Early in December we were holding meeting on Dry Creek not far from where
we held our first series of meetings in Meries county. Some grown-up boys
and girls, who had been drinking freely, came to the services and created
such a disturbance that Jeremiah thought it best in the interest of good
order to have them arrested. On the day of the trial the two lawyers
employed to defend these young men and women, ridiculed and belittled my
brother, calling him "the immaculate Jeremiah," and insinuating that he
thought himself almost equal to Christ. At first I felt greatly tried, but
when I looked round and saw that Jeremiah's face was glowing and that he
seemed almost happy enough to shout, my burden all left me. I made up my
mind that since my brother was so triumphant I, too, would throw off the
burden and claim victory. The young people who had disturbed the meeting
had to pay a small fine. So far as I know, they behaved better in the
future.
Just a few days after the occurrence just related, we began a meeting in
the Bell schoolhouse, about five miles further down Dry Creek. My brother
and I were staying with different families in the district. An M. E. South
preacher who lived in the neighborhood, and who had heard of our trouble
with the young folks in the other district, sent word to my brother that a
mob was coming that night to break up our meeting, and that we should stay
away and let him hold that service. He believed that the young people
opposed us because we taught holiness, divine healing, etc.; and thought
that his age, and the confidence of the people of the neighborhood in him
would enable him to control the mob and to hold the meeting without
difficulty. He tried to send word to me too; but, as I was staying with a
family who lived some distance away, I did not receive his message.
Jeremiah remained at his boarding place.
I went to the schoolhouse that evening expecting nothing unusual; but to my
surprise I found in the house and yard a boisterous crowd of twenty-five or
thirty men, who had been drinking freely of the liberal supply of whiskey
they had brought with them. They were banded together for the express
purpose of having a good time and breaking up the meeting. I can give you
no adequate idea of the scene that greeted me as I approached. Men were
running in and out of the schoolhouse, drinking, yelling, swearing, and
talking at the top of their voices. The confusion was terrible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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