B V I5IS t 0^t^0& *£ < <: <• < c^C C 4BT< «: *-A C < < *f* *£* *T» 11 There is a certain county in this state in the county town of which there is not a church of any kind. They have a feeble little Sunday-school of about thirty schol- ars ; and they enjoy the preaching of the gospel during a part of the year, once or twice a month, provided some good 52 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF Methodist brother, aside from his other charges, has time to give them an occa- sional call. ^ :J: # ^ sfc " There are schools which neither open nor close with prayer, and some where they do not even sing. . . . Many schools take no Sunday-school papers, and are poorly supplied with library-books. I remember one superintendent telling me that, by dint of hard labour, he managed to raise some two dollars in his neighbour- hood for the Sunday-school, and in the neighbouring village he increased it to five dollars, with a portion of which he proposed purchasing some Sunday-school papers. When the people heard of it, they came to him and told him that if he spent any of that money in getting Sun- day-school papers they would immediately take their children out of the school. One EEV. JOHN W. BAKTON. 53 old, gray-headed man in that community boasted that he had never read a news- paper in his life. And this superintendent told me that not a newspaper, secular or religious, was taken there, except what he took." With such a presentation of facts, he added the forcible statements, " These figures need no comment. They speak for themselves. They furnish food for serious reflection to every patriot, Chris- tian and philanthropist in the state. Well 'may the question be asked, How long shall we remain a Christian people, when considerably more than one-half of the rising generation are without the teach- ings of the gospel ?" Urging immediate efforts for the evan- gelization of the entire state, he said, "I am convinced that one of the very best means of doing this is by beginning with 5* 54 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF the young. 'Children/ as a modern writer quaintly remarks, 'are the visible elements of an invisible hereafter ; for the world will soon be the conclusion of which they are the premises/ Surely, as are the children of to-day so will be the world of to-morrow. If we would have the next generation a God-loving, God-fearing, God-serving people, the love, fear and service of God must be instilled into the minds of the youth of to-day. And the sooner we begin, the better/' County conventions were called, and county associations formed, to consider and provide for the disclosed necessities of their several fields, and the number of mission- aries under Mr. Barton's direction was steadily enlarged. For all this he was sincerely grateful, and to God he gave the praise. "This is a great, good work I have un- REV. JOHN W. BARTON. 55 dertaken," he wrote. "The Lord is with me; but, oh, dear brother, do not cease to pray for me ; for I am very, very weak. In the Lord is my only hope and trust. If he has called me to this work, I know he will sustain me in it. Oh, pray for me." Again, he said: "It is beset with great difficulties ; but the Lord has in his goodness opened the way gradually. I think he has started me right. It is a great and glorious work. I only wish I was fitted for the responsible position I hold. But the Lord is able to fit me, — and he alone. Did he not call me, and will he not direct me?" RESULTS OF EFFORT. After sixteen months of missionary effort, Mr. Barton issued a second pamph- let on "The Future of Pennsylvania," in which he reported as follows of the work 56 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF of himself and his assistants since he had entered that field : — New schools organized 62 Teachers in the same 458 Scholars 2,247 Schools visited and aided 496 Teachers in the same 7,279 Scholars .... . 48,523 Families visited 3,662 The reports of his personal work from June, 1863, to December, 1864, as now preserved at the Society's rooms, show 10 new Sunday-schools organized by him, with an aggregate of 442 scholars; 113 other Sunday-schools visited and aided, and nearly 500 families visited in the line of his mission ; and this in addition to all his work of supervising the labours of others, and making available the material gathered by them. The society would gladly have con- EEV. JOHN W. BAKTON. 57 tinued him in charge of this important work ; but he had a restless desire to re- sume his studies and yet enter the minis- try. Writing to his old classmate again, he said: "The experience of the past few years will be invaluable to me in the ministry ; for I have not by any means given up the ministry. I feel I was born to be a minister ; and a minister of the gospel I intend to be, unless the Lord by his providence keeps me in something else. If so, his will, not mine, be done. I shall always regard it as his will that I serve him in the ministry, until I receive unmistakable evidence otherwise. . . . I hope I am perfectly willing to abide the indications of his providence." ■ About the first of January, 1865, he tendered his resignation. "I need not say," writes the Secretary of Missions, ."how reluctantly we consented to accept it. 58 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF To me personally it was a matter of great grief; for I had learned not only to trust but to love him. His earnest piety, his genial warmth, his perfect purity of cha- racter, endeared him to us all ; and the more we knew of him the better we loved him." Although Mr. Barton left the Pennsyl- vania field, the work commenced in it by him was neither abandoned nor inter- mitted. Labourers whom he set at work, or for whom he opened the way, have since organized many new schools and greatly improved others. In one county, the year after he left the state, a precious revival of God's work gathered hundreds of children from the newly- formed Sunday-schools into the fold of Jesus. Of these later results the Secre- tary of Missions writes, again: — " Brother Barton struck the key-note for Sunday- REV. JOHN W. BARTON. 59 school missions in this state, and his works will follow him. ... I think the good which has since been accomplished in Pennsylvania can be largely traced to his wise inauguration of the system developed in the tract referred to [Sabbath-School Work in Pennsylvania]/ ' There are few of God's children privi- leged to accomplish more of g6od in a life- time than has been wrought through the well-directed labours of Mr. Barton in the state of Pennsylvania. Yet not all his record of successful effort was made up there. TIRELESS ACTIVITY FOR CHRIST. It was while he was considering the question of returning to his theological studies, and before he had yet left his Pennsylvania field, that he made a trip from his home in Reading to Boston, on 60 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF Sunday-school business, during which he had occasion to show the spirit that was in him of unflinching determination to use his whole strength for the cause he loved. Leaving Philadelphia, November 29, 1864, he reached New York in the evening, and was soon after seized with bleeding from the lungs. This was his first attack of hemorrhage. It alarmed him somewhat, and he sent for a physician ; but the next morning, feeling quite well, he resumed his journey. Being a little late for the train, he ran towards the depot of the New Haven Railroad, and in New Haven exerted himself, lifting a box of books. This disregard of himself was a consequence of his thorough absorption in the work he had in hand, and the little importance he gave to the bleeding when once it had ceased. December 1, he left New Haven for REV. JOHN W. BARTON. 61 Boston, and while on the cars was again attacked with bleeding, and was troubled thus at intervals through the day and night. The next day he hurried about Boston, doing the work for which he came, and this while he was still spitting blood, so that those with whom he con- versed repeatedly urged him to go at once to his room and have a care for himself. But he seemed to feel then, as always, that his mission must be accom- plished at any cost. A physician who was called to see him urged his keeping quiet: yet he started for his home. He only reached New Haven, however; for he was very weak from illness and loss of blood. Much against his inclination, he there yielded to the injunction of a phy- sician and the entreaties of his friends, and decided to wait until after the Sabbath before resuming his journey. He tele- 6 62 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF graphed to his wife accordingly, without giving any reason for his change of plan ; but he grew so rapidly ill that early in the following week she was summoned to join him. It was while he was sick in New Haven that his resignation as superintend- ent of missions in Pennsylvania was for- warded to Philadelphia. He never re- sumed work there. NEW MISSION WOEK IN MASSACHUSETTS. During the winter of 1864-5, and the following spring, Mr. Barton sought health with more of patience and good judgment than he had shown at times of illness before: yet he constantly longed to be again at work. While passing a few weeks in the establishment of Dr. Dio Lewis, at Lexington, Mass., he became deeply interested in the religious condition of that famous town, so rich in its Pvevolu- EEV. JOHN W. BAKTON. 63 tionary associations and memories, and his heart was stirred on finding that hardly more than one-tenth of the children there were under direct evangelical influences. What he saw and learned in Lexington, induced him to propose to the officers of the American Sunday-School Union, in the opening summer of 1865, to undertake a new and more complete canvass of West- ern Massachusetts, where he had laboured three years before. His proposition was favourably received ; and, with the co- operation of friends of the Sunday-school cause in and about Boston, and the added assistance of a few large-hearted workers and givers in Connecticut, he obtained a horse, and made necessary preparations for his new mission. By the middle of June, he was fairly at work, and wholly absorbed in his undertaking. He was more deter- mined to complete his canvass than to 64 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF regard his health, — more energetic than prudent. TIRES OUT HIS HORSE. He recognized no duty of resting while he could by any effort perform toil. In- deed, his first respite was found not when he gave out, but when his horse was ex- hausted. "The tremendous hills and exceedingly rough roads of Western Massachusetts, " he wrote, Sept. 8, from Stratford, Conn., -• have used my pony rather hard, and worked off his flesh a little more than I like to see : so I have decided to give him a few days' rest, and, in the mean time, to spend a few days myself with my wife, who is here. ... I shall return to Massa- chusetts (D. V.) next Wednesday." Instead of returning, as he proposed, he was taken again severely ill, and confined EEV. JOHN W. BARTON. 65 to his bed for several weeks. So soon as he rallied, he gave the utmost of his re- covered strength to the preparation of a full report of his extensive canvass. He directed the labours of a friend in the gathering of statistics from the few towns yet unreached of the field he had taken in charge; and, aided at his home by a patient, sympathizing, helpful wife, he toiled, week after week, in his sick-cham- ber, — one hour on his bed, in utter pros- tration, the next at his table, bending over the intricate mass of yet unarranged ma- terial, — until a valuable map of the can- vassed region was made ready, and the collected facts were systematically tabu- lated. With the opening year (1866), he forwarded to his superintendent the map and tables, with the sententious and ex- pressive announcement: " The statistics are finished, and /am — almost." 6* 66 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF DISCL0SUKES BY THE MASSACHUSETTS CANVASS. , The canvass thus completed has pro- bably been rarely equalled, in its peculiar line, for a similar extent of country, in thoroughness, accuracy and the variety of its details. It remains an evidence of the energy and systematic habits of the untiring missionary who gathered and com- piled its material. The map shows the location of each church and Sunday-school in every town of the four counties. The statistical tables give the population ; the number of children and youth between five and fifteen years old ; of day-schools ; of Sunday-schools, evangelical and un- evangelical, with the teachers and scho- lars in each; and of Sunday-scholars under five or over fifteen years old, as well as those between such limits; the REV. JOHN W. BARTON. 67 proportion of children and youth in and out of the Sunday-school; average Sun- day-school attendance; also, statistics as to teachers' meetings, monthly concerts, libraries, records, singing, papers, winter sessions, and attendance from neighbour- ing towns, — all arranged town and county wise. Nearly every town is fully described in its topographical, business, social and moral aspects, with accompanying notes on the condition of each parish, and the character of pastors or leading laymen, — not intended for the public eye, but for whoever should follow him in mission labour. A few extracts from these notes will show his keenness of observation, and indicate their value in such a prelimi- nary mission survey. Of course he found much of natural and moral beauty, of high culture, and of spiritual progress and at- 68 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF tainment. One could hardly go amiss for such in Massachusetts. Hence his notes make frequent mention of bright-side items, as, — " Most of the congregation in the Sun- day-school." " Sunday-school very flourishing.' ' " A very commendable spirit of union among the different societies." " The pastor: a hearty, good- souled man; a good man to work with." 11 The teachers spend an evening each week in the pastor's study, where he goes over the lesson thoroughly with them." " Mr. has been superintendent twelve years. Visits the classes in rota- tion, talks with them, and knows their spiritual condition. Good superintend- ent." But the purpose of the canvass was rather to show what yet needed attention, REV. JOHN W. BAKTON. 69 than to furnish proof that much had been accomplished, and was yet being done, of good. Therefore special prominence was given in the report to waste places and obvious defects, indicating the desirable- ness of new schools and the necessity of. an improvement in old ones; and there was value in such notes as these : — "A factory village, where I think they ought to have a Sunday-school." "A good town for missionary labour." 11 No church! No Sunday-school ! No store! No blacksmith- shop ! No post- office! ' No nothing' ! " " People who go to church at all go either to or to . But how about the people who have no means of conveyance, or not sufficient interest to ride five to eight miles to get the gospel?" "In this town none are rich, none are poor; but all are for making money." 70 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF " The church has been candidating two years and four months. They now have a man in view.'' 1 "Have no minister. They can pay about $600, and for that wish to get a $1000 man." " Superintendent did not seem to know any thing about his Sabbath-school/' " No record kept, and no one seemed to know anything about the school." " Superintendent was sitting down during school session, with nothing to do." " Has no singing, except once in a great while." " Just beginning to take an interest in singing; but, oh, how slowly they sing!" "I fear that the conversion of souls is not thought of." "At Sunday-school concert they recite pieces. Quite a common practice, I am sorry to see." BEV. JOHN W. BARTON. 71 Frequently his whole comment on a district, a building, a religious organiza- tion, or an individual, was comprised in the simple quotation of its local sobriquet, or of the expressive remark evidently made to him about it by some one from whom he sought information. Thus, words would be wasted in giving a fuller description of a chapel that had been successively used by various denomina- tions, and seemingly to little purpose, than is covered by its mention as " The Slop-Bowl;" or of a church which spas- modically flashed out light and was lost again in darkness, as " The Lightning- Bug.' ' And each such quotation from his local informants, as the following, tells its own story: — "A great deal going on that ought not to be." " Kind of heathen/" 72 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF " A kind of a Sunday-school. Organize as they go along." " Deacon pretended to superin- tend it. Didn't do much at it." 1 ' Open the church when there are enough -there." " Great on singing." 11 Smart as anybody's minister in these parts." "HIS WORKS DO FOLLOW HIM." Like his work in Pennsylvania, Mr. Barton's labours in Massachusetts proved of immense value even after his return from the field. The facts developed were many of them startling. Their subse- quent presentation to the churches aroused fresh consciousness of need and of respon- sibility ; and soon a faithful and efficient Sunday-school missionary was at work for the relief of destitutions brought to light in that garden-spot of favoured New Eng- REV. JOHN W. BARTON. 73 land; while many local churches have since increased activity in their home- fields, and the Evangelization Committee of the Congregational Churches of the State are using advantageously a portion of the information secured through this exploration. When, finally, " the books are opened," in the Great Day, it will doubtless appear that many precious souls have been brought to Christ as a result of those latest missionary labours of young Barton in the New England field. ZEAL BEYOND STRENGTH. There was little else for the untiring worker to do here in the flesh. Most men in his state of health would have lain down to die, at once, on the com- pletion of such a work as the Massachu- setts canvass. But for him, with his zeal and strength of purpose, as long as there 7 74 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF was life there was labour. He would not yet give up hope of future usefulness, even while for a time entirely prostrate. But, with all his longing to do more, he seemed to understand that he had already done too much for prudence; and, in writing to a fellow- worker just then, he gave him this caution against over-exertion, in view of its sad consequences in his case : — " I am very much afraid, dear brother, that you are working too hard. I fear that if you keep on at this rate you will be of no more service to the Union, in a few years, than I am. I warn you, my dear fellow, that the feel- ings of a broken-down man, who has been engaged - in — and whose heart is still warmly interested in — a good work, are any thing but pleasant. To sit and see what should be done, and how it should be done, without the strength to do any thing, ... is very hard, I assure you." EEV. JOHN W. BARTON. 75 i MINISTERIAL ORDINATION. So sanguine was he of yet other labours for souls, even while he was steadily sink- ing under the pressure of organic disease, that he sought the attainment of his long- cherished purpose, in ordination to the ministry, expressing the hope that he should yet do something in that new call- ing, although, as he admitted, " I presume it will seem a mere farce to many for me to be ordained, w r ith one foot in the grave with consumption." I May 22, 1866, he was ordained by an ecclesiastical council at Danbury, Conn. His friend Pelton was present to bear a part in the interesting exercises; and of these he writes : "I esteemed it a great privilege to give him the right hand of ministerial fellowship, — for that position he had for nearly twelve years hoped and 76 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF longed to fill. I felt it was meet, and so said, that, as he had already proved him- self qualified for the work, he should receive that much-wished-for crowning. As I referred to his remark about the affair seeming to any a farce, and our hopes for his longer usefulness, the tears — unusual sight for him to weep — ran freely down his cheeks as I held his hand and suggested that, if it should be his to take his crown of faithfulness before us, it might also be his to give to us the right hand of welcome to the fellowship of the saints on high." In the month of July following, Barton said, in a letter to the friend who super- intended the New England mission work : " My object in writing at this time is to report myself, through you, to the old Union, as ready to resume the harness and to go to work in some capacity. I KEV. JOHN W. BARTON. 77 do not mean by this that I am yet well ; but I am so much better that I begin to think of resuming labour again this fall, which is near at hand. You know my interest in the society, and my desire to serve it." And so restless was he in in- action that in September that friend was induced to find special service for him in Hartford, assisting in compiling the fig- ures of a new Sunday-school canvass of Connecticut. At this he worked with wonderful tenacity of purpose until the middle of October, when he left it only to make arrangements for more active and important labour at the head-quarters of the Union in Philadelphia, where he pro- posed to pass the winter. While his preparations for this winter work were in progress, he sank rapidly; and, during a visit to New York City, his family were telegraphed to, by a phy- 7* 78 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF sician's advice, and they hastened to his side. Yet even then he would not believe he was to die before he had done more work. He told his wife that the alarming summons had not been sent at his sug- gestion. And when he started homeward, on the morning of Wednesday, November 21, 1866, he declined all assistance in putting on his outer coat and making other preparations for his journey. Then, taking his seat in the cars, he leaned his head forward on the seat before him, and dropped asleep, — to awake in glory. THE ACCOMPLISHED PUKPOSE. Five years before, John Wait Barton had said he only expected to see five years of effective service in Christ's cause, but that, God helping him, he would work while he lived, with the pleasant prospect of wearing out and dying in work for REV. JOHN W. BARTON. 79 souls. Thenceforward he had lived in constant readiness for death, with no dread of its coming. Speaking warmly of Miss Priest's beautiful hymn, "Over the River, 5 ' in his last letter to Pelton, he objected only to her idea of the mes- senger from the other side. "There is no 'boatman cold and pale,' " he said, "in the bright, silvery stream which separates me from my home above. I expect an angel to bear me across, amid sunshine and clouds of celestial beings. I think all other ideas are based on paganism." Surely God made ready His child for what was before him. Dying at twenty- seven, he lived a long and a useful life. Perhaps he might have lived longer had he been more prudent in the use of his wasting physical energies ; but his single- mindedness in activity for Christ, which made him wholly forgetful of self, is to 80 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF be admired and rejoiced over, even while those who would imitate him in this are cautioned not to be regardless, as was he, of the life and health which only can enable any to long serve the Master here. "I can truly say," writes Professor Northrop, his former teacher, "that a more self-sacrificing, devoted, humble Christian I have never known. I sometimes thought, as I noted the flush of his cheeks and the very great brightness of his eyes, as he recited to me in Danburv, that his years would not be many. But he has lived long enough to do much good, and his life has been in the highest degree a success." How few have at their start in life less advantages than were his for a career of extended usefulness ! How few, in living less than a score and a half of years, do more of good to many than did he, — the REV. JOHS W. BARTON. 81 dependent orphan, who looked unto Jesus as the Author and Finisher of his faith and his works, and lived with an eye single to the glory of God and the good of souls. "The little, independent, boisterous, fun-loving, story-telling orphan boy of fifteen years," writes his friend Pelton, "so quickly developed into the cheerful but 'sober-minded' man, the faithful, zeal- ous worker, and the mature Christian ! The ambition for self so soon exchanged for desire for the glory of God in the sal- vation of souls, and its rich reward so soon obtained! It was 'grace, grace alone,' that wrought such happy changes ; and to God* through Christ, be all the praise! "God bless the Society whose earnest work he so loved, and those labourers who are bereaved in the removal of an efficient fellow- worker!" 7t ° *%%: fr^j FALLING IN HARNESS. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF EEV. JOHN W. 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