old graveyard in the lower part o' town. Maybe you ricollect seem' it
the day we went to town. Mighty dismal-lookin' place, all grown up in
weeds and underbrush. And he took a look at it and saw jest how things
was, and says he, 'You've got your church in the right place. A dead
church,' says he, 'ought to be in a graveyard. But,' says he, 'when
the spirit of the Lord breathes over this valley of dry bones, I
expect to see the dead arise, and we'll build a house of the Lord
amongst the habitations of the living.' And bless your life, he went
to work and got up a revival that lasted three months, and spread to
all the churches--the Babtist and the Methodist and the
Christian--till every sinner in town was either converted or at the
mourners' bench. And before it was over in town, it started in the
country churches and kept up till Sam Amos said it looked to him like
the preachers would have to go out o' business for a while or move to
some other place, for there wasn't any material in the county for 'em
to work on. Mother used to say it was pretty near equal to the big
revival they had 'way back yonder in 1830. She said every seat in a
church then was a mourners' bench, and such shoutin' and singin' and
prayin' never was heard before or since. Some o' the converts would
fall in trances, and you couldn't tell whether they was dead or alive.
Uncle Jim Matthews's father, Job Matthews, stayed in a trance for two
days and nights, and mother said he never seemed like the same man
after that. He never could tell what he'd seen when he was in the
trance, and when folks'd question him about it, a sort of a wild
look'd come into the old man's eyes and he'd say, 'I've seen things of
which it is not lawful for me to speak.' He didn't take any more
interest in his farmin' or the family affairs, and when his wife'd try
to stir him up and persuade him to work like he'd been used to
workin', he'd say: 'The things of this world are temporal, but the
things of the other world are eternal. The soul of man is eternal, and
this world can never content it. I've seen the abiding-place o' the
soul,' he'd say, 'and I'm like a homesick child.' Mother said nobody
appeared to understand the old man, and his wife'd be so fretted and
outdone with him that she'd say that if a person went into a trance,
they might as well stay in it, for Job hadn't been any use to the
world since he come out of his.
"Well, when the revival was over, and all the converts had been
received into the church, Brother Wilson called a meetin' o' the
session and says he, 'There's two things to be done now. We've got to
come up out of that old graveyard, and build a church in town that'll
stand as a monument to this generation of Presbyterians long after
their bodies have gone back to the old graveyard and moldered into
dust; and while we're doing that,' says he, 'we must bring this
congregation up to the standards the church has set for its members.'
And he got the session to pass resolutions sayin' that all sinful and
worldly pleasures like cyard-playin' and horse-racin' and dancin' was
forbidden to church-members, and that the Sabbath day must be kept
holy and no member of the church could ride or walk or take a journey
on the Sabbath unless it was to do some work of necessity or mercy.
Says he, 'This flock has been without a shepherd so long that the Good
Shepherd himself could hardly tell which are the sheep and which are
the goats. But,' says he, 'the time has come when every man has got to
take his stand on the right hand or on the left, so the world can
know what he is.'
"Well, of course these strict rulin's went mighty hard with some o'
the church people, for, havin' been without a preacher so long, they'd
got clean out of their religious ways. I ricollect they elected old
Mr. Joe Bigsby superintendent of the Sunday-school, and the very first
Sunday he was examinin' the children to see if their parents had
taught 'em the things they ought to know, and he called on Johnny West
to say the Lord's Prayer, and John was talkin' to the boy next to him
and didn't hear. The old man was mighty quick-tempered, and he
hollered out: 'John West! You John! Confound you, sir! Stand up and
say the Lord's Prayer.' And then he ricollected himself, and he turned
around to Brother Wilson, and says he, 'Now, I know that ain't any way
for a Sunday-school superintendent to talk, but,' says he, 'jest give
me a little time, and I'll git the hang o' this superintendent
business.' Says he, 'When a Presbyterian's been without a church of
his own for three years and been driftin' around loose amongst the
Methodists and the Babtists, you've got to make some allowance for
him.'
"Well, after he'd got the Sunday-school and the weekly prayer-meetin'
started, and all the church-members comin' regular to preachin', and
everything runnin' smooth, Brother Wilson set about havin' the church
built.
"The way they build churches now, child, is mighty different from the
way they used to build 'em. Now nobody gives anything but money. It's
money, money, money, every which way you turn. But in the olden time
the way they built a church was like the way the Israelites built the
tabernacle. You ricollect the Bible says, 'Every one whose heart
stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, brought an
offering to the Lord.' The rich men brought gold and silver, and the
rulers brought onyx stones and oil and incense, and the poor men
brought wood for the tabernacle and goats' skins and rams' skins, and
the women they spun and wove and made purple and scyarlet cloth and
fine linen. There wasn't anybody so poor that he couldn't give
somethin' if his heart and his spirit was willin'. And that's the way
it was when that Presbyterian church was built in the old time.
"The folks that was called rich then would be called poor nowadays,
and a man's riches wasn't always money. But if one man had a
sand-bank, he'd give sand for the mortar, and if another had good
clay for makin' bricks, he'd give the clay, and somebody else that
owned slaves'd give the labor--so many days' work--and there'd be the
bricks for the walls; and if a church-member was a cyarpenter, he'd
give so much of his time and his work, jest like the 'wise-hearted
men' that worked on the tabernacle and made the curtains and the
cherubims and the sockets of silver and brass and all the rest of the
things that Moses commanded 'em to make.
"I reckon that old subscription paper'd look mighty strange nowadays.
I ricollect one of the members said he'd give fifty dollars in cotton
yarn at the price it was sellin' at in the stores; another said he'd
give a hundred acres o' land in Monroe County; and another one give a
hundred acres o' land 'way up in Illinois. One o' the elders said he'd
give twenty-five dollars in shingles, and when he'd gethered his corn
the next fall, he promised to give twenty-five barrels o' corn;
another elder paid fifteen dollars in pork, and one o' the deacons who
had a two-horse wagon paid sixty dollars in haulin'; and the saddlers
and the tailors paid their part in saddlery and tailorin'. It's many a
day, honey, since they laid the corner-stone o' that church, and
there ain't a crack in the walls yet. The only good work is the work
that love does, and in them days folks loved their churches jest as
they loved their homes, and the work that went into that church was
good work. I ricollect the Sunday they dedicated it the first hymn
was,
"'I love thy kingdom, Lord,
The house of thine abode,
The church our blest Redeemer saved
With his own precious blood.'
"Me and Abram was there, for the country churches and the town
churches was friendlier then than they are now. If the Goshen church
was without a preacher Brother Wilson'd come out every third Sunday
and preach for us, and if the weather and the travelin' was good, the
Goshen folks'd go to town to preachin'.
"Now here I am tellin' about the dedicatin' of the church before I git
through with the buildin'.
"Well, when the church was about half done, things begun to go wrong
amongst the congregation. Somebody give a dancin'-party at the tavern,
and two o' Judge Grace's daughters was there, and the old judge
himself dropped in and looked at the dancin' a while; and before
folks'd got through talkin' about that, here come the news that Squire
Schuyler had taken a journey on the Sabbath day, and, besides that,
he'd been heard usin' profane language. Of course it all come to
Brother Wilson's ears, and as soon as he heard it he didn't lose any
time callin' a meetin' of the session, and they summoned the old judge
and the squire to appear before 'em and answer to the charges that was
brought against 'em.
"The session was in the habit o' meetin' in old Doctor Brigham's
office, and when they come together Judge Grace was on hand, and he
explained how he'd gone to the tavern to bring his daughters home, and
the gyirls wasn't quite ready to go home, and he had to stay and wait
for 'em; and says he, 'I acknowledge that I did go into the hall where
the young folks was dancin', and I stood and looked at 'em a while.
And,' says he, 'I might 'a' patted my foot, keepin' time to the music,
for they was dancin' a Virginia reel, and it's mighty hard for me to
keep my feet still when there's a Virginia reel goin' on. But,' says
he, 'that was the head and front of my offendin'.'
"Then Brother Wilson asked him if his daughters danced at the party,
and the old judge he looked over at one o' the elders and winked, and
then he says, as solemn as you please, 'Not while I was there.' Says
he, 'I forbid my children to dance, and if I had known the nature of
that party I would 'a' forbidden 'em to go to it. But,' says he, 'I
can't say that my forbiddin' 'em would 'a' kept 'em from goin', but
not bein' church-members,' says he, 'my daughters can't be disciplined
for dancin', and if you're going to discipline the parents for what
the children do,' says he, 'there's some ministers that'll have to be
summoned to appear before the session.'
"And with that everybody laughed, and Brother Wilson he j'ined in as
hearty as anybody, for he liked a joke, even when it was on himself.
And says he, 'Well, that's one case settled.' And then he looks
around, and says he, 'It seems that Squire Schuyler has not received
the message from the session. Let the clerk of the session send him
another summons, and to make sure of its reaching him, let one of the
session hand it to him next Monday; that's county-court day, and he's
certain to be in town.' So they fixed up another summons, and Judge
Grace was to hand it to him.
"Well, when Monday mornin' come, the old judge took his stand on the
corner o' the street in front o' the church and watched for the
squire, and pretty soon here he come on horseback, gallopin' as hard
as he could, and five or six hounds lopin' at the horse's heels.
"Squire Schuyler, honey, was a man different from any you see
nowadays. As I look back on it now, it appears to me that he was the
kind o' man that believed in gittin' all the pleasure he could out o'
life. Nowadays everybody's tryin' so hard to make money, that they
don't have time to enjoy life, and some of 'em wouldn't know how to
enjoy it if they had the time. But Squire Schuyler was the kind that
knows how to make the most out of everything that comes their way. The
Schuyler family was a big family in Virginia 'way back in the time o'
the first settlements. They had grants of land and lived high, and the
two brothers that come to Kentucky had the same way of livin' and
takin' things easy and makin' pleasure out o' life as they went along.
Plenty o' money, plenty o' land, plenty o' slaves, fine horses, fine
cattle, and a pack o' hounds--that's the way things was with the
Schuylers, Meredith and Hamilton both. I can see Squire Meredith
Schuyler now, the way he looked in that long overcoat made out o' dark
green broadcloth with big brass buttons on it, ruffled shirt-bosom,
high boots comin' 'way up to his knees, a broad-brimmed hat set back
on his head and a ridin'-whip in his hand, and long leather gloves,
and the hounds skulkin' along behind him.
"That's the way he looked when Judge Grace walked up to him and handed
him the second summons. And he opened the paper and read it, and then
he tore it in two and threw it on the ground. And says he, 'Does the
Rev. Samuel Wilson think that he's the Pope of Rome?' Says he, 'You go
to him and tell him for me that this is a free country and I'm a free
member of the Presbyterian church, and the journeys I take and the
language I use are a matter between me and my conscience and my God.'
And with that he walked off and left Judge Grace standin' there. And
the judge he picked up the pieces o' paper and went right straight to
Brother Wilson's house and told him what had happened. And Brother
Wilson he listened to it all, and he looked mighty stern and says he,
'Call the session together at three o'clock this evening.' Says he,
'This is something that concerns the honor of the church, and we can't
let the sun go down on it.'
"Well, the session, they all got together at the app'inted time, and
Brother Wilson says, says he, 'Brethren, there's a serious question to
be settled, and before we begin let us ask for light and wisdom from
on high.' And then he prayed a prayer askin' the Lord to guide them in
all they said and did, and when that was over, he called on Judge
Grace to tell the session jest how Squire Schuyler had acted and
talked when he handed him the summons. And the judge told it all jest
so. 'And now,' says Brother Wilson, 'I want you gentlemen to
understand that what Squire Schuyler said and did is not an insult to
me.' Says he, 'I am not summoning him to come before this session.'
Says he, 'The Squire has broken the rules of the church, and when he
refuses to appear before the session, he's resisting the authority of
the church, and when a man does that, why, there's nothing,' says he,
'for the church to do but to cut him off from its membership.'
"Well, the session, they looked at each other, and they hemmed and
hawed, and finally Doctor Brigham says, says he, 'Brother Wilson, I
believe you are right about this thing; but,' says he, 'it looks like
this might be a case that calls for a little of the wisdom of the
serpent.' Says he, 'You know there's good Scriptural authority for
bein' "wise as serpents."' Says he, 'I know the Lord is no respecter
of persons; but,' says he, 'there's times when common sense tells us
to stop and consider a man's standin' and influence. Here we are,'
says he, 'in the midst of buildin' a church. There's none too much
money comin' to us, and Squire Schuyler's subscription is two or three
times as big as anybody's, and, besides, it's all in hard money, and
if we turn him out o' the church, we'll run short o' funds and have to
stop buildin'.' Says he, 'If it was any time but now, I'd say, "Go
ahead, and we'll all stand by you," but as we're buildin' a church,
why, it looks to me like the wrong time to turn people out o' the
church.'
"And Brother Wilson jumped up and says he, 'That's exactly the point
I'm aiming at. We're building a church, and that is the reason why I
want Squire Schuyler, and all members like him, deprived of church
privileges.' Says he, 'What is a church, anyway? Is it that pile of
brick and mortar you're putting up out yonder?' Says he, 'That's the
church building, but the church itself,' says he, 'no eye but the eye
of God has ever seen it, for it is builded of the hearts and
consciences of men and women that have known the power of the spirit.
That's the real church,' says he, 'and if you've got that, it matters
not whether you've got the house of brick and stone or not.' Says he,
'When the Pilgrim Fathers set foot on Plymouth Rock and sang a hymn
and knelt down and prayed under the open sky, _there_ was a living
church of the living God, and not a hypocrite or a mammon-worshiper or
a time-server in it.' Says he, 'You men are mighty particular about
the house for the church to worship in. You are looking for the best
stone, and the best brick, and the best mortar; but when it comes to
the building of the church itself, you're ready to put in hay, straw,
and stubble for the sake of a little filthy lucre.'
"And all the time Brother Wilson was talkin', he was poundin' the
table with his fist till the pens and the papers that was on it jest
danced around, and Judge Grace said afterwards that he believed
Brother Wilson'd rather have hit some o' the session than that table.
"Well, he sort o' stopped to take his breath, and Doctor Brigham says,
says he, 'I agree with you, Brother Wilson, with all my heart. But
there's another thing to be thought of before we do anything rash,'
says he. 'Squire Schuyler ain't only a big contributor to the buildin'
of the church, but he's the mainstay of the church when it comes to
raisin' the preacher's salary. You've got a family dependin' on you.'
says he, 'and do you think you'd be doin' justice to them to take a
step that would cut your salary down?'
"I reckon the old doctor thought he'd pacify Brother Wilson and bring
him to his senses, but instead o' pacifyin' him, it made him madder.
He doubled up his fist and brought it down on the table again, and
says he, 'If a minister of the gospel has to neglect his duty in order
to earn his salary and support his family, then it's time for honest
men to get out of the pulpit and make room for scoundrels that'll sell
their principles and their self-respect for a matter of a few dollars
and cents.' Says he, 'No matter how poor I am, I've never been so poor
that I couldn't afford to do right. I left the army for the church,
and I can go from the church back to the army; for,' says he, 'I'd
rather be a ragged, barefooted soldier in the ranks, living on half
rations and fighting in a good cause, than a cowardly, skulking
preacher dressed in broadcloth and sitting down on his conscience
every time he opened his mouth.' And with that he took up his hat and
went out o' the office, slammin' the door after him.
"And Judge Grace says to Doctor Brigham, 'Where do you reckon that
preacher of ours got his notions of what's right and what's wrong?'
And Doctor Brigham shook his head and says he, 'I reckon he got 'em
from the Bible, for,' says he, 'such notions and such conduct might do
in the days when preachers was fed by the ravens, but they don't fit
into this day and generation when a preacher has to preach for his
livin'.'
"Well, town news can travel to the country as fast as country news can
travel to town, and of course Squire Schuyler wasn't long hearin'
about the meetin' of the session, and as soon as he heard it he got on
his horse and rode to town, and went right straight to Doctor
Brigham's office--the doctor was the treasurer of the church--and says
he, 'I understand that you gentlemen of the session are considering
the question of turning me out of the church, and some of you think my
subscription won't be paid if that's done. I want you to understand,'
says he, 'that my word is better than any man's bond. I promised to
give a thousand dollars toward the church buildin'; here's a check for
fifteen hundred. Now turn me out if you want to. You've got nothing to
lose by turning me out and nothing to gain by keeping me in.'
"That ain't exactly what Meredith Schuyler said, honey," remarked Aunt
Jane, pausing in her story to make an explanatory note. "Jest exactly
what he said it wouldn't be right for me or any Christian woman to
tell, for Meredith Schuyler never opened his mouth, unless it was to
eat his meals, that he didn't take the name o' the Lord in vain. But
that was the sum and substance of it.
"Well, Doctor Brigham he went straight to Brother Wilson's house and
showed him the check, and told him about meetin' the squire and all
that had passed between 'em, and Brother Wilson he slapped his knee,
and says he, 'Now we'll have a meeting of the session to-morrow and
settle the matter right away.' So they all met again in the doctor's
office, and Brother Wilson called the meetin' to order and says he, 'I
have been asking the Lord to turn the hearts and minds of my session
that they might see certain matters as I see them. I cannot tell
whether my prayer has been answered,' says he, 'but, the thing that
kept some of you from doing your duty last week has been
providentially removed, and the way is clear before our feet. Squire
Schuyler,' says he, 'has not only paid his subscription, but he has
paid five hundred dollars more than his subscription. I move that
Judge Grace be a committee of one to write the squire a letter
accepting his gift, and thanking him for his liberality.'
"Well, they seconded the motion, and Judge Grace said he'd be glad to
write the letter, and then Brother Wilson says, 'The payment of that
money shows that Squire Schuyler is an open-hearted, open-handed
gentleman. I wish I could say Christian gentleman,' says he, 'but the
charges of profanity and Sabbath-breaking are still standing against
him, and we must now do our duty and deprive him of the rights and
privileges of church-membership.'
"Well, they said Doctor Brigham and Judge Grace both threw up their
hands and begun talkin' at once, and says they, 'You don't mean to say
you're goin' to turn the squire out now!' And Brother Wilson says,
says he, 'Why not? Here are the charges against him: breaking the
Sabbath, taking the name of the Lord in vain, and refusing to appear
before the officers of the church when he's summoned.' And Doctor
Brigham says, 'But he's paid his subscription.' And Brother Wilson
says, 'That's no more than an honest man ought to do.' And Judge Grace
says, 'But he's paid five hundred dollars besides.' And Brother Wilson
says, 'A letter of thanks is all we owe him for that.' Says he,
'Here's a matter of church discipline, and here's a matter of money,
and one has nothing whatever to do with the other. Can't you see
that?' says he. And they all shook their heads and said they couldn't.
And Judge Grace says: 'It looks to me like it's not treatin' a man
exactly square to take his money to build the church, and then to turn
him out o' the church. It looks like if a man's money's good enough to
go into the church walls, the man's name's good enough to stay on the
church rolls.' And the rest of the session, they agreed with the old
judge. But Brother Wilson, he jumped up and says he, 'A man that sees
things that way has a conscience that needs enlightening.' Says he,
'Money itself is neither good nor evil. Whether it's clean or
unclean,' says he, 'depends on the way it's given and the way it's
taken. The money that's given in fulfilment of a promise,' says he,
'is clean money: let it go into the walls of the church. Coming from
Meredith Schuyler's hands the way it does,' says he, 'it's pure gold.
He's not offering it as a bribe to us to keep him in the church, but
if we take it as a bribe,' says he, 'the minute it gets into our hands
it turns to base coin, and it's a dishonor to us who take it and an
insult to him who gave it.'
"Well, the session set there and studied a while, and shook their
heads, and said they couldn't see things that way. And Brother Wilson
looked at 'em a minute or two, and then he jumped up and says he, 'Let
us pray.' And then he offered up a prayer that God would send his
spirit into the hearts and consciences of his servants, that they
might see things in the right light, so that all they did might be for
the glory of God and of his kingdom on earth. Then they all set down
and waited a while, and Brother Wilson says, 'Brethren, are you still
of the same mind?' And they all nodded their heads, and says he,
'Well, when the session thinks one way and the minister another, it's
time for them to separate.' Says he, 'Here's my resignation by word of
mouth, and as soon as I go home, I'll put it in writing.' And off he
went, leavin' the session sittin' there.
"Well, of course the men went home and told their wives all about it,
and before the next day everybody was talkin' about Brother Wilson
resignin', and the church-members lined up, some on the squire's side
and some on the preacher's side, jest like they did in Goshen church
the time we got the new organ. There was the church walls goin' up,
and both sides had put money into 'em, and neither side had money
enough to buy the other side out, and neither side wanted to be
bought out. And the squire's side, they'd say, 'We've got the money,
and you can't have a church without money.' And the preacher's side,
they'd say, 'But we've got the members and the preacher, and you can't
have a church without church-members and a preacher.' And they had it
up and down and back and forth, and the Methodists and Babtists, they
took sides, and such quarrelin' and disputin' you never heard. Some o'
the outsiders went to Brother Wilson, and says they, 'You Christian
people are settin' a mighty bad example to us outsiders. Can't
somethin' be done,' says they, 'to stop this wranglin' amongst the
churches?'
"And Brother Wilson, he laughed at 'em, and says he, 'Open your Bibles
and find out who it was said, "I came not to send peace, but a
sword."' Says he, 'The word of the Lord is a two-edged sword, and all
this disturbance means that the Lord is visiting his church and his
spirit is striving with the spirit of man.'
"Well, matters was standin' in this loose, unj'inted way when all at
once Squire Schuyler's weddin' invitations come out. Everybody knew he
was waitin' on Miss Drusilla Elrod, but nobody expected the weddin'
that soon, and folks begun speculatin' about who he'd have say the
weddin' ceremony, and Judge Grace says: 'Now see what a man makes by
havin' such curious ideas and bein' so rash in his speech. Here's a
big weddin' fee that ought to go into a Presbyterian pocket, and
instead o' that, it'll fall to some Babtist or Methodist preacher.'
"But--bless your life!--the day before the weddin', Squire Schuyler's
carriage drove up to the parsonage, and the coachman got out and
knocked at the door and handed in a letter with a big red seal, and it
was from the squire, askin' Brother Wilson to say the weddin' ceremony
over him, and promisin' to send his carriage to bring him and Mis'
Wilson to the weddin'.