He Abandons the School-room. Remarkable Meeting near Alexandria.
Incidents. Establishes a Church. Mischief-making Preachers. Long and
Severe Attack of Typhoid Fever. Does not Lose Hope. Gratitude.
After teaching a year, I decided to abandon the school-room and give
myself wholly to the preaching of the Word. In the summer of 1865 I did
some mission work in Boone county, under the direction of the State
Board. In August, I held a meeting in Campbell county, about five miles
from Alexandria. The circumstances were a little peculiar. The Baptist
meeting-house in Alexandria had been blown down, and they were using
our house, at our invitation, every Lord's day afternoon, till they
could rebuild. They had a house about five miles in the country, and a
large congregation. Nearly the whole community were Baptists, and they
claimed a kind of preëmption. We had not a member in the neighborhood.
I was exceedingly anxious to hold a meeting in the very center of this
stronghold, and thought that as they were using our house, they would
grant me the use of theirs; but they would not. They offered to let me
have it for one sermon, but not for a protracted meeting. This did not
suit my purpose; and as there was an old log school-house near by, I
made an appointment for a meeting in this, which was to begin on Sunday
afternoon; and a few friends went with me from town. When we arrived at
the place, not a soul was on the ground; so having waited after the
time, and no one coming, I decided at once that the Baptists had
reported the appointment withdrawn, so that when I came and found no
one, I would be disgusted, and return home. But I was not disposed to
be defeated in that way. There was no brother in reach with whom I
could stay, but I told the friends to go back to town and leave me, and
that I would hold the meeting, "if I had to sleep in the woods, live on
pawpaws, and drink out of the 'branch.'" So they left me.
There was a man living about a mile away whom the Baptists had excluded
about a year before, and who had no good feeling for them. Concluding
that that would be the best chance for shelter, I went to the house,
and learned from him that the appointment had indeed been
countermanded, just as I suspected. He promised me food and shelter
while I held the meeting. A number of neighbor boys were there with
his, and these were told to circulate the appointment for next night.
The following day he and I went and cleaned the house, putting in some
"anxious seats," fixing it to hold as many as possible. He sent his
boys out through the neighborhood notifying the people, and that night
we had about thirty present. The next night the house was full; and
from this on we had large audiences, day and night. In a few days we
built an arbor in front, and seated it; then, standing in the door, I
preached to those within and without. The meeting continued two weeks,
and resulted in fifty-two additions. Twenty-seven of these were from
that Baptist Church, and the rest by confession. A few of the
twenty-seven, the man with whom I lodged among the number, were not in
the fellowship of the church at that time.
Several incidents occurred during the meeting. A very wicked man began
to attend, and one night he felt that he could stand the fire no
longer; but as I was in the door, preventing his escape in that
direction, he leaped out of a window, and ran off into the woods. In
about ten minutes he came crowding in from the outside, to make the
confession.
A Baptist man became interested in the meeting, but his wife was so
bitter in her feelings that she would not attend. He finally prevailed
upon her to come. Going home, he asked her how she liked it. "Better
than I expected," was the reply. No more was said, but the next day she
came without persuasion. When asked the same question, she said, "They
don't preach what I thought they did." He was anxious to unite with us
on the Bible, but was waiting in the hope of getting her to come with
him. The next day she was in the house and he on the outside, and he
did not know till the meeting was over that she had come forward and
been received into the fellowship.
At this meeting a gentleman came and asked me to marry him that night
after the services should be over. I told him I could not, as I had not
obtained license to marry. He then asked if I would object to his
getting a Methodist preacher who lived several miles away. That night
there was a great crowd, and I saw nothing of the preacher, but while
we were singing an invitation song a gentleman came pushing in, and
gave me his hand. I thought, of course, he wanted to make the
confession, and I tried to seat him with the others who had come
forward; but he would not. He soon became excited, and, tearing himself
loose, forced his way into the crowd. Just then some one whispered to
me that that was the Methodist preacher. It was a long time before the
services closed, and he was still so embarrassed that it was with great
difficulty he performed the required ceremony. He hurried away without
speaking to me, and then sent his apology, stating that he was so
mortified over his blunder that he could not speak to me about it that
night.
On account of the numbers, the distance from town, and the want of
facilities for attendance there on the part of many of the converts,
they insisted upon having a church of their own at the school-house.
Under the circumstances it was thought best to comply with their
request. No officers were appointed as such, because of inexperience,
but several brethren were designated as those who should take a general
oversight of the flock, conduct their worship, etc., but none had
authority; and all were exhorted to be in subjection one to another.
They met every Lord's day and broke the loaf, and had prayer-meeting
Wednesday night. A large number took part in the worship. They had
frequent confessions, and a blacksmith across Licking River, who
preached, met them at the water, when notified, to attend to baptizing.
They thus grew in a few months from the fifty-two to seventy-five, when
two mischief-making preachers visited them and insisted that without
ordained elders and deacons they were no church at all, and finally
prevailed upon them to have a number of men ordained. I was sick, and
knew nothing that was going on. These ignorant novices thought there
was no use in having authority unless it were exercised. So they began
to crack their ecclesiastical whip, and the peace of the church was
disturbed. Things went from bad to worse till the whole congregation
went to pieces. Thus a good work was destroyed by the folly of two
ignorant, self-important preachers. Much mischief has been done in our
reformatory work by hasty organization. Like the New Testament
churches, we should have no ordained officers till we have material out
of which to make them.
About September 10, 1865, I was stricken down with typhoid fever. I had
a good physician, and he nursed me with the utmost care. During that
sickness he came to see me a _hundred and thirty_ times. For over seven
weeks there was not a hopeful symptom. He allowed no company in the
room but my wife and the nurses. He appointed good brethren to nurse
me, each night about. No one else was allowed to touch me, except my
wife. I did not see my two little children for over two months, though
they were all the time in the house. After seven weeks he told me that
for the first time he saw a slight indication of recovery. After I
became convalescent, he said, in talking over the case, that he could
attribute my recovery to but two things--my confidence all the time
that I should get well, and the faith I had in my physician. He
determined this latter by saying that I followed his direction minutely
in everything. Theologically, he could not have given a better
definition of faith. He was a Baptist.
I never gave up for a moment, and would not allow my mother to be sent
for till I was far on the road to recovery. I got out for the first
time on Christmas day, but it was a year before I was able to resume
regular preaching; and even then, and for a long time afterwards, I
felt the effects of this terrible disease. Had it not been for the
close attention of the doctor, and the good nursing of my dear wife and
kind brethren, I am sure that attack of sickness would have sent me to
my grave. Truly, God has been very merciful to me in giving me friends
wherever I have lived, and I have ever felt I could not be grateful
enough or diligent enough in the service of my Redeemer and His church
to repay Him or them for all this undeserved goodness.