South Cedar. An aged Methodist. A quick Irishman. Webster's
blue back spelling book. The world was not turned upside down,
but the door turned on its hinges.
The school board at Pardee Station was not ready to give me an answer
about school, so I left them, promising the Johnsons that I would
return in the fall. I had a call to go to South Cedar in Jackson
County and teach and preach. This I did during the spring and summer
and after the close of my school in July and August I called
Evangelist J. H. Bauserman to come and help in a protracted meeting.
He came and the meeting started off nicely, but on the second or
third day, Brother Bauserman was called home on account of his wife's
severe sickness. He could not return, but I went on with the meeting
and it proved to be one of the best meetings I ever held. Quite a
number believed and were baptized. The meeting was held in a large
natural grove near where there was much water, and was lighted with
great torch lights. At nearly every service people would come
forward and make the good confession, and often were baptized the
same hour, even the same hour of the night.
One day an old man, seventy two years old, and six feet four inches
tall, a Christian in the Methodist church for many years, came to me
and asked me if I would baptize (immerse) him and let him remain in
the Methodist church. I said, "Certainly, I will baptize any man who
wants to be if he believes in the divinity of Christ." He was
baptized (immersed) and was a happy man.
At another time when I had baptized some, and was coming up out of
the water, I said, "If anyone else is ready to obey his Master I will
gladly bury him with his Lord in Baptism."
An Irishman, who had been faithfully attending the preaching pulled
off his coat, and came down into the water, meeting me, he took me by
the hand and lead me back into the deeper water. When I asked him if
he believed with all his heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
he answered, "Yes, for--today." I dipped him, and he came up out of
the water a happy man.
My school here was very pleasant in almost every respect. Only one
incident occurred that was otherwise, and that turned out well. A
family of one brother and two grown sisters had only one speller
between them. I complained and sent word several times to their
father that he ought to get a speller for each of his children. So
one day at noon he came over to school and took up a book and sat
down by me with the open book and said, "One book is enough for
three. I can see and so can you so could another on the other side
of me. One book is enough for three, I shall buy no more books." "I
see," I said. "Goodbye" he said, and off he went. After that I had
the brother sit between the two sisters and all study from the same
book. Now at this time McGuffey's spellers were the only spellers
used in all the schools. Webster's had been out of use for almost a
generation, but, in about a week after this father had called at
school, as stated above, he went at Atchison City and somehow and
somewhere he found and procured three new Webster's old blue back
spelling books, and his children brought them to school to use. When
I saw them I said, "Sure, these are the best books ever made,--the
very kind I studied when I was a boy. Maybe your father can secure
enough for the whole school. And since one is enough for three, it
would not take so many." "There is only this trouble. Until we can
make the change, you three will have to be in a class by yourselves."
So I kept the brother and two sisters in a class, with their blue
back spellers, to themselves. But, listen, in about a week more the
class of three came to school each with McGuffey's speller.
Sometimes the best way to overcome an adversary is to agree with him.
One Saturday evening I went across to North Cedar to preach and when
I got to the school house, while there was a large crowd in the yard
waiting to hear me, the door to the school house was locked and the
trustees said, it should not be opened for me to preach. An old
disciple of Christ, who lived nearby, said that I was welcome to
preach in his house. I said to the crowd, "If you will follow me
over there, I will preach." Nearly everyone followed. I simply
preached the truth, Christ, and in my sermon referred to that text
which says something about "These that have turned the world upside
down are come hither also."
Well, the next morning the world had the same side up as before only
that school house door had turned on its hinges and was wide open for
me to come in and preach. Which I did, morning and evening, and was
invited back again and again.
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