

Priser divided his sermon on war and rumors of war in the Holy Land into three parts, first giving illustrations and discussing what the Bible said would happen, second, what Jesus Christ said about it and finally, what He tells us to do about it today.

Priser stated he chose to do a sermon on the topic of war and rumors of war "because the war's going on in the Holy Land right now," he said. "It's either going on at the present time or they're thinking about it; there's rumors of it."

Priser noted as a preacher at the church in the Twin Oaks area for about 10 years, he never accepted a salary for his work for the Lord. "I thought I could get more of the truth in, I wasn't being told what to preach," he explained. "Pastors now are often told what to preach or they got rid of them right away."

Priser said he was asked to leave the church after 10 years because he refused to marry a couple that had been married once before. He remembers a relative of the couple refused to let him visit her home after that occurred.

"I also refused to baptize people (who) weren't convicted or anything," Priser added. "They just wanted to show that they were baptized."

Ken Pulliam, an assistant and a friend of Priser's for the last 12 years, explained, "Mr. Priser screens them before he marries them. He doesn't do like a lot of people, if he doesn't think it's right, you aren't going to get him to marry you and he ain't going to baptize you just because you want to get wet."

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