Cross, Jonathan; Evangelists -- United States -- Biography; Missions -- Appalachian Region
The night was dark, the snow deep, the cold intense, and I was an
entire stranger in the place. As I rode along the street, every door
and window was shut, till I came to a store. I tied my horse and
stepped in, and found a large, fine-looking man sitting by the stove
alone. By asking a few questions, I learned it was Mr. S----, the
proprietor of the town. I told him I was glad to make his acquaintance.
That I had come there at the request of the Rev. Mr. J----, to hold a
meeting that night, and to spend a few days visiting his people and
supplying them with good religious books, and I would be glad to have
his counsel and advice as to the best way to do it.
Said he, “It depends very much, sir, on the kind of religious books you
want to circulate here. I suppose you have the Confession of Faith of
the Presbyterian church among them, and I can prove that it is full of
falsehoods; and more than that, I want you to know, sir, that I have
made a promise to kick out of my house every man that comes in it that
has graduated at Jefferson College, and studied theology at the Western
Seminary.” As he closed the sentence, he stood up before me, as if he
was going to make good his promise. I requested him to wait till I
should explain my object. I told him I had no Confessions of Faith, nor
any denominational books; that they were all the books of the American
Tract Society, and approved by nearly all evangelical Christians,
and consequently not sectarian. And as to the other objection, I had
never graduated either at Jefferson College or the Western Theological
Seminary, consequently he was barking up the wrong tree. “Why,” said
he, “are you not a Presbyterian preacher?” “No, sir,” said I, “I have
not the honor to be a preacher.” He turned instantly and walked out,
leaving me alone.
I stepped to the door, and asked a little boy who was passing if there
was a Mr. G---- living in the town. “Yes,” said he, “he lives in the
adjoining house.” I stepped to the door, and was cordially greeted by
an old acquaintance. In a few minutes I was seated at a sumptuously
supplied table, which I very much needed; and an hour after was in a
school-house, holding forth to the people, with my belligerent friend
for one of my hearers. I visited all the town; but Mr. S---- carefully
avoided meeting me, always turning away to shun me; but I supplied his
family with a good stock of books.
* * * * *
At the close of my labors in that town, I entered a very hilly region
of country, and stopped over night with a Mr. W----, an aged, infirm
man, who sent his son with me the next day to hunt up the cabins of the
poor. The son had spent some years in a roving life, and seemed totally
indifferent about religion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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