USA > Maine > History of Methodism in Maine, 1793-1886 > Part 81
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PASTORAL DECLINE.
enough that they be gathered into the fold, to hunt them up and draw them to the House of God. May not the painful dearth of revival be attributed largely to the departure from the common practice of forty years ago of visiting from house to house, methodically ; conversing and praying with accessible members of each family ; and in outlying sections, after a half day of visiting, in the evening lecturing or con- ducting a social meeting ?
May not a return to the successful, and always compensating method be the promising remedy? Reflection and observation must compel conviction that something is absolutely essential, and loudly called for, in order to ministerial success up to the rate of former times, when the early and later fathers carried their libraries in their saddle bags, and composed their sermons on horse back.
'Tis true this ripening age, though the ripening may not always be in the scriptural direction, may demand a style of preaching different from that of the pioneers ; yet the poor, the illiterate, the sheep with- out a shepherd, being ever and everywhere among us, should have the Gospel preached to them; and to bring them within range of the Gospel they must be visited at their homes. This is a duty so essential to the programme of service of the minister, who should be a pastor as well, that no system, method, logic, literature, science, rhetoric, or book oratory can compensate for neglect. These aimed-at pulpit qualities, not objectionable if not taking the place of what is due to those without, may win eclat, but cannot reach the neglected wan- derer. It is a home question whether the prevailing stagnation in the Wesleyan direction, as well as the average small increase of members, may not be largely attributable to the decline in pastoral visiting? And whether the old time persistent, earnest method may not be the wanted link in the chain that leads the minister on to perpetual success in the legitimate direction ?
After writing the foregoing, an article comes to sight, so apropos, that the temptation to extract, by way of illustration, prevails. The article is Prof. C. C. Bragdon's "Sunday in St. Petersburg," pub- lished in the Christian Advocate.
He says, "Of all Sundays spent in continental capitals, this Aug. 1, (July 20 it is here) is the most Sabbath-like." He then describes the Sabbath scene in St. Isaac's (the church of St. Isak) ; from whichi description the following is an extract : "The rich and the poor meet together. * Nowhere seem the poor so welcome as in a Russian church. I wish we could learn the secret of bringing them
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SPIRITUALISM.
in." Then he adds, " The Methodist church is said to have once been the church for the masses. It is not now. The time is at hand for the raising up of another Wesley to give God's message to the people. We are not doing it ; no Evangelical church seems to be able to do it, much as individual members deplore the fact. While the Catholic churches, Roman and Greek, are doing something to remind the people whom we do not touch, of sin, of righteousness, and of a judgment to come, let us make fewer faces at the them, nor call hard names." " The worship seemed to be hearty, spontaneous and devout. Some call it monotonous and tedious." " I was helped by it, as I am not always by a sermon, and I felt as I passed out that I had been in God's house with those who gladly acknowledged and worshipped Him."
SPIRITUALISM.
Tried by their own witnesses, und out of their own mouths shall they be condemned. The writer is unaware that he has any occasion to apologize for the article here following. It is never out of time or place for the responsible watchman to put the church on its guard against insidious and subtle foes, especially mystified and mystifying foes, who put themselves in direct antagonism to the christian's Bible, and all evangelism ; setting their traps, as the spider, for souls unwary and off their guard, while in bereavment they grope about in mental haze, for consolation. They temptingly bait the trap with the promise of putting the mourner in communication with the departed through a weak minded and irresponsible intermediary, safely ensconced outside the scope of logic, of mortal vision, of revelation and of common sense ; the whole procedure partaking largely of the properties of old time magic and sorcery, as well as of more modern gipsy fortune telling.
The whole thing is nothing more or less than a shrewd manipulation of mesmerism by cranks and visionaries, of whom, in general, it may be admitted that while they half cheat, they are half cheated, elabo- rating unnatural, illogical, false and wild conclusions, from natural, but subtle and incomprehensible premises. To an honest mind, instinctively, and every time, the query occurs, cui bono?
In proof that no injustice is done to spiritualism, as it declares itself from its own record, before dismissing the subject the writer will arraign the sect, charged with "blasphemy in the first degree," upon their own testimony, as formulated by their own chosen and
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SPIRITUALISM.
unchallenged witnesses, testifying from their "Temple" rostrums, allowing their self condemnation out of their own mouths. The witness here produced was a woman, of whose sex the mediums principally consist, and from their own Temple platform.
The writer was present at two different times, a year of development intervening. On the first occasion the woman occupied most of the half hour of the writer's presence, the fact, the drift, and intent of whose talk, was denunciation and ridicule of the Bible, and its theory of creation by God, the existence of a God or devil, a heaven or a hell ; treating them all as myths, and speaking of them as Mr. God and Mr. Devil, with no reservation or evasion to mystify or to obscure her meaning or intent, or to leave the hearer in doubt as to her object.
On the second occasion the same woman, being the leading declaimer, after going over the same ground as the preceding year, with all her weight, and corporeally she was a heavy specimen, came down on the Bible, as a whole and in parts, calling attention to the events as recorded, and handling them with all her best, or worst, ridicule, all being of the lowest, shallowest order, not sparing the christian, the christian's God, his Bible, or his religion. To conclude a long tirade, and to reveal her authority, after looking at the chair- man, at her associates on the platform, and her small audience, in an emphatic manner, she exclaimed, " I am not ashamed to tell you who I am! I am not ashamed to tell you my name !! My name is Thomas Paine !! ! " And then, to reach the climax of proof of the infidelity of deepest dye of the sect, this declaration was received, by a hitherto quiet audience, with the most hearty eclat, showing their pride of the rank to which they have developed, of the lowest order of infidelity, and as their crowning glory. Other declaimers were intermediaries of old time Indians.
At a later " Temple " exhibition, a leader evolved the following syllogism, "Prophets prophesied, Christ prophesied, and now mediums prophesy."
To illustrate the " half cheat and the half cheated," the writer will briefly call attention to the fact that the rappings, the table tippings, the angelic appearances and the music, seen and heard in the darkened room, as well as the cabinet fraud, have been heartily embraced in support of the ism, till brought to light and exposed, when they are as heartily eschewed.
It is, however, probably destined, that, so long as there may be drifting minds, moved by every wind that blows, no matter from what
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SPIRITUALISM.
quarter it comes, and every tide that flows, there will be victims to mysteries beyond the ken of the wisest, all under the rule of, the more incomprehensible, the more attractive and winning ; but that christian men and women may not be left unwarned, the writer feels constrained thus to forewarn the unwary of the danger of being cheated.
Addenda. Wishing to do full justice to spiritualism, so far as facts may enable, the editor condenses the following from two articles, one written by a clergyman in Lucknow, India, and the other by a returned missionary :
"One of the most impudent outgrowths or auxiliaries of spiritualism was "Theosophy," to find a hopeful and wide open field for the development and practice of whose mysteries, Madame Blavatsky, formerly of Russia, and said to be an inveterate smoker, a loud swearer, skillful at the gaming table, and perhaps the most successful impostor living, but " who dare not give a truthful account of her past life," together with her dupe, Colonel Olcott, went from New York to India about 1880. They made their headquarters at Bombay, where they flourished wonderfully, in the character of spiritualists. But their wheel of fortune, in the order of its revolving, was soon reversed, and the parties came to grief. " Their first mishap occurred on this wise; their earliest reinforcement was in the person of the notorious jail-bird, Bennett, of New York city, a Theosophist, of course, who talked glibly, and was recognized as a valuable assistant," till Joseph Cook, opportunely arriving at Bombay, learned that the obnoxious New Yorker was posing as moral leader, and in one of his lectures administered such a scathing rebuke to the would-be reformer that he was glad to disappear, his career in India coming to a sudden end.
" Madame Blavatsky was the real leader, but Colonel Olcott was its chief representative, by whose display of juggler's tricks, they succeeded in imposing upon some persons of note. They also made themselves popular among the natives everywhere, and for a brief time seemed to have everything their own way; but the whole imposture was completely exposed."
" The sliding panels in doors, trap doors in ceilings, and other gigantic frauds were soon found, and the spiritual jugglers were glad to flee the country, obliging Madame to leave India, to which nothing could induce her return."
The Lucknow Missionary says, " The Psychical Society placed the
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ABOLITIONISM.
failure on record. A few score educated natives, who lost their heads in the excitement, sit in mourning ; Madame Blavatsky is in disgrace, and Colonel Olcott has leisure to reflect on the uncertainty of Imman affairs, and thic want of gratitude in the hearts of the sages of the East, at whose fect he so ardently longed to sit. If he cares to know how he stands in the estimation of the bold Russian, he can easily find out."
In a private letter sent to Madame Coulomb, (who, with her husband, Theosophists, had grown sick of the imposture, and, on being interviewed, had explained the tricks and secrets of the per- formers, which were published,) Madame Blavatsky writes of him (Colonel Olcott) as the chief of her "domestic imbeciles" and " familiar muffs," and, writing about him from America to a Hindu at Bombay, she characterized him as a " psychologized baby," saying that the yankees thought themselves very smart, and that Colonel Olcott thought that he was particularly smart, even for a yankee, but he would have to get up much carlier in the morning to be as smart as she was.
ABOLITIONISM.
It was not in the plan of the Editor to write of abolitionism, except what will be found in another place ; but, upou suggestion from an appreciated quarter, he adds the following article, without apology. As in frigid Maine there was no adequate hot bed from which to produce the ism, it was brought by propagandists from the New England and New Hampshire Conferences, hence our' narrative must begiu outside.
Relative to the questiou of slavery, the Maiue Conference (then including the entire State, ) in the ministry aud membership, from the Piscataqua to the St. Croix, and from centre to circumference, was anti-slavery, and could only be made to appear otherwise by being forced defensively into antagonism, by attempts made to compel the adoption of the impracticable platform, and only irritating measures.
The Methodist Episcopal church, north of the compromise line, almost in its entirety of ministry and laity, except along the border, was "anti-slavery" and "free soil," except when provoked to defense as above defined.
This anti-slavery sentiment and purpose was promptly and emphat- ically declared and sustained immediately upon the occurrence of slavery in the general superintendency, by the General Conference
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ABOLITIONISM AND BISHOP HEDDING.
of 1844, in New York, when and where the editor, though not a delegate, was an interested looker on, and thoughtful listener.
At this Conference Bishop James O. Andrew, a citizen of Georgia, was indicted, by authority of the book of discipline, as a slave-holder, though the slaves came, not by purchase, but in the right of his wife, and conld not, under the law of the State of Georgia, be emancipated except by sending them north. Because of which indictment, the church was ruptured, and the "Methodist Episcopal church south," including the entire slavery portion, was created, which secession and division (such was the rank of the Methodist Episcopal church in the south,) it was assumed, would prove to be the initial of the disruption of the United States.
This prompt arraignment of Bishop Andrew was a clear and positive indicator and declaration of the sentiment and purpose of the northern portion, as a body, every part being represented by its duly elected representatives.
During the controversy which led to division, and after the division, Bishop Hedding was the most abused man, because of his patriarchal habitude and well known amiability, as well as because of his being thrown providentially, while burdened with weighty responsibilities, and feeling all their importance and possible results, into one of the most impassioned movements ever witnessed in this country, where he was made the target for the poisoned arrows of an unprovoked and relentless foe.
As early as 1835, "Bishop Hedding witnessed, with painful emotion, the excited state of feeling in the New England and New Hampshire Conferences, and was distressed beyond measure at the ultra measures that were adopted by many members, the harsh expressions used, and also at the imperious and arrogant spirit of some of the leaders, which, unless timely checked, could end in nothing but the most radical and determined opposition to the government, and salutary discipline of the church."
"He had also shared largely in the personal abuse heaped upon those who, on account of prospective evil, sought to arrest, or modify the course of the new and radical movement. In 1834, by discussions at campmeetings and elsewhere, as in 'Zion's Herald,' and by the liberal distribution of Garrison's 'Liberator,' (O. Scott personally subscribing for one hundred copies, to be sent to members of the New England Conference,) a majority of its members had, at the session in 1835, become abolitionists.
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ABOLITIONISM AND BISHOP HEDDING.
" The sessions of the New England and New Hampshire Confer- ences for 1835, had been anticipated by an 'appeal,' addressed to members by prominent abolitionists, to counteract whose influence, a 'Counter-appeal,' signed by Dr. Fisk, Jolin Lindsay, B. Othicman, Abel Stevens, and others, was issucd." The counter appellants say, "Did we see prospective emancipation in such a path, we would bid the process of agitation God-specd."
Bishop Clark, from whom we are quoting, again says, "The conflict had now fairly commenced. That church, which had always most strongly protested against the great cvil of slavery, was most fiercely denounced. Some of the more ultra did not hesitate to declare that they never would falter till they had 'split the great Methodist prop to slavery.' "
In 1838, Bishop Hedding presiding, the New York and New England Conferences were protracted, by obstructions thrown in the way by the leading abolitionists, one continuing fifteen and the other seventeen days. Under such pressure almost any other than the patiently enduring patriarch would have succumbed, of which Bishop Clark says: "The state of things indicated in the preceding pages, continued to exist till the General Conference of 1840, and, to some extent, a year or two later. Generally a cloud of lecturers hung around the path of Bishop Hedding, perverting and misrepresenting his acts and character. His administration entered largely into their public discourses, and was denounced as 'usurpation' and 'tyranny.' He also became the butt of their ridicule, and in some of their lectures a mock slave-auction was enacted, and Bishop Hedding and his wife, in burlesque, sold as slaves."
"These extravagances reacted against the men who enacted them, and led the way to their final withdrawal from the church, and wise and good men, not abating in the least their determined opposition to slavery, whether in or out of the church, began to feel that the church was worth preserving, and that it was not necessary to rend it in pieces in order to resist the monster evil of the times."
In 1838, an onslaught was intended, by strong forces, especially from the New England Conference, during the session of the Maine Conference at Wiscasset, to which Bishop Hedding was to come immediately from the New England Conference ; but such had been the defeat, after a long and fiercely fought battle in that Conference, that no appearance was put in, and organized abolitionism, in the Maine Conference became defunct, though, in a few localities, the
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ABOLITIONISM AND BISHOP HEDDING.
war upon the church still went on, but at a very great disadvantage. At this point the chief organizers, concluding that their metal was heated to its extreme moulding point, and that their power was at its culmination, indeed was showing signs of waning, struck for secession, still entertaining the idea that those who had followed their lead in the church, would follow out of it; but to their surprise, their going was without a following, which abandonment in their extremity, so disgusted them, that they made shipwreck of their faith, and found themselves rudderless upon the boundless and fathomless sea of schism.
And now briefly, as to the spirit and temper, during and after his. sore trial, Bishop Hedding's conduct may speak for him. After being delivered from the furnace in which he had been tried, as by fire ; while he had only acted in strict conformity to acts of the General Conference, lie says : "I have endeavored to examine myself and to pray over the subject, but I cannot perceive that I felt impatient but I may be mistaken, I may not have known myself. After the trial of La Roy Sunderland, I had doubts whether I had not used some words which were too sharp, and I named it to Bishop Soule, saying, 'if I have, tell me, and I will take them back before the Conference,' who said he believed my words were none too sharp." Again, in a letter to Rev. Asa Kent : "The causes of my manner, at the times you name, I think were the following :
" 1. Excessive fatigue. 2. The heat of the weather. 3. I was. oppressed with the business of the Conference. That business has affected my nerves for the few past years, so that sometimes I have been unable to speak or stand without trembling, and, in one instance, in a Conference, I was supposed by one man to be angry, when I know my spirit was as cool as it is now. 4. I think the greatest cause was my spirit was deeply oppressed with a sense of the wrongs these brethren had done me, and the church through me, and I felt an ardent desire to convince the Conference that they had done wrong, believing. the good of the church required it, and fearing that many of the. preachers had not a proper sense of the sin of evil speaking, backbiting, and slandering. With all these impressions, and under these circum- stances, my feelings were greatly excited, probably too much so, but I cannot yet see that it was impatience."
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REV. ABNER S. TOWNSEND. REV. CALEB G. ROBBINS.
SUPPLEMENT.
(1.) REV. ABNER S. TOWNSEND.
With sealed eyes, and unconscious, Rev. A. S. Townsend, February 28, 1885, dropped the mortal coil, and awoke to immortality and eternal life, and the blessed awaking was the result of no blind ·chance. Erysipelas of most malignant type attacked the brain, forever sealing his eyes, and a few hours later obscuring reason, but, though the veil utterly obscured his vision, and though the wife, with an infant in her arms, which he had not seen, lay in another room, yet he was not alone, Christ was with him.
Of his early life, brother Townsend left the following sketch : " A S. Townsend, born July 9, 1833. A wayward boy, commencing my life of dissipation when I was sixteen, reformed, by the help of God, when I was twenty-six; converted when I was thirty-two; found complete deliverance nearly two years after, though I do not remem- ber the date. I have never seen the moment when I have not rejoiced that the work of grace was satisfactory, Jesus is, and has been from the first, the joy of my soul. I have seen the salvation of God on all my charges, and I thank him that I have lived to do so much for his glory. The most wonderful thing I have any knowledge of is the power that fills my soul to-day with perfect peace. The waves of glory have flooded me since last Friday. and I know his blood avails for me. To God be all the glory forever ! (Dated, December 15, 1884.")
None doubted the genuineness of the change, and the confidence was greatest where he was best known.
He, everywhere, made friends, and words of regret and respect everywhere found utterance. Brother Townsend was a good gospel preacher. He was quick to see, prompt to decide, positive in his opinions, and frank in their expression. He was ardently attached to his family.
He did much for the church of his last pastorate, where he was preparing to receive the Conference ; but without a good bye, or the doing of an undone thing, he was with the undying.
C.
as Toward
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REV. ELIJAH CROOKER.
(2.) REV. CALEB G. ROBBINS.
Rer. Caleb G. Robbins was born in Norridgewock in 1808, and died February 8. 1885. Of his early life we have no full data, but he was converted while young, and was soon called to preach, and was admitted to the Maine Conference. He was ordained elder in 1844, by Bishop Hedding, but his years in the itinerancy were few, his health soon failing. but being a man of energy, he neither ceased to work or preach. For nineteen years he occupied pulpits as occasion required.
He settled in Dover as farmer and mechanic. At Bear Hill he became a leading spirit in the church. In after years he moved to the village, and labored in building up Methodism in that growing place. Largely by his efforts, aided by a generous man outside the church, a brick church was built in the centre of the village. The pastor could always count him as a friend, whose deeds were more than words. He would criticise freely, and sometimes sharply, but none could doubt that the words were those of a friend. He was a man of unwavering principle. neither to be bought or over-awed. At his death the community said, "No one can speak any hurt of Elder Robbins." A wife and two sons survive him, one son in the West, the other, at whose home he died, was editing a paper in Dexter.
(3.) REV. ELIJAH CROOKER.
Rer. Elijah Crooker was born in Bristol, Maine, in 1802, and died in Washington, Maine, September 28, 1884. His Conference work was performed many years ago. But few live to recognize his name as a former yoke-fellow in ministerial toil, yet christian affection gladly invites attention to memory of a life so pure and christian in its character and work. Careful study was a characteristic of his. youthful years.
Soon after conversion, both he and the church recognized the christian ministry as his life-work. He joined the Maine Conference in 1830, and soon proved his call of God to the ministry. He was. devoted to his calling, and served, with much efficiency, Readfield, Wiscasset, Bath, Belfast and Bangor. He was a ripe scholar, an able and eloquent preacher, a great reader, and, having a remarkable: memory, he kept fully abreast of the age in which he lived.
At the age of thirty he was united in marriage to Miss Sophia Hunter of Bristol, by whom he had one son, now in California. She was an excellent helpmeet in his work. She died in 1848. He
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REV. WILLIAM W. MARSII.
afterward married Mrs. Eliza Johnston of Washington, a devoted christian lady, whom he survived three years.
His last illness was brief, during which he was abundantly cheered by the Saviour's peaceful presence. His last utterance was, "I am going home to heaven to live forever."
(With pleasure the editor uses this opportunity to say, he knew Rev. Elijah Crooker well, and only to highly csteem.)
(4.) REV. WILLIAM W. MARSII.
Rev. William W. Marsh was born in Orono, February 12th, 1836, and died in Brewer, June 18th, 1886.
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