Part 21 (2/2)
The Rev Peter Cartwright was a noted Methodist preacher of pioneer days in Central Illinois Once seen, he was a otten He was, in the eneris;_ a veritable product of the times in which he lived, and the conditions under which heAll in all, his like will not appear again He was converted when ain southern Kentucky; soon after, he was licensed to preach, and became a circuit rider in that State, and later was of the Methodist vanguard to Illinois It was said of him that he was of the church _military_ as well as ”the church er to fear, and of unquestioned honesty and sincerity He was gifted with an eloquence adapted to the tiations to which he preached There would be no place for hies who listened with bated breath to his fiery appeals are of the past
”For, welladay! Their day is fled, Old tione”
The narrative of his tough conflicts with the e for a suht the Indians, fought the robbers, swaht carry the Gospel to the re interest tolow He literally took no thought of the morrow, but without staff and little even in the way of scrip unselfishly gave the best years of a life extending two decades beyond the time allotted, to the service of his Master
Until the Judgood which this man and many of his co-laborers did in the new country will never be known
A journey of days on horseback to fill an appointe ceremony, preach a funeral sermon, or speak words of hope and comfort to the sick or the bereaved, was part of the sum of a life of service that knew little of rest
There would probably be few pulpits open to Peter Cartwright in these s have passed away; the pioneer in his rough garb, with axe upon his shoulder, and rifle in hand, is now but a tradition, while the border line of civilization has receded ard to the ocean
None the less, the typical minister of to-day would have had very scant welcoant attire, conventional y, would have been sadly out of place in the caht called things by their right nay was that of the Fathers We hear little in these modern days of ”The fire that quencheth not” and of ”total depravity”
and of ”the bottoher criticisestions,
”Sapping a soleht and his conte of immortal souls His abhorrence of all these ”wiles of the devil,” and his scorn for their advocates, knew no bounds
His preaching was of the John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards type Mingled with his denunciations of sin, his earnest exhortations to repentance, his graphic description of the New Jerusaleates of pearl,” and of the unending bliss of the redeeated to the limbo of the past Little ti out soft words for fear of giving offence To his impassioned soul ”the final doom of the impenitent,” the ”torment of the damned,” and ”hell fire” itself, were veritable realities And so indeed, when rolling froue, did they appear, not alone to the rapt believer, but oftentimes to the unGodly and the sinner as well
More than one marvellous conversion under his raphy written in the closing years of his life At one ti a stream, he was deeply offended by the profanity of the boatentle rebuke of the minister apparently added zest and volu the offender, the irate preacher ducked him into the river, and turned a deaf ear to his piteous appeals for succor until the half-droretch had offered a prayer for mercy and made profuse promises of repentance Hopeful conversion, and an ever-after life of Christian hu sequels to the baptism so unexpectedly administered
Another experience no less re the early years of histhe mountains on his way to the General Conference At a tavern by the wayside, where he had obtained lodging for the night, he found preparations in progress for a ball to coainst such wickedness only aroused the ire of the landlord and his faan at the appointed tiain, And all went le rooed and indignantwitness to the ebb and flow of this tide of unGodliness At length, as partners were being chosen for the Virginia Reel, a beautiful girl approached the solitary guest and requested his hand for the set just for The minister arose and intimated a ready co her that he never entered upon any i upon it; and seizing her by the hand he fell upon his knees and with the voice of one born to be obeyed coan his prayer The dance was immediately suspended, and a sole doo sobs of the lately impenitent revellers was heard, as was that of the ancient prophet above the din of the worshi+ppers of Baal, the voice of the race forsinners”
An hour passed; laled meanwhile with the fervent exhortations and appeals of the man of prayer Suddenly and in rapid succession shout after shout of victory froic the late abode of scoffers became indeed a very Bethel The incidents mentioned, and others scarcely less reraphy The present generation knows but little of the old-ti; as it existed in the days and under the adht and his co-laborers, it is verily a thing of the past
”New occasions teach new duties; Tiood uncouth”
Seventy years and o, the country new, the population sparse, the settle was of yearly and, as it was believed, of necessary occurrence It was, especially with the early Methodists, a recognized instru the Gospel for the conversion of souls
A convenient spot--usually near a spring or brook--being selected, a rude pulpit was erected, rough seats provided, a log cabin or two for the aged and infire congregations assembled for worshi+p Forcounties, the people caons, and on foot Each fa utensils, and abundant provisions for their temporary sojourn in the wilderness It was no holiday occasion, no ti It was often at s were held, and preachers and people alike were in terrible earnest Rigid rules for their government were formulated and enforced, and a proper decorum required and observed Woe betide the wretch who attempted to create disturbance, or depart from the strictest propriety of deports of Kentucky and Tennessee there were stalwart s, who had in their younger days hunted the savage foe from his fastness, faced Tecumseh at Tippecanoe and the Thalades and at New Orleans
A sufficient ti set apart for meals and the needed hours of rest, the residue was in the main devoted to public or private worshi+p Fas were held in each tent at the early dawn; public preaching by thetwo hours or more of the forenoon After a hasty midday meal the public services were resus for special prayer, class reatest possible solemnity; and the exercises, after supper had been served and the candles lighted, concluded for the day with an i the last-mentioned service especially, the scene presented was truly of a weird and picturesque character The flickering lights of the camp, the dark forest around, the , the awe-inspiring, never-to-be-forgotten hymn,
”Cohts revolve,”
the fervid exclaathered around the mourners' bench and the shouts of joy heard far beyond the li in sin-distracted souls, all iht of years wholly to dispel
It need hardly be added that these scenes, of which but feeble description has been given, ifted of the revival preachers of ca times The echoes will never awake to the sound of such eloquence again The orator and the occasion here met and embraced In very truth, the joys of the redeemed, and the horrors of lost souls, were depicted in colors that only lips ”touched with a live coal from the altar”
could adequately describe In the presence of such lurid iery, even the inspired revelation of the apocalyptic vision seems but sober narrative of co incidents of two generations ago in our Western country, the naht is inseparably associated He was the born leader; _par excellence,_ the unrivalled orator Since the passing of Whitefield and Asbury a greater than he had not appeared To those who have never attended an old-ti quotation froraphywas protracted for weeks and was kept up day and night
Thousands heard of the ons It was supposed that there were in attendance at different times from twelve to twenty-five thousand Hundreds fell prostrate under the hty power of God, as men slain in battle; and it was supposed that between one and two thousand souls were happily and powerfully converted to God during the s It was not unusual for asthousands at a time, from different stands At ti, all at once, and the shouts could be heard foreneration, it is one of the ht: