Calling one day at a fine country-house in Western Pennsylvania, I
found a prosperous Irish family of more than ordinary intelligence. I
inquired if they wanted some good religious books. The father replied,
“What kind of _relagin_ do you teach?” I replied, “The holy catholic
religion.” “Ah, it’s not the Roman-catholic relagin. What objection
have you to the Roman-catholic relagin?” I replied that all that I
desired was, to teach the people to repent and believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and to lead holy lives, and that I was not going about to
argue with people about their churches. Still he insisted on my telling
him what objections I had to the Roman-catholic church.
At last I told him they violated the second commandment by the use of
images in the worship of God. But this he denied. I asked him to get
his Bible and compare it with mine. He brought out the Douay Catechism
to prove he was right, and told me that was his Bible. I got mine;
but he forbade my reading it, as it was a heretic’s Bible. I insisted
on having Bible authority for the use of images in God’s worship. As
the old man seemed to be at a loss to defend his position, one of his
daughters, a beautiful girl, presented herself before me, and said, “I
can give you Bible plenty for the use of images, and the good resulting
from the use of them. What was it that Moses put up on the pole for the
Israelites to look at when the fiery serpents bit them?” I explained
to her that the brazen serpent was set up, not to be worshipped, but
simply looked at as a type of Christ, to whom dying sinners may look
and live. But all my efforts were in vain. As I left them, she was
still asking me to repent, and come over to the true Roman-catholic
church as the only place of safety.
A few days after, the Rev. Mr. J---- requested me to visit the town
of S----, where he occasionally preached, and had made an appointment
for me to address the people at night, preparatory to visiting all the
families. He gave me a letter of introduction to one of his members,
who lived a mile from the village, and who he expected would go with
me. I came to his house near dark, almost frozen. He received me very
coldly, and neither offered me food or company. I inquired the way to
town, and soon left.
The night was dark, the snow deep, the cold intense, and I was an
entire stranger in the place. As I rode along the street, every door
and window was shut, till I came to a store. I tied my horse and
stepped in, and found a large, fine-looking man sitting by the stove
alone. By asking a few questions, I learned it was Mr. S----, the
proprietor of the town. I told him I was glad to make his acquaintance.
That I had come there at the request of the Rev. Mr. J----, to hold a
meeting that night, and to spend a few days visiting his people and
supplying them with good religious books, and I would be glad to have
his counsel and advice as to the best way to do it.
Said he, “It depends very much, sir, on the kind of religious books you
want to circulate here. I suppose you have the Confession of Faith of
the Presbyterian church among them, and I can prove that it is full of
falsehoods; and more than that, I want you to know, sir, that I have
made a promise to kick out of my house every man that comes in it that
has graduated at Jefferson College, and studied theology at the Western
Seminary.” As he closed the sentence, he stood up before me, as if he
was going to make good his promise. I requested him to wait till I
should explain my object. I told him I had no Confessions of Faith, nor
any denominational books; that they were all the books of the American
Tract Society, and approved by nearly all evangelical Christians,
and consequently not sectarian. And as to the other objection, I had
never graduated either at Jefferson College or the Western Theological
Seminary, consequently he was barking up the wrong tree. “Why,” said
he, “are you not a Presbyterian preacher?” “No, sir,” said I, “I have
not the honor to be a preacher.” He turned instantly and walked out,
leaving me alone.
I stepped to the door, and asked a little boy who was passing if there
was a Mr. G---- living in the town. “Yes,” said he, “he lives in the
adjoining house.” I stepped to the door, and was cordially greeted by
an old acquaintance. In a few minutes I was seated at a sumptuously
supplied table, which I very much needed; and an hour after was in a
school-house, holding forth to the people, with my belligerent friend
for one of my hearers. I visited all the town; but Mr. S---- carefully
avoided meeting me, always turning away to shun me; but I supplied his
family with a good stock of books.
* * * * *
At the close of my labors in that town, I entered a very hilly region
of country, and stopped over night with a Mr. W----, an aged, infirm
man, who sent his son with me the next day to hunt up the cabins of the
poor. The son had spent some years in a roving life, and seemed totally
indifferent about religion.
In the first cabin we called at, we found a young woman in the last
stages of a decline. I have seldom seen any soul so full of joy and
peace. She talked more like an inhabitant of heaven than of earth.
While we spoke of Christ’s love, and what he had done for her, I saw
the tears course down my companion’s cheeks. When we left her he said,
“Religion is a reality.”
After visiting a few more families, we came in sight of a beautiful
farm, which lay in a valley. Mr. W---- said to me, “I will not go with
you to that man’s house. He is an unbeliever, and a shrewd fellow, and
if you talk to him on religion as you have done to others, he will get
mad, and insult you. His wife is pious; but I have heard him say that
when the preacher came to visit his family he kept out of the way,
because he did not wish to insult him; and he will certainly insult
you, if you speak to him on that subject.” Said I, “He has the more
need to be visited. Such persons are the very ones I am sent to hunt
up; but as he may take offence at you for leading me to his house, you
may fall behind, and come up after me,” which he concluded to do.
As I approached the house, I got off my horse, and took my big
saddle-bags, filled with books, on my arm, and stepped into the house.
In a few minutes all the children were in. They were fine, intelligent
children; and to my surprise, I recognized their mother as a once
dashing young lady I had known well fifteen years before; but she had
entirely forgotten me.
In a few minutes in came my travelling companion and Mr. C---- with
him; Mr. C----’s face indicating great determination and firmness. I
immediately began to hunt for a text to begin with, and chose a little
girl of three or four years old, whom I called to my side. I began to
tell her about Jesus, and what he did to save sinners, and how deeply
praying fathers and mothers felt for their dear children, whom they
would soon meet at the bar of God. I asked her if father and mother
did not pray for her. By this time the mother and the oldest daughter
were weeping freely. I asked the mother if she would not rather see
her children converted to God than any thing else. “Oh, yes,” she
exclaimed, “it burdens my heart.” I cast my eye round towards Mr. C----
and Mr. W----, and both were weeping.
“Mr. C----,” said I, “don’t you feel concerned about the souls of this
interesting group of children which God has given you to train up for
Him?” “Not as much as I ought to do.” His heart was so full he could
scarcely utter one word. Said I, “Are you not a professor of religion?”
“No, I am not. I have been a very careless man on that subject. When
I was a young man I was very much concerned for a while, but I fell
in with wicked young men, and read bad books, and I have entirely
neglected religion ever since. But I don’t know what has come over me
now.”
“I trust,” said I, “it is the Spirit of God that has touched your
heart, and I beseech you now to yield to his divine solicitations;
not to delay for one moment. If you resist the Holy Ghost now, he may
leave you for ever, and then your doom will be sealed; but if you now
give up all for Christ, you will find peace, and there may be joy in
heaven among the angels this moment.” He cried out in the agony of his
soul, “What shall I do to be saved?” I urged him to enter that night
on all the duties that God had enjoined on him; to read his Bible, and
pray for himself and family. He pledged his word to me to do it. He
kept that pledge. I prayed with him, sold him eighteen volumes of good
books, and left the whole family in tears. He soon after joined the
church; and Mr. W----, I was told, professed religion soon after, and
attributed his conversion to a day’s travel with a colporteur.
I held a prayer-meeting that night at the house of Mr. H----, a man of
remarkable piety and benevolence. He told me of an incident that marked
his whole life, and made him what he was. Said he, “I served my time
with a hard master to learn the wagon-making business. I had engaged to
go, the day I was free, some forty miles to work as a journeyman. The
evening before I was to start, a good man gave me his advice, and at
the close asked me if I had money to pay my way. I told him I had no
money, but could get there, as I was going to walk. He handed me fifty
cents, all he had, as a present. While on my way I met a poor miserable
man begging. He told me he was starving. I gave him the fifty cents, as
I had no way to divide it. Before I had gone many rods I found a silver
dollar lying on the road, over which he had stepped. I said to myself,
‘_God sent this_,’ and I determined to serve him all the days of my
life; and he has blessed me ever since.”
* * * * *
In a few days I commenced labor along the line between Western
Pennsylvania and Western Virginia. The Rev. Mr. R---- took a deep
interest in my work, and travelled more than a week with me. Our work
made quite a stir among the people. The news spread that we were
entering every house, talking and praying.
We set a day to visit a neighborhood that was noted for its wickedness.
There were several families owning fine farms who never entered a
church. On the day set, we took an early start. As we approached the
first house, we saw all the inmates running to the barn. We knocked at
the door, but no answer. We went to the barn; but before we reached it
they were running across the adjoining field. We understood the cause,
and came back to the house, and put in at the window Baxter’s Call and
a few suitable tracts, with the earnest prayer for God’s blessing to
attend the reading of them.
We went on to the next house, but it was closed, and no one to be
found. We here also installed Baxter and several other preachers
through the window; and so on till we had visited six families.
At every one of these houses the people either fled or concealed
themselves at our approach. Mr. R---- pleasantly observed, as we
were poor men, he thought the best thing we could do for our worldly
interests would be to take possession of the property, for he supposed
they would never come to dispossess us. Great fear fell upon sinners at
our approach.
A few miles distant I held a prayer-meeting one night, and had a large
crowd. At the close, I laid my books on the table, and told them that I
would sell to any that wanted to buy. In a little time the man of the
house told me that a man had _stolen_ his pocket full; that he was a
very bad man, and we should have a fight if we attempted to take them
from him. Among them was a fine pocket Bible. So I concluded to let
them go, and pray that God would overrule his wickedness for good.
Some weeks after, while visiting along the Ohio river hills among the
wood-choppers near the same place, I called at a cabin, and found a
woman in deep distress about her soul. She told me she had got a book
that was the cause. That a man had sold it to a neighbor. They were
the fourth family that had read it, and all were concerned about their
souls. I found all the families she named, and the book thus blessed
was a copy of Baxter’s Call which that man stole from me and sold to
one of these families.