Recollections 
 
 }?':-X'' ^•■■V, 
 
 AND 
 
 vations 
 
 1. 
 
 ft -M-^ • M^ * 
 
DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Family of 
 ''\ C. Me'=rltt 
 
Recollections and Observations 
 
 DURING A MINISTRY IN THE NORTH CARO- 
 LINA CONFERENCE, METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
 CHURCH, SOUTH, OF FORTY-THREE YEARS 
 
 BY 
 
 L. L. NASH, D.D. 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 REV. R. H. BENNETT, D. D. 
 
 EMORY UNIVERSITY 
 ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 RALEIGH: 
 
 Mutual Publishing Company, Printers 
 
 1916 
 
Div. s. 
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 To MY WIFE Mrs. Louisa Taylor Nash, and to my children, Mrs. 
 Rosa Nash Penny, Marvin Wesley Nash, Hugh Wightman 
 Nash, my Daughters-in-law, and my Grand Child- 
 ren, THIS Volume is Affectionately > \ 
 Dedicated. 
 
 / 
 
 -^^s^n 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page. 
 
 Foreword 7 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 I. My First Year in ttie Ministry — Bath Circuit 11 
 
 II. Williamston Circuit 21 
 
 III. , Greenville and Rolesville Circuits 25 
 
 IV. Leasburg Circuit 42 
 
 V. Stationed in Raleigh 55 
 
 VI. Raleigh Pastorate Continued 62 
 
 VII. Fifth Street Church, Wilmington 69 
 
 VIII. Fifth Street Church Continued 78 
 
 IX. Centenary Church, New Bern — Hay Street Church, 
 
 FayettevUle 83 
 
 X. Hay Street Church Continued 92 
 
 XI. Washington Station 97 
 
 XII. Rocky Mount Station 102 
 
 XIII. Henderson Station 107 
 
 XIV. A Further Account of Evangelistic Work 114 
 
 XV. The Progress of Methodism in North Carolina Confer- 
 
 erence in Forty-three years 117 
 
 XVI. Some Thoughts on Evangelism 121 
 
 XVII. Our Schools and Colleges 128 
 
 XVIII. The Progress of North Carolina in Forty-three Years 134 
 
 XIX. The Things That Abide 138 
 
 ^^^in 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 I entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South, in JSTovemher, 1872. At that time I lived in Hali- 
 fax County, ISTorth Carolina, and held my membership at 
 Bethel Church on the old Roanoke Circuit. Eev. Ira T. 
 Wyche was my pastor and Rev. S. D. Adams was my 
 Presiding Elder. I was licensed to preach at the fourth 
 quarterly conference, w^hich was held at a church in the 
 lower part of the county called Smith's Church. I told my 
 pastor that I felt called to the work of an itinerant, and 
 wished to enter the regular work. I knew very little about 
 the polity and workings of the Cliurch, and thought it 
 would be better for me to take work as a supply, if there 
 was an opening. My Presiding Elder thought that the 
 wiser course, and advised me to go to Conference, and get 
 acquainted with the brethren. He said he could give me 
 a charge. I attended the session of Conference in Decem.ber, 
 1872, which met in Fayetteville, jS[. C, Bishop Robert 
 Paine presiding. I was sent to Bath Circuit in Beaufort 
 County, where I began a ministry that has gone on without 
 a break for forty-three years ; and I have attended forty- 
 four sessions of the J^orth Carolina Conference consecutively, 
 and never missed but one roll call, and that was caused by 
 the steamer on which I went from ]^ew Bern to Elizabeth 
 City in 1895 being delayed by a storm; so I could not get 
 there at the opening of the session. 
 
 I propose to tell my recollections of men and things, dur- 
 ing a ministry of forty-three years in these pages. 
 
 I am aware of the fact, that very few biographies of men 
 are of much interest to the world, and for this reason do 
 not intend to write an autobiography; but to give some 
 
 7 
 
8 FOKEWOED. 
 
 ac5couiit of the work of the church in the ^N^orth Carolina Con- 
 ference during the years I have heen connected with it. 
 
 I have seen wonderful changes during mj life in this 
 Conference. When I entered the ministry, there was not 
 a fine church building in the Conference. There were a 
 few plain brick churches. Edenton Street Church, Raleigh, 
 had a plain brick church ; Front Street Church, Wilmington, 
 Tryon Street Church, Charlotte, and a few others, were 
 modest brick churches. All the rest were plain wooden 
 structures, and the Methodists were a plain, pious people. 
 
 The War Between the States had left the whole South- 
 land devastated, and during the seven years that had elapsed 
 since the fall of the Confederacy, the work of improvement, 
 and rebuilding had begun. I entered the ministry at the 
 right time to take part in this general upbuilding of Church 
 and State. It is of the times of this renaissance I 
 will attempt to write. I can only speak of a few things, 
 as I have not the time, nor would my readers have the 
 patience to read all, if I should attempt to tell all the events 
 of a very active and laborious life. I have picked only a 
 few things from the mass of recollections to record in this 
 volume, which is written with the hope of doing good. 
 
 L. L. IsTash. 
 
 Hamlet, K C, 1916. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 More than one great man has been credited with saying, 
 "I do not care to read what men have imagined. I like to 
 read what they have done." I^othing will ever he more 
 interesting than human biography. Every true life is great. 
 And every life is true that follows duty and strives to fill 
 out the plan drawn for it by the Infinite Wisdom. Such 
 a life is ever vital with hope, purpose, confiict, triumph. 
 Sobs and song intermingle, but the latter outnumber the 
 former and prevail against them, and by and by the miseries 
 are forever succeeded by the hallelujahs. 
 
 John Wesley, Asbury, Coke, all wrote down from day to 
 day God's doings in and for them. ToUowing their ex- 
 ample many a Methodist preacher has proved that every 
 man may be his ovra. Bos well. "For the greater glory of 
 God" has been the inspiration of such journals. What narra- 
 tives are more thrilling than those of the pioneer circuit 
 riders ? 
 
 Dr. Nash is a modern day descendant of these mighty men 
 of old. He has heard the same trumpet call to which they 
 answered. He has been stirred by the same spirit that 
 thrilled and moved their hearts. And he has sounded forth 
 the same message which has never yet returned unto the 
 Lord void, but has ever accomplished that whereunto it was 
 sent. As one reads this book, he will enjoy its fine flavor 
 and will see that the author has been greatly honored and 
 blessed of God in his work. 
 
 The artless simplicity of truth appears in these annals. 
 The record speaks for itself. The book is the modest recital 
 of a triumphant ministry. It will give joy to the many 
 
10 InTEODUCTIOjST 
 
 thousands brought to a saving knowledge of God in Christ 
 through our brother's ministry who rise up and call him 
 blessed. 
 
 R. H. Bennett 
 Atlanta, Ga. 
 
Recollections and Observations 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 My Fiest Yeae in the Ministey — Bath Circuit. 
 
 At the session of the jSForth Carolina Conference, Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church, South, which met in Fajetteville, 
 North Carolina, in December, 1872, I was sent as a supply 
 to the Bath Circuit in Beaufort County, ISTorth Carolina. I 
 went somewhat like Abraham, not knowing whither I was 
 going. The country, as well as the work of the ministry, 
 was new to me. Having lost my young wife in March, and 
 feeling that I had nothing to live for but to do what good 
 I could, and get to heaven, I was not concerned to know 
 where my work was, or what kind of a charge I had. 
 
 After winding up my seculiar business, and arranging to 
 leave my little girl with her mother's people, I set out to 
 make my way to my field of labor. I arranged with a 
 young man to take me to Enfield, where I was to take the 
 train for Rocky Mount, and Tarboro, but a snow fell the 
 night before I was to leave, and my young friend refused 
 to take me ; so I set out to walk fifteen miles over the snow, 
 to get to my appointment in time. I shall never forget that 
 walk. Satan attacked me with all sorts of trying ques- 
 tions. As I walked over the snow carrying my suit case, 
 he said to me: "What a fool you are. Don't you know 
 if God had called you into the ministry, you would not 
 have met with such a disappointment at the start?" I did 
 not know from whom these questions came, and began to 
 feel very much like a fool for starting on such a journey, 
 under such circumstances. But as I walked along, with a 
 heavy heart I began to pray for help ; and then Satan made 
 a more vicious attack upon me. He said: "Are you sure 
 
 11 
 
12 Recollections 
 
 you have got religion ; do you know you are a Christian, you 
 who are going out to convert men, are you sure you are 
 converted yourself? This for a little time was a stunning 
 blow; and I felt my sinfulness, and un worthiness more 
 than anything else. But I replied: "If I have not been 
 converted, I have been honestly mistaken; and if what I 
 have experienced of peace with God, is not religion, then 
 there is no religion ; and if Christianity is not true, then there 
 is nothing in time, or eternity worth living for. If I am 
 not a Christian, then I will serve God until I am one." 
 
 When I came to this determination the clouds rifted. A 
 sense of peace filled my soul, and Satan fled from me. The 
 Spirit of God applied this Scripture to my heart: "This is 
 the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 
 (John 5-4). I tramped on with a light heart until I 
 reached the depot and boarded the train. 
 
 I soon reached my circuit, and began to preach, and visit 
 my people from house to house. The work was new to me: 
 I had everything to learn. I studied day and night, and 
 spent much time in prayer for help from God. Wesley's 
 Sermons, Watson's Institutes, Fletcher's Checks to Anti- 
 nomianism were the principal books that I studied. It is 
 my opinion to this day, that there has been no improvement 
 on these great books. 
 
 The Old Town of Bath. 
 
 Bath was the first town incorporated in North Carolina. 
 The location is a good one; it lies between two creeks that 
 come together just below the town. The land is rich, and 
 all crops can be grown profitably. But this town has never 
 prospered. There is an old story told that when George 
 Whitefield passed through Bath, the old Episcopal Church, 
 which is the oldest church in this State, was shut against 
 him, and when he left the place he brushed the dust of his 
 
AND Observations 13 
 
 feet off against it. The Episcopal Church in Bath was built 
 of brick brought from England, and it was erected in 1Y34. 
 The people there believed the Whitefield tradition v/hen I 
 was sent to that church ; but I never had any faith in the 
 story, for the early Methodists were accustomed to having 
 the Episcopal Churches shut against them, and when they 
 went into the fields to preach to the people, they never 
 attacked the church, but understood that the persecution they 
 received was owing to the low spiritual condition of those 
 in authority, and labored to save both preachers and peoj^lc 
 from sin, and to spread Scriptural holiness everywhere. 
 
 Bath had many stories to tell of the pirate, Teach, who 
 was a terror to the people all along the Carolina coast for 
 a time. lie made his headquarters in the neighborhood of 
 Bath and deposited his booty there. There were many stories 
 told of his hidden treasure, and many were the excavations 
 made in search of it. But the day came when the career 
 of the pirate came to an end. A lieutenant, Maynard, of 
 the colonial navy, went in search of Teach, and overhauled 
 him in Pamlico Sound, where there was a battle to the 
 death. Teach was killed; his ship and crew were captured 
 and brought to Bath. Lieutenant Maynard cut off the priate's 
 head and stuck it on the prow of his ship, and sailed into 
 Bath in triumph, very much to the relief of the people. 
 These things v/ere the subject of conversation when I went 
 to Bath. 
 
 During my first year on the circuit I had no regailar 
 home. I had six regular appointments and preached at 
 several school houses. My circuit was nearly forty miles 
 long. I had a home in every place where I had a church, 
 and would make my headquarters at that home, and visit 
 every place and family in the community. The circuit 
 assessed for my support the princely sum of $320.00, and 
 for the Presiding Elder the sum of $80.00. They generally 
 
14 Recollections 
 
 paid about $300.00 of this assessment. We had no mission- 
 ary appropriation either, and the preacher had to get along 
 as best he could on his meager salary. I took the agency 
 for the American Bible Society, and circulated the Scrip- 
 tures throughout the county, as a menas of doing good, as 
 well as to supplement my meager income. 
 
 I held several protracted meetings during the year, and 
 saw a number of souls converted; but did not have any 
 extensive revivals during the year 1873. 
 
 Rev. S. D. Adams, my much loved Presiding Elder, was 
 a great help to me. He came regularly to his appointments 
 in all kinds of weather, and gave us much encouragement 
 by his preaching and fatherly advice. He was one of the 
 best men I ever knew. He arranged for a camp meeting 
 at Ocracoke in July, and ordered me to go to it. It was 
 my first camp meeting, and the novelty of it made it very 
 interesting to me. I had never been down on the coast ; 
 that is, I had never been ashore on the coast : I had been on 
 shipboard along the coast ; but there were things ashore that 
 were new to me, among them the millions of sand-fiddlers 
 that scamper around everywhere. After going to bed in the 
 preacher's tent, the Rev. L. H. Gibbons, who was my bed- 
 fellow, asked the preacher stationed there how high a sand- 
 fiddler could climb ? The preacher, a brother Maness, an- 
 swered : "They don't climb, they go down in the sand." 
 Brother Gibbons said : "I saw one on the ridge pole of this 
 tent today." I imagined that the sand-fiddler was crawling 
 on me all night, and did not sleep very well. 
 
 We spent a week at Ocracoke, and it was a never-to-be- 
 forgotten experience with me. There were a number of 
 preachers present, and we had three services in the day, and 
 one at night. Old father Henry Gray was there, and preached 
 every day. He was a great man in prayer and exhortation ; 
 but was never considered a great preacher. But he had a 
 
AND ObSEEVATIONS 15 
 
 reputation for having his prayers answered; and was a 
 veritable terror to evil doers. It is said, he would pray for 
 the death of incorigible sinners who would not quit their 
 sins, and come to Christ, and the Lord would answer his 
 prayers, and take them away. For this reason the hardest 
 sinners feared him. 
 
 On December the second, I was married to Miss Louise 
 Taylor, of Beaufort County, w4io for more than forty-two 
 years has shared the labors and privations of the itinerant 
 preacher's life with me. 
 
 At the Conference held in Goldsboro in December, 1873, 
 I was returned to Bath Circuit for the year 1874. During 
 this year I witnessed my first great revival. I was in a 
 meeting held at Asbury Church, situated five miles from 
 Washington, ]^. C, I commenced a meeting there on the 
 date of the regular appointment, and preached on until 
 Thursday night, without any visible results. I had about 
 become discouraged, and was determined to discontinue the 
 meeting. I had preached, and called penitents, but no one 
 moved. I came dovvTi into the chancel, and commenced to 
 exhort the people, when suddenly the Spirit of God descended 
 upon me, and I spoke as I had never spoken before. Pres- 
 ently the altar was crowded with mourners, and the Chris- 
 tians began to shout, and there was a scene that surpassed 
 anything I had ever seen. The revival began and went on 
 lor three weeks, and some hundreds professed faith in Christ, 
 and v/ere thoroughly converted to God. We knew nothing 
 then of the modern revival, and never made the proposition, 
 "If you will accept Christ, give your hand to the preacher." 
 
 The revival influence spread all over the circuit ; and every 
 church on the charge was blessed with a genuine work of 
 grace. I held a meeting for fourteen days in Bath, and had 
 fourteen conversions. This seemed a small increase after the 
 great revival at Asbury; but the work was genuine, and 
 
16 ReCOLLECTIOjSTS 
 
 the church was greatly revived. There was one old man, 
 who attended the meeting, and had made up his mind to 
 seek religion, but put it off from time to time. I preached 
 from the text, "The harvest is passed, and the summer is 
 ended, and we are not saved." This old gentleman heard 
 the sermon, and decided that he would seek religion the 
 next service; but he was called away on some business, and 
 did not get to the next service, and when he heard the meet- 
 ing had closed, he concluded that he was lost, and that there 
 was no hope for him. After spending a sleeepless night, 
 he came about daylight to the place where I was staying to 
 see me, and to ask if there was any hope for him. The 
 gentleman with v/hom I was stopping refused to wake me, 
 but told him he would tell me to go to see him when I got 
 up. He did so, and I went to see him and read the Scrip- 
 tures and prayed with him until he was happily concerted, 
 and that made fiftten at that meeting. 
 
 Rev. William Closs^ D. D. 
 
 Dr. Closs was my Presiding Elder in 1874, and for four 
 years. He was one of the most remarkable men I ever 
 knew. He was a great preacher, and I think upon the 
 whole, the best Presiding Elder I ever knew. He was a 
 true friend to the young preachers on his District, if they 
 showed themselves worthy. He began his ministry on the 
 banks and islands on the North Carolina coast. He trav- 
 elled a circuit about one hundred and twenty-five miles 
 long, and preached nearly every day, in private houses, and 
 school houses; for he had few, if any, churches to preach 
 in. I heard him say at a Conference held in Raleigh in 
 1874, that he never saw his Presiding Elder the whole 
 year, and it was the happiest year of his life. Wlien Dr. 
 Closs was seventy years old, I knew him to preach thirty- 
 three sermons in thirty days, and travel every day from 
 
AND Observations ^- lY 
 
 place to place. I heard him preach the thirty-third sermon 
 in Washington, N. C, from the text: "Why this waste?" 
 His subject was the "Value of the Christian ministry." That 
 sermon stands out in my memory today as one of the 
 great sermons that I have heard. 
 
 The first time Dr. Closs came to my charge, it was to hold 
 the first quarterly conference for 1874. The conference was 
 held in Bath. He preached at eleven o'clock on Satur- 
 day, and announcd that there would be preaching at early 
 candle light by Brother JSTash. The announcement took me 
 by surprise, and gave me a good scare. I was afraid of what 
 really happened, that Dr. Closs would come out to hear me. 
 There was nothing for me to do but face the situation as 
 best I could. I preached from the text, "JSTever man spake 
 like this man." I felt that I had made a failure, and was 
 very much embarrassed. When we got back to our room, I 
 made the mistake of apologizing for my failure, and said 
 to Dr. Closs that we young men did not do ourselves justice 
 in the presence of our superiors. He replied: "If you 
 did yourself justice, you did not do your subject justice." 
 I was more embarrassed than ever; but the good old doctor 
 burst into a hearty laugh, and I began to feel that I had 
 his sympathy at all events. 
 
 He was my Presiding Elder for four years ; and no 
 young preacher ever had a better friend. He said to me one 
 day: "When I am dead, the people will tell a gi-eat many 
 anecdotes on me, and make it appear that I was an eccentric 
 old man. I have told you all the stories that are told on 
 me. I do not object to any of them being told, if they are 
 told truly. Do me the kindness when you hear these stories 
 perverted, to give the true version of them." I promised 
 him to do it; and as far as I have been able I have kept 
 that promise. Bishop Pierce told me that "Dr. Closs was 
 2 
 
18 . Recollections 
 
 the ablest debater he had ever heard on any Conference 
 floor." He was the quickest at repartee of any man I ever 
 knew. I remember an incident that occurred at the session 
 of Conference held at Greensboro in 1876. Dr. Closs took 
 up an application for deacons orders for a local preacher, 
 Rev. Charles M. Cook, from Washington. He represented 
 the case to the Conference, and concluded with the remark, 
 "It is a perfectly clear case. Bishop, and he ought to have 
 been ordained a long time ago." Rev. R. G. Barrett arose 
 and said: "Dr. Closs, is that my old friend Charles Cook 
 from Warrenton?" Dr. Closs replied: "I don't know, 
 sir. If he is any friend of yours he has not informed me." 
 The Conference roared with laughter, and Bishop Kava- 
 uaugh joined heartily in the laugh. Brother Barrett went 
 (down as if he had been shot, and made no further inquiry. 
 
 The Conference of 1874. 
 
 The North Carolina Conference held its session in Raleigh 
 in December, 1874. I joined the Conference at that session. 
 Bishop E. M. Marvin presided. He had more of the unction 
 of the Holy Spirit than any man I ever heard speak. He 
 was a rare man. I did not reach Raleigh in time to be 
 examined with the class for admission, and was examined 
 by the Committee on Wednesday morning, while the Con- 
 ference was in the first session. We finished the exami- 
 nation and reached the church just before the Conference 
 adjourned. Bishop Marvin arose, after the announcements 
 were made, and sung "Praise God from whom all blessings 
 flow" to the tune of sessions. I had never heard that tune 
 before, and the unction and power of the Bishop's singing 
 moved me to tears. I looked around and nearly every one 
 I saw was similarly affected. The Bishop spoke on Missions 
 Saturday night, and impressed every one in a remarkable 
 manner. He preached in Metropolit-an Hall on Sunday 
 
AND Observations 19 
 
 morning at eleven o'clock. His subject was: "Faithful 
 service, and its reward." He took for his text the parable of 
 the pounds. Eor one hour and twenty-five minutes he held 
 the large audience spell bound. Everybody I saw was 
 moved to tears. I heard a local preacher say that he was 
 not moved, and I never had as much respect for him after- 
 wards. In my simplicity I could not see how any man could 
 sit unmoved under such a sermon. 
 
 Bishop Marvin left the most powerful impression on the 
 Conference of any man who has visited it in my day. He 
 preached the baccalaureate sermon at Trinity College that 
 year from the text: "God is my rock;" and the sermon 
 preached on that occasion was the talk of the State for a 
 great while. I did not have the pleasure of hearing it ; 
 and I have always regretted that I did not. I never ex- 
 pect to hear another man possessing so much divine unc- 
 tion as Bishop Marvin had. He impressed the Church 
 everywhere he went in an extraordinary manner, and I sup- 
 pose there are more men living in the bounds of our com- 
 munion who bear his honored name, than that of any man 
 who ever lived among us. 
 
 I was returned to the Bath Circuit for the year 1875 
 from the Raleigh Cnoference. I had extended my work 
 until I had ten regular preaching places, and was getting 
 $500.00 for my services. That was about double what I 
 received the first year. But I needed more, as I had a wife 
 to care for. 
 
 On January 18th, 1875, I had a son born to me, and 
 naturally rejoiced in the event. But my wife v/as sick for 
 some months, and came near dying. I moved to the towa 
 of Washing-ton and served my charge from that point. Rev. 
 A. R. Raven was stationed in "Washington, and he had lost his 
 wife, and I took the hired house in which he lived and he 
 boarded with me that year. We had a gracious revival in 
 
20 Recollections 
 
 Washington, and I saw many souls converted to God in 
 that town. My wife was sick nigh unto death for some 
 three months, and when she recovered, she lost her sister, 
 her mother, and our little boy (we named him Leonidas 
 Closs), all within a few months time. I do not know how 
 we should have borne up under our troubles, but for the grace 
 of God, and the comfort of religion. I look back to that 
 time, and wonder at the providence that subjected us to 
 such sore bereavement, all in such a short time. But we 
 have the assurance that all things work together for good 
 to them that love God. 
 
 The Conference for 1875 met in Wilmington, N. C. 
 Bishop McTyiere presided. That was my first year as a 
 member of the Conference on trial. There was a tolerably 
 large class of us. I cannot recall from memory the names 
 of all who belonged to the class, but W. S. Rone, J. T. 
 Gibbs, ]Sr. ]\I. Journey, J. R. Scroggs and several others com- 
 posed the class. Only three of us, J. T. Gibbs, ISTorth Caro- 
 lina Conference, J. R. Scroggs, of the Western JSTorth Caro- 
 lina Conference, and myself are still on this side of the river. 
 We are growing old, and it will not be long before we shall 
 be called to pass over. May the good Lord keep us safely to 
 the end. 
 
AND Observations 21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Williamston Circuit. 
 
 I was sent to the Williamston Circuit from the Wilming- 
 ton Conference. I reached my work very soon after Con- 
 ference, and found quite a hard field, and much work to 
 do. The old Williamston Circuit had been divided, but 
 I had the following appointments: Williamston, Hamilton, 
 Scotland JSTeck, Palmyra, Jone's Chapel, William's Chapel 
 and Holly Springs. The circuit was forty miles long, and 
 most of the appointments were on the Poanoke Piver. 
 
 I held revival meetings at every appointment on the cir- 
 cuit, and had some success at every place. I held a meet- 
 ing at a school house, a few miles below Williamston, where 
 we had fifty accessions to the church, and organized a church 
 that was called siloam. The county (Martin) was largely 
 dominated by the Primitive Baptists, and the people were 
 not generally favorable to Methodism, and did not believe 
 in revival meetings. Nothing very remarkable occurred this 
 year on the circuit. 
 
 The Conference met in Greensboro, in December, 1876, 
 Bishop H. H. Kavanaugh presided. I was received into 
 full connection, and ordained a deacon at this Conference. 
 Bishop Kavanaugh preached a Thanksgiving sermon that was 
 one of the finest efforts ever heard by the ISTorth Carolina 
 Conference. No one who heard the sermon will ever for- 
 get it. The Bishop seemed to hypnotize his audience. I 
 suppose I was completely under the spell of his magnetic 
 eloquence as anybody; but I was sitting by the Pev. John 
 W. Lewis, one of our old preachers, and Dr. Closs was 
 sitting in the chancel, looking up at the Bishop, with his 
 head turned to one side, and tears running across his nose. 
 Brother Lewis said to me : "Dr. Closs is ugly when he cries, 
 
22 Recollectio^ts 
 
 and he is ugly when he don't cry." That broke the spell 
 on me, and I looked over the congregation, and the people 
 seemed to be beside themselves. Strong men were weeping, 
 and gazing at the Bishop as he soared away on such flights 
 of eloquence as I had never heard. I do not believe that 
 1 could have told anything about it, if Brother Lewis had 
 not broken the spell that bound me. 
 
 On the following Sunday nearly the whole of Greens- 
 boro turned out to hear the wonderful preacher. The house 
 would not hold one-tenth of the people who were anxious to 
 hear. I was among the number to be ordained, and had a 
 chair in front of the chancel. But the Bishop did not come 
 up to expectation, and preached a commonplace sermon. He 
 was not a uniform preacher. He succeeded beyond any- 
 body at times and again preached a very ordinary sermon. 
 I never expect to hear anything equal to his Thanksgiving 
 sermon while I live. 
 
 From Greensboro Conference I was returned to the Wil- 
 liamston Circuit, which had been enlarged by the addition 
 of several appointments, which had been taken from the Wil- 
 liamston Circuit and out of which the Greenville Circuit was 
 formed; this circuit was discontinued and the appointments 
 were put back on the Williamston Circuit, and I had twelve 
 churches, and my circuit was sixty miles long. This was 
 in 18T7, and the greatest year for revivals I ever saw. We 
 had thirteen great revivals during the year. We began a 
 meeting in Williamston on the third Sunday in January 
 that ran on for thirty-one days through one of the coldest 
 winters I ever saw. But the interest in the meeting was so 
 great that no kind of weather could keep the people away 
 from the church. There were over one hundred and fifty 
 people powerfully converted. Many of those who held to the 
 Primitive Baptist faith were converted ; some of whom joined 
 
AND Observations , 23 
 
 the Methodist Church, and some joined the Primitive Bap- 
 tist. 
 
 Dr. Closs came to mj help, and preached every day for 
 ten or twelve days. He always believed that preaching the 
 gospel and saving men was his principal work. There were 
 some notable conversions in this meeting, among them Dr. 
 Joshua Taylor, a leading physician of Williamston, who was 
 quite a skeptic. He became one of the most influential mem- 
 bers on the charge. He was steward and Sunday-school 
 superintendent, and although he had a large practice, he 
 never failed to be at Sunday-school and church. He died 
 young, beloved by all the people. 
 
 James Edwin Moore, a prominent lawyer of Williamston, 
 was converted in the meeting. His father was a Primitive 
 Baptist preacher, and he joined his father's church. Some 
 people in the community were so prejudiced against the meet- 
 ing that they would not go to it, but became so awakened 
 that they sought the Lord in their homes, and were happily 
 converted. It was a great work of grace and revolutionized 
 the community. 
 
 The most extensive revival of the year was at Bethel 
 Church in Pitt County. The revival began the third Sun- 
 day in August, and the people came for miles around. We 
 built an arbor, and preached under it for three weeks, morn- 
 ing and night. There were as many as three thousand who 
 attended the services, and fully five hundred were converted. 
 At the close of the meeting, I raised two thousand dollars 
 to build a new church there, and we erected what at that 
 time was the best church in the county. 
 
 At this meeting people fell helpless under conviction, and 
 some had to be hauled home in this condition. The remark- 
 able thing about it was, those who were most opposed to the 
 meeting were the most powerfully convicted, I remember 
 one old lady who made it a rule to abuse the Methodists. She 
 
24 Eecoluection's 
 
 came to the meeting out of curiosity, and was stricken speech- 
 less, and remained in that condition until she was con- 
 verted. She joined the Methodist Church and continued a 
 consistent member until the day of her death. 
 
 There was a Dr. James, at whose house I usually stopped, 
 who claimed not to believe in the work at all. One night 
 I saw him back in the congregation, and I went to him and 
 asked him to go and examine a man who was strangely 
 affected. He said, "^o, I cannot go." I said to him, "I 
 do not understand the case, and I want to see if you can 
 explain it to me." He still refused. I asked him why he 
 would not go, and he said, "I am afraid I shall get in the 
 same iix myself." I could not get him to investigate the 
 case. His wife was soundly converted and joined the church. 
 The doctor was a good friend to me, and subscribed liberally 
 to build the new church, but never gave his heart to God. 
 He talked infidelity until I think he persuaded himself to 
 believe his infidel talk. He was a good-hearted, generous 
 man; kind to everybody, but an unbeliever to the last. His 
 case convinced me that a man may, by persistent impeni- 
 tence, destroy the work of grace in his heart, and put him- 
 self beyond the reach of repentance and faith. He lived to 
 a good old age, and died just as he had lived, with no 
 evidence of acceptance with God, and no hope of a better 
 life. 
 
AND OsSEEVATIOlsrS 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Greenville and Rolesville Circuits. 
 
 After two years of strenuous work on the Williamston 
 Circuit, I attended th^ Conference in Salisbury, IST. C, in 
 1877, Bishop D. S. Doggett presided. He preached a not- 
 able memorial sermon on Bishop Marvin, who died in St. 
 Louis during the session of the iN'orth Carolina Conference. 
 I was sent to the Greenville Circuit. This circuit was re- 
 formed, and the appointments that had been taken from 
 the Williamston Circuit were again placed with Greenville, 
 and I carried with me four appointments that I had served 
 one year. Greenville is the county seat of Pitt County, and 
 when I went to that charge, religion at Greenville, and the 
 surrounding country, was at a low ebb. There was not a 
 prominent business man in Greenville who was a member 
 of any church. The town was full of bar rooms, and the 
 most of the people patronized them liberally. Profanity and 
 gambling, and all other forms of vice were the order of the 
 day. The town presented a dilapidated appearance ; and the 
 only Christian force in evidence was an organization of good 
 women, who labored to keep the church alive, and meet the 
 expenses of religious work by festivals, charades, oyster sup- 
 pers, etc. 
 
 There was no parsonage, nor any habitable house for rent 
 in the town. I found entertainment for myself and wife 
 and little girl in the homes of some members and well 
 wishers to the church. I shall never forget the kindness of 
 these friends. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. B. C. Pearce, 
 Mr. and Mrs. James B. Cherry, and last, but not least, 
 David Dill and his good wife. 
 
 I set about to secure a parsonage. The good women had 
 raised three hundred dollars by their efforts in various ways. 
 
26 KECOLLECTIOlSrS 
 
 There was a rather dilapidated house that stood on a good 
 lot that belonged to William Grimes of Raleigh, which I was 
 informed could be bought for one thousand dollars. I nego- 
 tiated for the purchased of this property, and bargained for 
 it by paying four hundred dollars cash, and the balance in 
 two years. 
 
 But when the deed was sent down, the lawyer that repre- 
 sented Mr. Grimes demanded the whole amount in cash. I 
 did not know what to do; and in my preplexity I told my 
 old friend David Dill of my trouble. He was the agent for 
 the Old Dominion Steamship Company, and had an office up 
 in the town. When I told him my trouble I was at his 
 office. He said to me, ''How much money do you need to 
 get the property?" I told him six hundred dollars. He 
 said, ''Wait here until I come back." He went to his house, 
 and was gone for nearly one hour. When he returned he 
 had a shot bag in his hand full of silver, and said to me, 
 "Take this and go and buy your house." I said, "I shall 
 never be able to thank you enough for this ; and to secure you 
 I will have a mortgage made to you on the property." He 
 answered: "Fix it up to suit yourself." 
 
 I secured the property, and had to spend about three hun- 
 dred dollars more on the house to make it habitable. With 
 the help of the good women we soon raised the money, and 
 I moved my family into our parsonage, and began four years 
 of hard, but happy, and successful work at Greenville. 
 
 Our church in Greenville was in a dilapidated condition. 
 The plastering overhead had begun to fall, and before I 
 could get a congregation to go in the church, I had to have 
 the plastering knocked off. But we went ahead, and soon 
 had a fine revival. There were sixty-six accessions from 
 this meeting; the church took on new life; we made plans 
 for a new churcli, and Greenville Methodism came rapidly 
 to the front. 
 
AND Observations 27 
 
 Yf e erected a new church on the lot purchased for church 
 and parsonage, at a cost of $3,500.00. 
 
 It took some time and great effort to build the church, and 
 when we had it completed, we had a District Conference for 
 the Washington District, at which Bishop W. M. Wightman 
 presided. In all my ministry of more than forty years, I 
 have never attended such a District Conference. The bishop 
 was at his best in the pulpit; the people were full of enthu- 
 siasm ; and best of all, the Holy Spirit was with us in power. 
 
 Bishop Wightman dedicated the church. We had to raise 
 twelve hundred dollars to pay the balance of the cost of the 
 building. This we did in less than a half hour, and every 
 body was happy over the event. 
 
 Kev. James E. Mann, D. D., one of nature's noblemen, was 
 the Presiding Elder; he entered heartily into all my plans 
 and aided me in every way in his power. It affords me 
 pleasure, after the lapse of thirty-four years, to call up 
 the memory of my association with this good man. 
 
 He died during the session of the General Conference in 
 St. Louis in 1890. I shall never forget the last time I saw 
 him. I was then stationed in Raleigh. On my way up to 
 Durham from Raleigh, I met him on the train. He was on 
 his way to St. Louis, the seat of the General Conference. 
 He said to me: "Old fellow, I am going to St. Louis, and 
 may never come back. If I do not see you any more, I 
 hope to meet you in heaven." I said to him, "I expect to 
 see you here again." He shook his head and said: "You 
 may not; but St. Louis is just as near to heaven as ISTorth 
 Carolina." Before we parted in Durham, he repeated the 
 remark about not coming back, and said again, "St. Louis 
 is as near heaven as North Carolina." It made me feel 
 sad; but I thought it was probably a gloomy feeling that 
 possessed him resulting from leaving home. 
 
 But subsequent events proved that his impression was not 
 
28 Recollections 
 
 caused by the tliouglit of leaving home. He had a premoni- 
 tion of his death. Before leaving ISTew Bern, where he was 
 stationed, he went around and settled all his bills that he 
 owed; and when he was told they could stand until his re- 
 turn, he said, "I may not come back." 
 
 Another remarkable thing in connection with the death of 
 Dr. Mann, was told by his daughter, Mrs. Ormand of Kins- 
 ton. Mrs. Ormand is the wife of a prominent attorney ; and 
 at the time of her father's death, her mother was visiting her 
 in Greene County. About the time that Dr. Mann died, his 
 wife sprang up and said to her daughter: "Genie, your 
 father is dead;" and went and fell down on the bed in incon- 
 solable grief. It was twenty-four hours after this before the 
 telegram reached them informing them of Dr. Mann's death. 
 I presume our modern scientists will account for this on 
 what they call "telepathy". 
 
 Our Conference met in Charlotte in December, 18Y8. 
 Bishop Pierce presided. The Bishop, who was one of the 
 greatest preachers of his day, was suffering with a throat 
 trouble that disqualified him for pulpit work. He could 
 preside at the Conference, and attend to all other duties of 
 his office, but his eloquent tongue was silenced by disease. 
 At this Conference the plan for bonding the debt on the 
 publishing house was under discussion. Dr. O. P. Fitz- 
 gerald (afterwards Bishop), came to represent the publishing 
 house. He was the editor of the Christian Advocate, pub- 
 lished at ISTashville, and the general organ of the Church. 
 When he made his speech to the Conference, and explained, 
 and advocated the bond scheme to save the house ; Dr. Closs 
 opposed the plan, and worsted Dr. Fitzgerald in the argu- 
 ment. Several of the brethren attempted to help Dr. Fitz- 
 gerald but Dr. Closs would cut them down with a witticism, 
 and it appeared that he was about to turn the Conference 
 against the plan. Dr. Closs was my best friend, but I 
 
AND Obseevations 29 
 
 thought he was in error, and I replied to him. It was a 
 hazardous thing for a young man to do, but Dr. Fitzgerald 
 did me the honor to say, that I was his "Blucher that turned 
 his Waterloo into Austerlitz." 
 
 After the discussion was over, an old lady said to me: 
 ^*TE[ow did you dare to attack the old lion; did you not fear 
 that one stroke of his paw would make an end of you ?" I 
 told her that my temerity was the result of ignorance, I sup- 
 posed, as fools were said to venture where angels feared to 
 tread. 
 
 I was ordained an elder at this Conference, along with 
 seven others of my class. I felt very much relieved, for I 
 was under the severe strain of bringing up my studies, and 
 of doing the heavy work of my charge. 
 
 Rev. A. W. Wilson, D. D., was missionary secretary, and 
 attended the Conference. He represented the Board of Mis- 
 sions in a masterly manner, and filled the pulpit in the 
 Bishop's place. He was afterwards elected Bishop, and has 
 been, and still is one of our great men. 
 
 I was returned to the Greenville Circuit for the year 
 1879, and we had a year of revivals. This year I held 
 a imeeting at a school house seven miles below Greenville, 
 where we had more than fifty conversions, and I organized 
 a church there; we named the new church Salem. 
 
 We gave the old church building in Greenville to this 
 new congregation, and it was moved do"\vn, and rebuilt there. 
 
 One Sunday morning an old Englishman, who looked like 
 a tramp came to the parsonage, and asked where he could 
 stop, as he did not wish to travel on Sunday. The man 
 had a good face, but was poorly dressed. I told him he 
 could stop with me. It was nearly church time, and I 
 asked him if he would go to church. He said he was not 
 dressed well enough; but said he was a Methodist, and 
 belonged to the English Wesleyans. I went over and preached,. 
 
30 Recollectioks 
 
 leaving him at the parsonage resting. After we had dinner, 
 I said to him: "You say you are a school teacher?" He 
 answered, "Yes, I have been teaching school in California; 
 but decided to come East, and secure me a school; but I 
 have traveled until I have spent all my money, and sold all 
 my best clothes." 
 
 I said to him, if you do not object, I will examine you, 
 for I want a teacher for a school in the country. He said he 
 would be very glad if I would examine him, and satisfy my- 
 self as to his competency to teach. I gave him a rigid ex- 
 amination on all the ordinary branches of an English educa- 
 tion, and became satisfied of his qualification to teach. I 
 sent him down to the recently organized church, and wrote 
 one of the leading men there to give him a trial. He estab- 
 lished a school there, and the influences of that good old 
 man, who looked like a tramp, on that community will abide 
 through eternity. That community was one of the toughest 
 in the country, but old Brother Bond (for that was his 
 name), awakened in that community a love of learning that 
 converted Black Jack (the name of the section) into one of 
 the best parts of the county. I left old Brother Bond there 
 teaching, and serving the Lord when I left the charge. I 
 was down in that section not long since, and I found a 
 number of college men and women, who in all probability 
 would never have gone to college, but for the influence of 
 the old Englishman, who awakened in the minds of their 
 parents a desire for the education of their children. 
 
 While I was stationed at Greenville after a heated con- 
 test with Tarboro, in a District Conference held in Washing- 
 ton in 1880, we established a District School for the Wash- 
 ington District in Greenville. Or I should have said we 
 located such a school in Greenville. We bought six acres of 
 land, in what is now the heart of town, and I raised $3,000.00 
 to build a school house. But when I left the charge, the 
 
ARD Obseevations 31 
 
 church gave the property to citizens there, to have the build- 
 ing finished and run a school there. If the church had kept 
 the property, it would have been worth $50,000.00 to them. 
 But the District School enterprise never succeeded any- 
 where in the Church, so far as I know. But I do know 
 Methodism lost a golden opportunity, when she failed to 
 carry out the plan for a Methodist school for the Washington 
 District in Greenville. 
 
 Christian education has had a struggle for existence every- 
 where, especially in the South. It seems that when the 
 church has founded and nurtured schools, until they were 
 able to get along, then a spirit of independency in educa- 
 tion has found some way to alienate them from church con- 
 trol. Then the public schools have occupied the field of 
 academic instruction, and curtailed the support of church 
 schools ; and yet it is absolutely necessary for the church 
 to keep her hold on the educational work of the country. 
 This is one of the most difficult problems confronting the 
 church. 
 
 The Conference of 1880 met in Winston, IST. C. Bishop 
 John C. Keener presided. Winston at that time was a new 
 and growing town. Our church was too small to hold the 
 Conference, and we met in a large hall; if my memory 
 serves me correctly, it was the city hall. The Conference 
 was well attended and spiritual. I was returned to Green- 
 ville Circuit for the fourth time. 
 
 My last year on the Greenville Circuit was 1881. The 
 Conference of that year met in Durham. It was a very inter- 
 esting session. Bishop Pierce presided. The great fight for 
 prohibition came off in that year. I organized Pitt County, 
 and canvassed it for the prohibition of the liquor traffic. 
 We had a warm time. I was informed that threats were 
 made by the whiskey forces to mob me, but somehow, I 
 never felt any alarm, and there was no violence offered me. 
 
32 Recollections 
 
 I had an appointment to speak on prohibition at Pactolus, 
 a village about twelve miles below Greenville. The whiskey 
 forces secured a speaker in the person of a Primitive Bap- 
 tist preacher by the name of Alfred Eoss to reply to me. 
 The news went out that there was to be a debate on the pro- 
 hibition question between a Primitive Baptist preacher 
 and a Methodist preacher. That was a drawing card; and 
 fully fifteen hundred gathered to hear the discussion. I 
 spoke on the question : ''Is the prohibition of the liquor 
 traffic right ?" I discussed the subject for an hour, and 
 endeavored to show that it was right from every point of 
 view. When I finished German Bernard, who was a mem- 
 ber of the Legislature that submitted the question to the 
 people, spent some time in an apology for voting to submit 
 it. When he was through Mr. Ross got up to reply to me; 
 and it was to me the most amusing speech I ever heard. 
 
 He commenced by saying: ''Fellow citizens, I am an 
 uneducated man; but I have been studying dis here ques- 
 tion by night, by fire knots ; I am not a hired preacher, and 
 I have to work for my living. Dis Methodist preacher, who 
 has been trying to take your liberties away, has a wagin 
 load of books, and has nothing to do but read 'em. But 
 I am opposed to dis question because it has sprung up in de 
 dark; I am opposed to it because it was sprung by de 
 wimmin and de clergy; I am opposed to it because it is de 
 tail of de dragon spoke on in de vevulation dat will drag 
 down a third of de stars, ah." I took notes of this remark- 
 able speech, and give his introduction verbation, as well as 
 I am able to express it in his language. I expected him 
 to speak two or three hours ; but to my surprise he ran out 
 in twenty-five minutes, and there was no more argument in 
 the whole speech, than there is in the sentence I have quoted 
 above. 
 
 When I rose to reply, he objected, and said if I made 
 
AND Observations 33 
 
 another speech, I would be doubling teams on him. I told 
 him that I was going to speak, and he could reply if he 
 chose to do so. I was told that the plan was to mob 
 me if I attempted to answer him. I knew nothing of this; 
 but a great many of my friends were apprised of it, and 
 went there armed. I was afterwards informed, if any attack 
 had been made on me some one would have been killed. As 
 there was nothing to reply to in Ross's speech, I spent about 
 forty-five minutes in a humorous speech, in which I ridiculed 
 the old brother until he never got over it. There was an 
 old gentleman present, who belonged to the anti-prohibition 
 side, who, seeing his champion made a laughing stock of, 
 left the meeting. He passed a store, where one of the mer- 
 chants had stayed to look after the store during the discus- 
 sion. The merchant came out and said to this old gentle- 
 man: ''How is the debate going." The old gentleman did 
 not stop, but said: "Xash is giving old Ross hell." My 
 friends laughed at me about it, and, said they did not know 
 that I dealt in that article. 
 
 While I was away on the circuit one night some one 
 put a long bar room sign on the parsonage porch, and set 
 an empty bottle at each end of it. I had a colored man 
 servant, and when he came to look after his business, he 
 called my wife, and told her there was an old bar room 
 sign on the front porch. She went to see it, and said : 
 "Charles, the Lord sent that thing here, if the devil brought 
 it. Take it, and cut it up, as we are about out of kindling 
 wood." Charles did it, and when I came home I found a 
 fine pile of kindling wood in the kitchen, as the sign was 
 about twelve feet long, one and a half inches thick, and 
 sixteen inches wide. We never knew to whom the sign 
 belonged; nor ever heard anything more about it. 
 
 The whiskey crowd beat us in the State by over one hun- 
 dred thousand; but our labor was not in vain, for the seed 
 3 
 
34 Recollections 
 
 sown in that campaign brought a triumph for prohibition in 
 1908. 
 
 The sentiment for temperance, and prohibition in Pitt 
 County has grown ever since. Greenville is at this time one 
 of the most progressive towns in the State and the people no 
 where in the State, or any where else, for that matter, are 
 more genuinely in favor of prohibition than the people of 
 Greenvile and Pitt County, The county is one of the 
 largest and best in the State of IN^orth Carolina ; and the in- 
 crease in material prosperity has been greater than in any 
 other county with which I am acquainted. I look back with 
 pleasure upon the years of toil spent in that good old county, 
 and hope for a continuance of prosperity, and moral and re- 
 ligious growth among them for years to come. 
 
 From the Conference that met in Durham in 1881, I v/as 
 sent to the Rolesville Circuit, in Wake County. This was a 
 large circuit with seven appointments, covering territory 
 nearly fifty miles long. The country was rough, and the 
 roads were bad; especially in winter. ISTot long after get- 
 ting to the circuit, my horse took fright while eating out 
 of a cracker box at Andrew Chapel Church, in the upper 
 part of the county, and ran against a tree and killed him- 
 self. I was twentj^-five miles from home, and afoot. A 
 kind brother lent me a mule, and on Monday I drove into 
 Raleigh, and bought me another horse. This little incident 
 may not seem worth telling; but the loss of a good horse, on 
 a large circuit, is an event of importance to a poor Metho- 
 dist preacher, who gets about enough salary to make ends 
 meet, without any such misfortunes. I felt very helpless 
 when I found myself afoot with no money to replace my 
 horse. But a good man who dealt in horses was willing 
 to trust me for another, and I lost no time from my work by 
 the loss of my horse. 
 
 The year 1882, my first year on the Rolesville Circuit, 
 
AND Observations 35 
 
 was a year of hard work, but we had several good meetings. 
 My wife had a long attack of fever, and came near dying. 
 The people were kind to us ; and we had an especial friend in 
 Mrs. J. R. Fleming, the wife of Dr. Fleming. If she 
 had been a sister, she could not have been more faithful, or 
 helpful to us. In addition to this we had a colored servant 
 whose faithfulness is worthy of everlasting remembrance. 
 Her name was Nancy; I do not recall her surname; but a 
 more faithful friend v/e never had. Sometimes I think v/e 
 show ingratitude in not having such faithful colored serv- 
 ants in everlasting remembrance. My wife was sick with 
 fever for thirty-one days, and unconscious for the greater 
 part of the time. We had no trained nurses then to call in 
 to help us ; and could only look to faithful servants and 
 kind friends for help. 
 
 My son, Marvin W., was born in Greenville, and Wight- 
 man was born in Rolesville. My family consisted of my 
 wife and three children, all small, and I was much of my 
 time away on my large circuit ; so that my wife had a lonely 
 time in our little parsonage home ; and we were much depend- 
 ent on our faithful servant and our kind neighbors. ISTo one 
 knows the trials of the itinerant preacher and his family 
 but those who experience these hardships. 
 
 Rev. S. D. Adams was again my Presiding Elder, and 
 he frequently came and spent a week Avith us on his rounds, 
 and these visits are treasured among our most precious mem- 
 ories. It may not be of interest to the general reader to 
 speak of these commonplace every day things ; but if they 
 serve to put our people in still closer touch and deeper sym- 
 pathy with the hard working, seK-sacrificing preacher they 
 will not be told in vain. 
 
 While on the Rolesville Circuit we had one notable re- 
 vival ; in fact, we had several great meetings ; but I will 
 speak of this one, because of the wonderful display of divine 
 
36 Recollections ^ 
 
 power. The meeting was held at a church called Shady 
 Grove, about eight miles west of Raleigh. I had appointed 
 the meeting to begin on the second Sunday in August; but 
 we had a good meeting in Rolesville, and I did not wish 
 to leave it when my time came to go to Shady Grove. I got 
 Brother Joseph Wheeler, who was stationed at what was 
 then known as Brookljoi and Macedonia Charge, in West 
 Raleigh, to go out and hold the meeting for me until I 
 could get there. Brother Edward Howland, who was on 
 the superannuate list, and lived in Gary, also went ; and 
 these good men did all they could to keep the work 
 going on. But the people at Shady Grove demanded the 
 presence of the pastor; and on Wednesday evening one of 
 my stewards, a brother Smith, came down after me ; he said 
 if I did not go it would cause dissatisfaction. He told me 
 there was a Miss Smith, who was leader among the young 
 people, who had a crowd of her friends there, and they 
 were disturbing the meeting, and paid no attention to the 
 preachers. 
 
 I told him I did not think I could do any more than 
 the brethren who were there. But nothing would do but 
 I must leave the meeting in Rolesville, and go to Shady 
 Grove. Brother T. B. Reeks, one of our old preachers, 
 happened to be in Rolesville on a visit to his daughter. So 
 I got him to preach at Rolesville for me, and went to Shady 
 Grove. I made Miss Smith a subject of prayer, and while 
 I was preaching at eleven o'clock, from the first three verses 
 of the Fortieth Psalm, the Spirit of God mightily awakened 
 the young lady, and she sprang up, and screamed, and rushed 
 to the mourners' bench, crying for mercy. 
 
 She was followed by thirty or more of her young friends, 
 who came to the altar for prayer. There was a la;)Tnan 
 present, who was a mighty man in prayer. Brother W. C. 
 Bledsoe. I stopped preaching, and called on him to lead 
 
AND ObSEEVATIONS 37 
 
 in prayer. He prayed with great power, and while he was 
 praying thirteen persons were powerfully converted. Brother 
 Bledsoe never closed his prayer, but began to shout, and 
 shouted until I feared he would die. Miss Smith was not 
 converted. She went home deeply penitent. The next morn- 
 ing she did not get to church until Brother Wheeler had 
 begun his sermon. She came in, and went to the altar, 
 and knelt down. It was not long before she was power- 
 fully converted, and rose shouting. Brother Wheeler said: 
 "Bless God, that is better than preaching." We commenced 
 singing, and the altar was again filled with penitents. The 
 meeting went on for ten days. There was not an invitation 
 given to any one to come to the altar; and yet there were 
 over one hundred happy conversions. 
 
 I spent a night in Kaleigh during the meeting, and on 
 my way back to Shady Grove the next morning, when I 
 was about three miles from the church, I met a man. He 
 asked me if I had heard the news ? I asked him, "What 
 news ?" He said, "Mr. Riley Yearby was converted last 
 night." I drove on about a mile, and met a colored man. 
 He hailed me and asked if I had heard the news ? I replied : 
 "What news ?" He said, "Mr. Riley Yearby was converted 
 last night." 
 
 Mr. Yearby was a prominent citizen in the community: 
 but never made any pretension to religion. He was about 
 sixty years old. He was at the meeting on Sunday, and 
 the text was : "O Lord, I have heard Thy speech, and was 
 afraid : O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, 
 in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remembei 
 mercy." Hab. 3 :2. God spoke to him. and he was so awak- 
 ened he could rest neither day or night until he gave his 
 heart to God and found peace in believing. When I got 
 to the church, I saw a crowd gathered in the grove. I went 
 up, and found that Mr. Yearby was telling his experience. 
 
38 Recollections 
 
 How lie had been so awakened he could not rest day or night. 
 How he had tried to throw off his convictions, until he 
 became so miserable he could stand it no longer. About three 
 o'clock in the morning, he went to his wife's room to wake 
 her up, and ask her to pray for him; but when he got to 
 her room door he was powerfully converted. He told the 
 story over and over; but he always broke down, and began 
 to rejoice when he got to the door of his wife's room. 
 
 He became an earnest Christian, and died a consistent 
 church member. 
 
 Scenes like this are not common now, and we are coming 
 to the point when they are discounted. But when the Lord 
 pours out his Spirit, such effects always follow. This kind 
 of revival is after the type of Pentecost ; and it is just this 
 kind of work the church needs today. Our present day re- 
 vivals have too much of the human, and too little of the 
 divine in them. All emotion is discounted by some, and 
 all they desire is for men without any feeling of conviction, 
 or any assurance of pardon, simply to come forward and give 
 evidence that they accept Christ. 
 
 1 am fully aware of the fact that God is always ready to 
 accept the penitent, trusting sinner; and freely to forgive 
 all who come to Him through Christ. But a repentance with- 
 out sorrow, and a faith without trust will never bring the 
 assurance of forgiveness, and a sense of peace with God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The ITorth Carolina Conference met in Raleigh in De- 
 cember, 1882. Bishop John C. Keener presided. Dr. 
 Braxton Craven, the founder and President of Trinity Col- 
 lege, had died during the year. The college was in debt, and 
 had lost its head. The prospect for the institution was 
 rather gloomy. As long as Dr. Craven lived, he was a 
 whole faculty in himself, and the institution could live in 
 spite of poverty, and in the face of adversity. But he had 
 
AND Observations 39 
 
 fallen suddenly at his post, and tiis equal was not to be 
 found anywhere. At his funeral the President of the Board 
 of Trustees said: " When we buried Dr. Craven we felt we 
 had very little left." The college was six thousand dollars 
 in debt, and the money had to be raised immediately. Bishop 
 Keener took the matter in hand to raise the amount, 
 I shall never forget how he took me off, when I proposed to 
 be one of sixty to pay the debt. He said : 'T don't want any 
 subscriptions with a string to them. If you have a hundred 
 dollars to give to save the college, have faith enough to give 
 it, and trust Go3. to move the hearts of the others to raise 
 the amount." I took him at his word, and gave the hun- 
 dred dollars unconditionally, and the six thousand was raised. 
 Trinity went forward with varying fortunes until at last 
 it was moved to Durham, of which I will speak when I reach 
 the time of the event. 
 
 I was returned to the Bolesville Circuit, and spent the 
 year 1883 on that charge. We had a District Conference 
 that year at Plank Chapel, now as then on the Tar River 
 Circuit. I was asked to preach on Sunday morning out un- 
 der the trees. There were about six thousand people in at- 
 tendance; and the church* and an arbor that was provided, 
 would accommodate a small part of them. Rev. W. H. Moore 
 was preacher in charge of the circuit, and Rev. S. D. Adams 
 was Presiding Elder. They came to me and asked me to 
 preach out of doors. I had preached a missionary sermon 
 on Friday, and was rather inclined not to preach. I told 
 the brethren to get some other preacher, but they insisted 
 that I should preach. I had made no preparation, and did 
 not know what to preach. Going dovm where I v/as expected 
 to preach, I drew out a note book from my pocket in which 
 I had several sermon sketches, to select some subject, when 
 my eye fell on a sketch from Isaiah 28th chapter and 21st 
 verse: "For the bed is horter than that a man can stretch 
 
40 Recollections 
 
 himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can 
 wrap himself in it." I had no idea of producing a sensa- 
 tion. The fact is, if I had had time to prepare for that occa- 
 sion 1 would not have chosen that text and subject. But the 
 Lord blessed me, and gave me liberty, and for an hour I 
 preached with unusual power for me. Rev. W. C. ISTorman 
 preached under the arbor, and Dr. M. L. Wood, who at that 
 time was President of Trinity College, preached in the 
 church. They both finished their sermons, and dismissed 
 their congregations before I was through. I had about 
 three thousand to hear me, and enlarged on my subject ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 When I dismissed my congregation, they were spreading 
 the abundant feast of good things for dinner that had been 
 brought for the occasion. I passed by Brother Norman and 
 he stopped me and asked what I had preached about. I told 
 £im, and asked him why he asked. He said : "I never heard 
 so much about a sermon in my life; but nobody could tell 
 me your text." He said: "I asked Dr. Peter Foster, and he 
 said it was the greatest sermon he ever heard; but he did 
 not remember where the text was, but it was about a short 
 bed and a narrow blanket." No, one was more surprised 
 than I was at the effect produced. I was told afterwards 
 that there was a rather eccentric local preacher who heard 
 the sermon, who preached on the subject in all the surround- 
 ing country. Twenty years afterwards I was stationed in 
 Henderson, which is only a few miles from Plank Chapel, 
 and the first thing I heard when I got there was some- 
 tliing about that sermon. I was requested several times to 
 preach it again, but I never attempted it. Nor have I ever 
 preached from that text since. 
 
 I think it was a kind of an inspiration that made the 
 effort a success ; and I have never felt that I could preach 
 
AND Observations 41 
 
 tliat sermon again as it was preached on that occasion. I 
 do not know that anyone was converted under it; and if 
 it only produced a sensation it is doubtful as to what good 
 was accomplished. 
 
42 Eecollectio:s^s 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 The Leasburg Ciecuit. 
 
 Our conference convened in Statesville in December, 
 1883. Bishop Keener presided again. I was anxious to get 
 to a place where I could place mj daughter in school. She 
 had been going to a primary school, and was about fourteen 
 years of age. She was not prepared for college, and was 
 rather too young to send away from home. There was a 
 good school at Franklinton; and Brother Adams wanted me 
 to go there. But at Conference he came to me and said: 
 "I cannot tell you anything now; for we are all up in the 
 air, and you must not be surprised at anything." I told 
 him that I knew he would do the best he could for me and 
 tTie church, and I would be contented with whatever was 
 done. 
 
 I was sent to the Leasburg Circuit in Caswell and Per- 
 son Counties. Rev. Solomon Lea had a good school there 
 to which I sent my daughter, and where she was prepared 
 for college. Brother Lea, and his daughter, Miss Willie, 
 were very fine teachers. Brother Lea was the first Presi- 
 dent of Greensboro Female College; now Greensboro Col- 
 lege for Women. He was a local preacher, and did great 
 good in his day. He lived to be nearly one hundred years 
 old. 
 
 The Leasburg Circuit was divided just before I went to 
 it. Rev. H. H. Gibbons was my predecessor; and under 
 his ministry several appointments were taken off, and a new 
 circuit was formed. But the people were not satisfied with 
 the division, and those appointments were put back the 
 second year I was on the charge. My first year there were 
 six churches; the second year there were ten appointments; 
 and they all required Sabbath preaching. 
 
 The first year I was there we had a number of good re- 
 
AND Obseevations 43 
 
 vivals. But the interest grew, and the second year we had 
 several sweeping revivals. We had a meeting at Lea's Cha- 
 pel in which nearly everybody in the community was con- 
 verted. Several of the leading men in the community came 
 into the church. Among them were Col. C. S. Winstead and 
 A. J. Hester, Esq. Mr. Hester belonged to a Primitive 
 Baptist family. His mother, a lady over seventy years old, 
 who had been reared in that faith, was converted and joined 
 the church. 
 
 When the meeting at Lea's Chapel began, I preached very 
 plainly against sin of every kind; especially against drink- 
 ing and drunkenness. I did not know that any of the mem- 
 bers of my charge were guilty of the things I condemned. 
 I saw, however, that several members were not as cordial 
 as they had been in greeting me. I learned afterwards that 
 one of my stewards had condemned me in rather strong 
 terms during a recess. We had two services, and dinner on 
 the ground between the services. Mr. Hester was standing 
 by, and said : "Gentlemen, I am not a Methodist, but if the 
 Bible is true, your preacher is preaching the truth; and if 
 1 were a Methodist I would hold up his hands.'^ This had 
 a powerful effect. That afternoon, Mr. Hester went to the 
 altar and was converted. That gave the meeting a wonder- 
 ful impetus. A few days afterwards we had an experience 
 meeting, and that steward told the facts above stated, and 
 said he had not been living right, but sought and found par- 
 don. He further stated that he had been thinking for some 
 time that he would resign, as he was tired of being bothered 
 with the work of a steward ; but he added, "I have made up 
 my mind to be a faithful steward, and if I get out, you will 
 have to put me out." 
 
 The church took on new life, and has been a strong and 
 growing church ever since. A number of those who were con- 
 verted at that meeting have crossed over the river ; but their 
 
44 Recollections 
 
 children have taken their places, and are living to the glory 
 of God. A. J. Hester is among the number who went to his 
 heavenly home a year or two since. He was one of the leading 
 men of Person County, respected and loved by all who knew 
 him. As I think of those years of labor and toil for the salva- 
 tion of men, I wonder that God blessed me so much, as un- 
 worthy as I have always been of His blessings and His 
 mercy and grace. 
 
 We had another remarkable revival at Concord Church 
 in Person County. The young people of that community 
 were very much inclined to worldliness ; and the Christmas 
 holidays were given up to balls, and other kinds of worldli- 
 ness. I decided to hold a protracted meeting at Concord 
 during Christmas week. I preached on Sunday, and an- 
 nounced services through the week. The congregation was 
 filled with consternation. Even the old people thought it 
 an unheard of thing, and were frank to say that they did 
 not think we could have a revival at Christmas. I asked 
 them, Why not ? I told them I thought it a very appropriate 
 time, as it was the time of celebrating the birth of Christ; 
 and it seemed there could be no more appropriate time for 
 a revival. I exhorted all to come, and see what the Lord 
 would do for us. They came, and the revival started at 
 once. The church was greatly blessed, and a great many 
 were converted, and joined the church. After the meeting 
 closed, everybody said it was the best Christmas they had 
 ever had. They all with one voice said we want a revival 
 every Christmas. But I never held another meeting at 
 Christmas at Concord. 
 
 I remember one notable conversion in that meeting. It 
 was that of a doctor. He had been a fine physician, but had 
 fallen under the influence of whiskey, and had become a 
 drunkard, and had lost his practice. His wife was a good 
 woman, and he had become reduced in circumstances so 
 
AND Observations 45 
 
 that he was living with his family in a tenant house on his 
 wife's mother's farm. He was powerfully converted. I visi- 
 ted him in his humble home, and spent the night with him 
 and his family. When I drove up, his little daughter came 
 out to meet me, clapping her hands, and saying "Uncle 
 ISTash, we are all so happy. Papa does not drink any more, 
 and we have family prayers now." I went in and found 
 all the family happy. The doctor had resumed his practice ; 
 and all the people showed a disposition to help him on. He 
 lived a consistent Christian life for something more than a 
 year, and did a fine practice. But he went to Roxboro one day 
 and some emissary of the devil prevailed on him to take a 
 glass of beer. The doctor refused at first, and told his tempt- 
 er, "You know I dare not touch liquor of any kind." But 
 the enemy in the disguise of a friend, said to him: "We 
 all know you are a converted man, and a glass of beer will 
 not hurt you." He took the glass of beer, and then another 
 and drank whiskey, and got drunk. He became a raving 
 maniac, and never had another lucid moment. When I 
 heard that he was confined in the jail at Roxboro, I made 
 application and got him into the asylum in Morganton, 
 where he died shortly afterward. That was the saddest case 
 I ever knew. 
 
 My circuit embraced the town of Milton; but I had 
 no church in Milton. I preached in the Presbyterian 
 Church once a month. The stated supply of that church 
 was Mr. T. U. Faucette. We became great friends, and I 
 enjoyed our association very much. I held a revival in the 
 Presbyterian Church in which there was a number of con- 
 versions. I never said a word to any of the converts about 
 joining my church. I had a church about two miles from 
 to^vn called Connelley's. Three young men who were con- 
 verted joined the church in the country. One said to one 
 of those young men: "Charlie, if I were you I would not 
 
46 EECOLI.ECTIONS 
 
 join that little church out there in the country; if you do 
 jou won't get into society." Charlie said, "I had not thought 
 of that. I am trying to get to heaven." That got out, and 
 was much laughed about; and every one thought Charlie 
 had the right conception of church membership. 
 
 I was preaching in the Presbji;erian Church one night, 
 and incidentally alluded to dancing. The belle of the towTi 
 who was a leader in the dances was there with her escort. 
 She sprung up, and left the church in a hurry. Her escort 
 followed her, and there was a commotion in the congrega- 
 tion. I paused, and remarked: ''I am preaching in this 
 church by courtesy: I do not know that I will ever preach 
 here again; but I must preach the gospel as I understand 
 it. If there are others who disapprove of what I say, they 
 are at liberty to leave. I will wait until all who desire to 
 leave will go." ]Sro one else left. I was told the next morn- 
 ing that a prominent merchant in town said I ought to be 
 caned. I told my informer to go and tell that gentleman 
 where he could find me, and if he wanted to cane me 
 he could come and do it. My friend went immediately and 
 delivered the message. My would be chastiser got frighten- 
 ed, and said: "You ought not to have told that preacher 
 what I said; for I believe from his looks, if I were to at- 
 tempt to cane him, he would not leave a grease spot of me." 
 Suffice it to say that man became a good friend of mine, 
 -and I spent many pleasant hours in his splendid home. 
 
 The young lady sent me a note, apologizing for leaving 
 the church, and saying that she had a headache. But her 
 escort wrote me a very threatening letter ; and I informed 
 him where he could find me; but I never heard anything 
 further from him. Instead of the incident shutting me out 
 of the church, I was invited to have a regular appointment 
 there, and the next time I preached there the house was 
 jpacked. 
 
AND Observations 47 
 
 I do not believe in abuse in the pulpit, nor do I believe 
 in coarseness or slang. I think, and have always thought, 
 that preachers should speak as the oracles of God. If people 
 become offended at the gospel stated in a dignified manner, 
 I think that the preacher should be courageous enough to 
 stand by the truth, and not apologize for uttering it. This 
 course, backed by a loving spirit, will always win. I have 
 been threatened for attacking sin in this way, but these 
 threats have never amounted to anything. 
 
 During my fourth year on the Leasburg Circuit, I had an 
 assistant. He was in his first year in the ministry. He was 
 somewhat timid, and inclined to seasons of doubt, when he 
 would say he did not have religion, and it was all I could 
 do to keep him from giving up his work and going home. 
 During a revival he came to me and said: "I haven't got 
 any religion, and I want to go to the altar, and seek re- 
 ligion." I told him I did not think that Avas the thing for 
 him to do, that I had no doubt that he already had religion, 
 and if he had any doubt about it, to take his doubts to the 
 Lord. He said he laiew better than I did how he felt. I 
 told him that might be so. But I knew it was unnecessary 
 for him to go to the mourners' bench at the church to get a 
 blessing: that he was my assistant, and while he could tell 
 me anything, I did not want him to be telling the people he 
 had no religion. 
 
 That night we went home to Leasburg, (he boarded with 
 me), and I insisted on his holding prayer meeting, which 
 he did. After the prayer meeting, Rev. Solomon Lea and 
 his daughter. Miss Willie, went with us to the parsonage, 
 and in course of conversation, my young jDreacher said : "I 
 don't know anything about regeneration, or sanctification 
 either." I said to him, "You had better go to the Lord, 
 and find out something on these subjects." He left us 
 rather abruptly, and went to his room. Brother Lea said, 
 
48 Recollectioxs 
 
 ^'What is the matter with the young man: I thought him 
 one of the best young men I ever saw." I replied: "You 
 are right. He is an excellent young man, but he gets mel- 
 ancholy sometimes ; and he is in one of his melancholy moods 
 tonight.'' Brother Lea and his daughter left pretty soon, 
 and I went to bed and soon fell asleep. Soon after retiring, 
 my wife waked me, saying there is something the matter 
 up stairs. I went up and found the young preacher rolling 
 on the floor in an agony of prayer. I said to him: "What 
 is the matter ^'' He answered : '"I don't know." He contin- 
 ued to cry, "O, Lord have mercy on me." I said to him: 
 "Well, you have gone to the right one for help; if I had 
 known what the trouble was, I would not have disturbed 
 you." I went back to bed. In a few moments, I heard him 
 come down and leave the house. He went out in the church 
 lot that joined the parsonage lot. I do not know how long 
 he remained out there; but I learned from him next morn- 
 ing that he got a great blessing. I never heard him com- 
 plain afterwards that he did not have religion. He was a 
 new man from that night. 
 
 My experience and obser^^ation teach me that there is 
 nothing that will give satisfaction in all conditions of life, 
 but the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Without a divine as- 
 surance of personal salvation, there will come times of doubt, 
 when life will be a burden, and the satisfactory performance 
 of religious duties will be impossible. But the clearest 
 evidence of salvation will not abide with us, unless we are 
 careful to abstain from -uTong doing, and are earnest in our 
 efforts to serve and please God. 
 
 At the time I was on the Leasburg Circuit, from 1884 to 
 1887, inclusive, that section was in a very prosperous con- 
 dition. The principal market crop was tobacco: and the 
 farmers were receiving fine prices. The organization of the 
 American Tobacco Company brought the price to the far- 
 
A^^D Obseevatioxs 49 
 
 mer down, and ran the small manufacturers out of business. 
 I am not stating these facts with a view of condemning those 
 who compose the tobac<30 trust; for after all, it may be in 
 the end good for the farmer, that his attention was turned 
 to something else. It is my opinion, and I was reared on a 
 tobacco farm, that tobacco culture will ultimately impover- 
 ish a country; and I do not say this from any fanatical ob- 
 jection to the tobacco habit; while I admit it is a bad habit; 
 yet the best men I ever knew were tobacco users. But tobacco 
 culture continued for a series of years, impoverishes the 
 soil and burns up the wood, for it takes a large quantity 
 of wood to cure the weed, and leaves the f ann in a poor con- 
 dition. 
 
 I knew one farmer, and he was one of my stewards, who 
 sold one thousand dollars worth of tobacco off of one acra 
 With such fine prices for the weed, Caswell and Person 
 counties, at that time were getting rich; and the church 
 was increasing in liberality and spiritual life. That was 
 the last circuit I ever traveled, and I left it in better finan- 
 cial condition than I have ever been since. AYhile I was 
 on that circuit, I kept a good pair of horses, and had a man 
 servant who made a crop and raised feed for my stock, and 
 made more than enough from a tobacco crop to pay his 
 hire and board. 
 
 I lived largely off of my farm, and could keep the most 
 of my salary. But I never lost an hour from my minister- 
 ial duties by having a little farming interest. I did this 
 for a number of years, and did not find that it detracted 
 from my usefulness as a preacher, or gave the people any 
 excuse for not paying for my support. 
 
 My experience is that the man who serves the people wise- 
 ly and well, will always receive support from them. We 
 sometimes hear it said : ''Brother A. is a good preacher but a 
 
 4 
 
50 IlECOLLECTIOiN"S 
 
 poor pastor," or ''Brother B. is a good pastor, but a poor 
 preacher." The idea is getting into the minds of many 
 that you cannot in the same preacher find both preacher and 
 pastor. I think that the idea is an erroneous one. Visiting 
 ■in the proper way and spirit from house to house is the best 
 preparation for preaching outside of a prayerful study of 
 the word of God. Pastoral visiting is not simply social 
 visiting, making a great many calls and talking about com- 
 mon place things. To be able to do pastoral visiting as it 
 should be done is one of the finest of fine arts. I do not 
 claim that I was ever perfect in this very important work; 
 but will give some idea of the plan I followed. 
 
 Perhaps it may be helpful to some young preacher who 
 may be earnestly trying to do this important and difficult 
 work well. I made it a rule when I went to a new charge, 
 to visit every family as soon as I could. I kept a little 
 l)Ook, and when I went to a home I would inquire the name 
 of every member of the family and write them down. I 
 would write the names of all the children in my little visit- 
 ing book; and when I went again, I would familiarize my- 
 self with all the names, so I could call all the children by 
 name* I soon found that children liked that. They do not 
 like to be called ''bud" and "sissy" ; and in this way I could 
 get hold of the children, and get them to like me ; and when 
 I had got hold of the children, I always found that I had 
 the parents too. It took me sometime to learn this simple 
 lesson; and if some one had suggested it to me, it would 
 have been very helpful at the beginning of my ministry. I 
 made it a rule, whenever convenient to have family prayer; 
 but I always had an eye to the fitness of things. I made it 
 a rule not to stay too long at any place; and to be careful 
 not to show partiality to any particular family. I gave more 
 attention to the poor members of my charge, for the poor, 
 
AND Observations 51 
 
 as a rule, are more sensitive, and need more careful hand- 
 ling than those who are well to do. 
 
 There is one mistake I made that I would warn young 
 preachers against. I too frequently took young lady mem- 
 bers of my charge out visiting with me. I did this innocent- 
 ly, and no harm ever came of it ; but there are those who are 
 ready to think evil; and I found after awhile, that it mat- 
 tered not how pure my intentions, it would be better to 
 avoid much association with the women of my flock. This 
 is a very delicate subject; but one to which attention should 
 be called. I think I eventually swung to the opposite ex- 
 treme, and for several years I have had very few lady asso- 
 ciates, in so much that a friend of mine told me that a lady 
 told him, she thought I was a proud man, and not very so- 
 cial. I know her estimate is wrong, for I am not conscious 
 of pride; and I know I am of a social disposition. 
 
 My object in writing these recollections is to do good ; 
 and I hope the kind reader will pardon these personal al- 
 lusions. 
 
 On the 31st day of August, 1886, there was an earthquake 
 that damaged the city of Charleston, South Carolina, greatly 
 and shook the Atlantic Seaboard for many miles. I was 
 holding a revival meeting at a church on my charge, called 
 Prospect. It was about sixteen miles from Leasburg, but 
 I happened to come home that night. The shock was severe 
 enough to shake Bricks off of some of -the chimneys in Leas- 
 burg. The community was very much frightened, and some 
 ridiculous things were done. We were living in a new par- 
 sonage that was covered with tin ; and when the quake struck 
 us, that tin roof produced such a cracking noise that I 
 thought the house was on fire ; and I suppose I was the only 
 person in the village who was relieved to find it was an 
 earthquake. 
 
52 Recollections 
 
 The next day I went back to the meeting, and found a 
 much larger congregation than had been in attendance. 
 There were some members of the church that would not 
 attend the meeting because they wanted it held at another 
 time. These were all there, and ready to do anything to 
 help the revival on. The revival received a great impetus 
 from the earthquake. In an experience meeting a day or 
 two after, one brother arose and said with a solemn em- 
 phasis : ''Brethren, I am convinced that there is power some- 
 where ; for it takes power to shake this earth, and we all felt 
 it this week." I could not help being amused at the thought 
 that the brother had just become satisfied that there was 
 "power somewhere." From the effect of that earthquake on 
 my congregation at Prospect, and the great help it gave me 
 in my revival work, I could enter into a better conception 
 of the effect the earthquake at Phillippi had when Paul and 
 Silas were imprisoned there, and when the jailor was con- 
 verted. 
 
 The last year 1 was on the Leasburg Circuit, 1887, was a 
 year of general revivals. The church, all over the circuit 
 was in a blaze of revival fire. While on this charge I had 
 two Presiding Elders. When I first went there. Dr. I^. H. 
 D. Wilson was Presiding Elder. When his time was out 
 Rev. W. S. Black, D. D., came. Both of these brethren 
 wxre very helpful to me, and between them and me, there 
 existed the warmest affection. It was always a pleasure to 
 meet them at Hillsboro, twenty-six miles away from Leas- 
 burg, and take them to my work. When there exists bro- 
 therly love between the preacher and the Presiding Elder 
 the association is always pleasant and helpful to both ; and 
 when there is mutual confidence everything works well. The 
 office of Presiding Elder, in the economy of Episcopal 
 Methodism, is a necessary office ; but when men get into this 
 office v/ho are misfits, great harm comes to the church and 
 
AND Observations 53 
 
 to the ministry. 1 state a fact without reference to any par- 
 ticular case. It is my purpose to put down such facts as 
 will be helpful to those who consider them, and with no un- 
 pleasant memories. 
 
 When I left the Leasburg Circuit there were seven hun- 
 dred and forty members on the register of the circuit, and I 
 knew every one by sight and name; and I knew all the chil- 
 dren on my charge. The pastoral instruction of the chil- 
 dren is a very necessary and a very difScult work. 
 
 Many of the good people who were members of the church 
 on dear old Leasburg Circuit when I left it, have gone to 
 their eternal home. I hope to meet those dear friends in 
 heaven. That country has changed very much since I was 
 there. A great many of the people have moved to the towns 
 and the farming interest has gone backward. Much of the 
 colored labor has left the country for the towns, as the to^vns 
 have prospered at the expense of the country. Danville, 
 Virginia, and Durham, !North Carolina, have profited great- 
 ly by the migration from this section; and Roxboro, on the 
 line of the railroad from Durham to Lynchburg, has shared 
 in the migration from the country. 
 
 The ISTorth Carolina Conference met in Reidsville, II. C, 
 1886. Bishop John C. Granbery presided. This confer- 
 ence was made memorable by the biggest snow that ever fell 
 during a session of Conference. The snow in Reidsville 
 was about sixteen inches deep, and the weather was extreme- 
 ly cold. To get from Reidsville to Leasburg we had to go 
 by Danville, and a little station called Southerlands, and 
 then over a narrow gauge railroad to Milton. When I got 
 to Milton I hired a conveyance to take Miss Cattie ]^e^vman 
 and myself to Leasburg, a distance of thirteen miles. There 
 was a thick crust on the snow, and our team soon began to 
 balk, and after a great effort of some hours, we reached the 
 
54 Eecoi lectioxs 
 
 home of a brother Jones, who was a member of my charge. 
 He hitched a pair of mules to the carriage we had hired 
 from the livery stables and took us to Leasburg. When I 
 got home I found all my family sick with colds. The snow 
 lasted for sometime, and we had a very hard winter. While 
 at Leasburg we put up ice every winter for summer use, and 
 there was no winter while I was stationed there that we 
 could not get thick ice with which to fill our ice houses. 
 This was a great blessing to us, as we were thirteen miles 
 from the railroad and could not get manufactured ice. 
 
AND Observations 55 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Stationed at Raleigh. 
 
 The ISTorth Carolina Conference met in Fayetteville, 'N. 
 C, in December, 1887. Bishop Joseph S. Key presided. 
 From this Conference I was sent to what was Person Street 
 Church, Raleigh. This was my first station. When I got 
 there, I had neither church nor parsonage. The Rev. R. B. 
 John was stationed there the year before, and under his 
 ministry the old Person Street Church and parsonage were 
 sold, and a far more suitable lot was purchased for a new 
 church on the corner of Morgan and Person Streets, two 
 squares east of the Capitol. The congregation was worship- 
 ping in Briggs' Hall on Fayetteville Street. Brother John 
 had secured the plan for a new church, and had appointed 
 a building committee. We had the lot, and about three thou- 
 sand dollars, and a plan for a twenty thousand dollar church, 
 and a poor congregation. Such was the outlook when I went 
 to my first station in our capital city. 
 
 For fifteen years consecutively I had traveled circuits-, 
 and now I had become a city pastor ; but I had none of the 
 ease and luxury the circuit preacher so often imagines his 
 brother in the city station enjoys. If I had been blessed 
 with a church and parsonage, things would have been differ- 
 ent; but it was my duty to build a church, and take care of 
 the little flock committed to my care ; and I went about the 
 work with a will. I rented a house, and moved in. We 
 had very little furniture, and while my congregation was 
 willing, they had very little means with which to help; but 
 I never found truer helpers than some of these members 
 proved to be. 
 
 The building committee was composed of the following 
 faithful men: John W. Evans, William N. Snelling, and 
 Samuel Parrish. We commenced work on the church as 
 
56 Recollections 
 
 soon as we could. We decided to buy our material and hire 
 our workmen, and build ourselves. Looking after the work 
 devolved on me, as each of the committee was confined to 
 his respective business. We arranged to have an auditing 
 committee, which should approve all bills, and the auditor 
 should issue his order on the treasurer for all moneys to be 
 paid out. I had some little books printed, with stubs at- 
 tached for the auditor to issue his orders on, and keep a 
 stub of the order, so we could show what every cent went 
 for. William iST . Snelling was auditor, and John W. Evans 
 was treasurer. Two better men never lived than they were. 
 It took nearly Jour years to raise money enough, and com- 
 plete the building. We commenced work on the church the 
 first of April, and got into the lecture room first Sunday 
 in August; but we were obliged to discontinue work on the 
 auditorium for some time from lack of funds. 
 
 I held many meetings and collected money in many places 
 to complete the church. Among the churches in which I 
 held meetings was Broad Street Church, Richmond, Vir- 
 ginia. We had a good revival there, and the congregation 
 gave me five hundred dollars. One good man there, Brother 
 I. l«r. Vaughan, gave me one hundred dollars. From Rich- 
 mond I went to Philadelphia, and stopped with an old friend, 
 Mr. Van Gunden, who introduced me to a number of wealthy 
 Methodists in Philadelphia, who gave me quite a nice 
 little sum to aid me in the completion of the church. Mr. 
 Van Gunden had a marble business in Philadelphia, and a 
 branch, business in Raleigh. He was an excellent gentleman, 
 and a very devoted Methodist. He introduced me to his pas- 
 tor, who invited me to preach in his church, the Tabernacle 
 Methodist in that city. I preached there on Wednesday 
 night, and did not expect anything more than a prayer meet- 
 ing congregation ; but to laj surprise the auditorium was 
 
AND Observations 57 
 
 packed and I never preached to a more appreciative con- 
 gregation. 
 
 While in Philadelphia I called on Mr. John Maris, who 
 was a retired manufacturing chemist. He was called the 
 patriarch of Philadelphia Methodism, and he told me a very 
 interesting story. He said, "When I was a young man, 
 something more than sixty years ago, I took a trip to New 
 Orleans in an old fashioned sulky. There were no railroads 
 then. On my return from New Orleans, I passed through 
 western North Carolina. One evening just before night, I 
 drove up to a little village called Wilkesboro, where there 
 was a little inn. It was raining when I drove up, and when 
 I went in I called for a drink. The proprietor told me that 
 he did not keep any ardent spirits. He said he would try 
 to make me comfortable, but that he was a Christian man, 
 and did not believe in selling or drinking liquor." Mr. Maris 
 said : "I was provoked to think that any man would keep a 
 hotel and not keep a dram for a guest. Bvit he made me 
 comfortable as I sat by a broad fireplace and got warm and 
 dry. He gave me a good supper, served in family fashion, 
 that I enjoyed very much. After supper he said to me, 
 'We have family prayers, and if you do not object, we will 
 be glad to have you remain v^dth us. If you prefer we will 
 show you to your room.' I decided to stay and see what they 
 did at family prayers, as I had never been at family prayers 
 in my life. The old gentleman took down his' family Bible, 
 and read a chapter ; then he gave out a hymn, and the family 
 stood up and sang it. Afterward he knelt down, as all the 
 family did, and I thought as it would be impolite not to, I 
 knelt dovvTL too. I never heard any man talk to God like 
 that man did. He seemed to be talking to Him face to face. 
 He prayed for the stranger that was within his gates, that 
 God would give him journeying mercies ; that he might reach 
 the end of his journey safely, and that the Lord would 
 
58 Recollections 
 
 awaken and convert him and adopt him into his family. 
 That prayer made an abiding impression on me, and I for- 
 got almost everything that I had seen on my way to and 
 from ]S[ew Orleans. When I got home, I began to read the 
 Bible, and to pray for myself. One day while praying alone 
 in my office, I experienced the forgiveness of sins, and was 
 consciously born of the Spirit. I wrote to my host — ^his 
 name was Wilkins — and told him that through his prayer 
 for me, I had been converted and I wished to know to what 
 church he belonged. He wrote me that he was a Methodist. 
 I told my wife that I was going to join the Methodist 
 Church. She cried, and said she would not object to my 
 joining the church, if I would join a respectable one. I 
 joined the Methodist Church, and determined to do all I 
 could to make it respectable ; so I enterprised the building 
 of our present Arch Street Church. My wife was converted, 
 and went with me, and for sixty years we have been humble 
 Methodists." 
 
 Mr. Maris was a millionaire retired from business, and 
 quietly waiting to go to his heavenly home, to which he went 
 a number of years ago. When he was telling me his story, 
 I took out a note book to take it down, and he said: "Stop, 
 if you are going to publish what I am telling you, I will tell 
 you nothing." I said to him that I would never publish 
 what he had told me so as to annoy him. Since he has gone 
 "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are 
 at rest," I have taken the liberty to write the story, because 
 I think it is calculated to do good. 
 
 Mr. Maris was the moving spirit in building Arch Street 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, which stands 
 today a monument to a family prayer offered in a little hotel 
 in North Carolina. I state the simple fact ; and while there 
 is quite a temptation to preach a little just here, will not do 
 
AND Observations 59 
 
 so, for as one has said: ''I am not preaching, but telling 
 facts." 
 
 Mr. Maris was a large, patriarchal looking man, with a 
 long beard, and a benevolent face. When through with his 
 narrative he said: "I don't think preachers ought to have to 
 raise money: the laymen ought to do that; but I will make 
 you a small donation, for doing me the honor of calling on 
 me," and he gave me a donation in gold. The good old gen- 
 tleman and his wife have both gone to that city where the 
 streets are paved with gold; and I have no doubt he had 
 much treasure laid up there. 
 
 Soon after I was sent to Raleigh, I was elected chaplain 
 of the military company, known as the Governor's Guard. 
 Soon after my election as chaplain, the company asked me 
 if I would not preach them a sermon one Sunday afternoon 
 each month. I agreed to do it : and we had a sermon in one 
 of the large churches every month for three years. Some- 
 times we would hold these services in one of the Bap- 
 tist Churches ; sometimes in the Presbyterian ; then at 
 Edenton Street Methodist Church and after we com- 
 pleted Central Methodist Church, sometimes we would 
 hold the service there. These services were always largely 
 attended, and we generally had excellent music. During 
 a session of the legislature. Col. F. A. Olds, who was Quarter 
 Master General, came to me and asked if I could not preach 
 a sermon showing the necessity of having a military com- 
 pany. I told him I thought I could. He said, "Prepare 
 your sermon, and I will put a notice on the desk of every 
 member of the General Assembly, inviting them to come. 
 The service will be held in the First Baptist Church ; and I 
 will do all I can to get them out, for there is a move to do 
 away with the State Guard." On Sunday afternoon, the 
 Company turned out as usual, and I suppose the whole 
 General Assembly was at the church. I preached on the 
 
60 EECOI.LECTIONS 
 
 necessity of maintaing civil government, as a divine insti- 
 tution. I took as my text the following passage : ''Let every 
 soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no 
 power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 
 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordi- 
 nance of God: and they that resist shall receive to them- 
 selves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, 
 but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? 
 Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the 
 same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But 
 if thou do that which is evil be afraid ; for he beareth not the 
 stvord in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to 
 execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." Romans 13 :l-4. 
 
 I endeavored to show that there could be no civilized 
 society without civil law; and that the government must be 
 a power, able to enforce its laws. That to meet this neces- 
 sity of government, there must be a military force at the 
 command of the executive. That the only power at the 
 command of the Governor was the State Guard. (At that 
 time the militia was a State and not a IsTational organiza- 
 tion.) I endeavored to show that the guard would become 
 a necessity to suppress riots, lynchings and general lawless- 
 ness, should they ever assume proportions too large to be 
 controlled by the ordinary police ; and while it is rarely nec- 
 essary to use the military force to keep order, the fact that 
 there is such a force has much to do with preventing lawless- 
 ness. 
 
 I emphasized the fact that the government must be a po- 
 wer, and stand for righteousness, to meet the ordinance of 
 God; and that no good citizen had anything to fear from 
 such a power ; for it was for his protection. 
 
 I cannot say what effect the sermon had on the General 
 Assembly, but several bills were introduced the next day for 
 
AND Observations 61 
 
 the maintenance of the Guard. Col. Olds was delighted, and 
 told me that his plan had succeeded admirably. 
 
 I have given this little account, to tell of another incident 
 that followed it. Two years afterwards, a member of that 
 General Assembly was in a campaign for re-election, and 
 his county paper reported him as saying, the legislature 
 would have abolished the State Guard, and relieved the State 
 of that useless expense, if it had not been for a political har- 
 angue delivered by a Methodist preacher in the First Bap- 
 tist Church during the session. The statement was copied 
 in the ISTews and Observer, a daily paper published in Ra- 
 leigh. I saw the statement, and replied to it ; giving the text, 
 and outline of the sermon, and said: "The people of that 
 county have my sympathies, in that they are represented by 
 a man who can not tell a gospel sermon from a political 
 harangue." 
 
 When that gentleman came back to the General Assem- 
 bly, for he was re-elected, I met him in the Capitol Square, 
 and he said to me: "The papers misrepresented me. I 
 never called your sermon a political harangue." I said to 
 him: "If you will explain one thing to me, I shall be satis- 
 fied, and retract my expression of sympathy for your con- 
 stituents." He said : "AVhat is that ?" I said to him, "Tel) 
 me how the people of youi county knew anything about m;y 
 preaching any sermon in Raleigh two years ago." He could 
 not explain; and I said to him: "Your constituents stilll 
 have my sympathy," and bid him good morning. I heard 
 that he said that it was the most severe rebuke he ever had. 
 
62 Recollections 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Raleigh Pastokate Continued. 
 
 While I was stationed in Raleigh we had a prohibition 
 election for Raleigh township. They made me chairman of 
 the committee to conduct the campaign. I canvassed the 
 city and suburbs, and we had an exceedingly warm cam- 
 paign. The Hon. N. B. Broughton was in the fight, and 
 along with the other friends of prohibition and temperance 
 was very active. We came near carrying the township for 
 prohibition, and had the whiskeyites fairly beaten up to 
 two o'clock; when one of our friends, who was one of the 
 poll-holders in the outside east precinct, with more zeal than 
 judgment, began to rejoice because he had found out we were 
 about to carry that stronghold of the anti-prohibitionists. 
 There was a bar keeper also of the number of poll holders, 
 and he sent up into the city, to a firm that sold whiskey, and 
 informed them that if they did not do something at once 
 they were beaten. They came down, with whiskey and 
 money, and bought about three hundred negro votes, and 
 defeated us by a small majority. It was a costly victory to 
 them, as several of the whiskey sellers made assignments 
 soon after the election. 
 
 Shortly after the election, I was told that one of the men 
 who was instrumental in buying the negro votes told one of 
 my stewards that if they would get rid of me he would pay 
 fifty dollars to the support of my successor. My steward 
 told me about it. I met the man soon after, and told him, 
 pleasantly, that I was glad to hear of his interest in Cen- 
 tral Church. He said, ''How do you know I am interested 
 in that church." I told him what I had heard ; and I told 
 him that I told the steward to whom he made the offer not 
 to take it, for I would make him raise tlie bid to one 
 hundred dollars before I was through v/ith him. He tried 
 
AND Observations 63 
 
 to deny making the offer, and said, "I like you, and I don't 
 care how long you stay," and I told him I was glad he liked 
 me, and I intended to make him love me before I was done 
 with him. 
 
 Not long after this one bar keeper died suddenly and an- 
 other was stricken with paralysis ; and that gentleman quit 
 the whiskey business, and joined the church ; and I am in- 
 formed he became a good church member. 
 
 The fight against the saloons at that time was a hard 
 one, and with the negro vote generally against prohibition, 
 it was hard to carry any community. We were able, how- 
 ever, to carry the State by about fifty thousand majority 
 for prohibition in 1908, having been relieved of the negro 
 vote ; and the sentiment has become so strong for prohibition 
 that no one will attempt now to revive the issue and go back 
 to the old license system. But it took a long, hard fight to 
 bring the present state of things to pass. Whiskey had such 
 a hold on politics that the politicians spoke of it as "a very 
 ticklish subject," and were generally afraid to take a stand 
 against the saloon power. 
 
 Soon after going to Raleigh death visited my home, and 
 took away a precious child. Little Ruth was nearly two 
 years old, and an unusually lovely little one. I felt the be- 
 reavement very sorely; and I remember what a touching- 
 effect the presentation of a beautiful wreath of flowers sent 
 me by the niilitary company, had on me. The wreath was 
 a work of art, and had the name "Ruth" woven into it. I 
 never so fully understood the meaning of flowers before. 
 It was presented by a detail from the company who quietly 
 brought it to me without a word, but each member of the de- 
 tail showed the deepest sympathy. This little incident en- 
 deared the company to me, with affection for every member 
 of it, that will abide as lonK as I live. 
 
64 Recollections 
 
 I never got Central Church finished completely until just 
 before I left Raleigh. It was dedicated by Bishop Galloway 
 the Sunday before the Conference met in Greenville, iT. C. 
 At the dedication of the church, we had one of the finest 
 congregations I ever saw in Raleigh ; not the largest, but the 
 most select. The Supreme Court of the State, the Governor 
 and all State officials were present, and a large number of 
 the leading business men of the city. The whole city had 
 lent a helping hand by contributing to the building, and na- 
 turally shared in the pleasure at its completion. We owed thir- 
 ty-tv/o hundred dollars. Seventeen hundred had to be raised 
 before we could dedicate the house. We owed the Board of 
 Church Extension fifteen hundred that we had borrowed to 
 be paid in annual installments. We borrowed two thousand 
 from the Board, and had paid the first note of five hun- 
 dred dollars. The Bishop said if we could raise all but that, 
 he would dedicate the church. We raised the seventeen hun- 
 dred dollars in less than half an hour. The people regard- 
 less of denomination contributed willingly, and the amount 
 was raised without effort. 
 
 I recall one contribution, made by Judge E. G. Read, who 
 had been a member of the Supreme Court, and who was a 
 Presbyterian. He quietly said : "Put down one hundred 
 dollars for Mrs. Read." That contribution gave such an 
 impetus to the offerings, that the amount was soon secured. 
 
 Bishop Galloway was at his best, and he was regarded as 
 one of the finest preachers of his day. The large intelligent 
 audience was charmed by his eloquence, and the occasion was 
 a memorable one in the church life of Raleigh. The Pre- 
 siding Elder, Rev. J. A. Cunninggim, did not believe we 
 could raise the money to pay the debt, and was opposed to 
 the effort to have the church dedicated ; but we succeeded 
 to the delight of all who felt an interest in the church. 
 
A2s"D Observations 65 
 
 The four years spent in Raleigh were years of toil and 
 sacrifice, but they were joyful years. We had a number of 
 revival meetings, and saw a great many souls happily con- 
 verted to God. We held one meeting that went on contin- 
 uously about eight v/eeks. In this meeting several of the 
 v/orst drunkards in the city v/ere converted ; and as far as I 
 know they have all kept the faith. Several of them have gone 
 to their reward. One poor fellow came to the altar very 
 much under the influence -of liquor. I went to him, and 
 smelt whiskey very strongly. I said to him: ''My friend, 
 you are drunk." He said : ''Yes, but I know what I am doing. 
 You invited me to come just as I am, and I have come, and 
 want you to pray for me. Whiskey has got me down, and 
 I cannot help myself; if Jesus can save me, I want to be 
 saved." I called the congregation to prayer, and while we 
 v/ere praying for him he v\^as converted. Several of our 
 leading members thought it was a freak of a drunken man, 
 and were about to eject him from the house. I told them 
 to let him alone ; wo had prayed for his conversion, and if the 
 Lord had answered our prayers, we ought to rejoice. He 
 went away, and I did not see him again for a month. When 
 I did see him, he was a changed man, and told me he was 
 converted, and sobered at that meeting, and that "not one 
 drop of the devil's broth has gone in my mouth since." I 
 never heard whiskey called by that name before ; but I think 
 the name appropriate. I watched that man for thirteen 
 years ; for whenever I would go to Raleigh, I would call 
 and inquire about him, and he Avas still living a sober, Chris- 
 tian life. He said to me several times: "The cure is better 
 than the Keely Institute cure." He was a fine boot and 
 sTioe maker, and succeeded in busineess, and made money. 
 Our people showed a want of confidence in the poor fellow, 
 and when I asked him where he went to church, he said : 
 
66 Recoli^ections 
 
 "I saw your people did not believe in me, and I went and 
 joined John PuUen's Church." John Pullen was one of the 
 best men that ever lived in Raleigh. He was a member of 
 the Baptist Church, but there was no man in my own church 
 more helpful to me than he was. He died only a few years 
 ago, and his name is as precious ointment poured forth in 
 Raleigh. 
 
 While stationed in Raleigh I bought me a home. The 
 house was situated at the end of ISTorth Blount Street, and 
 was just outside the corporation. I had the benefit of the city 
 without paying the tax. But I was not permitted to live in 
 my own house but two years before my term of service in 
 Raleigh expired, and I had to go to another field. 
 
 It is now nearly twenty-five years since I left Raleigh as 
 a pastor there ; but the dear old city has a warm place in my 
 heart. I have a lot in the beautiful Oakwood Cemetery, 
 where two of my dear little ones are buried, and there I ex- 
 pect to rest when my work on earth is done. 
 
 My son-in-law, Mr. E. E^. Penny, died, in Raleigh on the 
 14th or July, 1915. He had been a citizen of Raleigh only 
 about two years, but he was so attached to the people there, 
 that it was his request to be buried there, although he owned 
 a lot in the cemetery in his native city, Wilmington. And 
 according to his request, we bought him a lot there, where 
 he sleeps, near my own lot. 
 
 Raleigh is the most cosmopolitan city in ISTorth Carolina ; 
 and as it is the Capital of the State it should be. It has a 
 substantial business, and it has fine schools and colleges. It 
 is a church city, and has many things to cormnend it as a 
 residence city. I never left with more regret any place where 
 I had served the Church. I have felt that it is my home 
 city ever since I was stationed there. I had hopes of going 
 
AND ObSEEVATIONS 67 
 
 back there to live for sometime after I left, but eventually 
 sold my home there, and have given up that hope. 
 
 Part of the time I was stationed in Raleigh, Rev. W. S. 
 Black, D.D., was my Presiding Elder, and between him 
 and myself, and between his good wife and my wife, the 
 warmest friendship existed, until they both passed into their 
 eternal home. We hope to renew those happy associations 
 again before many years ; as I cannot expect to continue 
 here a great while longer. It is a comfortable thought that 
 the friendships begTin here will be renewed in that land 
 where parting will be unknown forever. While I was sta- 
 tioned in Raleigh, we had three governors, Scales, Fowle and 
 Holt. They were all warm personal friends of mine; and 
 they too have passed away. Then I had several dear friends 
 who filled other State offices, among them Chief Justice 
 Merrimon. He attended my church frequently. He, for a 
 long time, did not believe in the Divinity of Christ, but un- 
 der a sermon preached at Central Church, he became satis- 
 fied that Christ was Divine, and that he was the Judge's 
 personal Saviour. He came to see me the next day, and took 
 me to ride, and told me of his experience. He joined the 
 church, took the sacrament on his death bed, and died in the 
 full assurance of eternal life. He was a man of the highest 
 character even before his conversion, and became a witness 
 to the truth of the Christian religion, w^hose testimony was 
 of great value to his friends. 
 
 I failed to mention that we had a daughter born to us in 
 1891, the year we left Raleigh; but after the dear little one 
 was with us about six weeks, God took her, and hers is the 
 other little grave beside that of little Ruth's in Oakwood 
 Cemetery. The ministry of little children has a value in 
 our lives that we cannot estimate. There is a tenderness in 
 this ministry that can do more to soften our natures, and 
 bring us in touch with the spirit of him who said: '^Suffer 
 
68 Recollections 
 
 the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for 
 of such is the kingdom of heaven," than that of any other 
 ministry. 
 
 We rarely see the spot where our little ones sleep, for as 
 itinerant Methodist preacher and his wife we are pilgrims 
 here; but we know they are safe, and our greatest desire 
 and fondest hope is that those who still abide here may be 
 good and true ; and that the whole family at last may reach 
 the home of the blessed. 
 
 Four years of toil and sacrifice ended when I left Raleigh, 
 but only to begin in another field where the burden was 
 heavier, and the trials greater than any I had encountered. 
 
AND Obseevations . 69 
 
 CHAPTEK VIL 
 
 Fifth Street Chuech^ Wilmington. 
 
 The JN^orth Carolina Conference met in the town of Green- 
 ville, IST. C, the latter part of November, 1891. Bishop 
 Charles B. Galloway presided at this conference. He went 
 down from Raleigh where he dedicated Central Church, to 
 Greenville. It was my hope that I might be appointed to 
 some charge that would allow me to continue to reside in 
 Raleigh, as my "two sons were attending that excellent school 
 there run by Morson and Denson. They were too young 
 for us to leave them there, and a change of schools was not 
 desirable. I expressed this desire to the Bishop, and he told 
 me that he thought that could be arrranged. But when we 
 got to Greenville the Fifth Street Church trouble, in Wil- 
 mington, presented a problem the solution of which no one 
 wished to attempt. So the burden was placed on my shoul- 
 ders ; and as this was one of the most remarkable cases in 
 the history of Methodism, I shall endeavor to give a his- 
 tory of the whole affair in detail. I do this more carefully, 
 that all who may wish to know the true story of Fifth Street 
 Church, may have the facts and figures at hand. 
 
 There was a young lawyer there, who was formerly a 
 cotton mill operative, but he had studied law, obtained li- 
 cense to practice, and had been admitted to the bar. He was 
 a member of Fifth Street Church, and soon became very ac- 
 tive in church work. The church had decided to build a 
 new house of worship, and had borrowed four thousand dol- 
 lars from the Wilmington Savings and Trust Company. They 
 purchased a strip of land in order to enlarge their lot, and 
 used one thousand dollars for that purpose. The lot pur- 
 chased cost them thirteen hundred dollars, and the Ladies 
 
70 RECOLI.ECTIONS 
 
 Aid Society furnished three hundred dollars. That left 
 three thousand dollars in hand with which to begin the 
 church. They did not intend to build a costly church, but 
 such a one as they could pay for. The congregation was 
 not wealthy, but composed of a number of good spiritual 
 people. This young lawyer, whose name was John C. Davis, 
 told the official board that if they would let him have the 
 three thousand dollars in hand, he would pay them 10 per 
 cent, interest, and pay them the money when they were ready 
 to build. The strange thing about the transaction was that 
 they let him have the money to use without any security. 
 He took the money, and began to operate in real estate with 
 it. He bought several little sand hill lots, and built some 
 small houses on them. When the official board of the church 
 called for the m"oney, he told them that he had it invested 
 where it was bringing a large per cent; and that if they 
 would allow him to manage the business, he would have a 
 much finer church built than they had intended to build, and 
 would deed them real estate enough to pay the interest on 
 the money to build the church, and raise a sinking fund to 
 pay off the entire indebteness. He induced them to borrow 
 ten thousand dollars additional from the Savings Bank, mak- 
 ing the entire amount borrowed from the bank fourteen 
 thousand dollars, for which they agreed to pay eight per cent 
 interest. The Board of Trustees went into this arrangement 
 without any authority from the church. The whole trans- 
 action was the most remarkable of any that I ever heard 
 of; and the strange part of it was that business men and 
 bankers should have entered into any such arrangement. 
 But Davis had succeeded in making the people believe that 
 he was a financial prodigy, such as had never appeared any- 
 where. Under Davis' direction they proceeded to build a 
 fine church, that cost more than thirty thousand dollars. 
 His fame spread over the State as one of the most liberal 
 
AND Observations 71 
 
 and consecrated men that any one had ever knovm. He 
 went on borrowing money, and mortgaging all the property 
 that the church owned, including that which he had bought 
 with the three thousand dollars, as well as the church and 
 the parsonage. It seems that nobody knew anything about 
 the indebtedness of the church, and the people generally 
 thought that Davis had grown suddenly rich, and was using 
 his great wealth to build up the church. 
 
 In order to keep up his work, and prevent a sudden col- 
 lapse, he began to borrow money on his own account. The 
 Board of Trustees had mortgaged everything the church 
 owned, and in many instances there were second mortgages 
 on the church property. So Davis went to a number of the 
 members of the church, who owned their homes, and told 
 them if they would give mortgages on their homes, he would 
 pay them ten per cent on the money, and provide for paying 
 off the mortgages. In this way he raised several thou- 
 sand dollars that was never used for the church in any 
 way. I found this out soon after I went to Wilmington. I 
 put a statement in the daily papers of Wilmington that it 
 was our purpose to pay the debt on the church, and that if 
 any one who had loaned Davis money, could show that any 
 of it went into the church, we would see that it was paid to 
 them. For the .bubble had burst, and there were a great 
 many who found themselves robbed. The morning this no- 
 tice came out, I was visited by a great many from whom 
 Davis had gotten money. I took down their names, and the 
 amount they let him have, and the security he gave; in fact 
 all the conditions of his securing their funds. To ray sur- 
 prise, I found that he had gotten from various persons, not 
 one dollar of which went into the church, about one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. 
 
 About this time Dr. Thomas F. Wood, a leading physi- 
 cian of Wilmington, who had a relative, a Mrs. Fanning, on 
 
72 Recollections 
 
 whose home Davis had secured a mortgage, and borrowed 
 money on it, had Davis arrested for obtaining money under 
 false pretense. Soon after he was arrested, there was pub- 
 lished in the daily papers of Wihnington a statement that 
 contradicted a statement that I had published as to the con- 
 dition of Fifth Street Church. In this statement he said: 
 "I do not ask it back, but if I had what I have given the 
 church, I could pay all of my debts." In reply to this state- 
 ment, I said: "I do not care to enter into any controversy 
 ^vith Mr. Davis, as he is in the hands of the criminal law, 
 but so far as Fifth Street Church is concerned I have this 
 to say: Fifth Street Church could never have been the re- 
 cipient of any man's munificence, since it owes for all it 
 has." 
 
 I saw that there would be war on me, and that I would 
 be held responsible for the arrest of Davis. For notwith- 
 standing he had swindled the people to such an extent, there 
 were many who still believed that he did not intend to do 
 wrong. I further saw that he could not be convicted on the 
 charge upon which he was arrested, for in that case, there 
 was nothing more than misplaced confidence. In view of 
 these facts, I felt it to be my duty, the success of my work 
 depending on it, to give the facts in my posession to the 
 Solicitor. I called upon him, and told him he could not con- 
 vict Davis on the charge on which he was arrested. He 
 thought I came in the interest of Davis and flew in a passion 
 and asked how I knew. I told him I was not there in the 
 interest of Davis, but in the interest of the State. He cool- 
 ~ed dov.'n, and said, "How can you aid me ?" I told him I had 
 in my possession a number of cases involving fraud, false 
 pretense and forgery ; and could give him the names of those 
 who would go before the grand jury and state the facts. He 
 said : "That is just v/hat I v/ant, for I have known for some 
 time he was carrying on a swindling game on a large scale. 
 
AND Observations 73 
 
 but I could not get the evidence." I gave him the names 
 of six of the strongest cases, the victims in which had given 
 me these facts, in answer to my published offer to pay any 
 person whose money had been fraudulently secured, if it 
 was used in the church. He sent these persons before the 
 grand jury, and had six true bills found, involving fraud, 
 perjury and forgery. These witnesses had no idea of being- 
 called into court as witnesses when they gave me the facts, 
 and were very much surprised when they were summoned, 
 and sent before the grand jury to tell what they knew. Some 
 of them came to me to know who had them summoned. I 
 told them the State of ]N^orth Carolina, and all they had to 
 do was to tell what they knew. 
 
 They did this and the grand jury brought in the bills. 
 When Davis and his lawyers came into court they were in 
 High glee, for tKey were satisfied he could not be convicted 
 on the charge on which he was arrested. But when the So- 
 licitor informed the Court of the other indictments, that 
 gave quite a different turn to the case. The counsel for 
 Davis said they had no knowledge of these indictments, and 
 were not prepared for trial. They asked for and obtained a 
 continuance of the case until next court. Davis was put 
 back in jail, and his attorneys prepared for his defense. At 
 the next court they had trained Davis to plead insanity. 
 He made the plea, and the court sustained it, and he was 
 sent to the Asylum for the insane to remain until cured. 
 He was there about five years, and was discharged, and al- 
 lowed to go free. He went to Washington City, and played 
 a similiar game; he was arrested there and tried, and plead 
 insanity again; but the plea did not save him. He was 
 convicted and sent to the penitentiary where he was when 
 I last heard of him. Thus ended a remarkable career, that 
 cost me three years of hard work, and much anxiety. When 
 I went to Fifth Street it looked like a hopeless case. The 
 
74 Recollections 
 
 congTegation had lost heart, and the church at large did not 
 have any hope of paying the debt. They owed one hundred 
 dollars for light, and the light and power company had cut 
 off the lights, and I had to assume responsibility for the one 
 hundred dollars before we could have any lights for the 
 church. They were paying thirty-three dollars a month for 
 lights. I cut that down to eleven dollars, and paid the 
 amount due, so that we could use the church at night. 
 
 Rev. C. P. Jerome was stationed at Southport, and Rev. 
 H. B. Anderson was on the Scott's Hill charge. They were 
 publishing a little paper in Southport. I took that over, and 
 began to publish the Atlantic Methodist. I did that simply 
 to bring the church matter before the general church and 
 make the paper a medium of appeal for help. I gave the 
 money received for subscriptions to the fund for saving the 
 church, and secured advertising enough to pay for publish- 
 ing the paper. The editorial work, and the mailing of the 
 paper, and all the business of this weekly, I did as a gratuity. 
 The paper was well received, and appeals through it for 
 help began to tell at once. We soon had about fifteen hun- 
 dred subscribers, and that much ready money gave me a 
 start. Besides this, I published the railroad schedules, and 
 got an annual pass over the roads that enabled me to go out 
 and raise money for the church. 
 
 It was not long before hope in the congregation revived, 
 and notwithstanding the fact that a great many of the 
 members had lost thir homes, or had to struggle to pay off 
 the mortgages that they had been induced by Davis to make, 
 they began to help as they were able. 
 
 Notwithstanding the immense debt on the church, and the 
 efforts of those holding mortgages to foreclose, we went on 
 regularly with our church work. The Sunday School began 
 to grow and the congregation increased in numbers and in- 
 terest. When I got to Wilmington, Davis was still in charge 
 
AND ObSEEVATIONS 75 
 
 of everything. He was superintendent of the Sunday 
 School, President of the Board of Trustees, and the ruling 
 spirit among the Stewards. I called on him for an expla- 
 nation of the church's financial condition, and he promised 
 to explain everything; but only promised from day to day. 
 The situation grew worse rapidly. I told him I would have 
 a meeting of the official board and he must resign all official 
 positions immediately. He said he would go to the meeting 
 and tender his resignation. He did so; but on resigning 
 expressed his deep love for the church, and said he could 
 yet straighten up everything if he had a chance. I told him 
 I had waited for some time for an explanation, which he 
 had promised from day to day, but had not given me, and 
 I had determined that I would wait no longer. Some of the 
 officials were inclined to give Davis a further trial. But I 
 told them Davis would get out or I would; and they could 
 choose between us. If he remained in charge of things as 
 he had done, I would ask to be relieved of the charge at 
 once. Then they agreed to let him go. Immediately after 
 this he was arrested, and I published all I could find out 
 about the condition of the church. It was not my purpose 
 to take any part in the prosecution of Davis ; but when he 
 and his attorneys began to make war on me, then I placed 
 in the hands of the solicitor the facts which drove him into 
 the insane plea and which rid the church and community 
 of him. As all the mortgages on the property had been 
 made without any authority from the church, and as I had 
 drafted, and had passed by the General Assembly of ITorth 
 Carolina, a bill that defined the power of Trustees of church 
 property under the general act of incorporation of religious 
 societies in North Carolina, I was prepared to show that 
 these mortgages could not legally be foreclosed. I told the 
 people who held the mortgages that we proposed to pay the 
 debt ; that it was a moral obligation ; but if we allowed those 
 
T6 Eecollections 
 
 who held the first mortgages to foreclose it would leave the 
 others without anything, and the church in no condition to 
 pa3^ The Board of Trustees very naturally objected to this 
 course. I saw they would prefer to let the church go, to hav- 
 ing their acts thus called in question; but I had decided to 
 save the church, and I stood firmly by this plan. I went 
 ahead raising money and trying in every honorable way to 
 meet the condition. The Wilmington Savings and Trust 
 Company held the first mortgage, and wanted to foreclose. 
 I told the president of the bank he could not foreclose, for 
 the mortgage was not legally made. He became angry and 
 talked insultingly to me. I told him if he wished to test the 
 matter the courts were open to him, and he would see that 
 his mortgage was not legally worth the paper on which it 
 was written; and referred him to the law requiring Boards 
 of Trustees to be authorized by the Committee or Board 
 having charge of the finances of the church, or by the con- 
 gregation in official meeting, before they had any right to 
 alienate church property in any way. He went to see his 
 lawyer, and after considering the law, he told the irate bank 
 president that the law was as I stated it. I told him we 
 did not desire to keep the property unless we could pay for 
 it, and that it was my purpose to pay every dollar the church 
 owed ; but we must have time to do it. 
 
 This proved to be a very thankless work for me; but I 
 knew I was right, and that my intentions were good, so I 
 faced the situation with a bold front, and let it be known 
 that this property and church membership had to be saved. 
 Of course there were many things said that were not compli- 
 mentary to me; but there were a number of good men in 
 Wilmington who stood by me, and gave me all the assistance 
 in their power. 
 
 During 1892 we had a good revival in the church not- 
 withstanding our difficulties. At the meeting of the College 
 
AND Observations 77 
 
 of Bishops, Bishop W, W. Duncan v/as assigned to preside 
 over our conference. I Vv'rote to him to come and look into 
 the affairs of Fifth Street Church and preach for us. He 
 did this and became a great help to me. He sav/ through 
 the situation, and approved of my course. He was a hero, 
 and as true as steel. I shall always revere his memory. 
 
 I attended a meeting of the Board of Church Extension 
 held in Louisville, Kentucky, and secured a conditional 
 gift of three thousand dollars. I had devised a scheme 
 to bond the church debt for ten years, in four per cent cou- 
 pon bonds. These bonds were in the denomination of twen- 
 ty-five dollars, and tv/o thousand dollars of them were taken 
 on the condition that they would be given to the church if the 
 church w^as saved. Rev. David Morton, D. D., was Secretary 
 of the Board of Church Extension, and he insisted that the 
 three thousand dollars donated should not be paid until the 
 bond debt had been reduced to fifteen thousand dollars. I 
 made haste to secure enough money to reduce the debt to a 
 bonded debt of fifteen thousand dollars ; and thereby met 
 the condition of the donation from the Board. 
 
78 Recollections 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Fifth Street Church Continued. 
 
 Our Conference met in Goldsboro, December 1892. Bishop 
 W. W. Ducan presided. I had gotten hold of things 
 at Fifth Street Church very well by this time. The Bishop 
 had already been a great help to me, and he urged the Con- 
 ference to help me in my work. This made the work lighter, 
 and gave me encouragement. Nothing of special interest 
 occurred at this Conference. I placed Fifth Street in nomina- 
 tion as the place of the next Conference, and the Confer- 
 ence had become enough interested to choose that church as 
 the place for the next session. We hoped to get up enough 
 interest by the session of the Conference to wipe out the 
 whole debt, and free the church that it might go forward in 
 a great work for the Master. I was President of the Board 
 of Church Extension of the jSTorth Carolina Conference, 
 and I thought what money we had on hand would do more 
 good in helping to liquidate the debt on Fifth Street Church 
 than in any other way. Bishop Duncan thought so, and I 
 talked with some of the laymen who represented country 
 charges, and needed help very much, and they all agreed 
 that it would be best to apply the collections in hand for 
 church extension in that way. Brother N. M. Lawrence, 
 who was a lay member offered a resolution instructing the 
 Board of Church Extension to so apply the collections for 
 1892. The amount appropriated by the Conference Board 
 of Church Extension was $830.00. 
 
 I quote from the files of the Atlantic Methodist, which I 
 have kept, of December 13th, 1893, the following statement: 
 "Two years ago Fifth Street Church owed about $35,000.00 
 in round numbers. This debt was created in building the 
 
AND ObSEEVATIONS 79 
 
 church. The church had for all this money the excellent 
 church, the parsonage, and several small houses. All this 
 property was under mortgage, and the debt was drawing in- 
 terest at 8 per cent. We sold all this outside property to 
 those who held the mortgages, and in that way reduced the 
 debt $8,874,00 and paid nearly $1,500.00 accrued interest 
 from money that we raised. We then bonded $16,375.00, 
 of the remaining debt in 4 per cent coupon bonds, payable 
 the first day of October, 1902. The interest on this is payable 
 the first day of October each year. We still owe $8,975.00, 
 but our creditors made donations amounting to $1,349.00, 
 leaving us still in debt $7,626.00. The Board of Church 
 Extension donated $3,000.00 and our Conference Board 
 donated $830.00, still leaving a balance of $3,826.00 to raise, 
 which sum v/e have secured in cash and subscriptions ex- 
 cept $300.00 which the Board of Trustees will settle by note. 
 We are very anxious to secure the amount subscribed as 
 early as possible. It is not a small job to collect such a sum 
 in small donations. We ask the good people who have so 
 nobly come to our rescue to let us have the money at their 
 earliest convenience, so that Ave may let our long suffering 
 creditors have their money. We heartily thank the North 
 Carolina Conference for the noble response that they have 
 made to our call for help ; and all the friends who contributed 
 to help us in this work. 
 
 When the Conference tendered a vote of thanks for our 
 part, we thought we ought to thank the Confernec, and we 
 did from our heart, and repeat the thanks to them in this 
 connection. 
 
 The Lord has been with us in all this work, and all our 
 plans have been successful. To Him be all the glory, now 
 and forever." 
 
 When this statement was made we had out $16,375.00 in 
 bonded debt. However, $2,000.00 of these bonds were to 
 
80 Eecollections 
 
 be a donation, v.'lien the holders could be assured that the 
 church property could bo saved ; but Dr. Morton, the Sec- 
 retary of our Board of Church Extension Avould not turn 
 over the $3,000.00 donated until the bonded debt had been 
 reduced to $15,000.00, and sent the check to Mr. Jas. F. 
 Post, the Treasurer of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, 
 to get an attoreny and see that all bonds signed and unsigned 
 v/ere burned. We had to raise $1,375.00 before we could 
 get the $3,000.00 donated by the Board, as Dr. Morton 
 would take no risk. If there had been loose management by 
 the officials at Fifth Street Church, there was none with 
 him. So we secured tlie additional sum by hard work, and 
 Col. A. M. '\Vaddell was employed by Brother Post, and all 
 oustanding bonds, except the $15,000.00 Vv^ere burned, and 
 the $2,000.00 were eventually given according to promise, 
 so that when I left the church at the end of my three years' 
 pastorate there were $13,000.00 of bonded debt to pay. 
 
 I was president of the Conference Board of Church Ex- 
 tension, and I got the Conference to allow us to make an 
 assessment on the church of $800.00 a year to pay the in- 
 terest on these bonds ; and advised the church to raise at 
 least $1,500.00 as a sinking fund to pay the bonds. We 
 had raised in cash in two 3'ears, under the most adverse 
 circumstances $0,060.00, outside of all donations from the 
 Boards of Church Extension, and tlie amount of debt liqui- 
 dated by turning over the outside ]n'operty to those who held 
 the mortgages on it. It seemed to us that if that much 
 could be done in two years, with ouly $13,000.00 to raise 
 in ten years, with the conference paying the interest on the 
 bonded debt, that the debt was in fairly good shape. 
 
 Wliile I was grappling v/ith this debt, I had raised $2,- 
 000.00, and had the money in the Bank of Xew Hanover, 
 and that failed. Col. John Wilder Atkinson was the presi- 
 dent of the Savings and Trust Co., and he assured me that 
 
AND OBSERVATIOlSrS 81 
 
 the Bank of ]^ew Hanover was perfectly safe, and when I 
 tried to move my deposits to the Savings Bank, he said if 
 anything happens to this bank, I will give you credit, dollar 
 for dollar for all your deposits here. So when the Bank of 
 mew Hanover failed, I saw Col. Atkinson, and he said: 
 "Yes, that bank will pay every dollar, and I will give yon 
 credit for all the money you have there." I said to him, 
 if you will give me dollar for dollar for all we owe jon, I 
 will pay you with the script on the Bank of New Hanover. 
 He consulted with oue of the directors, and said if you wil^ 
 do that in two days I will accept the script on that bank.. 
 I went out and sold $13,600,00 worth of our bonds, and' 
 settled a debt of $15,275.00 due the Wilmington Savings- 
 and Trust Co. The failure of the Bank of New Hanover- 
 enabled me to bond the debt, and in that way helped me?* 
 The raising of $9,660.00 in small donations in two yeai's^ 
 and settling $35,000.00 by bonding $15,000.00 in four i>er 
 cent bonds, and securing $3,830.00 from the Boards of 
 Church Extension, and settling $8,874.00 by giving the 
 mortgaged property to those who held the mortgages on it;: 
 and the property would not have brought that amount if if 
 had been put on the market ; and securing $2,000.00 of the 
 $15,000.00 bonded debt in conditional subscription, for these 
 bonds were eventually given, which made the amount actually 
 raised in two years $11,960.00, does not seem a very great 
 work under ordinar}^ conditions, but there was want of faith 
 in the possibility of settling the debt, and it was in a time 
 of great financial stringency. We had a general panic in 
 1893, and all business was greatly depressed. Davis had 
 bought a chime of bells for the church on his own account, 
 for which a dollar had not been paid. The McShane Bell 
 Company tried to get me to keep the bells, but I did not feel 
 warranted in appealing to the general church for a chime 
 
 6 
 
82 Recollectio^ts 
 
 of bells, and declined to keep them. They never removed 
 them as long as I was stationed there. The organ had a 
 mortgage of $2,500.00 on it, and we settled that and kept it. 
 • Rev. W. L. Cunninggim followed me and gave his time 
 and attention to his pastoral work, and did not concern him- 
 self about the bonded debt, as the Conference was paving 
 the interest, and the bonds would not fall due until 1902. 
 
 Rev. J. H. Hall followed Brother Cunninggim, and was 
 there when the bonds fell due, and the Board of Church Ex- 
 tension came to his help, and as the bonds were held by two 
 men who bought them with script on the Bank of New Han- 
 over, that never paid over 45 per cent, they felt that they 
 3iad saved so much by buying the bonds, and getting four 
 per cent interest for ten years, that they could afford to 
 Set the church have the bonds for seventy-five per cent. So 
 the $13,000.00 of bonded debt was settled for $9,000.00; 
 and I had the honor to give the last $100.00 that settled the 
 bonded debt. 
 
 I have given this history in such length to let the church 
 know all the facts in the case, as I have been informed a 
 different account has been given of the affair; and it is not 
 out of place to set history straight. 
 
 ' There is a record on high that will show every man's work; 
 and there will be no mistakes up there, or misunderstandings. 
 
 I am now in the evening of life; I cannot expect to toil 
 on here many years more ; but I am thankful that I have 
 tried to do my duty under all circumstances. 
 
AK^D Obseevatioi^s 83 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 Cextestaey Church, Xew Bee^t — Hay Street ChuecHj 
 Fayetteville. 
 
 At our Conference tliat was held in Durham, !N^. C. in 
 December, 1894, I was sent to Centenary Church, New 
 Bern, N. C. During the Conference, Dr. Black came to 
 me and asked me if it would suit me to go to the Washing- 
 ton District; he said Bishop Wilson, (who presided at that 
 Conference), desired to give me an appointment that would 
 be agreeable to me, and had asked him to speak to me about 
 it. I told him that I had no objection to that appointment. 
 He said to me: *'I will change with you if you prefer the 
 Warrenton District." I told him that was very kind of 
 him; but that I Vv'ould not have him to move, and would be 
 \^dlling to go to the Washington District. He said: "Well, 
 that will be your appointment, but say nothing about it; I 
 would not have told you except at the request of the 
 Bishop." But when the appointments were read I was 
 assigned to Centenary Church, as above stated. I learned 
 afterwards that I was dowTi for the W^ashington District 
 until just before Conference adjourned. Rev. G. A. Ogles- 
 by had been held up to be made missionary secretary, but 
 the Board of Missions would not elect a field secretary, and 
 at the last moment I was sent to Xew Bern, and he to the 
 Yfashington District. 
 
 The preacher who had been at Xew Bern expected a 
 change, but did not get the appointment he expected, and 
 went back to his charge very much dissatisfied, and told his 
 people that he had been changed for my accommodation, and 
 created a great deal of dissatisfaction. He cried over the 
 matter, and appealed to the s^Tnpathies of his people, and 
 
84 Recollections 
 
 created quite a stir. I told the Presiding Elder that I was 
 willing to go to the appointment from which I was taken to 
 accommodate another brother, and that he knew all the facts. 
 But he would not state them to the people, and I said I 
 would go where I was sent and take the consequences. I 
 went to ISTew Bern, and after I had been there a month, and 
 had my work well in hand, I wrote Bishop Wilson of the 
 trouble that had been caused, and that I had been charged 
 with having the preacher moved, and that had been used to 
 mj prejudice. He wrote me promptly, and said : "I bear 
 you record that you had nothing to do with your appoint- 
 ment, and did not expect to go to 'Rew Bern." I read the 
 letter to the congregation and it removed all prejudice, and 
 I had a good year. 
 
 My wife was sick nearly all the year. I took her to Buf- 
 falo Lithia Springs with the hope of giving her relief, but 
 she received little, if any, benefit. She spent a month at 
 Chase City, Ya., and Panacea Springs, 'N. C, but continued 
 to suffer so much that I took her to St. Lukes Hospital in 
 Richmond, Va., and placed her under the care of Dr. Hunter 
 McGuire. He operated on her. and she was relieved for 
 a time. 
 
 Our Conference met in Elizabeth City in December, 1895. 
 Bishop Wilson presided again. My wife was in the hospital 
 in Richmond during the session of Conference. I told the 
 Bishop that I desired a change. He was not inclined to move 
 me, and vrould not hear to it until I told him that Dr. Mc- 
 Guire said my wife could not live in that climate. When 
 I told him that he said: "That is a consideration," and 
 granted my request. He sent me to Hay Street Church, 
 Fayetteville. I went from Elizabeth City to Richmond and 
 took my wife, who had sufliciently recovered to leave the 
 hospital, on to New Bern, and we moved to Fayetteville 
 immediately. The preacher at Fayetteville did not get out 
 
AND Observations 85 
 
 of the parsonage for nearly a month, and we had to board 
 until he was pleased to move. I always made it a point to 
 go to my work as soon as I could after Conference, and was 
 careful never to keep my successor out of the parsonage. 
 
 Our Conference generally meets so as to include the first 
 Sunday in December, and if the preacher delays moving, 
 the weather gets bad, and moving is very disagreeable. 
 
 I found Fayetteville thoroughly under the whiskey power. 
 The town government was largely controlled by a whiskey 
 ring, and I do not believe any man could have been elected 
 dog killer if he had opposed the ring. James M. Lamb, one 
 of the leading members of our church there, said in a Dis- 
 trict Conference for the Fayetteville District, held at x\ber- 
 deen, that the whiskey power had the church by the throat 
 in Fayetteville. Bishop Duncan, who was presiding, told 
 Brother Lamb that he must be mistaken, that the whiskey 
 power did not have the church by the throat anywhere; but 
 Lamb stuck to his statement. When I was sent to Fayette- 
 ville, I soon became aware of the saloon power. I saw that 
 prohibition would be a nullity where the municipal authori- 
 ties would not enforce the law; and to break this power, I 
 labored to have a dispensary established there, as a stepping 
 stone to the prohibition of the whiskey traffic. We succeed- 
 ed in establishing the dispensary, and closing fourteen sa- 
 loons. The people who were in favor of saloons were very 
 mad about it, and declared that the business of the town 
 Avas ruined. I could not go into a crowd anywhere that I 
 would not hear of the ruin that had been wrought by closing 
 the saloons. I passed by a number of men one day, and 
 stopped to speak with them, when one said : "If I had what 
 I have in money, I would hit the grit, and get away from this 
 town." I asked him what was the matter, and he said : "They 
 have closed the saloons and ruined the business of the tov/n, 
 and grass will grow in our streets." I said to him that I 
 
86 Recollections 
 
 would tell him au anecdote, that a few years ago they had 
 a prohibition campaign in Kansas; that the saloon interest 
 got Senator Vorhees of Indiana to canvass against prohibi- 
 tion, and while making a speech, he asked this question: 
 "Fellow citizens of Kansas, if you have this prohibitory 
 law what will you Kansas farmers do with your corn?" 
 Kansas is a great corn growing State. A farmer in the 
 audience arose and said: "Does the honorable gentleman 
 want an answer to that question?" Voorhees said: "Yes, 
 I repeat it, if you have this prohibitory law what will you 
 Kansas farmers do with your com?" The farmer replied: 
 "I will tell you, we will raise more pork and less hell." That 
 reply knocked the Senator out; and if we raise grass in the 
 streets of Fayetteville, we will raise more hay and less hell 
 here. All the company laughed except the man who wanted 
 to leave town because the saloons were closed. He had been 
 interested in the business, and was too sore over being closed 
 up to laugh at anything. 
 
 I would not make a false impression of the society of 
 Fayetteville by what I have said about the power of the 
 whiskey traffic there. ISTotwithstanding the fact above stated, 
 Fayettevillt had in it the finest society of people I have 
 known anywhere in the State. 
 
 It was then a fine place to live, but it has improved in every 
 way since. Closing the saloons was the beginning of im- 
 provements at Fayetteville that have been going on ever 
 since. The dispensary ran about three years and six months, 
 and then through the efforts of a man who went to the Sen- 
 ate of North Carolina from Fayetteville, the question of 
 license or prohibition was submitted to the people, and to the 
 great surprise of that Senator, the county went two to one for 
 prohibition, so Cumberland County had prohibition for some 
 time before we carried the State for state wide prohibition. 
 
AND Obseevatiojsts 8V 
 
 The town of Fayetteville at this time is one of the most 
 progressive towns in the State. Thej have fine schools, fine 
 churches, well paved streets and prosperous business men. 
 Where those who were opposed to prohibition prophesied 
 that grass would grow in the streets, thej have paved streets 
 instead of mud as under the old regime. 
 
 There were many who sympathized with the whiskey 
 traffic when I was there, and my efforts to close the saloons 
 made it somewhat unpleasant for me, and at the close of my 
 second year, I asked to be relieved of the charge. I was 
 appointed to another good charge, and the brother who was 
 sent to Fayetteville met with such opposition that he was 
 sent to the charge to which I was assigned, and I was return- 
 ed for another year. I had a large majority of the members 
 in sympathy with me, and my third year in Fayetteville was 
 a pleasant and profitable one. It v/as a mistake for me to 
 leave when I did, but I thought my work there was about 
 done, and I asked for a change. 
 
 During my pastorate at Fayetteville I found that ihn 
 late Brother E. J. Lilly had left an endowment to Hay 
 Street Church of five thousand dollars. The interest on this 
 sum was to pa}'' his assessment to the pastor in perpetuity j 
 and this money was loaned to a cotton mill on personal se- 
 curity. I spoke to Dr. E. Floyd, who was chairman of the 
 Board of Trustees, and advised him to collect the money and 
 invest it in real estate, as I did not think such a fund as that 
 should be invested in personal security, it mattered not how 
 good. He collected the money and invested four thousand 
 dollars in a store, and loaned the other thousand on real 
 estate security. IsFot long after this investment, real estate 
 in Fayetteville went up amazingly, and they sold the store 
 for which they paid four thousand dollars for eleven tJiou- 
 sand five hundred. The church in Fayetteville had desired 
 for sometime to build a new house of worship, and the profit 
 
•38 Recollections 
 
 on this investment gave them a start. They went forward 
 and built one of the best arranged churches in the State 
 and now thej have one of the very best stations in the Con- 
 ference. 
 
 Methodism was planted in Fayetteville by a colored 
 preacher by the name of Henry Evans. In 1810 William 
 Gapers, (afterward Bishop Gapers), was stationed there, 
 and wrote an interesting account of Henry Evans, whom he 
 regarded as a great preacher in his day, and a most excellent 
 anan. They have a brick church there that is owned by the 
 African Methodist Episcopal Zion Ghurch, that is a memo- 
 i'ial to Henry Evans, the humble colored shoe maker from 
 Virginia, who first preached the gospel according to Meth- 
 odism in Fayetteville. When he went there it was his pur- 
 pose to preach to his own color only, but his preaching had 
 such a good effect upon the negroes that the white people 
 went to hear him, and many of them were converted. At 
 first he was persecuted, but by his consecrated life he lived 
 down all opposition, and William Gapers said he was famous 
 when he went there as pastor of the church. God has chosen 
 the weak things of the world to confound the things that are 
 mighty ; and in the history of Methodism, He has frequently 
 chosen these weak instrmnents to accomplish amazing re- 
 sults. Methodism was born in a University, and her found- 
 ars were scholars, but they never depended upon human 
 learning for success. 'No church has been a greater patron 
 to, and a greater friend of education, than the Methodist 
 Ghurch, but we have always known that our education must 
 be baptized with the Spirit's power to make it efficient in 
 the salvation of souls. 
 
 Some of our greatest scholars, as v/ell as greatest preach- 
 ers, never went to Gollege. Dr. Adam Glark was the great- 
 est Oriental scholar among English speaking men, and he 
 never went' to a college or university. He went to Kings- 
 
AND Observations 89 
 
 wood School for a short time, and found that he knew all 
 they taught there and left. While as has been said, "God 
 has no use for our ignorance," He has no use for our learning 
 unless that learning sits at the feet of Christ, and learns 
 of Him. things that cannot be taught in the schools. Henry 
 Evans, the colored preacher of Fayetteville, sat at the feet 
 of the great Teacher and learned spiritual lessons that made 
 him immortal. 
 
 While I was stationed at Fayetteville Rev. W. H. Moore, 
 D. D., was my Presiding Elder. He was very brotherly 
 and helpful to me in my v/ork. It was about this time that 
 Rev. A. B. Grumpier Vv^as disrupting the church all along 
 the Gape Fear River with his doctrine of holiness, and the 
 second blessing. He had been a member of the ISTorth Garo- 
 lina Gonference, and had located at the Gonference held in 
 Kinston in December, 1896, for the purpose of carrying on 
 an evangelizing campaign on the holiness plan. He began 
 soon after his location to attack the church, and the ministry, 
 and charged that the church had departed from the doctrine 
 of holiness. He came to Fayetteville, and secured the 
 armory and held a meeting for three weeks. Knowing that 
 it was his purpose to disrupt the church, I did not attend 
 the meeting, but went quietly along, visiting my people and 
 holding my regular services just as though he was not there. 
 I did not discuss him or his work, and would not allow any 
 one to talk to me about him. 
 
 I had written a book on "Spiritual Life," and the fifth 
 chapter in that book was on "Regeneration." I had that 
 <3hapter printed in pamphlet form and distributed it freely 
 in my congregation. I sent a copy to Bishop Wilson and 
 he approved it in strong terms. Some one put a copy of it 
 on Grumpler's desk in the armory, and I was informed that 
 he spent three nights in an attempt to reply to it. But I 
 never paid any attention to his attacks. The meeting finally 
 
90 Eecollectioks 
 
 died out, and no harm came to the church in FayetteviHe 
 from his attacks. He tore up the church in many communi- 
 ties, however, and withdrew from the church, and attempted 
 to establish what he was pleased to call a holiness church. 
 After carrying on this propaganda for several years, his 
 organization went to pieces, and he came back to the church 
 and obtained a license to preach, and a few years ago his 
 credentials were restored to him, and he is now a local Elder 
 in our church. Several of our preachers went off in the 
 Grumpier movement, but nearly all of them finally came 
 back to the church. I am not stating these facts to condemn 
 these brethren. I thinly they were honestly mistaken, and 
 like some of Mr. Wesley's helpers, imagined that they had 
 received larger blessings than even Mr. Wesley himseK had 
 received, and that he could not teach them anything. The 
 doctrine of holiness has always been a fundamental doctrine 
 of Methodism ; but there is danger of spiritual pride getting 
 into the hearts of those who profess this high attainment of 
 grace, and destroying that holiness without which no man 
 can see the Lord. 
 
 This so-called holiness work brought the scriptural doe- 
 trine of sanctification, and holiness, into such disrepute, by 
 the conduct of many who professed it, that even the scriptural 
 terms were objected to by many good people. I have always 
 contended that we should be careful not to object to this 
 doctrine because of its abuse; but that we should seek to 
 obtain, and live the doctrine and experience taught in the 
 word of God, and be careful not to think more highly of our- 
 selves than we ought to think. Spiritual pride is the great 
 enemy of holiness, and those who have attained the clearest 
 evidence of a holy heart, have ever been the humblest in 
 their profession. John Fletcher of Madeley was one of the 
 finest illustrations of the doctrine of perfect love, and he was 
 
AND Obseevations 91 
 
 one of the humblest of men; but the grace that was in him 
 was so apparent to all with whom he came in contact that 
 his influence over men was wonderful. 
 
 I have stated the facts with regard to this so-called holi- 
 ness movement because it came in connection with mj work 
 at Fajetteville. Because I did not endorse the movement, I 
 was charged by some as opposing holiness, and the M. E. 
 Church, South, was charged with the same thing. We have 
 always believed in scriptural sanctification and christian 
 perfection, but we draw the line at "crankification." 
 
92 RECOI.I.ECTIONS 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 Hay Street^ Fayetteville^ Continued. 
 
 Ovir Conference met in Kinston in December, 1896. 
 Bishop A. W. Wilson presided for the fourth time consecu- 
 tively. I was returned to Fayetteville. I was informed 
 that it was the intention to put me on a District, and as I 
 had my sons in school in Fayetteville, I asked Dr. Moore, 
 my Presiding Elder, to ask the Bishop to allow me to stay 
 there for the presnt, which he kindly did. The education 
 of my children was a matter of the first moment with me. 
 We had a fine military school in Fayetteville. Col. T. J. 
 Drewry was the principal, and there has not been a finer 
 teacher of boys in my day in North Carolina. He died 
 while I was stationed there, and I took his remains to 
 Drewryville, Southampton County, Virginia, and buried 
 him. The school began to go down after his death, and I do 
 not think its equal has been established there since. I do 
 not say this to 'the disparagement of the excellent schools 
 that exist there, but Drewry was an extraordinary teacher, 
 and did a great deal for education in the State in his day. 
 He was for a number of years associated "with the Homers 
 in that excellent school in Oxford. The v/hole city of Fay- 
 etteville grieved at his death, and felt that it was a great 
 loss, not only to Fayetteville, but to the educational force 
 of the State. 
 
 It will not be amiss to speak of that great man. Bishop 
 A. W. Wilson. I have said the Conference at Kinston was 
 the fourth session of the North Carolina Conference at which 
 he had presided in succession. I remember the sermon he 
 preached at Kinston on Sunday morning. It was from the 
 
AND Observations 93 
 
 third chapter of Paul's Epistles to the Romans and the 21st 
 and 26th verses inclusive. That sermon was a body of divin- 
 ity. Dr. W. H. Moore, a very able preacher himself, said : 
 "T would be willing to black his shoes and sit at his feet daily 
 to hear such preaching as that." When the Bishop reached 
 a climax in his argument on the atonement, and the gospel 
 plan of salvation, he said: ''I see it now," and there was a 
 bright young lawyer in the gallery, who had followed the 
 argument and was perfectly lost in it, who exclaimed aloud : 
 "I do too." I was stopping at that young lawyer's father's 
 and at dinner while speaking of the sermon, and of his ex- 
 clamation, he said: ''I saw the whole plan of salvation as 
 clear as a sunbeam." I think that young man was converted 
 under that sermon. 
 
 It did not appear strange in by gone years for men to be 
 converted under the preached gospel. Wliy do we not see 
 such things now? Our gospel is the same it always was, 
 and human nature is the same. We hear of our progress in 
 intelligence, and in many things, but it does seem to me that 
 we are not preaching the gospel with the old time power 
 and effectiveness. Bishop Wilson, over eighty years old, 
 is still living, and though feeble, he yet preaches the gospel 
 with wonderful power. He is possessed of the first order 
 of mind, received thorough collegiate training, and was a law- 
 yer with bright prospects ahead of him, but gave up all to 
 preach the gospel, which after all is the highest of all call- 
 ings, and says now, I am simply a preacher of the gospel. 
 He never turned aside to do anything else since he put his 
 hand to the gospel plow. His long life has been consecrated 
 to the one work, and although he has filled the highest posi- 
 tion in the gift of his church, he has ever esteemed it his 
 highest honor to preach Christ to the Avorld. 
 
 Having spoken of the evil effects of the movement in the 
 name of holiness to disrupt the church, there is another 
 
94 Kecollections 
 
 movement that lias had a detrimental effect upon the religious 
 life of many people, and that is the premillenarian doctrine 
 that has spread in some sections. This doctrine discredits 
 the work of the Holy Spirit, and hinders His powerful in- 
 fluences in His awakening and converting power. 
 
 While on this point, I will state a circumstance that 
 occurred while I was stationed in Wilmington. A man came 
 there and delivered what he called a series of Bible read- 
 ings. The first of these Bible readings had nothing object- 
 ionable in them, and a brother came to me vv^ith an endorse- 
 ment of these readings and asked me to sign it. As I saw 
 nothing objectionable in them I signed the paper. After 
 that he came out with his premillenarianism, and went so 
 far as to say that the Holy Spirit had ceased to convict men 
 of the guilt or of the power of sin ; that he had not seen any 
 one convicted of sin in any way in twenty years. I v/ent to 
 the brother who had the endorsement of these readings in 
 hand and had my name scratched off. I went to the other 
 Metliodist preachers and asked them not to endorse the 
 teachings to v/hich we had just listened, but they hesitated 
 to take their names off, and the endorsement came out the 
 next morning in the morning papers. The Presiding Elder 
 of the Wilmington District was one of the preachers who 
 endorsed the teaching, and he came out in an article in the 
 church paper disclaiming the purpose of endorsing any such 
 teaching. I did not intend to have anything to say about the 
 matter, as large crowds had attended the meetings, and I ex- 
 pected it would bring upon me a good deal of criticism. I 
 left the meeting as soon as I had quietly taken my name 
 from the endorsement, but learned the next morning that the 
 brother who had the endorsement, stated publicly that I had 
 declined to endorse the teaching. When I heard that I pub- 
 lished in the Atlantic Methodist my reasons for refusing to 
 ■endorse such doctrine, and found to my surprise that the 
 
AND Obseevations 95 
 
 people generally were with me, notwithstanding I was the 
 only one of the preachers who refused the endorsement. 
 
 I have been fully persuaded for a long time that this 
 premillenarian doctrine has had a detrimental effect upon 
 many. For if the idea that Christ must come and reign 
 here on earth in his human person before the world can be 
 filled with the knowledge of the glory of God is true, if this 
 doctrine means anything, it means that Christianity having 
 begun in the spirit, must be perfected in the flesh. Christ 
 will come back to this world in like manner as He went 
 away; but when He comes He will come to judgment, and 
 that will be the end of this state of things. I have no doubt 
 that this is the truth. Eussellism, with all of its other 
 heresies, has its roots in premillenarianism, and I give it as 
 my settled conviction that all of our preachers should steer 
 clear of this heresy. The Holy Spirit is come to abide in the 
 church until the end of time, and we have just as good reason 
 to expect His presence in convicting and converting power 
 now as our fathers had. I have seen too much of His work 
 in my day to doubt a continuance of His presence with us 
 to the end. T^Tienever the doctrine that Christ must come 
 in His human person to reign on earth and subjugate His 
 enemies and put an end to Satan's power, by a sudden stroke 
 of divine power, the work of the Holy Spirit is discredited 
 to make the truth effective. It is a mistake to suppose that 
 the resources of the Holy Spirit are any more limited than 
 those of the entire God-head; for He is really and truly 
 God, and the great danger is now and ever has been that we 
 may grieve Him. I speak of this in this connection because 
 I am so deeply impressed with its importance. 
 
 I cannot well help speaking of the effects of the different 
 doctrines that have been taught in my day, and the effect 
 of these doctrines on the church and the world. Our modern 
 system of evangelism is a departure from that system which 
 
96 Eecollectiois's 
 
 so wonderfully impressed the world in the early days of 
 Methodism, and which obtained when I first entered the 
 minstry. 
 
 Our fathers fasted and prayed to secure the outpouring 
 of the Spirit in the awakening and conversion of souls. Now 
 we advertise our meetings and magnify the work of certain 
 men. We make the impression, whether intentionally or not, 
 that the power of God is in the hands of a few men, who 
 resort to all kinds of sensational methods to attract the crowd. 
 They succeed in drawing large audiences, and get much ad- 
 vertising through the papers, but after all, the permanency 
 of the work is questionable. The impression is very general 
 that the day of old fashioned Holy Spirit Revival is passed. 
 
 In all this work I am impressed that the human instru- 
 mentality is honored, and the work of the Holy Spirit is 
 under-valued. I speak of these things because it is a matter 
 of conscience with me, and if our people can be brought back 
 to seek, and to trust in the Spirit of God in his awakening, 
 converting and sanctifying power in any degree, I shall not 
 have labored in A'ain. 
 
AND Observations 9t 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Washington Station. 
 
 The Kortli Carolina Conference met in Elizabeth City 
 the latter part of jSTovember, 1898. Bishop O. P. Fitzgerald 
 presided. I had spent three years at Fayetteville, and I de- 
 sired to get an appointment higher up the country, as my 
 wife was still a great sufferer, and I had found that a ma- 
 larial climate did not agree with her. I spoke to Bishop 
 Fitzgerald about it and he decided to put me on the War- 
 renton District. That was just the point to which I wished 
 to go, as the District parsonage was in Littleton, and the 
 Panacea Springs, which were close by, had proved very 
 helpful to her. But our congregation in Washington, N. C, 
 had commenced to build a new church, and they were heavily 
 in debt, with the church incomplete and the congregation 
 somewhat divided, and the Presiding Elder of that District 
 determined to have me sent there. To accomplish his pur- 
 pose he got certain preachers to go to the Bishop and tell 
 him that the preachers objected to me as a Presiding Elder, 
 and the Bishop was induced to put me at Washington and 
 to assign the preacher at Washington to the Warrenton Dis- 
 trict. 
 
 It is painful to me to record these facts, but I cannot be 
 true to history and not state them. The brother who was 
 used to accomplish this, afterwards left the church and went 
 to the Baptist Church. Another brother, who has since gone 
 to his reward, told me that he was approached with the re- 
 quest to go with some brethren to the Bishop with this state- 
 ment. Suffice it to say the scheme worked, and I was sent 
 to Washington, where the climate aggravated my wife's 
 trouble and came near causing her death. All parties to this 
 
 7 
 
98 Recollections 
 
 transaction have passed to their reward, and I hope they are 
 in heaven; for while I state these facts, I feel no nnkind- 
 ness to the men who schemed for what seemed to be very- 
 much against the interest of my family, as well as myself. 
 
 I went to Washington, 'N. C, in December,1898. I found 
 the congregation worshipping in the town hall. They had 
 commenced to build a nice brick church. The building was 
 under cover and no money in hand to complete it, with a six 
 thousand dollar debt to provide for. It took five thousand 
 dollars to complete the church, and the conference had been 
 invited to hold the session of 1899 there. I was informed 
 by the Presiding Elder that there was no trouble there, and 
 that the church would be completed without difficulty as the 
 congregation was amply able to build it. He said, "It is 
 no Fifth Street affair." I said nothing, for I saw I was 
 in for it, let the trouble be what it would. I went there and 
 went to work with all my might to relieve the situation, for 
 I knew if there was any failure it would be charged to me, 
 as the Conference was kept in entire ignorance of the situa- 
 tion. With hard and constant work, we succeeded in finish- 
 ing the church building at an additional cost of $5,000.00, 
 which we raised that year. We bonded the debt of $6,000.00 
 for ten years, and when the Conference met, we were ready 
 for it and had the church dedicated. 
 
 Our Conference met in Washington, North Carolina, in 
 December, 1899. ISTo conference had been held in that town 
 for about fifty-five years. There was no one living there that 
 remembered the session that was held there, I think, in 1844. 
 The church at Washington was founded in 1784, the same 
 year that the M. E. Church was organized at the Christmas 
 General Conference that met in Baltimore. The history of 
 this church would be very interesting, if we had the data 
 to write it. Many faithful men and women have been mem- 
 bers here during its existence. 
 
AND Observations 99 
 
 During the war between the states the greater part of the 
 town was burned do^vn, including the churches. When the 
 war was over, the people there went to work and under great 
 difficulties built a brick church. It was a rather unsightly 
 building, with a very sharp roof. They were unable to 
 complete it and worshipped in the basement for several years. 
 When I first entered the ministry they were worshipping in 
 that basement, and I assisted Rev. A. R. Raven in a meet- 
 ing held there. They finally finished the auditorium, largely 
 through donations made by old brother Lockwood Hyatt, 
 and a Captain Perry, who was there in command of a revenue 
 cutter. 
 
 When the congregation determined to build a new church 
 there was considerable opposition from some of the older 
 members, and when I was sent there the feeling between 
 those who had opposed building the new church and the 
 majority who had determined to build, was not as cordial as 
 it should have been. This condition was not at all helpful 
 to us in the work. 
 
 There was a graveyard connected with the church, and 
 the larger space needed for the new church required the 
 removal of some of the dead to the city cemetery. This 
 caused some rather unpleasant feelings on the part of some 
 of the members. The time was when I favored having a 
 graveyard connected with the church, but my experience 
 teaches me that it is a mistake to have a church and a grave- 
 yard together, for if it ever becomes necessary to move the 
 church, there will be trouble about the dead buried there. 
 Some of the members at Washington never became recon- 
 ciled to what was done about their dead. 
 
 There was an old colored man who owned a lot adjoining 
 the church in Washington. His cabin was the next house 
 to the church, and the railroad desired to purchase his lot 
 that they might run their tracks close by the church, to get 
 
100 Recollections 
 
 down to their terminal point. I bought this lot for the 
 church, as it would have been a great annoyance to have 
 the railroad track running within forty feet of the church. 
 'Some of the members were very much opposed to investing 
 any money in a lot, while we owed so much on the church 
 building; but I got one of our members, Brother E. W. 
 Ayers, to pay for the lot and have it deeded to himself until 
 I could raise the money to pay for it. We paid the old 
 colored man $500.00 for his lot. and had him a house built 
 at the back of it, to be his while he lived. 
 
 While our Conference was in session I secured Dr. J. J. 
 Lafferty to give us a lecture to raise the money to pay for 
 the lot. He came and delivered his lecture on "The Days of 
 Our Daddies." We secured the old opera house in Wash- 
 mgton for this lecture, and had a fine audience. Dr. Laf- 
 ferty was a natural humorist, and on that occasion he sur- 
 passed himself. He spoke for two hours and ten minutes, 
 and held his crowd to the last moment. Lafferty was simply 
 inimitable. I do not suppose any one v/ho heard him on 
 that occassion will ever forget that lecture. It was humorous, 
 but at the same time one of the best answers to pessimism 
 I ever heard. He donated that lecture to help me pay for 
 that lot, and would not accept but ten dollars for his time 
 and trouble. 
 
 We paid for the lot, and I advised the church never to sell 
 it, for if they sold it, the railroad might buy it and run their 
 side tracks close to the church ; but they have since sold it to 
 a member of the church. Our Methodist people have an 
 aversion to owming any property except for actual use for 
 the church. 
 
 Bishop Hendrix dedicated the church in Washington, 
 notwithstanding we owed a bonded debt of six thousand 
 dollars ; but before I left Washington we paid five hundred 
 
AK^D Observations 101 
 
 dollars of the debt, and it was all paid in less than five years. 
 
 I have said our church in Washington was burned by the 
 Federal army during the war. After fifty years the govern- 
 ment paid the church four thousand five hundred dollars 
 for the property burned They had built and paid for two 
 houses of worship before the government re-imbursed them. 
 
 I spent three years on the Washington Station, and at the 
 Conference held in Fayetteville in 1901 I was sent to Rocky 
 Mount Station. 
 
102 Recollections 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Rocky Mount Station. 
 
 Our Conference for 1901 was held at Fayetteville, ISTorth 
 Carolina, in December; Bishop R. K. Hargrove presided. 
 I was sent to Rocky Mount Station. The church there had 
 been in a rather unsettled condition for some time. When I 
 went there the church buildings of all the denominations 
 were small wooden structures. The town had just begun to 
 build up, and the religious condition was not very encourag- 
 ing. Soon after I entered upon my pastorate, I began to 
 agitate for a new church. I did not meet with much en- 
 couragement at first, but I was satisfied that nothing could 
 overcome certain difficulties that had existed there for some 
 time, except some enterprise that would arouse church en- 
 thusiasm, and cause the old troubles to be forgotten. The 
 Presiding Elder was not in harmony with me, or with the 
 people. He was unfortunately constituted. He could not 
 help being a partisan, and always took sides. There were 
 factions, and he sided with one of them. I endeavored to 
 occupy a neutral position and serve both sides alike, for 
 there was, as is generally the case, some wrong on both sides. 
 
 About the time everything began to settle and the minds 
 of the people were turned to the new enterprise of building 
 a church, there was a difficulty between two men belonging 
 to the opposite factions, and while I was trying to bring 
 about peace between them, this Elder happened to get to 
 town and took a decided stand with one faction. This pre- 
 cipitated a new trouble, which made the matter more diffi- 
 cult. 
 
 The position of a neutral between factions is always very 
 difficult. If he will not take sides both sides will soon com- 
 
AND Observations 103 
 
 bine against him, and like Pilate and Herod, thej will make 
 friends among themeslves and unite in opposing the neutral^ 
 as Pilate and Herod did against Christ. The Presiding 
 Elder threw all his influence against the new church enter- 
 prise, and for a time hindered the work. 
 
 That brother has gone to his reward, and I hope he is in 
 heaven, for I believe it was more a mistake of judgment 
 than anything else that controlled his actions. 
 
 We finally succeeded in getting a plan accepted, and a 
 committee organized to build a new brick church. 
 
 I spent two years in an effort to build up Methodism in 
 Rocky Mount. Soon after the General Conference that met 
 in Dallas, Texas, in 1902, at which A. Coke Smith, D, D., 
 was elected bishop, I invited him to come to Rocky Mount 
 and preach for us and lecture to our League. He did so, 
 and spent a Saturday and Sunday with us to the delight /)f 
 our people. He was a fine preacher, and a most genial 
 gentleman. . : 
 
 Our conference for 1902 was held in Wilmington, and 
 Bishop A. Coke Smith presided. I was returned to Rocky 
 Mount for the year 1903, and did what I could to build up 
 the church under difficulties. 
 
 During this Conference Rev. W. C. Norman, one of our 
 most popular pastors, died suddenly. He was stationed at 
 Trinity Church, Durham, at the time of his death. His 
 people expected his return, but death took him away in the 
 midst of his usefulness, and caused several changes in the 
 appointments. Rev. R. C. Beaman, who had been stationed 
 at Wasihngton for only one year, was sent to Trinity, Dur- 
 ham, and his removal caused some dissatisfaction for a little 
 time. I was called to Washington to conduct the funeral 
 of a Brother Lawrence, and having been pastor at Washing- 
 ton the Official Board asked my advice about consenting 
 to the change of their preacher. I advised them to wire the 
 
104 EeC0LLECTI02s"S 
 
 Bishop to make no change from what he had done, and 
 to let Brother Beaman go, and to write Brother L. E. Thomp- 
 son to come on, and that thej give him the "best reception 
 they had ever given a pastor. Thev did this, and Brother 
 Thompson served the church acceptably for four years. 
 
 I record this fact to call attention to the mistake churches 
 sometimes make in objecting to appointments. As a rule the 
 bishops do the best they can, and if the people and the 
 preachers will accept the situation, and do the best they can, 
 things will generally right themselves. 
 
 Our Methodist system is a wonderful evangelizing sys- 
 tem. It is a powerful instrument in the hands of the Holy 
 Spirit for the salvation of the world. 
 
 While Rocky Mount Station had its difficulties, there 
 were many encouraging features about it as a field of gTeat 
 usefulness ; and while I was not permitted to see my plans 
 for building the new church, and for building up the mem- 
 bership carried out under my ovm. supervision, yet the work 
 went on, and the church and a new parsonage were built, 
 and Rocky Mount is now one of our finest stations. I have 
 many warm friends there, one of whom meets me at Confer- 
 ence every year and shows his friendship in a substantial 
 way, by presenting me with a gold coin. I would be glad 
 to give his name a place in these annals, but I fear he would 
 not approve of it. 
 
 Rocky Mount is a growing railroad center, and has gro^vn 
 from a few hundred inliabitants in the last twenty-five 
 years to 12,000 or 15,000 population. 
 
 Many of those who were leaders in church and State 
 when I was stationed there are gone, and nearly an entirely 
 new population is there, and the church is keeping pace with 
 the wonderful growth of the town. They have recently add- 
 ed materially to the Sunday School department of the 
 
AND Observations .105 
 
 church, and have one of the finest Sunday School arrange- 
 ments of any church in the Conference. The leading busi- 
 ness men of the town belong to the AVesley Bil)le Class, and 
 the Superintendent of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad is 
 one of the leading Bible class workers in the State. 
 
 I believe that some of the seed sov/n there by me has 
 helped to produce the great harvest t]iat is being reaped. 
 Other good men have taken hold of the work, and God is 
 blessing the seed-sowing and the reaping in that very fruit- 
 ful field. 
 
 Our Conference for 1903 met in Goldsboro, 'N. C. Bishop 
 Warren A. Candler presided. He gave my Ofiicial Board 
 a rap for asking him to send me to the Washington District. 
 They did this against my advice ; but they had certain plans 
 they wanted to carry out, and told me if the Bishop would 
 grant their request, they intended to build a District par- 
 sonage at Rocky Mount and give it to the District. I feared 
 just what happened; that the Bishop would think I had a 
 hand in the movement, that they would not accomplish their 
 object, and that I, who was innocent of such a plan, would 
 be misunderstood. While I appreciated the kindness on the 
 part of my brethren in desiring to have me live among them 
 longer than my term as pastor, and giving me, as they 
 thought, a wider field of service ; 3^et I understood the work- 
 ings of the itinerancy better than they did. They expected 
 me to remain with them two years longer anyway, but the 
 Presiding Elder, whose time was out, was not in sympathy 
 with the board, nor with me. They informed him what 
 they desired and he opposed it with all his influence. He 
 did not desire to leave the Eldership, and he thought if that 
 arrangement was effected, it would result in his leaving 
 District work. The Bishop did not grant the desire of either 
 party. I was moved from the station, and the Presiding 
 Elder was sent to a station. 
 
106 Recollections 
 
 It is hard to state facts like these in such a way as not 
 to cause any prejudice; but that brother has gone to his- 
 reward, and the brother who followed me at Rocky Mount 
 has also gone to his eternal home. I was the innocent victim 
 of misunderstanding ; but I went back to Rocky Mount after- 
 Conference and plead with the brethren, who were very 
 much disappointed, to go forward, build their church, and: 
 work for the Master, which they did, with the results stated. 
 
 Bishop Candler is a very strong man, and I have no doubt 
 would have acted differently if he had fully understood the' 
 situation. 
 
 At that Conference at Goldsboro some of the brethren who 
 had gone off with the Crumpler movement came back into the- 
 Conference. One brother who came back had served a 
 charge on the Washington District as a supply, and had 
 done faithful work. We recommended him for re-admission,, 
 and while some opposed him, I spoke in his defense. The 
 Bishop was not favorable to his re-admission, and showed 
 it by his objecting to some things I said; but he was re- 
 admitted, and has done faithful work ever since. 
 
 My only object in stating the facts in this chapter is to- 
 set certain matters in their true light, and leave a true 
 account of my work to any friends who may care to read 
 them, either while I live or after I am gone. 
 
AND Observations 107 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Henderson Station. 
 
 At the Conference held at Goldsboro in 1903, I was sent 
 to Henderson Station. I followed Eev. J. D. Bundj, who 
 was sent to the Washington District. I found a class of 
 good clever people in Henderson ; but the Church was not in 
 a very spiritual condition. The charge did not pay as much 
 salary as I had received for several years, but I did not com- 
 plain of that, and took hold of the work resolved to do the 
 best I could, and to save as many souls as possible. 
 
 I had two cotton mill churches connected with the charge, 
 and had a junior preacher to work in that field. Soon after 
 I got there Rev. R. D. Daniel, my junior preacher, came. 
 We had a small church at South Henderson cotton mill that 
 was burned soon after I got there. We had a society in 
 ]N^orth Henderson, and they worshipped in the school house. 
 We held revivals at both of the mill villages, and had a 
 number of conversions and accessions to the church. We 
 built a church at both places, and had developed the work 
 to such an extent that at the end of three years it was made 
 into a separate charge, against my judgment, however, as 
 we owed nine hundred dollars on the North Henderson 
 Church. I advised the Presiding Elder to continue the 
 mission in connection with the station until the North Hen- 
 derson church was out of debt, but this was not done, and 
 the mill congregation felt that they were unable to pay the 
 debt and came near giving up. Rev. J. E. Underwood was 
 sent on the District and took an interest in the church, and 
 with the aid of J. H. Bridgers, Esq., R. J. Corbett, and a 
 few others, the debt of $900.00 on the church was settled, and 
 at the solicitation of Brother Underwood and Brother G. 
 
108 Recollections 
 
 D. Langston, the pastor, I went to Henderson and preached 
 the dedicatory sermon. 
 
 This church was burned not a great while after its dedi- 
 cation, but there was enough insurance on it to build 
 another, not so large as the one burned, but a good cotton 
 mill church. 
 
 Henderson is a growing town, and has a fine class of peo- 
 ple. There is no better society anywhere in the State. 
 
 The session of the IsTorth Carolina Conference for 1904 
 was held in Henderson the latter part of November. Bishop 
 Candler again presided. The people of the to^vn gave the 
 Conference fine entertainment. I was pastor, and they gave 
 me every facility for providing for the Conference. I have 
 never seen the body better cared for at any session since I 
 have been connected with it. 
 
 While at Henderson we had several good meetings, and 
 quite a number were converted and taken into the church. 
 There were several very remarkable conversions, among 
 them the mayor of the town. He is still living, and one of 
 my most cherisK'ed friends, of whom I would be glad to 
 speak by name, but I know he would not like for me to do 
 fhis, and for that reason I refrain. 
 
 My assistant, Brother R. D. Daniel, had a severe case of 
 typhoid fever the first year he was with me there, and for 
 weeks he was at the point of death, but his life was spared. 
 He married and continued in the itinerant work for a few 
 years and located. 
 
 The Conference met in Wilson in 1905, the latter part 
 of November, Bishop Wilson presiding. I was returned 
 to Henderson for the following year, 1906. My wife was 
 a great sufferer, and was sick the greater part of the time 
 I was stationed in Henderson. We were alone, as my chil- 
 dren were away from home and the care of a sick wife, and 
 a heavy pastoral charge did not give me any time for rest, 
 
AND Observations 109 
 
 and yet I held meetings on my o^^^l charge, and helped the 
 brethren in several revivals. I dedicated a church at Ahoskie 
 in Bertie County, and held a revival on that charge. 
 
 Our Conference met in Rocky Mount in December, 1906. 
 At this Conference I was elected Missionary Evangelist, 
 without my knowledge or consent. My wife went with me 
 to the Conference, and was taken violently ill there. I did 
 not know whether she would recover, and I was greatly dis- 
 tressed. I knew that my work would take me away from 
 home nearly all the time, and I did not see how I could do 
 the work of an evangelist under the circumstances, but I 
 left it all with God, and let things take their course. Soon 
 after Conference I moved to Greensboro where my son was 
 in business, so as to leave my wife with my son and 
 daughter-in-law, while I was away at my work. My wife 
 had been a great sufferer from gall stones for several years, 
 and I had dreaded an operation ; but her condition was such 
 that nothing but an operation could save her ; and she went 
 to the hospital and was operated on, and came near dying. 
 But God spared her life, and after another year's suffering 
 she recovered her health. I speak of these things that all 
 may knov/ under what difficulties I labored at this time of 
 my ministerial life. Many others have had to contend with 
 like troubles, but that did not relieve the poignancy of my 
 sorrows and trials. But the Lord sustained me by His grace, 
 and I went forward to do the best I could under all circum- 
 stances. The old Book says, ''Man is born to trouble, as 
 the sparks fly upward," and I can truly say I have experi- 
 enced this common lot of our humanity; but ahvaj's with 
 the comfortable assurance that: "All things work together 
 for good to them that love God." 
 
 The year 1907 was a year of labor and toil. I had been 
 on station work for nineteen years, and lived at home and 
 enjoyed its comforts ; but through this year I went to the 
 
110 ReCOLIiECTIONS 
 
 hardest fields and suffered many discomforts. However, 
 the Lord blessed my labors, and I found His over-ruling 
 providence equalized things, so that what I lost in the com- 
 forts of home, and the affections of the people in my pas- 
 torates, was made up to me in larger spiritual blessing. 
 
 During the year 1907 I v/orked under the direction of the 
 Board of Missions of the ISTorth Carolina Conference. The 
 Board paid me a salary of $1,600.00 out of which I paid my 
 traveling expenses and supported my family. I commenced 
 early in January and kept constantly at work through the 
 year, I dedicated two churches, and got another built that 
 year, besides founding one at Clarendon in Columbus 
 County. 
 
 I v/ill not go into detail of the work of the year. I counted 
 something over five hundred conversions, but I do not exactly 
 know how many were added to the church. I held meetings 
 from one end of the conference to the other; and most of 
 the places to which I was sent were mission fields ; some of 
 them were places in which nothing much could be done. I 
 held a meeting down on the Straits, in a community where 
 every woman and girl, and all the men but eleven, were 
 members of the church. These were converted and joined 
 the church. 
 
 There is one fact with regard to the Straits church, the 
 name of which is Springfield, I will mention because I have 
 never found anything like it anywhere. The Sunday School 
 raised all the finances, and everybody in the community is 
 in the Sunday School. Rev. M. W. Dargan was the pastor, 
 and he told me it was sometime after he got to the charge 
 before he found out how they did. He said to the leading 
 man there, a Brother Willis, that he wanted his Missionary 
 collection before the District Conference, which was held 
 at one of his churches that year. Brother Willis said to 
 him: "You can get your missionary money whenever you 
 
AND Observations 111 
 
 want it." Brother Dargan said nothing more about it then, 
 but just before his District Conference was to meet, he said 
 to Brother Willis : ''Well, it is time to take the collection 
 for missions." Brother Willis asked how much was the 
 assessment, and when he was told, he went to his safe and 
 counted out the amount. Brother Dargan said to him: 
 "Do jou pay all the collections yourself?" He answered: 
 "JSTo, we raise all our finances in the Sunday School, and 
 always have the money in hand to pay all demands on the 
 church." 
 
 I was told that when the treasury began to run low, they 
 would make a special effort, and get a large collection to 
 replenish it. It struck me as a remarkable financial plan. 
 They never took any collection in the church at any preach- 
 ing service for anything; but were careful to see that every- 
 body contributed through the Sunday School. They came 
 as near getting a contribution from every member of the 
 congTegation as any people I have ever known. I asked myself 
 the question, if that was not about as good a financial plan 
 as any I had ever known? I do not know that the plan is 
 still operated. They have built a nice new church there. 
 I was told they raised their finances in that way for that 
 purpose also. I state this fact, that it may be tried by any 
 church that may desire to test its efficacy. 
 
 Our Conference met in N^ew Bern in December, 1907. 
 I expected to continue in the same work, as the year had 
 been fruitful of results. But the Board of Missions dis- 
 continued my work. 
 
 I was appointed to St. John and Gibson charge for 1908. 
 My wife was still unable to go with me to my work, and we 
 continued to make our home in Greensboro. I went prompt- 
 ly to my work, and boarded at the hotel in Gibson. I rented 
 the parsonage out, and used every available means to get 
 along with my work under difficulties. The people were 
 
112 Recollections 
 
 kind and sympathized with me. In the summer, when my 
 wife had sufficiently recovered, she went down and spent 
 some time with me. I would go home to Greensboro every 
 three weeks. That v/as quite an additional expense and 
 worry, but it was the best I could do under the circumstancesL 
 Our Conference met in Durham in December, 1908, Bis- 
 hop A. W. Wilson, presiding. I was returned to St. John 
 and Gibson. Soon after conference, my wife having suffi- 
 ciently recovered, we moved to Gibson. We made arrange- 
 ments to have the parsonage, (which had stood for twenty- 
 five years withoiit any improvement), renovated and im- 
 proved generally. We had improved the condition of the 
 church the year before. But while the parsonage was being 
 renovated, I was taken sick. During the year 1907, I held 
 meetings during the summer in the malarial section, and 
 became poisoned by malaria. My sickness took the form 
 of nervous indigestion, and it affected my heart to such an 
 extent that my physicians thought I had an incurable form 
 of heart trouble. I struggled on until the middle of May, 
 and made every effort to get well. I went to the hospital 
 and spent three weeks, and to Jackson Springs for a couple 
 of weeks, and then returned to my work, hoping still that I 
 might be able to go on with my work. Not long after going 
 back to Gibson I had a sinking spell one day, and I thought 
 I was dying. Dr. W. T. Pate, my physician, thought that 
 I v/ould die if I did not give up work entirely, and believing 
 that my work was done, I phoned my Presiding Elder, Rev. 
 W. H. Moore, D. D., who lived in Rockingham, to come to 
 Gibson, and informed him that I must give up my work. 
 Pie. came, and with the co-operation of the Official Board 
 of the charge, it was arranged that the Rev. W. W. Peele, 
 who had been President of Rutherford College, but had 
 determined to enter the pastorate, should take the charge 
 for the remainder of the vear. I went back to Greensboro 
 
AND Observations 113 
 
 expecting to die. For about three months I continned in a 
 precarious state of health, but gradually recovered; and, 
 when Conference met at Raleigh that year, my physicians 
 gave me a certificate stating that I was over my trouble. 
 
 Our Conference met in Raleigh the latter part of Novem- 
 ber, 1909. Bishop A. W. Wilson presided. My Presiding 
 Elder said to me: "Your friends do not think you are as 
 well as you think you are." And when the appointments 
 were read, I was assigned to Pelham and Shady Grove, a 
 small charge on the railroad between Greensboro and Dan- 
 ville. Rev. S. F. Nicks was on that charge and had made 
 all his arrangements to go back, and was greatly disappointed 
 at the change, as were his people. They thought that I ex- 
 pected to reside in Greensboro, and go out and preach for 
 them. I thought, upon the supposition that I was a sick 
 man, the appointment was very unsuitable; and in view of 
 this, I wired the Bishop to allow Brother Nicks to remain 
 at Pelham and Shady Grove, and leave me without any 
 appointment for the year, which he kindly did. Being free 
 from pastoral v/ork, I went back in the evangelistic work, 
 and held a number of fine meetings that year. 
 
 It was sometime before I recovered my strength fully, 
 but my improvement was steady, and my recovery was 
 complete. 
 
 I had published a book on Spiritual Life, and as I owned 
 the plates, I had an edition of the work published and sold 
 it out rapidly. I wrote another book: "Early Morning 
 Scenes in the Bible," which was published by Fleming H. 
 Revell Company in New York, and I sold a thousand copies 
 of that in a short time, so with what I received from meet- 
 ings I was comfortable financially. 
 
 I came strong and well from the gates of death, fully de- 
 termined to do all I could to advance the Kingdom of God. 
 
 8 
 
114 Recollections 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 A FuKTHEE Account of My Evangelistic Work. 
 
 Our Conference met in Elizabeth City in the latter part 
 of November, 1910, Bishop E. R. Hendrix presiding. I 
 was re-elected Conference Evangelist, without salary, and 
 left to make my way as best I could. I held seventeen re- 
 vival meetings during the year, and received for my services 
 sufficient money to meet all my demands. I commenced my 
 meetings at South Mills, Camden County, on the 11th of 
 January, and wound up the year's work in a meeting at 
 Rockingham, Richmond County, ISTovember the 12th. This 
 was a year of hard work, but I was happy in the conscious- 
 aiess of the Divine presence, and in seeing souls converted, 
 and the church revived. 
 
 Our Conference met in Kinston the last week in Novem- 
 ber, 1911, Bishop E. E. Hoss presiding. I was again Con- 
 ference Evangelist. I held only ten revivals this year, but 
 some of them were fine revivals. 
 
 I went to New York this year, and spent a few days with 
 my nephew, F. W. Nash ; I also went to New York in 1910, 
 and arranged to have my book, "Early Morning Scenes in 
 the Bible" published; and on this last trip, I went to see 
 about enlarging the sale of it, and to consider some other 
 publications. 
 
 In 1912 our Conference met in Eayetteville, Bishop 
 Collins Denny presiding. I was continued in the evange- 
 listic work. I held meetings at seventeen places during the 
 year 1913, and we had good success at nearly all of them. 
 
 In 1913 our Conference met at Oxford, Bishop J. H. 
 McCoy presiding. I was continued in the evangelistic work 
 and held twelve revival meetings during the year, covering 
 
AND Observations 115 
 
 a large territory, and seeing many souls converted, and the 
 church greatly revived. I went back to some places where 
 I had been, and had greater success than when I first went. 
 I have now been in the work until it has become a fixture, 
 and the brethren whom I help, invariably desire my services 
 again ; and this keeps me employed through the spring, sum- 
 mer and fall. The one unpleasant feature about the work 
 is, it keeps me away from home a great part of my time, 
 but I am not annoyed with anything and have nothing to do 
 but study and preach the Word. 
 
 Our Conference for 1914 met in Washington, ]^. C, the 
 last week in IsTovember, Bishop R. G. Waterhouse presiding. 
 There was nothing of importance done at this Conference; 
 in fact, it was about the least eventful of any I remember 
 to have attended. I was continued in the evangelistic work, 
 and during the year 1915, I held ten excellent revivals, and 
 was better compensated for my services that at meetings I 
 had held in any year since I have been in this work. 
 
 I have never made the matter of compensation of first 
 consideration, I have left this to the free-will offerings of 
 the people; and have had no plan for securing large contri- 
 butions. Having seen in many instances, what appeared to 
 be an effort to make merchandise out of the gospel, I have 
 studioulsy avoided any such procedure. While the servant 
 is worthy of his hire, I do not believe in the efforts so often 
 made to work up large collections for the evangelist. While 
 on the subject, I will say, I do not believe the Holy Spirit 
 will bless any man who goes into the ministry from mer- 
 cenary motives. But as the Psalmist says : "And men will 
 praise thee when thou doest well to thyself." (Psalm 49-18). 
 Sometimes large collections are taken as an evidence of 
 great ability on the part of the evangelist, and these men 
 are praised because they have done well to themselves. 
 
116 Recollections 
 
 But the gospel demands sacrifice of all who would share 
 its benefits and saving power; and the evangelist is not an 
 exception to this rule. To know how to keep in the middle 
 way, and do the work of an evangelist as the Master would 
 have it done is a subject worthy of prayerful consideration. 
 It has ever been my object to do solid work, and leave the 
 church premanently benefited when I leave it. If the re- 
 vival influence goes away with the evangelist, he had better 
 never to have come. 
 
 Our Conference met in Wilmington in December, 1915, 
 Bishop John C. Kilgo presiding. I asked to be continued in 
 this work, and I am now looking forward to a good year. 
 I am writing these recollections in January, 1916, and if 
 I live longer I may add something more to these reminis- 
 cences in the future, but will rest on my recollections now^ 
 and state some thing in a general way, as to the progress of 
 the church during my connection with this Conference. 
 
AND ObSEKVATIONS 117 
 
 CHAPTEK XV. 
 
 The Pkogkess of Methodism in ISToeth Carolina Con- 
 ference IN Forty-three Years. 
 
 "WTieii I entered the ministry in 1872, the ISTorth Carolina 
 Conference covered the whole State, with the exception of 
 fifteen counties in the western part of the State, that were 
 in the Holston Conference, and ten counties in the Xorth 
 eastern section of the State that were in the Virginia Con- 
 ference. 
 
 The number of white members, including local preachers 
 in the Conference in 1872, was 48,452. At the Conference 
 in 1873 there were 49,137. At the Conference in 1874 
 there were 49,926. In 1875 the number had gone up to 
 53,971. In 1876, the year of the celebration of the first 
 Conference held in IN^orth Carolina, there were 56,052 ; a 
 net gain of 2,081. At the Conference of 1877, there were 
 58,624, a net gain of 2,592. At the Conference of 1878 
 there were 61,854, a net gain of 3,180. This was a pros- 
 perous year for the Conference. 
 
 At the Conference of 1879 there were 65,303, a net gain 
 of 3,449. At the Conference of 1880 there were 67,205, a 
 net gain of 2,002. At the Conference of 1881 there were 
 68,156, a gain of only 951 members. 
 
 That was the year of the election for State wide prohi- 
 bition. I do not know whether that had anything to do 
 with the small increase in members, but it is possible that 
 the efforts to close the saloons might have caused less earnest 
 revival work. 
 
 In 1882 there were in the !Rorth Carolina Conference 
 70,375 white members, an increase of 2,030, In 1884 there 
 were 75,121, an increase of 3,713. This was a year of in- 
 
118 Eecollections 
 
 gathering. In 1885 there were 77,721 white members, 
 showing an increase of 2,600. In 1886 there were 83,102, 
 an increase in net gain of 5,381. This was a year of pro- 
 gress. In 1887 there were 86,510, showing a net gain of 
 3,408. In 1888 there were 89,084, showing a net gain of 
 2,574. In 1889 there were 92,242, a net gain of 3,408. 
 
 At this session the Conference was divided, and the Wes- 
 tern ISTorth Carolina Conference was set off so that in 1890 
 we find the North Carolina Conference reporting only 52,- 
 895, and I have no data from which to show the increase of 
 membership for that year. In 1891 we had 55,734 mem- 
 bers, showing a net gain of 2,839. In 1892 we had 57,543, 
 showing a net gain of 1,807. Inl893 we had 57,908, show- 
 ing a net gain of only 365. There was some controversy 
 over the statistics that year, and it was thought that there 
 was an error somewhere, as the church seemed to have 
 enjoyed a good year. In 1894 there were 63,095 members 
 reported, a net increase of 5,087. This increase over 1893 
 gave evidence of some mistake ; but the figures stand as they 
 are given and we have no way of correcting them. In 1895 
 there was reported only 63,298, an increase of only 208 
 members. In 1896 there was reported a white membership 
 of 64,879, an increase of 1,581 members. In 1897 there 
 were 65,325, a net gain of 446. In 1898 there were 65,728, 
 a gain of only 403, In 1899 there were only 65,384 mem- 
 bers reported, showing a net loss of 344 members. In 1900 
 there were' 65,226, a net loss of 158 members. In 1901 
 there were 66,059 showing, a net gain of 833. In 1902 
 there were in the Conference 66,776 white members, show- 
 ing a net gain of 707 mmbers. In 1903 there was reported 
 in the Conference 67,541, a net gain of 875. In 1904 there 
 were 68,810 members, a net gain of 1,229 members. In 
 
 1905 there were 71,288 members, a net gain of 2,478. In 
 
 1906 there were 73,108 members, a net gain of 1,820 mem- 
 
AND Observations 119 
 
 bers. In 1907 there were 73,881 reported to the Confer- 
 ence, a net gain of only 771 members. In 1908 there were 
 74,548, a gain of 667 members. In 1909 there were 76,523, 
 a net gain of 975 members. In 1910 there were 78,187, a 
 gain of 2,664. This was the greatest increase in several 
 years. In 1911 there were 80,119 reported, showing an in- 
 crease of 1,932 members. In 1912 there were 82,213 re- 
 ported, showing an increase of 2,094. In 1913 there were 
 84,245 members reported to the Conference, an increase of 
 2,032 members. In 1914 there were 85,224 reported, show- 
 ing a net gain of 979. In 1915 there were 89,704, show- 
 ing a gain of 4,480. 
 
 Thns we see the progress of the Church in the North Caro- 
 lina Conference for forty-three years. The largest increase 
 of members was given in 1894 at 5,087. I think this large 
 increase in membership is to be attributed to the transfer 
 of territory from the Virginia Conference. In 1873 we had 
 in the whole of North Carolina Conference 48,452 white 
 members, including local preachers. In 1899, the year 
 the Conference divided, there were 89,084 members, show- 
 ing a net gain in seventeen years of 41,632 members. When 
 the Conference was divided the membership of the two Con- 
 ferences was nearly the same. The North Carolina Con- 
 ference had 52,875. We have gained in number in twenty- 
 five years 34,829 members. 
 
 The Western North Carolina Conference has gained in 
 members more rapidly than the North Carolina Conference 
 has. They reported 106,303 members in 1915; so we have 
 now in the two Conferences 196,007 members. The growth 
 as will be seen from the statistics has been gradual, but 
 steady; and shows an increase every year since 1872, except 
 two years. 
 
 Our system of keeping statistics is the most perfect of 
 
120 Recollections 
 
 any Church. The supervisor of the census says it is the 
 most reliable. 
 
 While we have much to be thankful for, there is large room 
 for improvement; and we ought to make more rapid prog- 
 ress. The increase of population in ISTorth Carolina is more 
 rapid than the increase in membership in the Methodist 
 Church ; and this ought not to be. The other churches in the 
 State have grown in numbers, some of them are making very 
 rapid strides ; but Methodism, with the best system of propo- 
 ganda, ought to outstrip all others. We need more love 
 for the Church, and more consecration on the part of minis- 
 ters and members. 
 
AisTD Observations 121 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Some Thoughts ox Evangelism. 
 
 The great work of the Church is the salvation of the world. 
 This is what real evangelism means ; and I have drawn some 
 thoughts from my experience and observation on this sub- 
 ject, which I will submit for what thej are worth with the 
 hope that they may do some good even when my work on 
 earth is done. 
 
 I will first speak of what I have seen of the work of the 
 Holy Spirit in revivals that I have witnessed. I have men- 
 tioned several extensive meetings already, but there are others 
 that I have not spoken of, that have in them lessons of instruc- 
 tion and encouragement. The means used, and the results 
 in these meetings are well worthy of consideration. Some of 
 these meetings that I have known, to which I shall refer, 
 were not held by me ; but I had the opportunity of knowing 
 the men and means employed in them. 
 
 In 1884, while I was on the Leasburg Circuit, there was 
 a revival of great power in the city of Danville, Virginia. 
 Rev. A. G. Brown was pastor, and he was assisted in the 
 meeting by a young preacher by the name of Howell. These 
 faithful men worked and prayed for three weeks before there 
 was any move among the people ; but as on the day of Pente- 
 cost suddenly there was a mighty awakening among the 
 people. Men and women flocked to the altar of prayer crying 
 for mercy. The work was not confined to the church, but 
 men were converted in the warehouses, where tobacco was 
 being sold. The whole city was stirred as it never was 
 before, and hundreds were converted and joined the church. 
 The meeting was held in Main Street Methodist Church in 
 Danville. Two vears after this meeting I assisted Rev. W. 
 
l22 Recollections 
 
 G. Starr, D. D., in a meeting there, and I was told much 
 about the great revival. 
 
 They have had many meetings in Danville since, but I 
 have not heard of any such results. Rev. Sam Jones held 
 meetings there that were very largely attended, and I have 
 no doubt did good ; but there was quite a difference in abid- 
 ing results between his meetings and the revival to which 
 I have alluded. 
 
 In 1890, while I was stationed in Raleigh, I went to War- 
 renton, ]S[. C, to help Rev. J. IST. Cole in a meeting. He and 
 his presiding elder and his church had been working and 
 praying for a revival for about three weeks, and when I 
 went everything was ready for a great revival, and there 
 was an outpouring of the Spirit of God that revolutionized 
 the town. The merchants closed their stores, and the whole 
 town attended the meeting. Brother Cole told me that he 
 could pick out of the converts in that meeting one of the 
 finest offcial boards he had ever seen. 
 
 That revival built the new brick church in Warrenton and 
 made the town, which always had a high-class of citizens in 
 it, one of the most religious towns in the State. Rev. R. 
 O. Burton, D. D., was with us in the meeting, and I heard 
 him say in a sermon preached one Sunday afternoon: "I 
 have been preaching in Warrenton ever since I was a boy, 
 and I have never seen Warrenton stirred as it is now. This 
 is the day of your visitation." The old doctor prayed with 
 a power I have never heard equaled. 
 
 I state these cases to show the difference between a re- 
 vival of religion and a religious revival. There was no news- 
 paper advertising, or great organizing in these meetings ; but 
 there was much earnest praying, both by the preachers and 
 the people. I do not condemn advertising or organization, 
 but I fear it is too often the case that these means are relied 
 
AND Observations 123 
 
 on to such an extent that complete reliance on the Holy 
 Spirit is neglected. 
 
 Great revivals of religion are of the type of Pentecost. 
 They result from the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit; and 
 I am fully persuaded that the means that were used at the 
 beginning of this dispensation will result in the awakening 
 and conversion of men now as it did then. 
 
 I am not pessimistic; but I fear that we are too often 
 content with a great blare of trumpets and large prepera- 
 tion and much advertising of notable men, and do not hum- 
 bly seek and depend upon the mighty energy of the Spirit 
 of God as we should. Genuine religion underlies all perma- 
 nent human progress. The State depends for its continued 
 existence upon the indwelling power of God in the people. 
 The history of the human race teaches this lesson, and 
 if we ever reach the time when religion only serves to deco- 
 rate a corpse and guild a sepulchre without imparting the 
 life of God to the human soul and kindling with in it the 
 blessed hope of everlasting life, the Church and State will 
 sink into decay and die. 
 
 It has been truly said: "The greatness of the founder 
 of Christianity is conspicuously shown in His passing by 
 social institutions as of minor and inconsiderable importance, 
 and fastening His claims upon the individual. The reform 
 of personal character was His one aim; with Him the man 
 was great and the institution small. There was but one way 
 with Him for making a good society, and that was by the 
 purification of its individual materials, . . . No good society 
 can possibly be made out of bad materials, and when the 
 materials are made good, society takes a good form nat- 
 urally, as pure salt makes its perfect crystal without super- 
 intendence." — (Dr. J. G. Holland in Every Day Topics.) 
 
 We can never save the world en masse. The work must 
 be done by the regeneration of the individual; and the ef- 
 
124 Recollections 
 
 fort to get the whole population to hear the famous evange- 
 list and to create a popular revival will not succeed in the 
 regeneration of men, like the faithfulness of the old time 
 revival, in which the Holy Spirit has the right of way, un- 
 hindered by having the minds of the people turned to the 
 popular human instrument, be that instrument ever so good 
 and well qualified. 
 
 Our humanity is so weak that it is very easy for us to 
 think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Even 
 Paul needed a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to 
 buffet him lest he be exalted above measure through the 
 abundance of revelations that were made to him. 
 
 So much for the human instrumentality that God employs 
 to carry on the work of saving the souls of men. The 
 means to be used are worthy of careful consideration. The 
 preaching of the truth is the essential thing in the hands of 
 the Spirit of God. Doctrinal preaching, that is the preach- 
 ing of the great fundamental doctrines of the gospel, is neces- 
 sary to save the individual and the world. All permanent 
 revival work must be based on sound gospel truth. Some 
 men have said that they loved religion, but hated theology; 
 but theology is the knowledge of God ; and how can a knowl- 
 edge of God be contrary or opposed to religion ? Or how can 
 there be any true religion without a knowledge of God ? 
 
 The Holy Spirit has no other instrument with which to 
 work but the truth, explaining man'^ relation to God and 
 God's relation to man. Theology is a scientific explanation 
 of these relations as far as the human mind and heart 
 can understand them. 
 
 It seems to me that a superficial knowledge of theology 
 is the bane of our modern evangelism. It is this that 
 leads to a superficial conversion that is moved by a repent- 
 ance without sorrow, a faith without trust, and an atone- 
 
AND Observations 125 
 
 ment without blood, to a formal acceptance of Christ with- 
 out any conscious knowledge of the forgiveness of sin, or 
 supernatural hope of heaven and eternal life. We are in- 
 clined in these times to undervalue emotion ; but when the 
 great change wrought in the soul by the regenerating power 
 of the Holy Spirit takes place the emotions will be power- 
 fully moved, and there will be something more than a still 
 spiritual birth. John Wesley was a calm, logical man, but 
 when he realized that he was saved, he tells us : "I felt my 
 heart strangely warmed ;" and immediately he began to pray 
 as he never had done and especially for any who had treated 
 him unkindly. 
 
 A careful comparison of the statistics given in these recol- 
 lections will show a larger per cent, of additions to the 
 church from year to year vmder our old methods of holding 
 revivals than under the new. Vv^e are too often carried away 
 by the idolatry of numbers; but the permanent growth of 
 the church is secured by solid, faithful work in a greater 
 measure than by a superficial method that counts all who 
 will manifest their acceptance of Christ Vv^ithout deep con- 
 viction and conscious regeneration by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 There may be a short lived reformation without the old 
 fashioned awakening and conversion, but the work is not 
 abiding. There is another evil grov/ing out of this hurry 
 up process in v/hich the human instumentality is the most 
 prominent feature, and that is the danger of filling the 
 church with an unconverted membership that cares nothing 
 for the most solemn vows, or the requirements of church 
 discipline. 
 
 There will be, I fully believe, in the near future a wonder- 
 ful outpouring of the Spirit of God. It will be Pene- 
 costal in character, just as all great revivals have been since 
 the day the Holy Spirit came upon the hundred and twenty 
 disciples, when the day of Pentecost had fully come. It will 
 
126 Recollections 
 
 be a revival of genuine religion and not a religious revival 
 brought about by modern evangelistic methods. We have 
 not improved upon the methods of John Wesley and his 
 comrades. I believe if the Methodist Church had adherred 
 to the old plans and to the discipline of Wesley we would 
 have conqured the world ; but we have, in large measure, 
 abandoned our methods for the new forms of evangelism, 
 and the result is, we have lost much of our power and crip- 
 pled our efforts in the work of soul-saving. 
 
 There is a word that has come into use that has taken 
 the place of religion in a large measure, that is earth-born, 
 but high sounding, it is the word "altruism." It serves as 
 a cloak to warm the modern church worker and to satisfy 
 him for a time in the delusive hope that he may be a saved 
 man without any inward assurance of the forgiveness of sins, 
 or any satisfactory assurance of heaven and eternal life. It 
 introduces a species of sociology in which there is much 
 cordial co-operation of human beings who are destitute of 
 the experience so rigidly required by Christ and His apostles. 
 It frequently scouts the doctrine of atonement for sin and 
 of reconciliation with God. It not unfrequently denies the 
 necessity for propitiation and declares that God never de- 
 mands any satisfaction for His broken law, and denies that 
 God is even angry at sin. 
 
 But the old truths of the gospel are with us and they 
 are still working like the little leaven that a woman hid 
 in three measures of meal and by and by there will come 
 to the world a God consciousness that will lift humanity to 
 a higher plane than it has yet reached. Well may we look 
 forward to a mighty manifestation of God to follow a period 
 without a parallel of bloodshed and carnage such as is now 
 devastating a great part of the world, and leaving in its 
 wake suffering nearly equalling that when Jerusalem was 
 
AiNTD Observations 127 
 
 destroyed, and human sorrow reached its climax in the his- 
 tory of our world. 
 
 Great spiritual awakenings have ever followed great revo- 
 lutions among men ; and the reaction from this revolutionary 
 period will no doubt bring to an awakening world a better 
 knowledge of God and of divine things. The God of provi- 
 dence is the God of grace; and He will let no evil come to 
 the world beyond His control ; His grace can bring good out 
 of every form of evil, and His almighty power can make a 
 world devastated by war and baptized in blood once again 
 rejoice in the blessedness of peace, of human happiness 
 and prosperity. We must depend for the accomplishment 
 of this great work upon Him to whom all power in heaven 
 and earth belongs, and who has promised to be with His 
 church to the end of time. 
 
128 Recollections 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 Our Schools and Colleges. 
 
 Yv^en I entered the ministry in the aSTorth Carolina Con- 
 ference our educational facilities were limited. Trinity Col- 
 lege at Trinity in Kandolph County, was struggling for ex- 
 istence. Dr. Craven, the President, and real founder of 
 Trinity College was our greatest asset. He was doing mag- 
 nificent work for Church and State. The institution was 
 without either endowment or proper equipment ; but Trinity 
 was turning out men who were making their mark on the 
 life of the Church and State. Too much can hardly be said 
 in praise of Dr. Craven and his faithful co-workers. 
 
 And yet there were those v/ho did not fully appreciate 
 the work of these faithful men, and instead of helping them 
 weakend their hands by unkind criticism. But they went 
 forward with heroic courage, and served their generation 
 faithfully; and left an undying monument to their efforts 
 to impart true Christian education to the young men of 
 their day, and to uphold true Christian ideals which resulted 
 in the betterment of the Church and State. 
 
 After the death of Dr. Craven, Rev. M. L. Wood, D. D., 
 was for a short time president of the college. Dr. Wood 
 was a ffood solid man. He SDent nine years in the mis- 
 sion field of China ; having lost his wife there, he returned 
 with his little children to his home land. He resigned the 
 presidency of the college after a short time of service there 
 and went back into the presiding eldership and pastorate. 
 He died pastor of St. John and Gibson charge, with the har- 
 ness on, and did faithful work to the last. 
 
 The next President of Trinity was Dr. John Franklin 
 Crowell. While he was president of the college steps were 
 taken to move the college to some commercial center. The 
 Board of Trustees agreed that with the approval of the 
 
AND Observations 12S 
 
 North Carolina Conference thej would move the college if 
 as good grounds and buildings were given in some more 
 populous center. At the Conference in Greensboro in 
 1889 there v/as a proposition made by the citizens of Raleigh 
 to give grounds and buildings equal in value to those of 
 Trinity. I was active in getting the citizens of Raleigh to 
 make this offer. Dr. Crowell came and spent a week with 
 me, and we had a meeting of the citizens, and canvassed 
 the city, and secured the donations that were offered the 
 Conference. After Raleigh had been agreed upon as the 
 location for the college, Brother Washington Duke said: 
 "If the Conference will locate Trinity College at Durham 
 I will give as much towards securing grounds and buildings 
 as Raleigh has offered and $50,000.00 to the endowment 
 (Raleigh had raised $35,000.00 and Mr. Duke's offer was 
 $85,000.00.) Some of our people in Raleigh asked me what 
 I thought of the Durham proposition; for the citizens of 
 Durham added $75,000.00 more to Mr. Duke's offer. I 
 advised them to send a committee to Durham with the propo- 
 sition to give them the college if they would do what it 
 was reported they would do. The committee went up and 
 made the proposition, and Raleigh surrendered the insti- 
 tution to Durham in the interest of Christian educationj 
 believing that Durham had offered more than we could possi- 
 bly raise in Raleigh. This action on the part of the citizens 
 of Raleigh was magnanimous; and I never heard of but 
 one protest against it, and that was from one of our largest 
 contributors, the late Major R. S. Tucker. I do not think: 
 he was ever reconciled to our giving up the college to Dur- 
 ham. The late Stanhope Pullen, who was another large 
 subscriber, said : "They have offered more than we can give 
 and I do not think we ought to stand in the way of the 
 college getting the largest gifts it can get." Raleigh gave 
 
 9 
 
130 Eecollectio^s's 
 
 the college to Durham under those circumstances. This 
 is a true account of the removal of Trinity College. 
 
 Dr. Crowell remained president for a few years, and 
 resigned. He was a competent college man ; but he was 
 a Northern man, and never fully understood the genius of 
 our Southern people. He never became a member of our 
 church, or Conference, as far as I know. 
 
 After Dr. Crowell resigned Kev. John Carlisle Kilgo be- 
 came the president, and with his eloquence and activity^ 
 Trinity began to make a decided impression on the State 
 and Church. Some things transpired that were much re- 
 gretted by all the lovers of the college and the Church; 
 but in spite of these. Dr. Kilgo kept his hold upon the 
 Conference and the college, until he was elected Bishop by 
 the General Conference which met in Asheville in 1910. Dr. 
 Kilgo secured large donations from the Duke family; and 
 when he retired from the presidency of the college, he 
 left it the most largely endowed and best equipped insti- 
 tution we have in the Southern Methodist Church. Through 
 the beneficence of its patron family. Trinity has grown rich 
 in equipment and endowment. At the Conference of 1915 
 the value of property belonging to Trinity College was 
 reported at $1,196,924 with an endowment of $1,593,750. 
 I suppose there is no institution among us that has sur- 
 passed Trinity College in material growth and financial 
 prosperity, and all this has been accomplished within this 
 generation. 
 
 When I entered the ministry Dr. E. L. Abernathy was the 
 President of Kutherford College. This institution was strug- 
 gling along without means, but it was doing a great work. 
 I was told that during the time that Dr. Abernethy was presi- 
 dent there were ten thousand young men and women edu- 
 cated in whole or part by that institution. The Abernathy 
 family did the teaching; and they were all good teachers 
 
AND Observations 131 
 
 and intellectual men. The work they did entitles them 
 to the grateful remembrance of the Church and State. 
 
 Greensboro Female College was just rising from the ashes, 
 and great efforts were being made to resuscitate that cher- 
 ished institution when I first began my ministry. This 
 honored institution had already blessed hundreds of homes 
 with cultured, refined, pious women ; and after many vicissi- 
 tudes it stands today the brightest gem among the colleges 
 for women in North Carolina. 
 
 Davenport Female College was doing a good work for 
 female education also, and Littleton College came into being, 
 and has for a number of years been blessing the State by 
 sending from its halls consecrated, well trained young wo- 
 men under the faithful presidency of Rev. J. M. Rhodes. 
 
 While I was stationed in Raleigh Prof. S. D. Bagley was 
 president of Louisburg Female College. I got a letter from 
 him one day asking me to come to Louisburg on the next train 
 without fail. I could not imagine what he wanted ; but having 
 been his pastor for four years, and knowing him well, I knew 
 there must be something of importance, or he would not 
 urge me to come to him at once. I went and found that 
 the Louisburg College was about to go out of his hands, 
 and the hands of the Church ; but if $5,000.00 could be 
 raised the property might be saved to the Church, He 
 wanted me to find some one who would buy the college 
 for the Church. I went to see Brother Washington Duke 
 and finally got him to go down with me to see the property. 
 He did so and bought it and held it for a few years, and 
 then deeded it to the Church. There we have a good school 
 doing fine work, the donation of the man who did more 
 in a financial way to build institutions of learning than 
 any other man who has ever lived in IS^orth Carolina. 
 
 There are many other things I might say about our schools 
 and colleo;es since I have been connected with the Confer- 
 
132 Recollections 
 
 ence; but I will only speak of a few things that have oc- 
 curred during my ministry in a general way touching our 
 educational efforts. 
 
 It was about the beginning of my ministry that the Church 
 was just beginning to found a university. The attention 
 of the general Church, under the leadership of Bishop Mc- 
 Tyeire was being turned to Central University. Some money 
 was being raised for this institution, when Dr. C. F. Deems, 
 who had established himself as pastor of the Church of the 
 Stangers in New York City interested Commodore Vander- 
 bilt in the enterprise. He was the pastor of the wife of 
 Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was one of the 
 wealthiest men in the country. In addition to this fact, 
 Commodore Vanderbilt's wife was a cousin of Mrs. Mc- 
 Tyeire, and in this way Vanderbilt became interested in 
 the enterprise to build this Central University. He gave 
 Bishop McTyeire one million dollars to enable him to carry 
 out his enterprise. I remember the circumstances, and I 
 know it was the purpose of Bishop McTyeire and of Cor- 
 nelius Vanderbilt to found this University for the Southern 
 Methodist Church, and for forty years no one ever thought 
 of Vanderbilt except as the property of and under the con- 
 trol of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Church 
 appointed the Board of Trustees, and had control of the 
 institution without any question as to her ownership. But 
 it came to pass that some one found a technicality in the 
 articles of incorporation that gave color to the contention 
 that the Board of Trustees had a right to control the Uni- 
 versity independently of the Church ; and the men who had 
 been entrusted by the Church with this interest, took ad- 
 vantage of the technicality and refused to allow the Church 
 to control her property. The matter was taken into the 
 courts and it seems that the court of last resort in Tennes- 
 see felt itself justified in ignoring all questions of equity, 
 
AND Observations 133 
 
 and in giving the Board of Trustees, the servants of the 
 Church, the right to take this property from its rightful 
 owners and to use and control it to suit themselves. The 
 Church gave it up, being turned out of an institution that 
 she had built and fostered for forty years. She proceeded 
 to build two other universities, one at Atlanta, Ga. The 
 Emory University, and one at Dallas, Texas, the Southern 
 Methodist University; and these institutions are coming to 
 the front at this writing by leaps and bounds. Surely God 
 can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder 
 he can restrain. 
 
 There is one other worthy institution of our Church, which 
 I failed to notice that is eminently worthy of a word of 
 commendation; and that is Carolina College, the youngest 
 of our colleges. It is located at Maxton, N. C, and it is 
 presided over by an excellent man. Rev. S. E. Mercer. This 
 institution bids fair to become a great blessing to the sec- 
 tion of the State in which it is situated. 
 
 If the Church can continue to go forward with her insti- 
 tutions of learning in the future as she has in the past, we 
 have no fear that she will be driven out of the field of 
 education, either by State schools or by the independent insti- 
 tutions, which wish to throw off all control either from 
 Church or State; for this spirit of independence in educa- 
 tion is as inimical to State controlled institutions as it 
 is to those institutions built and controlled by the Church. 
 This is a fact that is generally overlooked; for the State 
 very properly controls her educational system; and these 
 institutions that are neither controlled by Church nor State, 
 are a hybred species. 
 
134 Kecollections 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Pkogkess of ISToeth Carolina in Forty-theee Yeaks. 
 
 I have spoken of the progress of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South, in North Carolina during the period, of my 
 ministry in the State, and it may be of interest to speak of 
 the progress of the State during that period. For I entered 
 the ministry here soon after the War Between the States, 
 when the whole Southland was just beginning to rise phoenix 
 like from the conflagration of war that devasted this fair 
 land. 
 
 At that time there were no electric lights to brighten our 
 cities or our homes. The telephone had not been invented, 
 and the automobile had not been thought of in any practical 
 way. The system of railroads at that day would bear no 
 comparison to the wonderful moving palaces of the present 
 time; and in this State there were only a few lines running 
 through the State. My first charge was nearly fifty miles 
 from the nearest railroad. 
 
 The farming industry was in its infancy, compared to 
 what it is today, and the homes of our people were in a 
 large measure destitute of the conveniences w^e have today. 
 The poor of this generation enjoy comforts that the rich did 
 not have then. Time would fail me to speak of the phy- 
 sical improvements that have come to this State and to 
 whole country since 1872. The world has gone forward in 
 improvements that make life more enjoyable. 
 
 The educational facilities operated by the State in her 
 public school system have brought the opportunity of an 
 education within reach of all the people; and the old field 
 log school house is almost entirely forgotten. In every town 
 of any size we have graded school buildings that •will com- 
 pare favorably with the college buildings of the better class 
 
AND Observations 135 
 
 forty years ago. Our towns have sprung up like magic; 
 many of them were nothing more than cross road villages 
 then, the home of the proverbial cross roads whiskey saloon 
 as they were popularly called cross roads '^doggeries." 
 
 I have not the statistics at hand to give the exact figures, 
 but I am quite sure the State has doubled her population 
 since then; and where we have a little more than two mil- 
 lions of inhabitants now, we did not have a million then. As 
 I look back on this good old State which has been the field 
 of my life work, I rejoice at the goodness of God shown to 
 this greatly blessed land, and I pray for a continuance of His 
 goodness to this people whom He has always blessed with 
 peculiar blessings and loving kindness. 
 
 Should the world stand so long, and th*^, blessings of 
 peace still be our heritage, what will North Carolina be 
 in 1956 ? We have often thought that human ingenuity 
 had reached the limit ; but when we were ready to sit down 
 and say we can go no further, now that from our homes we 
 may talk to our friends miles away, wireless telegraphy 
 steps in and send its messages upon the air in every direc- 
 tion, and by its aid we talk around the world. When 
 the first telegraphic message was sent from Washingtoii 
 City to Baltimore, I heard an old Methodist Bishop say 
 he was present, and he exclaimed : ''Can the angels beat 
 that ?" But were he here now he would see that the genius 
 of man has beaten it. 
 
 Forty years ago no one believed it hardly possible tliat 
 man would ever fly in a heavier than air machine, and did 
 not conceive of a balloon that could be controlled, and navi- 
 gated in the air like a ship in the sea. But the air is full 
 of all kinds of air craft today; and the pity of it all is 
 they are used to destroy property and kill people. For we 
 are turning the inventions of genuis into machines of desruc- 
 tion to increase the sorrow of humanity, to blast the beauties 
 
186 Eecollections 
 
 of nature, and to insult the Giver of every blessing by abus- 
 ing His gifts. 
 
 The world had hoped that the inventive genius of man 
 had by his discovery of engines of destruction, made the 
 idea of war so horrible that the nations would never again 
 compact themselves into armies and go forth to kill their 
 fellow men until a pall of mourning should hang over the 
 homes of the .people while the grass was being drowned in 
 human blood. But alas there has arisen a godless culture, 
 spelled with a K that lias blasted these hopes, and is carry- 
 ing on the biggest sacrifice of human life the world has ever 
 known. As we stand in the midst of this arena and behold 
 the world on fire with diabolic rage, we pause to ask, "What 
 19 the end to be?" The storm has not reached us yet; but 
 who knows how soon it may burst upon us with all its fury. 
 We have one consolation, our Lord has foretold it all, and 
 said, "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom 
 against kingdom; and there shall be famines and pestilences 
 and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the begin- 
 ning o£ sorrows." (Matt. 24:7, 8.) If these are only the 
 beginning of sorrows, what must there be still in store for 
 the sinful world? But our Lord says to us: "See that ye be 
 not troubled; for all things must come to pass, but the end 
 is not yet." (Matt. 24:6.) Who can tell what a day may 
 bring forth ? Even as we count the blessings God has be- 
 stowed upon us, how careful ought we to be that we may be 
 ready to give an account of our stewardship to our ]\Iaker at 
 any time ? For we know not the day nor the hour when we 
 may be called to account. 
 
 After all these years of study and experience, and amidst 
 the scenes of life so familiar to me, I find but one sure 
 refuge; in the overruling providence and almighty power 
 of God, there still remains a sure retreat. He has said, "I 
 
AND Observations 137 
 
 will never leave thee, nor forsake thee;" and to this refuge 
 I would point the people of this good land at this time of 
 changing scenes, and great national crises that may at any 
 time alter the map of the world, and bring the most won- 
 derful and unexpected national upheavels. 
 
138 Recollections 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Things That Abide. 
 
 As I come to the close of these Recollections and Observa- 
 tions and think of the changes I have seen during my life 
 time, I am reminded of the things that change not. No 
 doubt St. Paul w^as impressed with the immutable nature of 
 them when he wrote: "And now abideth faith, hope, love, 
 these three; but the greatest of these is love." (I Cor. 13:- 
 
 13.) 
 
 Generations may come and go ; nations may rise and fall ; 
 the discoveries of science may change the trend of human 
 thought so that the teachings of the schools in one genera- 
 tion may be laid aside in the next; and the customs and 
 habits of men may assume new forms; but the great truths 
 of the Gospel and the deep experiences of the human soul, 
 under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit remain the same. 
 
 There are not many things that we can know to be cer- 
 tainly, and abidingly true, apart from the unchanging truths 
 of God; these we may certainly know; these experiences 
 of the soul are positive, and are the things we may cer- 
 tainly know with all the assurance of consciousness; and 
 consciousness is the highest tribunal. And this absolute 
 knowledge of divine things, after all, is the glory of Chris- 
 tianity. Without this knowledge Christianity would sink 
 to the level of the other religions of the world, and leave 
 the human mind and heart in a state of uncertainty on the 
 most momentous questions of life. The experience of Chris- 
 tians — those who have known God in the forgiveness of 
 sin, and in the spiritual regeneration of the soul — ^has been 
 the same in all the ages since the day of Pentecost. The 
 apostles of Christ preached a positive gospel; this is espe- 
 
AND Observations 139 
 
 cially true of St. John and St. Paul. There was no note of 
 uncertainty in their utterances. 
 
 The poet says in the spirit of pessimism, ''We know not 
 anything," but it is not the note in which the apostles wrote. 
 St. John says : ''We know that whatsoever is begotten of 
 
 God sinneth not We know that we are of God, 
 
 and the whole world lieth in the evil one We know 
 
 that the Son of God is come." (I John V:18-20.) He 
 reiterates "We know" three times over. There may have 
 been some things about which John would have confessed 
 himself ignorant, but there were things of which he was 
 absolutely certain — I repeat absolutely certain and sure. Look 
 at his language, it is provocative in its calm dogmatism. He 
 does not say "we suppose", "we think", "we hope", "we 
 should like to believe," but "we know, vv-e know, we know." 
 This is the genuine Christian note ; the ring of a steady and 
 serene conviction of an abiding truth. These apostles spoke 
 as men sure of their ground, who had set their feet upon a 
 rock, and were sure of their footing amid the changing scenes 
 of time. 
 
 After all these years of trials and experiences, I am ready 
 to say, "I know these truths ; and I can calmly trust God 
 for time and eternity to fulfil all His gracious promises." 
 I came into this knowledge when I became fully conscious 
 of the terrible fact of sin, and experienced forgiveness. More 
 than forty years of study and effort to keep up with the 
 trend of thought does not shake in the least the great 
 experience of salvation. These are the things that abide. 
 Everything that we know in this world is subject to change; 
 and we are told that the voice of God shook the earth : 
 "But now he hath promised, saying, yet once more, I shake 
 not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet 
 once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are 
 
140 Recollections 
 
 shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which 
 cannot be shaken may remain." (Heb. 12:26, 27.) 
 
 The immovable unchanging things that cannot be shaken 
 are the spiritual things that belong to the Kingdom of God. 
 They, like the Author and finisher of faith, are the same 
 yesterday, today and forever. 
 
 When we are rooted and grounded in an experimental 
 knowledge of divine things we are not driven about by every 
 wind of doctrine. We need to know that something is true, 
 and abiding, and the work of the spirit of truth upon our 
 spiritual nature, gives this knowledge, and with it comes 
 the assurance that, though the heavens and the earth pass 
 away, the Word of our Lord shall not pass away. 
 
 This abiding experience of divine things is founded on 
 a clear conception of sin and forgiveness. The doctrine of 
 justification by faith in Christ is fundamental. This doc- 
 trine goes hand in hand with the firm belief in a triune 
 deity; for wherever there is lack of faith in the Trinity in 
 Unity, there will be uncertainty on almost every important 
 fact in human experience. The man who says I am not 
 a Unitarian, and I am not certain that I believe in the 
 Trinity, must of necessity have a fragmentary theology, and 
 an unsatisfactory foundation on which to stand. He may 
 be the devotee of a system of ethics ; but there must of 
 necessity be a feeling of uncertainty, and a want of steadi- 
 ness in his foundation of belief that will lack assurance of 
 abiding capacity, such as is really necessary to give him 
 assurance of abiding steadfastness. 
 
 The spiritual experiences we possess here will abide with 
 us when we leave this world of shadows and come into the 
 pure light of that eternal world, where we shall see as we 
 are seen, and know as we are kno^vn. There are yet un- 
 revealed things that the child of God does not possess; 
 but they cannot be contrary to the spiritual inheritance he 
 
AND Observations 141 
 
 now lias. While like St. John he may be constrained to say : 
 "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet 
 appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall 
 appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 
 (I John 3:2.) While there are things in store for the true 
 disciple of Christ that he may not fully comprehend, yet 
 he knows that they are of like nature with his present posses- 
 sion; and in this assurance he abides in the full confidence 
 of having received the first fruits of the spirit — an earnest 
 of the full inheritance in store for him. 
 
 Here we walk by faith, not by sight; but "Faith is the 
 substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things un- 
 seen;" and is not simply an unaided effort of the mind, 
 grappling helplessly with the great problems of being, like 
 the infant crying in the night whose existence is found alone 
 in the poetic imagination of unbelief. Faith is humble reli- 
 ance on God, who through this door of the human soul, comes in 
 to shed light and joy on the spiritual nature of man. The 
 beautiful poem o*f John G. Whittier gives a graphic descrip- 
 tion of faith and the blessings it brings to the soul : 
 
 "I bow my forehead in the dust, 
 
 1 veil mine eyes for shame, 
 And urge, in trembling self distrust, 
 
 A prayer without a claim. 
 No offering of mine own I have, 
 
 No works my faith to prove; 
 I can but give the gifts He gave. 
 
 And plead His love for love! 
 
 "I dimly guess, from blessing known, 
 Of greater out of sight ; 
 And with the chastened psalmist, own 
 His judgments, too, are right. 
 
142 Recollections and Observations 
 
 And if my heart and flesh are weak 
 
 To bear an untried pain, 
 The bruised reed He will not break, 
 » But strengthen and sustain. 
 
 ''I know not v/hat the future hath 
 
 Of marvel or surprise, 
 Assured alone that life and death 
 
 His mercy underlies. 
 And so beside the silent sea 
 
 I wait the muffled oar : 
 JSTo harm from Him can come to me 
 
 On ocean or on shore. 
 
 "I know not where His islands lift 
 
 Their fronded palms in air; 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 
 Beyond His love and care." 
 
 These experiences and hopes are things that abide as 
 an unfailing treasure of the human soul ; and in their en- 
 joyment the Christian has an inheritance, even in this pres- 
 ent life that is incorruptible and that fadeth not av/ay. 
 
 May all who read these Recollections and Observations 
 inherit this unfailing treasure of heavenly riches. 
 
DATE Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Div.S. 922.7 N251 c.3 453719 
 
H1720 1-29200 
 
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