The Minute Man on the FrontierPuddefoot, William George
History
The Minute Man on the Frontier
Puddefoot, William George
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Missions -- West (U.S.)
This is level-headed Christian business. If we want to reap the
harvest, we must "receive him that is weak in the faith." Hidden away
in trunks are hundreds of church letters that should be coaxed out.
Faithful preaching, teaching, and visiting, will bring a glorious
"Harvest Home." A goodly sight it is to see, under one roof, all these
different branches of the Lord's army worshipping the same Master,
rejoicing in the same hope, and realizing in a small degree that there
is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, but that all
are one in Christ Jesus.
XXX.
INJEANNY VS. HEAVEN.
The title to this chapter bears about the same relation to its
contents as the name of one sermon does to the other twenty in a given
volume. I gave it this title because it must have some heading;
everything has a heading. Graves have headstones.
No greater variety of character exists on the frontier than elsewhere,
but peculiar cases come to the surface oftener. Those women living in
the woods, who belonged to the "Church of God," are good
illustrations. They had some peculiar ideas about the Scriptures, but
it was much more refreshing to the missionary to find _peculiar_ views
than none at all. I often introduced myself to them with a text of
Scripture, and tried hard to induce them to move into the next village
for their children's sake. It was a much better place morally,
although but a mile distant. But the influence of an organized church,
with a good building and Sunday-school, made a greater difference than
the distance would seem to warrant. One day, as I was passing their
home, I shouted out, "Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will
destroy this city!" The next day I was off on my way to the other side
of the State. As my journey well illustrates the difficulties of
travel in a new country, I will describe it.
At my first change of cars, I found that my train was delayed by a
fire along the track, so that I could not make my next connection with
a cross-country train. This troubled me, as it was Friday, and the
young minister whom I was about to visit was doing manual work on his
church building, and would probably be ill-prepared to preach himself.
I telegraphed him, and was just turning away when my eye caught sight
of a map, and I noticed that the road I was on and the road he was
on, although a hundred miles apart where I was then, gradually
approached until within thirteen miles of each other, one hundred
miles north. Remembering that a stage crossed at this point, I started
on the late train, which, like a human being, seldom makes up for lost
time, and was dropped into the pitch darkness about eleven P.M. The
red lights of the train were soon lost in the black forest; I felt
like Goldsmith's last man.
Two or three little lights twinkled from some log cabins. A small boy,
with a dilapidated mail-bag and a dirty lantern, stood near me. I
asked him if there was a hotel in town.
He said, "Yep."
Would he guide me to it?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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