USA > New York > Ulster County > Marlborough > History of the town of Marlborough, Ulster County, New York, from its earliest discovery > Part 28
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bread until all was ready. We took care not to eat too much that night, fearing it might not be so well for us. We retired to rest on feather beds, but it was a restless night to us all. Brother Coleman had a mind to leave the bed and take to the floor, but I told him we must get used to it; so he submitted. But our slumbers were not half so sweet as on the sandy beach and pebbled shore, when we were rocked by the wind, and lulled by the rippling wave.
One of the "lights," or joyful circumstances of "itinerancy," is the meeting together, and mutual comforts of the preachers. One of the " shadows," or sorrowful circumstances, is, the sepa- ration, and solitary sufferings. I and my companions were now called to part. Brother Dunham went to Niagara circuit, brother Coleman to Bay Quinte, and I to Oswegothe, and we were so far apart that we could not often meet. I used to go sometimes to visit brother C. The distance was sixty or seventy miles, and a great part of the way I had to travel by the help of marked trees, instead of roads. One day I was lost in the woods, and wandered about for some time, and being on foot I tore my clothes very much with brushwood. But I got safely through at last. and our meeting was more joyful than if either of us had found a purse of gold.
On my circuit also I had some gracious seasons. At one place, in the fourth town, at brother W __ 's, I used to preach with great liberty ; but when I had done I felt barren in my own soul, and as much like an empty cask as anything to which I could compare myself. It seemed as if I had given all away, and had nothing left for myself. I was much dissatisfied with myself, notwithstanding the people would often signify their approbation. My soul was in great distress, for I feared lest it should be found that I had " daubed with untempered mortar." I wanted to have the people blessed, and wished that brother D. would come and preach there, for the people flocked to hear, and I thought he might do them good. The more the people applauded the worse I felt. I then studied and praved to know the will of God respecting them. and at length con- cluded that I would preach in a more terrific manner when I came there again, and so I did; and when I had closed iny meeting my soul was full of peace, and I rejoiced in God my Saviour. I then said to brother W., who was the leader of the class, " I now feel happy, and that I have done my duty, and if one half of the congregation were to oppose me, it would not disturb my peace."
The next day I heard that the people were dissatisfied. One
13
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said. " He is not the man he used to be." Another said, " He now shows his cloven foot;" and others said they would hear me again. But these things did not move me. By the grace of God I stood
" Firm as an iron pillar strong, And steadfast as a wall of brass."
When I came there again, instead of my large and smiling congregation. I had but about thirty hearers; but neither did this move. Before preaching I went into a room by myself to pray. While thinking on what text I should preach, a passage of Scripture came to my mind, and such a field opened before me, that I was almost lost to all things here below. When I began my meeting a young woman fell to the floor and cried for mercy; and soon after another eried out for mercy. I thought I must finish my sermon, but I might as well have preached to the walls, the cries of the mourners were so great : so I left my pulpit, which was nothing more than a chair, and went to the mourners, and prayed for them, and encouraged them to believe on the Lord Jesus. The first that cried for mercy said, in an agony of soul, " Here, Lord, I am, poor, miserable, wretched sinner, that never did any good in all my life, and I cannot get up withont a blessing." And then she would raise her voice and say, " No, Lord, I will not get up without a blessing." She was in this situation for hours, and at length found peace to her soul. She then prayed for her sister, as she called her, who was by this time in such an agony that she tore her hair, and beat her head on the hearth until her mother became alarmed for her, and ran to her and said, " My dear daughter, compose yourself, for you will kill your- self." at which the daughter said, "Mother, let me alone, for I will have Jesus, or die." She soon found peace to her soul. The young women then kissed each other, and one said to the other, " Well, sister, we will tell everybody what a Jesus we have found, and they will all come, for we will tell them all about it, and they will come." " Yes," said the other, " I love God, and God loves me: I love Jesus, and Jesus loves me: I love the Christians, and the Christians love me: I love every body, and every body loves me." I said to the leader, who stood by me at the time. " I think that she will find that every body does not love her. if she does them." I was satisfied, however, that she was born of God, and blessed with a good measure of that love which " thinketh no evil." and I was thankful for these tokens of good.
I will now relate a curious fact respecting the family at whose
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house we held this meeting. Before the revolutionary war, the man and his family lived in Pittsfield, Mass., and in the com- mencement of hostilities he joined the. (king's) army, and went into Canada, and left his wife at home. They had no corre- spondence with each other during the war. Her parents lived in Canada at the time. A young man at Pittsfield having a desire to make her his wife, and finding that he could not have access to her without using deception, forged a letter in the name of her father, stating that her husband was dead. She dressed in mourning for him, and at a suitable time, (as he would have it.) he made her a visit, and at length they were married. At the close of the war the husband came home ; but before he arrived he heard that his wife was married to another man. and that she had heard that he was dead. He then con- cluded that she had been deceived, and that he would go and see her. She had never heard from him until he came in at the door. She recognized him as soon as she saw him. She was rocking the cradle at the time, in which lay an infant which she had by the man that had married her in her husband's absence. She was very much frightened when she saw him. He requested her not to be frightened. and expressed a wish to see the father of her child. The father soon came in, and the husband introduced himself to him by telling him his name, and pointing to his wife, said, "That is my wife." The im- postor replied, " No, she is my wife." The husband replied again. "She is my wife, and you have deceived her, and since she has been deceived, if she is willing to go with me, I shall never reflect on her. I have nothing," said he. " but my blanket, and my knapsack;" at which the woman replied, "I will go." Then the deceiver said, " You must go with only your clothes." She replied, " I will go with them only." He said she should not have the babe. She answered, she would go without it. So she left the babe in the cradle. and took her other two children with her and departed.
They tarried all night in the woods the first night, and so on until they got into Canada. He then drew, as a bounty, two hundred acres of land for himself, fifty for his wife, and two hundred for his children, and two years' provisions, with farming utensils, and then settled on his farm near the river St. Lawrence, where I found him. He said he did not know that there was a tree cut down when he got there. So he stretched his blanket by the four corners, and that was his tent, until he had cut down the trees, and rolled the logs together, and built a hut for his family, and afterwards a house, etc.
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When the Methodist preachers came along, this family heard them, and embraced religion, and were ornaments to the cause. Their son and daughter also embraced the same faith, and in process of time married and settled near them. And the little daughter that was left an infant, when her father had failed in business, hearing that she had a mother in Canada, ran away, and came to her and introduced herself, and was received joy- fully by all the family, and was soon brought to experience religion, and married, and settled near her mother. When I found them they were in very comfortable circumstances. The husband never chided the wife, or seemed to think amiss of her, believing that she had been deceived ; and the woman verified that scripture which says, "I will now return unto my first husband, for then it was better with me than now." And the circumstance affords an instance of the purity and strength of the " first love."
I shall now relate a circumstance which to me seemed an extraordinary interposition of divine Providence in the case of Paul Glasford, a brother to one of the young women before mentioned. He was but little more than four years old when the circumstance happened. His father's family were moving from the Bay of Quinte to Niagara, in a small boat. When they were within forty miles of Niagara, they went ashore to cook some victuals; and there being some sarsaparilla growing in the woods near by, the mother said she would give sixpence to that child that would gather most. So Paul went with the rest of the children to gather sarsaparilla : but when they thought they had gathered enough to gain the promised reward, they ran toward the lake, leaving Paul behind. who thought within himself that he would gather the most, and thus ensure the reward. At length he started, and ran, as he thought, toward the place where the company were ashore, but soon lost his way. He continued running about and crying until nearly sundown. He then came down to the lake, but knew not whether he was before or behind the company. So he ran about on the beach, first one way then another. until it began to grow dark. He then gave over running and crying, and fixed on a plan to go to Niagara. Having heard his friends say that they were now within forty miles of the place of their destination, he thought he could get through in four days. But what should he do for food ? He concluded that he could live without eating during that time. and so he laid himself down to rest upon the sandy beach. But his mind was greatly agitated respecting his safety. He had heard that some persons, when waked out of sleep, were
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so lost to everything about them, as not to know where they were, or which way to go; and lest this should be his case, he made a hole in the sand to lie down in, and set up a stick point- ing the way he must go. He then covered himself all over, except his head, with sand, and composed himself to sleep. In the morning he rose as cheerful as the lark, and pursued his way, without crying, for three days more, being careful at night to set his little staff in the sand. Sometimes he traveled on the beach, and sometimes, when he had to double a cape, he ascended the rocks: but was always careful to keep within sight of the lake. On his way he found some grapes, of which he gathered enough to eat at the time, and to fill his pockets besides. He had heard his mother say it was not good to eat many grapes at once, and thinking, as all good children do, that what mother says must be true, he only allowed himself to eat one bunch at a time. This was good economy for a child ; for by this means his little stock lasted the longer, and his health was not injured by over eating. On his journey he saw two or three Indians coming along the shore, and was afraid they would carry him away; but he hid himself behind a tree. Their dog came very near him, but did not discover him, nor did the Indians see him ; and he was very glad when they were out of sight. And who is there that knows any thing of the horrors of captivity but would be glad too for the little traveler? On the fourth day he arrived at Niagara, to the great joy of his parents, and to the surprise of all that knew the circumstance. Even the governor himself was so astonished at the fact, that he sent for the little boy, and would have kept him, if his mother had been willing to give him up. The family had searched for him with great anxiety for three days. They made large fires, and fired guns, but all to no purpose: and when they came to the con- clusion that he was lost, and to proceed without him, they had to take his mother by force, and put her into the boat. Provi- dence, however. overruled the whole. and restored the lost son to his mother and friends: and herein was that scripture ful- filled. " When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord shall take me up." The son was eighteen years old when I saw him, and distinctly recollected the whole affair, as if it had been but a few days past. I have since been informed that he has embraced religion, and has become a circuit steward.
We were favored with good times on the circuit that year. In the second town I formed a class of seventeen members, mostly seekers ; but when I came round again, they had found' peace to their souls. I also formed a class in the north-east
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part of the fourth town, of ten members, all mourners; and it was with them as Mr. Wesley once said, " They were ripe for the gospel." They thought they must do every thing the preacher said. So I told them they must pray, and on the Lord's day they must meet together and worship God as well as they could. They must repent, and believe, and God would bless them. They accordingly met together. read the Scriptures, and sung hymns with one another, but for some time no one dared to pray. At length one woman said she had as much reason to pray as any one there and then. and added, "Let us pray." When she began, they all began, and all found peace, except herself. Her husband said she was on her knees ten times on their way home, and when in sight of home she cried out. " Lord, must I be the only one that goes home without a blessing? Bless me, even me, O. my God." She did not pray in vain ; but though for a time she was seemingly refused an answer, the Lord at length spoke peace to her soul. She and her husband then went on their way rejoicing, and the little flock prospered greatly from this time forward as long as I continued with them. When the time came for me to leave the cirenit, they were so afraid that they should be left without preaching. (inasmuch as the preach- ers that went to Canada volunteered,) that they offered their lands. One and another offered fifty acres, and so on, according to their abilities. I told them I did not come after their lands, but that they might depend on having preaching. notwithstand- ing my removal. One man followed me down to the water side, and there we sat for some time, and talked and wept together ; and when I got into the boat. he threw his arms around me, and waded knee deep into the water, and said, " If you will but come back again, as long as I have two monthfuls of bread you shall have one." Thus we parted, with mingled emotions of pleasure and regret. It was to me a source of inexpressible satisfaction that I had been made useful to a few of my fellows, though of another nation ; and the thought of meeting them on Canaan's happy shore, after the trials of life are over. and of greeting them as my spiritual children. often gilds the shadows of my supernumerary hours, and gives brilliancy to the rays of my descending sun.
We then made our way toward the conference, which was appointed to be held in New York. We started from the Bay of Quinte in a battean, with a change of oarsmen, or double manned. About sunset we left the shore, and got across the lake while it was calm. I had had the ague and fever, and had missed having it only a few days : and one of the hands failing
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about 11 o'clock, p. m., it fell to my lot to take his place. The labour of rowing together with the night air, brought on a re- turn of my disorder. When we were going up the Oswego river we called to see our host, the good man mentioned before, whose wife was sick at the time we first called. The family appeared to be very glad to see us. The woman said she was as glad to see us as she would have been to see her own father. They seemed to be doing well as to the things of this world. The man had cleared some of his land, and planted corn, potatoes, &c. They had also two or three cows. They kindly invited us to tarry awhile, which we readily consented to do. We told them we had plenty of dry provisions, and asked the woman if she had any milk, and said we should be glad of a little. They had plenty of good milk. but that was not con- sidered good enough, by our generous hostess, for the men who had visited them in their affliction, and had relieved them in their distresses. So she offered us cream, but we refused at first to eat of it, until her generosity overcame our scruples. Some writers of the present day have accused the Methodist preachers of sponging : but I can testify, for one, that in those days, though we sometimes carried our provisions with us, we never carried a sponge, neither in our pockets nor in our hearts, even when the friends who entertained us were very thinly scattered through the country. Much less is there any need or disposition for any thing of the kind now.
Having digressed a little, I must now return to my subject. Such was the gratitude of this family for the kindness we had shown them on our way to Canada, that it seemed as if they never could do enough to make us welcome. Had they been as rich as Abraham of old, I have no doubt they would have " killed the fatted calf " for us, and " baked cakes " for our entertainment, for they boiled of their potatoes and green corn for us, and laid heavy contributions upon the cucumbers and water melons for our sakes, accounting nothing too good for us that was in their power to bestow. The good man went three or four miles up the river with us in order to help us up the rapids, and when we parted wished us every blessing.
Nor was this the only instance of kindness that I have wit- nessed during the years of my itinerancy. How often have I seen the aged grandsire, with silvery locks. and eyes bedewed with tears of gladness, rise up at the sound of a preacher's voice, as he rode up to the little gate in front of the house, to welcome his return on the " circuit-preaching day." while the heir to the estate. and his amiable consort, have each responded. " Welcome
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to our abode once again, brother And there was the little grandson ever ready, as soon as the preacher alighted from his horse, to mount him, and ride to the pasture, or take him to the stable. And there were the lovely danghters of " mine host," emulous of each other, to see which should be the first to take my hat and cloak, or saddle-bags from my hand, and set me a chair; while aged grandmother, with her spec- tacles on, a short pipe in her mouth, both of which were laid aside at the sound of my name, in order that she might inquire after the welfare of distant friends, or listen for a brief moment to the short recital of the affairs of the circuit, and the state of religion, and things in general. While this has been going on, the eldest daughter has announced to her mother that the tea was ready, and then, after invoking Heaven's blessing, have we set round the old-fashioned circular table with as glad hearts and as cheerful countenances as ever were seen in the tent of a patriarch. or at a Persian feast. And after the "evening preaching," during the long night of winter, what social hours have I spent beneath the hospitable roof of some of our pious farmers in our excellent country, where no less than a dozen children and grandchildren have graced the circle -" all edu- cated." more or less. " all virtuous." and dutiful, and more than half of them " decidedly religious "-
" While hymns of thanksgiving, with harmony swelling, All warm from the hearts of the family band, Half raised us from earth to the rapturous dwelling Described in the Bible that lay on the stand."
And then on the morning of my departure, (for circuit- riders cannot often stay more than one night at a place,) after family prayers and breakfast, what smiles and expressions of good will have I seen and heard again and again! To say nothing of the " blessings and good wishes " that attended me on my last round, and the happy greeting on my return to the circuit after a few years' absence, even the ordinary pleasures and comforts of a two weeks', four weeks', or six weeks' circuit, are such as none but traveling preachers know. They are the " lights of itineraney," and they must be recorded to the honour of Methodism, and to the glory of God.
We got through our journey in thirteen days, whereas in going to Canada we were nineteen days. But before we had ascended the Oswego river, I had the agne and fever every day, which made it very tedious for me; and when we came to Oneida lake, being in the month of August, the weather was
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very hot, and having the fever, and lying in the heat of the sun. I was almost overcome. My companions at length concluded to take me to the shore, where I could be in the shade, and accordingly they did, which, when I had fairly gained, 1 fainted. and the first thing I knew was, one had hold of my hand, and was calling to the rest to come and assist him. It seemed to me as if I had just waked out of sleep. At one time I laid all night by the side of a fence, with a burning fever raging in every vein, without any covering but my clothes, or canopy but the vanlted heavens, with not so much as Jonah's gourd to shelter me from the chilling dews, or downy pillow on which to recline my weary head. These were some of the " shadows of itiner- ancy:" but they also have " fled away."
When we came to New-York the yellow fever was there, in consequence of which the conference was removed to White Plains, in Westchester county. New-York. The session was a very pleasant one. The preachers, after an absence of twelve months. were glad to see each other. We loved one another. and while we were together the Spirit of glory and God rested upon us. We felt willing to live, to suffer, and to die together. If one had received a little more than his brother. he was willing to divide with him. To be sure, we felt sensible of our de- ficiencies, as well in regard to remuneration as qualifications for the work. But we hoped to share the spoil together in a better world, when all our toils are over, and all our griefs are spent ; and this hope was as an anchor to the soul amidst all the tempests and billows with which we had to contend.
When the appointments were read out. the preachers appeared to receive them gladly. My appointment was to the Bay of Quinte circuit. On our way to Canada, we were met at Schenectady by some of our Canadian friends, who helped us on our way. We ascended the Mohawk in company with Cap- tain Parrott, who, though not a professor of religion, was very friendly, and we got along without any difficulty until we came to the Oneida lake. When we arrived at the lake, the wind was very high, and the lake was all in a foam, which continued all that day. and until about midnight. The wind then ceased, and the troubled waters became calm. About 1 o'clock, a. m., we embarked and after we had rowed about six miles down the lake, the wind began to roar tremendously, and streaks of light brought through the clouds in a manner I had not seen before. Our captain seemed to understand it as foreboding a heavy storm. We therefore made what preparation we could to encounter it. We spread our little sail, expecting the wind aft. We lashed
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two oars to the stern. The wind soon struck us, but we received no particular damage. The clouds were dense and dismal, and the waves broke over us with fury. Our friend, the captain, though an old sailor, was frightened, and cried out, " We are all dead men !" I said, " The Lord will provide ;" and yet. not- withstanding my firm conviction in the power and merey of the Lord. I sometimes feared for a moment that the lake would be my grave. These fears. however, were salutary; they caused me to examine myself, and the motives which induced me to under- take the work in which I was engaged. At length the good providence of God brought us safe through. When we reached the shore we all rejoiced. The captain said he did not much expect, at one time, ever to set foot on dry land again, and that all his hopes were founded on this consideration, namely, he did not know but that the Lord might spare his life for the preachers' sakes.
In due time we arrived in Canada, and our friends received us gladly. We enjoyed many seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord on the circuit, although I experienced many hardships in the course of the year. Some part of the circuit I had to travel on foot, being unable to get my horse across the bays and rivers. Sometimes I had to travel fifteen miles a day, preach twice, and have never set down from the rising to the setting of the sun. My knees and ankles pained me very much ; and when I was preaching I used to stand some- times on one foot, and then on the other, to get rest. But rest was not easily obtained, even in bed, my knees and ankles were so swelled and full of pain. My soul. however, was happy in the Lord, and my spirit rejoiced in God my Saviour. The flesh was often weak, but the spirit was willing to endure hardness as a good soldier for Christ's sake.
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