Several sermons of great pathos and power were preached on the ground. One of the most remarkable was by Dr. Tiffin, ex-governor of Ohio, from “What is a man profited,” etc. The doctor threw his whole soul into it as he dwelt upon the soul’s immense value and its amazing loss, and the fact that nothing can compensate for such a loss. His appeals to the heart and conscience were almost irresistible. His voice was musical, his gestures were rapid, and his countenance expressed all his tongue uttered. There was a mighty work among the people during the day, and it continued all night. On Sunday morning John Sale, presiding elder of the Ohio District, preached from Psalm xlv, 13. He was an able preacher and a good disciplinarian. He had much natural dignity, and was remarkably courteous. He had a fine form, intelligent countenance, and a dark eye that was very expressive. The bishop preached at eleven o’clock, and Dr. Monnett gave an eloquent discourse immediately after from Psalm cxviii, 15, 16, “The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous,” etc. In the evening Benjamin Lakin preached on Christian purity from 2 Cor. vii, 1. Over forty were converted beside the witnesses of perfect love. Deer Creek was the first circuit traveled by Henry B. Bascom when he was a stripling. On Tuesday the 16th we journeyed twenty-three miles to the edge of the prairies. We tarried at the “New Purchase” with a hospitable family named Wood, who had emigrated from Pennsylvania.[18] The next morning at six o’clock we were on our journey, and rode eighteen miles through the prairies. The bishop and I must have been talking about the prairies, for in our journals on that day we both make a similar record. He says: “The prairies have once been, I suppose, lakes of water; they furnish grand and beautiful views still.” I wrote: “We rode through the prairies, which, from their appearance, must have been covered with large lakes or ponds; now they furnish extensive ranges for stock.” On Wednesday we passed through Xenia to Frederick Bonner’s, at Little Miami. This was one of the great families of Methodism in the West, one of the bishop’s excellent homes, and they looked for his annual visit as they would for an angel’s. Here we rested one day. Brother Bonner was an early friend of Rev, Freeborn Garrettson, and knew him from the time he began to preach. He was a Methodist in Maryland before he emigrated to Ohio. John Sale married a daughter of Frederick Bonner.