USA > Indiana > Indiana Methodism: a series of sketches and incidents grave and humorous concerning preachers and people of the West with an appendix containing personal recollections, public addresses and other miscellany > Part 6
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Bishop Morris, though then the junior member of the episcopal board, had already reached a com- manding position in the church. As a presiding of- ficer he was the peer of any of his colleagues ; as a preacher, he was a model. Clear in statement, log- ical in argument, cogent in reasoning, he was the especial favorite of thoughtful people. Sometimes he rose above himself into a height of impassioned eloquence that gave him irresistible influence over an audience. Taciturn in society, he was, neverthe- less, a most genial and affable companion. The in- mates of the homes he visited, parents, children and domestics, honored and loved him. With horse and carriage, as the custom was, he "traveled through the connection at large," encouraging the preachers, preaching the gospel, and caring for the churches.
Edmund S. Janes was the lithe, lean, sharp, elo- quent secretary of the American Bible Society. Representing his work, he made an address to the conference that was superb. It may be doubted whether in all the great speeches of the bishop's long and useful life, he ever rose to a higher point in sacred eloquence or commanding oratory than on this occasion. If he was scared, as some alleged, while making this address, one might reasonably wish he had always remained scared. No thought- ful member of the Indiana Conference was at all sur- prised to learn, less than two years afterwards, that E. R. Janes had been elevated to the episcopacy.
The Rev. J. B. Finley, then presiding elder of the Dayton District, Ohio conference, was given a royal welcome. A number of the Hoosier preachers had known him in Ohio, in the days of their boyhood or
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early ministry,-some of them having been licensed to preach under his presiding eldership. He moved among them like a father among his children. The great occasion of the conference was a sermon by the "old chief." The fine new church was packed almost to suffocation. The Rev. James Havens, even then called "old Father Havens," sat in front of the preacher, deeply affected by the tearful utterances of his father in the gospel. The entire audience seemed at times spell-bound. The old hero's recitals from his experience as a missionary among the Wyan- dotts, including accounts of remarkable conversions and triumphant deaths, were thrilling beyond ex- pression. Once he had been absent from his station a few weeks, visiting friends in southern Ohio, and collecting stores for mission. On his return he was met a mile or more from the station by a deputa- tion of Indians headed by their chief, "Between-the- logs." The first salutation of the chief was, "Squaw dead," and pointing downward, "in the ground." "She git so much sick, and she git so much happy." "She sick, she lie down ; she jump up, she so much happy. She say 'Good-bye, my chief ; good-bye, Squire Gray-eyes : good-bye, Mononcue ; good-bye, my sisters ; good-bye, my children ; and tell Brother Finley me make a good die.'" Many such incidents were related. His manner was so artless and effec- tive one listening to him could almost think himself seated at a camp-fire in the wilderness, listening to the words of the simple children of the woods. The preacher, in closing his discourse, after giving a somewhat detailed account of his early life of wick- edness, with a vivid description of his turning to
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God, and call to preach the gospel, said : "As all my old companions and acquaintances thought I was crazy, they flocked in great numbers to hear me preach my first sermon. My father was a Pres- byterian minister, and so, thinks I, I'll get one of his old sermons and preach it. The one selected had a good deal in it about 'Bel and the Dragon,' and so I laid it all out with seven heads and ten horns, and started in, but soon found myself in a condition somewhat like to that of a man starting on a jour- ney afoot with a fifty-six pound weight tied to each big toe. I was completely confounded. I then dropped on my knees, and called upon my God,say- ing, 'O Lord, if I am thy servant, if thou hast called me to persuade sinners to flee from the wrath to come, help me, and help me now.' I rose from my knees full of light and joy in the Holy Ghost. The The Lord did help me. . My stammering tongue was loosed. I shouted, exhorted, preached, and sung ; then I sung, preached, exhorted, and shouted. Then I held a class-meeting. I spoke to all in the house, then to all in the yard, then to all in the lane, even going out in the big road. Returning to the yard gate, I mounted the wood-pile, and spoke at the top of my voice, telling the people, if any of them desir- ed to join the church, to come on. I took one per - son into the church that day, and he was soon con- verted. He was a stripling, an awkward, green boy. He came to Indiana : God called him to preach ; he is now a son of thunder. He was not afraid of In- dians. Scalping knives and tomahawks did not frighten him. He blazed his way through, the woods of Indiana. He became familiar with the growl of
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the bear and the scream of the panther. He is now a veteran leader among you ; he is here to night- there he sits! " pointing to the Rev. James Havens. "I wish," were his concluding words,-"I wish to the Lord I could always get such good fellows as Jim Havens into the church." The scene that fol- lowed cannot well be described. A sudden impulse of some unseen power instantly brought the vast multitudes to their feet. Havens sprang from the altar to the pulpit, to embrace the "old chief" in his arms. The people shouted and screamed. Di- rectly the conference choir, as they used to be call- ed,-John H. Bruce, Wm. F. Wheeler, Walter L. Huffman, D. F. Stright, and C. W. Miller,-struck up the grand old missionary hymn, "From Green- land's icy mountains," when the scene became one of awful sublimity. No tongue or pen could de- scribe it.
Our young Preacher-in-charge was, by the clem- ency of the brethern, admitted into full connection at this conference. His appointment was to Cam- bridge and Dublin, and immediately after the con- ference closed, on Tuesday evening, Oct. 25, 1842, he set out for his new field of labor.
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CHAPTER VIII.
GREAT REVIVAL AT LEWISVILLE.
At Cambridge City lived Ex-Congressman James Rariden, Sol Meredith, Ira Lackey, Wm. Con- well, sen., and others, who, though not members, were strong friends of the church. Prominent among the members, were Frederick Drayer, John Hosea, Dr. Whelan, and their good wives, together with Brother and Sister Conkling, Brother and Sister Berry, and the two elect ladies, Mother Wright and Mrs. Sol Meredith. There was no house of worship in the place, so religious services were held either in private houses or in the seminary. The Methodists were few, but the Disciples were nu- merous. Their preacher was Elder S. K. Hoshour, who also had charge of the seminary.
Mr. Hoshour was a scholarly man and a compe- tent teacher. He was endowed with many noble qualities of mind and heart. He was a popular speaker, an estimable citizen, a Christian gentleman. . He had been eleven years a successful minister in the Evangelical Luthern Church ; but, like many others of his day, was led to adopt the views of Alexander Campbell, of Virginia, as to the subjects and mode of baptism. This rendered him unaccept- able to his Luthern brethern ; he therefore changed his church relations, bringing his great wealth of piety and learning over to the new sect, now known as "Disciples." Mr. Hoshour, however, did not sur- render his piety or integrity of character ; nor did he cease to maintain the cardinal doctrines of the
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gospel. He continued to preach with such power and demonstration of the Spirit that the Disciples to whom he ministered, preachers and people, were often "astonished at his doctrine." Sometime after- wards he was called to occupy a professorial chair in the Indiana Asbury University,-not, as he said, to teach religion, but the German language and lit- erature. At a later date, and for many years, he occupied either the president's or a professor's chair in the Northwestern Christian University. Now well striken in years* and full of honors, he is ready to depart, waiting and watching for the summons that shall call him home, to the rest prepared for the people of God.
There was a house of worship at Dublin, two miles west 'of Cambridge, and a society of eighty members. As to the members, honorable mention may be made of the Fortners, the Lebricks, the Hoods, the Pierces, the VanBuskirks, the Parsonses and the Albrights. William Fortner, a local preach- er, was a man of mark. Though raised a Quaker, he was entirely innocent of the non-resistance, anti- war principles peculiar to the society of Friends. Upright, honest, conscientious, with strong common sense, energetic and persevering, an ardent lover of Methodist doctrines and usuages, he was a good man and a useful minister. Doubtless many have arisen to call him blessed, he having taught them the right ways of the Lord. In him the young preachers always found a special friend.
Mother Hood was one of the excellent of the earth. She raised a respectable family, died in the faith, * Deceased.
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and went shouting home to heaven. Her chlidren, ornaments in the church she loved so well, live to honor her memory. Brother and Sister Lebrick, emigrated from Pennsylvania, and settled among the earlier pioneers at Dublin. Their house was ever the welcome home of the itinerant. Havens, Burns, Carter, Scott, Tarkington, and others of the fathers, have shared the hospitalities of this "preach- ers' home." The Parsons family were distinguished for their intelligence and love of learning. Grand- father Parsons was the leading temperance man in the community : by the pro-whisky people, and beer guzzlers generally, he was usually spoken of, as "the old fanatic." He had brooded so much over the evils of intemperance, had made the temperance cau e so much of a specialty, and for so many years, first in New York and then in Indiana, that his men- tal balance was probably a little disturbed. How- ever that may be, he was a power for good wher- ever he went in promoting reform. Parties in Cam- bridge and Dublin were preparing to erect a large distillery equidistant from the two villages. They had purchased building material and machinery, in- volving an outlay of several thousand dollars, when they were informed by Father Parsons, in a very emphatic way, that, if they persisted in build- ing the distillery he would burn it to ashes. At first they paid little heed to what they seemed to regard as the idle threat of a crazy old man. Day after day work on the building proceeded ; day after day he repeated his threat. Finally he told the proprietors that he had burned one large distillery in New York, and was now just waiting for an opportunity to de-
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stroy one in Indiana. The parties wrote to New York for information, and, finding that the old gen- tleman had burned a distillery as he said, and that he had been acquitted by the courts on the ground of insanity, they determined to abandon the enter prise. So the distillery was not built.
Brother James Parsons, son of the elder Parsons just mentioned, raised a lovely family of children, under the maternal care and guidance of one of the best of wives and mothers. This elect lady, Sister Laura Parsons, was a model woman. She was descended from one of the best families of Virginia, in which State she was reared and educated. She added to the grace of great personal beauty, the charms of a refined taste and a cultured mind,-adorned with that"meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price." Willie, her only son, died in his youth. Doting parents and fond sisters were thus early called to walk in the valley of mourning. The three lovely daughters, all members of the Method- ist Episcopal church, were liberally educated. They married respectably, and are now, with their hus- bands, influential and useful members of society. Frances, now Mrs. Tompson, resides in Lansing, Michigan ; Virginia, now Mrs. McTaggart, in Ross- ville, Illinois ; Lydia Ellen, now Mrs. Curtis, in Col- umbus Ohio.
The pastoral charge embraced, besides Cambridge and Dublin, Lewisville and New Lisbon, making four appointments in all. To these Germantown, on the east, was added in the course of the year. A distinguished local preacher, Thomas Leonard, and Dr. John P. Taylor, once a member of the Ohio
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Conference, lived at New Lisbon.
The writer, in his boyhood, had often heard Dr. Taylor preach in Ohio, on the Old Union circuit. Misfortune had overtaken the doctor in Ohio. He first entered into some secular speculation ; he be- came involved in debt, lost his property, and quit the ministry ; finally lost his standing in the church; then he came to Indiana, and resumed the practice of medicine, in which he had been proficient before entering the ministry.
The doctor was earnestly and affectionately urg- ed by the Pastor to re-unite with the church. At the close of the first service the doctor rose, and, addressing the preacher, said : "Reverend sir,- I was for many years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and, I might add, an acceptable minister. How it came to pass that I am out of the church, who is most to blame, or whether any one at all is to blame, except myself, for my present un- fortunate position, I shall not here attempt to ex- plain. Suffice it to say, that, after so many years of isolation,-a loneliness so utter as to drink up my spirits,-I have this day resolved, with the per- mission of you my neighbors and this young friend (pointing to the preacher), to return to my first love. The young man who now in the providence of God is our minister, I knew well in other years. The son of my friend-his friends were my friends. And allow me to say in his presence : You have known me only in the late dark years of my humiliation and sorrow ; he knew me in the days of my joy and gladness. You have known me only since 'the sound of the grinding has become low'-'the grass hopper
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a burden,' and 'the windows darkened ;' he knew me in the bright days of prosperity, and in the high noon of my manhood. The strange influences, dia- bolical or otherwise, that marked out the devious path for my erring feet ; the concatenation of events that has brought me to where I am-these are all matters of interest to me personally, but not fit sub- jects for contemplation at this time or in this place. I read in the holy Book that 'there is for- giveness with the Lord that he may be feared ;' and, if I have backslidden as basely as did Peter, I pray God I may be as triumphantly reclaimed. I pause to see whether there be any objection to my becom- ing an humble probationer in the church." Many sobs, and prayers, and tearful eyes witnessed the sincere good-will of the congregation,-bade him welcome back to the church ; and once more his name was recorded among the children of God.
Doctor Taylor, in 1818, traveled as junior preacher on the Limestone circuit, Ohio conference, Henry McDaniel, preacher-in-charge, Samuel Parker, pre- siding elder ; and thereafter, for nearly twenty years, he occupied a position of distinction among the lead- ing ministers in Ohio. He was a brother-in-law of the Rev. John Sale, of precious memory, their wives being sisters,-daughters of Frederick Bonner, one of the old Virginia Methodists who early settled in Green county, Ohio, and of whom mention has al- ready been made. Dr. Taylor lived many years after his restoration, an able and useful local preach- er. He acquired a competency by the practice of his profession ; he lived and died in the confidence of his brethern ; dying in the faith, washed in the
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blood of the Lamb, he has gone to share the bliss of the saved in heaven.
Lewisville, some eight miles west of Dublin, though then a small dilapidated village, and not yet a city, deserves, for several reasons, a somewhat par- ticular notice. The village had been connected, the year before, with New Castle circuit, John H. Bruce and S. C. Swazee, pastors. It was usual then for each preacher-in-charge to make out a plan of his work, at the close of the conference year, for the use of his successor. The plan, when properly made out, was especially useful to a new pastor, unac- quainted with the field. On the plan received by the writer for the Lewisville appointment was the following entry : "Seventeen names on the class- book ; wont go to meeting ; seven years quarrel be- tween two leading families ; never do any good ; needn't go there at all." This singular note had the ef- fect to awaken a curiosity in the mind of the new preacher to see what he could do there rather than to drop the appointment. His first effort to preach there came on Thursday at It o'clock. The congre- gation, assembled in an old, rickety, log school- house, consisted of seven persons, all women. Hav- ing preached and met the class, he announced that there would be preaching again at night. During the afternoon he visited from house to house in the village and immediate vicinity. Thirty-seven turn- ed out to the evening service, nine men and boys, and twenty-eight women and girls. The services seemed to awaken some interest, which of course was encouraging. On returning to fill another ap- pointment two weeks later, the preacher was sur-
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prised to find a largely increased attendance. The house was crowded at night, and was comfortably filled the next morning at a general class-meeting. He preached again on Friday night, when, without any previous arrangement or design, a protracted meeting was fairly inaugerated. The meeting last- ed four weeks, and resulted in one hundred and sev- enty conversions and accessions to the church.
The first man converted was a ringleader in wick- edness,-a brother of the Rev. Zelotes Clifford, formely of the Indiana conference. Two weeks to a day, and just about the same hour of the day in which Clifford was converted, his corpse was placed on the identical slab bench at which he had knelt in penitence, and from which he had risen happy in the love of God. The congregation was deeply ef- fected at his funeral.
The work of conviction for sin among the people was deep and pungent ; great religious concern rest- ed upon the community. The Spirit of prayer was given in special manner to the seven faithful wo- men that met the preacher at his first appointment. Conversions took place at every meeting. Univer- salists and unbelievers of every grade were swayed by the sweeping tornado of revival power. The ho tel of the village was kept by a Mr. Webster, a boast- ing Universalist. His house was the headquarters of the somewhat astute George C. McCune, a Uni- versalist preacher, the man with whom the Rev. Lucien W. Berry held the famous Knightstown de- bate. Webster had a large library, mainly of Uni- versalist and other infidel books, and was al- ways ready to supply his preacher with literature
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or brandy, or both, as occasion might require. The meeting, however, played havock with the infidel headquarters. Webster was converted, and receiv- ed into the church. Henceforth he had no use for brandy, or infidel books or Universalist preachers.
Another notable case was that of Squire Turner. His wife was one of the sacred number seven, already mentioned. She had prayed for her drunken and besotted husband almost thirty years. Some six months after his conversion and reformation he was attacked with typhoid fever. On account of his prostrated condition the physician prescribed bran- dy. The sick man refused to take the prescription. As he was evidently fast sinking, he was urged again and again to swallow a little brandy. Answering the importunity of his friends, he at last said : "If you will send for my preacher, and allow me to tell him what power there is in one teaspoonful of intox- icants to arouse the demon of appetite ; then, if the preacher will advise me to do so, I will take the brandy." The interview was secured. The dying man, amidst tears and prayers, and half surpressed shouts of praise, related his experience as a Christ- ian, short as it was, in contrast with his thirty years of drunken dissipation ; and, after drawing a fearful picture of the power of appetite, he closed by saying, "Now, Brother Smith, what do you advise me to do?"
The Preacher answered ; My dear brother, this is one of those cases in which I do not feel at liberty to advise. The responsibility is more than I can think of assuming. The question is one for you alone in the fear of God to determine." "Well, then," said he,"all of you retire from the room and leave me alone
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for thirty minutes, or until I knock on the wall as a signal for you to return." Alone with God he fought the teriffic battle. Which shall pervail-the love of life ? or the fear of shame and final death by the fi- ery serpent ? The conflict was soon terminated. In less than ten short minutes the decision was reached. "No," said he, "not a drop will I take." Again the physician importuned him : "Your life is at stake ; without stimulants you must certainly die, and that very soon." The triumphant response was : "For me to die is gain. I can live but a few years at most, and, by the grace of God, I intend to die a sober man. If I die now I know I shall be saved, but, if I take your brandy, and get well, with the love of strong drink coming back upon me, I shall be ruined." This moral hero lived but a few days more, but, to the last, he was steadfast in the faith. He died happy in the Lord.
The power of God was no less remarkable in re- claiming backsliders than in the conversion of sin- ners. The habit of bickering gave place to the spir- it of forgiveness and charity. Contention was sup- planted by brotherly kindness and forbearance. Under the mighty power of the gospel stubborn hearts yielded, strong wills bowed, and contentious spirits, which for seven years had been in fierce conflict, were reconciled. Brethren, once enemies, embraced each other in Christian affection. The grace of God had made them friends. Brother Mes- sick said to Brother McMeans: "Oh, I was to blame much more than you. " McMeans: " No, no, it was I, it was I. Oh, how I loathe myself for hav- ing treated you so badly. Forgive me, brother, for-
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give me the great wrong I have done you. God has forgiven me, and will you not also ?" Messick: "I do forgive you ; with all my heart I forgive you. And will you not forgive me ? Yes, I feel, I know, . you do. Henceforth we will be friends and breth- ren too."-Sisters Messick and NcMeans, whose hearts had likewise been divided, were also made one in Christ Jesus. There were several grown up children in each of these two families. The young people were more or less involved in the long stand- ing strife between their respective parents ; but, during the progress of the meeting, the young people on both sides were all converted. The devil of contention was thus defeated ; not a single ally was left to rally under his banner.
The most remarkable feature of the meeting, however, was the conversion of a Disciple preacher and some forty or more of his congregation. Elder Joseph Paul came out at an early stage of the meet- ing, as was his wont, to take notes, to criticise the Methodists, and get up a debate. At the close of the second service he approached the preacher, and said : " If you preach the truth, I don't : if I preach the truth, you don't. But if what you have preach- ed to-night about the witness of the Spirit, be so, and you and your people enjoy that consciousness of peace and pardon which you claim, why, there is no man more interested in knowing that truth than myself " There was an air of sincerity in his speech that impressed the bystanders as well as the preach- er that possibly the man was in earnest. An- nouncement had been made that "Family prayer would be the subject of discourse the next evening.
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Perhaps most, if not all, that heard the remarks of Mr. Paul, shared with the preacher a feeling of re- gret that the subject of the next discourse had been announced, the thought uppermost in the minds of all being that some other subject might, under the circumstances, be more appropriate. The saying, "Man proposes, but God disposes," had in this case a good illustration. The next night, at the close of the meeting, Mr. Paul, without stopping to say a word, left the house, and went directly to his home, some three miles distant. Arriving at home, as he afterwards informed the brethren, he found his family had retired, and were sound asleep. Be- ing in great agony of mind, he woke his wife, in- sisting on her getting up so they could have family prayer. She suggested that he wait till morning. "No," said the trembling Saul, "I have been a Christian by profession fifteen years, a preacher seven years, and we have never had family prayer in our house ; it is time for us to set up the fam- ily altar, and I propose that we begin to-night." She reluctantly complied with his request. He picked up a Testament, and, where the book hap- pened to open, he began reading, at the ninth chapter of Acts. "And he, trembling and astonish- ed, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" His utterance choked ; his eyes filled with tears ; he closed the book, and knelt with his wife in their first attempt at family prayer. After praying a few minutes, Joseph Paul was powerfully converted to God, and made to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. By this time his wife was earnestly praying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." He
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