Soon as the news of the cession of the country to the United States reached his ears, without waiting for its confirmation by the government, and the actual transfer, he went across the great river in the autumn of 1803, and made that country his home. Mr. Musick was the first preacher of the gospel who, with his family, settled in the country, became one of the constituents of Fefee’s Creek, and was its pastor for more than thirty years. CHAPTER XII. Forms a Methodist Class in Illinois.--Gradual change of Views.-- Mode of Inquiry.--Circumstances of his Baptism.--Practical progress in Baptist Principles.--Zeal and influence in promoting education.--Early Schools in the Illinois country.--A formidable obstruction to a pupil.--Three fellows in the way. --Want of books.--A whiskey-loving teacher rightly served.-- Effects of Father Clark’s teaching.--Visits Kentucky again.-- Visits to West Florida.--Interview with a Sick man.--Efficacy of Prayer.--A Revolution. We shall now confine our attention entirely to Father Clark. Soon after he began his regular visits to the Spanish country, he gathered into a society a small class of disciples, and held regular meetings with them near Bellefontaine, some three or four miles north of New Design. He still regarded himself a Methodist, though independent of that ecclesiastical connection. He was scarcely conscious at that period, that he was gradually diverging from the peculiarities of Wesleyism and approaching the fundamental principles of Baptist faith and practice. He had held his intellect and conscience open to conviction from the time he left the conference in Georgia, by the prayerful resolve to follow the Scriptures, and bring all his religious practice into strict conformity to that divine rule. His habit of praying in every perplexity, until his mind became satisfied that he was in the pathway of duty, continued and increased with advancing years. At the same time, as ever after, he was liberal to all other Christians, and made no efforts to proselyte them to his own peculiar views. He explained the Scriptures, and urged on all whom he addressed in public, or conversed with in private, the duty of studying the Word of God, and following wherever it led. Christ was ever held up as sole law-giver in Zion. For several years the conviction had increased that he was unbaptized, and that by this ordinance more than any other, the disciples of Christ made a profession of faith in him. He had become convinced that the ceremony performed in unconscious infancy, by virtue of some mystical covenant relationship of his parents, and by the pastor of the church where he was born, was to him no part of Christian obedience.