tvbrarjp of trhe tlveolo^ical ^tmimxy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY • PRESENTED BY Rufus H. LeFevre M-3^' Dayton, Ohio All Rights Reserved, 1907 W. R. FanK, Publisher Ta ttT8 TOcmlxcrslTip of tire Qlhurcl) of the ^Xnitsri ^vKtUttn in ©trrist and tn all tlTOSE mlra hauB exalted tire (Saspel of glesus QThrist as tire Irtjgtiest calling; but rspeciallg to those ujIto, obedient to tire Waster's call, baue gone into mission fields is this uolume respectftxilg dedicated b» the author 10$ PREFACE The influence and far-reaching results of over a half century of ministerial life and service are beyond human computation. A ministerial career spanning the last half of the preceding century, so wonderful, as it was, in its events, growth, and achievements, must necessarily command special attention. By reason of his faithful service, fruitful activity, great sacrifices, and generous contributions to the Church, the author of "Fifty- five Years of Ministerial Life" has been qualified to present to the public a volume full of information and interest. The life of Ex-Bishop Flickinger parallels the entire history of the missionary operations of the United Brethren Church in the foreign field. He was one of the three who planted our first mission on the West Coast of Africa, with which he was associated about fifty years. Dr. Flickinger possibly stands without a peer in many points of consecration to the African mission. Like St. Paul, it burdened his heart as a debt he owed to the Greeks and barbarians ; hence he threw all the energies of his being into the missionary enterprise, in the midst of the embarrassing and trying period of its early strug- gles. With graphic description, interspersed with enlivening humor and spicy anecdote, the author recounts the early experiences of the Missionary Society, its fortunes during the Civil War, and the difficulty of maintaining and prosecuting missionary work during the succeeding period of financial depression. The reader will be glad to follow one who crossed the ocean twenty- four times, and who figured in the forefront of our home and foreign missionary work for half a century. The modesty with which the author refers to his own labors and gifts to the colleges and other institutions of the Church, gives merit to this book, which enriches the biographical liter- ature of the denomination. G. M. Mathews. Chicago. Illinois. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. 1850-51 — First Circuit — Local Preachers — Surprised the Quar- terly Conference 17 CHAPTER II. 1851-52 — Education — Changing the Hour for Service — Whisky in the Harvest Field^Camp-Meeting 22 CHAPTER III. 1852-53 — Traveling — Colporteur Experiem os in Cincinnati 27 CHAPTER IV. 1853-54 — Junior Preacher — Revivals — Holiness People 31 CHAPTER V. 1854—55 — Pastor in Dayton — Answers "Yes" to the Missionary Call — Goes to Africa — Explores the Country 34 CHAPTER VI. 1855-56 — In Africa — Given ITp to Die — Returns to America — Soliciting From "Nigger" Haters 38 CHAPTER VII. 1856-57 — Pastor of a Mission Church — Sent to Africa— Seasick- ness — Secures Mission Site— Elected Missionary Secretary.. 43 CHAPTER VIII. 1857-58 — Disappointing the Doctors — Lecturing in German at a Pennsylvania Camp-Meeting — An Experience — Saving . the < 'rt'dit of the Missionary Society 48 CHAPTER IX. 1858-59 — Dealing With the Annual Couferences — Hardest Work — Spirit of the South — Some Incidents 63 CHAPTER X. 1859-60 — Hard Times — An Incident — Missionary Telescope — The Bishop Severe 58 CHAPTER XI. 1860-61 — Lecturing on Missions — Great Success in the Frontier "White-Man Fashion" — Throwing the Teacher 62 CHAPTER XII. 1861-62 — Goes to Freetown — Dealing With English Law^-Anti- Slavery Money — Drunken Captain — Encounters a Gale 66 CHAPTER XIII. 1862-63 — Civil War — Threaten the Abolitionist Preacher — Authorize Work Among the Freedmen — Visit to President Lincoln 71 CHAPTER XIV. 1863-64 — Opening a School at Vicksburg — Miss Dickey — Subse- quent Fate of Vicksburg Mission 75 CHAPTER XV. 1864-65 — -In the Christian Commission — Preaching to the Soldiers at Nashville — A Bishop's Loyalty Questioned 70 CHAPTER XVI. 1865-66 — Reverses in Africa — Misconceptions of Good People — The German's Blunder — The Board's Endorsement 84 CHAPTER XVII. 1866-67- — Metallic Casket — Sample of Opposition to Foreign Missions — Discouragements 88 CHAPTER XVIII. 1867-68 — Success on the Frontier — Church Erection — An Iowa Example — Discouragements in Africa 91 CHAPTER XIX. 1869-70— Pleading for Better Rules— The Crisis in African Mi.s- sion — Thomas Tucker "Palaver" 95 CHAPTER XX. 1870-71 — Experiences With Tricky Africans — Negotiations With American Missionary Association — Joseph Gomer — lleaduiau Holds Service — Germany 98 CHAPTER XXI. 1871-72 — Talking Money — Chinaman and Indian in California — Encouraging News From Africa 103 CHAPTER XXII. 1872-73 — Two Remarkable Providences — The Answer to Mrs. Hadley's Prayer — Unexpectedly Meets His Namesake, Daniel Flickinger Wilberforce^Growth of the Home Mission Work. 107 CHAPTER XXIII. 1873-74 — Church Erection Prospering — Sabbath Schools Give $3,000 — Flickinger Chapel at Shenge — Reverses in Germany — Some African Experiences 112 CHAPTER XXIV. 1874-75 — Hard Times, but Missions Prospering — German Editor on the Temperance Crusade — On the Lookout for the Police- man in Germany — Women's Missionary Societies — African Experiences 116 CHAPTER XXV, 1875-76 — Visits Africa and Germany — Decide to Continue in Ger- man.\ — A Clean Church in Africa — Saved From the Rocks — In (ilasgow — Divine Healing — 'War Party in Africa 120 CHAPTER XXVI. 1876-77 — A Mission for the Chinese on tlie Pacitic Coast — Wom- an's Missionary Association — Education of D. K. Wilberforce — John Caulker, the IMohammedan, in Jail— Testing a Medi- cine .Man's ( "liarnis— -'Pom Tiiiker 125 CHAPTER XXVII. 1S77-7S — Decrease in Benevolences — Firmness in the ("hair — Ciiinese Mission on the Coast — ^^■indowless in Kentucky.... 130 CHAPTER XXVIII. 1878-79— Fifth Wheel to the Missiouary Society— Hon. Carl Schurz — Advice to College Faculties, and the Bishops — Talked Too Much in Germany 135 CHAPTER XXIX. 1879-80 — An Eventful Y'ear — Organized Mission Districts in Germany and Africa — Experiences in Germany — Injustice to the Dowu-TroddPii — Church Erection Gro\\'ing 140 CHAPTER XXX. 1880-81 — Transformations in Africa — The Spiritual Need of Ger- many — More About Germany — State Churches — Headmen's Sons as Mission Boys 145 CHAPTER XXXI. 1881-82 — Visits Africa Again — A Circle of Mission Sites — Indus- trial Training — Rejoicing Over Success — Experiences on a Rough Sea Voyage — Collision at Sea 151 CHAPTER XXXII. 1882-83 — Accept the Mendi Mission — Go to Africa — Ship Dis- abled — Mendi Property — The "Early Dawn" — The John Brown Steamer — ^^The "Drivers" 156 CHAPTER XXXIII. 1883-84 — Increasing Responsibility — ^lisfortunes of the John Brown — Spiritual Results and New Missionaries — A Proph- ecy — Flogged the Oarsman — In a Storm 162 CHAPTER XXXIV. 1884-85 — Grumblers — On the Pacific Coast — Treasurer Billheimer Reports — Comparison of Cost Per Member — Assets, Material and Spiritual — ^New Kind of Foreordination 166 CHAPTER XXXV. 1885-86 — Elected Missionary Bishoi^ — Valedictory as Editor of Missionary Visitor — To Africa — Secretary Warner's Re- port 173 CHAPTER XXXVI. 1886-87— Rufus Clark and Wife Give $5,000— Training-School Built of Stones From Slave Pen — -Process of Building 179 CHAPTER XXXVII. 1887-88 — A Row Among Workmen — Germany's Need — Criticise Industrial Work — Horrors of Slave Traffic — Heathen Burial. 184 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 1888-89 — Appreciation of J. Gomer — Thirty-two Years of Ser-' vice — Division in the Clnm-h — Sigjied The Proclamation.... 189 CHAPTER XXXIX. 1889-90 — Review of Progress — Appreciation of Aid From Other Missionary Associations — Men Who Did Things — Triumphant Native Christians — Tom Tucker, Christian. Poisoned 193 CHAPTER XL. 1890-91 — No Regular Employment — Rev. C Bischoff — Rev. J. K. Billheimer and Other Workers in Africa 199 CHAPTERS XLI. AND XLII. 1891-92-93 — A United Brethren Pastor — Preaching for Congre- gationalists — The Proprieties — Some Experiences — Among the Unfortunates of London 203 CHAPTER XLIII. 1893-94 — A Congregational Pastorate— Types of Church-Members . — Would Not Unite — A Prohibitionist 208 CHAPTER XLIV. 1894-95 — Serving a Mission Church — "Pioneer Sermon" — The Many Lives of a Debt — Hard Work and Worry 211 CHAPTER XLV. 1895-96 — Soliciting — Thrown Over an Embankment and Injured 216 CHAPTER XLVI. 1896-97— An Eventful Year— A Letter— To Africa for the Radi- cals — A Romarkable Meeting — Meeting (ho Hoad Man 219 CHAPTER XLVII. 1897-08 — Holding Missionary Meetings — .Toint ]\Iissionary Maga- zine — Letter to Miami Conference 22.3 CHAPTER XLVIII. 3898-99 — Elected Missionary Secretary — At Huntington, Ind. — An Absent-Minded Minister 225 CHAPTER XLIX. 1898-99 — Uprising in Africa — D. F. Wilberforce Escapes^ — ■ "Boofima," the Rufiis Clark School — Naming Children 228 CHAPTER L. 1899-1900— The Madness of Heathenism— The Wilberforce Para- mount Chief— Still Pleading for Africa \ .. . 233 CHAPTER LI. 1900-01 — Radical United Brethren Missionary Work— After Fifty-One Years — Reason for Selecting Africa 236 CHAPTER LII. 1901-02— Division— A Plea for Different Methods 239 CHAPTETl LIU. 1902-03 — Gave a Bible to a Mohammedan — A Rooster for Mis- sions — A Native's Contribution — Neither Poverty Nor Riches 242 CHAPTER LIV. 1903-04 — Trouble and Sickness — African Incidents — The Con- verted Deck Hand— Won the Debate 245 CHAPTER LV. 1904-5- — Grieved — Saddening Events — Retires From the Mission- ary Secretaryship — Reunites With Miami Conference 249 CHAPTER LVI. 1905-07 — Reflex Influence of Foreign Missions — A Difficult Field ^-Results — A Glorious Future 253 CHAPTER LVII. Random Recollections — Numerous Observations, Bits of Expe- rience, Interesting Events, Amusing Incidents 256 ILLUSTRATIONS Rev. W. J. Shuey Dr. D. C. Kumler Rk.v. J. C. BiucriT Ri:\ . John Kemp RkV. J. K. BlLLHElMER Mr&. a. L. Billhkimer Rev. 0. Hadi.ey Rev. Joseph Gomer Mrs. Joseph Gomer Rufus Clark and Wife Traimxg School Mary Sowers Girls' Home First Mission Chapel in Africa Daniel Flickinoer Wilberforce Mrs. Mary Soweus Mrs. Sylvia Haywood Rev. R. N. West and Wife In Africa Rev. I. N. Cain Mrs. Mary M. Cain Ml&'rS i]LLA SCHENCK Miss Mary C. Archer Miss Marietta Hatfield Rev. and Mrs. L. A. McGrew Martyr Mejiorial Church Flickinger Chapel. Shenge, Africa INTRODUCTION Fifty-five years of active life in the gospel ministry, having served in the capacity of "circuit rider," stationed preacher, home missionary, foreign missionary, presiding elder, corres- ponding secretary of the Missionary Society, and missionary bishop, has given me an extensive knowledge of the work in the United Brethren Church. Going to Africa twelve times, first in the year 1855, and last in 1896, and spending several years in missionary work in that country; visiting Germany eight times between the years 1874 and 1889, and spending in all over one year there, acting as presiding elder part of that time, and being bishop of that field for four years, gave me a good knowledge of those mission fields. Spending six months on the Pacific Coast, during the years of 1873 and 1884, in the States of California, Oregon, and Washington, doing mission work; also in Colorado, Kentucky, and Tennessee, preaching at all the places where United Brethren missfonaries had appointments; visiting all other mission districts, and mission conferences, to which the United Brethren Board of Missions gave support in this country — these being in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Canada — while correspond- ing secretary of the Missionary Society, from 1857 to 1885, gave me a full knowledge of the condition of things in, these places. I also attended over two hundred sessions of annual conferences in the interest of missions and other Church enter- prises. I selected the headquarters of the African mission, and many other positions occupied there. I suggested and managed the transfer of the Mendi mission from the American Missionary Association to the United Brethren, making a trip to Africa, especially for that purpose. I also organized the first United Brethren societies in Africa, and later missionary districts (conferences), there and in Germany, and had much to do with both from their commencement till the Church divided in 1889, at which time they were in a prosperous condition. Of the 594,000 miles I traveled, at least 570,000 were in behalf of Church work, mostly for missions. 13 It is indeed remarkable how much may transpire in fifty-five years of active work in the gospel ministry. Dr. Talmage once said that one could live more now in ten years than Methuselah did in nine hundred years. Extravagant as such a statement may seem, it is true in respect to many things, some of which were not known in the days of Methuselah. St. John's declara- tion seems as extravagant as that, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they shoi^ld be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books." Many of the incidents and anecdotes narrated in the following pages were witnessed by me, I often being an actor in them. The reader will bear in mind that this is not intended to be a history, or an autobiography, or a missionary journal, or a record of current events, but reminiscences thrown together, one part of which, in some instances, having no relation to any other part. Neither are the anecdotes and incidents intended always to illustrate the matter in connection with which they stand, but for the humor and good points in them they have been inserted. I wish to record my gratitude to God that he called me into his service sixty-seven years ago, and into the active work of the ministry over fifty-five years ago. How mercifully and lov- ingly he has cared for me in perils by land and sea! Truly his everlasting arms have been beneath and around me. Once on the ocean the vessel in which I sailed collided with another; on another occasion the steamer lost its rudder one thousand miles from land; once a gale carried the vessel across the Gulf Stream, out of its way, staving in the sides; then, in Africa, on small,, frail row-boats, several times it looked as if death was in- evitable; the African fever once so prostrated me that I was given up to die, and one time, in America, the doctors said I could not live three months on account of the poisonous effects of African fever in my system. Truly goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life! Perhaps the greatest wonder of all, and the one for which I should praise God the most, is that marvelous grace that has made me an heir of salvation. But for the restraints of religion, my impetuous disposition, high metal, and readiness to retaliate insults would have led me from bad to worse, no doubt, and re- sulted in my death long ago. I wish here to say that after very extensive and careful observation, and a long and varied experience in religious mat- ters and Christian work, the religion of Christ does for men 14 what St. Paul declares he was sent to do; namely, "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith," It does save the chief of sinners from all moral guilt, pollution, enmity to God and man, and fits those who heartily embrace it for happy, useful living, victorious dying, and a home with God and the glorified in heaven. 15 FIFTY-FIVE YEARS OF ACTIVE LIFE IN THE GOSPEL MINISTRY CHAPTER I. 1850-51 — First Circuit — Hide Good for Forty Years — Local Preachers — Surprised the Quarterly Conference. I BECAME a member of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in November, 1839, and received quarterly confer- ence license to preach the gospel in April, 1849. I united with the Miami Annual Conference in October, 1850, and be- came an unreserved itinerant, which relation I have sustained ever since. In 1895, I withdrew from Miami Conference of the United Brethren Church and united with the Scioto Annual Conference of the Eadical United Brethren Church, from which I transferred in 1901, returning to the Church in 1905, and reuniting with the Miami Conference in 1906. 1 received my first appointment in October, 1850, when Miami Conference sent me and Rev. R. Norris to the Mt. Pleasant Circuit, a circuit of nine appointments, near the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. ]\Ir. Norris was the senior, and I the junior preacher. This action of the conference did not meet the approval of a certain minister of our Church living on that circuit, for the reason that Mr. Norris was too well known, and I not well enough. That minister had served as presiding elder a year or two, and always wanted either that office or his home circuit. He had a controlling interest in a small store in the town in which he lived, which made him ju-efer that field of labor, when he was not chosen to the office of presiding elder. Among other things, he said that it re- 2 17 Fifty-five Years of Active Life quired good preaching to satisfy the people there, and that if a man could please them for one year, his hide would last him forty years. This word, which was meant to keep us from ac- cepting the field, reached us lx?fore we wont to the circuit. Mr. Norris and I talked over the situation, and decided that, to the best of our ability, we would do the work that the conference had assigned us. Mr. Norris being preacher in charge, and responsible for the management of the circuit, made the first round, and announced my coming two weeks later. We met with little opposition. Early in the year we commenced holding protracted meetings, during which time we visited a good deal. By the help of the local preachers we kept up the regular appointments, and held revival services nearly all the winter, receiving nearly one hundred members into the Church during the year, and left the circuit in good condition. Among the local preachers living on that circuit was one who was original and witty, and had the courage of his con- victions. He had traveled a circuit in his younger years, and continued to do a good deal of preaching, especially on funeral occasions. He hated shams, and loved plain evangeli- cal ])reaching. Once he was listening for about an hour to a man who never could preach much, and on that occasion was doing worse than usual. His text was, "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy : break up your fallow ground : for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteous- ness upon you." Sitfing in flio pulpit with liiin, tlio local preacher spoke right nut and said, "Brother J , you better unhitch, and take your ]dow to tlie smitli-sho]>, and get it sharpened." On another occasion a man who liad little qualification for the ministry was trying to preach. For nearly an hour he had blundered on, when he remarked that he had then reached a place where a large field opened before him. Just then that old preacher, who sat near to the pulpit, spoke out : "0 Lord, put up the bars, so Brother 1j can't get into that field, 18 In the Gospel Ministry for we are tired and want to go home to dinner." This old minister and the two whom he rebuked being farmers, and the congregations composed mostly of farmers, the statements made about getting the plow sharpened and putting up the bars were well understood, and in both cases brought the harangues to a speedy close. That old minister had a near neighbor who was an infidel, and who sought at times to ridicule him about his religion. One day the neighbor called him over to his corn-field to see what was wrong with the corn, which did not grow as fast as the preacher's in an adjoining field. He went, and the infidel said to him, "I know you believe in prayer ; now you pray that my corn may gTOw as fast as yours." "Yes," said the min- ister, "I do believe in praying, but that will do no good in this case. What you need to do is to keep the weeds out of your field and enrich the ground, as I did mine." Then, stepping in front of him and looking him square in the face, he said, "God never answered a prayer to do for men what they could do for themselves. I can't pray for your corn-field ; but I will pray God to take away your laziness, and make you an industrious, good man." That infidel never attempted to mock that minister again, .and soon moved away to another neighborhood. You may wonder how I succeeded in preaching. As I had attempted to preach but four or five times before being sent to my first charge, and not using others' sermon sketches and skeletons, I was compelled to study hard and pray much to be able to do the work required of me. I w^ould write sermon outlines and memorize them on the way to my appointments. I learned that God helped me most to preach when I helped myself most, and that the Holy Spirit clid assist me, but that he never did for me what God's Word required of me, in the injunction, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 19 Fifty-five Years of Active Life The third quarterly meeting for the year was held in April, 1851. Just as the quarterly conference was about to close its business on Saturday evening, a motion was made asking ^Ir. Norris to resign, on the grounds that the circuit was unable to pay the salaries of two men. The Disciplinary allowance then was eighty dollars a year for a single man, and one hun- dred and sixty dollars for a married man. As we were both married, three hundred and tAventy dollars were to be given us. Mr. Norris was a poor man ; 1 owned a good farm of one hundred and sixty acres of land. There was considerable salary due us, and the idea of sending away unpaid the man who could not live without his salary, and keeping me who could live without the stipend, aroused my indignation. The circuit was rich, and could easily have paid all that was re- quired, and I felt it to be an outrage tp treat Mr. ISTorris in that way. Just as the quarterly conference was about to vote on the motion I interrupted the proceedings, and told them that if they adopted that motion I would Ije on my horse, then hitched near the church, in ten minutes, and go home that night, eleven miles distant, and never return to that circuit to ])reach again, declaring that I would rather preach for notliing to people too poor to pay, than to proacli to rich, stingy people for one hundred and sixty dollars a year. There was something in my manner that made that conference feel they ought not pass that motion, and it was witlidrawn. The religious services tliat night and the following day were good, and we both stayed the remainder of the year, and all went on smoothly. The sum total received was two hundred and eighty-one dollars for the year's work, Mr. Norris getting one liundred and sixty dollars, and I one hundred and twenty- one dollars, the division being in accordance with my wishes. The presiding elder of that year had a few favorite ser- mons. He held two quarterly meetings on circuits but four miles apart, attended by the ]iastors and many of the people of l)oth circuits, and he preached the same sermon at both places. One of the pastors deplored the occurrence, and told 20 In the Gospel Ministry the elder that he had thereby lessened his influence for good,, especially with irreligious people. The presiding elder justi- fied his course by saying that he could see no objections to using the plow that had done good work in one field to culti- vate another, especially when the soil was about the same kind. Notwithstanding his reasoning, his course injured our cause. ' Just before closing my work on that circuit, I bought a home in Oxford, Ohio, with a view of moving there and com- pleting a course of study at Miami University. I left the session of the next annual conference before its adjourn- ment, on account of the sickness of my wife, who died the following Monday night. This unexpected bereavement, leav- ing me with two children, the one near three years old, and the other less than a week old, changed all my plans. t\ CHAPTER II. 1851-52 — E'ducation — Changing the Hour for Service — Whisky in Ihe Harvest Field — Baptizing a Big Man — Carap-meeting. WiiEX about fifteen years of age 1 requested my father to let me go to college five years, iu lieu of receiving a deed to a farm worth about $5,000, which I was told should become mine at twenty-one. This was denied me, and my education was all obtained in a small country school, except what I got after the age of twenty-one, when I attended a seminary one year, preparatory to my entering upon a full college course. Failing health prevented the realization of this purpose. When I felt it my duty to preach, I more than ever desired a good education, and notified the conference that I intended to go to college. Contrary to my wishes, it sent me to Lewis- burg Circuit. That field had six reguhir appointments, to be filled once every two weeks, and not being in good condi- tion to attend college, on account of the death of my wife, I went to the circuit with the view of serving it for a time, but not the whole year. At the second quarterly meeting I of- fered my resignation, my health not being good, owing to hard work done in revival meetings. This resignation was ac- cepted on condition that I would continue to work until one could be found to take my place, which never was done. At the end of the third quarter T was induced to continue to preacli till the end of that year. At one of the oldest preaching places on that circuit the meetings had always been held at eleven o'clock in the fore- noon. There was an appointment six miles from that place at two-thirty in the afternoon, and the roads being bad in the winter, I asked to liave the meetings at the former place 22 In the Gospel Ministry held at ten o'clock. Serious objections were made, but the privilege was given me to try, with the assurance that the at- tempt would fail, as all former attempts had done. I then told them that my next meeting would be at eleven o'clock, as usual, but after that at ten, and that they should arrange accordingly. . The people smiled at my folly for trying to change. In two weeks I emphasized that after that time the meetings would be at ten o'clock promptly. So it was, but the first Sunday my audience consisted of the sexton of that church and one woman. The usual congregation was coming as the meeting closed. They were told again that the hour would be ten in the future, and at the next service about one- half of the people were there, but after that the usual con- gregation got there at ten o'clock. I had another embarrassing experience at that same church. Some of the members, among them the class-leader, would drink whisky in harvest time, and give it to their harvest hands. When they were told that it was a violation of our Discipline, and asked to desist, they laughed and almost de- fied me, knowing that the class would not act or assist me in enforcing the Discipline. They were rich and paid well, it was said, and they had better be left alone. I visited them the last time on Sabbath morning on my way to church to preach my last sermon for that year. I plead with them to promise not to take whisky to their harvest-fields, or to use it at any time as a beverage. They refused to consent to my re- quest, but told me that as I was making so much ado about the matter, I should take their names off the class-book. I told them that they had better stay in the Church and ol^ey its rules, but if they insisted on my erasing their names it might be done. None of them would accompany me to church, but I found a local preacher there from an adjoining circuit, who was on the side of the law-breakers. I had him sit in the pulpit and make the opening prayer. He then told me that he wished to advise with me after the services respect- ing the trouble there. As I had advised with about half a 23 Fifty-five Years of Active Life dozen other local proacliers on tliat fireuit, and most of them in that class, and as that was my last Sunday there, I felt the time for action had come. After the sermon I made a short prayer, and proceeded to say that as the persons who had been violating our Discipline, in the use of strong drink, refused to promise reformation, but had authorized me to take their names off the class-book, I therefore, at their request, declared that they were no longer members of the United Brethren Church. By that time the local preacher in the pulpit was pulling my coat-tail, saying that they could not be put out of the Church without the action of that class, to which I re- plied that they had a right to withdraw from the Church, and upon their authorization, I had the right to say that they had withdrawn, and hence were no longer members of the Church. They had boastingly said that their preacher could not get them out of the Church, neither could I have done so had they not so ordered. So dissatisfied were they and their friends that the matter was taken to the annual conference, and the Bishop was asked to reverse the verdict of the preacher. His reply was that the young preacher may have been a little hasty in doing what he did, but he was evidently on the right track, and hence the matter had better be left as it was. That rich class-leader soon afterward moved into one of the West- ern States, quit keeping whisky in harvest time, came back into the Church, and gave several hundred dollars to build a house of worship where he then belonged. There was another grand triumph over whisky that year at another place on the circuit during a revival meeting held there. A young man having a wife and three children was dnmk much of the time, causing his family to suffer a good deal. Pie came to a morning meeting and asked the prayers of those present, and then kneeled at the altar. "We all knew that he had been drunk the night before, which caused a little hesitancy on our part. He imploringly said, "Do help me, for 1 am a miserable sinner." We gathered around the man and ]>rayeil, and instnietod liim as best we could. He came to the 24 //( the Gospel Ministry night meeting, and kept on coming until lie professed to be saved, and then united with the Church, and as long as I knew him, which was for some years after that, he was a con- sistent Christian. At the same meeting twelve unusually large men united with the Church one Sabbath morning. I exhorted them to "put on the whole armor of God, that they might stand against the wiles of the devil." A wag remarked at the close of the meeting, that twelve large men like those ought to be able to whip the devil without any annor. At the close of the first revival that year a number were baptized l)y immersion, and among them several large men, and a woman Avho weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, which was twice as much as I weighed. Some fears were ex- pressed that I could not handle them; but I did, by having all kneel in the water before I dipped them into it. The year closed with seventy additions to the Church, my salary all paid, and all the money to the various Church enterprises provided in full, and some overpaid. On my way to conference I attended a camp-meeting of remarkable power, east of Cincinnati, Ohio. The meeting com- menced on Tuesday night, and was to continue until the fol- lowing Tuesday morning. I arrived there on Thursday in a shower of rain ; the next day, in the forenoon, I preached be- tween showers, and on Sunday afternoon I preached, having to stop twice on account of showers of rain. On Monday toward noon it cleared up, and that afternoon dry straw was provided for the altar and space immediately in front of the preacher's stand. After a sermon that night an invitation was given to the unsaved to come to the altar and seek salva- tion. In a few minutes about fifty were there, and forty of them professed to be saved ; the next night sixty persons knelt at the altar, nearly all professing conversion. That night while we -were at the altar laboring with the seekers of religion, some one began to shout. A local preacher present called out at the top of his voice that it was not the time to 25 Fifty-five Years of Active Life shout, saying that we should mourn with those who mourn, and then rejoice with them after they had found the Savior in the forgiveness of their sins. That stopped all shouting for a time, but it was resumed a little later, when about fifty persons were at it with all their might. 26 CHAPTER III. 1852-53 — Traveling — Colporteur Experiences in Cincinnati — "Every- thing lias to he Leavened." My health continuing poor, I deemed it best not to accept a circuit, and being averse to asking for a location, I took a transfer to unite with any annual conference I might choose. Bishop Glossbrenner, who presided at that conference, went from there to the Indiana, Wabash, Iowa, and Illinois con- ferences, and I accompanied him to them all, being gone nearly two months before returning to Ohio. I greatly enjoyed that trip. The travel and rest much im- proved my health. The poverty, privations, and hard work of itinerants in the West, with their zeal for the salvation of men, greatly excited my admiration and sympathy. I gave them all the spare money I had with me and my watch, amounting to about fifty dollars. Itinerating in the West then implied many hardships. The circuits were large, ex- posure to inclement weather great, and the pay small. I remained in Ohio about a month after I returned from the West, and then went to Virginia, spending nearly two months at the home of Bishop Glossbrenner and in that vicin- ity. I did a considerable amount of preaching during all of these months of travel in the East and W^est. On the 9th of January, 1853, I was married to Miss Catherine Glossbrenner, the oldest child of Bishop Glossbrenner. The first United Brethren Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, had operated a mission Sunday school for some time, and the American Tract Society wished a colporteur for the part of Cincinnati in which that school was held, the building used being a rickety old house, once occupied as a residence. I was appointed as a colporteur and city missionary, and preached 27 Fij'lij-fivc Years of Active Life on Sal)l)ath to congregations vaning from three to fifty per- sons. As colporteur I visited as many as forty and fifty fam- ilies a day when the weather was good, having tracts to give away and liooks to sell. I talked with the people respecting their religious condition, praying with them when permitted and it seemed advisable. This work continued until Miami Conference met in the fall of 1853, when I returned to it for work. The mission in Cincinnati was discontinued, but my work as colporteur and missionary opened my eyes to the sad condition of some people and their need of being saved. I learned that truly the tares and wheat grew together in this world, that saints and scoffers at religion lived next door neighbors. In one instance the mistress of the house, in the presence of her children, some of whom were nearly grown, said that she had no use for'any such Ijooks as were published by the American Tract Societ}', or of the Bible itself. She had got- ten quite beyond such old productions, and received revela- tions from God direct when she desired them. When asked if it would be agreeable to pray there, she replied that if it would do me any good it would be all right, but they did not need it. I prayed, nevertheless, and while upon my knees she and her children sat and nuide fun of me. On another occasion the man of the house, after saying ugly things against Christians and their books, remarked, "You are welcome to pray, but I will not quit smoking while you do so.'' He made the room dark with smoke. In a few instances I was not al- lowed to show my ])Ooks, or to leave tracts to be read, and in one ])lace I was ordered out of the house by a Catholic family, who said their priest had told them to do so, if any one tried to sell them books. Once, during very hot weather, I was entertained by a farmer wlio told me, when taking me to my bedroom, that the reason he always had the windows and doors closed where he slept was that he feared some evil would befall him in the night while passing through China. TTis idea was that in tlie 2S In the Gospel Ministry rotation of the earth we passed through China about mid- night. My experience with some people as colpor- teur caused me to feel that all the windows and doors ought to be closed against their blasphemous and outrageous conduct, so others might not be contaminated by them. No wonder St. Pauh says, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Having Ijeen brought up in the country, by honest Pennsyl- vania parents, and never having mingled with people who neither feared God nor respected their fellow-men, these ex- periences were new, impressive, and in a sense important to me. Having entered the ministry without any special training or preparation for that work, and having nearly everything to learn during the first three years, I was poorly prepared to perform some of the obligations resting upon me as a min- ister. I have often been reminded of the truth of what an old fisherman told me when I was a mere lad. We had the same kind of poles, lines, hooks, and bait, and we sat within ten feet of each other on the Ijank of the river, but that man caught from ■^hree to four times as many fish as I did. When I asked wh_y it was, the old man answered, "Everything has to be learned, young man." Truly so it has been in my life. My experience when about sixteen years of age convinced me that so simple a thing as riding an ox had to be learned. An older brother and I had gone about twenty-five miles from home and l)ought a drove of hogs. We hired a young man to assist us, whose father also went with us to take a yoke of oxen to market. The road for about half a mile led through Avoods, and we were kept very busy preventing our drove from getting away. A full hour was spent in getting them to the long lane through Avhich we passed afterward. As soon as all were in the lane I gave the young man, who was afoot and tired, my horse to ride, and I Avalked. The mud was deep and I soon got tired, Avhen the owner of tlie oxen told me to get on 29 Fifty-five Years of Active Life the back of the near ox, as he had often been ridden. I soon was astride the animal, and all went well enough except the oxen did not keep up with the hogs. Having a spur on my right foot, I pricked the beast a little, causing him to step for- ward more briskly for a time, but he soon dropped back to the old gait. I spurred him again, a little harder than the first time, when that ox gave a furious bawl, and kicked so high that I turned a complete somersault over his head into the mud, which was so soft that it received a good imprint of my whole body. The eyes of the ox flashed fire, and his great horns were close to my head, but he did not attempt to injure me. The three men on horseback were some distance ahead, but the bawl of that ox caused them all to look back in time to sec me fall heels over head in front of the offended beast. They all yelled in laughter, and kept at it so long that it gave me a good opportunity to scrape the mud off of my clothes, face, and hands. Getting ofE that animal was one of the quickest and most remarkable feats of my life. The old fisherman's remark, "Everything has to be learned, young man," was verified in that experience, and in many other things in my life. 30 CHAPTER IV. 1853-54 — Junior Preacher — Revivals — Holiness People. Having been a member of conference three years, and hav- ing passed ni}^ course of reading, I was ordained. The ordination services were nnusually impressive, and I sought anew to consecrate my life and powers to God. I realized that I must be the Lord's fully to be a successful minister, and I felt that not to be successful in such a sacred work was itself a reproach and sin. I felt that a call from God to preach the gospel was a call to study hard, pray much, and labor earnestly to promote the salvation of the wicked, and the edification of Christians. St. Paul's language deeply impressed me : "But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in such patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in impris- onments, in tumults, in labors, and watchings, in fastings ; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering^ by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report : as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and, behold, we live ; as chastened, and not killed ; as sorrowful, vet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things." The field of labor to which I was sent by the conference consisted of Dayton, Miami Chapel, one mile distant, and Beavertown, four miles from the city. Eev. William Ehine- hart was senior preaclicr of the charge, he preaching one Sunday morning and night in the citv, and the next at tlie 31 Fifty-five Years uf Active Life other appoiutments, and I in the same order. Having to preach twice on one Sunday to the same congregation, the people from the country appointments often coming to the city, especially during protracted meetings, required care and study for a young preacher. The licVKjioux Telescope office was moved from Circleville, Ohio, to Dayton, during the autumn of this year, bringing with it Rev. J. Lawrence, the editor, and Solomon Vonnieda, Puldishing Agent; also Bishop Edwards and Rev. Henry Staub, editor of our own German paper. ]\[r. Rhinehart having been in the ministry for many years, and being an eloquent speaker and an excellent singer, and I being neither, put me at a great disadvantage, which I keenly felt, but nevertheless I pegged away, doing my best to be ac- ceptable to the people. The ministers who came to Dayton with the Telescope office, and whose presence at the preach- ing services embarrassed me at first, soon became my best helpers. They knew how to sympathize with, and pray for a young, timid preacher. During the year there was considerable success and growth in the membershi]) of the Church, both at the country ap- pointments and in the city of Dayton. In the city, large audi- ences attended the protracted meetings, so much so that at times many could not get into the chun-h, which was sixty by forty feet, with a gallery in the rear. Our Church was new then, more noisy than any oWwv in the city, and that brought crowds of people. Quite a number were saved, some joining our Church, and some other churches. There were some who, instead of calling us United Brethren in Christ, called us "T'nited States artillerymen." Among the me]nl)ers was one woman who could not keep in line with good English in her public prayers. She told the Lord that lie must not let the world, or the flesh, or the devil get into \\vv and others, so as to force liim out. Once slie said, "Lord, niasli ns down, or l)reak our bones, if thou canst not keep us from sinning any other way.'' An Irishman who 32 ::: < :^^ N^^ %^ //( the Gospel Ministry had been converted in the meeting, in a speaking-meeting stepped out into the aisle of the church, and said, "I am the hoppiest mon that ever stood in shoe leather." He had been an unbeliever and a wicked man, but was soundly converted, and with lips and life he magnified the saving grace of Christ. Some of our members there were great advocates of entire holiness, and greatly deplored the indifference and worldliness of others. A few holiness workers from abroad came to assist in holding a holiness prayer-meeting for a week. The meet- ing was well attended, especially on the night of the regular prayer-meeting, when they made an effort to have all go for- ward to the altar and seek the blessing of holiness. Three of us ministers did not go, but knelt where we were, and helped to sing and pray. During that meeting the word "perfect" was often used. "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," was fre- quently quoted. I asked whether to love the Lord with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength was not perfect love, as nearly as it was possible to possess it, and whether to implicitly be- lieve his Word was not perfect faith, and whether perfect obedience to the requirements of God's law was not as high as we could go in that matter. The answer was that all the perfection they claimed was to love God supremely, believe his Word implicitl}', and obey it to the best of one's ability. I said then, and say yet, that to love the Lord with all the soul, mind, and strength is perfect love, and to fully believe his Word is perfect faith, and to implicitly obey its teachings is perfect obedience, and that all these we must possess to be Christians at all. How much better to strive to l)e Bible Christians, not extraordinary Christians, just- fully Chris- tians. It is a misfortune for any professor of religion to be like the Indian's tree, "so straight that it leaned a little." A certain minister once took the wind out of the sail of an en- thusiastic sanctiticationist l)y telling him that he had watched them for years, and found them no better than other pro- fessors of religion, that at best they "were sanctified .only in spots." 3 33 CHAPTER V. 18o4-55 — Pastor in Dayton — Quarreling Members — Answers "Yes" to the Missionary Call — Goes to Africa — Explores the Country. The annual conference of ISo-i made two fields of labor of the Dayton charge, constituting the city one and the two country appointments another. Mr. Ehinehart was put in charge of the country appointments, and I was given Dayton. Two things made the end of the fourth year and the begin- ning of the fifth year very sad ; namely, the death of my wife in August, and the disgraceful quarrel which occurred at the reorganization of the Dayton class, in October, between two church officials. So bitter became the quarrel that one day, in a grocery kept by one of them, very uglj words were spoken, and one of them grabbed a ham close to him, and the other a cheese-box with a cheese in it; they were about to throw at each other, but were prevented by a third party getting be- tween them. The church cited them to appear before a com- mittee for trial, and they were adjudged guilty of unchristiait conduct, and required to confess the same to the class and promise to cease from such conduct. The one complied with the order of the committee, l)ut the other one refused. He w'as the richest man in the class, and possessed some very good qualities. There were some good women belonging to that society who insisted that there must be an end to the ugly quarrel, but they urged the pastor not to be hasty in executing the order of the committee, which was that unless the confes- sion be made within two weeks, the pastor was to publicly state that the offending person was no longer a meml)or of the Church. The boy's composition on woman had the following: "Woman was made after man and she has lieen after him ever 34 In the Gospel Ministry since." The best women of the chiss were after that man, earn- estly desiring his reformation, and I also urged him to the last hour of the time given to make confession. During my last interview with him, which was just before I went into the pulpit on Sunday morning, he said, "Put me out of the Church," perhaps thinking that I dared not do so. At the close of the service I made a brief explanation of the case, and said that I was under the sad necessity of saying that this brother was no longer a member of our Church. He and family, and their friends, were present, and there was intense feeling in the congregation, and some hard things were said about me, but I felt much relieved, because that which had troubled that church for nearly a year was coming to an end. As Pat said, "There is an end to all things, but my wooden poker, which was burned off and now it has no end." The congregations were not diminished, nor any interest of the church injured by what was done, and all went well for the remainder of the year. It was in December of this year, 1854, that the unexpected call came to me to go to Africa as a missionary, to accompany Rev. -W. J. Shuey and Dr. D. C. Kumler, who had been under appointment for some time, and were only waiting until* a third man could be found to go with them. It was about ten o'clock in the morning when I was asked to be that third man, and at two o'clock the same day I answered, "Yes." I had offered my services a couple of months before, but they were not accepted on account of my health. At six o'clock that same night I took the train for New York to make arrange- ments for sailing, and returned to Dayton four days after- ward, having been on the cars three nights out of the four gone. I resigned my charge the day after returning from New York, which was Christmas, and commenced making preparations for my departure to Africa, the three of us leav- ing the following week. I made a will just before starting for Africa, bequeathing five thousand dollars to Otterbein Uni- versity, which it certainly would have received had I died in 35 Fifty-five Years of Active Life Africa, as many supposed would be the case. The college did not get that money, but did get about four thousand dollars, in payments of from five himdred dollars to one thousand dollars afterward, and it graduated my four sons, for whose education at Otterbein University I expended over seven thousanil dollars. We wore detained in Xew York City about two weeks longer than was expected, as the vessel delayed sailing until the 23d of January, 1855. After a rough voyage of thirty-four days we reached Freetown, on the night of February 26. Besides the three United Brethren missionaries on that brig, there were six missionaries going to Mendi mission, sent there by the American Missionary Association, of the Congregational Church. The whole company suffered much from seasick- ness for nearly two weeks, Init after that all seemed to enjoy the voyage. Daily prayers were held in the cabin, with preaching each Sunday by one of the missionaries. Among the things which attracted our attention when we went ashore in Freetown, was a row of barrels lying at the wharf, having printed on their heads in large letters, "Smith & Co., rectifiers of ardent spirits, Cincinnati, Ohio."' Three of us had gone from near Cincinnati, Ohio, as missionaries, but Smith & Co. were there ahead of us with rum. We soon learned that the black people loved strong drink at sight, and that when full of whisky they had no more sense than wliite people under similar circumstances. We remained in Freetown only two or throe days, including a Sunday, when all three of us preached in Wesleyan chapels. Our company then went to Bonthe on the same vessel which had carried us from New York. Mendi mission had a mis- sion residence there, known as Good Hope Station, at which we made our home when in Bonthe. It was there where one of the two l)rethren wlio accompanied me said one day, "Africa is a dark place. God's time has not yet come to evangelize this country, and it's no use for us all staying here." Two of ihom did nft(M-war(l? come away, and T felt 3G In the Gospel Ministry like doing the same thing, but feared that if we all left then it would so discourage our people in America that they would never attempt foreign missionary work again. They remained from February 26 till Juno 30, one of them ascending the Boom Eiver nearly one hundred miles, and two of us go- ing up the Jong and Baily rivers to Mo-kelleh, a large town, where we thought of opening a mission station. After the two had returned to America I explored the country more fully, twice going up the Boom Eiver one hundred miles, and on other rivers as far as they were navigable. The rainy season and my sickness during July prevented any more ex- ploration during the months of July, August, and September. 37 CHAPTER VI. 18.j.j-.jG — In Africa — Given Up to Die — Keturus to America — Solicit- ing From "Nigger'^-Haters. At the Ijoiiinning of the sixth year 1 was in Africa, as hope- ful and chwrful as a man alone and surrounded with discour- aging circumstances could be. Of that company of nine who went to Africa as missionaries with me, one died in six weeks, another in three months, a third one in six months, and two had returned to the United States about three months after getting there, leaving four of the number in Africa. These had all suffered a good deal with African fever, especially myself. I had explored the country a good deal, and con- cluded to open a mission close to the town of Baily, on the Baily Kiver, or at Mo~Bovia on the Big Boom River, or at Shengc on the coast. The latter was my preference, but the head man there would not give his consent to have a mission at that ])lace. The diversity of opinions expressed by the Ijrethren of the Mendi mission, with whom I made my home, and the serious obstacles in the way of commencing anywhere alone, in view of my pool' liciilih, were perplexing. On the iSnili of Oetohei' ] was married to^ Miss Susan Wool- sey, one of tlu' missionaries of the Mendi mission, a member of the party with whom I had gone to Africa. Just before that I had visited Shenge, and liad gone on to Freetown to engage mechanics to build a house at some ])oint at which I would dt'cide to commence the United l^rethren mission. On the 21st of Xovember I made a second trip of one hundred miles up the Big Boom River, where T arranged to open a station at Mo-Bovia on that stream. 'I'be eliiefs failing to meet me as they 38 //( the Gospel Ministry had promised, I left after waiting on tliem for several days, and redoubled my efforts to get Chief Caulker to agree to give a tract of land at Shengc for a mission site. In this I had the help of D. W. Burton, who convinced the chief that a mission station at Shenge would make it safe for him to return to that place, he being then in exile, his enemies seeking his life. During this second trip up the Boom River I came near drowning once, and I was so bitten by mosquitoes as to suffer great agony. Drinking about a quart of strong coffee brought me relief, but evidently those bites had much to do with causing me to have the most severe attack of African fever I ever experienced. I reached Mo-Tappan, a mission station of the Mendi mission, on Saturday, and found no one there at the time but a native and his wife. On Sunday I preached to the people, when quite a crowd remained to see me eat. Among the number was the head man of the town, who told the others, "White man can eat but little, little, little, can have only one wife, and die soon; but black man can eat plenty, fill himself good, and can have plenty wife, and live long time." Thus the months of Xovember and December were spent trying hard to oljtain a mission site, and to commence build- ing a mission house, but the last days of December found me a very sick man in Bonthc. On New Year's eve I was given up to die, and I thought myself that I would die. During that night a French schooner came to Bonthe, upon which I was carried, and it left the next morning. When I came to realize my whereabouts I was on my way to Freetown. But for my having been put on the schooner and taken out upon the salt water, it is quite certain that I would have died. The schooner, in charge of colored men, was four days in getting to Freetown, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles. Beating against head winds, and rolling and pitching as it did, caused my wife and me, who were the only passengers, to be very glad when the anchor was dropped in Freetown har- 39 Fifty-five Years uf Active Life bor. Both of lis were sick, tired, and Imiigry. We remained in Freetown a couple of months, trying to recuperate our health. In the month of March, my physician told me he could not do anything more for me, and my only hope of recovery was in getting out of that country soon, which I and my wife did by taking passage on a sail vessel for ]^ew York the last day of March, 1856. While in Freetown I received from Rev. J. C. Bright, secretary of the Board of ^lissions, a letter author- izing me to purchase a house and lot for a home and recruit- ing place for our missionaries. This I did for the sum of $2,400. That was a good investment, but the property had to be sold some years afterward to get money to keep the mission going. We reached Xew York i\ray 11, and proceeded to Wil- loughby, Ohio, the home of my wife's parents, where I was sick several days. I then went to Dayton, Ohio, and after a few weeks' rest I attended the meeting of the Board of Missions, held in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, early in the month of June. By this time my health was much improved. Getting away from the deadly malaria which had so prostrated me, and having a long voyage on a sail vessel, breathing the sea air, had done much to bring me back to health again. At the meeting in Mt. Pleasant I did a good deal of talking, ex- planatory of the condition and needs of the heathen, during tlic business sessions, and then one night was given me to hnture on Africa, and to show the idols and various curios which I had brought from that country. In explaining these things, T l)ecame so exhausted that I had to be helped to my boarding-place. By the first of -Inly I was able to lecture on Africa every Sunday, and solicit money for missions during the week, which I did until conference met in September. Some of my experiences while thus employed, especially talking in behalf of African missions, were interesting. Going to lecture on Africa to a church which had aliout half a dozen men in it wlio were able to give one hundred dollars each, T felt that large sums must be secured. The plan of operating 40 In the Gospel Ministry was to get as many life members and life directors of the Missionar}^ Society as possible, the former to pay ten dollars, and the latter fifty dollars each, the one to be paid in two yearly, and the other in five yearly installments, notes to be given for the total sums. One man who came to hear me lec- ture on Sunday morning, and from whom I expected fifty dollars, did not listen to me over fifteen minutes until he left the church, angry, saying as he passed out that he had not come there to hear a man talk about "niggers" in Africa, but to hear the gospel preached. Others there who were expected to give liberally were little more friendly to "niggers," but re- mained till the meeting closed. On.Monday the man who was the most likely to make him- self and vife life directors was visited by me early in the morning, and all forenoon was spent trying to get his note for one hundred dollars. At noon he agreed to make it fifty dollars, and it was night before the note was secured for one hundred. The next forenoon I got another one hun- dred-dollar note and one for fifty dollars before reaching the residence of the man who left the church on Sunday in anger because I was talking about "niggers." I arrived there just at noon, and met with a cool reception, they being at the dinner-table when I entered the house, but I was finally asked to stay for dinner and have my horse fed, which invitation I accepted. After dinner I went with the father and boys to the corn-field, and helped them hoe corn while talking African missions. All the afternoon was put in, and after supper, at family worship, I held a little class-meeting with the whole family, and at eleven o'clock that night wrote that man's note for twenty-five dollars, which he paid in a year. He con- tinued to pay to the mission as long as he lived. I stayed in that neighborhood until five hundred dollars were secured, which sum was reached on Thursday. I continued in this work until the end of my sixth year, when I attended the ]\riami Annual Conference with a view of being appointed to a field of laljor. This was refused me on the ground that my 41 Fifty-five Years of Active Life services were needed by the Board of Missions for the African mission. Piqiia mission church was left to be supplied, and to it the presiding elder appointed me just after the conference adjourned, and I moved my family there soon after. 42 CHAPTER YII. 1856-57 — Pastor of a Mission Church — Sent to Africa — Seasickness — "The Go in It" — Secures Mission Site — Elected Missionary Secre- tary. This was an eventful year. Having been appointed to a poor mission, to which I resolved to give my best energies, I felt highly gratified at my prospects of being able to read good books, and to give myself fully to the work of the min- istry. At the end of six weeks I was summoned to Dayton, thirty miles from my charge, to meet the Executive Com- mittee of the Board of Missions. They informed me that they had started Eev. J. K. Billheimer and W. B. Witt, M.D., to Africa, that they were then in jN'ew York, expecting to sail in a few days, but they would recall them at once and give up the African mission, unless I would agTee to accompany them to get a title to the site which had been selected for our mission headquarters, and initiate them into the work. This was Friday afternoon, and I could not reach home until that night at nine o'clock. Xext day my trunk was packed, on Sunday I preached twice, taught a class in the Sunday school, received f our, meml>ers into Church, and on Monday morning at four o'clock took the train for New York City. During the six weeks spent on that city mission the congre- gations had doubled, and the people were much encouraged because they had a minister to live on the charge and be pres- ent at week-night prayer-meetings, and help them in the Sun- day school. Upon reaching Xcw York, I found that the vessel upon which we were to sail had left, which permitted me to come l)ack to Ohio and spend several weeks with my family. AYe 43 Fifty-jive Years of Active Life sailed December 3, and reached Freetown, Sierra Leone, about the middle of January, 1857. The first week at sea was rouiili, and as I was the superin- tendent of the African mission, and had crossed the ocean Ijofore, I was elected to superintend the two brethren who were going to Africa as missionaries. There having been quite a strong wind the day before sailing, I got on my sea clothes as soon as aboard the vessel, and I advised the brethren to do the same before passing Sandy Hook, telling them that I would be seasick, and it was likely they would be as soon as we should be fully out to sea. One of them was so interested in looking at the forts and other ohjects of interest that 'ho failed to get off his good clothes until he became very seasick. After I had heaved overljoard most of the movable contents of my stomach, I ventured to go to see my comrades, and found the one all right, though suffering some with seasick- ness, but the other was in his berth with his good vest and trousers and boots on, having hung his beaver hat and best coat on pegs in his room. These had fallen onto the floor, owing to the rolling of the ship, and over them he had turned the contents of his stomach. The sight greatly increased my squeamishnoss, and I l)arely took time to say to him that his coat and hat were l)adly soiled, and his vest and pants would be if ho did not get them off, and that I was too sick to help him, but would send the steward to do so. He replied that I did not need to trouble myself or any one else about his clothes, for he expected to die and would not need clothes any more. He did not die, but had a big job to make that good suit of his look fit to wear after he got over his seasick- ness. Some years later 1 went from Liverpool to Freetown on a steamer, having a young Scotclmian for a roommate. We were both very seasick, and had not been out of our berths for a couple of days. The Scotchman talking to himself one day said. "Dang the nasty thing; if that port hole was large enough I would get into the salt water and drown the dang 44 In the Gospel Ministry tiling." Soon after our steward came into the room with some chicken broth, telling us that we had been there long enough, and must drink some of the l)roth and get up and go on deck. I said to him I could not swallow any broth, but the steward pushed the bowl toward me and I took a mouthful, but instead of it going down my throat, it flew out of my mouth as if shot out by a force pump. The steward escaped getting the broth in his face by a quick jump to one side, and it went clear across the stateroom, which satisfied him that there was one stomach aboard that would not allow food to enter it. Over twenty-five years ago an old lady took her first railroad ride, coming into Madison, Wisconsin, on the same car which carried me and others. We had to wait there for a train about four hours. A frisky switch engine kept passing back and forth, which the woman watched closely. About midday it came to a standstill close to the depot, which was the old lady's opportunity. Adjusting her spectacles to see well, she went close to the engine and walked around it, scrutinizing it carefully. Unperceived by her, the engineer got on it from the opposite side from where she was, and suddenly pulled the lever, Avhich started it off at a lively rate. In her surprise and with uplifted hands, she exclaimed, ^'Oh, I see now how it is ; that engine has the go in it !" Our steward on that steamer, and many others, and some by a sad experience, have learned that Avhen persons are really seasick, their stomachs have the "go" in them. If everybody could manage that matter as well as a Frenchman did, who was a passenger with me on a sail vessel once, it would not be so terrible to be seasick. That man ate his meals regularly. At dinner the first course was soup, which he would eat, and then go on deck and heave it overboard, and then he would eat the second course and do likewise, and return for the dessert. He said he paid for three meals a day, and it was his duty to eat them and nobody's business what he did with them afterward. The same vessel which carried me and my comrades to 45' Fiftji-fivc Years of Active Life Frcelowii, wont (in to ^lonrovia, Lilicria. Tlio captain offered me free passage to ^lonrovia, which 1 accepted. I spent three weeks there visiting the schools, witnessing the proceed- ings of the Liberian Congress^ and mingling with the people generally. I went with the presiding elder of the Methodist Church to a mission station about thirty miles up the. St. Paul Kiver. I also saw the ^lulenburg mission farm on the same river, where the Lutherans were carrying on a manual labor enterprise in connection with schools and religious services. I obtained valuable information respecting the condition of the people, and especially the kinds of work to be done to enlighten and save them from the degraded state in which they were. I felt more than ever that the place for the United Brethren Church to work was in Sierra Leone, and returned there to renew my efforts to secure a deed for land at Shenge to establish a mission station. By tlie help of ^Fr. D. W. Burton I got a bond from ^\v. (*aulker for fully one hundred acres of land, which proved to be a very desirable site for mission stations and headquarters for our mission in Africa. During my stay in Africa, J. K. Billheimer had a severe attack of fever. I being both his doctor and nurse, got him through safely, but oh, what faces he did make! especially the second and fourth days, when I gave liim five-grain doses of quinine every three hours. Having accomplished the work T wont to do, I returned to the United States just in tiiiio to meet the Board of Mis- sions, and to attend the General Conference which met early in the month of May, ISoT. At that Conference I was elected corresponding secretary of the Board of ]\[is- sions, in the place of Rev. J. C. Bright, who had served in that capacity the previous four years. I felt that it was wrong for the General Conference not to reelect "Mr. Bright, and tendered my resignation, which the board refused to accept. I therefore entered upon the work, and did more lecturing and soliciting of money than T was able lo endure, n^sulting 4G In the Gospel Ministry in sickness which kept me from doing anything for four months, nearl)' ending my life. St. Paul once said, "For what I would, that I do not : but what I hate, that I do." Such was my experience during this year. I commenced it as a home missionary, then became a missionary in Africa, then was secretary of the board, and tinally was pronounced so near to death that I would not live three months, which prediction was not fulfilled. It is said that a farmer once went to market with two crocks, one filled with apple butter, and the other with cottage cheese. He soon had customers for both, but had but one ladle to dip with. The one article was white, the other black; and the use of the same ladle soon left traces of each upon the other, and finally they looked so much alike that he could not tell Avhich jar had the smear-case and which the apple butter. j\Iy work for the year had been almost as badly mixed. 47 CHAPTER VIII. 1857-58 — Disappointing the Doctors — Lecturing in German at a Penn sylvania Camp-meeting — An Experience — Saving tlie Credit of the Missionary Society. At the beginning of the eighth year of my ministry I was a very sick man. I had spent all of the month of August in Pennsylvania, where I attended four camp-meetings in two weeks, and held a number of special missionary meetings during the other two. I preached and lectured on Africa and solicited money for missions privately, securing about $3,000 in cash and notes ; but overwork brought on a severe attack of sickness. After a month's illness I was able to reach my home in Ohio, where two doctors told me that I could not live over three months. They gave me no medicine, but told me to eat rye mush and milk, and drink water in which slippery elm bark had been soaked. Upon these I lived exclusively for a couple of months. Having been told in Africa once by a doctor that I could not live over night, and having made several narrow escapes from death on sea and land, I deter- mined to do my best to make those doctors false prophets. I soon began to gain in health, and at the end of three months I preached again, and have been doing that, and much other work, ever since. Since then I have been ten times to Africa, eight times to Germany, to California, Oregon, and Washing- ton twice, and to many other places in the United States a number of times. Going from the intense hot weather of Africa to the severe cold of Germany was an ordeal tlirough which I passed several times, and which robust constitutions often do not endure without permanent injury. Foreign mission work was such a new thing among our people then and the luibits of the people in Africa were so 48 REV. O. HADLEY Missionary to Africa In the Gospel Ministry strange, that a description of tliese greatly interested the Pennsylvanians. Great crowds attended my public addresses, and listened with ears and eyes to the descriptions and exhi- bitions I gave of their idols, articles of clothing, and other curios which I brought from Africa. Among the experiences I had to relate was that' of my lirst Sunday spent in Africa, when I preached in a Wesleyan chapel. In the gallery were seated a number of raw heathen. Soon after I commenced preaching I saw a man with a long switch, or rod, passing around the gallery, and every no-,*^ and then he struck some one. At least half a dozen weie thus treated during the thirty minutes I preached that day. As soon as the services closed I asked why that was done, and was told that the natives were apt to go to sleep or talk aloud, and the man was there with the rod to wake them up and to make them be still. That man made more impressions on about a half a dozen people that day with his rod than my sermon. One young man jumped up and screamed quite loud when the rod was laid across his shoulders. There was another kind of flogging the Africans spoke of which they called "God flog." If any great evil befell an individual, or a community, they Avould say that such 'had caught "God flog," or "big God flog," meaning that a judg- ment had come upon them from God. Going up the Boom "Eiver, the captain of my boat pointed to a place that was once a large town, but nearly deserted then, having been torn all to pieces by a tornado. He said, "Massa, that large, good town once, but it catch one big, big God flog, which nearly destroyed it, and killed plenty people." While laboring in the East, I attended a camp-meeting two miles north of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The people there Avere slow to respond to my solicitation for missionary money, but promised me a good collection if I would lecture to them in German. I could speak a little German, and as they could not understand English well, being anxious to make five hun- dred dollars that Sabbath afternoon, I told them I would 4 49 Fiftij-jivc Years of Aclirc Life speak some German; When Gi-rnian words failed me I would nse English. There ^vas a large audience present, including lawyers, doctors, and ministers from Lebanon. Of course many things I told were amusing, and would have been so told in plain English, but as told in my broken German, sand- wiched with English, they were very funny. I sweat and did my best to make that congregation understand me. They laughed boisterously, and' even Bishop Glossbrenner laughed until tears stood in his eyes. The five hundred dollars were all made up, but I vowed then and there never to deliver another English-German lecture on Africa. A well-dressed woman came to me at the close of the meet- ing, and asked me to deliver the lecture in the court-house in Lebanon, saying she would pay me fifty dollars cash if I would. She said it would be a big treat to the people there, especially if I would repeat what I said about being made a prisoner in Africa. Once afterward, in Wcstfield, Illinois, after I had delivered a lecture on Africa, under the auspices of the college authorities, I was offered fifty dollars by a man who had come ten miles to hear me, if I would go to his town and deliver the lecture. Had I not nearly frozen to death getting to Westfield, and should have had another similar cold ride to reach his town, I should have accepted his propo- sition. But how and why I was made a prisoner in Africa ought to be told here. It occurred al)Out six weeks after I reached the Dark Continent the first time. I had followed a path leading to a devil-house in the woods, at which I stopped and -took into my hand a beautiful, round stone, which was in the house. A naked boy close by, l)ut unperceived by me, gave a hideous scream, and gesticulated vigorously. I put down the stone where I got it, and went to ilic town of Wela close by, wlicrc Ihc mission l)oat and several other uiissionnrios were. The licad iiiau llici-e told the comiiauy that I liad done a liad lliiiig; lliat if one of Iheir nu-n had done wliat 1 did he would have been sold as a slave, and if one of their women 50 In the Gospel Ministrij had done it, she would have been killed. He said I must pay plenty of money, but as I had not been in the country long, and did not have good African sense yet, the sum would ^e less than if I had been there longer. Finally, the price of my re- lease was agreed upon, to be paid in goods we had with us to buy provisions with, except a piece of silver the headman said he must have to appease the anger of the devil, who, he said, was very angi-y because I had interfered with the contents of the devil-house. Another missionary, who had been in the country longer than I, became my advocate, and he told me not to give any silver, for if I did it would have to be repeated every time I went to that town. My attorney in the case offered to give a l)ar of lead which we had with us, and after a long time the headman agreed to take it, and proceeded to show the crowd how he would fool the devil. Having a knife in his right hand, he took the bar of lead in the other, and then showed how he would cut the surface off, and make the lead shine "all the same like silver," and the devil would not know the difference. They all laughed heartily when shown how Satan was to be made to believe that lead was silver. My severe sickness, from which the doctors said I could not recover, so prostrated me that I resigned my office, and Mr. Bright, my predecessor, became my successor. By request of the executive committee, I visited Pennsylvania in the spring of 1858, and held a number of missionary meetings and at- tended the annual meeting of the Board of Missions, which met there. During June, July, and August, I supplied a cir- cuit near Dayton, there being a vacancy. In the meantime, Mr. Bright's health became poor, and he refused the secretaryship. I was urged to take it, which finally I did, and continued in the office for twenty-eight consecutive years, except the few months during which I was sick, as has already been stated. In the autumn of 1857, in New York, I contracted for a house to lie made ready there to set up when it reached Africa. Just at the time I was so very sick in Pennsylvania the money became due, being over $1,000, and this had to be 51 Fifty-five I'carii of Active Life borrowed. in bank in Dayton for ninety days. Before the ex- piration of that time there was great stringency in the money market, and none was to be had anywhere. A German friend of mine agreed that if I would give my personal note and a mortgage on my home, he would give me eight hundred dol- lars he had in bank. This was done and the Missionary So- ciety's paper was kept from going to protest. There was a debt of about seven thousand dollars against the Missionary Society when I was first elected secretary, which, with the great stringency of the money market for the next few years, made it hard to keep our missionaries in the field. The sec- retary had all the work to do, as the treasurer only held the funds of the society, receiving no salary therefor. Sometimes it was very hard work to keep the ship afloat, and the officers of the Board felt exceedingly sorry when missionaries could not be paid promptly. f.2 CHAPTER IX. 1858-59- — Dealing with the Annual Conferences — Hardest Work — ■ Spirit of the South — Some Incidents. I commenced the ninth year of my ministerial life feeling that I was to be Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Mis- sions. The General Conference having refused to accept my resignation and the Executive Committee having relieved me only because of ill health, it looked as though it were my duty to accept the responsibility, though I felt my inability to do the work successfully. One thing that made the secretaryship a very responsible, delicate, and difficult work at that time was the fact that the self-supporting conferences were doing considerable home missionary work, and they had the right to determine by vote, annually, what proportion of the missionary money the pas- tors collected should go to the Board of Missions, and what they would retain for home missions. I will never forget some of the hard contests I passed through to get a reasonable share of the money for the frontier and the foreign missions of the Church, which the Board were responsible for. At one of the eastern conferences I was appointed as fifth man on the committee on missions by the presiding officer. The com- mittee met at night without giving me notice of the meeting, and told me next morning that I must submit to their report, for they had nearly all the conference on their side. The re- port was read soon after the session opened. It proposed to give to the Board only the amount which might be left after paying their home misssionaries, which would be about one- eighth of their collections for missions. I remarked to the conference that I had not been notified of the meeting of the committee. I went on to show what a large and important 53 Fifly-fivc Years uf Actice Life work the Board luid on the frontiers of our country, and what a great mission field it had entered in Africa, and that they ought not retain more than two-thirds of the mone}^, and that the other third should go to the destitute people of the great West and of Africa, especially as the Board had to pay a sec- retary and to meet all contingent expenses of the Missionary Society. I plead so earnestly that finally four of the younger members of that conference came round to my view, one of whom moved and another seconded the motion to amend the report so as to give the Board one-third. The whole forenoon was consumed in discussing that question, and just before ad- journing for dinner the vote was taken, which gave the Board one-third, making a difEercnce of several hundred dollars in its favor. Much religious fighting had to be done to over- come the selfishness and covetousness of some people, and to teach them that Christians on earth had more to do than to sing and pray and get happy, and that a solemn obligation rested on them to send the gospel to the destitute and heathen, by giving money to build up the kingdom of God in all the earth. My hardest work in belialf of missions was not done in Af- rica. I suffered most there with sickness, but did my liardest work in America to convert Christians from the error of their way, and to show them their duty to the heathen. For years, as secretary, I preached and lectured on Africa from sixty to eighty times annually, attended from eight to ten annual con- ferences, wrote several hundred letters, and edited the Mis- siuiiari/ Visitor, which was issued semi-monthly. During my previous experiences as an itinerant, I was pre- ])ai'iiig for the ministry while in the ministry. Now I was learning how to l)e a secretary while doing the work of the secretaryship, ^[ingling with so many ministers at the an- nual conferences, and with all the l)ishops, and having my office in the printing establishment of the Cliurch in Dayton, Ohio, coming in contact with the editors of the Clnirch pai)ers, and the Publishing Agent, as well as the members of the 54 In the Gospel Ministry different Church boards, gave me excellent opportunities to learn -and understand many things which had some relation to my work, and which I needed to know to make missions a success in the Church. The peculiarities of some prominent men and their methods were a study to me. One who was appointed one year pre- viously to preach the annual sermon at the meeting of the Board, himself being a member, did not decide what his text was to be until quite late on Saturday evening, when the ser- mon was to be preached next day at ten o'clock. He slept little and kept me awake most of that night reading from a sheet of foolscap scril)l3led all over, then adding other items on another sheet of paper, asking me whether that was the kind of preaching needed. This was the way one of the most eloquent ministers in the Church prepared an annual sermon, and it cost me some work to get scraps of it together for the printer, as that sermon was printed in the proceedings of the Board, as all annual sermons were then. As illustrative of the intolerant spirit'existing in the South at that time, I reproduce the following, taken from the Knox- ville, Tenn., Whig, edited by Rev. Mr. Brownlow. It ap- peared in October, 1858, and was copied extensively in the South. The heading of the article was, "I^ook Out for an Abolitionist." "Rev. John Ruebush, a missionary of the United Brethren, is laboring in east Tennessee, and is a very popular man among negroes. He is the agent for the sale of divers books and publications, hailing from Dayton, Ohio, among them 'Lawrence on Slavery,' 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and such infamous publications. It is astonishing that a mission- ary of this stripe, hailing from that quarter with jjooks, should be tolerated in east Tennessee. We hope this man, and his associates, may run off half of the negroes in the counties where they lal)or. This would bring the citizens to their senses." The writer put this into his report to the Board of ^lissions at the annual meeting. Such a spirit of proscription, from 55 Fifty-five Years of Active Life a minister of the gospel, shows what our missionaries in the slave States had to contend with. One really wonders if such people were in their right mind. A member of the General Conference of 1881 arose and said, "Mr. President, I wish to inquire whether I am in my right mind." Everybody laughed, and the presiding officer remarked that he could not just then answer the brother's question. The brother meant to ask, whether he had the right view concerning a certain measure which had been before that body. A German minister in ex- horting after an excellent English sermon, said, "The brother told the truth, the whole truth, and more than the truth." He simply meant that the arguments in favor of Christianity were stronger than necessary to convince reasonable people of its truthfulness; but being a German, he used the wrong words to express himself. A minister was holding a meeting in a new place in a schoolhouse. One night a number went forward and knelt at the anxious seat; among them was a young man whose father Avas opposed to Christianity, and especially to such ex- ercises. While the minister w^as kneeling and praying, the father went to his son and took hold of him to force him away. The minister suddenly closed his prayer and expostulated with the father to let his son alone until the meeting closed. The man became furious and used profane language, where- upon the minister took him by the back of his neck and seat of his trousers, and carried him to the door of the school- house and pitched him out, saying as he returned, that Christ when upon earth had cast out devils, and he knew of no reason why he should not do the same thing. That minister had been a professional boxer and fighter before his conver- sion, and was a strong man physically and ministerially. That man, whom the writer Icnew quite well, solved that rather serious question quite as easily, and showed fully as much good sense in doing so as did the Virginia slave in solving the following question : 56 In the Gospel Ministry One morning, as Judge C , of Virginia, was starting for town, he was approached by one of his negroes, who, with more or less confusion, asked : "Massa, when yo' goes to tlie co"t-house will yo' git me a license ? I'se gwine to be mar'ed. Git my license, massa?" Eeturning, the judge said: "Sam, you old fool, you didn't tell me who you want to marry, but I remembered how you're always courting Lucinda, and got the license in her name." "Lawd, massa !" exclaimed Sam, "'taint Lucindy; it's Kyarline. What's I gwine to do?" "Well," said the judge, "the only thing will be for me to get another license." "Massa," said Sam, "do yo' pay anyt'ing fur dat license ?" "Yes, Sam, a dollar and seventy-five cents." "Will another license cos' anyt'ing?" said Sam. "Yes, Sam, a dollar and seventy-five cents more," replied the judge. After scratching his woolly pate for a few minutes, Sam re- plied : "Well, massa, I done axed Kyarline an' she said 'Yase,' but dere ain't no dollar an' seventy-five cents' diffunce in dem two niggers, so I'll jus' take Lucindy." It is said that a raw foreigner hired himself to a farmer, who put him to plowing. He went with him to the field and told him to draw a furrow to the other side to where a heifer was standing, supposing, as a matter of course, that he would return along that furrow, and then plow back and forth, as is usually done. After a couple of hours he went out again to see how his man was getting on, when to his surprise he found him following that heifer, which was walking here and tliere through the field. My crossing from one incident to another in this narrative may seem a little like that young man's plowing. 57 CHAPTER X. 1859-GO — Hard Times — '"A Good Deal for Twenty-five Cents"— Mis- sionary Telescope — The Bishop Severe. Owin^- to the stringency of money matters and the debt against the ^lissionary Society, I accepted work at the Miami Annual Conference in September 1859, and was elected pre- siding elder of the Dayton District, which had eleven fields of labor. A couple of tlie ])astors on the district assisted me in doing the work of the Secretary, all of which was done gratuitously. In that way the Missionary Society had no out- lay of money for administration, except for stationery, post- age, etc. The times were really hard and the people not ac- customed to give largely, and the only way to keep the missionaries in the field was to divide among them all the money that was collected for missions, spending as little as possible for contingent expenses. Few people will give as did the poor preacher, who on a cold Saturday met a girl on the street, who stretched out her hand, saying, "Sir, give me something to get food for mamma ; she is sick." Seeing she was poorly clad and emaciated and in real need, he felt like giving her something, but all he had was twenty-five cents, and that was in one piece of money. He hesitated a moment, but finally he gave it to her and went on liis way. Tlie following week, while at his desk preparing a smnnn for tlie next Sunday, he suddenly and unexpectedly became very liappy. As he had not l)een praying, or in any way seeking for such ecstasy, he wondered why he should feel so happy, when he remembered giving that girl the only money he had the Saturday before; then through his tears he raised his eyes to heaven and said, "0 my Lord, that's a good deal for twenty-five cents !" He realized that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." Another illustra- 58 In the Gospel Ministry tion of the good coming to the giver is the case of a bachelor whose health was poor, and who concluded to commit suicide and end his sufferings. He had started to go to the river to drown himself, when he met a beggar girl who said, "Please give me some money to buy food and medicine for my sick mother." As he was on his way to drown himself, he con- cluded to give her all the money he had with him. She thanked him and started away happy. He then felt like going to see what the money would do, and went with the girl to an alley and up a rickety stairway in an old building to the fourth story, and there in a room found a vv'oman lying on some straw, to whom the girl said, "0 mamma, see what this gentleman gave me !" holding the money out so she could see it. That poor dying woman and hungry girl were so happy that they thanked him over and over for his gift. Then as he was starting off to go to the river, it came to him that if giving money made people as happy as that, he had better give all the money he had to poor people before ending his life. After distributing it to the poor, the thought came to him that though he did not care to live for himself, it would be a good thing to live to help others, and he concluded not to commit suicide. One very embarrassing matter in the management of the Missionary Society was the fact that the Missionary Telescope, organ of the Missionaiy Society, which was established by the former Secretary, was promised gratis to all life members and life directors of that society. This required an annual offtlay of five hundred dollars more than was realized from sub- scribers who paid for it, and it had to be discontinued. If all who got it had paid the small sum it cost, it would have given me an excellent medium to promote the cause of mis- sions among the people. I and the brethren who helped me do the work of the Mis- sionary Society kept all going well for that one year. Generally it is no reproach to be poor, but for a missionary society to have an empty treasury when Christians have an 59 Fiftij-jive Years of Active Life abundance to keep it well filled, is both a reproach and sin. I held forty-three qnarterly meetings and would have held the forty-fourth, the last one for the year, but I was called to go to Nebraska and then to Iowa, to hold two conferences for an afflicted bishop. I returned barely in time to meet my conference, where the bishop criticised my report because it was not more complete. Others who had not been hurried all year, as I was, were as severely taken to task. Just before finishing the business of the conference on Saturday evening, a leading member of it said to the bishop that many felt that he had been severe in exacting from them annually complete reports, and asked him to pour a little oil on the troubled waters. The bishop replied that he would leave them on Monday morning for a year, and he hoped that their work would be so well done that there would be no need of his finding fault again, and that was all the comfort we got from him. It was true that the pastors did faithful work the next year, and no fault was found by that bishop at the next an- nual gathering of Miami Conference. His course reminds one of the Irishman who hired to a farmer to drive his four- horse team, and was put to hauling stone. In going through a very deep mud-hole he applied the whip to Dick, who was the leader, leaving the other three horses Avithout any in- centive to work. Being asked why he whipped Dick, who always pulled his best, he replied that it was no use to whip horses which did not pull. AVilling workers are whipped some- times simply because they do pull well. The bishop's criticism reminds me of the reprimand given by a bishop for wearing a beard. The man rebuked asked the bishop whether it was any more harm to wear hair on the under part of his head than on top, when the hair grew there naturally. Another very bald man, with a heavy beard, asked if it really was wicked to have hair on the lower part, and none on top of his head, and if so, Avhat he was to do. That bishop lived long enough to see the folly of his notions, and he wore a heavy beard for some years before he died. GO In the Gospel Ministrij There was a colored minister who preached on the text, "But ^he very hairs of your head are all numbered," wlio said, that if they had a microscope they could see the number on the end of every hair they had. A smart young fellow who thought he would annoy his school-teacher, came to her with a hair and asked her to tell what the number of it was. She told him that was number one, and then pulling a bunch of hair out of his head, she began counting, showing him numbers two, three, four, five, etc., and asked him if he wanted to knoAV anything more about the numbers on the hairs of his head, but he was satisfied. The Board of Missions, at its meeting in 1859, had appro- priated certain sums to all the mission conferences, a part of which they were to collect witliin their own bounds, some appropriations being $500 and $200, which tliey were to col- lect themselves. At the end of the year not only had the Missionary Society failed to pay its part fully, but these con- ferences had failed to collect a part of their portion also. The president of a college and the editor of our Church paper, botli good debaters, at the annual meeting in 1860 had an exceedingly spirited discussion on the question as to how much they had used. The one added the sum the Board had paid to the amount the conference was to raise itself, and made the amount look respectable. The other took what the Board had paid, and added what had actually been collected in the conference, and the sum was considerably less. Tliat del)ate was very amusing. There was a man there who was a trustee of a college, and who Avas a great advocate of manual labor in connection with college study. He made a speech declaring that the only thing for the missionaries who failed to get money to live on to do was to engage in "emanuel lal)or." He always used the word "emanuel" instead of "manual." Cl CHAPTER XI. 18L>0-G1 — Lecturing on Missions — Great Success in the Frontier — "White-Man Fashion"- — Throwing the Teacher. Owing to the continued hard times, making it well nigh impossible to enlarge collections for missions in the ordinary way, and the fact that what was secured was divided between the Board and the annual conferences by the vote of the con- ferences every year, the liome missionaries being voters and present to plead their own wants, the Board was always at a disadvantage. This caused me to strive hard to reach men of wealth who could give large sums, hoping in that way not only to get money for present needs, but by bequest and other forms of obligation to provide for the future. Witli that end in view, I spent much time lecturing on missions, especially showing the great needs of Africa, and wrote a good deal for the Church papers, pleading with God and man for more mis- sionary money. Other friends of missions, especially some of Ihc- iiicmbci's of tlie IJoai'd. also spoke publicly and wrote and prayed in behalf of delivi'rance from our missionary del)t and for more financial ability to keep missionaries at work. Thank God ! tliesc united ]al)0i'S and ])ray('i'S were not in vain. Help did couu' by the gift of about one thousand acres of land, from two members of our Church,'which was wortli more than the debt, l)ut could not be turned into cash at that time with- out great loss, owing to the financial stringeiU'y. 1 also in- fluenced a man, who lived neighboi- to me once, to will to the society a fann and a house and lot, which some years later brought to the Missionary treasury about $14,000. Enough (iisb was realized to reduce tlie debt fi-om .$^ ,'»()() ti) .$.■). 0(10 during this yeai'. G2 In the Gospel Ministry One thing which greatly helped to accomplish these results was the excellent success our missionaries had in the frontier department of our work. There was a wonderful spirit of revival attending their labors. In several instances the mis- sionaries wrote that they must turn aside and do something else to secure a living, for they could not possibly live on the pittance they were receiving, but they did. Like the boy who whistled" in school, and upon being reprimanded, said, "It just whistled itself," so some of our missionaries were in the midst of great revivals which would not allow them to cease their labors. True, they and their families lived poorly enough, but they got along, and God blessed them greatly. The Board and its missionaries tried to retrench, but God's salvation was poured out upon the people abundantly, and they went forward, despite their efforts to go the other way. In the ten mission conferences there were over three thousand accessions to the Church during the year. President Lincoln said that in the middle of the river was a poor place to trade horses. In the midst of the great success of this year it was exceedingly difficult to retrench or lessen the work attempted. Notwithstanding the condition of our treasury made it look as though it must be done, it was not done. There was another condition which made it well nigh impossible to diminish our efforts. We had missionaries in Kentucky and Tennessee who were greatly persecuted on account of our anti-slavery views. We could not abandon them and do right. It looked as if we were held by Providence to stick to the work. On our frontier missions there were ten thousand accessions to the Church and in the entire denomination there were 33,054 in the four years ending May, 1861. There arc times when religious mat- ters do so impress people that they cannot be satisfied with- out, in some wav, showintr their interest in the matter. In Africa, some natives thought that dressing "white man f-isliinn" is to hi' a Cliristian. We had a man of that kind C3 Fifty-five Years of Active Life in our uinploy as captain of the mission boat. He first got a pair of white trousers and put them on; then next day a cheek shirt; a couple of days later red-topped boots and a silk liat were secured. He was from Monday until Saturday getting the outfit, and on Sunday, just after I read my text, he entered the chapel and passed the whole length of the house to the pulpit. He tucked the pants inside the boots to show the red tops; he had his shirt outside of his trousers to be cool, and the hat was worn at an angle of about forty-five degrees on his head. Thus he had turned white man, and as such, sat on the seat in the pulpit during the service. Having been detained in Freetown ))y a slight fever one whole day and night, I had this same man for my night nurse. When we got back to Shenge, he ran to the house to Mr. Gomer and said : "Massa been sick too much this time ; he just lef little bit for die." Simply because he had to stay with me one night to give me water and medicine, he thought I "lef little bit for die." When about eight years old, I and a chum of mine, a year older, were given as our first reading lesson in school, the first chapter of Genesis, one-half for the forenoon and the other half for the afternoon. The teacher was a feeble old man who used the ruler a good deal to- make the scholars study and behave. We were told that the chapter had to be so well studied that we could read it Avithout miscalling any words. There were no first, second, and third readers then. As that chapter had thirty-one verses, we were somewhat per- plexed to find the half-way place in it, and we feared to ask our teacher lest he would answer by hitting us with the ruler, a way he had of answering his scholars not unfrcquently. We made an earnest effort to do as wo were told, but, alas, we made some mistakes while reading in the forenoon and got our hands well warmed with the ruler, which the teacher nearly always had in his hand. We resolved to study in the afternoon and do our best, but decided that if he attemjited to use the ruler on us when reciting again we would grab G4 In the Gospel Ministry his legs- and throw him down, which we did, he coming down upon the puncheon floor pretty hard. After throwing the teacher on the floor we ran out and down a steep bank to the creek near by, where we knew he could not follow us. He came there and called us to come back, which we told him we would not do unless he agreed to cease striking us with that ruler. He did not promise then, but before he dismissed school that evening he said he would not punish us if we returned, nor did he. We continued to go to school and finally did learn to read the first chapter of Genesis, and others in the old Book. That ruler was used less afterwards on others, as well as ourselves, and we were assured of help to down the old teacher again unless he quit his cruelty. That was the first real missionary work I helped plan and ex- ecute, and it did not only the teacher good, but the school, for we got on well afterward. In the same schoolhouse, several years later, another teacher hit me very hard with a four-foot switch, when going to the water-bucket for a drink, saying, "I will teach you how to walk and not make noise." j\Iy father was a director and I told him how I had been treated. He went to the school- house the next morning and turned up a couple of slabs of the floor and pulled out a jug of whisky, and then waited till the teacher came, when he emptied the jug, and told the teacher that if there was any more complaints of his punishing pupils for nothing he would be dismissed. That was another little piece of missionary work I did, and it worked grandly, for that teacher Avas all right when not under the influence of whiskv : and he never was aijain while he tausfht that school. 05 CHAPTER XII. 1861-62 — Goes to Freetown — Dealing With English Law — Anti- Slavery Money — Drunken Captain^ — Encounters a Gale. This was another eventful year. The debt of the ]\Iission- arv Society had again increased from $5,000 to $T,000. The only hope of being able to continue the African mission was to sell the Freetown property, which had been bought for an acclimating and health-recruiting station for missionaries. Our missionary in charge of that work had found a purchaser, but when he came to make the deed a defect in the title was found, which caused the purchaser to decline to take it. With the hope that I might sell it, and thus get money to pay the debts against the mission, and put things in shape to continue the work, the Executive Committee requested me to go to Africa the third time. I sailed from New York City the first of Xovember, and returned the fol- lowing April. I succeeded, after much effort, in selling the house in Freetown and paid all the debts against the mission, amounting to three hundred and seventy dollars. I also bought a canoe for the native missionary, whicli he nnu-h needed, and sup})lio(l him witli money to hold the fort an- other year. The first vessel tliat reached I'rcetown from England after I arrived, brouglit the rumor that England had declared war against the United States, which not only gyeatly militated against the sale of our property in Freetown, but kept me from realizing any cash until a good deed was delivered to the purchaser, signed by every member of our Board of 'Mis- sions. 'My contract was to get one-half down, but the lawyer advised the purchaser to pay nothing before such a deed was furnished him. Had our local trustee done his duty, and had the (Iced Ix'cii made right at first, unicli imulile and expense 66 In the Gospel Ministry would have been saved. - It was necessary to have a local trustee to hold that propert}^ for our Board in America, and he, through carelessness or otherwise, had gotten the matter into good shape for the property to revert to the Crown of England. We being so poor, and England so rich, made such a possibility painful to contemplate. Xever while memory lasts can I forget the patience, perseverance, and shrewdness I had to practise, and the painful emotions which I endured, because of the many difficulties in the way of getting a deed, though I had a power of attorney to sell and convey the property. Another difficulty confronted me. If war should be declared by England against the United States, it would be best for me to leave soon, or I might not get away at all, and my belongings might be confiscated. My best friends advised me to leave as soon as possible, which I did, after all was in shape to sell the property and get the money to apply to prosecu- tion of African missions. Truly, God helped me to bring about that which seemed impossible for a time, and saved our Church from abandoning Africa. I paid the entire expense of that trip to Africa and back on sail vessels, which, however, was a small matter in com- parison to the discomfort and sufferings which I endured. On my way out, a fearful gale filled my cabin with water, and on my way home, an equally severe storm was en- countered. Then the ship was short of provisions on the home voyage. For two weeks the only food we had was wormy bread, "sow belly," as the sailors called it, and black coffee. The captain and crew were very profane, and their only passenger was much neglected. Another remarkable occurrence, or gracious providence, 1 should call it, was this : Just after I returned from Africa, ]\r. W. Blanchard, of Kentucky, came into my office at Day- ton, Ohio, to tell me that he had several thousand dollars of missionary money, and that he had heard that the United Brethren in Christ was an anti-slavery church, and wished to 67 Fifty-five Years of Active Life know how that was. A Disciiiline was shown him with our anti-slavery clause in it, and he was assured that Ave lived up to its requirements, ahsolutely keeping all slave-holders out of the Church. This led to his paying our treasurer two thousand dollars then, and caused him to send more, so that in all we received $4,200 from him. Truly God had heard our people, who had prayed that our missions in Africa and in America should not perish for lack of money to keep them going. About that time a Mr. Lane, of Illinois, gave our Board of Missions land valued at $4,250, and transferred to it notes amounting to $10,007.34. This was not made available for several years, and some of it was never received, but it gave the society a financial basis, or credit, which it had not be- fore, as it had no assets to put against its standing debt of $7,000. These evidences of God's superintending providence greatly encouraged me. My course had been very severely criticised and my motives impugned. I was charged by some with going to Africa simply to make pleasure trips, and by others with attempting the impossible to save "niggers.^ That third trip to Africa was a very trying one in many respects. I shipped to go direct to Freetown, but was first taken to Goree, and the vessel remained there and at Bathurst so long tliat I took steamer from Bathurst, which cost extra. It was while waiting in Goree that I was asked to baptize a white baby, whose parents were English. I did so in the usual way, making a short prayer before going through the cere- mony of applying the water to the child's head. The brevity of tiie service, and the little ceremony used, evidently dis- appointed the parents, and they showed their dissatisfaction. As I was leaving the house I overheard the mother say to the father, "Oh, well, that will do until we get to England, which will 1)0 in a few months, and then we will have the baby bap- tized aright." It was a poor, feeble-looking creature, as most white children are that are born in western Africa, less than six monlhs old, and might not have lived to reach England. OS In tJie Gospel Ministry The couple were quite as much disappointed as was a young woman, whose marriage ceremony I performed soon after I began preaching. Her husband, just before the ceremony, asked me to make it short, as they did not wish to be on the floor long. It was so short that it was all over within less than a minute, including a prayer at the close, when they were told to be seated. The woman turned to her husband and asked him, "Is that all that is to be clone?"- It was all that was done, except to extend to them congratulations, and eat a good supper, after which I left to preach that night at a place several miles away, the wedding being at six o'clock. When our ship left Goree harbor for Bathurst, the captain being quite drunk, got his feet entangled with some rope coiled on the deck of the vessel, causing him to stumble around for a time. His pet dog thought he was playing, and joined in the sport with all his might. This made the cap- tain swear like a sailor, and taking hold of the dog he threw him into the hold of the vessel, hurting him considerably. That captain and his steward, who did all the cooking, were both heavily armed, and had not spoken to each other after the first week out from New York, then over a month. The captain was afraid of the cook, and the cook of the captain. He did his work as well as ocean cooks usually do on sail vessels. I was the only passenger the vessel had, there being, all told, nine of us aboard. Returning home on a sail vessel, we encountered a fearful gale just as we got across the Gulf Stream, which carried us several hundred miles out of our course, and drifted us near to the Bermuda Islands. While at dinner, a large wave knocked in the bulwark of the vessel on one side, and put over six inches of water into our cabin where we were dining. The captain had just come to the table from his bed and was in his stocking feet. He, the first mate, and I were the only ones at the table, as again I was the only passenger aboard. Leaving the table we all went to the door of the cabin, when the captain said, "1 will run her to hell." I then 69 Fifty-five Years of Active Life said, "Captain, we may be nearer that place than you sup- pose," which caused him to cease his profanity, and never until we reached Philadelphia did he utter oaths again in my hearing. That man charged $100 to bring me from Freetown to Philadelphia, and so starved was I that it took me two weeks to get over feeling hungry. We landed at four in the afternoon, when I went to a restaurant and ate some. I again ate at six, taking a train for Pittsburg at that time; then I ate at midnight in Harrisburg, again next morning at Al- toona, and so kept it up for two weeks, never eating till I was satisfied, for fear that it would injiire me. I had a la- borer in Africa once who climbed a large tree and tore skin about the size of a silver dollar off his breast. I paid him all he asked extra for that hazardous undertaking. He tlu-n showed me how he had rubbed the skin off his breast, and said, "Massa, please give me tAvo or three crackers to mend that place." He got the crackers as soon as we got where they were at the mission house, and that sore spot was healed thorebv and liis stomach aratificd. TO CHAPTER XIII. 1862-63 — Civil War — Threaten the Abolitionist Preacher — Authorize Work Among the Freedmen — Visit to President Lincoln — The President's Reply to Doctor Davis. When I entered upon the thirteenth year of my ministerial life, the Civil War of 18G1-1865 was at its height. During that year the great hattles of Yicksburg and Gettysburg were fought. Besides my usual labors as secretary I did some cir- cuit preaching, to supply vacancies made by some of the itin- erants in the Miami Conference who went to war, and others whose labors were interrupted by the war. It required close attention upon the part of ministers to keep church work intact at home and to induce them to give missionary money even up to their former low standard. I was then a member of a church just outside of the city of Dayton, Ohio, which had in it some bitter anti-war people, and who we're very stingy at best. I was told at the close of a week-night prayer-meeting, by a sister memljer, that such ])raying as I and the pastor were doing, and the things preached, had brought on the war, and that she was deter- mined not to hear any more such preaching or pray- ing. She soon got over that foolish threat, and did hear us Ijoth pray for victory for our armies, and for the freedom of the slave. I then lived about two miles west of the court-house of Dayton, and my children went to a country school, in which were the chil- dren of some very bitter secessionists. One night my second son, then about eleven years of age, came from the school gi'eatly agitated, because another boy had told him that his father and others were going to come to our house to clean out that d abolitionist preacher, meaning myself. It so happened tliat I liad to go from home that night. The 71 Fifty-five Years of Active Life lioy's uncle, who was then a cavalryman in Kontuck}-, had captured an excellent double-barrel shot-gun, and sent it to his nephew. Busy as I was that evening preparing to leave home on a night train to be gone several days, I took time to clean up that gun and shoot it a few times to see that it worked all right, and to show my wife how to load and fire it, and what she had better do if she heard footsteps on the porch or at the front door, or if there should be an effort to force an entrance into the house. I left the family alone feeling that all would be well, and sure that if an at- tack was made the party doing so would get the worst of it. Dayton at that time and until after Mr. Vallandigham, a rank secessionist, was sent inside the rebel lines, was the hot- bed of secessionists, and more than once bloodshed was threat- ened, and if such had been precipitated by some overt act, blood, no doubt, would have been shed freely. I heard an old preacher tell once that he fell into company with another traveler crossing the Alleghany Mountains, both on horseback. Toward evening, when at a lonely spot, the stranger pointed a pistol at him and said, "Your money or your life!" The preacher quickly drew the pistol from him, and held it over his head to strike him, when he called out, "Don't do so, for that pistol is empty and I only wanted to scare you a little." Said the preacher : "How could I know whether your pistol was loaded or empty, and liow could I know whether you were in fun or earnest? I ought to knock you off of your horse yet, just to teach you a little sense, and would do so were I not a preacher." That man saw his folly and made an apology. The following taken from my report, made to the Board of ]\rissions in May, 1863, will show to some extent the state of tilings then : "IMeeting at a time when a most wicked re- bellion is exhausting the energies of this country, filling the land with devastation and luoui'iiiiig, it is fit to call to remem- brance the unfaltering adlierence of our fathers to the prin- ciples of right, especially in their firm opposition to that sin 72 In the Gospel Ministry which has so justly brought upon our nation the judgment of Ahiiighty God. For more than forty years we have re- fused membership to slaveholders; because of this many have turned from us, and we have been subjected to much oppo- sition and injustice, especially in the slave States. N"o one now doubts the wisdom of our fathers in preferring right to members and popularity. The progress the nation is making in breaking the shackles of the enslaved is a reward for all that has been suffered and for the sacrifices we may yet have to make before the terrible struggle ends." At that same meeting, the following resolutions were adopted: "1. That we commence a mission among the Freedmen. 2. That in con- nection with this work we will do all we can for the destitute whites in the South. 3. That an appropriation of $400 be made, and the appointment of a man, and that the further interests of this work be referred to the executive committee." Owing to the fact that the Board had already more mission work on hand than it could well provide for, there was a hesi- tancy to undertake more. I proposed to give $200 of the $400 asked, which I did, and the other was made by special collections, and an excellent work was commenced. This was continued for a couple of years and then was turned over to the Freedman's Mission, an organization which did a great and good work in the South, but no better than the United Brethren Church did while it worked there. In August of this year, in company with Bishop Edwards and Dr. L., Davis, I went to Washington City and called on President Lincoln to get government transportation for our missionaries and supplies to open a mission in Vicksburg, Mississippi, also to secure the privilege to occupy vacant houses for the use of the Freedmen. As Mr. Stanton was then Secre- tary of War, we called on him ; he sent us to a Mr. Town- send, and he then sent us to President Lincoln, to whom Ave were introduced by Messrs. Schenck and Wade, then members of Congress from Ohio. We spent three-quarters of an hour "with the President. 73 Fifiij-fivc Years of Active Life All we asked was granted by the President but the use of empty houses. He said he could not allow that except for military purposes. Yicksburg had fallen into our hands only in July, and as a matter of course all was under military control there. The President was in his shirt sleeves, and much care worn, yet took ample time to consider all we said to him. He told how he was killing slavery, as a good doc- tor would remove a wen from a man's neck, not by cutting it out, for in that case the man might bleed to death, but by squeezing it hard every now and then and killing it that way. H he attempted to al)olish slavery at once, the nation would probably die, so he wished to kill slavery and yet save our na- tion. When we were ready to leave, Doctor Davis said, while holding the President's hand, "I hope God will be with you." To which he replied quickly, "It is much more important that I be with God, for he is always right." President Lincoln had to bring about the abolition of slavery like the old slave told his master of the way his cart and yoke of oxen were destroyed. The slave was sent to the woods for a load of wood. He cut down a tree which fell the opposite way from what he ex]>ecte(l, killing both oxen and badly breaking the cart. Peturning without anything, his master asked him where the cart and oxen were. He said he cut down a tree and it fell the wrong way. and killed one ox. "Well, why did you not bring the otber ox and cart with you?'' "Why, massa, dat tree broke de cart.'" "Why did you not bring home the ox then ?" "Why, massa, dat ox done got killed, too." "Sam, why did you not tell me at once that both oxen were killed and ilie cart smashed?" "Massa, I told you dat way so you could stood it better." So President Lincoln sought to choke slavery to death l)y degrees so the nation could stand it. 74 CHAPTEE XIY. 1863-64 — Opening a School at Vicksburg — Miss Dickey — Subsequent Fate of Vicksburg Mission. The fourteenth year commenced in the autumn of 1863, Avhen our Civil War was causing great suifering. I was very busy, especially looking after the new missions. The work among the Freedmen pleased our people, and they freely sent money, clothing, and books for that purpose. By December we had two ministers and four women teachers in Vicksburg, Mississippi, teaching five hundred freedmen and preaching to many more. A church was organized, and grew to over four hundred members in one year. A school was commenced at Davis Bend, not very far from Vicksburg, which could be continued only a couple of months because of the withdrawal of the Federal troops, making it unsafe to continue it longer. At one time we had nine laborers in Vicksburg, but some did not remain very long on account of becoming sick. The prog- ress made by the freedmen in their studies was remarkable. In a few months many of them learned to read quite well, and made equally as rapid progress in penmanship, geography, grammar, and arithmetic. They eagerly sought all the knowl- edge within their reach, both in the day and Sunday schools, and by listening to preaching. This was true of voung and old. During the year I visited Vicksburg, and spent several days there, including a Sa1)bath, when I preached to a large congregation made up of freedmen, our teachers and others. Chaplain Warren, a venerable and humorous minister, was the general superintendent of the freedmen's educational and religious work there, and he told me that the United Brethren Church had sent a company of excellent teachers 75 Fifty-ficc I'ear^ of Active Life and workers to Vicksburg, One lady, he remarked, was not suited to labor with others, so he put her alone, and she was doing efficient work. That lady teacher was not satisfied to have others do as they liked, but insisted on having them do as she dictated, and yet she was a good Christian worker. Another one of the teachers w'e sent there, not being as good a scholar as she thought she ought to be, and quite poor, pawned her watch to get money to go to IMt. Holyoke, Massa- chusetts, where she spent four years working her way through college. She then went South and opened a school for col- ored girls, which grew to become a large and prosperous in- stitution, conducted after the Mt. Holyoke plan. She, being its president, frequently came North and East to solicit money, while friends in the South helped her, until that in- stitution owned about one hundred and sixty acres of land, excellent l)uildings, and tlie apparatus and equipment neces- sary to operate it. This she did for about thirty years, or until her death, in January, 190-i. I first met Sarah A. Dickey at the juourner's bench. She was seventeen nights at the altar seeking salvation with all the earnestness of her soul. How true the declaration made by St. Paul, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." God knew the work he was preparing that young woman for, and the test of faith and perseverance she needed during the time she agonized at that altar for the pardon of sin and to obtain evidence of lior acceptance with God. During my stay in Vicksburg, in company witli several of our teacliers I visited the tree under which General Pemberton surrendered to General Grant, and had a limb cut for a cane, wliicli is still in the family. As I do not wish to write about our work in Vicksburg again, I will run ahead a few years. That work, so glorious in results, being discontinued, led to severe criticism for llirowing away several thousand dollars, which some thought 76 In the Gospel Ministnj was done simply because we did not gather into United Breth- ren churches the people we had helped. The report I made to our Board of Missions one year later had these words in it: "During the year about fifteen thousand freedmen received instruction in the Southwest, seven hundred of them from our teachers, many of whom have learned to read and write cfuite well." The following was passed by 'the Board at that time: "That it is, the duty of the Christian church to put forth extraordinary efforts for the spiritual, moral, and political regeneration of the people of the South, without distinction of color; and that in view of the antecedent history of the United Brethren Church, the position it has always occupied with respect to the subject of slavery and the rights of the en- slaved, it is peculiarly fitting and incumbent upon it to go and occupy, to the fullest extent of its ability, this moral waste and needy field, and that not less than ten thousand dollars be applied to this work." Owing to the changed relations of the North and South at the close of the war, we resolved not to continue the freed- man's mission as a separate department of work, but to send as many missionaries into the Southern field as we could, to labor for the salvation of the people irrespective of color. Shortly after hostilities ceased the military authorities at Vicksburg remanded the lot upon which our mission chapel was built to its owner, who demanded the removal of the build- ing at once. As we could not procure another lot without great cost, it was thought best to abandon that place altogether. The people who had united with our Church had mostly gone to other places, and the city was fully occupied by other churches. We received for the house four hundred and fifty dollars, and for goods and other equipments w^e had there, three hundred and nineteen dollars, a total of seven hundred and sixty-nine dollars. Our Board did great good while it operated in Vicksburg, but alas! that was pretty nearly all it did for the South for many years afterward, except having small missions in Kentucky and Tennessee, though it did say 77 Fifty-five Years of Active Life that not less than ten thousand doUars be applied to work in that field. A eobbler's sign read, -^'Soles saved here." A man going in to see what it meant learned that a peg here and a stitch there did save soles. He concluded that it would be a good sign to put on a church, "Souls saved here," and especially if its worsliipers, like the cobbler, did what they could to save souls. There was practical good sense in that mother whose daughter, just after graduating from a high school, was telling to others that she wished next to study psychology, philology, and biol- ogy. She said to the girl, "Stop right there; I have arranged for you a course in roastolog}^, boilology, stitcholog}^ darn- ology, and general domestic hustleology. Now get on your working clothes and I will give you the first lesson." 78 CHAPTER XV. 18G4-65 — In the Christian Commission — Preaching to the Soldiers at Nashville — Smallpox Hospital — A Bishop's Loyalty Questioned — A Joke on Two Home Guards. Fro:^! the fall of 18G4 to the fall of 1865 was a year of un- usual excitement on account of the war. We in the North had much to do to help the Union cause, such as paying for uni- forms for our home guards, supporting soldiers' families, and otherwise helping them. Besides giving considerable sums of money for these purposes, I gave six weeks' time do- ing hard work as a delegate of the Christian Commission. There were thousands of soldiers in the hospitals, and squads of them in other places as guards of railroads and other val- uable property, all of whom needed more attention than the Government could, or at least did give them. The Sanitary and Christian commissions sent persons to minister to their spiritual needs, which they did by distributing religious literature, holding prayer-meetings and preaching, and in some instances supplying them with mittens, socks, etc. Delegates gave their time gratis, but the government gave them transportation to and from the places, and furnished their board and lodging. I went' to Xashville, Tennessee, soon after the battle be- tween Generals Hood and Thomas, in January, 1865, and was first appointed to Hospital Nineteen, in Xashville, where T spent two weeks. The surgeon there who had charge of the badly wounded requested my help to dress the wounds and wait on those who were sick. A young man who had -had one arm and one leg amputated, having also had a Indlet go clear through his right lung and come out, met us with a cheery "Good-morning.*' He was very patient when his wounds were dressed, and said he would be out of that in a few weeks. He 79 Fifty-five Years of Active Life got well. Another man with only a slight flesh -wound on his big toe. made more ado over it than did the badl^'-wounded man, and he said it was sure to kill him, and it did. It was indeed a sickening sight to go through the ward where all were badly wounded, or very sick. In some of the wards the soldiers were cheerful, and showed great loyalty to the Gov- ernment. The Sundays spent in Xashville were very busy days. On one I preached four times — once to a regiment just outside the city in the open air, the soldiers being formed into a hol- low square, while I stood on the stump of a large oak tree. The colonel of the regiment and several officers stood around the stump. Being the last of February, it was cold, and hence I kept my overcoat and gloves on while I preached from the text, "As he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled." There were good singers in that regiment who led the singing, while I did the rest, the service lasting forty minutes. At its close the colonel invited me to his tent, and to come back to preach next Sunday, saying he always wanted preaching on Sunday, for he could control his men better, though he was not much of a believer in religion himself. He was much like the steward on an ocean steamer, who on Saturday said he wished me to hold religious services, next day, adding, as he was about to leave, "Don't make your service too religious." There was another passenger on that steamer who said that he "did not l^elieve in machine religion." After two weeks spent in Nashville I was transferred to Bridgeport, Alabama, where for four weeks I preached four times a week, the post chaplain being away, and walked sev- eral miles every day distributing hymn-l)ooks and religious newspapers among the different squads of soldiers who were guarding munitions of war and other property. While there a squad of rel)ol ])risoners came, to wliom I ministered th»> same as to our soldiers. 80 //( tlie Gospel Ministry At a smallpox hosjoital, fully two miles away, nearly fifty soldiers died, to which place I was forbidden to go. They were in a sad condition, with no surgeon, only the surgeon's steward visiting them every other day to give medicine and to instruct their nurses as to what to do. I stole off several times and went there and held religious services, preaching several times to the great comfort of those soldiers, some of whose faces were almost a solid scab, but they took in all that was said. Having had the smallpox two years before, I was safe. I wore a very long overcoat, which was kept closely buttoned when there, and this I took off before I got to my boarding-place, and hung it on the limb of a tree where the wind and air purified it ere I took it into the house. It was doing this that gave me away, and I had to quit going to administer spiritual consolation to the suffering and dying men of that hospital. There were names given me by some of the sick men, which reminded me of the following, reported by Eev. W. F. McCauley to a Cincinnati paper : "My predecessor was one Eev. Jeremiah Prophet Elias Kumler. You think that's odd ? Well, listen to the names of his brothers and sisters. A sister was named Juan Fernandez Island Kumler. Another sister was Tierra Del Fuego Kumler, while a brother was William Harold King Agrippa Kumler. Another brother bore the name Sir Walter Scott Primrose Kumler. A cleverer or nicer family than those Kumlers it has not been my chance to meet. The minister always signed himself *J. P. E. Kumler.' " All the Kumlers named were full cousins to me, and grandchildren of Bishop Henry Kumler, who was a member of the first General Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. At the annual meeting in May that year, my annual report said : "Nothing of an extraordinary character transpired during the year in connection with our mission work, though some things were accomplished that are highly gratifying, among which may be named the payment of our standing 6 81 Fifty-jiv" Years of Active Life debt. The treasury has no liabilities against it.'" All were very glad to hear that statement. At the General Conference whieh met immediately after the Board adjourned, and of whieh body the writer was a member, I took an active part in bringing out the real facts respecting one of the bishops of the Church, who lived in a slave State, inside of the rebel lines, and whose loyalty to the Union cause was suspected. Keports had reached the North that he had helped the Southern rebellion, which he came near doing, but not in a censurable way. He had a son-in-law who was an officer in the rebel cavalry, who Icnew that the bishop was to hold a quarterly meeting near where he was at that time. They lived in the same house, and the son-in-laAV wrote to the bishop that he should ride a certain horse to that meeting to leave with him, and take l)ack home the one tliat he then had, as he was lame; and lie did this. After that and some other things were explained, the bishop passed without further criticism, and was reelected bishop and served twenty years afterward, as he had served twenty before, forty years in all. Some of the bish()])'s stanchest friends had said they had no use for any one who sympathized with the rebellion, and it was clear that he would have been defeated but for my questioning him till he told it all, which he was not inclined to do, and thought hard of me for pressing it, until it was explained months afterward. Two preachers living in a village in Butler County, Ohio, were members of the Home Guards. When Morgan's army ])assed through southern Indiana into Ohio, it was thought it wouhl raid Hamilton, and the Home Guards were called out to dt'fend that place. The two preachers rode to Hamil- ton in the same l)iiggy. One said to the other as they neared that city, "Brother J , this is serious business we are in to-day." "Yes," said ilie otlier, '"'wi^ may be slint. and T would not l)e shot for all Hamilton." At tlie given lioui- they rejiorted for dutv and \ver(> told that tlu'y should return soon after dinner and grt iheir arms and aniiuuniiion. By that time 82 In the Gospel Ministri/ word came that Morgan had passed south of Hamilton, and they would not be needed. They returned home, but the joke of not being willing to be shot for all Hamilton got out on them, and they were often twitted. ]\Iany years ago a preacher had to ride all day in the rain, over corduroy roads and through deep mud, and toward evening his horse's foot got fast, and in struggling threw him and his saddle- bags into the muddy water. He had felt cheerful all day, but now his clean clothes were wet and dirty, and he wet and cold, and he felt at first like complaining at his hard lot. Just then it came to him that Satan was trying him, and after pouring the dirty water out of his saddle-bags, he got onto a log and crowed like a rooster, and said, "Xow, old devil, yon thought you would make me mad because of the accident to me, and in that way spoil the meeting I am to hold to-night, but you can't come that game on me." A man, unperceived by the preacher, was a witness to what happened, and he went to the meeting that night and told on the preacher. There was quite a congregation present, and he preached excellently, and great good was done, notwithstand- ing rainj mud, and Satan had hindered. CHAPTER XVI. 1865-6G — Reverses in Africa — Misconceptions of Good People — The German's Blunder — ^The Board's Endorsement. It will be rememljered that I began my ministerial labors the first week of October, 1850, and the conference I joined always met in August or September. Unless I was at the various conferences to plead for the Board, they kept the lion's share of the missionary money for their home missions. I often got increased sums for the Board, and kept the conferences from multiplying home mis- sions, which, in many instances, would have required all the missionary money collected by the pastors. This they could do up to 1869, at which time the General Conference made it obligatory upon them to give the Board from one-quarter to one-half of their missionary money. I shall never forget the sharp contests required to get ■ a reasonable share of that maney previous to 1869. During this year the African mission had serious reverses. There was no American missionary there, though the Board had done its best to send one or two more missionaries to that field. To the native who was in charge, five hundred dollars worth of goods and some money were sent, to enable him to keep the school going and to do some preaching. The vessel upon which these were sent was lost at sea. Tliat left our native missionary so destitute that he had to leave the station and go elsowlicre to earn a living, but liis wife remained and taught the school. They did well, considering the very em- barrassing circumstances in which they were placed. These reverses brought serious criticisms upon me, and re- newed the old charge that I was keojiing money from our home fields wliile attempting the impossible in the helping 84 In the Gospel Ministry of negroes in Africa. I had located the mission, and had earnestly advocated its prosecution, notwithstanding the dis- tractions in the United States growing out of the war, and the great need of missionary work at home. There were then professed Christians, as there are still, who cared little for missions among the heathen, and especially were they in- different, and even opposed to missions among the Africans. iNTever shall I forget how a good brother of a sister church hailed me on the street in Dayton, Ohio, and said: "Hello, Flickinger, I see you are just back from Africa again. I am glad to see you, but feel sorry that you are throwing away your life on niggers, when you might do so much more good among whites. You have been going to Africa for more than twenty years, and you ought to have them all about converted by this time." After looking at him a moment, and knowing that he was a good meaning man, and a real friend of mine, I said to liim : "You Methodists have four or five churches in Dayton, and the Baptists, and Presbyterians, and Lutherans, and United Brethren about as many more each, and in all these there are Sunday schools, and prayer-meetings* and preaching every week, and Dayton has had much Christian work done in it for seventy-five years, and yet it is full of sinners, and some of them are no better than the heathen in Africa, and more guilty before God. JSTow, since with all these religious appliances in Dayton many of the people here are not yet converted, you ought not expect the Africans all to be converted in so short a time." He replied that there were some "niggers" that could not be helped morally or religious- ly. I admitted that, but said that there were scores of white people in Dayton and elsewhere who could not be improved either. They would continue to be the same lazy, filthy, wicked creatures they were then, and had been all their lives probably. Just so with some negroes; but about as large a proportion of them would be benefited by Christianity as of whites. I reminded him of the fact that the people of western Africa had about twenty centuries of heathenism behind 85 Fifty-five I'ears of Active Life them, and that we ought not to expect as much from them as from Americans. I often think of my little five-year-old boy, who had been playing with other children, and felt that they had imposed on him. He came to me and said, "Papa, they don't treat me right, and I would run off and get away from them if I knew where to run to." I have often felt that I would like to get away from unreasonable people. It is said that an Irish soldier who was charged with cowardice exonerated himself from Ijlame by saying that it was his legs that refused to go into battle. My father had a tenant who had recently come from Ger- many. He became a Christian, and in social meetings would often sing the hymn, "Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone," with tears in his eyes and glory in his soul, but he sang it, "Jesus my all and heaven is gone." The Lord knew that he meant all right, though his words were wrong. So I was con- soled often with the thought that the Lord knew I meant it right, when charged with wasting time and money in • my efforts to help x\frica. I am glad that that kind of opposition to Africa has about ceased. When a lad not over six years of age, at a meeting in my father's house one night, I was sit- ting on a slab bench so high that my feet could not reach the floor. The meeting lasted about two hours. As soon as the benediction was pronounced, I was on my feet stretching myself, and saying that I was glad it was over with once more. The people laughed and my mother reproved me for that honest expression of mine. I was just as glad when high officials in the Church and others ceased their unreasonable and unscriptural opposition to the African mission. A bishop and a very prominent layman nearly forty years ago proved conclusively, as they thought, that the United Breth- ren Church could not support a mission in Africa, and that Satan was prompting me to favor missions there to the detri- ment of home missions. Tliat was ])ul)lished in the Heligious Telescope. 86 In the Gospel Ministry The Board of Missions at its annual meeting in 1866 adopted the following paper, which gave me some relief and satisfaction : "Whereas, God has graciously preserved our mission in Africa through all the actions and burdens of the late war, and has blessed our labors there, making the mission a marked power for good among the people, thus showing his approbation of our efforts, therefore, "Resolved, 1. That we realize'our responsibility as a Board and Church, and we call upon our people everywhere to give more liberally of their means, that we may prosecute that work with greater energy. "2. That our thanks are due to the missionaries who have sustained that mission during the long years of rebellion in this country, while we were compelled to turn aside to exter- minate the heathenish institution of slavery in America." At that meeting the Board appointed Eev. 0. Hadley and wife as missionaries to go to Africa, which was also an en- dorsement of my course in advocating the continuance of the African mission. 87 CHAPTER XVII. 1866-67 — Metallic Casket — Sample of Opposition to Foreign Missions — Discouragements. Xot long before I went to Africa the first time with two other brethren, the question was asked whether it would not be the wise thing to take three iron, air-tight caskets with us, in which our bodies might be brought back to this country in case of our death. It was then beheved that the majority of all who went to western Africa died there. My reply was that I cared not what the other brethren did, but I wished to be buried where I died. If I died at sea, let me be buried in the ocean, and if in Africa, I would be buried there. Owing to the long years which passed ere we had success in Africa, the hea^7 burdens borne, and the severe criticisms and com- plaints made, I have felt a few times in "my life that I would have been spared a great deal if I had died the first time in Africa. In an article in the Religious Telescope, written in reply to an article of mine, a bishop of our Church said : "The com- mission 'Go ye into all the world' ha? been fulfilled long ago, and it remains to be proven that this command does mean that after a nation has become fully established in the doc- trine of Christ, and then retrogrades into idolatry, it should be fulfilled the second time. Ix-t the African alone, Ephraira has turned to his idols, until God sees fit to send men whose calling will be made plain to them by the spirit of truth ; such will not hesitate to obey. I am fearful that the devil is play- ing pranks with some of our preachers, so as to make our home work less prosperous."" Take the words, "Fntil God s^-es fit to send men whose calling will be made plain to them by the spirit of truth ; such will not hesitate to obey." That In the Gospel Ministry bishop assumed that the writer, and others who had gone to Africa, had not been called to that work by God, and that he was fearful that the devil was using us and our advocacy of the African mission "for the purpose of making our home work less prosperous." I give some prominence to the character of the men and the kind of opposition they put in the way of the African mission, to show how very determined good peo- ple may be to carry their ends and to oppose what God's Word so clearly teaches is our duty. A colored preacher said in a sermon that unless the wicked repented and received forgive- ness of sin, they would be forever lost, as sure as he would kill the fly then sitting on his left hand. He struck and missed it. But he did not place himself in a more awkward and embarrassing position than did those opposers of the African mission, especially those who kept up their opposition until great success attended our work in Africa. A very few did that even afterward by denying the truth of the good done there, as reported by our missionaries. A sister, at whose house I had been a welcome guest for years and whose husband had been my special friend^ once left the church where I preached a missionary sermon, and went home to get dinner, saying at the table, by way of apology for doing so, that she did not enjoy missionary ser- m.ons and lectures, especially since there was always some-, thing in them about our African mission, and she had no use for negroes. That woman showed real pleasure when she heard of the assassination of President Lincoln. But for her being, in most respects, an excellent woman, though ignorant and narrow, she would have been roughly handled by some of her neighbors, who told her never again to utter words ap- proving Lincoln's assassination or she would be punished. She took the hint and talked less thereafter. Once at an annual conference in Kansas I preached one of my best missionary sermons, at the close of which a sister said to me : "Why do you preach such stuff out here in Kan- sas ? We all know that you can preach good sermons, as you 89 Fifty-five Years of Active Life used to do wIk'ii you were our pastor in Ohio. What a pity you made such a mistake, for now the people will go away cold and disappointed, instead of being shouting happy, as we expected to be made at the meeting to-night." Xo doubt my missionary talks did keep back some shouting. Kev. (). Hadlcy and wifi', our missionaries in Africa during this year, were much discouraged, as a statement from their report shows. Especially was it so in view of an empty treas- ury and some debts which had accumulated. He wrote: '^Both mission boats are unscaworthy, and the mission chapel is so badly eaten by bug- a- bugs that it had to be propped to keep it from falling. We are compelled to use the mission residence for worship, and for a schoolroom. We scarcely know Avhat to say of the mission in spiritual things. We are afflicted at the thought that so little is done." jSTothing is more discouraging than the want of success, and with such good missionaries on the field as tlie Hadleys sending the report they did, with the opposition at home, my load truly was a heavy one. I had a much esteemed friend who, though a very kind man, a good citizen, and al- ways ready to minister to the needs and happiness of others, was not a Christian. He and his family had an income suf- ficient to own a home, but they lived and dressed well and saved nothing. One day the question came up, in the way of a jest, as to what" this man lacked, or in what he failed to do as he ought. The answer came into my mind like a flash, and I said to him, '"'You are neither laying up treasure on earth nor in heaven." So it seemed to be about this time that our Church was neither converting sinners from the errors of their way in Africa, nor among the officials in America. When Christians fully believe the commission of Christ, "Go ye into all the world; and preach the gospel to every creature," and when the heathen do turn to God by hundreds, there is encouragement from both ends of the line. 90 CHAPTER XVIII. 1867-G8 — Success on the Frontier — Church Erection — An Iowa Ex- ample — Discouragements in Africa. While some discouragements continued, there were more encouraging features connected with my work this year than existed during several previous ones. The fact that during this year 7,000 persons had been re- ceived into the Churcli b}' our missionaries on the home and frontier missions;, was used as an argument against our African mission, where so few had been induced to become Christians. Had I not offset that argument by showing that our commencing a foreign mission had greatly awak- ened interest in the cause of missions generally, and that thereby we got more money for missions in the United States than ever before, that argument against Africa would have" won many who were friendly to it, or at least not opposed to it. I did show conclusively that Africa was attracting inter- est, that it had stimulated our people to give more liberally than they had ever done before, and that was one reason why a considerable part of the money collected for missions ought to go to Africa. It is a fact that as soon as the Church went abroad to preach the gospel her prosperity increased at home, where she had more money for mission work than ever be- fore. I had urged the organization of a church erection society for several years, but it was objected to on the ground that it was unwise to increase organizations requiring money. The Church had in the twenty years previous organized the Mis- sionary Society, and the Sabbath-School Board, to help desti- tute communities operate Sunday schools ; it had built a num- ber of new colleges, and given considerable money to these en- terprises, and hence it was said it were better not to have any 91 Fifty- five Tears of Active Life more organizations at present. I did succeed, however, in getting church erection organized at the General Conference of 1869. Though very little was done for some years, it fin- ally grew stronger, and helped to build scores of houses while I was yet its secretary, and it is now helping to build many United Brethren churches. Church erection and missions are handmaids to each other, each helping the other, and both greatly aiding church growth in this country. There was one occurrence that I often told with good effect, to show how much the Church lost by not having a church erection society. At an annual conference in Iowa, an itiner- ant reported one hundred and fifty converts and accessions to the Church as the result of a meeting held in a schoolhouse. Several years afterward I attended the same conference, and very naturally inquired how the society had prospered. To my surprise and chagrin I was told that there was no United Brethren society there then. An effort had been made to build a church soon after the revival, but, the people being poor and much scattered in that new coiintry, it failed. The pastor of another church, in a village three miles from the schoolhouse in which so many had been saved and added to the United Brethren Church, and which they could no longer use for meetings, hearing of their failure to get money to Iniild, told them that there was an organization in Boston which furnished money to poor societies to build houses of worship, and that lie would get them several liundred dollars for tliat purpose if they would unite with liis cburch. They did, and the result was that there was a thriving Congregational church built near that schoolhouse. Had we had a church erection fund then, from which a few hundred dollars could have been loaned for four or five years without interest, as we have had since 1869, we could liave saved over one hundred and fifty members to our Church at that place. The good thing- in our ])lan of helping poor societies to build houses of worship is that the same money goes on helping to build churches while time lasts. Many societies have in this way 92 In the Gospel Ministry secured houses of worship which they could not or would not have built without this help. I have known a number of in- stances where the promise of a loan of from two hundred to five hundred dollars for a few years stimulated societies to build churches, and they afterward met all the cost themselves without calling for the money promised by the Church Erec- tion Society. Believing in these possibilities led me to pre- pare a constitution for a church erection society, and to present it to the General Conference of 1869, which adopted it. Being a member of that General Conference enabled me to work and speak in behalf of church erection, which I did freely. To show my attitude to our work in Africa, I wrote to Eev. 0. Hadley, who was then in charge of that mission, to give his real opinion as to whether we had better abandon Africa altogether. The reply was as follows : "I doubt if there is a field harder than this in all the world. The climate is a great drawback here. By the time we are prepared to work we die, or must go home to recruit our health. Slavery and polygamy exist here; these breed caste, pride, indolence, degradation and robbery. The want of veracity is a great evil ; I almost think they are all liars. The mission has but little hold on them. They do not feel that Christianity is their religion." After receiving this from a man of good judgment and a godly missionary, who had worked among that people long enough to know them well, I was discouraged a little, but felt that the only consistent course was to prosecute that work with greater energy. To abandon Africa was a virtual acknowledgement that the gospel of Christ could not save that people from their deep degradation. The thing to do was to go forward with the work, believing that the gospel was the power of God unto salvation unto all nations, and in due time those who sowed bountifully should also reap bountifully. The members of the Board, with one exception, heartily sanctioned these views, and by its action put upon 93 Fifty-fire I'curs uf Active Life record its position, which was not unlike the inscription put upon the arch of the gateway into a cemetery, "We are here to stay." 94 CHAPTER XIX. ]8fj9_70 — Pleadiiiii- for Bettei- Itules — The Crisis iu African Mission — Thomas Tucker — "Palaver.' The declaration, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil there- of/' is quite as applicable to weeks, months, and years, as it is to days, and perhaps more so, for there are some days when very little evil comes to one, but that is seldom true of the whole year. Several evils had burdened the society, which I felt must be removed this year, if possible. One to be got- ten out of the way was the method of dividing the money col- lected for missions. I believed it necessary to have a rule adopted that would give the Board of Missions a cer- tain proportion of money collected by the pastors for mis- sionary purposes. I had urged that at the General Confer- ences of 18G1 and of 1865, but failed to get such a rule adopted. However, I felt that it was right, and by word of mouth, as well as in the EcUgious Telescope and the Mis- sionary Visitor, I had shown that if the Board of Missions was to prosper such a rule must be enacted. In my report to the Board, which held its annual meeting a few days before the General Conference of 1869, as also in my quadrennial report to that body, I showed clearly that the thousands of destitute people in the southern and Avestern portions of our country, and the millions in Africa, were in greater need than anv portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, in which States more than two-thirds of our missionary money Avas expended. To help to get a rule to give a certain proportion of mis- sionary money to the Board, I showed that an average of one dollar to the memlicr should Ije collected by the pastors, Avhich would have l)oen al)Out twice the amount then olitained for 95 Fifty-five Years of Active Life missions. This was urged for two reasons; namely, that more money ought to be collected for missions, and that by so doing the General Conference would more likely vote the rule de- sired, and give the Board a larger proportion of what was collected. This it did. The rule worked so well that it was practised thereafter until two boards were organized in 1905, one for home, and one for foreign missions. Nothing in the Bible is truer than the declaration : "There is that scat- tereth, and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat : and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." The rule adopted by the G-eneral Conference gave the Board about one-third the missionary money collected by pastors. The strong and rich conferences gave one-half of their collec- tions, and others from one-third to one-fourth. Another, matter that had given me much concern, and that I was determined should bo settled by the General Con- ference of 18G9, was whether the mission in Africa, should be prosecuted in a way to make it successful, or be discon- tinued. That question had agitated the Church and caused considerable discussion for several years, and I was tired of it. The only American missionaries the Church had there. Rev. 0. Hadley and wife, reached America on the tenth of April, after having been in Africa less than two years, and Mr. Hadley died the 21st of that month, Just four weeks before the General Conference met. Their early return, his death, and the unfavorable report they made of the outlook in Africa, with a feeling among some of our people that we were not able to find the missionaries or the money to make that work successful, made rather a strong case against continuing that mission. Notwithstanding all the opposition to its con- tinuance, I used these words in my report to the Conference : "A glorious harvest of souls will yet be gathered there by the church which will sustain laborers in that field." After the question was discussed pro and eon for some time by the 90 ^^div ,y/M,//y//- in the Gospel Ministry General Conference, it voted almost unanimously not to abandon it, but to keep the way open to prosecute that work as soon as laborers and money were available for that pur- pose. That ended forever the question as to whether we should abandon Africa. Mr. Thomas Tucker, one of our first converts in Africa, came to the mission at Shenge a nude, filthy creature, and was employed as a laborer at first, and then foreman of laborers; also captain of our mission boat. After a few years he became a Christian, and then a minister of the gospel. One time he was sent with a boat up one of the rivers to buy rice for the mission. While his boat was at anchor a marauding party seized it, and were already out in the river with it when he came upon the scene. Though he was naturally a coward and easily scared, and the river was deep, he plunged into it and swam to where the boat was, and put out the three men who were making off with it. He said to them, "Ah, you go thief; this God palaver boat." It was the boat the mission- aries used in going to preach. "You may fight and hurt me if you can," he said, "but I will fight for mission boat, and God will help me keep it." In due time the boat came back to the mission with a good supply of rice, and Thomas was a very happy man, because he had won so signal a victory over tha.se who were themselves thieves and robbers, and who would have killed him if they dared. Having used the phrase, "God palaver boat," I wish to say that the word "palaver" is much used by Africans. One can almost speak the whole of the Sherbro dialect with that word. They say "work palaver," "sleep palaver," "eat palaver," "drink palaver," "good palaver," "bad palaver," and "sick palaver." Preaching is "God palaver." It seems to mean quarreling primarily, as when they do quarrel they say they have "palaver," and when it is a serious dissention they say "big palaver," or "hard palaver," or some such qualifying adjective is employed. 97 CHAPTER XX. 1870-71 — Experiences With Tricky Africans — Negotiations With American Missionary Association — Joseph Gonier — Headman Holds Service — Germany. Whex ill Africa the first time I started in a rowboat to go one Imndred and twenty miles, having with me five natives for boatmen. On the sscond day out 1 became so ill that we had to stop early in the afternoon in an African village, and remain there till the next morning. It was Saturda}', and being still sixty miles from my destination, I started quite early, telling my boatmen that they must get me to the end of the journey that night. After all was ready for starting, I had all the awnings put down in the part of the boat I occu- pied to keep the breezes from striking me, and this hid the boatmen from me. The sound of their oars seemed to V)e all right, and I believed all was going on properly. At the end of half an hour I looked out to see how far we had gone, when to my surprise the boat was within one hundred yards of where we started. The boatmen made it up among them- selves that they would not get me to the end of my journey that day, and knowing that I would not travel on Simday, they had planned to spend the day on an island only three miles away. I made it lively for a time, and watched them, and in less than an hour they were opposite the island. They insisted on landing tliere, but I said, "No." Then they said, "]\[aster, our water to drink and to cook with lias all been spilled out of keg." One man had managed with his feet to loosen the stopper in the end of the keg, and let the water run out, so as to compel me to stop, hoping thereby to delay so long that we could not reach our destination tliat day. They were made to 98 In the Gospel Ministry fill the keg with water as quickly as possible, and to pull out from the island, and there was no more stopping till the end of the journey, which was on Sunday morning at daylight. Such conflicts between laborers and their eniployers are com- mon experiences with missionaries in Africa. It is often dif- ficult there to get others to do a reasonable share of work. The natives practise intrigue and deception on missionaries in many ways, as in making regular strokes with their oars without advancing, and in causing the water-keg to get empty. This is often annoying, though sometimes amusing, and mis- sionaries and others are not unfrequently made to realize that the cunning deception and carefully-planned fraud are strong arguments in favor of their being the equals of white people, especially in these respects, though deeply degraded in many things. Respecting the management of the African mission in 1870, the following was adopted by the Board : "Whereas, The Executive Committee during the year did not see its way clear to send laborers to Africa, nor are we able to do so now, therefore, "Resolved, That we will give our property in Africa to the American Missionary Association, with the missionary on the ground, Eev. J. A. Williams, until May, 1873; also that we will give what is needed to support Mr. Williams during the period named." The secretary of the American Missionary Association and I had had a meeting in Oberlin, Ohio, at the instance of our respective Executive Committees, canvassing the situation and the conditions upon which such a transfer "could be made. The last letter from the secretary of the American Missionary Association to me, received but a few days before this meet- ing, contained the following : "Our Executive Committee has authorized me to complete any arrangement that can be ef- fected w^ith you that will not involve increased expense to us, which I think can be done." Pending negotiations between the United Brethren Executive Committee and American 99 Fifty-five Years of Active Life Missionary Association Coniniittee, the sad news reached me that our native missionary in Africa, Mr. Williams, had died. Tliat was only two weeks after the above transfer to the Amer- ican Missionary Association had been considered. The effects of this death upon the Church was to impress it that too little had been done for Africa, and that instead of letting go the feeble hold we had upon it, we ought to redouble our efforts to work there. 1 had agreed to this transfer only on the ground that it was the one chance of retaining a mission in Africa at all, and had been busy in the meantime trying to find a suitable man and his wife to go to Africa to take charge of our mission there. I succeeded in finding a good layman, a colored man, ]\Ir. Joseph Gomer, and his wife, then living in Dayton, Ohio, whom I recommended for that work. The Executive Com- mittee, however, were not all willing to send them, urging as one reason that a minister ought to be sent. I then proposed to accompany them, and remain with them one year. The com- mittee deferred final action one week, and then decided not to allow me to go, but to appoint Mr. and Mrs. Gomer. They sailed from New York to Africa in December, 1870. The thought that so greatly mortified me and caused me to offer my services for a fourth trip to Africa was that I l)elieved that the United Brethren Church was as evangelical and spiritual, and had as good a government, as any in the United States, and with a membership of over 100,000 it ought to possess enough foreign missionary zeal to produce a missionary and his wife to send to Africa, and to furnish the money to sup- port them. I often thought of a good lady I knew whose husband was much from home as a minister doing work for God. She always kept up family worship morning and night, there be- ing several grown sons at home, all of whom were professed Christians and who prayed in turns. These young men had been husking com one day, and at the time for family worship that niglit wore sleepy. The one whose turn it was to lead 100 In the Gospel Ministry ill prayer kuelt down, but soon went to sleep on his knees, with his head resting on the chair. The good mother was so horrified that she exclaimed, "God have mercy on such pray- ing !" Calling to another son, she told him to pray. The boy by that time was nearly splitting his sides laughing at his brother's going to sleep while trying to pray, and he made no effort to comply with her request. Then the good woman commenced praying, and did it so penitently, and earnestly that she turned the sleepiness and levity of the boys into great seriousness and regret at what had happened. It became as serious with them as an occurrence did with some people in Africa, in a village where I often preached, not far from Shenge. There was a native missionary stationed at that place several years. Once he went away to remain several weeks. The first Sabbath after leaving, the head man of the village told the people that there would be a meeting in the barri as usual, and that they must come. He said to some of the boys and girls who had been attending the mission school and could sing, that they must lead the singing, which they did. Then he called upon a Sierra Leone trader who was stopping in the village, ordering him to come to the meeting to pray. He refused at first, but the head man told him that if he did not come to the meeting and pray he must leave his town. Having a canoe and some goods there that he could not move just then, he concluded to comply with the request, and he went to the meeting and mumbled some words of prayer. Then the head man, who was not a Christian, at- tempted to preach, but it got to be a serious thing. He, like the man who attempted to pray, seemed to be deeply con- victed, and was greatly confused. The description given by one present was that "they had big Cod palaver there that day." What motive prompted the head man to hold that meeting we never learned, but he never held another. The writer had for several years favored opening a mission in Germany, for the following reasons: 1. Because the founder of the United Brethren Church was a German. 2. A 101 Fifty-five Years of Active Life large number of our people and their descendants were Ger- man. 3. Germany needed earnest, spiritual, gospel preach- ing. The Board of Missions, at its annual meeting in ^lay, 18G!), had consented to commence a mission in Germany as soon as suitable missionaries could be found to go there. Kev. C. Bisehoff and wife were appointed, and they sailed in Octo- ber, 1869. They commenced work in ISTaila, Bavaria, but as all independent churches were denied many privileges given to the state churches, the work was slow at first. Things soon took a favorable turn, and Ix^fore the first year passed seventy- two persons united with the Church. The Board recom- mended sending another missionary as soon as practicable, which, however, was not done for some time. 102 CHAPTER XXI. 1871-72 — "Only Betsy" — Talking Money — Chinaman and Indian in California — Encouraging News From Africa. My father had a neighbor who, in answer to the question, "Is your family well?" would reply, "Yes, we are about as usual, only Betsy. She keeps her workbag hanging on the hedpost, and takes out a new complaint every morning." He then would proceed to name the particular thing his wife was complaining of that day, sometimes neuralgia, at other times rheumatism, or headache, or some other affliction. This man, sitting in church once, he on one side and his wife on the other side of the middle rail dividing the women from the men, went to sleep during preaching and gof to dreaming, and in his dream he thought their Ijaljy had fallen out of hed, when he cried out, loud enough to be heard all over the house, "There, Betsy, the baby has fallen out of bed again." The night before, this experience had befallen their baby, and in his dream the scene was reenacted in his thoughts. Well, I had some things to complain of, too. I was troubled Ijy the tardiness of some -pastors and their congregations in re- sponding to reasonalile calls to help increase the missionary money. I plead for a more aggressive policy this year, writ- ing a good deal, lioth in the Missionary Visitor and the Re- ligious Telescope. I also recommended the publication of missionary tracts, circulars, and collecting cards for free dis- tril)ution among our people, but these suggestions met with little favor. I also plead that something effective be done to secure money for the Church Erection Society, there being great need in that department. As I was secretary of both the Church Erection and Missionary societies, and the only paid officer they had, my hands were quite full of work. 103 Fifty-fivG Years of Active Life Xotwitlistanding this, I was pressed by the managers of Union Biblical Seminary, and especially by the senior bishop of the Church, to give at least three months to the work of soliciting money for that purpose in connection with my other duties. I therefore attended all the annual conferences I could, and took subscriptions for Union Biblical Seminary. The subscription papers stated that the amounts set opposite the names of subscribers were to be paid several months after date, and they were to be duplicated in one year thereafter. The work required to be done was very laborious, owing to the fact that all names put upon the subscription papers had to be copied from one to three times, and a copy left with each presiding elder, whose duty it was to collect the amounts sub- scribed and forward to the treasurer of the Seminary. The original subscription book was given to its manager. This extra work so seriously affected my health that it took a whole year to regain it. In this connection I might say, while on the subject of extra work, that a few years before I spent considerable time collecting money for the Publishing House debt. During one year I traveled a circuit and collected for the Publishing House two hundred and fifty dollars, paying in addition two hundred dollars on the debt myself. With the assistance of a couple of pastors of Miami Conference I did the work of the secretary at the same time, all of us working gratis for the Missionary Society. I received one hundred and seventy- five dollars more salary on that circuit than had been paid previously, and collected over twice as much missionary money. In the previous quadrennium I gave one week to soliciting money to endow a chair in Otterbein University, the amount, five thousand dollars, being given by my brothers, brothers-in-law, and myself. It is known as the Flickingor chair in Otterbein University. The old lady whose husband had been a life-long itinerant in the United Brethren Church, and who was greatly inter- ested in a lecture on Africa and a money sermon she heard me 104 In the Gospel Minis try deliver at an annual conference, ought to be excused for say- ing, "Flickinger has talked money so much that his mouth has gotten crooked." That which caused me to reluctantly do so much soliciting outside of my regular work was the fact that it took away the only leisure I had for reading and study, which I much desired to do, and felt great' need of doing, to fit me for the position I occupied. When in California, in 1873, in company with Bishop Dick- son attending the Coast conferences, we were holding a woods meeting about three miles from a railroad station and post- office. One day I went in a buggy for the mail, and was re- turning to our stopping place when I overtook a Chinaman who was walking, carrying an ax. I reined up my horse and entered into conversation with him, with a view of doing some missionary work on him. I asked him where he was go- ing, and he replied, "To choppe wood." After some more talk I told him I must go, and that he must be a good man and not steal, or lie, or drink whislry, or swear. He had been very sociable and friendly, but now his face became serious, and with both hands uplifted he exclaimed, "You tellee me too muchee goodee to do all at one time. Too muchee, too muchee." So I had too muchee, too muchee good to look after at one time, and hence did not always succeed as I otherwise would have done. Some days before that interview with the Chinaman, while at the California Conference, Bishop Dickson and I, having our home at the parsonage, had some washing done. The woman came early in the morning, bringing her husband with her. They were the finest looking Indians I ever saw. It was in the month of May and quite warm, and the washing was done out of doors, at the rear end of the parsonage lot, under the shade of a large tree. The Indian husband built the fire, filled the kettle with water, put up the clothes-line, and made himself generally useful helping his wife. Our dinner that day was eaten on the porch in the rear of the parsonage, in full view of where that woman was washing. After dinner 105 Fifty-five Years of Active Life I concluded to go whore she was at work and have a little friendly talk with her. By way of introduction, I said that the day was quite warm. To this she replied with a guttural sound which was neither a grunt nor a groan, mean- ing "yes." Next I asked her if she was not very tired, and re- ceived the same guttural response ; she ke]jt right on rubbing the clothes. Then I asked her where her husband had gone, when she stopped rubbing and wiped the sweat off her forehead, looked me full in the face and said : "My old man no been here since ten o'clock ; he go off and lay down in the shade and sleep ; he all tlie same like white man ; he too much lazy." There was considerable laughter on the porch, as the pastor and his family and Bishop Dickson were within hearing. I had no more questions to ask that woman. During this year, owing to the decided opposition to our mission work in Germany upon the ])art of the state of- ficials, we had but little success there, nor could a second mis- sionary be found to go to that country, as was directed by the Board of Missions at its annual meeting the year before. The outlook was discouraging. Against this, however, there was very encouraging word from Africa, wliere we had had so little success for years. Mr. Gomer and wife had received a hearty welcome among the people, and esjiecially by the chief at Shenge. In about five months after he commenced work there he wrote : "Our meetings are well attended. Chief Caulker himself comes to them, and allows his slaves to come to Sunday school. He enjoins on all the observance of the Sal)bath, has become a professed Christian himself, and urges others to do tlic saiiic. 'V\w peojile are vci'v attcntivi'. es])e- cially Avhen tlie chicr sj^'aks to tlicin in Shei-l)r(>." Another very eiu-oui-agiiig (liing was that the M issldiniri/ Visitor, wliich the writer started in 1S()."), with fears that it would not pay the expense of jjublication. now had a circulation of twenty-five tliousaiid. yielding a niet' ])rofit over all ex])enses. lOG CHAPTER XXII. 1872-73 — Two Remarkable Providences — The Answer to Mrs. Hadley's Prayer — Unexpectedly Meets His Namesake, Daniel Flickinger Wilberforce — Growth of the Home Mission Work. Several remarkable events in conncetion with my work occitrrecl during this year, which I regard as special provi- dences. Eev. J. A. p]vans and Mrs. Hadley were sent to re- inforce the African mission. I accompanied them to New York City to assist in getting their outfit, and to buy supplies •for the mission. The steamer on which they were to sail was to leave Xew York on Saturday, and we reached the city on Wednesday night. On Thursday evening a letter was re- ceived by Mrs. Hadley from her father, severely reprimanding her for going to Africa and leaving her only child with them, and threatening to disinherit her if she did not r-eturn to them. It also contained some rather uncomplimentary things about me for the part I had taken in getting ^Irs. Hadley to return to Africa as a missionary. We were stopping at a boarding-house kept by a Christian, and after evening prayers Mrs. Hadley made known her sad plight, and asked counsel and the prayers of our landlord and his Avife, J\lr. Evans and myself. I had that day bought tick- ets for the two missionaries to go to Liverpool, and to surren- der one would be to incur some loss, but I said I would do that in case she decided not to go. However, I advised that we think and pray over the matter till the next morning, and then decide whether she would proceed on her way to Africa or go home. ]\Iuch of that night was spent in prayer, espe- cially by ]\Irs. Hadley. With her it was truly a time when "weeping may continue for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." We all met next morning at the l)rakfast-tal)le, 107 Fifty-fic^; Years of Active Life when Mrs. Hadley, with a countenance full of saintliness and a tone of cheerfulness, said, "I am going to Africa. My father had consented to my going ere I left home, and I feel God wants me to go." That day was a very busy one with us all, as they were to go aboard early next morning, and I wished to leave for Day- ton, Ohio, on a night train. For a special reason I did not leave New York that Friday night, but went with Mrs, Had- ley and Mr. Evans to the steamer next morning. The fare- wells had all been said, and the writer stood on the pier close to the gangway, where the man stood ready to pull it aboard, when a servant from our boarding-house came running with all his might with an envelope addressed to Mrs. Hadle)^ and handed it to me. I at once called to the captain to get i)er- mission to deliver it to Mrs. Hadley, which was granted, and I ran to her. She opened the envelope and read, "Dear daughter, if you will go to Africa, go with your father's bless- ing." She almost leaped for joy, and so did I at such an an- nouncement, coming in the nick of time before the steamer left. The father had traveled eleven miles on horseback the night, before to reach an office to send that telegram to the daughter whom he had so severely criticised and threatened with financial losses but a few days before. The all-night praying upon the part of that good woman had moved the hand that moves the world. God relieved her of great dis- tress, and put a burden upon her father that caused him to ride twenty-two miles and spend some money to send his blessing to his daughter. Truly God hears prayer, as T have many times realized in behalf of myself and others. Another remarkable incident took place that Friday even- ing in the rooms of the American IMissionary Association. As the United Brethren Board of Missions had no offices of its own in New York, it made the rooms of the American Mis- sionary Association its headquarters. One room was called the "packing-room," from which the Association was at that time shipping large quantities of l)0oks, clothing, and provis- 108 In the Gospel Ministry ions to its missions among the freedmen in the Southern States. The room was in charge of a colored man, who had a boy, whom I supposed to be his son, to assist him in his work, I had bought, in small parcels, quite a number of things to go to Africa, all of which were sent to that packing-room to be put into strong boxes or barrels to be shipped. As the man and boy had been very kind and helpful to me in getting my purchases for Africa properly put into boxes and barrels, I felt that I ought to sliow some appreciation of their help. So when I was about to leave for the railroad station at five o'clock that afternoon, I entered into a short con- versation with them. The man's name was Jacob, and the boy was called "Boy." After I had talked with Jacob a little I turned to the boy and asked him his name, and he promptly answered, "Daniel Flickinger Wilberforce." A clap of thunder from the sky of that clear day could not have surprised me more than to meet my name- sake in New York, and to thinlc that I had worked with him two afternoons packing goods for Africa, and I had not known it. To be assured that there was no mistake in the matter, I asked him if he was from Bonthe, in Africa, and what had brought him to America, and when he expected to return to Africa. I soon learned that the boy was the real Daniel F. Wilberforce, who had been named after me in February, 1857. I then got from him the story of why he was in New York. He had come to America as the nurse of a sick missionary and his wife, who had become so debilitated by the African fever as to need help en route for home. He had spent several months at the home of the man, in one of the New England States, and was now awaiting an opportun- ity to get passage back to Africa on a sail vessel. I immediately saw the officers of the iVmerican Missionary Association, and told them not to send him l)ack to Africa until they had heard from me from Dayton, Ohio. I saw it was necessary to stay another night in New York to further 109 Fifty-five Years of Active Life look after the matter. The next forenoon 1 lionght "Todd's Lectures to Young Men," and had my namesake read a page of the hook. I then completed arrangements to have liim come to Dayton to be educated, in the event our Executive Com- mittee agreed to his doing so. He came to Dayton a few weeks later, where he remained from December, 1871, till October, 1878. In this time he graduated from the Dayton High School, and, soon after, he was married. He went to Africa and became principal of the mission schools there, and later took charge of the Eufus Clark Training-School. Be- fore they went to Africa he was made a member of the Miami Annual Conference, and was ordained to the office of elder in the church of Christ. His wife was made mistress of the Girls' Home, at Shenge, and housekeeper. They have four children, two girls and two hoys. The eldest daughter taught the school and itinerated at the town of Victoria, the hcad- ((uarters of Mr. Willx?rforce from January 1900 till 1905. The youngest daughter attended school there, while the two sons were at college fitting themselves for mission service. He and his family did valuable work for years. These remarkal)le providences, the one which caused ]\[rs. Hadley's father to telegraph his daughter, and the one which led to calling a negro bal)y by the name of Daniel Flickinger Wilberforce, and the remarkable circumstances bringing us, thus together, with all that has attended our labors in Africa, show that God's liand had been upon us and the African work. I said in my annual report to the Board of ]\[issions, that our progress in Africa had been better than ever before, sixty- tbree persons having been haptizt'd, and scores of others awakened to their need of salvation. Cliief Caulker had for months professed faith in Christ, and lived a consistent Christian life until his death, which liad occurred soon after the previous meeting of the Board. To ])e saved from a heathen life at the age of eiglity years was a remarkable trophy of grace. 110 In the Gospel Ministry At that meeting I also gave a comparative statement of progress made in the cause of missions for the three preceding years, which was as follows : "Three years ago there were one hundred and ninety-three home missionaries, eighty-seven in the frontier, and three in the foreign fields. These received from all sources, $83,381.80. The following year there were one hundred and eighty-seven home missionaries, one hun- dred and three in the frontier, and four in the foreign fields, who received $90,334.44. During the year just closed one hundred and seventy-nine home missionaries were employed, one hundred and fourteen in the frontier, and six in the for- eign fields, who received $98,781.63. The average salary paid our missionaries for the last year was $330.39." This was the highest average ever paid up to that time, and for years afterward. Ill CHAPTER XXIII. 1873-74 — Church Erection Prospering— Sabbath Schools Give .$3,000 — Flickiuger Chapel at Shenge — Reverses in Germany — Some African Experiences. This year I recall two things in connection with my work that were gratifying, and one that was saddening. The Church Erection Society began to show signs of life, and four weak societies were helped to build houses of worship this year. A second and highly gratifying fact was the w^ay three thousand dollars were raised for a church building at Shenge, West Africa. There was great need for a commodious and sub- stantial house of worship at that place, it being the head- quarters of our African mission. How to get the money to build it was a question. The Missionary Society was already in debt for a good sum, and there were many calls for money for the colleges of the Church and for other Church enter- prises, making the outlook quite discouraging. I saw some hope in the Sabbath schools, and got the sanction of the Board of Missions to appeal to our Sunday schools for money to build that church in Africa. I showed in the Church papers how easily the three thousand dollars could be obtained if all tlie Sunday schools of the Church took hold of it and the superintendents took collections for it. The ball rolled slowly at first, and remittances were few aiul far between, but we kept it before the schools until many were induced by their superintendents and pastors to take collections. These were in sums varying from twenty-five cents to five dollars, but the entire three thousand dollars were obtai'ned, and the much-needed house was built. The size was thirty by forty- five feet, the walls of stone and the roof of slate. I dedicated it in the spring of the year 1S75. Except some seats and the 112 DANIEL FLICKINGER WILBERFORCE ^ _ In the Gospel Ministry painting of the woodwork, it had been finished and used for quite a length of time before. Arriving in Africa in the fall of 1874, I found the walls settling out at the top, which would have ruined the house during the next rainy season. I pro- cured iron rods one inch in diameter, which reached from cor- ner to corner near the top of the stone walls, and by this means the house was kept in good shape for many years, or until the uprising in May, 1898, when the insurgents partially destroyed it. It had been used for the schoolroom for several years, and was much used for meetings, but the war of 1898, which destroyed so many lives of missionaries and others, and so much valuable property, marred it a good deal. The house was called Flickinger Chapel, so named by Eev. J. Gomer, the writer not having been consulted in that matter. Soon after the war of 189S it was thoroughly repaired, and then called Gomer Memorial Chapel, he being buried near it. Getting money from the Sunday schools of the Church to build that chapel did more to create sympathy and enlist the hearty co-operation of our people in behalf of the African mission than anything else for a long time. It made it easier to get enlarged contributions for Africa, and turned the at- tention of the Church to that country as never before. Often "man's necessity is God's opportunity." Tliat house, built near the ocean, often attracted the at- tention of people sailing by, and reminded them of the fact that it was their duty to love and worship the God of heaven. It, with our excellent mission residence, so easily seen from passing vessels, made a good impression on many people. The sad experience of this year was in connection with the German mission, which had been reinforced by sending another missionary and wife to that work. Just before they reached there the missionary on the ground had received twenty-six additional members, making about one hundred in all who had united with our Church. It was thought best by the missionaries on the ground, soon after the second one reached the country, to separate entirely from the state 8 113 Fifty-five Years of Active Life church, when only thirty-five members remained with us. The state church in Bavaria subjected all who withdrew from it to certain privations, respecting which the writer will have occasion to write again. The civil authorities after this for- bade our missionaries from holding meetings in Biavaria, which caused them to go into other places to do missionary work. The societies organized in Bavaria still remained to- gether, and held meetings on the sly, in such manner that the police could not interfere with them. I made a great mistake in Africa once preaching on the text from John 15:4, frequently using the word "vine" in- stead of "countiy rope," as the natives name the vine. My interpreter failed to understand the matter, and could not in- terpret the word "vine," and hence the real meaning of the text was lost to the congregation. Another missionary in Freetown and myself, on horseback, met a man personating the devil. We were told that we must give the road and alight from our liorses while his majesty was passing. Instead of that we put spurs to the horses and the man got out of the way. The Bible injunction was real- ized — "Eesist the devil and he will flee from you," There were quite a number following him, who also got out of th':> way quickly, and we rode on as if we had not met his satanic majesty. I spent a night in an African town, on the Boom River, whose head man was a noted cannibal. Only a few days be- fore one of the men of the town lost himself in a grass field near by. Grass fields there arc similar to our prairies, except that the stalks of grass are from eight to ten feet high, and are often half an inch thick. To be lost in such a field, with notliing to be seen but the sky above you, is much worse than to be lost on our prairies or in the woods of America. This lost man wandered about all afternoon and night, and found his way back to his town about daylight. Being tired and hungry, he took a few palm nuts which were lying near the path which lead him into the village. Tlieso happened to b'^- 114 In the Gospel Ministry long to the head man, who had been drunk the day before — drunk on American whisky. Feeling in bad humor that morning he ordered the man killed, which was done instantly. No doubt the head man and others ate him, for the town was notorious for cannibalism. There, as in other countries, alcohol is contributary to almost all the evils that exist. heathenism, with thy barbarities, how terrible thou art! 115 CHAPTER XXIV. 1874-75 — Hard Times, But Missions Prospering — German Editor on the Tempeiance Crusade — On the Looliout for the Policemen iu Germany — Women's INIissionary Societies — African Experiences — "Big Devil in Pocket." Among the events that are very trying to the secretary of a missionary society are hard times, and twice during my life I have experienced them, in 1857 and 1858, and again in 1873. Being called to the secretaryship in May, 1857, the latter part of that year I found money was exceedingly scarce, hard to get under any circumstances, and well nigh impossible to get as a loan for missions. Between these two periods of financial stringency there had been considerable debt against our mis- sionary treasury most of the time. The appropriations made by the board for this year were quite up to the receipts ex- pected, even if there had Ijcen no hard times, hence I was very glad to be able to write the following in my report to the Board at its annual meeting in 1874 : "JSTotwithstanding the cry of hard times common in the country during the year, there has been no decrease in money to the missionary treasury, and all our mission work has been successful. Not less than 5,000 persons have been converted during the year under the labors of our missionaries, and most of them have become memljers of the Church. The large ingathering of members into the churches, and the temperance revival in the woman's crusade against the liquor traflfic indi- cate the near approach of better days for the churcli of Christ. The woman's teuiperanco movement is essentially a missionary work." 1 sliall never forget an occurrence that took place in the hall of the Telescope office this year. The editor of a German IIG In the Gospel Ministry daily paper, whose office was near the mission room, met me as I was going to my office. He had just come up from Miamisburg, where he saw women going from one saloon to another and kneeling down in the snow and mud and pray- ing for the saloonkeepers. Being much excited, himself a large, typical beer guzzler, he said he never saw or heard of such crazy work. "They vere nice good vimmen, too, only they had their heads turned wrong side out by foolish dem- perance fanatics. Vat you ting, nice, veil-dressed vimmen kneeling down before a saloon or going inside to pray ! Got in himmel, vat for crazy work that vas in this free country ! Beer is good for belts, and no use to pray for to stop drinking it, for ve Germans must have it. Demperance people is fools \" And I am here reminded of an experience in Germany, while I was filling the office of both presiding elder and bishop in that country. It was in the city of Hof. The serv- ice was held in a private house standing about ten feet above the street, with the gable end of the house next to the street, and having two outside doors, one at the side of the house, and the other at the rear end. The mistress of the house during the Saturday evening services stood at the door at the side of the house, frequently looking out along the walk to the street. This was done to see if policemen were about. If one had put in an appearance she would have made a sign to the preacher to sit down. There was no law against people sitting in meeting and singing, but to preach was forbidden in all but the state churches. . On Sunday similar services were held, after which we all went to the garret, and there broke bread and drank wine in memory of Christ's death. This year the writer obtained permission of the Board of Missions to procure missionary boxes to be given gratis to Sunday schools and families who agreed to use them for col- lecting missionary money. During the year five more societies were helped to build houses of worship by the funds of the Church Erection So- ciety. 117 Fifty- five Years of Active Life The business of the Missionary Visitor was transferred from the Missionary Society to the Publishing House by or- der of the General Conference, I continuing to edit it, for which $500 was paid to tlie missionary treasury. At the meeting of the Missionary Board this year the fol- lowing action was taken : "We recommend the organization of women's missionary societies wherever this is practicable in the annual conferences, and if the women's missionary work should in the future assume the form of a general church organization, this Board will give it cheerful and sub- stantial help." Missionaries in Africa travel a good deal in rowboats, and sometimes, to reach their destination before the tide turned against them, they worked their boatmen hard. It is very common there to hear them say, "Massa, we tired too much, and hungry and tired catch we all at same time." To make my men understand when water was boiling, I told them that water did not boil until it jumped, and they must not take it from the fire till it "jump, jump plenty." Soon after we had our farm opened at Shenge, a chief came a considerable distance to see us plow. The yoke of oxen which drew the plow had one man to drive them and another to hold the plow. The chief and his attendants fol- lowed quite awhile, giving the African's usual "aw," "ah," 'Tium," and other words of surprise at the performances. Fin- ally he could stand it no longer, and he very earnestly de- clared that it was wrong to make "cow root the ground, all the same like slave or a woman." All cattle are called "cows" by them. An African mission girl about twelve years of age took the instruction given her by the missionaries very liter- ally. The missionaries had told the children to pray and ask God for whatever they needed, and he would bring good to them and keep evil away from them. So this little girl while alone prayed, and was heard to say, "0 Lord, give me plenty of rice and fish to eat," that being the food they were fed on, 118 In the Gospel Ministry and then she added, "Please, Lord, give me plenty of clothes to wear, and keep snake from bite me, and make me a good girl. Amen." A woman at Eotifunk, in. Africa, had an idol which Mr. Gomer and I much wished. She had twin children and one had died, and she said the soul of that dead child was in the image. We offered her a big price, and, the third day after, she brought it, we paying the price offered. In the meantime she had had another image made like the one she sold to us, and got the witch master to take the soul out of the one we bought and put it into the new image. As we would as soon have it without a baby's soul in it, all were satisfied. Falling asleep in my hammock one day, while my boatmen were cooking on shore, some^of the natives present held a kind of post mortem examination on me. . They quietly pushed up the sleeve of my coat to see if I was white up my arms. They were surprised to find me whiter under the clothing than on my hands and face. In the meantime I waked up, but feigned to be sleeping, to let them go on with their exami- nation. Soon one of them heard my watch tick, when he be- came frightened and started to run off, saying, "White man have one big devil in his pocket for true, true." Calling them I explained what the watch was for, but they left, feeling it was not safe to be near me. 119 CHAPTER XXV. ]875-7tj — Visits Africa and Germany — Decide to Continue in Ger- many — A Clean Church in Africa — Saved From the Rocks — In Glasgow — Divine Healing — War Party in Africa. This year was one of great privation and peril to health and life itself, and yet a year of victory. It is with deep emotion and thanksgiving to God that I recall some of the struggles and sore trials through which I passed, and how these were blessed to my growth i^i grace and an increase of joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. There were serious difficulties in the way of our success, both in Africa and Germany, which it seemed necessary to more fully understand. This caused the Executive Committee to ask me to visit those missions, and spend as much time as would be necessary to learn the real condition of things, and to suggest what to do to remove the hindrances in the way of success. I therefore sailed from New York, November 14, 1874, and returned to that city the 13th of May, 1875, and telegraphed that I could not get to Dayton, where the Board met the same day, till the 15th, which caused the Board to put into its minutes the following: "Being unable to come to a conclusion in regard to Germany and Africa, the com- mittee recommends that action with respect to these fields he deferred until Mr. Flickinger can be present with us." While I was abroad there was a good deal said in favor of abandoning the Germany mission, especially by some minis- ters in the Ohio German Conference, hence the perplexity and doubts on the part of the committee. The letters I had writ- ten respecting Africa liad greatly encouraged the Board and the Church in respect to that mission, and they were favorably disposed to it. T told the Board that I would just as soon vote 120 In the Gospel Ministry to discontinue Africa as Germany. I had f^cen the poor people of Germany in their oppressed condition, and believed that they needed to be helped to a larger civil and religious liberty, and that our Church ought to help to do that work. I felt deeply the humiliation and wrong of abandoning Germany then, and earnestly pleaded for the continuance of the work. The following paper was then passed unanimously : "We re- gret that the laws of Bavaria, Germany, have been enforced against our missionaries there, so as to prevent them from preaching the gospel, and we recommend that should the ef- fort now being made by our missionaries to secure permis- sion to organize our Church there be unsuccessful, that we labor in Saxony, or some other part of Germany. Also, that $1,200 be appropriated to that mission for the next year." The following action was taken respecting the mission in Africa : "We have abundant reason to praise the great Head of the Church for the success granted during the past year, and that through all the opposition to that work the word of the Lord was not hindered, and we are more than ever con- vinced that the blaster desires- us to go forward ; therefore, ''Resolved, 1. That we approve the changes made in the work by employing native teachers for the schools, so that the mis- sionaries can visit the towns adjacent to our mission stations to preach to many who are yet in great darkness. ?. We are thankful to God for the completion of the stone chapel at Shenge, and the country-built chapel at Bompetook, both of which were dedicated to the worship of God by Mr. Flickinger before leaving Africa. 3. We -approve the course of our secretary and the missionaries in organizing societies at these places free from polygamy, slavery, poroism, and the liquor traffic, and withholding membership from women who are wives of men having other wives. 4. That five thousand dollars be appropriated to that mission for next year." It should be born in mind that drinking and trafficking in 121 Fifty-five Years of Active Life ardent spirits was no bar to membership in other churches in Sierra Leone. Members of the poro, a very objectionable secret society, were also admitted to memtership by those churches. To deny them membership in our Church created quite a stir. Some people who had Ijoen prominent members of the church in Freetown had lived in Shenge several years, and had been very active in praying and speaking in our meetings. Now that we had organized a church there, it was very humiliating to them and trying to us not to take them into our organization. They, and some heathen converts who loved strong drink and sold it, pleaded earnestly to come into the Church. We told them they could attend the meetings and sing, pray, and speak, but they could not join us till they were free from polygamy, drinking rum, and secret societies. The result was that nearly all of them did free themselves from all their heathen evils, and united with the Church later on. I went from Xew York to Glasgow on the steamer Vic- toria, commanded by Captain Hederwick, a typical Scotch- man, who said grace at table. He always shot it off without a breath, using these words, never more, never less, "0 Lord, we thank thee for this i)rovision of thy bounty, pardon our sins and accept us. Amen !" There was a kind providence which prevented us from running onto rocks the night our captain expected to make land. It was dark and rough, as most of the voyage was, and he decided to slow down and wait for daylight. When morning came we were forty miles farther north than he thought, and among rocks so near the top of the water that they could be seen. It was well he had slowed down, or we no doubt would have struck rocks. I went to an ordinary hotel in Glasgow and paid seven dol- lars for two days there, having no extras, only meals and bed. I was reminded of the meal a king in Germany had ordered, which consisted of eggs and bread, furnished by a plain farmer's wife. When he came to pay he was asked an enormous i)rice, and the king said, "Eggs and bread must be 122 In the Gospel Ministry scarce here." "Oh, no," said the woman, ""they are not scarce, but kings are." Flickingers seemed to be scarce in G-lasgow. Many fours were connected with this trip: I was appointed to make this trip November 4, sailed from New York the 14th, saw land first on the Irish coast on December 4, reached my destination in Germany the 14th, left the 24th, and all in the year 1874. The German names I had to master was a task for me, such as Lobenstein, Wurzbach, Durrenbach, Sonfsengrum, Schoen- brumn, Lechenhuegen, Eliasbrunner, Weundarf, etc. I reached Liverpool from Germany only two days before I sailed to Africa, badly used up with bronchitis, and called on a doctor to prescribe. The first thing the doctor said was: "You are in bad shape, and you had better go back to Amer- ica. You will die going to Africa." I replied that to go to America the last of December would be certain death, and my only hope was to get into a warm climate. Having come from Bavaria, Germany, on a cup of chocolate and a few crackers, and having no appetite and a terrible cough, my doctor piit me on hot Scotch whisky, and urged its free use. On the day of sailing he gave me two pint bottles of Scotch whisky, and as much cough mixture. I was a very seasick man, and reached Africa much enfeebled. I then procured and took a quart of cod liver oil with iron in it, and at the end of three weeks was well, and did four months' hard work ere leaving for America. 1 believe in Divine healing, and experienced the same, but through medicines that God blessed. On board the ship to Africa there was the most inveterate talker I ever heard. He was told by the other passengers that he talked too much. Finally he promised that he would not say anything for three days, but early on the second day he was pouring a torrent of gabble into the ears of others; when reminded of the promise he made, he replied that when he made that promise the previous day he expected to die that night, or he would not have perpetrated such a piece of folly. The only time the poetic muse struck me hard was on hearing 123 Fifty-five Years of Active Life this everlasting talker, and I wrote four lines of poetry, which, fortunately, I cannot recall now. While in Africa this time a war party came to Koolong, captured all the wives of the head man there, and his sister. Several of these women were members of our Church at Bompetook, only two miles from Koolong. That head man and the head man of another town Ijetween Shenge and Bompetook came to Shenge for protection. We fed them and sent them away. j\Ir. Gomer, superintendent of the mis- sion, went to Koolong, and I stayed at Shenge, where for three nights I slept with an ax at the head of my bed. ^Irs. Gomer and the school girls were also ready to defend them- selves, they keeping a large boiler of hot water to throw in the faces of an attacking party if the occasion should arise. The basement was full of people from the town of Shenge, and all in a state of alarm. The war party was finally disbanded by our returning to them the fugitives whom they punished for misdemeanors. Going to see the head man at Tonkoloh, to collect some debts he owed the mission, he looked very sad. Inquiring the cause, he said, "Been have trouble too much." Laying his hand on his heart he said, "Trouble, big, big trouble live here." He explained that he had had a palaver with another head man and he was worsted, being required to make up a large quantity of palm nuts, or be punished. Besides, he owed us a considerable sum. If a human countenance ever showed despair, his did tliat day. Several of his wives came to where we were, and I told them if they all went to work they could pay all their debts, and help our missionary there to build up a mission. Those heathen wives clapped their hands for joy at the prospect of getting out of debt. 124 CHAPTER XXVI. 1876-77 — A Mission for the Chinese on the Pacific Coast — -Woman's Missionary Association — Education of D. K. Wilberforce — John Caulker, the Mohammedan, in Jail — Testing a Medicine Man's Charms — Tom Tucker Orders Silver Spoons — Monkeys. I ONCE knew an egotistical German who had the good for- tinie to make considerable money on the sale of a lot of hogs he had bought to fatten. When complimented on his good fortune, he- said that he made the money by keeping his eyes open wide and skinned a little. Later on he made another venture and lost money. Then he said, "One cannot always sometimes tell what the market would be, whether hogs would higher up go, or lower down come." My report to the Board this year shows that I had my fears and misgivings, but vic- tory came at last. The report said that no less than seven thousand members had been brought into our Church the past year through the labors of our missionaries. Amid great financial depression throughout our countr}^, the receipts to our treasury were in excess of the previous year, but it would be well for all to keep in mind the fact that as a Church we still fell far below the standard of liberality that God's Word requires. I said, "Your attention is called to the following modes for increasing funds: 1. The publication of well-pre- prepared tracts showing the good done. 2. A yearly budget of news, facts, and general intelligence respecting our work, to be read by our pastors to their people." I had insisted for years on an average of one dollar to the member for missions, and I felt sure that if pastors would give the people the neces- sary information in regard to the world's needs, and our duty to supply them, as taught in the Scriptures, that standard 125 Fifty-five Years of Active Life could be reached, and it would give the Board at least twice as much money as it had, and the Conferences also. The annual report also had the following respecting the Chinese mission : "The opportunity offered us to give the gospel to'the heathen who come to our shores, where it can be done so much cheaper than to go to China, ought not longer be unimproved." The Board adopted the following : "We look favorably to the projection of a mission station at some point on the Pacific Coast, with the specific view of the evangelization of the Chinese, and we recommend that the corresponding secretary ascertain, as soon as possible, where such station should be located." The following was also adopted by the Board : "Resolved, That we call the attention of our people throughout the Church to the importance of holding monthly missionary prayer-meetings, for the pur- pose of awakening a deep interest in the missionary work, and securing a more general outpouring of the Holy Spirit for its prosecution." I had pressed this matter until the General Conference put it in the Discipline as a part of the pastor's duty, and until a number of places had such meetings. I re- call with great pleasure the fact that Dayton First Church had these meetings, and they were generally the Ijcst of the month. During this year the Woman's Missionary Association was organized, a step in the right direction, and not taken any too soon. The Church Erection Society helped to build five new houses of worship. ^[y namesake from Africa had been in the high school in Dayton a couple of years, and did well, but up to the preced- ing year little was done to educate him in music, some mem- bers of the Board thinking mission money ought not to be used to teach music, and especially instrumental music. Xot a few in the Church were then opposed to instrumental music in public worship. Quietly and carefully I had Mr. Will)cr- force take some music lessons, but at this annual meeting the matter was discussed at length, and finally the following was adopted by the Board: "That the Executive Connnittee con- 12G In the Gospel Ministry tinue Daniel Flickinger Wilberforce at high school in Dayton, Ohio, two years longer, and furnish him such instruction in vocal and instrumental music as would fit him to teach the same upon his return to his native land." The success and reverses of our foreign missions during this year brought some facts to light which gave me a good deal of anxiety, but all ended well. In Germany consider- able success had attended the labors of the lone missionary outside of Bavaria, but in Africa there was much to impede progress. The report of the superintendent of that field. Rev. J. Gomer, will tell the story. He wrote in January, 1876: "At the beginning of the year Satan went to work in earnest, putting forth every effort in his power to hinder the progress of the gospel in this field of labor. He selected for his prime agent John Caulker, a Mohammedan, a very energetic and daring man. Thanks be to God who has given us the victory, John Caulker and his accomplices are in Freetown jail, and all their efforts to put out the fire which the gospel has kin- dled have only acted as so much oil thrown into the flames. I cannot descrilae to you the effects produced upon the minds of the people throughout the country by the capture of Caulker and his war party by the government of Sierra Leone. We missionaries and our little band of converts are filled with joy and gladness, not because John Caulker is in jail, but because God is bringing good out of this war. A number of slaves have lost their masters, and three masters, who are professors of religion, have lost their slaves. Smallpox has been raging for two months and many have died. As soon as they are taken with it they are carried into the bush, or farm shed. Many come from neighboring villages to attend worship at Shenge. I have received ten into the Church, and nine into the seekers' class during the quarter, and two have died." One of the most amusing things which occurred in Africa, just before I left in 1875, was the treatment some of the natives gave a medicine man, Avho had a charm that he said would keep war from coming to their town, and that would 127 Fifty-five Years of Active Life keep everybody from hurting them. He was tokl that if it would do that they would pay him big money, but before they did so tliey would try it on him. They then tied him to a tree and told him they would flog him unless his gi'egree, or charm, kept them from doing so, and that he should do his best to make it work. The villagers gave him an unmerciful flogging, and then threw his charms into the sea. One of our missionaries fished them out and I brought them to the United States. I showed them often to congregations when explaining the superstitions of the people and how they were imposed on by witch masters and medicine men. The people of that village had been enlightened by our missionaries for several years. Another somewhat amusing and significant object-lesson was taught me by an order I got, just before leaving Africa, from Tom Tucker, then the head man of laborers at the mis- sion. He had come there a naked, ignorant creature. He had been converted some years before, and now appeared before me ■W'ell dressed. He gave me an order for silver spoons, dishes, knives and forks, chairs, bedding, and other articles, the whole amounting to nearly $100, to be sent him from New York. I said, "Tom, you can't afford these things," but he replied that he could, and forthwith produced the money. Being head man and captain of the boat, he received twice as much wages as common laborers. "Massa," said Tom, "I eat biscuit (meaning bread siich as we eat), and I drink tea and put sugar in it, all the same like a white man, and I sit at table, and no more eat with fingers ; why, massa, I done turn white man, clear all over, and must live, dress, and act like white man, so you send these things from New York." I did, and Tom paid for all, and enjoyed sitting at a table to eat. Tliere were amusing experiences in Africa sometimes when rowing boats along the river. Monkeys and parrots would follow our boats, singing, chattering, and making all kinds of noises in so friendly a way as to make the impression that they were trying to visit with us. The monkeys would jump 128 REV. K. N. WEST AND WIFE IN AIKICA In the Gospel Ministry from tree to tree and break off small twigs from the branches and throw them at us. The parrots would make much ado, whistling, chattering, and singing. Once one of the boatmen shot a monkey in the shoulder, when it put its other paw up to the wound and cried pitifully, but did not try to run away. The next shot brought it down dead. I never allowed my men to shoot monkeys afterwards, though they loved to eat their nice, sweet flesh, which I never tasted but once, however. African children are usually easily governed, but we had one boy at Shenge, about eight years old, who was incor- rigible. Whipping him and making him work during play hours did not reform him in the least. Mr. Gomer concluded to shut him up in the basement of our residence, which was dark and used only for mission supplies. When first put in he screamed at the top of his voice, but after a while subsided. The second time he was put in for the night he did not even cry, and we wondered at the change. Next morning we saw that a barrel of crackers had been opened and a cheese cut, and considerable of both had disappeared. He had eaten his fill and was happy. It seemed he never was happy unless he was doing wrong things, and all efforts at reformation were unavailing. We sent him to his mother, who was a widow, but he went from bad to worse, and was doing prison service when last heard from. 129 CHAPTER XXYII. 1877-78 — Sold Stove to Attend Circus — Firmness in the Chair — • Chinese Mission on the Coast — Windowless in Kentucky. As 1876 was the centennial of the nation, many people from abroad visited this country, and spent considerable money attending the exposition at Philadelphia, and seeing other places of interest in the United States. Nearly every- body in this country who could attend that exposition did so. and some used the money that they had formerly given to missions for that purpose. Money given to benevolences was decreased, rather than increased by the exposition. In some instances people sold needed articles to get money to attend the exposition; not unlike the family in southern Indiana some years before, who sold their cooking-stove to get money to attend Barnum's show. At a conference held in that neighborhood soon after, I delivered a missionary address, in which I said that no doubt the congregation to whom I was then talking had paid out more money to see Barnum's show than they had given to missions in a year. There was present a man who doubted the truthfulness of that statement, and he investigated the matter far enough to be satisfied that it was true. That is the man who told about the poor family selling their cooking-stove so that father, mother, and their seven children could all attend the show. It is remarkable what sacrifices people make to see curious, funny things, and what excuses some professed Christians make for not paying missionary money. To help get the United Brethren Church to pay an average of one dollar to the member, I favored the organization of the Woman's Missionary Association. The opposition to that 130 In the Gospel Ministry movement from some leading men in the Church, including two bishops, a president of a college, and some members of the Board of Missions, like the opposition to the African and Germany missions, and the organization of Church Erection Society, was not only strong, but unkind at times. It was truly said by one of the most aggressive, efficient, and godly bishops the United Brethren Church ever had, referring to a high official in the Church, that every railroad train had to have one or more brakemen, and every board in the Church had to have one or more members in it to check the speed of the work it was carrying forward. Thank God, there were somq courageous, hard-workin^' men, who believed that what ought to be done could be done, and would be, by proper effort, and who were willing to aid to the best of their abil- ity. One thing I had to do when in German}^, in 1876, was to teach temperance to our ministers there. To organize that body into a mission district, and to ordain several native ministers to the office of elder, a minister of another church was called to assist. I demanded that they endorse the United Brethren Discipline, Avhich teaches that the vending and using of ardent spirits could not be engaged in by mem- bers of our Church. Our man in charge of the mission and the man from the other church were against me. I, being in the chair, told them there could be no organization and no ordination without an absolute pledge upon their part to live up to the Discipline, and insisted that all members of the Church do the same. The only thing they could do was to make such a pledge, and the organization and ordination took place. In view of all the causes hindering the getting of money for missions, I was cheered with the fact that by bequests and special gifts for the African industrial school more money came to it and to the treasury than usual. In my annual re- port this year I reminded the Board that the executive com- mittee had not found a man for the Chinese mission on the 131 Fifty-five I'ear^ of Actirc Life Pacific Coast, and added the following extract from a letter written by a minister in Oakland, California : '"About two hundred and forty thousand Ciiinese have come to this coun- try, of whom one hundred and twenty thousand are yet here, the others having gone back or died. They are already so numerous as to establish for themselves a complete social, moral, and commercial community of their own customs, mor- alities, and religion. Throughout California they have their temples, idols, priests, and heathen rites, and are corrupting our morals, distracting our churches, and degrading the whole class of manual laborers. Let us see to it that the results do not prove as evil as slavery did." The following from my report to the General Conference is suggestive : "Our foreign mission work has taught us the highest form of benevolence. We give, expecting no return save that which accrues from the grateful acknowledgment of the saved heathen; yea, without so much as hoping to see those who are benefited by our gifts until we shall meet them before the judgment seat of Christ. It has taught us another valuable lesson; namely, that it is safe to engage in large undertakings for God. He sometimes leads churches and nations into places where they are compelled to undertake and accomplish great things or be dishonored, not to say de- stroyed. Had we known in 1861, when our late war com- menced, what a task it would be to crush the rebellion, the sacrifice of life, and treasure, and happiness that would l>e re- quired, we would have despaired of saving our country, and perhaps ceased all effort. As we got deeper into it we realized fully the fact that we had to make great sacrifices to get out, or be hopelessly disgraced as a nation. In the providence of God we commenced a mission in Africa over twenty years ago, ■which was then for us no small undertaking; but it has grown so that it needs thrice the number of laborers and five times the amount of money now that it did at the beginning of the last decade. We are so deep in the work there that we must go forward or l)c disgraced in the eyes of God and 132 In the Gospel Ministry men. The heathen there would rise up in judgment and con-> demn us if we did not." Some people have to be married to missions on both sides of the county line^ like the man who got his license in one State, and by the thoughtlessness of the minister, was mar- ried in another. The road was the line, and the house hap- pened to be on the other side. It was Sunday morning, and a meeting was going on in the neighborhood, Ijut the pastor bethought himself and went back from the meeting and had the couple walk across the road, and he remarried them in the same State and county in which the license was issued. jSTo house was there, and the snow was on the ground, but stand- ing in a fence corner they were legally made husband and Avife. The writer spent three weeks in Kentucky soon after the CUvil War. He went to visit our missionaries and help them. During that time he had some wearisome horseback rides. He preached in United Brethren churches and in schoolhouses that had no windows, and was in a new parsonage that was without windows. It was built of logs, twenty by twenty-four feet, and had a cooking-stove near the one door in it, and a great fireplace not far from the stove in the end of the house. While the missionary's wife was getting dinner the door stood ajar to furnish her light, to my discomfort, for it was a cold N"ovember day. In one of our churches, about thirty by forty feet in size, with only one door and a great fire-place in it, the sexton left the door stand ajar till I had read the Scrip- ture lesson and my text. After that the door was shut and we conducted the services in the dark. There were present a large congregation on Sabbath, but not' a vehicle was in sight. Many came horseback. Farmers hauled their wood, fodder, and other things on sleds. The women, most of them, dipped. To dip is to have a nice smooth stick and some pul- verized tobacco, and with the stick the tobacco is rubl)ed over the teeth. Some also chewed tohacco, and most of them looked sallow and unhealthy. I preached in more than a 133 Fifty-five Years of Active Life dozen different places, and had very good meetings. They seemed to appreciate the privilege of attending God's house, and heartily entered into the services. 134 CHAPTER XXVIII. 1878-79 — Fifth Wheel to the Missionary Society — Hon. Carl Schurz — Advice to College Faculties and the Bishops — Talked Too Much in Germany — A Fighting Man at the Camp-Meeting. It is said that a teacher of hygiene received the following note from the mother of one of her pupils: "Please doant learn Johnny any moar about his insides, as it makes him sassy." I was charged with being a little saucy and meddle- some, and perhaps justly, during this year. Before reviewing these things I wish to insert the following respecting church erection, taken from my report to the Board of Missions: "So little has been accomplished in this department of our work, that but for the necessity of saying something I would gladly pass it by. There have been about fifty applications, requiring some labor and exjDen.se to answer them, and only four hundred and seventy-nine dollars and ten cents were col- lected for that purpose last year. We ought to do more or quit." In view of the opposition to church erection, it was made a fifth wheel to the missionary wagon, its interests being com- mitted to the Board of Missions. There were three hundred and fifty-seven missionaries to be provided for then, and hence but little could be done for church erection. During this year I corresponded with the Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, at Washington, D. C, asking recog- nition by the United States Government for our Church, so that our Board of IMissions might be placed on an equality with other mission boards in recommending suitable persons to be appointed as Indian agents. I showed Mr. Schurz that religious denominations smaller than ours, doing less mis- sionary work than we, were upon the list, and that we ought 135 Fifty- five Years of Active Life to be there. Mr. Schurz wrote that the Indian agencies had all been divided among certain denominations, and no new division could be made without their consent, but possibly a transfer could be made to us by our corresponding with them. I had more sense than to undertake that, and nothing further was attempted. I had given much help in numy ways to the cause of educa- tion, and had been a trustee for years of the Church's prin- cipal college, and of its theological seminary for a time. I wrote in the Telescope as follows, under the heading, "Push Things": "The conferences cooperating with our colleges ought to send three hundred additional students to Lebanon Valley College, four hundred to Otterbein University, one hundred to Smithville, two hundred to Hartsville, one hun- dred to Eoanoke and Green Hill each, three hundred to West- field and Western each, and one hundred each to Shenan- doah, Avalon, Lecompton, Philomath, Edwards Academy, and Elroy Seminary. I have reserved one hundred each to be ready for the academies soon to be opened in California and Fostoria. I insist upon it that the faculties in our colleges and teachers in our schools go out among the people soliciting students for the institutions which employ them. Let the in- scription on their banner be 'Twenty-five hundred additional students in United Brethren schools.' " During tliis year I also wrote an article under the heading, "Our Bishops and Missions Again." h\ a former article it was shown that the bishops of some other churches, especially the Methodist and the Episcopal, were spending considerable time holding missionary meetings, and that it ought not be longer delayed by our bishops. As general superintendents, they ought to give tlie missionary work much attention. I maintained that tlio growlh, spii'ilually. and liberality of the Church would be greatly ])roin()t(Ml l)y increasing missionary zeal among our people. I suggested that at the approacliing annual conferences arrangements bo made for at least one missionary meeting of two days to be lidd in cadi ]iresi(ling 136 In the Gospel Ministry elder's district, and all the pastors be urged to attend. I also advised that missionary addresses be delivered on commence- ment days in our colleges, or in baccalaureate sermons. I said our bishops all did work enough, but some of it could be done as well by others, who could not do so well in missionary work, not being so familiar with mission fields and their needs as were the bishops, who visited annually fourteen mis- sion conferences, and who were members of the Board of Mis- sions. Their position in the Church gave them better oppor- tunities for helping the cause of missions than the ordinary pastor possessed. In this article published in the Church organ, I again showed that there should be at least an average of one dollar to the member given annually to missions, and that we fell far below that, and hence everybody from bishops down to the boys and girls in Sunday school should be awakened, and their best efforts enlisted in increasing missionary funds. For writing such an article, and for exhorting college faculties to become solicitors for students for their respective schools, I was severely criticised and censured. Indeed, it was hinted to me that my mouth and pen should be stopped, or something done to cause me to cease meddling. It was not done, however, as effectually then as it was once in Germany. The presiding elder of the Germany district and I were going to a quarterly meeting in a sleigh, and were caught in a snow- storm. The snow lodged on my beard and froze. When we reached the hotel where we took dinner my mustache had become a chunk of ice, closing my mouth effectually, and I could not open it until the ice was thawed enough to pull it off. While standing at the stove warming, I remarked to the presiding elder that the German Empire ought to have twenty-eight fewer kings and governors, and that these high officials who were drawing large pay ought to take the places of the women we saw that day in the snow breaking stone on the turnpike road in such cold weather. That presiding elder told me to be still, or the police would land me in jail if they 137 Fifty-five Years of Active Life heard me talk that way. Thinking he was jesting, I repeated the remark, when he hurriedly took me to one side and told nie that nothing but my poor German had saved me, for there were men there who asked him what I said. It was a very foolish thing on my part to talk as I did. General Grant was then president of the United States, and it would have been an e.\i)ensive thing to send an army to Germany to get me out of jail. I attended a camp-meeting about fifteen miles from Cin- cinnati, Ohio, when about sixteen years of age, where, just after a shower, three rowdies rode inside the circle of tents and got more than half way around when a stone struck the leader on the side of his head and knocked him from his horse. There was a preacher there, a large man, who had been a pro- fessional boxer and fighter before he was a Christian, who saw the three men maliciously ride onto the ground, making it so muddy that pedestrians could not get around well, and he slyly got behind a tent and threw a stone that brought the leader to the ground. That preacher was the first man to speak to him, and he said, "My friend, there is a minister here who was a great fighter, and he will pummel you men good if you don't get away from here." He helped him onto his horse and the three left, swearing that they would come back that night and break up the camp-meeting, but they did not attempt it. It was then about four o'clock in the after- noon, l)ut there was no more disturbance at that meeting, which lasted three days. That same preacher, at another camp-meeting, where the ground on one side of the tents slightly ascended, caught a young man kicking the props from under the wheels of the wagons and 1)uggies, causing them to run down against the tents. He took him ])y the back of his neck and the seat of his trousers and carried him to a bank close by and pitched him down a declivity which was almost perpendicular, lanrling him about ten ieet from where he started. That ended that kind of jiastime during the camp- meeting. 138 In the Gospel Ministry I was present once at a meeting in a barn when a Methodist Episcopal preacher stood on a Windsor chair. He stamped liis foot and one of the chair legs gave way, but he quicklv stepped on another chair close by, saying it was not the heavy theology that broke that chair, but his "corporosity." He was a man who weighed two hundred pounds, and often got happy preaching, and would stamp with one foot. That time he nearly toppled. 139 CHAPTER XXIX. 1879-80 — An Eventful Year — Organized Mission Districts in Germany and Africa — Experiences in Germany — Injustice to the Down- trodden — Church Erection Growing — Sight-seeing Reserved for Heaven. This year was perhaps the most eventful of all the fifty- five years of my ministerial life. I spent six weeks in Ger- many, and organized a mission district there December 10, 1879, then went to Africa, spending many days and nights traveling in a rowboat, and organized a mission district there March 20, 1880. During my stay in Africa the deed was obtained for a mission site of one hundred and sixty acres of land at Rotifunk for the Woman's Missionary Association. That place had been occupied by Miss Beeken, and afterward by Mrs. Mair, for several years, and the Woman's Missionary Association had shipped material to Africa to build a mission residence there before they had a deed for land upon which to build. TiCarning that Chief Richard Caulker had prom- ised to call the head men together to sign a deed, l)ut had not done so, Mr. Gomer and I went to liunt liiui, for lie liad b'lMi hiding away. We found him, and got all together, and had the deed signed after three days and nights of great annoy- ance caused by mosquito bites, heathen int risque, and duplic- x\mong the important questions that I had to settle, both in Germany and Africa, was how to organize mission districts in those countries with the missionaries who were then em- ployed there. In Germany our superintendent, Rev. C. Bischoff, had taken into the Church several ministers from other churches, with only quarterly conference license to preach. In Africa Rev. J. Gomer had also employed several missionaries in the same way. Now the question was as to whether it would be 140 In the Gospel Ministry proper to organize mission districts in Germany and Africa with only one annual conference member in each. There were six suitable persons on each field ready to come into such organization, and the condition of the work demanded that it be done, and done it was, putting both missions in ex- cellent shape to do effective work. The organization of the German mission district had the following missionaries as its charter members : Eevs. C. Bischoff, G. Xoetzold, F. Holeshuer, H. ■ Oehlschlegel, G. Gottschalk, and H. Barkemeyer. Five of these were men in the active ministry. There were thirty-four preaching places, and two hundred and thirty-five members, organized into eleven classes. It will be remembered that only five years before the Ohio German Conference and Board of Mis- sions were both ready to give it all up. Then it was truly gratifying to go to Africa, and after visiting all the preaching places there to organize a mission district consisting of J. Gomer, D. F. Wilberforce, J. C. Saw- yer, J. P. Hero, J. W. Pratt, and B. W. Johnson. I will never forget my feelings and impressions as I saw the work taking form in such a substantial way. Under the heading, "Farewell to Germany," I wrote as follows to the Religious Telescope December 12, 1879 : "I have spent six weeks upon your soil, coming when you were beautifully green with grass, and leaving when you were frozen and white with snow. I have ridden on your railroads nearly two thousand miles, traveled in open buggy one hun- dred and fifty miles, in a sleigh one hundred miles, and some miles in mail coaches and afoot. I have seen many of your hills and valleys. Your old fortresses, bridges, churches and residences I looked upon with admiration, remembering that three, four, five, and even more hundred years ago the identical stone floors upon which I stood in your churches were put there, as well as the stone arches in your l^ridges, and the grand architecture in your fortresses. I also saw the entrances into many of your beer and wine cellars, but did 141 Fifty-five Years of Active Life not enter them, nor allow their contents to enter me. I also saw your horse, cattle, dog, and goat teams, and, what was painful to me, your women bearing burdens which were so heavy that some other way ought to have been employed to carry them, instead of the weaker sex. I also ate of your black and white bread, your soup, potatoes, apples, goose, rabbit, and beefsteak, drank your coffee, which Avas good and otherwise, your tea which you do not know how to make, slept in your feather beds, mingled with your people in their residences, at public houses, and in the sanctuary. I saw much to admire in your midst, but some things to despise and even hate. Your industry, economy, well-raised children, your courtesy to strangers, your honesty and general good behavior are to be praised and imitated, but your Sabbath desecration, neglect of God's house, beer and wine drinking, are to be deplored. The severe treatment of your poor people, especially the women, and your unwillingness to grant relig- ious liberty are to be hated, and hate them I will, now and forever. Then your cold railroad cars and unwarmed churches, with stone floors and three galleries, ought to be abolished — that is, the cold ought to be abolished. There are other things you ought to do. Cease to build such narrow and steep stairways as to make it unsafe to go upon them. Do not put your looking-glasses so high up that a man of ordi- nary size must stand on tip-toe to see his chin, and then do put them long side up and down, instead of sideways, for since the days of Adam till now there is more length than breadth to that part of creation needing looking glasses. Put soap in your bedrooms in hotels. Americans never think of ordering it when they go to bed at night, and many Germans and some others will not do so to save expenses, hence many get a poor wash in the morning. Farewell, Germany, I for- give all, though I shall not forget two days when snow froze on my beard, forming ice an inch thick, and the cold almost froze my nose." Owing to the great injustice done to the down-trodden of 142 In the Gospel Ministry America, and our Board being denied a share in helping to furnish agents to tlie Indians, as related in a former chapter, the Board, at its meeting in 1879, put the following upon its minutes : "Resolved, That the unjust discrimination becom- ing so general in this country against Negroes, Chinese, and Indians, is to be deplored. The Indians have been forcibly deprived of their lands, and on account of being shamefully treated and outraged, do at times resent these wrongs, and the Africans, because they were forcibly reduced to chattels, and have retained their God-given rights, are despised, misused, and cruelly -^vTonged, but we are none the less under obliga- tions to them, as we are to others. They bear the image of God. Christ died for them, and hence they have claims upon our sympathy, benevolence, and efforts for their civilization." I also recommended again at this meeting the publication of a missionary quarterly, and the publication of tracts to be read by pastors to their people, and a plan to receive missionary money in weekly, monthly, or quarterly installments. I showed that many could be induced to pay five or ten cents a week who never could pay five dollars at one time. I also showed that the Missionary Visitor, having now a circulation of nearly forty thousand, was doing a good work for all the benevolent institutions of the Church. Mr. Wilberforce, the native African who had been brought to Dayton, Ohio, and educated at the expense of the Church, had married well, and was in Africa doing good work. The Church Erection Society did better this year than it ever did before. In all, forty churches had been helped, none to large sums, but enough to stimulate them to erect houses of wor- ship. This, considering the fact that ever since the organiza- tion of the society, only ten years before, it was operated as a side line, was gratifying. The treasurer of the Missionary Society had put forth special effort during the year in its behalf, which helped to bring about this cheering result. I was chided by different persons for not turning aside to see the big trees in California, and the great sights in Ger- 143 Fifty-five Years of Active Life many and England. I felt that my time belonged to the cause of missions, and never could have devoted the time to sight- seeing without neglecting or omitting certain interests con- nected with my work. To silence a person on one occasion who chided me for not going out of my way to see the pyramids of Egypt and the great things in Europe, I gave the following answer : "I expect to get to heaven when done with earth, and will see more wonderful things there in a week than I could see on earth in a year, and with less fatigue and cost." Of the nearly six hundred thousand miles I have traveled, most of them were in the interest of missions. I am quite sure that I was a happier man sticking to my work, and conscientiously doing what I felt was my duty, than to allow cither the flattery or censure of men to cause me to turn aside. 144 CHAPTEE XXX. 1880-81 — Transformations in Africa — The Spiritual Need of Germany — More About Germany — State Churches — Head-Men's Sons as Mission Boys — Fate of the Boys. No wonder that a great American statesman said, "One with God is a majority/' and tliat Martin Luther could say, "I will go to Worms, though there are as many devils there as tiles upon the housetops." The tide had made a favorable turn in the affairs of both Africa and Germany, though the converts were less than three hundred in Africa. Mr. Gomer wrote, just before the Board met in 1881, "Five new members have been received into the Church at Shenge, and the Sabbath is well observed here and elsewhere where our schools are located. To com- pare ten years ago with the present, it does not seem like the same place. Then every farm had its medicine, and every hut its devil-house, or sabbe-house. The latter is where the spirits of the old people are supposed to dwell. Now there are many villages where none of these things are seen." Our missionaries, besides keeping up day schools and Sun- day schools, did a good deal of itinerating into neighboring towns preaching the gospel. They also had weekly meetings for prayer and Bible study, thus training native converts for teachers and preachers. These things, with the building of mission residences, chapels, schoolhouses, procuring shops, managing farms, and building boats to travel in, were a heavy tax upon the time and energy of missionaries. Of Germany, I said in my report that though Germany was a land of schools and learned men, there was great need of just such mission labor as we were doing there. The people were heavily taxed to support their civil and military insti- 10 145 Fifty-five Years of Active Life tutions, and it was only by the most rigid economy that the poor could make ends meet, owing to the low pri6e paid for labor. To be required, under these circumstances, to pay for building state churches, and pay pastors and choirs, had given them great disgust for their religious services, which fur- nished little food for mind or soul. The majority of the peo- ple never went to church, except upon funeral or extraordi- nary occasions. Many pastors went to beer houses to drink during the week, and when Sunday came most of the people went to these places of resort, leaving the pastors to preach to empty pews. I said that that country needed our help to reform its drink habits, the desecration of the Lord's day, and to teach the people experimental godliness. As a Church we were only repaying a just debt to Germany for giving us the good and great Otterbein. We had at that time nine missions and two hundred and ninety-seven members. The people there, though very poor, paid three hundred and fifty dollars the previous year. I will add a few extracts from letters written in Germany, wliich properly belonged to the previous chapter : "Geese are important in Germany for both their flesh and feathers. They grow quite large, are good to eat, and their feathers constitute the largest part of the beds here. With a foot of feathers under you and half that thickness over you. you can sleep com- fortably witli the thermometer anywhere from zero to seventy degi'ces Fahrenheit. I am chilly most of the day, for they do not keep warm houses, and the weather is cold and damp, so during the day I have chills, and at night fever. I am be- ginning to like feather bpds and goose meat. With one on both sides of you, and tlie other in you, there is danger of be- coming a little goosy, for which you must make allowance." "The prayer repeated before nioals bore is, "Goit loh inul dank fur speise und dranlc.' To this they ought to add 'fedeni! which would make the praj^er in English, 'God \-e praised and thanked for food, drink, and feathers.' Building up missions in Germany is a slow work, and carrying forwanl 146 In the Gospel Ministry misuion work in Western Africa, where there is no written language, and where cannibalism, slavery, witchcraft, por- oism, and polygamy exist in their most horrible forms, and where superstition enters into everything, is difficnlt." One of our missionaries lived in Saalfield, with whom the writer spent several days. It was here the notorious Tetzel at one time held forth, proclaiming to his hearers that he had the authority to sell indulgences, saying to them in Ger- man : '"Sobald das Geld in Kasten klingt, Sobald die Seele in Himniel springt." The English is: "Soon as tlie rattle of money is heard in the chest, So soon will the soul go to heaven and find rest." It is said that a certain man bought several indulgences from Tetzel, the latter giving him liberty to do certain things, and after paying for them he told Tetzel he wanted to do something that he did not wish to tell, and would pay a good price for permission to do so. Tetzel agreed to give him the indulgence, for which the man paid him, Tetzel soon left that place to go to another town to ply his vocation, and this man followed and overtook him in a lonely spot, and waylaid and beat him, and took from him all the money he had paid him and much more. When Tetzel remonstrated and told him how wicked it was to beat and rob him, he replied he had paid well for doing that thing, and do it he did, thoroughly. While in Saalfield I attended a quarterly meeting, when our congregations, in the pastor's house, numbered from thirty to fifty. At the close of the forenoon meeting on Sabbath I went to the state church, which cost probably, seventy thou- sand dollars, and there I found eleven women, one old man, the sexton, and the preacher delivering a learned discourse. I was told that often only one-half that number attended, though that was the only church in a city of eight thousand. 147 Fiftij-five YeUrs of Active Life Tlirci? })astors were employed^ they having also several vil- lages to look after, which, however, had no church-houses, nor were services held in them. That magnificent church had three galleries, and was Ijuilt during Martin Luther's time, he having preached in it. David Kosambo and Alex Doomaboy were the iirst mission boys we received in Africa. Children were then given to the missionaries by their parents to rear, educate, and train in Christian life and work. Boys were required to do whatever useful work they were capable of doing, svich as bringing wood and water and cultivating the ground, and girls were taught household duties. When these two boys came to the mission they had some, bad habits, and being sons of head men of towns, they were much averse to work. They would say at first, "Slaves and girls for work, but not head men's boys." Tliey would steal, and look one straight in the face and lie. They both learned rapidly in school, and were good singers and talkers. In short, they were smart boys. Before they could speak English well David was asked to tell about the Sabbath-school lesson for the day. He said : "The teacher done say that time when Jesus was born there were some persons there for mind sheep and goats, and one angel come. He shine like sun. Dem people afraid of iim, and he say, 'I no come to make you afraid, I come to bring you glad tidings that a Savior is born,' and his nuuna put him in same place dem cow stay." Coming from prayer-meeting one night lie was asked what lesson had been read. He re- plied: "They been read alxnit dem jieople who liad meeting, who had a gate dat dcy called beautiful, and they carry one man that no able walk, and put him there to beg dem people for copper (they call all money cojiper), and Peter and John say to him, '1 no got copper, but that thing we done got we give you ; you get up and walker,' and that man began to walker one time." Once I met Alex when he had a very sore neck, and I said, "I pity you." He at once replied, "Do you pity me one sliilling? If so, den givi^ it to me." 14S In the Gospel Ministry David became a pronounced Christian and one of the fore- most students, not only in Africa, but in America. When he had finished his second year in high school in Dayton, Ohio, he died, and had one of the largest funerals ever witnessed in that city. The principal of the Dayton high school said at his funeral that he had never known a better-balanced mind than David's, for he excelled in all branches of study, including music. He was greatly interested in his people, and was qualifying himself to go to Africa as a missionary when God took him to heaven. Alexander received as good an education in Africa as could be given in the Clark Training School, and became a teacher. Though a professed Christian, he was not free from sins common to Africans in that coun- try, and little by little drifted into rebellion against God and the Sierra Leone government. He took part in the insurrec-. tion of 1898, which destroyed many valuable lives, and he was convicted and hung with many others for taking part in that wicked rebellion. After I left Africa in 1887, that young man wrote the fol- lowing to the Religious Telescope, under heading, "Farewell to Bishop Flickinger" : "Four months ago we welcomed our indefatigable Bishop, Dr. D. K. Flickinger, to Shenge again. His stay among us has been a pleasant one. Three days ago, on the evening of the 30th of March, 1887, our dear Bishop bid us good-by, and hence I say farewell to the Doctor across the waters. He has always been a friend to me, for I was the second boy taken into the mission in 1873, being then four and a half years old. I am happy to tell you that the Bishop has built a nice tomb over Mr. Thomas Tucker's grave. I ^V,onder if I shall see him again; but whether I see him or not, I hope God will go with him. So farewell, our dear, dear Bishop." Among the many good things connected with our mission work in the United States was the establishing of many new Sunday schools. From the organization of the board in May, 1853, just twenty-eight years previously, there had been no 149 Fifty-five Years of Active Life less than one hundred and fifteen thousand members received into the Church through the labors of our missionaries, at an average cost of not to exceed ten dollars, and for every fifteen dollars of missionary money expended one soul was led to Christ. 150 CHAPTER XXXI. 1881-82 — Visits Africa Again — A Circle of Mission Sites— Industrial Training — Stingy Men — Rejoicing Over Success — Experiences on a Rough Sea Voyage — Collision at Sea — French Infidel. Owing to the fact that important matters needed to ))e looked after in Africa, I was requested by the Executive Com- mittee of the Mission Board to visit that country again. Starting December 1, 1881, in a sail vessel, I returned on the same vessel, May 24, 1882. Eev. J. Gomer and wife, having completed their second term of five years of service as mis- sionaries in Africa, came to the United States with me. All were present at the annual meeting of the Board, which met in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, May 26th, 1882. The year had been a prosperous one in Africa, especially in the way of enlarging the work there. The chief of the Sher- bro country, Mr. George Caulker, had died five months before I got there, and his successor in office, T. N. Caulker, his brother, was more friendly to our mission work than George had been. This suggested to Mr. Gomer and myself that that was an opportune time to obtain new mission sites, and the following new places were secured, each containing one hun- dred and sixty acres of land: Rembee, which is about twenty miles from Shenge, in a northwest direction; Mambo, fifteen miles south of Rembee; Mo-Fuss, fifteen miles east of Mambo; Tongkoloh, twenty miles south of Mo-Fuss; and Koolong, fourteen miles south of Shenge. This circle of new mission sites, most of them extending interior from ten to twenty miles from the coast, and about one hundred miles around, had in it over one hundred towns, nearly all of which could easily be reached from one of these stations. At each of these was a resident missionary and a day school and 151 Fifty-five Yea7-s of Active Life a Sunday school. Most of the missionaries were natives who had heen educated at our own or other mission stations. One object in procuring so much land was to provide for teaching mission boys how to cultivate the land ; another was to settle our converts on it, in lots of from five to twenty acres, and thus keep them under Christian influence. The land cost very little. It is a very important part of mission work in Africa to teach the people how to farm and to build houses, furnish and live in them; how to raise, cook, and eat food properly ; how to make, wear, and wash clothes ; in short, how to provide for their bodies as well as their souls. They must be helped out of their small, cheerless, dirty mud huts in which they live; clothes must be put upon their naked bodies, and they must be taught to eat their food from tal)les, with knives, forks, and spoons, instead of sitting on the ground and taking it out of the vessel in which it is cooked and putting it into their mouths with their hands. To ac- complish all these things, profitable employment must be given them, hence the necessity of teaching the mission boys and girls how to be housekeepers, mechanics, farmers, and how to care for sick people, how to acquire property, as well as how to read, write, believe on Christ, and worship him in such a way as to save their souls. Two rich, stingy men were once solicited by me for mis- sionary money. One excused himself from giving because he had given the Lord one thousand two hundred dollars not long before, saying the lightning had struck his barn, which was full of hay and grain, and all was burned, causing a loss of twelve hundred dollars. The other man was quite as stingy, but he had some conscience left. ITe felt he ought to give the fifty dollars asked of him. Going to his house to talk with him the day after he had been urged to give at a camp-meeting, he said: "Do let me alone; I can't give you the fifty dollars now, and I will die if you don't let mo alone." There was an awful struggle in his soul; he felt lie onglit to give the money, but such was his love for it that 152 In the Gospel Ministry he did not want to part with it. His wife finally said to him, "Do give that man the money and let him go," and he gave it. This year general success attended our mission work, except on a few frontier fields, where there was but little success. In Germany, in Africa, and especially on home missions, and on most of the frontier missions, there was real prosperity. The home missions in the thirty-one self-supporting conferences employed two hundred and fourteen missionaries. There were received into the Church three thousand five hundred and sixty-three members, and over twenty thousand dollars were paid to the missionaries on these missions. The Mission- ary Visitor had reached a circulation of nearly forty-five thousand. The Church Erection Society had also made more progress than ever before. I recall with much thanksgiving to God the happiness I experienced over the results of the labors of our missionaries this year. To me it was a year of great peril and hardship. The vessel on which I went to Africa had poor accommodations. Eetuming on the same vessel, my associations and accommodations were better, but it had its perils and disadvantages. To give the reader an idea what these voyages were to passengers, the following is copied from a letter written by me at the time : "The voyage has been the roughest I ever made. The first two weeks we had high winds and waves, ex- cept two days, in which time there were two three-day gales, and the last one was so severe that it seemed as though the heavy sea would knock our bark to pieces. Every little Avhile a large wave would strike the vessel with such force as to make everything tremble. The sky-light in the cabin was so open, and also the port-holes in our staterooms, as to admit consider- able water at times, which came dashing down upon our table, beds, and cabin floor, making it exceedingly disagreeable and unhealthy. A Mr. Cambell and his wife were driven out of their beds one night, and my mattress and bed clothes were wet for several days and nights. The floor next to the water-closet was quite wet for most of the 153 Fifty-five Years of Active Life voyage, because water escaped from it. The captain frequently lighted his pipe in the cabin, which to us seasick ones, at least to four of us, was very disagreeable. The gangway, and the only way into the cabin, had to be kept closed most of the time for several days and nights, on ac- count of heavy seas, and this was the only means by which fresh air could be admitted. There was plenty of room for water to get into the staterooms and cabins, which we did not want, but none for fresh air, which we did need very much. The table had enough on it, but was poorly supplied with suitable food for seasick passengers, and some things were horribly cooked. Several of us suffered for want of that which we could eat ; some lady passengers finally requested a little more attention to their wants, which brought to the table an abundance of rice, which we ate till over our seasickness. Occasionally there was fruit and dessert, which we relished much, but seldom as much as an ordinary person should have. It was evident our bark was managed by those in control to make money, without regard to the health or comfort of pas- sengers." After such a voyage to Africa, it may seem strange that ^Ir. and Mrs. Gomer and I should venture to return on the same vessel. It happened this way : The owner of the vessel had an agent in Freetown to whom I remarked tliat we would return to the United States about the 1st of April. The agent stated that was the time that bark would sail for America, adding, "And you will go on it?" To this I gave an emphatic "No," with reasons. A few days afterward the captain, sent an apology, and said things should be all right on the return trip. So it was, having a new captain, and all went well un- til we collided with a brig about three hundred miles from New York. The account of that was published in the Church paper by the writer as follows, under date of New York, May 22, 1882 : "Just landed and all is well, but we narrowly es- caped a watery grave. Between one and two o'clock in the morning mi (lie ISih inst.. a Dutch brig struck the jib-boom 154 In the Gospel Ministry of our bark and carried it away. The rigging of the two ves- sels caught, and it took about half an hour to get them apart. The damage to our vessel was about one thousand dollars, but the brig suffered more. Its captain said at first they would go down, and asked our captain to lay by and see. At eight o'clock next morning it was decided she could get into port. We soon knew we were safe, as our vessel did not take water. Fortunately there was but little wind then, and the collision was in a manner to do the least damage. God reigns. We go from here to annual meeting at Lebanon, Pennsylvania." We had a Frenchman for a passenger who had been in Africa as a trader for several years, and was going to France by way of New York. He was an infidel. After it was known all was safe, he came to wdiere several of us were standing, and jeeringly said, "What a pity that we did not all become angels this morning." Our captain gave him the following well-deserved rebuke, and made him feel its force keenly: *'Good angels are made of better material than you possess, and they only are in heaven, but bad angels are with Satan in hell." Once while a passenger on the City of Berlin, going from New York to Liverpool, we lost our rudder in a severe gale, and were fotced back to New York City. A French woman, after being told all was safe, screamed all one night, and kept awake several of us whose berths were near hers. She was determined to go to tlie bottom of the ocean. My roommate laughingly said, but not loud enough for her to hear it, that be believed she was too silly and light to sink if she were in the water, and that she certainlv was a l)ig fool. 155 CHAPTER XXXII. 1882-83— Accept the Mendi Mission— Go to Africa— Ship Disabled— Mendi Property — The "Earlj' Dawn" — The John Brown Steamer — The "Drivers." How more activity and responsibility could be crowded into one year than were in this, is difficult to conceive. In Novem- ber, 1882, I obtained the information that the American Mis- sionary Association, of New York, was about to transfer Mendi mission, in Africa, to the American Board, in Boston, in exchange for some Indian missions they had. Mendi mis- sion being contiguous to our mission in Africa, and we having cooperated, always being on terms of friendship, I was deeply interested in this change. I therefore wrote to the secretary of the American Missionary Association that I hoped Mendi mission would be properly cared for, and said to him that if it had such a superintendent as Sherbro mission had, in the person of Eev. J. Gomor, success would be assured without increasing their appropriation. Mendi mission had been man- aged by a f reedman from the South, and the missionaries em- ployed there were also freedmen, who did but little good. In reply to that letter the secretary of the American ]\[issionary Association asked if the United Brethren Church would take control of Mendi mission, and operate it for five years upon the avails of the Avery fund, which was put into their hands for Africa, and which amounted to about five thousand dol- lars annually. He also asked whether it would accept eight thousand dollars which had been collected in Sunday schools for the special purpose of building a steamer for the African mission, to be called John Broivn, and see to it that such a steamer was built and operated in behalf of missions in Africa. As the headquarters of Mendi mission was at Bonthe, 156 In the Gospel Ministry one hundred and twenty miles south of Freetown, at which place missionaries debarked going there, and embarked for returning to the United States, and as our headquarters were at Shenge, midway between Freetown and Bonthe, it was very desirable to have just such a mission-craft as was pro- posed, to carry missionaries and mission supplies from Free- town to Shenge and Bonthe. An agreement was reached between the three committees about the first of December, turning over to the United Breth- ren Board of Missions all the property of the Mendi mission, together with eight thousand dollars with which to build a steamer, one of the conditions being that I would go to England and contract for the building of the John Brown, and then proceed to Africa and supervise the details of the transfer of Mendi mission to the United Brethren Board. To do this the executive committee requested me to go, and also to look after the needs of Sherbro mission; hold the district annual conference; then go to GTermany and hold the annual conference with our missionaries there, and return to the United States in the spring of 1883, in time to be present at the annual meeting of the Board, which met in May. I did all of that, and experienced a shipwreck in the bargain. I embarked in New York, on the City -of Berlin, December 9, and that vessel lost its rudder in a fearful gale at midnight of the eleventh, when about one thousand miles from New York. After floating a])Out at the mercy of the waves for forty-eight hours, using all the signals of distress available, the City of Chester, a steamer westward bound, overtook us, and towed us back to New York, which place we reached the twenty-first. I sailed again on the twenty-third for Liver- pool, and had a good voyage. While in Africa I took an inventory of all that was in pos- session of Mendi mission. There were only two stations, Good Hope and Avery. At both these places there were good mission residences, chapels, schoolhouses, and at Avery a sawmill, a cofPee farm of one thousand five hundred bearing 157 Fifty-five Years of Active Life trees, and quite a lot of lumber and logs. There were also five rowboats, and a lot of household furniture and other things, well worth two thousand dollars, not including land or buildings. As we were to get about five thousand dollars a year, and these two stations did not require all that, a new station was opened at Manoh, which was in the Mendi mission territory. At Bonthe, where Mendi mission once pub- lished a small paper, there was some type and other printing material, and the publication of the Early Dawn was re- sumed; Mr. D. F. Wilberforce was made its editor. To help in this the Religious Telescope office afterward gave one hundred and fifty dollars, by order of the General Confer- ence. On my way to Africa I went to Scotland and England to confer with shipbuilders, to learn how much of a steamer could be bought for seven thousand dollars, reserving one thousand dollars for getting it to Africa, and for its equip- ment there. Xot being able to contract for such a vessel as I thought was needed for seven thousand dollars, I wrote to the New York committee to make it nine thousand six hun- dred dollars, which it generously did. On my way home I contracted with Mr. E. Hayes, at Stony Stratford, England, for a steamer sixty feet long, twelve feet in the beam, and to bo able to carry fifteen tons cargo, and accommodate six or eight passengers and fuel for two days' running. It was to cost one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven pounds sterling, or about eight thousand seven hundred dollars, and was to be finished by Octoher, 1883. It was not completed by that date, and it was jSTovember before it finally got off. En- countering a fearful gale, it was towed back to Dartmouth, where the Boai'd of Trade detained it till ]\ray, 1884, and the salvage and repairs necessary to go to sea again cost im- mensely. We also lost the contract to carry the mail in Africa, wliich will receive explanation further on. This much ought to be said now, if the shipl)uilders had gotten the John Jh-oirii finished according to contnu't, many tliousands of dol- 158 In the Gospel Ministry lars would have been saved, and I should have escaped much unjust criticism. Another important event of this year was the securing of the cooperation of the Freedmen's Missions Aid Society, of No. 18 Adams Street, London. Dr. White, of New Haven, Connecticut, who had spent some time in England soliciting funds, gave me a letter of introduction to the Kev. J. Gwynne Jones, the secretary of the Freedmen's Missions Aid Society, as did also Dr. Strieby, secretary of the American Missionary Association, of New York. With these I visited Mr. Jones, and give him a copy of the missionary report of our Board for 1882, and other documents, and made such statements of our African mission as I deemed proper. I also wrote Mr. Jones from Africa, and on my return to London gave him a written report showing what we had in Africa, including Mendi mis- sion. The result was that the Freedmen's Missions Aid Society agreed to cooperate with us, and gave us that year nearly five thousand dollars, and have contributed consider- able sums since to Africa. My visit to Germany was also much needed. Besides hav- ing our liberties abridged there by the civil authorities, dis- cordant elements had developed among our missionaries to such an extent as to forebode evil. These were largely re- moved, four new members were admitted into the annual dis- trict meeting, and thirteen new members were received into the Church. Steps were taken to publish a small monthly there in behalf of our missionary work. One hundred and fifty dollars were set apart by the General Conference for this, at my request. Great prosperity attended our home missions, they receiv- ing into the Church during the year four thousand five hun- dred and forty-three members, while in our frontier missions two thousand seven hundred and thirty-four were received. It may seem strange, but it is tr\ie, that during my al^sence from the United States for six months at a time, I still edited the Missionanj Visitor. I selected matter for months ahead 159 Fifty-five Years of Active Life when going abroad, and then wrote editorials on the cars, aboard of ship, and whenever there was a leisure hour to do so. I -also wrote for other Church papers, English and German, and for the Sunday-school ])eriodicals. While in Africa on this trip, I traveled over one thousand miles in rowboats, not counting the rapid movements I made when the drivers got after me. These drivers are a species of black ant, which march with all the regularity of an army. They enter houses, and go into every nook and corner of them, marching in a column from one to one and a half inches wide, the outside ones being picked fighters and biters. Twice at Shenge they entered my bedroom, and got onto the bed at ten o'clock at night, and bit me so furiously that I left in my sleeping-gown, until they finished their tour of that room. They go from cellar to garret, killing cockroaches, mice, and rats, and have been known to kill goats when in pens, where they could not get out of their way. They sink their bills into one's flesh and never let go. When pulled otf with the hand, their heads remain. Three things gave me much trouble: 1. To make a good deed for Freetown property. This required three weeks' walk- ing, talking, and praying. 2. Building a sea-wall at Shenge, which was a failure in part, and ought never to have been at- tempted. 3. Building the JoJm Brown, which I did after much counsel and prayer, and which was both a success and a failure. In an article I wrote at Shenge, i\[arch 7, 1882, the follow- ing is found: "Just twenty-one years ago last fall I came here from America at my own expense, bringing with me a' few goods with which I managed to pay the debts of the mission, amounting to about one hundred and thirty dollars, and left an equal amount with IMr. Williams, the native laborer, for him to get through tlie next year. There was here a small chapel, which soon fell down, because so badly eaten by bug-a-bugs; in it Mr. Williams and family lived, and taught a day and Sunday school, having from twelve to fif- IGO In the Gospel Ministry teen children in attendaTiee, and held services on Sabbath with very small congregations; and that was all there was of Sherbro mission then. Now we have five stations, the weakest of which far surpasses all we had then, preach in forty odd towns regularly, and arrangements have been made to open one new station immediately, and another next year." 161 CHAPTER XXXIII. 1883-84 — Increasing Responsibility — Misfortunes of the John Brown — Spiritual Results and New Missionaries — A Prophecy — Flogged the Oarsman — In a Storm. The African mission had given me all the Mork and re- sponsibility and peril I could endure, as I thought, but these kept increasing more and more. Eeceiving large sums of money from the American Missionary Association pleased the executive committee much, but because the Freedmcn's j\Iis- sions Aid did not furnish five thousand dollars the second year, as its secretary said he thought it would, I was severely criticized. Some men measured success achieved in mission work by its inexpensiveness. To save money by employing inferior native helpers, no difference how much the work might be neglected thereby, or the spiritual welfare of the people left uncared for, in their estimation was success. Then they never made allowances for reverses, which inevitably oc- curred in Africa, owing to sickness and other conditions there. To be sure to have the steamer John Brown built accord- ing to contract, and finished and started to Africa in time, and to assist Rev. J. G. Jones in his work as secretary of the Freedmcn's Missions Aid Society, the treasurer of our Miss- ionary Society was sent to England in September, 1883. The steamer was not ready for nearly a month after the time it was to be done, and then some changes had to be made which delayed its sailing for some days. At last the John Brown. commanded by William Brown, left London for Sierra Tx^one. The second day out a severe gale was encountered, which so disabled the machinery of the vessel that it had to be towed to Dartmontli l)v a ])ilot boat. Being so small, and tlic season 1G2 In the Gospel Ministry of the year causing rough seas, the Board of Trade refused to allow it to venture to sea again until May, 1884. The cost of towing it into port, repairing machinery, and keeping it at anchor from November till May, and getting it to Africa finally, was enormous. This large extra sum of money would have been saved had the steamer started two weeks earlier. When in Africa, the year before, Mr. Gomer and I had practi- cally made a contract with the Colonial authorities in Free- town to carry the mails from that city to Bonthe, just the route the John Brown was to go weekly, and for which they were to pay two hundred and forty dollars a month. With this contract, which would have been effected had the John Brown got to Africa in November instead of May, it would have been a source of considerable profit to the Society, in- stead of great loss. As it was, the boat did excellent service for a couple of years, and had the reputation of making the trips of one hundred and twenty miles, from Bonthe to Free- town, more regularly than any craft ever did before. At the same time the Society was incurring great financial loss, remarkable gains were being made in the number of con- verts and in the increase of spiritual life at both Sherbro and Mendi missions. Sending the John Brown to Africa led to the appointment of Eevs. J. j\I. Lesher and W. S. Sage and their wives to our mission, in October, 1883, and to the open- ing of several new mission stations, some of which became im- portant, and was the beginning of a general ingathering of souls into our mission churches there. The year 1884 added one thousand and twelve members, while in all the twenty- eight years previous there were but five hundred and fourteen received. In 1885 there were one thousand one hundred and three, and in 1886, one thousand three himdred and eleven more were received. That looked as though God's time to favor Zion had come, notwithstanding the great financial loss. The following, copied from my report to the Board, shows how some things can be forecast pretty correctly. Bear in mind that this quotation was in the re})ort made in May, 1884, 163 Fifty-five Years of Active Life when the great success of that year was unknown to me. "The reverses of last year caused me to carefully examine all the circumstances to see whether it was not a blunder for us to undertake so great a work as we now have in Africa. The more carefully this question is examined, the more fully will it appear that in this we were providentially led, and that God's blessing has manifestly rested upon our efEorts to rein- force that field with efficient laborers, who, in connection with others previously there, are having very encouraging success. Everything connected with the late great enlargement of our work in that country indicates that the same Providence which led us so unexpectedly into the responsible position we occupy as a board of missions, will guide us to a glorious victory and an honorable ending, if we are faithful. As I stated to the General Conference fifteen years ago in reference to mission work in Africa, so I say now, I cannot but believe that a glorious harvest of souls will yet be gathered among that peo- ple by the church which does faithful work in that dark land. The magnitude of the work which our Heavenly Father has so evidently placed in our hands may well cause us to falter, considering the great liability there is in our being misunder- stood and even censured, in case reverses should come, unless we are able to walk by faith and not by sight." The first time I was in Africa I ascended the Big Boom Eivor one hundred miles, and once had to cross it where it was a mile wide. When near the middle, and in a strong current, my main oarsman refused to pull, which caused the frail native canoe to get broadside in that current, making it liable to capsize. I thereupon struck the man with the tiller stick, causing him and all hands to pull well, and thus soon I was carried to a place of safety. The crew had been quarreling with the captain all the three days it took to make that trip, which was ended Saturday. On Sunday T preached, and the only one of my crew, five in num])cr, wlio attended tlie service, was ilie iii;in I Hogged two days l)efore. INfy experience on the 164 In the Gospel Ministry Big Boom River was a good illustration of the impropriety of trading horses in the middle of the river. Once in going from Freetown, in Africa, by way of Liver- pool, we were caught in a terrible gale off the Bay of Biscay. The high wind and seas from the northwest impeded the progress of the vessel, which had very defective machinery and was short of coal. She finally reached Liverpool two days late, with less than a ton of coal aboard. On Easter Sunday afternoon three young men who had been quite wicked met in a stateroom, and sang most beautifully the hymn, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep." These men in that way were trying to make right some wrongs they had done during the voyage, for they realized, as we all did, our great danger. The chief engineer did not have his clothes off either Saturday or Sun- day nights, he and a number of men being waist deep in the water which they were bailing out. At the annual meeting of 1884, I plead hard to have the Board of Missions apportion ten cents per member in the United Brethren Church, besides what it received from the American Missionary Association and the Freedmen's Mis- sions Aid Society, for Africa; also to apportion two cents to the member for our Germany mission, these being the only foreign missions then dependent upon the Church. 1C5 CHAPTER XXXIV. 1884—85 — Grumblers — On the Pacific Coast — Treasurer Billlieimur Reports — Comparison of Cost Per Member — Assets, Material aud Spiritual — New Kind of Foreordination. This year was in man}' respects a remarkable one; much travel, much peril by land and sea, much suffering, physic.il and mental ; much criticism, much anxiety, and much success on the Pacific Coast, in England, Grermany, and Africa. I endured much, and learned that some men, both in the min- istry and lait}^, were quite willing to grind men like farmers ground corn off the cob, and after they got all that they could of money, toil, privation, they would do with him as the farmer did with the cob, throw it away as a useless thing. I closed one of my letters sent from Africa with the following words: "More and more I feel like meeting all who severely criticise us and the African mission at the judgment-seat of Christ. Jf there w(>re a way of going and coming back, I would agree to accompany one hundred of the worst grumblers and settle the matter at once." About the first of June 1884, I went to the Pacific Coast. I did not desire to go, but went because the Board so ordered. There were difficulties in Oregon to be adjusted. I met Bishop Castle in Washington and went with him to quarterly and d(>dication meetings. Then we went to Walla Walhi mis- sion conference, which met in Ifuntsville. '^^Pliere tlie question arose as to what to do with our church property in the city of Walla Walla. Tlie church and ]iarsonage were worth $3,.500, Imt the society had gone down ; some thought the property had better be sold, others that it should be leased, Walla Walhi being a growing city. I learned that there were a nnnilxM- of Cliinese there, with notliing Ix'ing done in l)ehalf IGG In the Gospel Ministry of their Christianization, and advised that a school he com- menced for their henefit. To this the conference agi-eed, and a suhscription of $500 was raised to start a school, and a committee appointed to superintend it. It was commenced the following Novemher and did well. Next I visited the Chinese school in Portland and spent a day and night seeing its operations. Then I went to Oregon Conference, which met in Philomath, the site of onr college. A difference of opinion among the memljers on the subject of holiness, secret societies, and the action of the Board made it difficult for the bishop to administer the laws of the Church, and this was re- tarding the cause. One principal object of my visit was to bring about more harmony between these brethren, which was largely accomplished. From Oregon I went to California, and spent several weeks with the missionaries; then I came on to Colorado, and spent several days helping missionaries there. Mainly through Bishop Castle I received in collections for the African mission the entire cost of the trip. The fol- lowing October I went to England and spent two months helping the ' Freedman's Missionary Association to collect money. Then in December I sailed for Africa, my eighth trip to that mission, and landed there the first week in Jan- uary, 1885. I returned in the spring, barely in time to reach the General Conference, Avhich met May 13. In my absence Rev. J. K. Billheimer, the treasurer of the United Brethren ^Missionary Society, largely did my office work. He prepared the report to the Board and said : "AVe are much encouraged with our Avork in Germany, and in the Sherbro and ]\Iendi missions ; but few if any of our home mis- sions are able to report so large an increase as this mission.. While some may count thirty and fiftyfold, that mission had over two hundred per cent, increase. According to the direc- tions of the Board at its last meeting, the Secretary went to England, where he did much to further our interests by pub- lic meetings and private solicitation. The presence of our Secretary was never more needed in Africa than during the 1G7 Fifty-five Years of Active Life last year. Our superintendent there was being borne on a tidal wave of a great work with such force and rapidity as to give him no time to look back. The mighty ship was under full sail. It is easy to make sail with a gentle breeze, not so easy to take it in in time of storm. The Secretary helped to ease the ship down to a speed more in conformity to our idea. Our nuotto is, Go slow, keep in the edge of the trade-winds. "If some heathen craft, with distress signals, hails you for a cup of water or to be taken on board, answer back, 'Our supply of water is limited, and we are forbidden to take any more on board.' Sail on, good ship, and let them perish. Colloquy on the heathen craft: 'We perish for water, why is their supply limited ? They have plenty of vessels, and can get more missionaries; why are they not filled? Who sent the ship here? The Christian people of America. But why not fill their vessels? Because some did not want to spare the water, find others think the barrels leak and the water is wasted; but if we could only have the leakage we would not die.' "The general order is 'Retrench, go no further, reduce your working force.' The management of our foreign work has been criticized because of our heavy expenditure. Let us compare figures. The following figures given in the Foreign Missionary do not include our Board, but we will include it. In the Congregational foreign missions there were added during the year 2,371 converts at a cost of $248.14 per mcin- ber. The Christian church received into her communion from heathen converts 3(5.5 at a cost of $72.55 per member. The Episcopalian missions received 228 at a cost of $592.03 per member. Tlie Methodist foreign missions 2,981, at a cost of $234.91 per member. The Baptist church received in its for- eign mission, 11,891 at a cost of $37.05 per member. The secretary of the Presbyterian Board justly finds fault with the methods ])y which the Baptists arrive at these figures. The statistics given by the other boards represent the number gathered in from the lieathen, ])ut the Baptists include all in 168 In the Gospel Ministry foreign lands. About 7,000 converts were made in Sweden and Germany, while 4,679 converts were made from among the heathen at a cost of $67 per member, which is still the best by over $5 per member. We report for our mission in Africa 1,113 at a cost of $33.68 per member. This is one of the most encouraging facts that was ever recorded on the pages of United Brethren history." In my report to the General Conference I said that we had paid some of the debt, but things took a sudden turn against the society, and added: "It looks very much as though the Lord had managed some of the things charged against our superintendent in Africa, the executive committee, and offi- cers of the missionary society. At all events, he has greatly blessed these efforts in rapidly building up his cause and sav- ing precious souls in Africa. While there last winter I ex- amined into the financial and moral worth of the mission more carefully than ever before, and with results far more favorable than I believed possible. In our distress for money we seriously considered the question of selling out, in part or whole. This led to the discovery that we were worth from $25,000 to $30,000, and that the cash could be realized upon one-half of this at any time, and we believe on it all in the near future. The available assets consist in produce and goods in the mission store, nearly a dozen rowboats and ca- noes, mission wharf and warehouse, with the privilege to do business upon mission premises. The balance of our assets consist in lands, houses, shops, and farms, which are valuable especially for mission purposes. The most valuable assets of the mission are the religious and moral influences in operation producing results highly gratifying. I tried to invoice the gospel seed sown in 394 towns into which our missionaries go. There are 500 children in our Sunday schools, upon most of whose young hearts the law of God has been so engraved as to lead them to Christ. I also took account of 1,536 mem- bers we have there, the large majority of whom were a few years ago as degraded heathen as ever lived. Most of them 169 Fifty-five Years of Active Life arc now siriviii,ii- to follow Christ. I made note of the sixty raw lieathen wlio walked several miles near midnight and waked i;p our missionary to have him tell of Christ. He had preaehed that evening to about thirty persons, being the first time he was there. Two men from a. neighboring town went home after that meeting and told what they had heard, which so interested the people that sixty of them came to the mis- sionary and waked him up, saying they feared he would be gone before they could get there in the morning, and desiring that he tell them the "God word." This he did at that mid- night hour. I also took stock of the scores of souls saved in heaven and on earth from the. terrible degradation of heathen- ism, not represented on ordinary l)alance sheets. I am quite certain that the assets of our mission in Africa far exceed its liabilities.'' While in Africa this time I held the sixtli annual session of Sherbro mission district, the first week of ^iareli. 188"). The secretary of that meeting in writing an account of it said it was the most enjoyable of all our district meetings. The very first gathering was characterized l)y the presence of the Holy Spirit, which continued throughout the session. It was a prosperous'year in the history of the African mission, 294 towns being visited by our missionaries, with a member- ship of 1,526. I asked Mr. Gomer to tell how numy had died at Shenge during the fourteen years he was there whom he regarded as Christians. After thinking the matter over for some time, he said he could safely say twenty-six, but added, "You mav count them by scores if you include those who died at all our stations who had been slri\ing to do llu' will of God." -V cai-eful appraisement of our iiropcrty in Africa, including laiuls, houses, boats, aiiiouiitcd lo over $"?S,000. Add i(^ these facts the ti-nth ibat thirty years before ])eople lived in mud huts without llooi'. doors, or windows; many of them wore no clothing, slept on the ground, and would eat bugs, ants, rats, snakes, moidxcys, and one another; they were cannibals, polyganiists. slaveholders, devil worshipers, 17') Ln the Gospel Ministry burning to death witches, and in many other ways inflicting / on each other untold cruelties. When in Africa in 1883, a new kind of foreordination was discovered. We kept quite a number of mission children whom we fed and clothed, their food consisting principally of rice and fish. At times fish were not easily caught, at other times our fisherman would smuggle most of the fish away and sell them, supposing we would not find it out and continue his full wages. When the children were without fish for a time we furnished some beef to the man who drew their daily supplies of rice. On Saturday morning there was enough supplied for two days, and thereafter it got to be a com- mon thing that there was no fish for Saturday, so that a double portion of beef had to be furnished. The steward and fisherman had foreordained that there should be no fish on Saturday, which would give them beef for two days, which they all relished very much. As a matter of course we put an end to that kind of foreordination, it being too expensive. The sexton of the mission chapel, besides seeing that the house was kept properly, had to keep the people in order. Occasionally raw heathen and children had to be told to be still and shown how to behave. One Sunday, just after I had commenced service, a boy al30ut three years old came into church with all of his clothes, Avhich consisted of a Madras handkerchief, wound around his head. The sexton marched him out and put the dress on him from waist downward, and then brought him back and put him In a seat. He also saw to it that the people kept awake during service, and for this he not unfrequently had a switch about three feet long with which to touch them, or if need be to strike them. This same man was one of our class-leaders, and led class-meetings well ; but at public worship he quietly passed around, not to inquire of them respecting their religious experience, but to see that / th(?y kept their clothes on, staid awake, and behaved properly. That country was infested with jiggers to an alarming ex- tent at that time. That small insect, about half the size of 171 Fifty-five Years of Active Life an ordinary flea, would bury itself unperceived into the flesh, mostly in the ends of the fingers and toes, and if not removed promptly it would deposit its eggs, and soon there would be a brood of jiggers boring into the flesh, producing painful sores which would terminate fatally if not remedied. They made terrible looking fingers and toes in a short time. Our bookkeeper at Shenge, a son of ex-president Benson of Liberia, was scarcely able to get about on account of jiggers in his feet. The wife of the governor of Sierra Leone had very sore feet from the same cause, and once I had to get a surgeon on shipboard to dig jiggers out of one foot, the second day after sailing from FreetoAvn to Liverpool. Wearing shoes and stockings was no protection from the pest. J72 CHAPTER XXXV. 1885-86 — Elected Missionary Bishop — Valedictory as Editor of Mis- sionary Visitor — To Africa — Secretary Warner's Report — The Situation in Germany. The General Conference of May, 1885, believed that the work in Africa, Germany, and England ought to have the whole time of one man, and hence elected me bishop of the foreign district. Dr. Z. Warner was elected corresponding secretary in my place, and Rev. Wm. McKee was chosen treas- urer instead of- Rev. J. K. Billheimer. The Board of Mis- sions was charged with the work of bringing the society's ex- penditures within the limits of its receipts, and to provide for the payment of its debts. The following is the report that was made at the end of tha first year of the new Board : "Not- withstanding all the care we have exercised upon the matter of appropriations, the expenses of our society have exceeded the amount of money received into our treasury, thereby causing a considerable increase of our indebtedness. The necessity is now upon us to adopt a system of retrenchment which no doubt will be seriously felt by our faithful mission- aries, but we hope they Avill acquiesce in the necessity. We recommend that an effort Ije made all over the Church to secure within the ensuing two years the sum of $50,000." This is the report adopted at the annual meetings of 1885 and of 1886, and shows that the new officers found it as difficult to retrench as did the old, and made no more progi'ess in paying debts, though it was especially charged to do so. The following valedictory was written for the Missionary Visitor: "I cheerfully vacate the place given me by the Gen- eral Conference twenty-eight years ago to Dr. Warner, my successor. I l^espeak for him the same hearty cooperation of 173 Fiffi/-Hr(' Year^ of Active Life the friends of missions and Sunday schools which has been accorded me. I am thankful to the thousands of readers of this paper for the liberal patronage given and the forbearance they have exercised during the twenty years I have been its editor. It never had but the one editor till now, and it's time to have a change. Doctor Warner will no doubt greatly, im- prove it, and in this I will rejoice. I enter upon the duties of my oflfice not to attempt any new work, but to accomplish more of the same kind in which I have been engaged in the foreign missionaiy iield for many years past. I ask the readers of the Visitoi' to remember me at the throne of grace, and not to cease to pray arid pay for the cause of missions both at home and abroad, especially to remember Africa and Germany missions." On the twelfth of September, I started to Africa on a sail vessel, l)ut did not get there until jSTovember 6, owing to unusual calms. I reached Freetown the day two of the mis- sionaries, a husband and wife, sailed for the United States. T'wo others, husband and wife, had left in Julj'-, lessening the force so much that only two men and their wives were on the field. I was charged with the duty of putting the work upon a basis that it would cost only $8,000 besides what the African Missionary Association gave, which was about $5,000 a year. I, in consultation with the two men on the field, arranged to carry on the work with $10,000 all told, from January, 1886 to 1888. This was not to include the salary and traveling expenses of Mr. Wilberforce, in case he was sent back to Africa again, he then being in the United States attending a medical college and doing some lecturing on Africa. I had arranged with Doctor Jones, secretary of the Fn^cd- man's Missions Aid, of London, to be with him at the beginning of the year 188fi, and left Africa December 23, 1885, reaching Pmgland January 10. The Secretary, Doctor Warner, in his rejiort to the Board in 188(5, said: "The spiritual results of our work in Africa 174 //( tlie Gospel Ministry are very gratifying. One year ago there were reported 1,526 members; this year we report 2,G29. From them we can select the men who are to redeem the people among whom we are laboring. The foreigner cannot evangelize Africa, The native church can, and must do the work. Strong leaders will be needed for years, perhaps, but the rank and file of Christian workers must be found in the native church. The African missions sustained a real loss in the death of Thomas Tucker, our oldest convert, and pastor of Mo-Fuss. Among his last words, he said : "1 am ready to die and go to reign with my Savior." "The Secretar^^'s report said of me : "Bishop Fliekinger has been in England since early in January. While in Africa he visited all our stations, held the annual meeting and or- dained one native preacher. This visit will have a good influ- ence on our work in the future. He gave the value of our property in Africa, Sherl)ro mission, $9,368.80; Mendi side, $19,250.00 ; total, $28,618.80." Respecting Germany he said : "The annual meeting was held by Bishop Fliekinger April 21. By an arrangement with, and the approval of the Board, he will act as presiding elder the coming year. The true policy is to use native preachers with a superintendent from the United States." During this year Eev. C. Bischoff, the founder of the Germany mission died. He had ]jeen a suc- cessful worker and presiding elder. The Secretary also, in his report, referred to the school in Walla Walla, which had ex- tended beyond the Chinese; and as I was its originator, ref- erence is made to it here: "The Chinese population and a local church of about thirty members and a flourishing Sun- day school have been organized. The school did well among the Chinese, and the Board was much encouraged. The Walla Walla conference had a healthy growth, with a good prospect for the future." The following by me, published in the Beligious Telescope, April 23, 1886, relating to the foreign missionary work, is significant and explanatory : "I fully believe and have for the 175 Fifty-five Years of Active Life last thirty-seven years (my first license to preach is dated April, 1849), that the United Brethren Church is a creature of God's providence and that he who said, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,' especially led us to commence and prosecute the mission work we are now doing in Africa and Germany. Knowing these missions from their beginning, and the deep waters through which they have passed, waters that so often threatened to overwhelm them and utterly crush out every vestige of United Brcthrenism from these countries, with the remarkable victories which followed, especially the great prosperity of the last few years, we should feel greatly encouraged ; for when all is considered, no missions in Africa or Germany have been more successful than ours. I know what Bishop Taylor is doing in Africa, and rejoice in his success, but reaffirm the statement that no mis- sions in Africa or Germany have been more successful than ours. To confine myself to Germany where I now am — it is true that others have more to show here than we have, and they have spent many more thousands than we have hundreds of dollars to accomplish these results, and are pushing their .work still with a zeal which to them is highly commendable, and ought to make us a little ashamed. Our ministerial force has been much weakened by sickness, death, and apostacy. Two years ago we sent Brother Sick here; he has done an excellent work for Germany, but, alas, he is so afflicted that he cannot stay to finish his term of three years, and will soon leave. In these same two years Brothers BisehofT and Sta- w'tzer died, and one of our most talented ministers badly fell from grace and is no more one of us. "We still have ten men whom we employ, but several of the young men ought to go to school a few years, and sevoral of the older ones are about worn out. After all, our greatest draw l)ack is a lack of money to pay for building and for renting houses for our missionaries to live and preach in. Very few private houses in Germany are suitable to hold meetings in, even if tliey could be had. which is seldom the 17G In the Gospel Ministry case. The laity here are as good as in any country, but mostly VLTv poor. A few of our people are well to do, able to pay, and we expect them to do so. "There is a Bible on the table where I am writing with a likeness of Martin Luther, which represents him standing, and any one familiar with his life and work can easily see in the attitude that either he had just been, or soon would be in a severe struggle with the pope, some monks, or the devil. The thought came to me that if some of our rich brethren in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland should happen to meet Luther or Otterl^ein when they get to heaven, and they should introduce the subject of missions in the Fatherland and ask them how much money the Church expended there, they would feel a little ashamed. We need here $10,000 just as soon as it can be gotten across the ocean to build chapels and parson- ages for which we now pay rent, which sum our poorly paid missionaries ought to have added to their salaries. I spent all my leisure time getting money for these things." An illustration of the truth of the couplet, "Large trees from little acorns grow; large streams from little streamlets flow," the following is to the point. When I was in Africa the third time, in 1861, I took the man in charge to the water's edge at Shenge where a large tree had fallen into the sea, tearing a hole in the bank there. I told him he must watch that place, and if the flow and ebb of the tide washed the ground away he must hire a laborer to fill up the hole with stones, w-liich were near there. That would not liave cost over $5 then. The writer did not get back to Africa for ten years, when, to his astonishment, that tear-out had opened the way for washing out the bank a quarter of a mile along the coast and an eighth of a mile inland. If it con- tinued,, the encroachment of the sea would soon reach a good well of water, and then the mission house, and greatly injure the nice point of land upon which the mission residence was built. It was to fix that l)ank, more than anything else, that I went to Africa the fourth time, and it cost at least $1,500, 12 177 Fifty- five Years of Active Life and thi^ after a number of acres of valuable ground had been washed away. That time I got there early in the morning and sent word to chief Caulker that at 4 p. m. I would reach the town, and shake his hands and hold meeting. I found him all cleaned up, a nice grass mat for me to stand on, and a stand and Bible ready. There were about thirty persons present, and he and all knelt with me, as I prayed. We had a good visit and all passed off pleasantly. That old chief became a Christian some years later, and died a happy death. 178 CHAPTER XXXVI. 1886-87— Rufus Clark and Wife Give $5.000 — Training Scliool Built of Stones from Slave Pen — Process of Building. I REACHED America from England barely in time to attend the annual meeting of the Board of Missions in the spring of 1887. Before going to my district, nearly a year before, I visited a few places in Pennsylvania to collect money for chapels in Grermany, and had secured about $1,000 for that purpose. After spending a couple of months in the United States, I was ready to start back to England, to help the sec- retary of the Freedman's Missions Aid Association, August 1, when I received a letter from Rufus Clark of Denver, Colo- rado, requesting me not to leave till August 4, as on that day a suit at court ^Yas to decide whether he could then give us $5,000 for a training-school in Africa. I had been called to Denver several years before to look after missions in that city,, and while I was there lectured on Africa. Mr. Clark became interested in Africa, and asked something respecting its wants. He was told of its many needs, especially of the need of a training-school in which native teachers and preach- ers could be prepared to work there. He seemed impressed with its importance, and intimated that he might respond to such a call sometime. His pastor, Rev. W. Rose, who did a good work in Denver in building Smith chapel and parsonage, and I took IMr. Clark's remarks to heart, and from that day until the ninth of August, 188G, when Mr. Clark paid the $5,000 to me, we had cooperated to get the money. Many letters had been exchanged between us, and the following telegram was sent me by Mr. Rose, "Come and get the money." So on the fourth day of August, instead of leaving home for 179 Fiftij-fivc Years of Active Life En*ilaiKl 1 left for Denver, and on the eighth day of AuiiHist, I again preached and lectured on Africa there, and the next day I received a check for $5,0G0, the $60 covering the travel- ing expenses from Willoughby, Ohio, to Denver and return. On my return trip I stopped to see Doctor Rosenberg in Osage City, Kansas, from whom I got $600 for the Germany chapel fund. I also stopped in Dayton, Ohio, and got the executive committee to appoint Kev. J. M. lusher to go to Africa the following month to commence building the Eufus Clark and Wife Training-School at Shenge. Mr. Clark had made me responsible for the erection of that house, hence I wished to select my helpers. I left the money with the treas- urer of the missionary society to be paid as I ordered it. On the eighteenth of September, Mr. Lesher sailed from Xew York to Freetown in a sailing vessel, but did not get there till November, and did not get the work started until Decem- ber. ]\Ir. Lesher was a carpenter before he became a preacher and missionary, and hence was the man for the place. I did not reach Africa until December 7, having to look after some things in England. On the last day of January, 18S7, the corner-stone was laid, the walls having been partly put uj). That corner-stone, and many other stones in the walls, were in a l)nilding known as John Xewton's slave i)ens, on the Plaintain Island, three miles from Shenge. Mr. Newton, at one time a cruel slave- trader, and after his conversion a celebrated minister of the gospel, surely would ha\-e rejoiced had he been present to see the identical stones he once used in enslaving men. now used to give Ihem liberty, civil and religious. The training-school building was sixty-six feet long by thirty-one Avide, three stories high, the upper story being fur- nished with light by large windows in the roof and in the gable ends. There were two recitation-rooms, fourteen by seventeen feet, and a chapel, twenty-eight by thirty feet, on the ground floor. On the second story were ten rooms, each large enoiigli Id acconiniodale two slndciils in wliich to lodge 180 In the Gospel Ministry and study. The third story would accommodato as many more, though not in separate rooms. There were from "thirty to fifty men employed for five mouths to complete the building. The stone had to be quar- ried on islands from one-half to three miles from Shenge, then loaded into boats and l)rought to the mission wharf, then carried up a steep bank, which was at least one hundred feet high, put into a wagon and drawn a quarter of a mile by oxen, before they were dressed and laid up in the wall. It took a good many stones, and every gang of men had to have a headman. The lumljcr was brought to Shenge in rowl)oats, and to the site of building in the same way the stones were. Considering the fact that it takes at least three native laborers to equal one American, it will be seen that to erect such a building was no child's play. But for the lai'ge supply of mission boats, received with the transfer of Mendi mission, the good wagon and wharf at Shenge, for procuring which Mr. Gomer and myself were severely criticized, that building would not have been erected in one dry season. Had the period of building extended through the rainy season, it would have made it cost much more than was paid to procure the wagon and wharf, both of which continued to be very service- able afterward. Providence led to getting that wagon and wharf, and ^Mr. Gomer's good work in Africa will never be fully appreciated. He was a great help to Mr. Lesher and myself in overseeing laborers and pushing forward the build- ing. We had at times three captains of boats, and three other gangs of men as overseers. We watched these overseers, and the committee at home watched us. The headmen w^atched the laborers, we watched the headmen, the Mission Board at home watched us, the Church watched the Board of Missions, and God watched us all. When they built Babel there was confusion, and so was there at Shenge building the Clark training-school. Dr. Z. Warner, Secretary of the Board, said in his report made in 1887 : ^'The last annual meeting of the African dis- 181 Fifty-five Years of Active Life trict was one of the best in its history. Bishop Flickinger presided, and the net increase in members was 1,311, making the whole number 3,940. A number of our people there died during the year, leaving a strong, clear testimony to the power of divine grace. Many are reported as seekers, but this does not mean that they have not l)een converted, for many of them have been. The number of towns visited was 387, an increase of eighty-four over the previous year. There is no egotism in saying that we are doing a work that no other church has done up to this time. A gentleman of intelligence, not a member of our Church, visited the African coast from the mouth of the Congo to Freetown, and said the reputation of our mission is the l)est of any along the coast. Is this true? ] f so we owe it to the faithful work of our missionaries."" The following resolutions were passed unanimously by the Board in annual session in 1887, which, considering the pre- vious severe criticisms against the management of the African mission, were appreciated: "Whereas, Eev. J. Gromer, superintendent, of Sherbro mission, and Rev. J. A. Evans, superintendent of ^Nfendi mis- sion in Africa, have gone forward in winning souls and build- ing up the kingdom of the Eedeemer in the midst of many trials, "Resolved, 1. That we give thanks to God for the ]U'eserva- tion of their lives and health, and for the good work which under Cod they have performed. "2. Til at the thanks of this Board are due, and are hereby tendered to Mr. Rufus Clark and wife of Denver, Colorado, for their generous gift of $.').000 for the training-school in Africa. "3. That we tender Bishop Flickinger and Rev. J. IM. Lesher tlie sincere tlianks of the Board for their successful management of the erection of the Clark training-school building. We are also glad that Rev. D. F. Wilberforce has already coninicnced said school, with flattering prospects of success," 182. In the Gospel Ministry Of Germany, the Secretary said, "The work there is hope- ful. Bishop Flickinger has arranged for Eev. J. M. Lesher to spend some two months in Germany to aid that work. I think this arrangement a good one." 183 CHAPTER XXXVII. 1887-SS — A liow Among the Workmen — Germany's Need — Criticise Industrial Work — Horrors of Slave Traffic — Heathen Burial.- When in Africa the tenth time, I wrote February 9, 1887, as follows for the Religious Telescope: "I have been pub- lishing letters for thirty-two years respecting Africa and mis- sion work here, and have l)een solicited to write more. The building of the Clark training-school under the leadershi]) of Mr. Lesher, the patient, the general work of Mr. Gomer, the merciful, and the schools under Mr. Wilberforce, the educator, are progressing; not as satisfactorily as is desir- able, but those in charge of them are doing all they can to succeed. The people do not appreciate schools, and some will not send when they have anything else for their children to do, or when the mission docs not feed them. "Some of Mr. Lesher's mechanics got into a drunken row about a month ago, and had a quarrel and knock-down with our mission watchman. They took from him the gun he carried to enforce the command he had to give every night or two, 'Stop thief !' to those who were stealing our cassada. In defending himself with a club he knocked out the eye of one of our stone masons. Because of this the boat, with Mr. Gomer, had to go to Freetown, sixty miles away, where the man Avho lost the eye went to the hospital, and onr watch- nian who knocked it out was released on bail to appear at police court tlic eleventh inst., when the boat went again. These trips required six rowers, and cost considerable time and money. On the fourth, the foreman of the masons said they would all quit work. He complained of Mr. Lesher, who told him be was too drunk to do his work properly, and that 184 In the Gospel Ministry the other masons would get drunk. The worst of all was, ;Mr. Lesher told the truth. How true, as one of our drunken men said, 'It's all well enough for American ministers to tell us not to get drunk ; if they would keep alcoholic drinks from coming here, we might listen to them.' " j\Iy work in England and Germany during this year kept me quite busy. To give the reader an idea of how many things were expected of me, I here insert a few extracts from letters written : "The annual district meeting of Germany Avas held May 25 and 26. On the twenty-fourth and part of the following day, the ministerial association met in the same place, Gollnow, Pommern. These meetings are gen- erally held in the same place and at the same time, otherwise our missionaries could not attend both on account of expense of travel. I was to have been there, but owing to Brother Lesher not reaching London from Africa in time, he and I did not get there till the twenty-fifth, missing the ministerial association." The business of the missionary district was all attended to in a day and a half, and the meetings at night were good. The success of the year was highly encouraging. There was a net gain, of one hundred and forty-four members, after los- ing ninety-eight by death, removals, and expulsion, and more money was raised by them than ever before. The work of the presiding elder of the district was in my hands, and I induced Mr. Lesher to hold one round of quarterlies. To get halls and places to preach in required considerable money, and hence I did all I could to collect money to build chapels, both in the United States and in Germany. This year I tried to get chapels built in Germany and named after Eosenburg and Bischofi^, writing in our Church papers as follows: "Friends of Germany mission, shall we not have your help to build these two chapels? There is $1,200 to "^come from interest on the $10,000 Mrs. Bischoff gave the Board, and $400 more from Doctor Eosenburg's life- loan as interest; these sums with the cash on hand make 185 Fifty-jive Years of Active Life $2,350.95. With this amount doubled they can be built, but there ought to be $3,000 for each, as they are to be in large towns where lots are dear." I also wrote early in June, 1887, that one thing seemed strange; namely, that the statements made by missionaries were often misunderstood and criticised, and their course con- demned by committees and boards, when they made roads, built houses, and taught the natives how to work. I quoted what a member of our own Board said, "We don't raise mis- sionary money to build wharfs, and shops, and to carry on business with." Having attended a number of May anni- versary meetings of different mission boards in London, Eng- land, including the Moravians, who are a model people for mission work, and having heard their reports, I was fully satisfied that few if. any, had achieved the same success in their foreign mission fields of the same kind that we had in Africa and Germany. It must be remembered that in each of these we were publishing papers, and that both paid ex- penses of publication, and a little more ; that we had increased in membership so rapidly that it became a serious matter wliat to do with them. I told the bretliren when in Africa last, to pay much attention to those whose names were upon our church books, and not seek so much to get new members. Concerning this, Brother Evans wrote : "We tried to carry out your instructions, but still the increase on the Mendi District during the quarter was over one liundred. If the increase on the other two districts is propoiiioiiately as large, wc have now in Africa about 4,500."' I said further: "It is apparent that with the training- school in Africa and our paper, the Early Dawn, and our large itinerant force we are rapidly multiplying our facil- ities there for work. Tben in Germany, with the Heilshote, the pul)lication of our minutes in pamphlet form, the an- nual almanac, and ten preachers who preach at the rate of fiftv sermons a week, our success is assured if we do our duty in giving them reasonable financial support." I added: 18G Ln the Gospel Ministry •■'It was a providential leading that we became acquainted with the Freedman's Aid Society, which has helped us to several thousand dollars and will continu.e to help in the future. They have paid since General Conference of 1885, in round numbers $9,910. There are hundreds of other good objects in England for which money is asked, such as ragged schools, hospitals, foreign missions of other boards, and many charitable enterprises here in London." It will be seen from the foregoing that my cares and re- sponsibilities were heavy this year. Having selected the loca- tion of the African mission, and stoutly advocated its prose- cution, and having had an active part in operating the mission in Germany, and by my persistent efforts having kept the Church from abandoning both these fields, now that pros- perity attended them, and more than a score of white men had' been employed, besides many native Africans, and great sums of money were being expended upon them, I felt to praise God for what was being done; but I also realized the need of much care and watchfulness, lest there be a retro- grade movement and much evil should befall those two mis- sion districts, which were the only foreign missions the Church had then. I prayed often that God would keep me and others from indiscretion, and from doing the wrong thing. As illustrative of the truth that the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty, the following is to the point: I reached Rotifunk from Shenge, late one evening, just after a caravan of slaves had been put into a pen there. Going into the enclosure I saw naked men, women, and children; some were tied together with ratan bark or vines, the babies being tied to the women's backs. They were poor, hungry, tired creatures. Eeturning at daylight the next morning they were gone. Passing over the road along which they went, a couple of days later, a terrible stench was present. In explanation, some of my men said this was the woods where they carry small-pox patients to die, and there 187 Fifty-jive Years of Active Life was one dead baby there. Evidentl}' one of the babies belong- ing to the slave party had been restless and annoyed the slave driver, and he cut its head off and put its body among the small-pox dead. While at Shenge I followed a funt'ral procession to a bury- ing ground. Eeaching an open place in the woods, they went a few rods from the path leading to another viHage, and put down the corpse, and then dug a grave. With cutlasses they loosed the ground, and with their hands they scraped it to one side, until a place was made large enough to put the corpse in. The corpse was rolled in a country cloth, bark iDcing used to keep the cloth around it. The loose earth was then put on the body, which was barely covered. I saw while there the foot of another corpse, which had been buried shortly before, that had not been qovered with earth. All was quiet till the burial was completed, when they set up a terrible howl and kept it up by fits and starts for an hour. Tlien they danced and were giddy awhile, and then they howled again. Once in a rowboat, passing to a town not far from Bonthe, I requested my men to land the boat at a big tree. They looked frightened and pulled to within about one hundred feet of the tree, when one said, ''■\Iassa, big, big devil live at that tree, and if we go there lie come and kill us all.'" Xot being able to get them to go near tlio tree, we landed a few hundred feet below. I then walked to the tree, struck it with a stick, and dared the devil to come out and hurt me. The roots extended out of the ground and I sat on different ones, but could not get one of my men near. They said, "Ah, white man sabbe, know more than devil, but black man don't." Some of the roots extended into the water, and the current being strong there, a ripjilc was caused in the water, which they supposed tlic devil iiiinlc. 188 CHAPTER XXXVlll. 1888-89 — Appreciation of J. Gomer — Thirty-two Years of Service — Division in tlie Cluirch — Signed the Proclamation. ]\Iy work in the years of '88 and '89 was closely rdated to an epoch in my life which well nigh separated me from tlie foreign mission field for a time. These years of my minis- terial life will be largely represented l)y what others said of me and what I wrote during that period. The following is copied from the minutes of the annual meeting of the Board of Missions, which met May 7, 1889, two days before the General Conference: "Whereas, Rev. J. Comer and wife have returned in safety to America, after an absence of seven years, spent in earnest missionary lal)ors, in western Africa, "Besolved. 1. That we hereby express to them our hearty thanks for their earnest and successful labors, and our will- ingness to continue them in their service, for time to come. "2. That this Board hereby expresses its confidence in the work of Rev. J. A. Evans of Mendi mission, and Rev. D. F. AYilberforce, principal of the Clark theological training-school, and prays the blessing of God upon them and their work in the years to come. "3. That the thanks of this Board are due, and hereby are tendered Bishop Flickinger for his diligence and faith- fulness in superintending our foreign missions during the last quadrennium ; and, whereas, he and others report that industrial schools for the training of boys and girls in Africa, are an important factor in lifting up the people from the state of barbarism to that of Christian civilization, therefore, Be- solved, That we look with favor on the plan of establishing such schools in Africa in the near future." 189 Fifty-five Years of Active Life Dr. J. W. Hott, who was then editor of the Eeligious Tele- scope, and before that time had been the treasnrer of the mis- sionary society, and hence was well acquainted with its work and workers for twenty years, was present at that annual meeting, and wrote the following respecting Mr. Gomer and myself: "That veteran missionary of Africa, Rev. Joseph Gomer, just home from that far off land, was present. He comes like a battle-scarred soldier of Jesus. On the first of December, 18T0, he and his faithful wife went to Africa. He at once inaugurated the system of itinerating in Africa. Since that time they have only visited our country twice, in 187G, and again in 1882. For seven years he has labored incessantly in that terrible climate. He is now here for a session of rest. He will soon be fifty-five years old. God has wonderfully spared and blessed his life. Bishop Flick- inger is also fresh from Germany and Africa, and though just liome from his eleventh visit to Africa, ho is fresh and vigor- ous as in the years gone by. He has crossed the Atlantic Ocean twenty-two times, but often by the long route of Eng- land, making an equivalent of not less than thirty crossings of the ocean. He has stood in the front of our mission work as a Church for thirty-two years, for it is now thirty-two years since he was first chosen secretary of the missionary society. Two years before his entering upon the secretary- ship, be had gone to Africa as one of the first company of mjssionjiries our Church ever sent a])road. Eternity alone will unfold the wonderful results of his toil. The Church will warndy welcome him home again." The part I took to prevent the unfortunate division which took ])lace at the General Conference of 1889, deserves men- tion here. I wrote to Bisliop Castle, February, 1887, enclosing a letter from Dr. C. H. Iviracofe, as follows : "Dear Bishop Castle : Just before the enclosed from C. H. Kiracofe was pul)lished in ibe Telescope, I had jotted some things in the same train of thought to publish. Tt con- taining substantially what I wrote, I did not send mine to the 190 In the Gospel Ministry Telescope. I write you to ask what objection there is to pur- suing the course he advises. I have not so much objection to the Commission paper, as I have to the how, and when, and where of it. N^ow if the vote to be taken in 1888 is a two- thirds majority, then let that be tlie request for a change of Constitution, and let the General Conference of 1889 formu- late a paper to send down to the people. If the paper thus sent down be substantially what the present Commission is, and if it gets a two-thirds vote, all will be right. In that case Doctor Davis, Bishops Wright and Dickson, Revs. Dillon and Miller of Auglaize, Bamaby and Titus of Michigan, Floyd and Kiracofe of White River conferences, and a number of other first-class men, could not complain, and their power would largely be l:)roken, so that they would not have half the following that they will have under the present Commis- sion paper. As a matter of course, some of the Commission leaders will cry out against any compromise, and insist that it must go through as now. I will join with you, Bishop Dickson, and Bishop Wright in advocating before the next General Conference some measure to give the Church a chance to vote for a new Constitution, and do it so that it cannot be said it was done in violation of our present Constitution. If you think there is enough in it to write Bishops D. and W., do so. While I can live under our present Constitution, I believe there is a change needed. I only wish that which is for the best." Bishop Castle did not think it wise to unite with me and Bishop Wright and Bishop Dickson, who was then thought to be quite radical, to bring about the end sought by me. As a matter of fact, that was a time when good men were greatly perplexed, and there was a great conflict and struggle between their convictions of right, and what best to do to save the Church from division and its consequent evils. The following reply from Bishop Castle's last letter to me shows this : "I would be in favor of any reasonable adjustment. Peace to the Churcli, though it l)e secured at great personal cost, is 191 Fifiij-five Years of Active Life a measure of cess has been achieved in proportion to the labor and money expended. I am certain that our success in the part of Africa we are in is greater than that of any other church there, in proportion to the money expended and labor done. There is good reason for believing the same is true of most of our other foreign missions, but not being acquainted with them as I am with the African mission, I cannot speak of them so posi- tively. -. Western Africa, especially Sierra Leone and the country adjacent to it, because of the unhealthfulness of its climate and the deep degradation of its people, has been one of the most difficult mission fields in the world. The Church of England, in a book entitled, "Missionary Records," and the Wesleyans of Great Britain, in Fox'^s history of their missions, show that scores of lives were sacrificed, and multiplied thou- 253 Fifty-five Years of Active Life sands of dollars expended, just to commence their missions in Africa. Mendi mission also bnried a nimiber of its mission- aries and spent over half a million of dollars, before that mission was given to us. Our sacrifices of life and money are very small, even counting the sad loss of the eight white missionaries who were cruelly massacred in 1898, in com- parison with what other churches have endured. And now what have the churches of Great Britain and the United States to show for the hundreds of lives and millions of dollars given to Christianize Africa ? If those who doubt the wisdom of sending missionaries to heathen lands could see that part of Africa in which our missions are located, and ride on the railroad one hundred and fifty miles inland from Freetown, through half a dozen towns in which we have mission stations, and note what has been done in these and more than a score of other places where missionaries teach school and preach the gospel, they would forever dismiss all doubts as to whether missionaries ought to go there. That country, so cursed with cannibalism, polygamy, witchcraft, and devil worship, has changed much for the better in fifty years. All honor to the noble men and women now there doing much to pull down the strongholds of Satan and build up the kingdom of God ! Greater victories ought and will be achieved in the future than in the past, in the department of mission work at home and abroad, by us as a church, if we do our duty. The Captain of our salvation "must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.'' He said, when upon earth, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall ye do also ; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." Greater works were done on the day of Pentecost, and by the apostles afterward, in inducing the unsaved to accept Christ as their Savior, than he did while he tabernacled in the flesh. Apostolic zeal for God's cause, and willingness to spend and be spent in winning this world to Christ, will enal)le the Church of to-day to do greater work than he did in inducing 254 In the Gospel Ministry men to accept that salvation proffered in the gospel. How willingly, cheerfully, and hopefully Christians ought to heed the call : Stand up, stand up for Jesu^, Ye soldiers of the cross; Lift high his royal banner, It must not suffer loss; From victory unto victory His army he shall lead. Till every foe is vanquished And Christ is Lord indeed. 255 CHAPTER LVII. Random Recollections — Numerous Observations — Bits of Experience — Interesting Events — Amusing Incidents. Many years ago, in company with Bishop Edwards, I was waiting in the Indianapolis depot for a train, when a drunken man began to make himself a little too conspicuous. A police- man took hold of him, and pushed him along to the otlTer end of the depot to put him out. He evidently hurried him more than was agreeable, and just as the policeman got him to where he was to step out of the depot, he suddenly turned and said, "Say, mister, is this your drunk or is it mine?" The Africans said of me that I was a little man with a big heart, and that I had eyes on both sides of my head, and could see both ways at the same time. An African in Freetown with monkeys to sell was asked the price of one. He said his first price was three shillings, but his second price was two shillings. When asked what the third ])ricc was, he replied ho had not fixed that yet, but would if he could not get either of the others. I came from Freetown to New York on a sail vessel. The voyage had been rough and tedious, and while at the table taking our last dinner together, being inside of Sandy Hook, and all feeling glad, the captain told us this incident. On a large ship with a crow of twenty, upon which ho was once a sailor, the cook died. That is a great calamity at sea, as it is very difficult to make a cook out of an ordinary sailor. The captain of the ship selected a man who he thouglit would do, and to make it easy on him, ordered that the first man who complained of the cooking would have to take his place. 256 In the Gospel Ministry The eook became very tired of his work in a couple of days, and as no one had complained, he resolved he would give them something to complain of, so he put a quantity of red pepper into the biscuits he made. When the men came to eat, one of them broke open a biscuit, put butter on it, and took a large mouthful, which he rolled about in his mouth a moment and then cried out, "0 cook, what did you put in these biscuits ?" Just then he remembered the captain's orders, and he added quickly, "But they are good; very good." He swallowed the hot dose with tears in his eyes, glad that he bethought himself just in time to save himself from being made a cook. At a steamboat landing on the Ohio Elver in 1842, on a trip between Pittsburg and Cincinnati, I saw, close to the wharf, a sick woman on a straw tick; three children were with her. The passengers all looked at the sad spectacle, and quite a number said, "What a pity"; but none offered help. Presently a quiet young man came to the scene. After look- ing at the woman and children a moment, without saying a word he pressed his way through the crowd and put a silver dollar into her hand, not so much as waiting to receive her thanks for the gift. The act led others to give her money, and in all she received about ten dollars, which acted like medicine upon her, and she was soon removed to a house near by and properly cared for. Actions speak louder than words. Once Avhen in Brown, Shipley & Company's bank, in New York City, I had to write my name three times to get a letter of credit which enabled me to draw money in England, Ger- many and Africa. I was very tired, on account of a long walk, and writing my name with a stub pen, my heavy handwriting looked blacker than usual. The cashier looked at my writing a moment and then remarked, "That will do to worship, for there is nothing like it on earth or in heaven." I spent a night with a German in 1852, who at the break- fast table said to his sons, "Poys, we must begin to fix to pre- pare to get ready to commence to butcher our hogs." 257 • Fifty-five Years of Active Life I was on a jury about sixty years ago, hearing a case in court. We were put into the jury room at five o'clock in the evening, and by six eleven of us had agreed as to what the verdict ought to be, but the twelfth man kept us there till six the next morning, when he agreed to the verdict. It 's awful when eleven contrary men hold out against one man a whole night, and finally persuade him to agree with them. It is a very common thing in Africa for laborers, when leaving an employer, to ask for a recommendation. A man who worked for one of our missionaries left without any, but in a few days asked for one. Being unworthy, he was told by the missionary that he did not wish to give one. The native persisted, and the missionary wrote as follows: "This man worked for me, and was dismissed for laziness, stealing, and lying." When in Oregon I met a group of school children in a lonely woods, clapping their hands and singing. On inquir- ing as to the meaning of their conduct, the man with me said that in so large a forest there were congers, a species of pan- thers, which sometimes would steal upon persons and attack them. Making a noise kept them away, and children were safe when singing and clapping their hands. During the temperance praying crusade my mother, all alone, visited the only saloonkeeper in the village near which she lived, and told him it was wrong to be making drunkards. The only reason she did not pray was that the crowd she found there all left, leaving the proprietor alone, and she felt that prayer had better be omitted. I once overtook a crowd of girls on their way to church barefooted. Just before reaching the church they put on their shoes, which they had carried. On coming out after the meeting they took off their shoes and walked home bare- foot to save sole leather, and probably for comfort. This was not in Africa. 258 In the Gospel Ministry Years ago I heard a devout Christian read part of a chap- ter of the Bible at family worship, which he called, "The first chapter of the Gentiles." On another similar occasion he read what he called "the fifth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Acts of the Apostles." Once at the close of an annual conference one Sunday night in August, when everybody was tired and sleepy, the bishop spoke a few parting words, and then said : "Brother K will sing the benediction, and Brother B will pro- nounce the doxology." He wondered why the people laughed, and never realized the mistake he had made until told of it after the dismissal. A German who was warm in his first love for his church, told a neighbor, "We are going to have a great meeting at our church. The bischoff, siding alder, circus preacher, and ex- hausters are all to be there, and we will have a powerful time." His words were as badly mixed as those of another German whom I visited over sixty years ago to buy hogs from. In re- ply to my inquiry he Said : "I did talk of selling them, but I have not very much hogs, and many corns to feed them with, and I changed my tick-tacks, and now I can't sell hogs unless my corns go with them. They must all go together, or stay together, and this is my last delision on that matter. Once I went to Kent, twenty miles from Shenge, to get carpenters to help build the mission residence at Rotifunk. While waiting for a man to come home, I happened to look at the ceiling of the house. The joists of the second floor were about a foot wide and quite smooth. On one was writ- ten the date of marriage, on another dates of birth of several children, on another the time of the death of a child. The marking was nicely done with paint and a complete family record was kept on the sides of three joists. A diminutive and much hunch-backed man called at the ticket-office in Dayton, Ohio, and asked the agen-t, "Can you 259 Fifty-five Years of Active Life send me straight through to Indianapolis?" The agent looked at him a moment and said, "I will sell you a ticket that will be sure to take you to Indianapolis, but I can't promise you that you will be any straighter then than now.'" It was a timely rebuke, for he had strutted about quite lordly, and it took a ton of conceit out of him. Coming from Africa once on a sail vessel, I saw a fine ex- hibition of earnestness. On board were a number of mon- keys, and among them a large dog monkey, which was fas- tened with a chain about four feet long, which he rattled while taking exercise. The cook had given him his dinner, and a couple of small monkeys were trying to steal it from him, one finally getting a piece of it beyond his reach. Just then the long tail of the other small monkey swung around within reach of the dog monkey, and he grabbed it and drew that little fellow up to him. Seizing him with both his paws he threw him at the other small monkey, about eight feet away, eating what he had stolen, and knocked him topsy- turvey, hurting both of them so as to make them cry. They never again attempted to steal from that dog monke}', nor did they play with him any more, as they had done before. On another occasion, and also on a sailing vessel, there was a monkey. The captain was shaving one morning, and while his face was all lathered over he was called out of his room by the mate. Thereupon the monkey seized the brush and lathered his face completely, and took the razor to proceed to scrape it, as he had seen the captain do. But he cut both his noso and hand, and came out of the cabin on three feet, holding the bleeding liand to his nose and crying most pit- ecu sly. Crossing over from T/ivovpool to N"ew York on a stoamov, as T promenaded for exercise I observed an Irishman sitting on the deck for second-class passengers several hours every dav peeling potatoes. As I desired a little fun 1 asked him what lie thought of the doctrine that we would follow the 2(]0 In the Gospel Ministry same business in heaven that we did on earth. He promptly replied, "If the good Mon in heaven wonts me to pale potatoes, all he has to do is to furnish them, an' I will pale them." Leaving him I met two of the stewardesses, and asked them the same question. They replied that no ocean steward would ever get to heaven. They said : "We were just now consult- ing how to get through another night with a woman who kept us awake all last night, and we had to say cuss words to her, and now she is carrying on in such a way that we will have to act real wicked to get her to be quiet. We will never get to heaven, and if we did, we would not want to be stewards there, for we are only stewards here because we have no better way of making a living ; but how wicked we are getting !" I told them they ought not to be wicked, but they said that they had such hysterical and foolish women to wait on that they must say cuss words to quiet them sometimes. 261