Cross, Jonathan; Evangelists -- United States -- Biography; Missions -- Appalachian Region
Many facts of a more cheering character might be given. The Rev. N.
C----, who had a pastoral charge in M---- county, said to me, “A
colporteur had left a copy of the Anxious Inquirer in the house of
a wealthy man in M---- county. After some time he became interested
for his salvation. One day while there on a visit I pointed him to a
chapter in this book, and requested him to read it. He read it, and
soon found peace. Like every real Christian, he desired the salvation
of his relations. He sent the book to his brother, a physician, who,
together with a sister, were led to Christ by reading it. The book
is kept in the family as an heir-loom.” On another occasion Rev. Mr.
C---- said he was sent for to go some distance to see a sick woman.
His custom was always to carry with him a few select books to give or
loan. He gave her a copy of the Anxious Inquirer, and requested her
husband to read it to her. Both were irreligious; but by God’s blessing
on reading this book, both were led to the Saviour. A colporteur sold
a copy of the same book to a man who sent it to an absent son. It led
him and two of his companions to Christ. A colporteur gave a copy of
Baxter’s Call to a very wicked family, who never went to church. Within
ten months he found the reading of it had been blessed to three of the
household. A tract put into a wagoner’s feed-trough while driving his
team on the Sabbath, was the means of stopping him from travelling on
the Sabbath, and led him to repentance. He became eminent for his
piety and usefulness in the church.
A missionary who preached once a month in a wild region, and gave part
of his time to colporteur work, often told me of a family that lived
just beside his little mountain church, but never entered it. When he
began the colporteur work he made them a visit. The man told him he did
not wish him to say any thing to him on the subject of religion; that
if he wanted to hear him, he could go to the church. All the time he
talked and prayed, the man was muttering, and his wife increased the
speed of her wheel to drown his voice. Finding all his efforts to get
their attention in vain, he laid down a copy of Baxter’s Call and a few
tracts, and left them. On his return to fill his next appointment at
the little church, to his surprise this man and his wife were in the
church near the pulpit. During service they were deeply exercised. At
the close he spoke to them about their souls. They told him that after
he left their house they began to think about the way they had treated
him, and had read his little books, and found they were great sinners.
At his next communion they both joined his church, and they were among
the most consistent and useful of its members.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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