In the brush : $b or, Old-time social, political, and religious life in the southwestPierson, Hamilton W. (Hamilton Wilcox)
History
In the brush : $b or, Old-time social, political, and religious life in the southwest
Pierson, Hamilton W. (Hamilton Wilcox)
Missions -- Southwest, Old; Southwest, Old -- Social life and customs
I have very often recalled, and shall hardly forget while I live, a
most pleasing incident in this day's ride. I had recently traveled over
a wide scope of country including a half a dozen counties, where the
land was nearly as level as the numerous streams that flowed through
it. The soil was entirely alluvial, and very rich. Occasionally,
gentle elevations of a very few feet swelled above the surrounding
level, which were crowned with large oaks having short trunks and
heavy tops with wide-spreading branches. These oaks were usually
interspersed with smaller trees and underbrush. As I floundered through
a wet, marshy road, and struck a sandy path leading up one of these
elevations, I saw a number of horses hitched to the limbs of the
trees, and soon came up to a plain unpainted church or chapel. Its
only foundation was the few wooden blocks upon which it stood, and
the windows were without sash or glass, the shutters made of boards,
being thrown open to admit the light, and closed when the services
were ended. I rode under a tree, hitched my horse to a limb, and
entered the church as quietly as possible. The preacher had closed
his sermon, and was about concluding the services. It was the close
of a meeting which had continued several days, in which a number of
hardened and very hopeless sinners had been led to Christ. It was
his last appointment before leaving them for conference. The labors
of the year had left their impress upon his whole frame. He looked
wan and worn. He had breathed the malaria of the rivers, bayous, and
marshes, along which he had sought out these people in their homes,
and near which he had preached to them, until it had changed the color
of his flesh to a bloodless saffron hue. I never before or since saw
such a human face. It bespoke a body, soul, and spirit, heartily,
wholly, and irrevocably consecrated to his noble work. There was over
it that perfect calmness that succeeds long and intense anxiety and
excitement, when their end has been fully attained. As he spoke to
them of the labors of the year, and of his departure for conference,
he was the only one that seemed unmoved. His voice was low and calm
amid the weeping that was all around him. Among the most noted of the
converts was a woman who for years had done more than any other person
in the neighborhood to counteract the influence of the preachers who
had labored on that circuit, and to injure the little church. She was
famous as a fiddler, and the leader in getting up all the neighborhood
dances, and it was difficult for the young converts to withstand the
fascinations of her bow. In former years she had fiddled a great
many of them out of the class before their six months' probation had
expired. Now that she had at last been brought down, there was general
rejoicing. It was like the fall of some tall oak of the forest that
brings down many smaller trees with it. They could now sing, as I have
often heard them in their log-cabins:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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