"Ephrairm feedeth on                  i xii. 1.
"As poor. yet matking many rich." —2 CoR. v'i. 10.
EDITED BY TIJOS. 0. SUMMERS, D.D.
Na,,bbilit, Ttiiit.:
PUBLIStIED FOR TIlE AUTIHOR,
BY E. STEVENSON & F. A. OWEN.
1857. 
ENTERED,  according  t Acct ok Congress, in the year 1857, by
STEAV:N'.ON & OWEN,  AGENTS,
In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Middle  District of
Tennessee.
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY A. A. STITT,
SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, NASHVILLE, TENN 
TO THE PEOPLE CALLED
M E THODISTS:
TO THIIE JONATHAN THAT IS IN THEM:
E)ioS Iolum
IS
RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBEP.
(iii)  
i
PAGI
PREFACE........................................................ ix
BREAKING THE ICE-HORTATORY........................ xiii
CIHAPTER I.
OLD SHIP OF ZION-FARE GREATLY REDUCED........ 15
CHAPTER II.
THE GOSPEL ON TICK......................................  21
CItAPTER III.
S:IALL POTATOES-"TIIE WIDOW'S MIITE...............  32
CHAPTER IV.
"LORD, VIWHAT A WFRETCI-IHED LAND IS THIS,
THAT YIELDS US NO SUIPPLY.."-y.mn............. 46
CIJAPTER V.
THE FIRST AND LAST AGONY.............................  76
CHIAPTER VI. 
HOLD YOUR PURSE AND KEEP YOUR COUNTENANCE. 110
1*                          (v) 
vi                CONTENTS.
PAGI
CHAPTER VII.
A BIG COLLECTION-ONE NOT TOO HEAVY TOO LIFT. 141
CHAPTER VIII.
THE VERY LAST DAYS-THE DAYS OF THE LAST
COLLECTION      1........................... 155
CHAPTER IX.
THE GLORIOUS ECONObaY OF A  IILLENNIUM.......... 170
CHAPTER X.
SOME GAM.ION, BUT MIORE GRAPE....................... 177
CHAPTER XI.
CHARITY WHICH NEVER FAILETHI........................ 194
CIHAPTER XII.
TAKING STOCK IN THE GOSPEL.......................... 221
-     CHAPTER  XIII.
"TIHERE'S A BETTER DAY A-COMIING."-Chorus..... 231
CHAPTER XIV.
TOO MANY "EFFECTUAL DOORS " OPEN-MISSIONARY
MALT A DESIDERATUMk-RUNNING TWO SAWS... 245
CHAPTER XV.
TEE SETTING SUN........................................... 268 
~
ON looking at the title-page of this book, the
reader will probably ask, "Who is this member
of the Red River Conference? and where is that
Conference-in the Northern or Southern division of the Methodist Church?" We are not at
liberty to answer these questions.  All we are
empowered to say is, "Post-Oak Circuit" has an
author-why he does not divulge his name, he
has not condescended to inform us. Were we to
publish it, it might secure an extended circulation of his book, ill both the North and South,
and especially in the South-west; but this we
may not do; and so the book must win its way
to public favor, if it can, by its own intrinsic
merits.   That it will do this, the reader will
scarcely doubt.
We have several essays on the support of the
(vii)
Xntrff uttiff. 
INTRODUCTION.
ministry and kindred topics-and good ones too
-but " Post-Oak Circuit" is sui geieris-there
is nothing like it in all our literature.  Unless
we are mistaken, old Avarice himself will read
it with interest, shut it up, wipe his eyes, andopen his purse!
If any who read this book should think they
have been sitting for certain portraits which they
will find in it, we have only to say that while the
artist appears to have found his characters in real
life, and to have drawn them to the life, we are
not aware that there is a single personal allusion
in the whole volumne; and those who think they
have found their likenesses in it had better keep
the discovery to themselves as far as they can,
and profit by it as much as they may.
We have only to add that the author, according to his accustomed liberality, intends devoting
the profits of the sale of his book to a pious and
charitable purpose, which in due time will be
made public.
*re,bitor.
NASHVILLE, TENN., March 23, 1857.
viii 
A LARGE amount of property, in the shape
of lands, crops, flocks, herds, houses,  machilnery, manufactured goods,  bills of exchange, and specie, is held by certain individuals of this country, who profess themselves to be the "stewards of the Lord"believing  it a duty to profess even  the
figments of the faith. Of the yield of all
these fields, the Lord receives a very small
pittance. As their owner he is practically
ignored. He appears in themin only as a
gleaner, where seldom fall the partial
handfuls of a kinsman. One may reckon
up individual Methodists ill almost any
(ix)
I
i
't
k
I
IXII r f a t  
PREFACE.
county who make annually for themselves
more money than the whole fifteen hundred
thousand in all the States pay to the cause
of missions.
Jonathan has learned to turn a handsome
penny at professing religion. He promptly
recognizes as'valid any claim of Christian
benevolence upon him which you may pre sent; but directly he insists that you shall
take it out in hearing him sing or tell his
experience; and if the claim is a very
heavy one or very pressing, hlie can talk
like a saint or sing like a whitehead. Verily the children of this generation are as
wise in their day as the children of any
generation.
Our friend is likewise a great believer in
the economy of a millennium: he luxuriates
in its prospect, and gloriously rests in the
promises. Confident that "the day when
all shall know the Lord" will come —that
the time is set, and the Church is well
X 
PREFACE.
backed by prophecy-he thllinkls that, do or
not do, the coming of the kingdom  car
neither be much helped nor hindered; though
do not understand him to be a Calvinist:
sooner than that, he will give something.
Contemplating his particular case as instrumentally connected with the conversion
of a world, one is compelled to an increased
reliance upon the naked force of prophecy.
Methodism breaks down  under its own
weight.   Our people  spend  nothing  for
jewelry or fine dress; do n't go to the opera
or balls; give small salaries to their preachers; give moderately to the heathen; and
are as industrious as beavers. Therefore
the eyes of our Church stand out with fatness: she has more than heart can wish.
She is at once-=we say it humbly-the richest, the most covetous, and the most orthodox Church extant. She can say, without
exaggerating, "I am rich, and'increased with
goods, and have need of nothing."
xi 
PREFACE.
We are as well satisfied with 3Ir. 1 esley's liberality (" our great founder," by the
byv) as if it were our own.   Mr. Wesley's
poverty, at deathl, is a peculiarly gratifying
fict.  He yet lives in history, the remains
of a great civilization.  We look at him as
a child would at an antediluvian fossil ninety
feet long.  Lolng may our Church flourish
on the reminiscences of ancestral fame!
xii 
BREAKING THE ICE-HORTATORY,
To SEvEN MEMBERS OF THE MIETHODIST
CHURCH' *
DEAR BRETHREN -You  have been appointed, officially, to raise the wind: in the
language of the magnificent East, to bring
the wind out of your treasuries. The wind
brought quails from the sea; and amnong
quartermasters the four winds are the greatest. "Awake, O North wind; and come,
thou South: blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out."
You have done wisely: you have sown
thle wilnd; for "whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap."  Ephraim fed on
* Why name my melancholy friends?
2                               (Xiii)
I 
14       BREAKING  THE ICE.
wind, and filled his belly with the east wind;
though, as is evident, he objected not to
corn; for "Ephraim loveth to tread out the
corn." Hosea x. 11.
If at all descended from Ephraim, I am
of that part of him which loved corn; not
of that which ate wind. In this, I trust, I
am not earthly, for "IHe gave them of the
corn of heaven, and man did eat angels'
food." Ps. lxxviii. 24. Indeed, good angels
delight in substance; and when Abraham
spread them a table under the oak in Mamre,
they ate of butter, meal-cakes, a roast, and
milk-solid food, such as they whlo would
fain entertain angels unawares had as well
set before strangers.
Mly dear brethren, have a care lest you
raise too little corn. 0, I wish that each
of you were a Joseph in Egypt, with ihe key
of a thousand corn-cribs hanging  at his
girdle! I remain, as ever; your friend,
THE AUTHOR. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER I.
"OLD SHIP OF ZION'7-FARE  GREATLY
REDUCED.
"A THING is worth what it costs."  This
rule would determine the value of a name
and a place in the household of faith, and
refutes the notion that infinites cannot be
estimated.   Doubtless many a reader can
count the actual cost of the gospel to him,
reckoning for the whole period from the first
day that he was translated from darkness
to this present one inclusive. In such a
calculation, it would be well to throw out
(xv) 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
fractions.   During the Levitical dispensation, this estimate could hlave been more
readily made, as the cost then consisted in
whole articles, say a sheep or a bullock, or
so many bushels of grain, or hins of oil;
which amounted every year to one sheep for
every five that a man hlad, or one peck for
every bushel. Though tithes are no longer
brought into the sanctuary in kind, it would
be well to reckon their amount in that way.
The problem would then be, How many
beeves have you paid into the Lord's treasury since you were converted? Ilow many
mules?
* During a recent missionary excitement in Alabama,
a Baptist brother became sufficiently alive to his duty
to give one hundred dollars ($100) to the cause at a
Methodist  meeting.   His  friends  became  alarmed,
waited upon him, and protested that in so muich excitement he was not rightly at himself. "Well, my
friends," replied he, "I lost a mule the other day worth
$120, and none of you came to sympathize with me;
and now, that I have given $100 to carry the gospel to
16 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
It must be admitted that the cost of salvation has been greatly cheapened since the
days of the first tabernacle. In this, at
least, we have had "progress." The prophet's call, "IHo, every one! come ye, buy
wine and milk without money and without
price!" is now nearly fulfilled; and his
bounty is pretty much accepted upon his
own terms. The old quarter-dollar quarterage story-alas! too old-has done good
service to the-certainly not to the Church.
It has been used in the main to glorify "the
Old Ship," at the expense of other Churches
which charge a higher rate of fare, though
not very high.  A large part of the Western ministry have paid the penalty of that
quarter- dollar anecdote, without knowing
what they were paying for. It presented
the heathen, you think I am crazy!" The circuitpreacher told the fact all around the circuit; and the
answer of the generous Baptist yielded the missionary
treasury many an additional dollar.
2*
il
17 
18        POs T-OAK C IRC U IT.
the Methodist Church and ministry in a
false light, and brought down the membership to a fatal economy. It was a great
mistake to say that Methodist preaching
costs nothing, or even to think it. It costs
a living in all cases. If the people do not
pay it, the preacher does. If one man escapes paying his share of the cost, his neighbor pays it for him: if one neighborhood, it
is at the expense of another. The cost is
often shifted, but never escaped.  It is the
glory of the Methodist Church that she has
reduced this cost to a minimum.*  Here
* Various reasons have been assigned by different
persons as the cause of this reduced state of things:
that it is because an itinerant ministry is not so favorable to endearing ties as a settled; that it is the result
of an overcare of the people for the spiritual welfare
of their preachers; (lest they become "full, and say,
Who is the Lord?") other some, that the primary injunction, "No scrip, no money, in their purse," has
not been corrected for the present times, and is therefore quietly understood by the people as being still of
force. Of these, the first-named reason is the least 
POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
shle hlas led the way.  From the first, she
unfurled this bainner. It waves brightly
over her wealthy plains. It floats from her
steepled churches. It rallies with its ethereal motto her anxious stewards. It is inscribed on the hearts of her people: "PRAY
YOUR WAY." 
The Methodist Church has doubtless had
the "candle" which giveth "light to all
that are in the house;" but she has also had
the "bushel."  A  philosophy of her history
satisfactory. A few years since, an Episcopal minister,
settled in 0., Louisiana, was called by the force of controlling circumstances to sever those "endearing ties."
Such occasions are always affecting, and usually well
attended. The minister's farewell sermon-who has
not heard it with sad interest? Towards the conclusion
of his discourse, the reverend gentleman (Mr. B.) looked
over his audience, and remarked:-If there was any
one in the house who could prove that he had ever
given one dollar towards his support, it should be refunded on the spot. The Methodists are not easily
excelled when they set themselves to do a thing, but in
this instance they must yield the unwilling palm, for a
minimum is surpassed by the reductio ad nil.
19 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
might be aptly entitled, "The Bushel versus
The Candle."
It has been no slight conflict. The bushel
is not an outright extinguisher, for a candle
can burn under it: the main difficulty is,
that the light then benefits no one, not even
tlhe lighter. A vessel for measuring grain
may be understood to signify wealth; and
a bushel-the largest that is used-may
justly enough represent the wealth of the
Methodist Church.
As the General Conference has ordered
some one to design a uniform Church-seal,
it is respectfully suggested that it be-A
bushel, bottom up, (the candle supposed tc
be under,) with the motto,
" Longe ora:
Minime da."
20 
I'OST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER II.
THE GOSPEL ON TICK.
THE precious gospel costs some very little,
yet thiere are others who pay less.  These
are not more honorable than those, only
more fortunate. Convinced that wisdom is
not to be mqentioned with pearls or rubies,
they are carefil not to do it. An allusion
to the gold of Ophir in connection with the
"wisdom divine" thrills their whole man,
they have been known to go out of the
church with the sound in their ears; or
else to remain composed, if possible, with
closed eyes, during the entire process of
"lifting the collection," scarcely conscious
of the approach of the faithful steward with
21 
22       POST-OAK  CIRCIJIT.
the black bag. 0 how grateful they feel.
How completely they realize mnan's inadequacy to repay "one of a thousand!" Infinite charity!  Freely they have received:
freely they-sing.  Behold the fowls of the
air, and all the preachers, which have neither
storehouse nor barn; yet are they all fed!
lIysterious providence!  Others have come
forward, and have paid the minister ere
they were aware.  And  so the good man
has gone to another field freighted with their
gratitude and their blessing.  Such a development of " by faith only" must be the
crowning glory of any Protestant church;
and such members are the jewels of our
mother. How they give forth the rays of
their light, against the background of a
world wholly given up to the main chance!
These keep far away from our fold those
shepherds who seek only the fleece: they
guarantee for ever a self-denying ministry.
Never could the reader doubt the measure 
POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
which this joint suppliethll, had he known
Brother Jeremiah Larkum.
"Brother Jerry," as they called him, often
said in his experience, that he was brought
down under the song of the "Old Family
Bible-that lay on the stand."  The reflection that it still lay there always seemed to
overpower him. When he came to that
part, almost everybody felt for him, except
the stewards, who did nothing but groan.
Brother Jerry rather warmed under it, and
"had great liberty." He usually wound up
by singing,
"I want to be as happy
As I well can be," etc.;
or held his handkerchief to his mouth and
twisted down  on  his seat, smothering  a
shout. HIe used to bring it in that he was
thankful for "a full promise and a free gospel:" that he always rejoiced in its "lightas-a-feather burdens," and its "easy-pulling
yokes." He warned young professors against
23 
24       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"coss-shiirking."   "Many," said hle, "look
at tlhe cross a long ways off; others walk
round it; some toucl it with their littlest
fil-ger;  once in a   while somebody  takes
it II'I I)but my advice to you all is, POCKET
IT!"  fIc was striving for that distant land,
an(l soeletimes tliouglit he could  see its
"iiilk-anid-lloney branclies" from his "Pisgalcloset:" tlhat if he met with no "gospelmlisnlap)" —ald lie thlought he should not —he
was " lo)(und to get there."
Old( Brother Goodsine, thle recording stewa dl of " Post-Oak Circuit," used to say that
Biotlier Jerry was a good spirit-}gaiye: if
lie spoke among the first, the meeting was
most sure to be a drag; if in the middle, it
was so-so; but if lie held off until it was
over, there was most always a good time.
John Bear, another of the stewards, an
lioniest, nobl)le- looking fellow, who usually
lhit the centre-being, as it happened, a gunsmiith-used to say that Jerry was "all talk 
POST-OAK  CIR CU IT.
and no cider."  When Jerry's license to
exhort was to be renewed, the majority said
hlie was "very feeling sometimes," and they
did not think that he "could do much harm
no ways." But John Bear was, as he said,
"up and down against it:" for his part,
Jerry might talk till doomsday, and it would
not turn the color of a hair, unless he paid
his church-subscription last year, and the
year before, and every other year. "Let himn
pay down and prove up!" said he, striking
his open palm with his fist: "pay down his
cash and prove up his faith!"  That Brother Jerry went to glory too soon anyhow;
according to his mind, he always went off
half-cocked, so he doubted whether he got
there more than one time in ten.  "No,
no," he added, "when Jerry groans less and
gives more, he may get my vote, but not
before."
It was agreed that the elder should give
Brother Larkum a talk: and then it was
3
25 
26       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
agreed that Brother Jerry was a hard case
anyhow.
Brother Jerry was wont to say that lie
had never met the man yet that could tell
him the difference between exhorting and
preaching; nor one that could show where
one left off and the other began.  One day
thle congregation at Oakville were all waiting, but the circuit-preacher did not come.
Jerry was soon up in the pulpit. The parson, he said, had thrown all of tlhemin into a
grief, and himself into a great quandary
but hlie looked to their "fellow-feelings" to
help him on with this "big cross all-in-atremble."  He gave out that his "mnotto"
lay in the fifth chapter of the Song of Solomon, "in the bosom of the first verse:'I
Ihave eaten my 7loey-comb tvtih mny houey.'
And now, friends," said lie, "I may buzz
about a little at first, by way of getting off;
but you see how it is: I come to you on the
wing, on the scared-up wing of a providen 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
tially-called-for exhortation.  And my desire is, as soon as I naturally can, to take
you in a bee-line to a gospel-gum. IMy
motto is a regular bee-gum, the onliest tree
in all the woods. Now, I ask, why is the
gospel honey? and again I ask, why  is
honey the gospel?  And I answer, firstly,
because it is good for the hungry.  And,
secondly, I answer, because it is cheap. And
now again, firstly, it is good for the hungry.
The Scriptures say,'To  the hungry soul
every bitter thing is sweet;' how  sweet,
then, must sweetening itself be!  When  a
man is hlungry, he is not particular: he will
eat a good deal of comb to get some honey.
A great many sermonizing sermons are curious-made and have a clear beauty, like
white comb in which the bees have not yet
put honey.  Even that a man might eat."
Ile had, he said, in his time, eaten a great
deal of trash to get a little pure gospel-his
honey-comb with his honey-and he felt all
27
0 
28       POST-O AK CIRCUIT.
the better for it. For his part, hlie never
found fault with what he got when he robbed
a guin; he never had the heart to look a
gift-horse in the mouth, though he felt himself as good a judge of a horse as any one,
excepting it might be the elder.  If it was
generally most a poor preach, it was likewise most generally poor pay. These had
been joined together, and he would not dare
to give them a Moses's-bill of divorcement.
But also, secondly, it was cheap. It was
wild honey; the wayfaring man could get
it. If it was not cheap, it would not be gospel-honey-" without money, without price."
But it was cheap. "You ask what is the
strength  of the gospel?   I answer, its
strength lies in its cheapness; its cheapness
is its strength. It is naturally as cheap as
nature. You paid nothing: I paid nothing:
we all paid nothing: everybody paid nothing.  Yet we  have it, I have it, you
have it. I heard old Sister Hardiman say, 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.:
that when she and her husband first came
to these parts, he saw a young man, one
Sunday, standing back in the church, crying,
while the minister was opening the doors.
'Young man,' said Brother Hiardiman,'why
not go up and join?''I want to,' says he,
'but they tell me I must pay the preacher a
barrel of corn first, and I have n't got it.'
Now, friends, could you think that ever anybody thought that it cost anybody any thing
to be a AIetiodist? Where in reason, in
science, and in history, could that young man
have been ever since lie was born? In my
whole life in the old North State, and some
years out of her, never did I hear of such
out-of-the - way Scripture-ignorance.  Now,
there is the W-est India long-sweetning and
the West India short-sweetning; both of
them sweet, but not cheap.  But honey is
both sweet and cheap: just like the gospel.
The gospel, friends, that takes us to heaven,
is cheap; and heaven, after we get there,
3*
29 
30     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
0 how cheap and sweet! 0, when I look
out from my Pisgah-closet, I sometimes see
a golden pear-shaped vision."  Here
Jerry went off, and carried three of the congregation with him, till hlie came to
"I want to be as happy
As I well can be."
There he very easily made a stop.
As they all left the church, one of Jerry's
admirers asked old Brother Goodsine what
he thought of Brother Jerry's talk.
"Well," said the old man, "Brother Jerry
is some gum."
"Yes, hlie is," added John Bear; "but it's
gum-log, not bee-gum."
But, Father Goodsine," persisted the inquirer, "don't you think it was a right
strong talk?"
"Nothing could be stronger," replied the
old man, "on the subject of a cheap gospel
tlan Brother Jerry's talk, unless it is Bro
ther Jerry's example." 
PlOST-OAK CIROUIT.
"As to Brother Jerry's cheap gospel,"
said John Bear,  "being  an exhorter  has
made a great change in Brotlier Jerry; for
fifteen years he has had the gospel on tick,
but now he is a tick on the gospel."
11lJ;/
31 
32      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER III.
SMALL POTATOES —" THE WIDOW'S MIITE."
NOTHING can transcend the ingenuity of
man, except it is the ingenuity of a churchsteward. The problem is to collect money
for the support of the gospel, and wonderful
is the  solution.   He levies contribution
upon all things animate that may come
within reach of his bag on a Sunday; and
on week-days he spreads his plans, like fresh
spider's webs, to catch small current particles, which otherwise might be still floating and invisible, except in sunbeams. Occasionally he secures a resisting sinner, extracts from him his mite — that is, bleeds
him-and then hangs him up in his calcula 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
tions, as a dead fly, for the rest of the season.  Hle does not despise the day of small
things, else hlie would despise every day in
the year. The world is to be subdued; but
a subdued world is to him a very distant
world; and therefore, as he has it in his eye,
it is a very small world. He says, if every
man, and every woman, and every young
person, and every child, would each do their
duty, it would lot require much: five cents
here and five cents there soon count up.
Some years since, it was discovered that
the world could be converted, in good time,
at the moderate cost of a cent a week to
each Church-member.*  0, how it sprang
the Church and thrilled the stewards! Nothing had been in the way worth minding
* A cent a week for the cause of missions was actually proposed and advocated by the Missionary Board
of the Methodist Church, several years ago, as the
quota of a, Church-member!  This would not have exceeded one-hundredth of one per cent. upon the wealth
of the membership.
33 
34      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
but the expense: now t7tt was removed, and
Zion was ready to travail. AIost every one
had felt that faith and prayer were great
means in most cases; but in regard to converting the heathen these means presented a
painful process, requiring to their efficiency
a corresponding money appropriation which
it was appalling to contemplate. Paralyzed
with estimates that threatened the Church
of the New Testament with the burdens of
the Church in Egypt, when the way of
escape was made plain, by the happy thought
of cheapening the actual cost of furnishing
the gospel to the world, and not by increasing the tax upon the membership, it was
like laying the corner-stone of the Millennium.  Old class-leaders and stewards, exhlorters, preachers, and people, "wept with a
loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy,
so that the people could not discern the
noise of the shout of joy from the noise of
the weeping of the people; for the people 
POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was
heard afar off." When the scheme of the
Mission Board first came out in the New
York "Advocate," Brother Bunting Badger,
a hearty Englishman of fifty-six years of
age, and a Wesleyan, who had been in this
country some twenty years, and a steward
of the Post-Oak  Circuit for the last ten,
actually spent the greater part of one day in
his own shop, shaking hands and talking
over the "'Appy haction that'ad coome
down by the last post." He assured Brothers Jacob Oakhart and Squire Wallet,
both of them circuit officials, that it was
"the very thing, the very thing: a flash, do
ye see! from over the Atlantic."
Brother Oakhart was an exhorter, who had
been licensed mainly in view of the blacks,
for whose edification he seemed to be constitutionally and religiously gifted. Though
his speech was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, he was curiously eloquent
35 
36     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
within the comprehension of his responsive
audience.  "Massa Oakhart was on his high
hoss, he really was dis day," said Uncle
Clay.  "He piled hisself on hisself.  IHI
made the cold chills run over and over me
The hlair of my head snapped like frost.  I
speaks de  raal truf."   Though  scarcely
turned of fifty, Clay had a remarkably
bushy head of gray hair; and as all negroes
prefer being as near one hundred years old
as possible, he was fond of alluding to "the
hair of my head."  This fine organ was the
basis of no little pomp and considerable
position, it being the only appreciable superiority its owner had over several brethren
of his own color and of equal standing.
Squire Wallet was the wealthiest member
in the circuit, and was elected steward
pretty much in view of that fact. It was
thought that the old fellow could occasionally, perhaps, be rung in to the tune of the
Last Quarter. The last Quarterly Confer 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
ence is rather a pressing time, when the
financial child of the year comes to the
birth, and there is often not strength to
bring forth. It was thought that the squire,
having a hundred and twenty hands, could
be stirred at that travailing moment to do
something.  But the squire was never to be
caught but once.  The agony of that hour,
and an extra ten dollars, taught him a lessop which he never forgot. Ile was always
anxious afterward to be present at the last
quarterly meeting in the year, but his memory "never served him fair." " 0," he would
add, looking up, "how uncertain are all our
calculations this side of eternity! Yes, yes,
Brother Badger, our days are as a post: it
is an overwhelming thought," said the squire.
"I say," said the Englishman, "that every
American and English mind should adopt the
immortal expression of the great Bunting
do ye see!-' Repentance, faith,' holiness, a
penny a week and a shilling a quarter
4
37 
38      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
How full, and yet how simple-do ye see! I
There it is, the soul and the body of Christianity. Every man is rich enough to do
that: it is not much-do ye see!"
"No, Brother Badger, no; there is none
of us rich enough to do any thing, nor will
be till we are in our graves. The grave,
the grave only is rich. If I had what's in
the grave, then I grant you I should be rich.
Only give me all the niggers that's been
buried in there, and then you might call me
rich. 0!" said he, looking up,
'Their names are graven on the stone,
Their bones are in the clay."'
The pleasure which Brother Badger, the
Squire, and Jacob Oakhart found in talking
to each other was peculiar, yet not uncommon.   It lay in neither listening to the
other, excepting only long enou,ghl to catch
aL suggestive word, firom which one might
start in his own direction.  Sometimes they
were all three in ideas; if so, they all talked 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
to each other promiscuously at once; but
usually, while one was running off a train
of thought, the other two were firing up two
other trains.
" Yes-do ye see!" said Badger, "the gospel is no longer a hexperiment; the'eathen
can now'ave it on the very heasiest terms
by this haction; the very hleasiest to ourselves and to them; the very thing for both
-do ye see!"
"We may well talk about the heathen,"
said Jacob Oakhart: "they will soon be in
their graves.  We count them like bugs, by
the million, and value them by quarters and
dimes. But, mind, as I tell my colored brethren, those very same heathen will string us
millstone necklaces out of our small change,
and sink us among great black waves, the
swell of five hundred storms of wrath, which
will dash a wrecked man and search for him
over the spot where he goes down."
"The heathen," said Squire Wallet, "are
39 
40      rPOST-OAK CIRCUIT.
fond of ornaments; they dance to the
sounds of martial and festival music, and
jingle their necklaces of lump-gold."  He
continued, with an imposing air, "Give me
the gold, and the silver, and the pearls, and
the diamonds, in the shields and spears, in
the bracelets and rings, which have been
put down into the grave with those heathen,
and I would give you my home - farm, I
would, and say thanky' to it too! Yes, you
give mne the Catacombs, the Pyramids, and
the kings in them, just as they were buried,
and you take the farm all the time.  0O!"
he exclaimed,
"' The grave! how deserted and drear!
With the noise of the wild wind,
The creaks of the bier,
ADd the white bones all clattering together!'
"The best bones I ever had," said Oakhart, "was on the heathen. I there put in
a colter on the minds of tie colored mem
bers, that all ought to give to send the Bible 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
to the heathen; not so many dimes or dollars, but so many skulls-full of money; that
I had a mind to open an Indian mound and
get two grown skulls for mnoney-boxes; so
when we took up a missionary-collection,
and passed them round, the sight of the
dead might rack the consciences of the living; that every black man ought to give
a skull-full and every white man a grave-full
of silver, or as nigh full as they could, in
this world, if they wanted to be easy in the
other. I told them I had a mind to get
from the secretary a Chinaman's skull, a
Fejee skull, a Guinea's skull, and a skull
from Kamtsehatka, and hang  them up on
pegs for collection-boxes; that when I took
a collection for each kind of heathen, I
should like to see the wretch of a Churchmember that would divide one dime amnong
all those skulls."
"Ye  know, Squire," said Badger, "the
Lord don't require much, if ye'll only do it,
4*
41 
42        POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
'What doth the Lord ask but to do justly
to love mercy, to walk humbly?' And that's
easy-do ye see! easy all round, if every
man will do his part; and ye know Hengland expects every man to do that, as the
immortal Nelson said at the great Trafalgar. There would be enough left still for
all of us, and the heathen and the preachers
be as fat as Durhams besides. Only give
me the spot, says Archimedes; and, do ye
see! that the great Bunting has done:'A
penny a week and a shilling a quarter,' says
he.  And it's not much; you might do it
and never know it. And yet, do ye see! it's
a great deal; all added, I say, it's a great
deal.'Mlany a little mak's a muckle,' says
Sawney; and he's right for once. Every
man's shoulder to the wheel, and we need
not cry to Hercules at all.  Ye know that
the widow's mite is all that the Lord asks;
and that Brother Oakhart. here can do as
well as ye yourself, Squire. Whly, man, it's 
P OST-O AK CIRCUIT.
the millennial dawn; every ha'penny is a
beam of the latter day; every widow's mite
is a pure beam; and all added together, do
ye see! it's the Phoebus of the new heavens
in his glittering chariot.   Do ye not say
so, Brother Goodsine?"
The old man had come into the store a
moment before, and stood listening.
"Well," replied he, in a measured way,
"in part I do.  Ha'pennies and widow's
mites, from men as rich as you and the
Squire here, if you put enough of them  together, might at least be considered the
moonshine of the dust of the wheels of the
glittering chariot of the millennial Phoebus."
Brother Badger was under such headway,
the answer was lost. He kept on: "A cup
of cold water, do ye see! shall not lose its
reward:  a merciful arrangement  to him
that gives and him that takes. It doesn't
cost, and it does count. What' is cheaper
titan water? and, do ye see! what charity so
43 
44      POST OAK CIRCUIT.
pure and beautiful?  It's not the value-no,
not the value.  What! as the prophet says,
'Will the Lord be pleased with thousands
of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of
oil?' No, no; it's mercy, it's the widow's
mite, it's the cup of water, the penny and
the shilling, the Lord wants; nothing less,
and nothing more."
"You say," interposed Squire Wallet,
"that Archimedes was strong: I say he was
weak.  Except the grave, nothing is strong.
I should like to see him or-anybody rig a
purchase over the grave of one of my dead
nig,gers, ancld rize him out. There's a chance
for his lever! By the cholera, in three days,
I lost thirty hands.'0, rapacious, voracious, tenacious grave!' But you say, give
him a fulcrum. So I say: give him all the
grave-stones, everywhere, big and little-a
pyramid of grave-stones.  Then let him or
anybody try himself on my patch of graves
out there behind the quarters. I should be 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
mighty glad to do it on shares, for half of
all he'd raise, and thanky' too.  But I know
he couldn't do a thing: I wish he could.
No, nothing grips tighter than the grave,
or  holds  stronger.   Archimedes  himself
could not try to do a harder thing than
that; could he, Father Goodsine?"
"No, Squire, no, I think not," said the old
man; "unless it might be, to get a little
quarterage out of some of our Church-members."
45
ii" 
46     POST-OAK ClRCUIT.
CHAPTERP IV.
LORD, WHAT A WTRETCIIED LAND IS THIS,
THIAT YIELDS US NO SUPPLY!" —_IIyml.
ONE of the greatest phenomena of ecclesiastical finance is that of the female menmberslip of a wealthy church turned into a
sewing-machine.  It is easily identified, by
some  half-dozen carriages  standing  about
the parsonage, or the humble abode of some
poor sister, for two hours or so, periodically.
It forms a season of delightful leisure and
relinion to the drivers, footboys, and waiting-womeu, who come to wait on their mistresses, and see them work. It is an hour,
too, of good things, of cakes, of curiosity,
of week-day and Sunday news; a time of 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
admiration, of exclamation, of calculation,
as well as of downright hard sewing.  Such
a gathering certainly presents one of t-he
most interesting of studies to a mind at all
curious as to the number and variety of
forms into which Christian benevolence is
capable of crystallizing.
It would seem that money got in any common way was not good enough to be used
for the purposes of our holy religion.  It
must be wrung out of one by some unusual
method.  It must come harder  than any
other money —which, in fact, it does-or
else it will not seem to answer the purpose.
Ladies will work half a day for half a dollar, on a sewirng-society shiirt, and feel that
they have done a good work; when, in fact,
to have put their hand in a purse, and given
,that sum, would only have been to save it
from the next candy-shop. But they cannot
bring themselves to believe that caidy-money
is the same as church-money.  The largest
47 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
dollar current is the church-dollar.  It has
an effect upon the optic nerve that hlas never
yet been satisfactorily explained. The illusion, when the eye dwells on it a few moments, is that it grows.*  Whether this is
an illusion merely or not, it is certain that
persons who would scarcely be conscious of
the expenditure of ten, fifty, or a hundred
dollars, in buying trinkets for their daughters, or in the general waste of a profuse
* A similar illusion occurred in the case of an Irish
singing-master. Soon after arriving in this country
he opened a singing-school. He set his terms at what
seemed to him a high rate-a dollar for twelve lessonsand waited the result. He was agreeably surprised to
find quite a number of pupils at the appointed hour,
and that one had brought the tuition fee in advancea silver dollar. The lesson commenced. " Wall," said
the master aside, feeling the dollar in his pocket, "that
is a large pace! Now, then, [aloud,] let's have it once
more: sound all togither. Wall, [aside,] that is a large
dollar!  Now, mark ye, [aloud,] when B is fiat, mi is
in E.  Wall, wall, [aside, taking out the dollar, and
looking at it,] the very largest dollar I iver saw is that
dollar!" 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
family, or in the purchase of fancy stock, or
in agricultural experiments, or in the advancing, some political interest, have been kinown
to suffer great and continued depression on
parting( with a like sum for the support of
the gospel. The entire amount collected
annually by the Methodist Church in the
whole United States, North and South, for
the cause of missions, is, say three hundred
and fifty thousand dollars; which seems a
great deal-a very great deal —of that sort
of gnoey.  But the United States spends in
keeping up a single frigate about one thousand dollars a day, or three hundred and
ixty-five thousand dollars annually; which,
after all, does not seem so very much of that
sort of money.  "Wlhat wonders grace can
do!" exclaim our people, as they contemplate
those massive offerings of their povertystricken souls.
The church of the Post-Oak'Circuit had
in it a good deal of wealth; but, unfortu        5
49 
50       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
nately, it existed, for the most part. still in tte
ore, which, it would seem, was only to be
smelted by  the furnace of Hlinnom; for
neither the tears of widows and orplhans,
nor the actual wants of their ministers, nor
yet the fire of the Holy Ghost, had the effeet
of futsing it.  Squire Wallet was its wealthiest member, but there were a dozen that
worked from twenty to thirty hands each.
All were good to the stewards for some
trifle; but as they had been taught to do
little, they learned to do less   Brother
Badger was rather popular with the church
as a steward. In the first place, as the
society-treasurer, he gave credit for every
mill contributed; and in the next place, lihe
kept up the spirits of the membership, which
were threatened more and more every year
with a confirmed melancholy at the thought
of having to support the preacher. Hie was
for ever devising financial cobwebs to catch
motes: "Many  hands make  light work 
POST-O K CIRCUIT.
and it's not much if ve'11 all do a little
ani-l tlhe women as well as the men.  Ye can
make garments, like Dorcas; and many is
lhe cent ye can get for them.  Every cent
and every stitch that ye give is a beam of
the comtingi day; and all the beams gathered
up make the big sun, do ye see!"
And so there was a regular sewing-society
at work at old Sister HIardimian's every
Wednesday. Sister Wallet had brought a
large lot of negro clothing, a job for the
society. The Squire had got thrown back
by sickness on his place, and concluded to
have his clothing made out.  He was in a
hurry to have it made up, the society agreed
to do it at a very low rate, and so the job
was secured. Brother Badger looked in,
and assured them that "Hit was one of those
mysterious hopenings of that Providence that
supplies the fowls of the hair with food."
"Only," replied one of the ladies, "they
neither sow nor reap; but as for us, it's
51 
52       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
true we do n't reap much, but we  sew  a
great deal."
" 0, ye've a talent, all of ye, to improve,
(lild I am  glad ye hlave-stitch to stitch,
talent to talent-to bIe true to a little, thatis
the gospel secret," rejoined the treasurer, as
he shut the door, and retired.
"If Brother Badger would spend more of
his talents, he would know  more of the
secret of the Lord," said Sistel' Hardiman.
"ity sight," continued she, "is now too dim
to help muchl, but in my day I have done
my shiare of work, perhaps, in getting up
failrs, and in  sewing-societies, strawberry
parties, parsonage suppers, and other makeshlifts* of the stewards. But I am free to
* "Whynot throttle old avarice or whatever else stands
in the way of cheerful giving-throttle and kill him by
honest and direct blows? These shifts are miserable.
Is the pill of doing good so bitter that it must be sugarcoated or disguised, that one may take it without knowing it?
"We have actually known people go to more outlay of 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
say that, excepting in a very few  instances,
I hlave thought the whole thing unnecessary,
if not hurtful to the society. It is a poor
remedy for stinginess in a church: it rather
aggravates the disease. To give directly
largely to the support of the gospel is a
New  Testament obligation which must be
impressed upon every church until it is felt.
All indirect mletlhods of raising imoney for
this purpose ought to be promptly rejected.
By such methods the money just then needed
may possibly be had, but every dollar got
costs ten in the notionlwhichi it creates and
confirms, of supposing ourselves not actually
required to give to thie Lord. The least
'value received' at fairs, in pen-wipers, or
money and money's worth, to say nothing of pains-taking, to get up a fair for roofing a shed, or furnishing a
parsonage, or paying a church-debt, than would have
footed the bill by a plain subscription. Where human
nature has to be coaxed along so, and led blindfold to
storming the redoubts of selfishness, grace has much
work yet to do."-New Orleans Christian Advocate.
5*
53 
54       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
at suppers, in the shape of frozen cream or
ill a syllabub, changes the complexion of the
whole transaction: it ceases to yield the
conscious reward of an act of Christian
benevolence."*
* An item, which appeared in a public print of recent
date, is significant to those who have experienced benevolent suppers and Christian fairs. A very successful
fair had just come off, at which "ten dollars" was
asked by a young lady for a plate of "gumbo."  The
alarmed individual who had called for it put down
fifty cents, and told her to choose between the halfdollar and the gumbo. Another ate a slice of turkey,
and then learned that it was " two dollars;" which he
paid, and left. That one gobbler yielded the church
over a hundred dollars-a larger sum than the lifetimecontribution of many a member-despite the motto that
"a living dog is better than a dead lion."  Hence the
tone of the public stomach needed to be restored by the
following rate of prices, which "was published," (says
the editor,) "at the request of the ladies, for the benefit
of the charitable community."
"Scale of Prices established by the Committee of Arraogements.-Supper of meats, fifty cents; supper of
meats, with chicken salad, seventy-five cents; gumbo,
per plate, twenty-five cents; coffee, per cup, ten cents;
chocolate, per cup, ten cents; lemonade, per glass, ten
cents; ice-cream, with cake, twenty-five cents; ice 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"Well, Grandma," said one of the ladies,
ithen I understand you not to approve of
this sewing-society."
"'In its principle, my dear child, I certainly
do not. I always give way in such things
to others, and help them on cheerfully, but I
hope yet to live to see a better groundwork
of duty wrought into our loved Methodism,
in supporting its iinistry and its missions.
The plan of collecting moneys for the missionary society by selling life-memberships
has lost, I fear, thousands of dollars to the
cause of missions.  It has substituted one
motive for another-the motive of complimenting our friends for the sublime one of
sending the gospel to the world. It places
creamni, with cake and fruit, thirty cents; sherbets, per
glass, twenty-five cents; jellies, per glass, twenty-five
cents; Charlotte-russe, twenty-five cents; fruit-cake,
per slice, twenty cents; pound-cake, per slice, fifteen
cents; sponge-cake, per slice, fifteen cents; macaroons,
etc., four for ten cents; soda, per glass, ten cents.
Change given in all cases."
55 
56     PPOST-OAK CIRCUIT.
the claims of the heathen equivocally before
the Church, instead of a clear announcement
of the great truth that it is her awful duty
to supply life to dying myriads."
"But, Grandma," said another sister, "' by
fairs, sewing-societies,  and  so on, there's
many a cent saved out of the fire, which
otherwise would only be wasted; and still,
those who wish to give lai-ger amounts have
a chance to do it."
"I doubt," replied the old lady, "if by
such artificial excitants to duty, we do not
lose more by the fire than we save out of it.
WVhatever susceptibility I might once have
had- to all plans for procuring means to support and spread the doctrines of Christ
without fceling it, I have been thoroughly
cured by my observation of Brother Badger
and his penny-a-week schemes, his'widows'
mites,' and his solitary'sunbeams.' Such
mottoes might do for England, where the
country is thickly settled. the territory small, 
POST-OAK CIRCU1 5.
and every man easily looked after; and I
understand the great Bunting has achieved
financial wonders  among the Wesleyans;
but I am sure he never did it by collecting
only' a penny a week and a shilling a quarter,' which would only be two dollars a year
per member, a sum upon which the ministry
could conveniently starve. Hie might have
said it as a motto, but I'm sure hie never
used it as a measure."
"But, Grandma, a good many cannot give
more than that in a year," said a sister.
"That's a very common mistake, my dear,"
responded the old lady, "a very great mistake. What! in this country, where nearly
every man owns land and lives in plentywhere the common laborer earns an easy
and abundant support for himself and family-to say that the earnings of one day in
three hundred and sixty-five, at the rate of
the pay of a day-laborer, is all that most
people can give! Would that we had never
57 
58      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
heard of'Doctor Bunting,' or the'widowv's
mite,' as Brother Badger enforces them!
"For ten years he has sounded into his
own ears and those of the members, that a
little-only a little-is needed from each
one, until lie has come to believe, and the
society with him, that it is really so; that
ten dollars is enough for himself and others
of the richest men in the circuit; that
everybody else ought to do as much; that
if the minister is not supported, the sin lies
elsewhere than at their door: whereas, a
hundred dollars a year to thle ministry of the
word  and  a hundred  to missions, would
scarcely secure him an easy conscience at a
dying-hour; for in twenty years he has increased in wealth more than fifty thousand
dollars.   Brother Goodsine, with a large
family and but two or three hlands, has
scarcely ever given less than one hundred
dollars a year."
"You would not gauge everybody by old 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
SIr. Goodsine, I trust," exclaimed a lady;
"you know that every one thinks AMr. Good sine crazy onl the subject of giving."
"I certainly would," answered tile old
lady.  "If Brother Goodsine is crazy on
an       y slsubject, I  should  like to become  acquainted with the really sensible men!"
" 0, not on any thing else, Grandma, for
I admit there are few mien as sensible as AIr.
Goodsine," rejoined the lady.
Well, my dear, believe me," continued
the old lady, "Brother Goodsine is sensible
to the last.  It is not that hle has less sense
than others, but more religion. But I can
cite you to others.  There is Brother Jolhn
Bear, who is poorer still: he never gives
less than fifty dollars, and often nearer a
hundred. Then there is Brother Oakhart."
"What!" exclaimed one of the young ladies,' HIeartoak?'"
"Yes, my dear.'Heartoak,' as the boys
call him, does more —g(aunt as he looks, in
59 
60   POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
his clean, bad-fitting, home-spun,  coppl)erias
clothes - than any wealthy man in our
church.  He has -is house hung round with
missionary certificates, as he has a way of
making each one of his children, as soon as
they come into tile world, a life-memiber of
the parent society. Poor as he is, lie manages to have the frame for the picture and
the cash ready, waiting the arrival of the
young life-member."
"Well, certainly," said they all, laughing,
"Brother Oakhart is a curious man.  And,"
added one, "what a curious preacher!"
"Yes; and I call him a very fine preachler,
notwithstanding the words of his own manlufacture," said the old lady. " He makes the
truth plain and very impressive to everybody, especially to the blacks. I once heard
himn preach on the cause of missions, and
shall never forget it. Hie said that missionary collections should always be lifted in
the skulls of dead heathen. I have never 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
put a dollar into the missionary plate since
without asking mysielf,'How  much would
you give were it the silent appeal of a pagan's
skull?'  It is true, Brother Oakhart sometimes steps from the sublime to the ridiculous, but much oftener from the ridiculous to
the sublime. I wish there were more men
full as curious, or, rather, that he was not
so singular in his generosity. But, my dears,
I'm doing all the talking and finding all the
fault: it is time for me to stop."
"You are doing all the praising, too,
Grandma; you forget that."
"It's very little praising that I can  do,
my child, when talking on the subject of the
money-matters  of  the Methodist Church.
The only really bitter moments I have, are
those in which I dwell upon the privations
and agonies which have been endured on
this circuit by ministers and their families.
I sometimes fear that I did not do my duty;
that I might have done more to arouse the
6
61 
62       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
church to its duty; or, if I could not extract the dart, I might at least have lessened
the pang.  You must not wonder at me if I
talk with what may seem a morbid earnlestness on this subject."
"Yes," said Sister Wallet, "we have hlad
hard times on this circuit."
"True enough, my dear," returned the old
lady; "it was not the circuit, however, that
saw the hard times, but the poor preachers
who happened to be sent to it."
"For years and years, you know," said an
elderly sister, "Brother Cabot had the management of all the money-matters of the
circuit, and we hardly knew whether the
preacher was paid or not."
"Why so?" said a young lady; "was n't
Brother Cabot honest?"
" 0 yes," replied the other, "he was hlionest; but then, you know, the membership
usually give more or less, just as the principal
steward interests himself for the preacher." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"What was his name-Cabot?" said the
young lady: "I wonder if his family were
at all related to the old Spanish adventurer
who sailed so far up the'-liver of Silver?'
"I should judge, my dear," interposed old
Sister Hardiman, "that he was related  to
nothing Spanish, unless it was the Spanish
Inquisition."
"Why," said Sister Wallet, "I always
used to think Brother Cabot a very good
man, and a good local preacher. lie had a
very lamb-like countenance."
"Very true, my dear," replied thle old
lady, "hle did, at times, look like a lamb;
but he could hate like a dragon."
"Well," said Sister Wallet, "you used to
know him before I did,'way back, when he
was the regular preacher on the circuit.
Hie certainly did seem to be unfortunate,
for he had a fuss with first one, then another."
'"With all, my dear; with first one, and
63 
64       POST-OAK CIRCUIIT.
then another, because they were not all here
at once; but, in the end, with all.  Havino
left the work of the regular ministry, he
always afterward seemed to be vexed with
himself, and to take it out of those who were
still in the way of regular duty."
"Well, how?" said one of the young ladies; "how could he trouble them?  they
were not obliged to mind lhim."
"It is an easy thing, my dear, for a man
of not much force to make trouble. The
people are too willing to be furnished with
an excuse for not doing their duty. One of
the best and holiest men we ever had, would
have been starved out, had it not been for
Clay and the blacks. Brother Cabot withdrew his own contribution, his influence, and
did all he could to make the preacher leave
from sheer necessity. But the brother weathered it out to the end of the year."
"0!" exclaimed Sister Wallet, "that reminds me: did not Brother Cabot have a 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
great fuss with somebody, and write a pamphlet about it?"
" He had a great fuss," replied the old
lady, "with everybody, about every tliiig,
during all the time hlie was among us, which
was more than twenty years; and nearly
broke himself writing pamphlets and getting
pieces put into the newspaper. 0, it was a
great mercy-the greatest mnercy the circuit
ever had-tihat took him away!"
"Well, Grandma, did you all do better
after hle left?"
"Not much, my dear.  We had peace, but
not much more plenty; I remember a most
lovely young mani who was sent here as the
preacher, -who always reminded me of the
young  man in the gospel whom Christ, looking  at, loved; only this one, when called,
did  not turn away sorrowful; for his friends
(lid all they could, but in vain, to keep him
from becomning an itinerant preacher.  He
was     well educated, unpretending in his man        6*
65 
66     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
ners, tall and handsome in his person, and
of most undoubted piety. IHe was of deli
cate constitution, and he died in six months,
of yellow fever. And there at Postville he
lies, in an old graveyard that is without a
fence.   The  circuit preacher told  me the
other day that he went to see his grave; that
he found a place which looked like a common, except here and there an old crumbling
brick tomb and some cypress stabs. On one
of these stabs he found the initials'W. H.'
-0!" said the old lady, weeping, "Brother
Hymes seemed to me as a son."  Presently
she continued, "But, worse than that, the
circuit never paid the expenses of his funeral, which, being yellow fever time, were
considerable; though the circuit owed him
twice that amount when he died.   I did
what I could, but could only raise a small
part of the sum. Hiis parents sent down
and paid the bill." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT
"I declare! what a shame!" said one of
the young ladies.
"Ah! my child, if it were possible, my
heart has grown used to such bitter, burning
shame. I sometimes fear it has. I am
afraid our people have grown used to moneymeanness. 0, how different from Mr. Wesley: from that old MAethodism, and that yet
older Christianity, which gave all, which
laid all at the apostles' feet, and shared all
thlings in common with the Lord's poor!"
"Why, Grandma, you do not mean to say,"
,aid another young lady, "that such cases
are common in our Church?"
"Too common, my dear. We once had
sent us a lovely young preacher and his
wife, who had a sweet little flaxen-haired
girl of two years. They were both very
gifted and useful; the wife, if any thing,
rather the more so of the two.  She had
been well educated, and knew well how to
adapt herself to the variety of people wittL
67 
68       POST-OAK  CIRCUIT
whom she met; and it was well she did, for
they boarded round. 0!" said the old lady,
"I hate the very word-boarded round.  In
the summer she was taken down with fever;
and, as it happened, at the time they were
living in the house of a family who were
absent travelling. NWhile she was still sick
the family returned.  It was thought she
could safely be moved to other quarters, and
it was done; but she died in three days. I
never shall forget her death.  She had her
child placed in front of her on the bed.
When her sight was getting dim she gazed
on hler little darling intently, while smile
after smile passed over her face.'Mly dear
husband,' said she,'don't weep so: the Lord
is so good to me. I leave you my likeness
in our darling pet.  AMy precious Saviour!
how shall I ever praise thee enough? Kiss
me, my  dear!  0, don't weep! I am  so
happy! How strange that this should be
the sweetest moment of my life! What a 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
soft light! Is it not the rainbow of his
throne?'  Such sublime rapture lighted her
countenance and filled the very room where
sle died, that it did not seem as if it was
death we witnessed, but the departure of an
angel who had been here on a visit."
"But it was too bad to have moved her
while she was so ill," said one of the ladies.
"Ah! my child, bad enough, if it did but
affect us the right way.  These things may
mnake us exclaim or weep: do they make us
give?  Shall we still hear of'widows' mites,'
and try to make the people believe that
they are to have the gospel without charge?
I solemnly challenge any one to show any
thing in the Jewish Dispensation which offers
to teach life at a less cost than one fourth
of the income of our farms or merchandise;
or any thing in the teaching of Christ which
contemplates any thing less than a fourth.
The difference between the two dispensations
is against these economists: Christ's teach
69 
70       POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
iiig and example enforce not the gift of a
fourth, but of all. The doctrine of the
'widow's mite' is the doctrine of all yoe
h7~ve.  It is sheer deception  positive iisstatemenaet in the mouths of most who use the
word. Thank God, there are amongst TIethiodists a few noble exceptions, and that
too amongst rich planters and rich merchants, as well as amongst poor ones; but
their name is not legion. I never shall forget a scene that occurred some years since,
in our church at Oakville.  I believe several of you were there.  Well, never mind,
it will show both the bad and the good of
this matter to these young sisters."
"0, do let us hear it, Grandma!" said
they.
"Gur circuit preacher that year was a
very modest man, that knew nothing of the
world, and would have starved outright be
fore he would have told his wants to any
one unasked. His wife was for all the world 
PO ST-OAK CIRCUIT.
just like himself.  They had but oige child,
an intelligent, delicate boy of about five
years.  In the summer, when most of the
society was away, the little fellow began to
droop, and presently to sink. The doctor
said that the most that was needed was a
change of air, and told his father-in the
presence of Brother Jerry Larkum, as it
happened-to take him at once to the seashore. Brother Jerry spoke up and said
that could easily be done, as the boat whiechl
left once a week for the sea-shore would be
at the landing the next day, and asked the
preacher if hle needed any funds.  Brother
Fielder smiled, and told him that his inquiry
was opportune, as he had that day spent
nearly the last cent for medicine.  It seems
that hie waited on Brother  Jerry:  ineanwhile Jerry mounted his horse, rode  out
home, and paid no more attention to the
matter.  Next day the boat left, but without the preacher. In a week the little boy
71 
72       POST-OAK       CIRC U IT
died. It happened that Brother Goodsine
was off at the time. I had not heard a
word of the whole of it, living then, as I
did, out on the road to Postville; and only by
accident heard that the funeral was to be.
I came in town just in time to attend it.
There was no exhorter or local preacher
present. Sister Fielder wept as though her
heart would break; but Brother Fielder was
singularly calm.  He took the book, he said,
more to draw comfort from God for himself
and his dear wife than to perform the funeral-service for his own child. He read one
verse:'Are not two sparrows sold for a
farting? and one of them shall not fall on
the ground without your Father.' As hle was
about to begin, a little girl, Caroline Badger,
went up to the table and placed some beautifuil rosebuds on the breast of the little
corpse.  This unnerved  him:  he stooped
down and kissed the little' girl very affec.
tionately.  He presently mastered his feel 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
ings, and began:'Our little Walter,' said
he,'used to fill this house all day with his
play and voice, and it seemed to us the
sweetest music in the world. But now, here
he lies, all hliushed in death! 0, my friends!
my little boy had a wonderful hold on his
mother's heart and mine. And his death, I
am persuaded, was not without the notice of
our Heavenly Father; and I ought to be
satisfied; and should be, could I only feel
that it was not in part my own fault.  He
should have been taken to the sea-shore;
and I confess it to you that it may ease my
heart, I was too proud to ask help. Yes,
too proud to save the life of my darling
boy!  The Lord forgive me!'  Just then
John Bear sprang forward, put his arms
about his neck, and wept aloud.'0, my
dear minister! why were you so unkind as
not to tell me about it?' As he stood there,
his fine, rough face wet with tears, his large
frame trembling with emotion, his hand
7
7'a' 
74      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
upon Brother Fielder's shoulder, I could but
think, even amid the anguish of the scene,
that Brother Bear was the most noble-looking man I ever saw."
"And so hlie is one of the most noble
looking men I ever saw," said one of the
young ladies; "and I shall not only admire
Mr. Bear after this for his looks, but love
]him for his great heart. But, Grandma, are
you done? I hope not."
"Yes, my dear, I ought to be; I have
talked for two solid hours; but I could not
sew, and you started a theme that affects me
more than any other-this terrible blot upon
the escutcheon of our Church: her systematic, cold neglect of the wants of her preaclhers, of her worn-out ministers, like old Father Hemphill, and of the widows and orplians of those that have died in the work:
though I have only touched one branch of
this subject."
"But, Grandma," replied the young lady, 
POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
"you must allow that some good has come
out of sewing-societies-at least our sewingsociety. It has given us a chance to hear
the history of the poor money-policy of our
circuit; and I am sure it will make me give
ten times, yes, a hundred times, as much as I
ever felt it my duty to give before."
"I sincerely hope it may, my dear," said
the old lady.
75
h.
I 
76     POST-OAK CIRCUTIT.
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST AND LAST AGONY.
THE first and the fourth Quarterly Con.
ferences are among the times that try Methodist-men's souls. They are occasions on
which human nature becomes manifest and
all nature becomes human.  At the first, the
amount is estimated which is to be raised
for the year for the support of the preachers
and the presiding elder; and the fourth is
the sounding of the last horn; the very last
hour for doing justice; the time when the
whole sum of dreadful deficiency stands out,
confessed; and the precise instant when the
last glimmer of hope for the unpaid balance
expires. The first usually calls for long 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT
heads; the fourth, for long faces.  StIolg
mnen, that are strong in faith out of doors,
become weak as children in the same faith
in a first Quarterly Conference. Men, who
are often taken for pillars of the Church
when sitting in the church responsive to the
minister and happy in religion, become
weaker than a bruised reed when the year's
expenses are under consideration in a first
Quarterly Conference. No man gets happy
then, whatever he may do thereafter.  The
first Quarterly Conference is truly a trying
time:
"Is n't it a trying time!
-    Isn't it a trying time!
A trying time, I say:
Is n't it a trying time!" 
(NYegro Itymn.)
But the fourth Quarterly Conference is a
solemn time.
"Is n't it a solemn time!
Is n't it a solemn time!
A solemn time, I say: 
Is n't it a solemn time!"
(Neqro Hymn.)
7*
77 
i8       POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
Yet the sufferings of a Quarterly Conference
are so ordered, that all its members do not
suffer at the same time.   One part of them
suffer at the first Conference; the other, at
the last. Those who feel that they owe a
duty to themselves and their families as well
as to the Church, suffer in the hour of making the estimates-at the first quarter: those
who feel that they owe a duty to the Church
as well as to themselves and their families,
usually suffer in the hour of settlement-at
the last quarter. The first Conference demands more nerve: the last, more grace.
Many official members, therefore, who attend
well second and third Quarterly Conferences,
should scarcely be expected at either of these
two. It is not every official member that is
constituted so as to stand every thing.
The presiding elder of the district that
included the Post-Oak Circuit had come up
to his present official position, if not through
much tribulation, yet certainly through many 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
first and fourth Quarterly Conferences.  lHe
followed the Discipline in taking charge, not
only of all the elders and deacons, travelling
and local preachers and exhorters, but in
supervising the temporal interests of the
Church. He held the Quarterly Conference
up to its duty in the premises, and the stewards to their responsibility to the Conference. "All men in this country, my brethren," lie once addressed them, "both in
Church and in State, are made responsible
to some one for their official acts; and they
should be held to that responsibility.  It is
the genius of all good government. No man
is fit to hold office who does not recognize
this principle clearly, or who is not willing
to abide by it."
Thlis was tile second year hle had presided
over the circuit. At his first coming, he
suggested to the stewards that possibly they
might pursue a better policy than the one
they proposed; but they were strong in the
79 
80     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
faith of a hundred failures-at least, Brother
Badger was. Rubbing his ilands in a glee ful way, and talking of "Doctor Bunting"
and Mr. Wesley, shillings and pennies, sun beams and mites —" Hand, do ye see! all
seas are but rivers, and all rivers are but
brooks, and all brooks are but rain-drops small rain-drops!" Without inquiring par ticularly, it was easy for the elder to sup pose, which he did, that some new element
of success had probably been evolved by the
labor and example of such a hearty representative of the universal drainage system
which had been kept up so effectively by tihe
English Wesleyans.
At the winding up of the year, howeverthe great financial denoement- his eyes were
opened; and he saw that the circuit had,
like the disciples, toiled all night and caught
nothing. He determined to try and have
things  another way  this year.   Brother
Blackman was not of that order of presid 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
irg elders who reckon a quarterly meeting
and a Quarterly Conference a mere matter to
be got tlirough with quarterly.  Hie magnified these occasions, both by his power in
the pulpit, and the patient, minute, and serious attention which hlie gave to the temporal and disciplinary affairs of the circuit.
His visits were a treat to the societies; and
the people, both in the church and out of it,
came to look with pleasing expectation for
a quarterly meeting. A judge of the United
States does not make the circuit of his courts
with greater consciousness of the importance
of the interests committed to his care than
did Brother Blackman make the round of
his district.
Thus, by the tinme of this, the first quarterly meeting of his second year, official
members, with or without nerve, had come
to understand that their presence on such
official occasions was officially expected and
required.
81 
82       POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
The meeting-house where the Quarterly
Conference was about to be held was a
frame of thirty by fifty, lwhich stood a few
hundred yards out of the town of Oakville
proper.  The "town," as it was called, colnsisted of not as many houses as tihere were
letters in its name.  Several of the houses
were neatly enclosed and freshly painted,
giving it an air of comfort and enterprise.
The church, however, was worn, and seemed
to have steadily declined all propositions
for repairs or paint, and, with Alethodistic
plainness, to have resisted even the ordinary
vanity of whitewash.  The front-steps were
rotted almost down.  The old house wore a
heartless look inside. It seemed to be no
sanctuary for human weakness. Its slatseats, its altar, and pulpit, were the natural
color of the wood, modified only by time
and preaching. It might have been imagination (or was it the law of association?)
which suggested those scenes to which the 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
old church had been a silent witness, if not
a party: the desperate steward's-mieetings,
with their miinutia of provision, their cold
calculations, and their cruel deficiencies:
"That is the best we can do, brother: we
can't raise another cent: the people have
been begged to death to get this much." 0
what agonies of fourth quarterly meetings!
the poor preacher, mild with desperation,
taking the little scrapings of silver with so
few words of complaint, that, to the stewards, his case did not seem so very hard
after all: these things might have made
against the old place, with its dark scantling,
and joists, and weather-boarding, all looking
as if they had drunk in the light of many a
tear, and were thirsty still.  Such thoughts
quite overpowered the better class of associations which, to a certain extent, the old
house mig'ht have claimed to su,ggest; for
its history was not entirely devoid of good
meetings and sacred influences.
83 
84       POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
Several horses were hitched to the willowoaks and chinas which shaded thle church.
A middle-size person, wearing a preacher's
lat, rode up.  The animal he rode was a
bay mare.  She had a full eye, straight neck,
small ]lead, ample breast, clean limnbs, moleskin hair, and barrel-shaped body;  whicel,
since thle days of Virgil, have been the sure
marks of a good horse. Her neck was
bleeding in a dozen places, as if it had been
lanced. The horseman, as he rode up, was
greeted by a portly, tall personage, who
wore a broad-rimmed white hat.
"How do you, Brother Larkum?  Whiy,
bless me! how the flies have cut your mare!"
"Why,  yes, Squire, that's a fact, they
have; they have indeed-not deep, and not
much comes, but it hurts, like a church-collection."
"Ah, Brother Larkum, we have both felt
that sting," rejoined the tall personage, p)utting in the last word with some vacancy. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"That  seems to be an animal of fine spirits."
"Spirits! why, Squire, she sees them;
and no ways fractious neither.  I sometimes
think, Squire, that our horses are more solemn than we."
"Have you heard the news of the death
of miy Selim?" asked the Squire.
" Misery Moses! no! you don't tell me!
That wats a fine horse! It always reminded
me of'Whitey and the General' to see you
on him."
"He was more of a pale horse than a
white," said the Squire; "in fact, that horse,
as you say, was solemn: he cost me three
hundred dollars. Death has been among us,
you know."
To this speech, which was spoken with
emphasis, and a gaze as if the speaker
watched its effect, the horseman shook his
head with an altered countenance, and said
nothing.  He adjourned  the conversation
8
85 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
by dismounting and tying his mare to the
branch of an oak sapling.
Besides those officials who have been
named(l, there had gathered some four or five
from the Postville end of the circuit, several
from  "The  Flats"  meeting - house,  from
"Crane's School-house," from "Hunnicuts,"
and from "The Belluses "-societies making
up the circuit, and which spread over a considerable extent of country. These were,
in the main, like other class-leaders and
.stewards. The only exceptions were "the
two Belluses," as they were generally called:
one, a large, pursy man; the other, a small,
dried man, as unlike his brother in looks as
was possible to be. The two were, however,
very much alike in good nature, and thought
about the same quantity on every subject,
which was not much. Each was a great
admirer of the other, and was perfectly satisfied in all matters of opinion if he had his
brother for an opponent; which he was sure
86 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
to have, for there seemed to be a tacit  understanding between them never at the same
time to take the same side of any question.
When Brother Sam, or "Big Bellus," as his
neighbors called him, spoke, Brother Jake
shook his head at the first opinion which his
brother might "spend," and at the same time
looked about surprised and winking, as
much as to say, "It won't do: you see it
won't do." So with Sam, when Jakle spoke:
only, he looked about, smiling and winking.
But all this was in talk; in practice andcl
habit they were as alike as two peas.
"Jim Ilunnicut" was also something of a
character.  Ite often said that he did not
pretend to be much of a Christian; that he
loved Methodism because it was the People's
Church. IHe was of middle stature, impulsive, a good talker, generous, and had been
sent to the Legislature once, upon the merit
of being one of the cleverest fellows in the
county. IHe constituted that link between
8 -P 
88      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
the Church and the world which most every
"society" furnishes.
"'Old Clay," the natural representative of
the colored society of Oalkville, was present,
upon the great principle of taxation with
representation; for the BadgTer-policy had
looked to the negroes to help out the support of the circuit. Brother Oakhart did all
the out-loud talkiong in regard to matters
that concerned his charge.
As the elder neared the church, walking
from the village, a bare-headed negro boy,
riding a mule bare-back, or, rather, on an
empty corn-sack, with a rope-bridle, approached, and, with a tug at his uncombed
and uncombable wool, in place of taking off
a hat, he presented a letter. While opening
the letter, the elder asked the boy after his
master's health, and looked at the mule and
his rider. The boy's skin looked husky,
and, clothes and all, as if slightly convalescent from a severe attack of sackcloth and 
rOST-OAK CIRCUIT.
ashes.  The mule looked as if it had been
fed for three months on long-moss. After
glanciing through the letter: "Your master
says  you've all had  pretty hard  times
lately."
"Well, massa, we has, sir; indeed, sir, we
has, indeed," said the boy.
"Well, are you going straight back?"
"Yes, sir: I'se going down to the store for
some meal; then I'se going right back, sir."
"Tell your master I am sorry he has had
such a hard time, and I hope to see him next
time, at next quarterly meeting: now carry
a straight message; do you hear? I'm sorry,
and hope he'll come next time."
"I'll be certain to tell him, sir: goodmorning, massa."
As the boy rode off, the elder took a second look at the epistle. It read:
" REV. T. BLACKMIAN, Presiding Elder:
DEAR BROTHER: I can't come to your
8*
89 
90      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
quarterly meeting.:ly mules is very bad
off with chlarbone. One is dead. This year
my crops is all gone.  The bole-worm has
got my crop.  I have a continual hurting
across my misery, which also keeps me from
coming to the meeting.  I send you two
fifty cents, one quarter, one dlime, two five
cents, all wrapped up inside of this. I can't
COlIC.
"Pray for
"Your needy
"And absent brother.
" ISAAC STOKES."
When the elder entered the church, Brother Wallet and several of the brethren
from a distance were finishing,, in slow metre,
a rather ominous hymn:
" Hark! from the tombs, a doleful sound:
Mine ears, attend the cry."
The opening hymn, which the elder read 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
in a thoughtfutl, impressive manner, was that
fine one, beginning:
"Jesus, my Lord, how rich thy grace!
Thy bounties, how complete!
How shall I count the matchless sum?
How pay the mighty debt?"
Brother Jerry Larkum, who seemed to
have a foreboding of by-and-by, and determined to seize the present for his demonstration, was quite transported with the hymn,
and gave way audibly to his handkerchief
and his feelings while the last two lines
were sung:
"0, rather let me beg my bread,
Than keep it back from thee."
The elder showed plainly by his prayer
that he thought the ~houting-time had not
yet arrived. He prayed with great fervor
to God for pardon for their sins-sins of
omission; that during the past year they
had received the pure word of the gospel, at
91 
92     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
the hands of a man devoted to its ministry;
that they had received blessings-blessings
upon themselves and their firesides-but had
returned little, exceeding little, to God, the
Church, or the minister. He dwelt upon
the grace of Him who, though he was rich,
yet for our sakes became  poor, that we
through his poverty might be rich; upon the
self-denial of those by whom the gospel had
come down to us. He called up the unfulfilled vows of those present to give all to
his service, as witnesses against such as have
sworn deceitfully to the God of their salvation; and so continued until the whole Conference felt the power of a good man's
prayer. Brother Jerry evidently found no
crevice in it in which he could chirp, and so
was thoroughly searched and sobered.
Brother Badger was chosen the secretary,
and proceeded on in the record of the regular questions and answers, until the elder
asked, "What provision has been made on 
POST-OAK CIRCLI 9T.
this circuit for the support of the preacher
in charge and the presiding elder?"
"I must say, Brother Blackman," said one
of the Postville leaders, "I think that the
Bishop was rather hard on us this year: we
are not very strong, noways."
"It is right hard on us, it is so," chimed
in another; "but," he added, "I suppose He
will temper the wind to the shorn lamb!"
"Last year," said Hunnicut, "I doubt if
our fleece paid for the shearing."
"Why, my dear brethren," said the elder,
"what is the matter? You have a preacher,
and I hope a very good one."
'Ay, as to that," said Brother  Badger,
"we all think him a proper man. But the
support, do ye see! six mouths, and every
mouth eats bread."
"Last year," said the elder, "you had a
man and his wife, and did not support them.
I thouglit that if you had more to do, you
would do more.   The circuit is wealthy
93 
94       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
enough to support two preachers with families easily.  And now, brethren, I wish you
to have a free conversation while we are
upon this matter of estimate and finance:
what do you propose?"
"It is a great pity," said a leader from
the Flats," "that we could not have a single man: we should have struck out very
rank this year; we should have come through
very handy."
"I should suppose," said Jake Bellus, "that
the elder might yet swap him-off for a single
man. What, Brother Sam, no? well, I think
he might, if he would."  But Sam's head
was not to be stopped by explanation. "I
mean to say, he should if he would; and
should he not, if he could? if not, then lie
should not; certainly he should not."
"I can't think he should not swap him if
lie could," replied Sam Bellus; "and if he
could not, how should he? I say trits, even
if he should; and if he could not, or should 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
not, I am sure he would not; certainly he
would not."
"I hope, Mr. President," said HIunnicut,
"those brethren over there understand each
other."
"I understand," said the elder, " they differ
as to whether I might, could, would, or
should swap the preacher off. But the question is, how much are you going to allow
your preacher this year?   Come  to the
point, brethren."
"The last crop," said a brother from "the
Flats," "was very light, and the stand this
year is the poorest I ever saw: I am afraid
there will be poor picking our way for
preacher or people."
"I know down our way," said a brother
from Crane's, "we are expecting just nothing
pretty much."
"That will be enough to pay your quarterage, brother," said Ilunnicut, "if you intend
to pay the same this year that you did last."
95 
96      vPOST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"How many children has the brother?"
said a member; "because I thought maybe
if he had not too many, maybe he might
board round. We could board him about
Postville a right smart while, and it would
not come heavy on us neither-a week or so
apiece."
"It would be very handy to vs," said another, from " the Flats."
"It would come somewhat hard on us,"
said a "Crane" member; "but I suppose we
could stand it for a day or two all round.
We are willing to do what we can," said he,
sighing, "for the support of the gospel; but
we are rather light-handed down our way."
"Well, brethren," said the elder, "you
need hardly discuss that, for I understand
your preacher to say that he cannot consent
to board so large a family round."
"-Maybe somne of his children are large
enough to help themselves," said one from
Crane's." 
POST-OAK   CIRCUIT.
"They are all small," responded the el
der.
"We had a preacher here oince," said one
from the Postville end: "my! what a smart
wife hle had! She was the smartest, handiest
woman about a house, and sewing, and such
like, that was ever on the circuit. I think
one of the stewards boarded her in part for
what sewing she could do."*
"I don't think the stewards can hire out
the preachler's wife this year," replied thile
elder; "though I know her to be a very
smart wivfe-perhaps too smart for such an
arrangement.  I think, brethren, you had
better come to figures. What amount do
you wish to raise?"
"Where will he live, if hle keeps house?"
said one. "I know of a good vacant house,
that needs some repair, in Postville, a little
* The writer has it from good authority that, once on
a time, the stewards of        Circuit, in the  -   Conference, actually did this very thing.
9
97 
98       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
ways out of town. It would not cost much
to make it so he could live in it."
"Iow far is it from  town?" asked the
elder.
"Well, I should judge about half a mile."
"Yes," said another, " I think that house
might be got for a trifle. The fences are
gone, but it could easily be made comforttable.
The people that used to live there disliked
it on account of the funerals; but I suppose
a preacher would not mind that."
"It occurs to me," interposed the elder,
"that if you allow your preacher enough to
live on, as I suppose you will, he can suit
himself in that matter. Come, begin with
items, Brother Badger."
The great base-line was accordingly run
that is, the Disciplinary allowance put down,
as follows:
"Disciplinary allowance for preacher, $150.00
~" " ~for wife,......... 150.00
Three children under seven, $25 each, 75.00
One child over seven....................... 40.00
Travelling expenses to circuit.......... 50.00." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"Now, how  much  for table expenses?'
asked the elder; "what does it cost you
brethren in Oakville? what does it cost you,
Brother Badger?"
"Well," answered Brother Badger, (who
was a notorious good liver,) "if ye mean the
victuals, and the wood, and the servants, and
the renlt, and keeping a horse, and a cow,
and a carriage, why, do ye see! I am not
able to say just now."
"No," said the elder,'"I want only the
item of marketing and groceries."
"Well, now, really ye are too hard for
mne," answered the secretary.  "Mrs. Badger,
do  ye  see! she manages most  of these
things."
"I suppose," said the elder, "you want
your preacher to live as well as you do
yourself, Brother Badger: I am very sure
of that.  Does it cost you five dollars a
week for marketing, and twenty dollars a
month for groceries?"
99 
100     PO ST-OAK   CIRCUIT.
"Yes, I suppose," answered Brother Bad
ger.
"Does it not cost you twice that?" said
the elder.
"Well, MIrs. Badger, do ye see! she imanages all this; but I dare say, possibly it
does: I can't make sure."
"Then I think," said the elder, "we are
safe in adding,
"MaIrketing, at $5 a week,..........$260.00
Groceries, at $20 a month,.......... 240.00.
What  for wood?  shall I say two  dollars
a month? that's low; well, put that down.
" Fuel,....................................... $25.00.
What for servants? What do you pay for
field-hands, Brother Wallet?'Twelve dollars a month:' well, put that down:
"One servant to cook and wash, say......$120.
If you want your preacher's wife to visit
you, she ought to have a little girl to help
nurse the baby: what do you say for that?"' 
POST OAK CIRCUIT.
"0," said a brother, "she can get a small
girl most anywhere for nothing."
"Good for nothing, you might better say,'
said Hunnicut.
"Well," continued the elder, "put down
also,
" Small girl for nurse,......................$30.00.
What now about the horse? your preacher
has to keep a horse, and, when home, in his
ownI stable.  What  do you  sell corn for,
Brother Badger?'A dollar:' well, suppose
we say,
" Horse-feed................... $25.00?
The cow we'll hope some of you will lend.
Now for the house-rent."
"iHow much  does all that add uip, M1r.
President?" said a brother.
Brother Badger answered, "Eleven hundred and sixty-five dollars.'
"I think, 3Ir. President," said a steward
from "Crane's," "we are getting pretty well
up inl the figures."
9*
101. 
102    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"Well, brother," replied the elder " it is
high time you were getting up in them; you
have been down long enough."
"I don't know," said a steward from "the
Flats," "but I thought we strained our prettiest last year: didn't we, Brother Badger?
and it all counted up only four hundred and
fifty dollars. I somehow fear that we are
putting all that down there on paper. I am
,fraid we can't do it: I wish we could."
"For my part," said one from the Postville end, "I am willing to do my best, and
that is not much; but it's mighty hard to
raise money these times.  By the time the
fifth collection is lifted, and the missionary
apportionment, and the Bible collection, and
the Christian Advocate, is paid for, and all
this on the top of the circuit preacher's
allowance, the people have pretty much lost
all spirit, and complain mightily; and it
naturally sets them against the sighlt of we
stewards." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT,
"W Vell, brother,'" said the elder, opening a
blank-book, "I have a note here of the drain
your society at Postville suffered last year:
it raised,
"For the preacher,. I...........  $50.00
For the Bible cause,..........10.00
For.the Fifth Collectioi,....... 3.75
For missions,............... 18.75
$82.50
Say eighty-two dollars and fifty cents.  You
take there five copies of the Advocate,
which, at two dollars a year, can hardly be
reckoned a charity: all told, not one hundred dollars, which is not as much as I hope
we shall receive this year from you alone;
for I believe you make from fifty to seventyfive bales of cotton: one tenth of that, which
ought to be sacred to the Lord, would be,
say six bales, or three hundred dollars; and
surely you will not do less than one third
of what you ought to do.  I understand
that the society at Postville make at least,
103 
104      POST-OAK  CIRaCUIT
all together, not less  than  five hundred
bales; and if it gives only one hundred
dollars or less a year, I don't wonder the
people have not much spirit left."
"I am sure of one thing," said Brother
Sam  Bellus;  "that  the  sounid  of  them
high figures will go  very far at first tc
throw the people into a despair, or (looking
at Jake) into a sort of a state to mlake up
their minds what they will do or not, as I
may say, at a word; and I think differently
fromn what Brother Jake thinks: I think
they will be most sure to do it, I really do.
In that case I don't think that they will object to do all they can, which, I fear, will
not be much, at least not as muchl as my
brother here thinks it will be; though I
cannot agree with him-I certainly cannotthat the people will not do their very prettiest: that is, if they don't take a scare
first, which I am pretty muLch certain they
will be most sure to do." 
PO S T-C, AK CI R CUIT.
"I hope," e.-:;claimed IHunnicut, "that no
one will spefk until Brother Jake Bellus has
anl opportmnity to explain!"
Thie lact was, that when one of them spoke,
the caher was so certain to follow, that no
peyson ever pretended to come in between.
lohn Bear used to say, that the two Bel,uses were confusion confounded: that Sam
always  confused, and  Jake  always  con founded.
Brother Jake responded, that he could
not be sure of the fact that his brother had
just alluded to-lihe wished he could-in
reference to the people taking a scare at the
high figures. He was afraid they would not
take a scare at first, but that they would
afterwards take a scare; which, in his opi nioni, would be worse than if they took an
early scare: that possibly they might (look ing at Sam) do as his brother thought: in
that case they would be most sure to do all
that they could, though he did not think
105 
106      POST-OAK  CIPa cuIT.
they would; but he did think, that if they
should do what they could at Last, that the
scare that they might take would not make
so much difference: that is, if they did what
he thought they would do, which was, that
they would do their prettiest before they
took a scare; which he was very certai'
they would be most sure not to do.
Hunnicut arose, and said gravely, that lihe
could not agree with either of the brothers
Bellus, though he could most fully with both
of them. iHe thought that the people would
either take a scare before they did their
prettiest, or they would do their prettiest
before they took a scare; and in either case
they would do their prettiest, and if they
did that, he supposed that no one would object to their taking a scare just when they
pleased, whether before or after.
"After that, I think," said the elder, "we
can proceed to estimate the house-rent. How
much ought it to be-two hundred dollars? 
POST-OAK   CIRCUIT.
Well, if youII all think that about right, put
it down, Mr. Secretary:
"l House-rent,.........................$200.00.
"That is, expenses for the year-without
allowing for contingencies of any kind, or
for laying up one cent, which every man ill
this country hopes to do, but which Methodist preachers, and nearly all ministers of the
gospel of every denomination, leave for ever
out of the question-are thirteen hundred
and sixty-five dollars.
"How much, Brother Wallet, do you give
your overseer, besides finding him a house
and food for his family?'One thousand
dollars.' Well, no doubt hlie earns it. How
much, Brother Badger, do you give your
bookkeeper?'Fifteen  hundred  dollars.'
Well, no doubt you can well afford to do
it. And should not a man who devotes himself to the ministry have support at the rate
of the superintendent of a plantation or a
principal clerk?  What say you, brethren?
107 
108     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Tell me, you who have grown rich yourselves
by paying your employds these prices, is
not the man you are willing to sit under as
your minister and the minister of truth and
morals to your children, entitled to as much
from you as they? This is what your
preacher ought to have, and if you have the
hearts of men, if the hearts of men of God,
you will give him every cent of it. It is an
obligation you owe to God, but not the less
to the minister who devotes himself to your
interests as a church.  The question, iLow
will you raise it? is secondary. The first
thing for you to do is —as men of honesty,
as the leaders of the people, as they who
have received'another spirit,' who have at
one time vowed to God your all —resolve
that this s,hcall be done.  It is a debt you incurred when you became members of the
Church-the body of Christ-to support
the gospel; and one that you cannot place
second to any claim." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
As the Conference adjourned to meet after
preaching, and all the brethren were very
much exhausted, the "First Agony"  may
properly be divided into two chapters.
jqjj~j~Ij~~Y
10
109 
110    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER VI.
HOLD YOUR PURSE AND KEEP YOUR COUNTE               NANCE.
THE first man to speak after the Conference came to order was Brother Jerry Larkum. Hie said that the talk of the elder
this morning had been to him a very solemn
drum-call to duty. Hie hoped that the
church would no longer drag her glory, but
now unfold her gold-feathlers, and proudly
shiver them before the eyes of a bmit-public.
The brethren would no doubt bear in mind
that he had been now trying for better than
a twelvemonth in his weak way to stir and
skim; and if he could not get things to a 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
boil, hlie thought he had more than once
brought them to a simmer.  WIhat he migiht
have done, be it little or be it much, he was
willing to throw it all in: he should never
bring any charge himself, but when hlie had
seen  the plate  of solicitation going  tlhe
round, and then comiing back a plate of
clean-disappointment, it had given him the
heart-chronics; "which was, you know," said
he, "brethren, a very crank feeling to go
sprang,ling over a man just after exercising."
"I hope, MAr. President," said Hlunnicut,
"that inasmuch as Brother Jerry is going to
give the church all the benefit of his labors,
his contribution will be as large this year
as it has always been."
"How will you make  up this amount,
brethren, which you are to raise for your
preacher?" asked the elder.  "My claim on
you for this year is one hundred dollars,
which will make in all that you are to raise
fourteen hundred and sixty-five dollars.
ill 
112     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
i-low will you get it? What say you, Brother Badger?"
Brother Badger had held his peace astonishingly during the meeting.  He seemed to
be in an amazement of financial exaggeration-things had gone beyond his habitual
depth. Indeed, a gulf of estimates yawned,
which he saw at a glance was large enough
to swallow his "sunbeams," "mites," and
'pennies," and be a gulf still.  "Do ye see!
the sum is very large, I may say a very large
sum for the Post-Oak: I suppose we must
try-we can but try, and when we have done
what we have, why, do ye see! we can do no
more!"
"Put it down, brother, put it down in
figures," said the elder.  Brother Badger
put down and down-" Crane's, $25; HIunnicut's, $50; Postville, $100; Oakville, $250;
Belluses', $25; The Flats, $25.  Total, $475."
;"How will you raise the remainder, bro
thiel?" 
POST-OAK CIRJUIT.
"Well, I have put down the most they can
carry, and, do ye see! it's the last feather
does the damage."
"Brother Badger has a great reputation
our way, sir, as a financier," said Hunnicut;
"he is not easily scared-mountains are with
him but molehills."
"I hope, then, he will not make these
molehills mountains," said the elder.
"No, no," said the secretary, "I am not
for discouraging ye-that will come soon
enough of itself-but I am thinking that our
mountain here will be like the hancient one
that brought forth a mole."
"A mouse!" interposed iHunnicut.
"WVell, well," replied Brother B., "they
are much of a size; and it's the size we are
taking account of now. I suppose there is
something from Brother Oakhart's people another $25; and there is the sewing-society
-but I expect no such hextraordinary pro vidence in that way as we had last year;
10*
113 
114     POST-OAK CIRCUIT
(Brother Wallet shook his head;) and so that
will not be more than $15; then there is a
strawberry party-we had it once, and it
yielded a good bit, some $25; and there's
an old-country tea-drinkilng at the preacher's
house, with something neat wrapped up left
under the plate-that was allowed at $20;
and there is a chance we had last year, and
might have it again-I can't say-a sacred
painting of a Noah's Ark, and the children
of Israel with their harps on the willows in
the city of Babylon, and a Daniel in the
Lion's Den: all very pious and proper, if it
would come along, and so it mnight-I can't
say-anid it yielded sonme $20; and, indeed,
in many ways has Providence opened the
way for us, and may again-I can't say.
Well, there is a fair could be held, which
might bring us in a trifle of maybe $30; or
it, along with a Tab-Low Vevong, say $35;
and that, I suppose, is about all."
"Could we not, somehow, have a raffle, 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Brother Badger?" interposed a brother from
Crane's; "thlat's a mighty good way, I think,
for making things come light all round."
"Sure enough," replied the secretary, who
was caught napping, "I had forgotten that;"
but added very promptly, "Though ye'd
lhardly reckon the preacher and his family a
prize! and, do ye see, there'd be nothing
else to raffle."*'
* The brother from Crane's and the secretary scarcely
dreamed of the extent to which lotteries have been
sanctified to the use of the Church.  The following,
from one of the Advocates, shows to what a pitch the
indirect method of raising supplies can be brought,
under the benign auspices of Saint Luck:
"Consecrated Lotteries.-The Roman Catholic Church
in France still resorts to gambling for its maintenance,
as may be seen by the following extract from a late
letter to the Christian Advocate, by the Rev. Abel
Stevens:
"The newspapers have been constantly crowded with
advertisements of consecrated lottery programmes, and
no little interest prevails here from the fact that to
morrow (16th of August) the lottery of St. Rock has
its drawing. It has a capital of 1,200,000 francs,
25,000 of which will be distributed in prizes among
115 
116    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"Then you will have," said the elder,
"from all these sources, supposing that Providence smiles upon you on all sides, $140;
which, added to $475, would be a total of
$615, which is not ($1365) the amount we
want.  What next?"
49 drawing numbers. One ticket, costing only 20 cents,
can draw 140,000 francs, or, in other words, $28,000.
This splendid gambling project has been formed for the
purpose of erecting a new church at Montpelier to St.
Rock, who was born there. It has the sanction of the
government, and will have its drawing under the auspices and with the responsibility of a state officer. But
above all, it has received a special grace from his Holiness the Pope, which is duly announced in the advertisements as a bait to the faithful. Now, this is but an
example of what is occurring incessantly, though on a
less commanding scale, throughout France. Individual
parishes get up these lotteries for local purposes: most
generally, the prizes are not money, but articles of
taste, of dress, literature, or art. St. Sulpice, of this
city, has recently had one in the gardens of the Luxembourg. Some of the most valuable articles were contributed by the cabinet minister of' public worship and
instruction,' who, indeed, seems very much given to
this sort of patronage. They were on exhibition for
weeks, as a temptation to the purchase of tickets." 
P OST-O A K  CIR C - IT.
For once, even the Brothers Bellus agreed,
as they both shook their heads the same
way; for all things in that Quarterly Conference, as one of the brethren expressed it,
had come to a right dead stall.  All were
profoundly contemplative, except I-Iunnicut
and one or two near him, who rather enjoyed the general nonplus. Immense plans
rolled and rolled throiugh the mind of the
Quarterly  Conference-then "melted into
air, into thin air."
In good taste with so solemn a pause,
Squire Wallet slowly arose. He said that
he felt that the time had come for proposing
what he had intended to propose these two
years past. It was evident that the church
needed help —help which no earthly power
could give; "for," said  he, "we  are all
weak." He would propose a new source of
income, one that would be regulated by
Providence, and one that naturally belonged
to the Church-a graveyard:  that tihe
IIT 
118      POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
church should purchase a tract of poor land,
cheap, and lay it off in burial-lots: that a
great many people were dying, as he had
occasion to know by his own sad experience,
who would all want to be buried somewhere:
that many of them were not choice; indeed,
would prefer to be buried in a religious
graveyard: that it would be certain to
pay-many things were uncertain, but the
grave was not: that the whole community
would, in that case, become certain contributors to the gospel. The church might hope,
sooner or later, to bury the entire town.
And it would be a satisfaction to know that
the very last money spent for a man in this
life went into the church- treasury. IHe
thought it was a duty which every man
owed to society to save all he could out of
the devouring grave. " 0," exclaimed he,
' How populous, how vital is the grave!
This is creation's melancholy vault!'"
Hiunnicut arose, and remarked, that the 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
squire had presented a very grave proposition, not unlike what he had expected from
one who had so much experience in such
matters: who had, since the loss of his thirty
hands by cholera in'48, read every thing, as
he believed, in the English classics, upon tihe
subject of death and the grave, that was
worth reading. (The squire nodded affirmatively.) Besides the pleasure which he felt
in hearing such a proposition from so intelligent a source, he was glad that it had such
an origin on another account. The squire,
lie said, had a very large number of hands,
and, though he could not, of course, wish
such a thing, yet, if the cholera should again
come, could the church calculate on the
squire's patronage?  Ie would be glad to
have an expression of opinion upon that
point from one whom they possibly might
look to as their largest customer.
The squire replied that it was'not certain
that he should need any grave-room this
119 
120     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
year. Besides, it was known to most of the
brethren that hlie had his own little grave patch behind his quarters, which he should
be obliged to fill before he went elsewhere.
" But," said he, in a generous, open way, " I
will say this much to brethren: if I had
half my niggers back, I would be willing to
bury the rest in the graveyard of the church,
and thanky', too."
iunnicut said that hlie thloughlt that was
all that they could reasonably have asked,
and that it was a very handsome offer, under
the circumstances.
The Brothers Bellus were wide awake.
The larger one, Brother Sam, said that that
offer of the squire's struck him as very handsome —more so than any that hlie had ever
heard of; that it had rolled a big burden
off of his mind which the circuit expenses
had rolled in on him. If the squire would
fiurnish the circuit with niggers enough to do
all the burying, and Providence would send 
POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
a smart chance of sickness-and he thought
he could not see why they should not have
it-that then it, that is, the circuit, could,
and he thought should, and no doubt would,
soon bury itself clean out of debt.
Brother Jake said he could not agree with
hlis brother. The squire's fine offer was a
very fine offer for true; but it had not rolled
any burden, or any part of any burden, off
of him: it had rolled him under a burden,
because it somehow struck him that if the
squire should lend the circuit half his niggers to bury people with the chlolera, that
they would be most certain to take it; and
the squire's hands would always die when
they did; and then, that the circuit would
hlave to pay some one to bury the squire's
niggers, and would only just bury up the
circuit in debt.
Hulunnicut replied that he thought he could
relieve the minds of the Brothers Bellus;
that in no event could the squire's offer or
11
121 
122     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
the squire's negroes be any additional charge
to the circuit, for those he had so generously
offered to the church upon a certain contingency were already dead and buried. "I
believe I am right, squire, am I not?"
The squire assented fully.
"Well, brethren," said the elder, "the
support of your preacher is to depend upon
subscriptions, collections, a sewing-society, a
strawberry party, a tea-drinking, a fair, an
itinerant exhibition of oil-paintings, a graveyard, and the cholera!"
"You forget us darkies," said Brother
(Oakhart:  "Brother Badger counts a good
deal on us."
0 yes, so I did: I should not have forgotten that, or the seamstress." He continued, "My dear brethren, it is impressed
upon my mind, if we wish Providence to
help us, we must at least try to help ourselv-es; and if you will permit me, I will
suggest to you A Methodfor raising the Cur 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
rent Expenses of the Circuit, which shall be
both certain and regular in its operation;
that is, if you will give it a fair trial."
Brother Jerry Larkum spoke up-that he
was certain it was the very thing wanted,
and that old Post-Oak would be as true to
herself as ever. Jerry liked to back the
elder.
"The stewards will please take this list
of the members," said the elder, "which I
have provided on purpose. They will please
begin at themselves-the name of the oldest
steward first-and then call the name of
each member of the church, and say what, in
their judgment, each one ought to give, in
view of his ability, and the amount which
the circuit is to raise this year."
"You are going to leave nothing for the
goats," said a brother from Crane's; "they
are stronger than we sheep down our way."
"Yes, I am," replied the elder: "the goats,
as you call them, will come in good play for
123 
124     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
church cleaning, and to constitute a contingent fuind, in case the sheep do not pay up.
Call the names of the stewards, Brother
Badger.'Brother Goodsine:' how  much
ought Brother Goodsine to pay? I do not
ask what lie has paid, but what proportion
of this thirteen hundred and sixty-five dollars ought he to pay, taking into view his
yearly income and ability?"
One of the brethren thought that Brother
Goodsine ought not, in truth and justice, to
pay more than ten dollars; that he was no
better off than himself, and he knew that
was pretty near his own gauge.
Brother Goodsine remarked that if the
brethren would put it down at fifty dollars,
they could count on getting it.
"Well," said the elder, "I expect that is
about right for Brother G.'Brother Badger:' how much for him?"
They all agreed that Brother B. was
worth ten times as much as Brother G. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Brother Badger remarked that this was
all a new thing under the sun to him, and
hlie had been a church steward some time.
"What have you credited yourself for
last year, Brother B.?'Fifteen dollars and
seventy-five cents.' Well, brethren, shall Brother Badger be put down at that this year?"
Hunnicut said that Brother Badger and
himself were good for a hundred each. So,
after a good deal of hitching, it went down:
"Bunting Badger, $100." After this style
all of the stewards apportioned each other.
"Now," said the elder, "the stewards can
apportion the amount expected from each
member."
About the time Brother Jerry's name was
to be called, he went to the window; then
to the door: his mare was uneasy; he had
to go out. After staying some time, he
camne in and said he was very much afraid
she was taking a colic. Hunnicut whispered to him, "If she shows  any signs of
11*
125 
126    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
that, give her a ten-dollar gold-piece." Jerry
was too good a judge of veterinary treatment not to take the hint.
How much for Brother Jeremiah Larkumn?
was asked. Jerry said that he wished the
elder and the brethren to understand that
he expected nothing for his exhorting; that
he was always willing to do what he could,
under grace.
"So we understand," said Hunnicut; "and
I think that in view of that, and the value
of Brother Jerry's fine bottom-land, he should
be put down at least half as much as myself, though he is worth more than any of us,
excepting the squire and Brother Badger."
The three brethren all looked grieved
that, under such circumstances, they should
I)e so regarded.  But Jerry was put down
at fifty dollars.
"Sister Lasey-what of her? she is very
poor," asked one of the stewards.
"The method is," said the elder, "to put 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
sorcething dozwnfor everly one to do, if it only
be two dollars and fifty cents a year. It
will be very easy for some of you to give
a widow that much privately. Teachl all
that it is a duty, that it is expected of
them, to help support the gospel.  Inl this
country, a man must be poor indeed who
cannot give ten dollars annually, or a woman
that cannot give five dollars, for that purpose."
"But here," said one of the stewards, "is
the name of Sister Williams. I hope nothing will be put down to her.  She is the
daughter of old Brother Hemphill, and has
to support the old man, excepting what he
gets firom the Conference, which, last ycar
was only twenty dollars."
"There, brethren," said the elder, " there
is a man who for forty-five years was an
active, useful itinerant preacher: now, in his
old age, nearly blind, and helpless, the Piethliodist Church has cast him on his widowed
127 
128     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
daughter for a support! Our Churchl is not
guilty of blood-only of ingratitude. Where
are the men who were converted by the
preaching of that man of power?  Why, in
the Church, to be sure; and many of them
wealthy, and happy in religion! 1* will see
that Sister Williams pays you five dollars."
"I am altogether with the elder," said
Brother Jerry. "The like of such should
make us all weep. Many is the gill of salt
tears that have rolled from my eyes like hot
shot for the Conference orphans anld widows.
I have moaned over them until I have had
in my own self, on account of that one thing,
more hard suffering than a watering-place!
But I don't complain for myself. If my
toiling as an humble plenipotentiary is worth
any thing, or is not worth any thing to my
church, it shall all go."
* "Let our conduct for ever abolish the idea, now so
extensively entertained in the churches, that we are,
ex officio, excused from giving."-THE GREAT QUEsTION. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"We all understand, MIr. President, that
Brother Jerry's is a settled case," said H1unnicut: "the Church accepts his services at
nothing, and only charges him this year fifty
dollars."
"Brethren," continued the elder, "this is
no light matter. The brother tells us he
has shed tears; and no wonder. Tears,
tears! Yes, the Church has shed tears, and
has still tears to shed, over those who have
done her good service, but who are now no
longer able to serve her; and she has tears
too for those who have given to her a father
or a husband! But what are her tearstears of gratitude or tears of economy?  0,
Churchl of my heart! thou that readest the
prophets! thou that receivest them that are
sent unto thee!  0 that thou, even thou, inll
all thy prosperity, hadst ministered to the
declining hours of thy broken  servants!
but now they are gone! How couldst thou
have visited their widows in affliction, and
129 
130     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
gathered their orphans together, as a her
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and
wouldst not!"
The whole list was called, and each member in the circuit apportioned some part of
the year's estimate.
"If any of you object to these sums, which
your brethren think you ought to pay, do so
when the stewards present this apportionment list to the membership and congregation; as some doubtless are set down at too
little, and some at too much. On to-morrow,'
continued the elder, "I shall request the
entire membership to remain after church is
dismissed, together with such persons as are
willing to contribute to support the ministers on the circuit. Then we will read out,
(1.) The whole amount to be raised this year
for Post-Oak. (2.) The highest amount
apportioned to any one. (3.) The lowest
amount apportioned.  (4.) The whole list.
And be certain, if a man object to saying 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
what hle will do, or make an ado about
being apportioned, or find fault with what
hlie terms'the principle of the thing,' as
if it invaded the voluntary principle, you
may set it down, as I do from long observation, that he does not wish certainly to pay
any thing. Ninety-nine chances to one, his
objections are only to cover the retreat of a
covetous mind. What good reason can there
be for not saying what share we will take of
the cost of the gospel-unless it be singly
the fear of the effect of our example?  I
have here, therefore, what I call quarterage
notes: a-rivet, something to hold. I have
had a number printed on purpose. Hand
thenm round."
"The elder," whispered Hlunnicut, "carries his calomel along with him."
"Yes," returned John Bear, "and  his
jalap too."
The elder's "calomel and jalap" were
printed:
131 
132      POST-OAK  CIRCUJIT.
"OAKVILLE, Feb. 1, 185.
"I promise to pay the STEWARDS of the Post-Oak
Circuit, at some time during this year, the sum of
dollars, for the support of the METIIODIS$
MINISTERaS on this circuit.
"(Signed)
"After all the members have heard how
much they have been apportioned, then distribute these blank quarterage notes: explain that these notes are not bankable, but
are to give the promise a tangible shape.
Then take time: never attempt a collection
in a hurry. Do not allow any singing: it
is no time to sing. You need no Ashanteedrum to drown the groans of the wounded,
where there are no human victims. Gather
up your quarterage notes, read out the
names and amounts subscribed. If the sum
subscribed is not as large as you need, say
so, and get some one to give a larger note.
Keep at it until you get the sum needed.
Then sing:'sing praises to God, sing 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.          1
praises'-' sing ye praises with understand
ing.'
"This, my brethren, is a'plan,' a financial
plan.  And what are'plans?'  Does generosity need a plan?-charity from the skies,
move only after a plan?  No such thing.
He that has much to sow sows broadcast.
There is a man whose economy extends even
to God; who would fain make the most of
a little charity. Such a one is always ready
to be one of a hundred to make up five hundred dollars. iHlis effort to drag others
along with him in his misery becomes a miserable drag. Such sow only in the drill,
and then furnish only one seed in the row.
Given a man with a Christian conscience,
and you have a man with a'plan' of charity
in him that always works. Let there be
offered by the Church a standing prize of
five hundred dollars for every man that can
be produced who has a correct sense of a
12
133 
134     POST-OAK C I R C U I T.
Chlristian's obligation to God to support and
spread the gospel."
When the elder finished, Brother Oalkhart
said, "Mir. President, I and Brother Clay
here haven't said any thing at this quarterly
meeting, though  we  have  had  our  owr
thlouglts.   Our  mind  is, that all that  is
wanted in this circuit, and most anywhere.
is, when the people are money-difficulted, to
get the nigger out of them.  We know that
there are white niggers as well as black
ones. It is natural meanness, no matter
what skin carries it. WVe are willing to do
our part.  The preacher sha'n't beg bread
so long as we have any thing. No, sir: we
will live on persimmons and craw-fishl all
the time sooner than not pay the preacher.
You can count on us at the last stretch.
We shall not fly the track."
"There is a good deal of truth in what
Brother Oakhart has said," said Ilunnicut. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
t' The brethren know that I make no pretension to being much of a Christian: I am
sorry to say it; though I love the Methodist
Church, because it preaches to the people.
And, I suppose, I stand where I can take a
worldly view of this whole matter of paying
the preacher; not such a happy view as
friend Jerry; nor such a grave view as the
squire; nor such a widow's-mite view as
Brothier Badger; but a common view, as of
any other business matter. Here we have
been dodging and straining-to do what?
Why, to raise a sum of money that any five
of us would have put down for any other
purpose in five minutes. Either of us would
sign a note for a hundred dollars, or lend a
hundred, or lose it, for most any man or
any thing that comes  along, and  think
nothing of it. I leave religion out of the
question; and I say I want no man to give
his time and his life for me for nothiing.
The preachers give up all hope of lay
135 
136      rOST-OAK CIRCUIT.
ing up any thing for their families, and de.
vote themselves to trying to do good; and
do it, I believe, whether they do me any or
not.  To such a man I am willing to give a
part of my crop; not so small a part that I
won't know it, but a good slice of my own
loaf.  He works for me and mine: I will
work for him: it is but right. But so long
as the church on this circuit has a set of official members that will not give much themselves, and key everybody else down to
their own narrowness of estimate, she never
will  accomplish  much.   Why  don't  the
Church turn such men out of office? If a
man gets as happy as a camp-meeting, and
only puts down five dollars, though able to
give fifty, why, keep him to get happy; don't
keep him to raise supplies. If a man is as
rich as Croesus, and puts down ten dollars,
why, give him a ten-dollar post; don't put
him in charge of an important position.
Hlide him out, if you can, so that the cause 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
may not suffer from his example. If a mlan
talks, and on this plea, or that plan, is plainly
trying to reduce the whole affair of his giving to support the preacher to a point where
nobody can feel it-that is, to nothingi-whly,
out with him, if hlie has been in office for
twenty years; for he is not fit to plan for
any Church, much less to be a pillar in it.
Get large-hearted men in the stewardship,
and something will be done.  I here give
notice that I am going to move, at the fourth
Quarterly Coniference, if I am spared, to
hustle out about one half of the old fogies
in the stewardship, in order to save the
preacher from starvation."
"it. President," said old Brother Goodsine, "' I have been a quiet but by no means
uninterested listener. And for the first
time have I seen this matter  thoroughly
sifted; and I for one invoke a settled policy
in our Church which will sift her Quarterly
Conferences and her people. I should not
12*
137 
138       P    T-O A ST-OAK   C U IT.
go too far, sir, to say that I have prayed for
it. Covetousness is'the sin that doth so
easily beset' the Methodist Church: long
have I marked it.  Our class-meetings and
our itinerancy are our glory; our covetousness is our shame. Whatever scriptural
authority there may be-and I believe there
is a clearly-implied one-to exclude a member for non-attendance at class, there is a
clearly-expressed authority for excluding
from her pale those who are covetous-minded.
It has appeared to me as the best possible
evidence of covetousness that a man should
feel the obligations we are under to the gospel,- and yet systematically give nothing to
its support. All the covetous are shut out
from the city of God, as we learn from the
vision of St. John, and surely they should
not be retained knowingly in the Church.
I have ever felt it binding on my conscience
to g,ive a tenth of my income. Abraham gave
to MIelchizedek a tenth out of the spoils of 
POST-OAK CIRCUTIT.
the five kings, long before thie law; Jacob
promised it, and no doubt gave it, long before; the law, which was four hundred and
thirty years after, incorporated it in express
terms; the Levites, who lived on tithes,
were themselves required to give a tenth of
their income-a tithe of tithes; and I cannot think that when the ceremonial law became of no force,this rule also passed with
it, for the law, which was four hundred and
thirty years after, could only leave it as an
obligation where it found it.  And I have
asked myself, if Christ be a highl-priest after
the order of Aielchizedek, should I not pay
Hist the tithe of my income; when Abraham,
and probably Jacob too, paid tithes to that
priest of the most high God; first being by
interpretation King of Righteousness, and
after that also King of Salemn-whichI is,
King of Peace? To be safe, I have always
done it, sir.  For, though it may not be a
part of the moral law, yet I cannot but re
139 
140      rPOST-OAK CIRCUIT.
gard it as a moral custom of the highest
sanction.  It is the least, sir, which a Christian man can do: so it seems to me.  The
gospel is a law of liberty, not that we may
do the less, but the minore; nor that we may
use our liberty for a cloak of covetousness,
but as the servants of God.  These, brethren,
are the thougthlts and sentiments of a heart
that yields to none of you in its devoted
attachment to Mlethodism.  3My fear is that
even from heaven I inay look back with
regret upon tihe opportunities of life for
doing good which I did not, and the goods
of my Lord that I used not."
The Quarterly Conferenice adjourinedl with
prayer. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER VII.
A BIG COLLECTION-ONE NOT TOO HEAVY TO
"LIFT."
THE elder's plan was presented to the congregation and the church, and the list read
out. The house was well filled, and, to the
surprise of those who knew the habits of the
squiire, Brother Wallet was there. Brother
Badger, whose father before him had been
an assistant-treasurer of the South-Down
Aid Society in England, and who regarded
his office as a sort of providential reward
of Providence to him, in kind, on this side
of the water, was very uneasy. His plans
had gone by the board, and he trembled for
the fate of their author. One or two only,
141 
142      P OST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
beside the elder, guessed the inward ferlment
that was going on in the old man's elements.
WThen the quarterage notes were gathered
ip, and were being read oiit it was found,
to the surprise of the whole congregation,
that Brother Badger had filled the blank
with "'fifty dollars." The "goats," as one
of the stewards called them, came up nobly,
and gave fully half as much as the church,
the preacher being rather "popular."  Brothier Jerry, who collected the promises, it
was found had forgotten to write out one
for himself; and so, too, there was nothing
with the squire's name  to  it.  Hiunnicut
called attention to the fact by supposing
that some of the notes were probably still
stickiong inder the leather of the lat. "0!"Jerry remembered himself, and filled out an
I 0 U for "ten dollars."  John Bear whispered to Ilunnlicut that there was always a
long story to be told between Jerry's name
and Jerry's cash. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
The squire then arose, and asked liberty
to say a few words about a very important
matter.  The elder hoped that Brother Wallet would speak: that no doubt all present
would be glad to hear any thing hlie might
please to say.   The squire acknowledged
thle liberty in a very handsome blow, as lie
ratlier prided himself on his parts in that
way, having beeen once told by some youngster that i~e was always reminded of the
great constitutional lawyer, the great William Pinclkney, whenever hle saw the squire
speaking, in public.  He proceeded to say
that hlie had already presented  a kindred
suggestion to his brethren of the Quarterly
Conference to the one lie was about to make,
to which they had but partially assented:
he now offered a modified view of his original proposition.  "I have been," said hle,
"a close and painful listener during all the
,sessions of the heaviest business Quarterly
Conference that I have ever seen, and I hope
113 
144    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
never, my brethren, to pass through such
another. Not that I will not stand with
you shoulder to shoulder, but I hope it may
never again be necessary." Hie would, lihe
said, inform those who had not been a part
of the occasion alluded to, that he had then
and there spoken of a great fact-a painful
fact-it was the fact that this day had witnessed-the wear, and tear, and expense to
which our present imperfect system of supporting, the gospel subjected us. "It is,"
he continued, "the duty of every man  to
make these burdens as light as possible.  I
have a financial plan, or, rather, financial
discovery to make known to my fellow-citizens, by which I have estimated that the
whole cost of the gospel may be reduced to
a merely nominal sum* - a plan by which
* "' How could our chymick friends go on
To find the philosophic stone!"-Prior.
— " That stone
Philosophers in vain so long have sought."
Milton. 
lOST-OAK CIRCUIT.
it may support and extend itself indefinitely.
Necessity has in this case proved to be the
mother of invention." Two subjects had
rested night and day on his mind for six
years past-a greedy grave and a needy
church. "In the course of my reading on
the former-for," said he, " I have made it
my study —I have read much about Egypt.
It is a remarkable fact that most good things
have come out of Egypt; and yet we have
not looked to Egypt as we ought to have
done for the art of burying-an art in which
she stands preeminient." For it is given up,
he said, that the Egyptians knew more about
putting away their dead snugly, lastingly,
and profitably, than all the rest of mankind
put together. Their art had beeni lost.*
* The remarks of the squire remind one of the eloquent words of the author of Mammon: "In the early
age of the Christian Church, the heavenly art of embalming property and making it-immortal was not only
known but practiced; but, like the process of another
13
14t5 
146    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
He proposed that it should be restored for
thle benefit of the Church-to restore to the
Church that which is hers by preemption.
"The great incomes," said he, "of Isis, and
Osiris, and Carnac, were from the dead.
Let us, then, learn a lesson from tle Egyptians, and put the Church on her ancient
financial legs once more."  He regarded
embalming as the perfection of the art of
burying, and ants in resin as the perfection
of that art.  It was the great scriptural
method: Joseph, it would be remembered,
embalming, it has now, for ages, been practically lost.
Not that its principles have been munknown: these have
always presented themselves on the page of truth in
lines of living light. But, though benevolence has
never been unknown as a theory, the perverting influence of a worldly spirit has been rendering it more and
more impracticable as an art. So that now, when the
obvious application of its principles is pointed out, and
the necessity of carrying these principles into practice
is daily becoming more urgent, we begin to be aware
of the vast distance to which -the Church has been
drifted from the course of its duty by the current of the
world, and how difficult it will be to effect a return" 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT
was embalmed. Three miles from Rome
are the catacombs, where they buried the
martyrs-subterraneous cavities visited to
thiis day with devotion —there the primitive
Christians assembled themselves for worship.
The sandy soil of Lybia and the countries
about Egypt indicate, at one time, a large
growth of pine. Ite doubted not that the
bitumen with which the dead were saturated
was that known to us by tlhe name of resin.
" Here," said he, holding up a piece of resin,
with a death-watch (" hominy-beater") in it,
"you can see for yourselves: pass it round.
Yes, this great problem I believe to be at
last solved.* But I go farther: I say we
* That which was an extravagance of the squire's
imagination in 1850, became a fact in 1856; so great
is human progress!  The following was clipped from a
New Orleans Daily, of June 30th:
" EMBALaIING THE DEAAD.-P. CASANAVE, Undertaker,
No. 37 Marias street, between Custom-house and Bienville, having purchased a right from Dr. Hlolmes, of
New York city, of EMBALMING TIHE DEAD, will attend
147 
148      POST-OAK  cIRcUIT.
may have our own catacombs. Let us, for
instance, have under our churches crypts or
cellars set apart, as in the old country, to
the preservation of our dead. Let it be a
monopoly of the Church. Let these enormous expenses of burial be no longer diverted from their lawfill and ancient channels. But, [looking -t Hunnicut,] some may
be ready to ask,' Would you embalm all your
dead inl this way, provided the Church should
adopt it?' I am ready to say at a word, I
would; though, as I give the art, I could
promptly to all orders, by day or night. The process is
simple, and is done with no inconvenience or exposure.
Bodies embalmed by him are warranted to keep free
from decomposition, and can be taken to any part of
the world without exhaling the slightest odor, in any
season of the year. Bodies in an advanced state of
decomposition restored to a perfect state of preservation. Full particulars in pamphlets will be given to
those who  may  apply.-N.  B. Deceased  ministers,
physicians, and lawyers, will be embalmed free of
charge."
Why lawyers should be embalmed free of charge is
matter for deep reflection I 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
not in that case agree to find the resin.  Besides, I have my own little patch of graves,
that ought of right to be first filled out.
Still, I am ready to say this: if I had but
the half of what I lost in'48 of cholera, I
would be more than glad to embalm the rest
of them, and find the resin myself."
"Well, Squire Wallet," said Brother Oakhart," you find the catacombs, and Clay here
and I-we'll keep the church in rosumn."
Brother Jake Bellus said that, for his part,
ne was afraid of so much rosum in the church:
it was healthy, but he thought it was dangerous.
Brother Sam Bellus said that he did not
agree with his brother: he was not afraid
of the "rosum," but he was scared at having
those catacombs about.
During the excitement or rather sensation
produced by the squire's speech- which is
rather to be set down to a desperate state of
mind, superinduced by constant charity, or,
13*
149 
150      rOST-OAK CIRCUIT.
what is the same thing, by constant calls for
the support of the Church, and which sought
a temporary relief in the most desperate propositions-Hunnicut slipped up and obtained
from the squire his note for "ten dollars."
It was found that Brother Goodsine had
given a note for sevenlty-five dollars; and
so, too, John Bear exceeded his apportionment to the same amount. Sister Hardiman
also went above hlers, the depth of her poverty abounding to her liberality.  Several
of the official members went below their
apportionment: the most of them, however,
to the surprise of themselves as well as of
others, actually stood it. The Brothers Bellus, after a great deal of whispering and
shaking of heads, went a trifle below the
mark, which was most likely owing to some
misconception as to what was expected.
"'The stewards of the other societies in
the circuit will now," said the elder. "take
this apportionmient-list to their societies, and 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
read it at their next appointments, as we have
here, and pursue the same course.   Take
notes. I will furnish the blanks. Brother
Goodsine will please attend at the next appointinment at Postville, and, as far as possible, at the other preaching-places, to aid the
resident stewards in bringing this plan before the people. It is rather too much to
expect of the preacher in charge that he
shall present and urge a plan that is mainly
for his own benefit; and our system does
not contemplate that he shall do it."
One of the brethren from Crane's said
that he hoped the elder would appoint Brother Jerry Larkum to go along with them,
and give them a lift; that somehow, or some,how else, Brother Jerry had a monstrous
hold upon the people down his way.
A "Flat" brother said he was just going
to ask the same thing; that this was a new
thing, in the start like, and he would like to
have things go off brash as possible.
151 
152    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
The elder replied, "Y-e-s," rather slowly 
that if brethren requested it, he supposed
thIat Brother Larkum could assist in the
matter. It was evident that in truth hlie did
not at first relish the proposition of having
his plan marred by Jerry's inaugurating it.
But in a moment it occurred to him that
possibly there were some who could be more
effectually reached by Jerry than by any
other type of character; and that, most
likely, Brother Goodsine would bring up
the -last of the column, and prevent a defeat.
Jerry said that so far as any thing lay in
him, he was willing to lay himself out to
carry out the elder's big plan; that he believed that if any thing could make a crabapple tree grow golden pippillns, it was this
guano-plan the elder had given them such a
fact-insight to.
While the brothers Bellus were evidently
consulting on some equally important move 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
inent, Hunnicut said that he would be happy
to have the brothers Bellus come over to
Ilunnicut's, and help in the matter, as Brother Bear and hlie intended to be at "Bellus's" at the next appointment.  This arrangement gave mutual satisfaction.
It was ascertained that the quarterage
notes given at the quarterly meeting amounted to more than eight hundred dollars, which
led the elder to remark that he had long
been convinced that our people only needed
to have clearly stated what was - to be
done, and what share was expected of each
person; that the stewards  should see to
this; that unless the whole amount of expense for the year was known, and also the
highest and the lowest item apportioned, an
individual could not know his comparative
duty.  He believed that the plan of apportioning would work this year: if not perfectly this, yet it would the next; that if the
stewards kept to it, it would soon become
153 
1b4    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
9ttlic ofopinion that a Church-member (ouglht
to give the amount apportioned to him, or
have a good reason for not doing it; that
whatever persons gave from time to time,
could be marked on the back of their notes;
that, as expenses were going on all the time,
it would be more convenient possibly for
members and preacher to pay quarterly; or
if to the class-leader weekly, the sum would
be credited on the class-book, and reported
and credited on the notes at each Quarterly
Conference.
After which was sung the hymn,
"Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing,
Bid us now depart in peace;
Still on heavenly manna feeding,
Let our faith and love increase."
The benediction followed.
Thus ended what was always called by
certain of the brethren of Post-Oak, "The
great quarterly mneeting-you know, where
we did so much business." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE VERY LAST DAYS-THE DAYS OF THE
LAST COLLECTION.
WHILE the congregation was going out
it was arrested by the entry of three gentlemen, one of whom, the First Elder of the
First Church of Oakville, called out and
requested friends to come back and be seated
for a moment. Hie then proceeded to say
that it would be recollected that the First
Church had called, some twelve months ago,
the Rev. Zelophehad Crane to be its settled
pastor; but that, owing to the great unwillingness the congregation at Lynn, Massachlusetts, had manifested to the severing of
the pastoral relations which existed between
155 
156      POST-OAK CIRCUIT,
it and its beloved pastor, the call had not
been accepted; that the First Church had
persisted, and had made the call considerably more urgent; but the Lynn congregation continued unyielding; that, at two
several times thereafter, the First Church
increased the call by twenty-five and thirtythree per cent., the Lynn congregation continuing impracticably indisposed to part with its
able pastor; that, indeed, at two subsequent
times, the First Church swelled the call by
fifty and seventy-five per cent.; but the congregation at Lynn would not break its hold
upon its highly popular pastor.  At length
the First Church doubled the original call;
and he was happy to have it to say that the
congregation at Lynn was compelled, as it
were, to give its reluctant consent to the
dissolution of its hitherto existing pastoral
relations with its distinguished pastor. Brother Crane had arrived several Sabbaths
ago, and wished to give out a notice. 
P OST-O A K  CIRCUIT.
The reverend gentleman stepped forward
into the altar, being about thirty, tall, pale,
and bronchially disposed to a good deal of
hlair under the throat.
"If you be patient, dear friends of Oakville," said he, "for a few brief moments, we
will, not to define more accurately the contingent providences which have so unexpectedly brought us, through two-thirds of the
entire length of the Valley of the Mississippi,
to this much-neglected waste, indulge in a
few remarks. And, firstly:
"IN REGARD TO OURSELF.
"We are the seventh son of Zebra Crane,
a name less universally known, perhaps, than
that of either of his sons. The entire seven
were set apart from childhood by our father
to the Valley of the Mississippi, to carry
light to them that sit in that Valley; even
to them that dwell in its extreme south        14
157 
158    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
west region, and Texas. And it is a singular corroborative existing providence, that
all of us are just now in the one calling. It
is desired, perhaps, that we state further:
Our eldest brother, the Rev. Zeba Crane, is
a graduate of the North-by-East Theological
School. The second son, the Rev. Zalmunna,
is a graduate of the East-by-North Theological Seminary. The third, the Rev. Zeboini,
is a graduate of the North-East-by-North
Theological College. The fourth, the Rev.
Zadok, is a graduate of the North-NorthEast Theological Institute. The fifth, the
Rev. Zerah, is a graduate of the North-East
Theological Academy. The sixth, the Rev.
Zebulun, is a graduate of the North-East-byEast Theological Institution.  The seventh,
Ze, or Zed, or, as you of the South-west call
it, Izzard, is a regular graduate of the EastNorth-East Theological Collegiate Institute:
that is ourself. 
PO ST-OAK  CIR C U IT.
"Secondly:
" THE SPIRIT IN WHICt! WE ARE COME.
"We  are here, dear friends, in the spirit
of an exhaustless subjective religious earnest-mindedness,  and  in  the progressive
development of a consuming objective zeal.
"Thirdly:
"OUR COURSES OF SERIAL LECTURES.
"We shall resume our serial treatment of
the great objective interests which present
themselves immediately to our religious consciousness, as follows:
"On Sabbath evening next: our Second
Serial Lecture to Young Men-their Wants
and Ways. And on the evening of the
Lord's day, next thereafter, our Third Serial Lecture to Young Men-their Singular
and Providential Adaptation to the Wants
of the Present Times; also, with Closing
Remarks to their Surviving Parents. Young
ladies as well as young men should not
159 
160      POST-OAK CIRcUIT.
fail to attend, en masse, each one of this Se.
ries of Lectures.
"On MAonday evening next, our First Serial Lecture of a Course on the Recent
Flight or Hegira of the Pope to Gaeta; the
Military Occupation of Armageddon; the
Fall of Babylon; and the Solution of the
hitherto painful Mystery of the Objective
Number Six Hundred and Sixty-six.
"On Tuesday evening, our Second Serial
Lecture of a Course on the Recognition of
Friends in a Future State.
"On NWednesday evening, our First Serial
Lecture of a Course on the Valley of the
M[ississippi;  its unparalleled  destitution:
concluding with a Bird's-eye View of the
Moral MAisery of the Great South-west, and
Texas.
'"On Thursday evening, Deo Volente, our
First Serial Discussion of a Course upon
the Ethnographical Traces of the Probable
Whereabouts of the Ten Lost Tribes. 
POST-OAK CIR CUIT.
"On Friday evening, we would also give
notice that, in place of our intended Lecture
on the Immortality of Thought in connection
with Mind, there will be a Lecture delivered
in tle First Church, by the Reverend Visiting Brother to our right-Rabbi Simeon Ben
Bone, a converted Israelite of the tribe of
Judah, the Travelling Secretary of the Hebrew Ways and Means Society of New York
-on the Destructive Elements which have
surrounded, and the Antiseptic Qualities
which have preserved, the Israelites; their
present Atomic State, and the Providential
Affinities which are likely to result in their
speedy Reuinion, and their National Restoration to the Skies of their Native Judclea.
"On Saturday evening, our last Lecture
for the week, and our First Serial of a
Course on the Waldenses; with remarks
upon the Albigenses, the Vaudois, and the
present painful politico-papistica,l persecu
tions prevalent in Piedmont.
14*
161 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"These Lectures are withlout charge, dear
friends, excepting that on Friday evening.
Our converted Brothler, Rabbi Ben Bone, is
making a collection for the Last Days. He
feels that the time is short; and the elders
of the First Church consent that he shall
realize, for the expenses of that eventful period, a Last Collection."
At this personal allusion, the Reverend
Ben Bone, who was short, hlearty, and whiskered, bowed assent, and rolled his eyes beneath his specs, as if the time had come, and
he were going under. However, hlie became
immediately conscious of his mission and himself, and rose with an auctioneer air: "Dat
ish true, gentleman and ladish, it ish de very
last day.  I make haste-Judah vill no more
vex Ephram. Dis ishli dat vat I say, so as
de shervant of Abram, she shpake to Laban,
Give me vat I vant quick, and so you let me
go —eh? vat you say?"
The squire had arisen.  He bowed, and
162 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
said that lhe arose merely to ask a question;
that the restoration of Israel, more particularly Judah, was a subject of great interest
to hinm, associated as it was in his mind with
the exhumation of Ninevelh and the drying
up of the Dead Sea; that he had always
indulged in the reflection that that first great
act of the last great drama would be attended with no outlay or expense to the
Gentile branch of the Church.   He had
imagined that the outcasts of Israel, more
particularly Judah, would, in the main, return to their native Judea, singing, on foot.
Did lie understand the Reverend Doctor
Bonebone aright-that the Church would
be, in fact was now, called upon to defray
the  expense of the restoration?  As  to
feeling interest, he might say a prayerful
interest, in the millennium, he yielded to
none present.  He trusted it had at last
come.   "0," said he, looking  somewhat
rapt, "whenever my mind looks that way, I
instinctively cry out with the poet:
163 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"Happy, happy day!
When the King himself shall say
To all the Church:
'The poor heathen's way
From earth to heaven,
You need no longer pay,
Nor for them search:
They have arriven.' "
"' Dat ish so imposhible as it can be," replied the Doctor, warmly. "'I hab shurveyed de whole routes by mine ownlshelf;
and dare ish rubbish, rubbish enough. Vat
for dat you tink de shcattered of Judah she
comb back on bare foots! I tell you she
ride on de backs of kings,mit de shteamvistle and de frigat of shteams.  De Gentiles, she musht pay de whole of all de exhpenshle. De time ish comb. You gives me
iothinks: I gives you no slitocks in de New
Yerushlalam."
The squire rejoined, bowing, that if that
were the case, he should, at the earliest moinent, attentively review the views of those
commentators who favor the doctrine of a
164 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
spliritual restoration of Israel, more particularly Judah.
When the brothers Bellus turned their
horses' heads toward home, there began a
conversation, or, more properly speaking, a
discussion, which was continued at intervals
for three months. It was a 3Ionday morning.  During the night there had fallen a
fine shlower of rain; and as they were early
on the road, their senses were greeted with
the freshly-washed forest leaves, hanging
like emeralds in the morning sun, and with
the cheerful note of the woodlark, as it
filled and rung through the woodland. To
all which the brothers were insensible, for
things had transpired during their visit at
Oakville which furnished the ride home with
subject-matter of endless speculation: Quarterly Conference, and all that; then the high
learning of Parson Crane, and of all the
Cranes; the "lectures;" the "skeery times'
which were coming; the "last days," which
165 
166      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
had come; and the "visiting brother," whc
had come with them. "Brother Jake," said
Sam, "I have studied over it, but I can't
somehow make it come up clear to me, about
the First Church. You see the providence
of the thing was  on their side.  That's
clear. But the cross-providence behind that
is what gets me.  I can see it clear enough
in a skim like on the top, but then it runs
off into a fog, a deep fog. The'Lynn congregation' was against providence.  That's
clear; though I don't think there was any
providence in the Lynn congregation on the
congregation  side.   The'First  Church'
side was the providence side; but it was a
strong pull first. And that is what gets me
again, because providence, you see, always
does pull strong; that is, when she pulls her
own pulling; and if she had not pulled
mighty strong, the First Church could not
have got hold of Parson Crane at all-of
course it could not. I am clear on that 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
providence. But I am not so clear onl the
First Church: I wish I was."
"I can't see it clear as you see it, Brother
Sam," replied Jake. "You see, providence
is a mighty ticklish sort of thing to see into;
for it runs into a curlikew, and then into
fine ravelings, and then fetches you up to a
dead stand. I am clear on the First Church
getting Parson Crane-that it was a clear
providence, sure enough.   But the  deep
providence was, the hold that the Lynn congregation had on him.  Then it begins: one
providence sets against another providence,
and this providence devours up that other
providence, and breaks the hold of the Lynn
congreg,ation, which was the greatest providence of all."
"You see, Brother Jake," returned Sam,
"the greatest of all the providences was the
T)rovidence on the side of Parson Crane,
because it got him out of the Lynn congregation, and set him down in the First Church.'"
'167 
168      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"Very like," said Jake; "I grant you;
Brother Sam, it was the greatest, sure
enough, but not the clearest greatest.  It
seems to me that the First Chlurch was a
ladder of providence, and Parson Crane
climbed on it out of the Lynn congregation;
or else the Lynn congregation was a ladder,
and Parson Crane climbed up on it into the
First Church; and the more  I study on
which side the providence of it lay, the less
clear it comes up to me."
* Was this style formed upon that of any of the classics?  Apart from the labor which this supposition
would imply, the rare coincidence of equal success in
the case of two brothers precludes such a solution of
the matter. Yet it must have occurred to the reader
that Plato was never more like himself than "the two"
are like him: of course we speak only of style. A few
sentences from the Parmenides, (26,) which  are subjoined, will serve to verify the impressions of the
reader. The whole is interesting, as one of those
freaks of nature where the speech of the uneducated
equals that of the best models; and shows that the
quality " sapientice insanienti " is one of the possibilities
of a truly great mind: 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
' Being different from itself, it would surely be different from' one,' and so would not be one. True. And if
it should be the same with different, it would be that,
(' different,') and would not be itself; so that' one' would
thus be not what it is, but different from' one.' It would
not indeed. It will then be not the same with'different,' or different from itself?  It will not.   But it will
not be different from' different' while it is' one.' For
it does not belong to'one' to be different from any
thing, but to be different' alone, and to nothing else.
Right.  In consequence, then, of its being' one,' it will
not be' different;' or do you think (it can?)  Certainly
not;" etc., etc.-Parmenides of Plato, 26-by G. Burgess.
15
169 
170      P  ST -O A K CIRCUIT.
CIIAPTER IX.
THE GLOr-IOUS ECONOMIY OF A MILLENNIU3fM.
ON his way home from the adjoining circuit, the presiding elder preached again at
Oakville.  It was on a week-day, and the
house was well filled.  The text was, "And
take heed to yourselves, lest at any time
your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting,
and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and
so that day come upon you unawares. For
as a snare shall it come on all them that
dwell onl the face of the whole earth. Watch
ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may
be accounted worthy to escape all these
thiuogs that shall come to pass, and to stand
before the Son of man." Luke xxi. 34-36. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
It was all address whvlich carried conlviction to the consciences of his hearers: a
kind of preaching which cannot be very
exactly reported, on account of its effect
upon the reporter.  A  few passages were
secured.  "It is feared by some," said the
preacher, "that the time for missionlary zeal
is not yet; that we may possibly be found
too fast; that a better state of things, it may
be, will soon set in-a prophecy of Joel, a
Millennium, a large measure of saving power,
of light and love, which will save the nations without being much of a drain upon
the Church, requiring few mren and no money. Aid this view is important in the
respect of the drain; and glorious enough,
but only in that respect. The agencies of the
* "All exterior property is doomed to be consumed
at the last day: it is desirable that as much of it as
possible should have been as long as possible put in
such employments as will produce results that will not
suffer by the last fire."-John Foster.
171 
172     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
present Dispensation are sufficient to give
the world the gospel. The reign of graco
abounds wherever sin has abounded, and that
is everywhere;  and much  more abounds.
The Church has in the Holy Spirit an agent
as effective for good as was the Saviour on
earth; for Christ since then has become a
High Priest for mene, at the throne; the Holy
Spirit does not confine himself to place, as
Jesus, who ministered only to the circle
around his person.
"The defect of this Dispensation, if it has
one, is the amount of self-denial that is essential to the working of the present gospel
agency. Any arrangement which would let
off the Church from its share of this labor
of love might be considered an improvement
upon the present gospel, and might be considered millennial by just so much as it rendered self-denial superfluous. In which case
there would be the development of a spirit
quite different from that which constrained 
POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
the apostle to approve himself a minister of
God in much patience, in afflictions, in niecessities, in distresses.
"To'work while it is day' is the teaching
of Christ. The present Dispensation may
end unexpectedly; so the Church is exhorted
to be sober and watch unto prayer-' Behold
the Bridegroom comieth!' Then will the day
end.  Then shall set in a time of sight rather
than of faith, a time of judicial rigor, a time
when every tongue shall confess and every
knee bend, tliougli not by persuasion.  The
storm-cloud upon the horizon warns the husbandman to gather in his grain.  In those
days mercy will not rejoice against judgment.
Then it will be too late for foolish virgins to
get oil in their vessels: they may seek it, but
the door will be shut. That which once answered the purpose, will no longer avail.
'Then shall they call upon ime, but I will not
answer.'' WhVen once the master of the house
has risen up and shut to the door, many shall
15*
173 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
seek to enter in, but shall not be able.' In
vain shall they cry,'Lord, Lord, open unto
us,' when this Dispensation shall have ended.
Thus the Saviour enforces present activity.
Between the golden age of prophecy
and this present day, there is a period
in which  the  air is so filled with  falling fragments of heaven and earth, with
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke, that
one cannot see the new fields and skies
where righteousness is to dwell.  When the
mediatorial day shall have passed, and the
judicial shall have set in, then shall the
souls under the altar cry as Abel's blood,
and be heard. Then shall those who survive that time of trial be especially honored.  The Church, in those days of perplexity, shall triumph through great tribulation
'To him that overcometh will I give to eat
of the tree of life that is in the midst of tho
paradise of God.'
"This present Dispensation is a day of
174 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
mercy-of change from bad to good-to a
world of sinners a day of grace; but not
that day:'When the righteous be scarcely
saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?'  Now, Christ calls sinners to
repentance; then, he shall call the righteous
to judgment:'Gather my saints together
unto me-for God is judge himself.' The
Church is warned by Christ to improve the
present, as a man should his life, for it must
end. Yet many are waiting, waiting for
the Millennium!  They are reading books
which render, through their adroit interpretation of the prophets, the work of saving
men from death a matter just about to be
accomplished by the personal reign of Christ,
without cost! The Church groans under
the privilege she has of laboring, with
Christ, in the saving of a world. Her deliverance draweth nilgh, when she will be
called neither to suffer nor to reign with
him. Brethren, this is the time for action.
175 
176     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Imitate Him who worked while it was day.
For the end cometh:'these be the days of
vengeance:' when no man can work. Behold! now is the acceptable day of the Lord;
and now you may be saviours of men.  In
that day when the Father shall visibly exalt
Hiim who humbled himself, may you be found
worthy to stand in the presence of the King
in his glory!" 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER X.
SOME GAMMON, BUT MORE GRAPE.
IN due course of time the meeting was
held at Postville. Brother Goodsinle was
there, and successful in his presentation of
the plan. The people went far beyond any
thing that had been in preceding times
given at that place. In his speech he quoted
the language of the great Chalmers against
covetousness: "The  disease is as near to
universal as it is virulent. Wealth is the
goddess whom all the world worshippeth.
There is many a city in our empire, of
which, with an eye of apostolical discernment, it may be seen that it is wholly given
over to idolatry." He dwelt at length upon
177 
178     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
his view, that the gospel does n( t release
from the obligation to devote a portion of
our property to God; that there was no
legal obligation  upon Abraham  or upon
Jacob to pay tithes; that they did it, but
did it from motives that should actuate
every Christian at the present day. It was
a thank-offering unto Almighty God, an
acknowledgment of dependence upon him,
and of his mercy in the bestowment of temporal blessings. There is a covenant to
which we should become a party by the payment of a tenth of our yearly income; that
we may obtain that favor of God upon the
labor of our hands which alone can secure
us against want, or make our plenty a blessing to our children and ourselves. This was,
Jacob's vow at Bethel: "If God will be
with me and will keep me in this way that
I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my
father's house in peace: then shall the Lord 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
be my God; and this stone which I have set
up for a pillar shall be God's house; and of
all that thou shalt give me I will surely give
the tenth unto thee." "What was the result
of this youthful vow?" continued the old man:
"hear it, my brethren: let Jacob, in the
height of his manhood and at the high-tide
of a prosperous life, tell it:'With mv staff I
passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.' Hear him reaffirm it, when
his eyes were'dim for age so that he could
not see,' blessing his grandsons in the name
of'the God of Abraham and Isaac, the God
which fed me all my life long unto this day.'
Let us confess our sin. Let us no more refuse to bring into the house of God our
tithes and offerings. The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth
all of us to repent. The effectual doors
which are open in our own country and in
heathendom demand liberal men, and make
the love of money in the Church a sin of
179 
180     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
great enormity in the sight of God. Unless
we set apart no mean portion of our income,
how shall we do our duty to the poor, as
well as to the gospel.? Shall we be able to
say, in the day of affliction, when the actions
of a past life pass in review,'If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have
caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or if
I have eaten my morsel myself alone, and
the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; if I
have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; if his
loins have not blessed me, and if he were
not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
then let mine arm fall from my shoulderblade.'  We must give largely out of our
income without reference to the increase of
our property. Happiness and virtue go together, and they are as frequently found in
company with an humble fortune as with a
large one."
There must have been a great time at 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Crane's Schbool-house, from the wonderful
account which brethren from that region
gave afterwards of "Brother Jerry's great
juniper-talk:" -" But he himself went a
day's journey into the wilderness, and came
and sat down under a juniper tree." 1
Kings xix. 4.
"I wonder!" replied one, who had to regret it all his after-life that he was not
there. He was afraid, he said, "from the
reports that came down, that some new kilter was agoing to be started;" and, for his
part, he did not want to be there during
any such doings; but if he had known that
"Brother Jerry was agoing to take on so
high, why, of course," said he, "I should not
have missed it for any thing."
"Well now, he did," said the informer;
"if he didn't, nobody ever did."
"I wonder!" exclaimed the absentee.
"Brother Jerry," continued the informer,
"argued and argued until no man could tell
16
181 
182       POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
whither from which, and just walked over
every thing. My! he fairly spread himself
when he came to talk about the fire, and the
angel gathering junliper-chips to cook an
ash - cake for a poor travelling preacher.
You could have heard a pin drop. Then,
when he came to the king sitting at home in
plenty and purple-Georgium sidus! how he
cavorted-well he did!"
'"I declare!" exclaimed the now thioroughly
wretched absentee.  "I was a great fool to
miss such a chance. If it had not been for
the old woman, somehow I think I should
have been there; but she sort of sheered me
about them money doings."
The informer could have had no pity upon
the poor absentee, for he continued: "And
when Jerry came to the earthquake there,
Yes, says hlie, nothing can move you; it takes
a whole earthquake of justice these days to
move a three-legged stool'. And when all
the elements are roaring and wrestling and 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT
whistling and rolling in their fury-piten, and
every thing around is snapping, why, then.
says lie, you just come to the door and ask
if any thing is to pay!  No, says he, nothing
can lmelt you.  When you have been in a
blast-furnace, with wind and fire playing
on you for years together, enough to melt
rocks, you don't spill as much silver, says
he, as would solder up a drop-leak in a tin
pail, if it fell square on the spot: when.
says he, the very moment you drop into the
black lakle, the silver that's on you will sink
you like a dead body with a stone sewed up
in a bag.  Mty! when he said that!  Why,
says lie, don't you stir yourselves to do
mercy?  But you say,' O, I am so religious!
there is no one about here that has religion
like me!'  I am sorry to say, says Jerry,
there are a plenty left just as religious as
you. If you know your duty and you
won't do it, says hle, I tell you now, it's a
gone fawn-skin, as sure as you are born."
183 
184    POST-OAK CIRCU IT.
"Well," asked the absentee, "you say he
did get right smart: did Brother Jerry pay
any thing himself?"
"0 yes," replied the informer, "certainly
he did; for he told us he was not only giving us his exhortation, but throwing in his
quarterage note besides. Jerry told us he
wanted no more dime collections: that day
had gone by; so most everybody signed
for five or ten dollars."
From all accounts, Jerry was a better hand
at enforcing a duty than he was at discharging it. He gave them another powerful time
at the Flats-on the thumbs and great-toes
of Adoni-bezek: "But Adoni-bezek fled; and
they pursued after him, and caught him, and
out off his thumbs and his great-toes." Judges
i. 6. So that it was a disputed point between a few from the Flats and an equal
number from Crane's which was the greater,
his'great juniper-talk' or his'great big-toe
talk;' and as each party heard only the one 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
talk, it is likely to remain an open question.
An old sister very properly observed of the
latter, that she had never heard that text run
that way before. His propositions were:
I. Without great-toes and thumbs no man
could work or travel. Mloney was the greattoes and thumbs of every travelling-preacher.
It was the great-toes and thumbs of every
Church, and of every Missionary Society.
II. The man who did not give his money
to support the gospel, cut off the great-toes
and thumbs of the gospel ministry and the
gospel Church.
III. That if any man kept at it, maiming
and lamingl, right and left, making ministers
and missionaries-gospel kings-gather meat
under his table, and then in fact give them
no meat to gather, that very soon he should
be overtaken, caught, and fixed himself for
slow travelling; he should be worm-cropt
and sheriff-shleared of all his thumbs and all]
his great-toes, real and personal, and should
16*
185 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
have "ADONI-BEZEK" written on his forehead,
read and known of all men. He warned
them that no man could outrun an armyworm or a boll-worm, or a fire, or a freeze,
or the cholera  and unless a man could do
that, he had better do his duty, and save his
crop-that he himself felt in duty bound to
save his own great-toes and thumbs by signing up.
The fact was about as the elder had surmised. There were some at these appointments who could be reached by Jerry, but
not a few others who could only be induced
to come into the new method by a very different kind of approach.
Brother Goodsine visited the appointment
several weeks later, and gave them one of
his unpretending, earnest appeals.   After
stating the plan, he gave a history of the
failure of every former year in their effort
to support a preacher, and then enforced upon them their duty as members of that eir,
186 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
cult and of the Church of the New Testament.  "0 for a race of men," said he, "who
shall devote all their earnings to the cause
of Christ, reserving only enough for the comfortable sustenance of themselves and their
dependents!  0 for a race of merchants,
shlipmasters, mechanics, of artists, of farmers,
lawyers, employers and employes, who will
devote thlemselves to God as much as if they
were ministers! thus raising the common
employments of life to the sublime dignity
of preaching the gospel.   Many  a man is
called to this entire devotion of the ordinary
business of his life; but, supposing that a
useful and an entire devotion can only be in
the calling of a preacher, he has left the
sphere where he might have been eminently
useful to the cause of Christ, by giving the
fruit of his skill and industry, for a sphere
that God never intended to be his. Devoted
hands are at this day wanted as well as
tongues.  Devoted fortunes, devoted  ener
18T 
1 POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
getic business men, are the pressing need of
the Church of Christ. They are all that our
owln iethodism requires to make  her tihe
most efticient Church since the days of Paul.
'The legs of the lame are not equal,' says
Solomon; and a Church may possess a devoted ministry, but if she has not a devoted
nmemnbership, she will go forth lamely upon
all her enterprises of mercy. The ministers
of our Church need the backing of an energetic, consecrated, zealous membership.
Ready to go forth to the ends of the earth,
will you send them?  Ready to work to the
end of life, will you support them?  Will
you let them die in the harness of battle.
\Will you cease not to care for the mother
and the babes, who share their toil and poverty?  ),ay my right hand forget its cunning if I discharge not these obligations to
the utmost!"
"The Belluses"' was a point of considerable interest. It was a large and rather poor
188 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
congregation. Here the two brothers were
very influential, and they entered into the
new method very heartily. On the appointed day, Hunnicut and John Bear were present.  Hunnicut had insisted that no one
should be called out until "the two" had
spoken: that they could make the whole
matter plainer and present it more forcibly to
their brethren than any other men in the
State, or probably in the world.
Brother Sam said, he did not know, but
perhaps it was so somewhat.
Brother Jake said that he knew it was so,
but hlie thought that perhaps it might like as
not be some other way too.
After a short sermon by the preacher in
charge, the congregation was detained, and
Brother Sam was called upon to explain the
new plan of the stewards. Hie said, he did
not know, but he supposed that the most of
them had heard of the big quarterly meeting
that had just a few weeks gone been held at
189 
190      POST - OAK  C IR C U IT.
Oakville.  He was there:  TIe had read of
meetings of polities, and mreetings of associations, and meetings of camp-meetings, and
had seen somewhat tlhereof of them, but such
a meeting as that was, he had never seen, or
heard of, or read of, suchl  a sort.  He had
seen the stewards at a stand, the leaders at
a stand, Brother Badger at a stand, Brother
Jerry at a stand, himself at a stand, and Brother Jake here at a dead stand; "and there
we stood and stood.  W1Vell, brethren, says
the elder, now for your plans, brush up.
Brother Jake and I, we could not think."
Just here Jake, who was in the altar, stepped
for-vard, and Sam fell back a step, listening
very particularly. Brother Jake said, No,
not that: he could think, but could not have
said a word if you had offered a township.
He saw where thilngs was;  and one plan
came up, and another plan came up, and they
chased each other and tumbled and rolled
over and over in his head like two kittens, 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT. 1
until they got his head in a whirligig, so that
hlie could not have spoken so his own dog
Brutus" would have known him; and lihe
naturally sat still.  But when Souire Wallet
wanted to bury one half the mcuibershlip
with cholera, to pay tlhe expenses of the gospel on the other half; and then the Church
was to turn round and bury free-gratis for
nothing as many of the squire's hands as
chose to lay down and die-" And where
should we have all been if that plan had been
voted?  Sure enough, head deep in debt.
Brother Sam he was not against the debt so
much as I."
"No," interposed Sam, "I was not against
the debt so much as the sickness. I really
thought once it was goiing to carry.  The
squire is a mighty strong speaker, and they
say the squire will get a large vote this summer. But I could not sit still. I spoke and
Jake spoke.  The squire sort of backed out.
Next day at it again.  Then I spoke up: I
191 
192      POST-OAK  c IR c U IT.
said, it was dangerous to have rosum about
a church. The squire wanted the underneath
of every meeting-house full of rosummated
corpses. I said it would not work; so that
plan was spoiled. Brother Jake here, hlie did
not mind the rosum."
"I did not for true," said Jake, "mind
the rosum, so much as I did them catacoombs
-that was another plan of the squire's.  I
knew we down here could not stand to have
them things about."
So they went on.  iHunnieut reported
their speeches, and no doubt colored them
highly with his own humor. He states that,
at times, no one on earth could have understood them but that particular society; every
thing, however, seemed to it clear and highly
satisfactory, though Brother Bear and himself had to go out and see after their horses
more than once, to keep from being convulsed.
The more exact account of the matter is, 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
the audience was one accustomed to tlie lon est simplicity of the two brothers, who bore
excellent characters as good Knen, good neigh bors, anid good planters; and, by an  inti mnate acquaintance  with  themn  and  their
families, it could justly appreciate the qualities which lay behind their unique efforts in
public at intelligible speech.
The two" succeeded in showing that the
new  method  was  an  escape  from  other
dreaded ones, and so took "the scare,"
which they had so emphatically deprecated
inl the Quarterly Conference, completely out
of the congregation.
17
193 
194    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER XI.
" CHARITY WHICH NEVER FAILETfH."
THE friend who was so kind as to furnish
a report of Brother Goodsine's speech ai
Crane's," may be recognized by the public
when we inform them that he is the large
and frequent donor to the AIissionary Society
of the M(ethlodist Church, and to the American Bible Society, who signs himself "PANOLA." The reader will certainly pardon a
fuller introduction to friend P.
On every Sabbath morning, just before
churchl-time, he may be seen at      Chapel,
a freshl-looking, neatly-dressed gentleman of
middle age and stature.  His hat, which is
still on, is of white wool, broad-rimmed and 
POST-OAK C 1 R CUIT.
of good quality; his clothes of a liglit drab.
He has regular features, a large hazel eye,
a well-formied, rather full person.  "I wish
you a good-morning, youing ladies, young
gentlemen, friends: this is a beautiful Sabbath." While he is speaking, several cottonwagons  drive round  to the church, filed
with women and children from his plantation: their faces are shiing with the blandness which the negro wears on his way to
Sunday-church; their clothes are white as
mieal, and their head-kerchliefs are bright as
hawberries and jessamine.
Friend P. had inherited, while young, a
fine property from his father; but having
endorsed largely for "friends," had, in very
few years after attaining his majority, to
part with both his servants and plantation.
IHis uncle became the purchaser of both, and
thus saved him the pain of seeing family servants sold to strangers. Upon this reverse,
he found a living in the toilsome business of
195 
196      PO S T-O A K  CIRCUIT.
tealching.  His wife then proved herself to
be, as he says, a wife from the Lord. Though
brought up in Southern ease and affluence,
she applied herself to teaching with him,
and often told her husband that she was
happier than ever. During this period of
their history, they were both converted, at a
protracted-meeting on the Panola Circuita circuit, by-the-by, a long way from PostOak. Seven years after his reverse, the
uncle, who had amassed a large property by
rigid economy and continual cottonl-planting,
died, having devised to his nephew all the
estate he had purchased of him, and onehalf of the remainder of his own property
to his nephew's wife.  A year or two after
this unlooked-for fortune, the typhoid fever
appeared in the neighborhood of their plantation: their servants were nearly all attacked with it. For several months the
master and mistress were nursilng, and waitimg night and day, until both of them wero 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
brought to death's verge with an attach of
the same disease. Being advised to aid a very
slow recovery with a sea-voyage, it ended in
their making a trip to Europe.  On their
way back, through Germany, frielid P. fell
in with a settlement of AIoravians, and became greatly impressed with their zeal for
mrissions. Upon his return home, he dedicated his yearly income to the spread of the
gospel, and himself to doing good. He has
long since been known by all the poor in his
neighborhood, and loved by all the children.
The people and preachers of Panola Circuit
speak of him as a model of a chlurch-steward.
Every Sabbath afternoon he teaches a
Bible-class, in which he has gathered nearly
all the young people of the settlement. Iie
has in his study a choice library; and almost always he has one or two poor young
men at "the Ridge," whom hlie is teaching
in the higher parts of an education.  Several missionaries are in the far East who
17*
197 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
received from him no ordinary fin sh; and
whose zeal for the cause of Christ consumes
daily, in labors " more abundant," all the
powers with which they are daily supplied.
When it is added that friend P. and his
wife are blessed with two children, a son
and a daughter, both of whom are about
grown, and very like their parents in person
and disposition, the reader will have a single-line picture of one of the noblest of
Southern planters.
Hearing that he was at Crane's when
Brother Goodsine presented the plan, we
requested, upon the liberty of an old acquaintance, a report of the old manl's speech,
and added a request for a paper upon Christian beneficence; stating, at the same time,
what we purposed to publish of the history of
Post-Oak. The paper we insert just as it
came to hand, in the body of his letter, even
at the risk of interrupting the connection between Post-Oak and the mind of the reader: 
198 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
PANOLA RIDGE.
MIY DEAR BROTHER:
You will find with this an imperfect re,
port of Mr. Goodsine's speech.  My being
at Crane's School-house was, as you supposed,
an accident. And a very agreeable surprise
to me it was, to find a body of Methodists
accomplishing what we had been so long
talking of on our own circuit.
AMr. Goodsine's speech was impressive,
and, I should judge, quite effective. Tile
value of the tithe argument for enforcing
the obligation of a Christian to give, had
never been justly appreciated by me. He
convinced  me  that  Christian  obligation
stands upon this basis, though Christian
benevolence rests upon a better. The tithe
quantity is the limit in one direction: the
only linmit in the other is, all you are and
have. Hie presented to mry mind the "power"
which would characterize a Chuiech whose
membership measured up to tl e Levitical
199 
200    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
standard of liberality, so that I could but
wish Methodism were more Levitical in the
measure of her thank-offerillngs.  The financial plan which he presented seemed to be a
good working method for collecting equitably the expenses of a circuit. But the tithe
system, it occurred to me, would be the better prescription for both circuit and Church.
Galvanic remedies have been the settled
treatment for the chronic financial ailments
of our Church. And the labors of a selfsacrificing ministry have proved adequate
thus far to periodically electrify the membership into the discharge of a part of their
duty. This at best secures but all occasional,
uncertain, and unreliable action. The difference between it and vital motion of mercy
is very great. Like the stupor which precedes death from Arctic cold, the deadly
slumber of a soul chilled by covetousness is
creeping over our Church, and the most exciting and incessant efforts barely suffice to 
P OST-O A K CIRC U IT.
arrest the fatal torpor. Methodism is like
a person whose entire right side is paralyzed. The cause of Mlissions suffers paralysis. Thie cause of Education moves only by
the large sacrifices of a few; while the labor
of securing a sum sufficient to build a church
has come to be so great, that the most zealous become worn-out and disheartened by a
fewv successful efforts.
The support of the ministry is meag,re, and
the annual deficiencies so great, that it is
questionable if they, as a class, do not mainly
support the gospel.   The families of deceased ministers are so poorly cared for, that
the conviction must often be forced upon
them  h-lat the Methodists are incapable of
common gratitude.  In raising the current
expenses of a church, the membership have
again and again to be approached, urged,
and coaxed into the most ordinary contribution toward the support of the gospel.
When ministers have worn out their strength
201 
202     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
with thirty or forty years' labor, they are
left to shift as best they may, and are presently forgotten.   No  shadow  of  moral
right to a support is allowed the minister
of the gospel by his brethren, nor is the
amount paid him regarded, either by faith
or sight, as a claim that attaches, in any
sense, to the yearly income of any man who
professes himself to be a member of the
household of faith. All that is given that
way is given-as a charity outright.
This state of things, to say the least of it,
absolutely ignores any obligation to pay any
part of our substance to the Lord.  And the
Methodist Church is fast coming to the attitude of a Church which acknowledges no
duty to return annually any thing for the
blessing of substance and yearly increase.
God charged backsliding Israel with robbery.
But our Church takes higher ground, and
denies all right upon the part of the Lord to
any portion of its income. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
St. Paul has placed the claim of a gospel
ministry upon the same footing with that
of the ministry of the Temple.  They who
waited at the altar had a provision made for
them in the law, and yet for support were
left dependent upon the voluntary obedience
of the people. Tithes were not legally enforced.  Gospel ministers being the ministers of Christ, are not of Levi, yet the apostle places their support upon the same basis:
Do ye not know that they which minister
about holy things live of the things of the
temple? EVEN SO IHATII TIE LORD ORDAINED
that they which preach the gospel should live
of the gospel." 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. As, on
the one hand, a minister of the gospel has no
right to "entangle himself with the affairs
of this life, that hlie may please Hilm who hatl
chosen him to be a soldier;" so, on the other,
hle has a right in gospel equity to a support
out of the tribute which the people are enjoined to pay into the treasury of the Lord,
203 
204     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
The duty of supporting those who  are
called by God to minister to us the precious
gospel would seem to be so pleasant to a soul
who feels himself under all the loving obligations of a child, that the binding letter of
a law could only be superfluous. And, in
truth, much is left to and expected from the
love and gratitude of those who acknowvledlge
the "perfect law of liberty." Nor would a
Christian minister have it on any other wise.
Olshausen beautifully remarks upon the passage, "Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's
steward, and Susanna, and many others, which
ministered to him of their substance," (Luke
vriii. 3:) "He who was the spiritual life of
his people disdained not to be supported by
them in the body: he was not ashamed to
penetrate so far into the depth of poverty as
to condescend to live upon the alms of love:
he only fed others in a miraculous manner;
for himself, he lived upon thie love of his peopie. Hence, he loved withl a perfect and 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
pure love, and so permitted himself to be
loved: he gave all tl-ings to men, his brethren, and received all things from them, and
enjoyed thereby the pure blessings of love,
which is perfect then only when it is at the
same time both giving and receiving.  What
a feature in the picture of the MIessiah!
Who could invent things such as these!  iHe
who feeds thousands by one word of his
mouth, lives himself upon the bread of the
poor.   It was  necessary to live in this
manner, in order that it might be so recorded."
But the support of ministers is but one
item; when a Church has done that, it has
at least paid the mint and cummin-the
present allowance for their support could
scarcely be set down as the "weightier matters" of mercy.  The Christian Church holds
a vast amount of life and power and blessing
in her hands, in the shape of the goods of
her Lord: values upon the expenditure of
i8
205 
206  POST-OAK  CIRCUIT
which are suspended the angelic announce
ment of the gospel to many plains of earth
where shepherds are sleeping shrouded in
darkness, the reclaiming of wastes that have
never bloomed as yet, and the introduction
of many inquiring strangers to Him who
bought them with his own blood.  What has
stayed her? why does she not sow gladness
over the earth?  Upon what passions is she
expending the sumns which she keeps back
from her Lord?  Where is the money which
has been placed by him, along with the
word, in her hands, with the commandment,
Go, preach the gospel to every creature?"
She must pour forth both substance and soul
for the world. Eternity will hold her to it.
Seventy barrels of blood pass through tle
heart of a man in twenty-four hours; so must
life be thrown out in volume, by the Church,
to every extreme part of the human race.
If there be any basis of duty, if any motive
of love, if any strong purpose of zeal, let 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
them be announced from the pulpit, in the
class-room, and at the Conference, until the
generosity " which never failethl" is acknovwledged as an essential quality of Methodism.
With Mr. Goodsine, I thiink this is what
the Methodist Church requires to make her
the most efficient Church since the days of
Paul. But what a vast deficiency is this!
Still, vast as it is, it is within our reach.
Our hope mainly is, that by preaching it to
the young, liberality will characterize the
next generation of Methodists.  Who  can
predict how soon God will have mercy upon
those who sit in darkness, and displace the
present race of Christians with a better?
Let us come back to the least, the very
least, that God claims: ONE SEVENTH OF OUn
TIME AND ONE TENTH OF OUR INCOME.
Chrysostom says, on Eph. ii. 2: "Woe to
him, it is said, who doethl not alms; and if
this was the case under the Old covenant,
much more is it under the New. If where
207 
208       P os T - O A K C I R c U I T.
the getting of wealth was allowed, and the
enjoyment of it and the care of it, there was
such provision made for the succoring the
poor, how much more in that Dispensation
where we are bidden to give up all? For
what did not they of old do? They gave
tithes, and tithes again upon tithes.  They
supported orphans, widows, and strangers;
whereas some one was saying to me in
astonishment,'Why, such a one gives tithes!'
What a load of disgrace does this expression imply, that a matter which with the
Jews was no matter of surprise, that this
should have been  surprising with  Christians! If there was danger then in omitting tithes, think how great it must be now."
Nor do I reckon as second to any the
authority of the learned Grotius, one of the
ablest of commentators. In his treatise on
the PRights of War and Peace, chap. i., book
i., he speaks of a Christian man's duty:
"So likewise the old Law of the Sabbath and 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
that of tithes are a demonstration that
Christians are obliged to set apart no less
than the seventh part of their time for the
worship of God, nor no less  than the tenth
I)art of their fruits or 2)rofts for the maintenance of those who are employed in holy
affairs, or for other sacred and pious uses."*
3,Ir. Wesley, who has the authority of a Father, says, in a sermon of burning words,
On the Danger of Increasing Riches: "But
many have found out a way never to be
rich, though their substance increase ever
so much. It is this: as fast as ever money
comes in, they lay it out either in land, or
enlarging their business.  By this means each
of these, keeping himself bare of money, can
still say,'I am not rich;' yea, though he hlas
teni, twenty, a hundred times more substance
than he had some years ago.  It is possible
* Lord Chief Justice Hale, Rev.  Dr.. Hammond,
Baxter, and Doddridge,  each gave one-tenth.   Dr.
Watts gave a fifth; Mrs. Rowe one-half.
is*
209 
210     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
for a man to cheat himself by this ingenious
device. And he may cheat other men; for,
as long as thou doest good unto thyself,
men will speak well of thee.' But, alas! he
cannot deceive the devil. Ah, no! the curse
of God is upon thee already, and all that
thou hast. And to-morrow, when the devil
seizes thy soul, will he not say,'What do all
thy riches profit thee?' Will they purchase
a pillow for thy head in the lake of fire
burning with brimstone? or will they procure thee a cup of'water to cool thy tongue
while thou art tormented in that flame?' 0,
follow the wise direction here given, that
God may not say unto thee,'Thou fool!'
This shift, therefore, will not avail.  It
will not be any protection, either against
the wrath of God, or the malice and power
of the devil. Thou art convicted already
of'setting thy heart' upon thy riches, if
thou layest out all that thou hast above the
conveniences of life, on adding money to 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
money, house to house, or field to field, witlihout giving at  least ca tenth of thine income
(the Jewish proportion) to the poor.   By
whatsoever  means  thy richles increasewhetlher with or without labor, whether by
trade, legacies, or any othier way-unless
thy charities increase in the same proportionl: unless thlou givest A FULL TENTH of
thy substance, of thly fixed and occasional
income, thliou dost undoubtedly set thy heart
upon thly gold, and it will'eat thy flesh as
fire!'
"But O! who can convince a rich man
that he sets his heart upon riches?  For
considerably above half a century I have
spoken on this head withl all the plailnness
that v-as in my power; but with how little
effect  I doubt whether I have in all that
time convinced fifty misers of covetousness.
When the lover of money was described
ever so clearly, and painted in the strongest
211 
212      PO ST-OAKE CirCUIT.
colors, who applied it to himself? To
whom did God and all that knew hlim says
'Thou art the man!' 
On this theme AMr. Wesley has written muclh.
His sermons " On the Danger of Riches,"
"On Riches," on "The Use of Money," " On
the Good Steward," as well as the one from
which I have just quoted, indicate what his
observation was of the Church in his day;
and that he had a foreboding, of the torpor
into which the Methodists were likely to
fall through  covetousness.  Towards  the
last of his ministry he gave no uncertain
sound against the love of money.  Not only
his ipreaclhin,g but his example  was enminenltly fitted to show  his followers their
duty.  He gave away all —absolutely all.
He reserved not over fifty pounds a year for
his expenses, and "died not  having  ten
pounds  left."  He transcended  the  tithe
quantity by as muchl as the whole is greatev 
POST-OAK   CIRCUIT.
than a tenth.  WTho of all his followers imitate his exanmple?  How small is the sumii
of tliem!
Has not the time come for action, if we
ever hope for a reform? Let our Churchli
recognize the principle that it is the duty of
every member to pay annually one-tenth of
his income as the least required by the gospel.  How  can our people be induced to
make suchli a sacrifice? By tlhe preachersthe examtple of the preachers.  Let the Conferences beg,in it.  If there were a score of
preaclers in each Conference pledged  to
each other to give to the Lord a clear tenth
of their income, as in the reformation of Nehemiith"Anid  the Levites shiall bring up
tie titlhe of the tithes unito the house of
our God," (x. 38)-the people would  soon
follow.*
* The effect of such an example-that of the Conference paying tithes-is not overstated.  In remarking
upon a certain system of systematic beneficence which
213 
214    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
When the Mfethodists c(ime to be known
a,s a people who pay a tenth., they will be
known as a Holy Ghost people.  "Prove
me," saith the Lord.  Let us prove him. Be
entreated in the words of Mr. Wesley: "Ye
angels of God, ye servants of his, that continually do ]iis pleasure: our common Lord
hlath    intrusted you with talents far more
precious than gold and silver, that you may
minister in your various offices to the heirs
of salvatIon! Do  not you employ every
mite of what you have received for the end
for which it was given you?  And bath he
had been recommended, the Free Church of Scotland
Magazine says, "The general adoption of the principle [of systematic beneficence] would change the condition of the Church and the world. The discovery of
the law of gravitation, and the application of steain to
its manifold uses in modern society, have not produced
a greater change on the philosophy and physical condition of mankind, than the practice of the views of pecuniary contribution here submitted to the public would
effect on the life, energy, and usefulness of the Church of
Christ." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
not directed us to do his will on earth as it
is done by you inl heave en?  Brethren, what
are we doing? Let us awake! Let us arise!
Let us imitate those flamingg ministers! Let
us employ our whole soul, body, and substance
according to the will of our Lord!  Let us
render unto God the things that are God's
even all we are and all we have!"
The annual payment of one-tenthl is demanded because it is the least payment by
wilicl a man can feel the King's right to an
estate in his possessions.  Thie law of tithles
is based upon the constitution of tihe human
heart, as the law of thie Sabbath is upon the
constitution of the human body.  To pay less
thlianii one-tenuth may express a measure of gratitude, while it might not be sufficient in
acknowledgment of a rilght-tlie right of
our Sovereign to the whole of all we have.
Not to feel daily tlis great truth is to expose ourselves to the pride which the possession of property superinduces: it makes us
215 
216     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
forget the Almighty, and say, " What profit
should we hleave if we pray unto him?" It
will lead us to make "gold our hlope, and to
say to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence."
Hlow else could it be when we see in our property only a form of power, or of independ ence, or only the gratification of our appetites?  Unless we see God's claim in every
piece of gold, or land, or goods, we soon
lose sight of God in the engrossing pursuit
of wealth.   When an appreciable amount of
everv value is felt to be God's, then he will
be present to us in the work-shop, in the
counting-room, in the field, and in every enterprise of commerce.   The employment of
the day will not shut himn out.  Then our
duty to the Giver of all good will be seen
upon the face of every piece of money as
plainly as its graven "image and superscription."
It will be felt that His'is the share that
insures the blessingo; and nine parts with a 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
blessing are rather to be chosen than ten
without. The sight of His share will keep
his laws in mind amid the competition and
temptation of trade: his justice will seem
to sit upon it, and to assert the worth of virtuous integrity. Even losses will seem to be
by his permission, and profits to flow in by
his approval; thus the equally precious good
of cheerful resignation or of humble gratitude will be a constant gain from the fluctuations of trade. "The blessing of the Lord
it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with
it." Prov. x. 22.
A man may give away much during the
year without acknowledging God's annual
claim, and without paying it. Gifts to old
servants or to poor relatives are on this wise.
A man's duty to take care of those who are
bound to him by natural ties, or who are in
the relation of dependents, is one thing: his
duty to God, to the stranger, to the world,
another. The principle of giving to such as
19
217 
218    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
cannot make any return to us is laid down
by Christ as the true one: "When ye make
a feast," etc., Luke xiv. 13.  The tithles of
the law were a clean tenth paid into the
sanctuary. To meet God's annual claim upon our income is to pay it to something that
clearly represents him-the poor, the stranger,
the Church, the heathen. It is hardly just to
charge his account with what we furnish our
own servants. We owe them a debt to support them, as well when they are helpless as
when profitable. And as relationship by
blood gives us a claim in the hour of need,
so that claim must be met by us in the day
of prosperity.
The tithe of men who are out of debt is
a plain calculation; of those in debt it is
one-tenth of what they actually spend for a
living, for they can deny themselves a tenth,
and live on less. A doctor will urge the
number of poor patients which he has visited,
and charge to the Lord's account the value 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT
of the practice that does not pay; which is
like counting the seed that does not come up,
for the tithe of the harvest. It is the genius
of American tradesmen, planters, and men
in all other pursuits, to be in debt. If debt
be a bar to God's claim, it is, in this trading
land, a universal one. The offerings of men
may vary with their fortunes; but assuredly
if they cannot bring a bullock, or lamb, they
must bring a turtle-dove.
I have put down all that occurs to me on
this subject.
In a subsequent letter from friend P., he
says, " The wishes you have often expressed
are about to be realized. Our dear Samnmy
has declared to his mother and myself that
he feels constrained to engage in the work
of the ministry. He intends shortly to offer
himself to the Bishop, for China. Ever since
his return from college he has been reading
theological books. His evident prayerful
219 
220      POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
ness, fondness for the society of the preachers, and his affectionate sadness when with
his mother and myself, led me to suppose that
something of the kind was working in his
heart; yet, to tell the truth, I was afraid to
ask him, for you know Sammuy is our only
son. I trusted that maybe his mother would
not discover it. A few Sabbath evenings
since, he told us his purpose, with tears. hIis
mother, to my surprise, said,'My dear boy,
I gave you to the Lord when I gave you
birth; I have always prayed him to make
you a minister; and now I know that you
are truly called to be a missionary.'
"It reminded me of the vows I made when
I first felt my personal obligations to my Saviour; when I promised him the best gift at
any time in my hand. Surely it is my son." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER XII.
TAKING STOCK IN THE GOSPEL.
THE year passed on. Besides the Quarterly Conference, another important event
for the temporal welfare of the circuit came
with its progress. At a camp-meeting in the
adjoining circuit, the preacher in charge of
that circuit, Rev. Jabez Carson, became acquainted - with Miss Caroline, the second
daughter of Brother Badger. The young
people were mutually pleased, and soon came
to a definite understanding. The course of
their loves ran smoothly. The old gentleman had conceived quite an admiration for
the young minister, who had good natural
parts. Having been prepossessed in his favor
19*
221 
222    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
by his Christian name, and also having a
great respect for the calling, Brother B. was
rather proud of the proposed connection.
Just before the last Quarterly Conference
the event came off. They were married by
the Post-Oak preacher. All the Methodists
about Oakville were present; some from a
distance, Ilunnicut amongst the rest.  All
the plenty and comfort which characterizes
the Englishman at home, shone conspicuously
on the marriage occasion. The very idea of
finding such quarters might be held as no
ordinary temptation to a poor itinerant tq
set up his final rest. The pair were a hand
some, hearty couple.   The  old gentleman
was in his very best humor; the old lady sat
up, looking as composed as she possibly could,
during so momentous a passage in the experience of a housewife. After supper all began to feel easy.
"Well, squire," said the Englishman, "1
am very heartily glad to see you and Sister 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Wallet looking so well. I hear that you are
inaking a fine crop too."
"0O" responded the squire, "Brother Badger, there is nothing certain. I had as good
a prospect in'48."
"Yes, yes," rejoined the Englishman,
quickly, rather fearing some graveyard
turn; "and I hear that you are out as the
candidate for the Legislature: that's not uncertain, I hope, squire. No, no; I am very
sure of that," he added, in a complimentary
way, and laughing.
"0, squire," said Hlunnicut, "there was a
man talking to me about you the other day."
"Indeed!" exclaimed the squire; "who
might that be?"
"One of your opponents."
"Ah; what did he say?" asked the squire.
"Well," said ilunnicut,'-'he said he was
present, and heard your speech at the church,
when we were raising the circuit expenses:
he said it was a very fine speech, and that
223 
224    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
he was very much taken with your classical
allusions."
"Was he?"
"He really was.  He wanted me to tell
him how much everybody subscribed, which
I declined doing.  Hie said that he heard
your subscription was not large. I told him
that if that was the case, he must give you
credit for a good deal of independence, knowing, as you then did, that you were going to
be a candidate."
"Exactly so, Mr. Hiunnicut," replied the
squire; "you were quite right. You see,
MIr. Hunnicut," he added in a confidential
tone, while Brother B. passed on, "I have
had some very heavy drains on me of late
years. There's disease and death, of which
you have heard me speak-very well: then
there is Bill and Martha, both off at school
and college.  lIr.  Iunnicut, did you ever
have to pay for schooling a child away from
home?" 
PO ST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"My eldest is only four."
"Well, then, you don't know. Just let
nme tell you: how much do you suppose I
mailed to-day for Bill and his sister? Five
hundred dollars, I give you my word."
"Bill is a smart chap," said Hunnicut; "I
know that."
"That's true, too-true enough: Bill is
smart.  But he has cost me a heap of money
this last four years. Mr. Hiunnieut, when he
was at that military school, the amount that
boy spent in buttons, yes, buttons, would
have supported a smart family. You see,
they used to wear a very expensive goldwashed button, with the owner's initials on
the face; and, on parade, every button must
shine —had to: a very particular discipline,
which I always like. But the buttons often
turned out to be pinchlbeck-the rascals! I
never saw any jewelry, Mr. Itunnicut, that
was not a regular take-in: did' it not git
its name from the Jews? Well, off they had
225 
226    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
to come.  Bill was vexed enough about it,
but there was no help. Well, sir, the dozens
of buttons I have bought, at fifteen and
twenty dollars a dozen- or, rather, Bill
bought, which is all the same-while at that
school, no sensible man could believe. And
other expenses-society fees: why, sir, the
fees Bill paid would start a society from the
beginning, and keep it a-going, too.  One
good thing, he learned all they could teach
him there. So, at his request, backed by the
request of the President, I took and put him
to medicine. Have you ever noticed, SIr.
JIunnicut, that every thing that has any
leaning toward  the  grave  is expensive?
There's military schools, medical lectures,
the army, the navy, and preaching-all cost
a great deal."
"Preaching, you know," said Hunnicut,
"is more for life than death."
"Yes, of course," said the squire; "but
somehow it always points us to the grave. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT. 
Bill has this notion: he is a very observing
chap.  He tells me if I would stop spending
so much on preaching and such like, I should
not be so cramped from his small expenses.
He says it's giving him  a set against all
churches. Bill is quite seriously inclined
too. HIe wrote me a letter the other day
beginning with,
The tapering pyramid, the Egyptian's pride,
And wonder of the world,
Whose spiky top has wounded
The thick cloud, and long outlived
The angry shaking of the winter's storm,
At last, o'erspent with the injuries
Of time, gives way,' etc.
The opening of Blair's Grave, you remember."
"It opens finely. I should like to look
into it."
"Probably you would like to look into
my library. I have a fine collection on
those subjects: the cholera, the yellow fever,
the London plague, Herodotus on the Great
227 
228     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Plague, The Black Hole of Calcutta, Small
pox in the East, the African Fever, Mortuary
Statistics of Pekin, Tombs, Graves, Death,
Eternity, etc. You would be greatly interested, Mr. Hunnicut."
"I wonder that you find time to read so
much," said II.
"The truth is, Mr.  ilunnicut, I live in the
past.  Since the losses of'48, my thoughts
constantly run back to the eventful past."
"You do not wholly neglect the present?"
asked Hilunnicut, with a twinkle of his eye.
"No, sir, not wholly: I use the present;
but the melancholy certainty of the past, and
the immense uncertainty of the future, must
continually press upon every man who works
a large force."
"Bill seems to view things a good deal in
the same light. I am surprised that he
should indulge in gloomy forebodings."
"Well, Mr. Hiunnicut, Bill is a good deal
pensive for such a sprightly boy: he writes 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
that he has learned the whole of Blair's
Grave by heart, and is now committing to
memory Gray's Elegy on a Country Churchyard."
The Englishman here joined the group.
"Well," said he, " ye were on our collectionmeeting at the church.  I was going to remark that the elder's speech that day was a
very strong one; indeed it was! Should
not a man that teaches ye, said he, have a
living as much as your clerk or overseer?
Indeed, it was strong. I felt it. And why
not? should not a young man have a living,
or a married man, when he is doing his best
to preach to us?  Hias not he as much right
to it as any of us? has not my son there,
SIr. Carson, as much right to live as I, his
father-in-law, or MIrs. Badger, or any of us?
No, no:'ye must not muzzle the ox,' do ye
see!'that treadeth out the corn.''Have
we not power to eat and to drink?' says the
apostle;'have we not power to lead about a
20
229 
230    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
wife?' do ye see! and have her supported,
too.'Who goeth a warfare any time at his
own charges?' do ye see!'If we,' says the
great Paul,'have SOWII unto you spiritual
things, is it a great thing if we shall reap
your carnal things?' No, no; the elder was
right; every word was gospel. It was a
very strong speech."
The words of the Englishman caught
Sister Hiardiman's  ear.   "Now,  Brother
Badger," said she, "you are talking right:
only talk that way, and our people will,
maybe, yet come round right. They have
done wonders already since this time last
vear." 
l'OST-OAK CIRCUIT.
CHAPTER XIII.
" THERE'S A BETTER DAY A-COMING." —-OtruS.
A NEW day had dawned upon Post-Oak
Circuit. In the winding up of the year the
quarterage notes were  mostly paid.  The
stewards had to advance for some, which
were afterwards collected. The preacher
in charge and the presiding elder were paid
in full.  It very  soon came to be public
opinion, as the elder had predicted, that a
man must havre a good reason for not paying
his apportionment, or lose caste as a Methodist.
Those who know Post- Oak now, can
hardly credit the fact that for'many long
years it rested under such financial gloom.
231 
232      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
The elder remarked that "our people, at
this late day, actually need to be educated in
their duty-that many men, could they once
be started in the right way, would improve
and enlarge in their charities." This was
verified in the subsequent history of PostOak. Four years ag,o, its reputation at
Conference for paying  the preacher was
first-rate. It soon began to be noted for the
size of its missionary collection. Two years
since, its Conference collection was at the
head of the list. This year, the preacher
who was read out to "Post-Oak Circuit"
was reckoned amongst the fortunate men of
the Conference.
It should not be left out of this record
that the spiritual prospects of the circuit
began to mend about the same time with its
financial. The children of many members
had  nearly grown  up  without professing
religion, or even joining the Church.  There
was therefore a most delightful harvest 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
reaped in the revival which began at the
fourth quarterly meeting. The succeeding
year they had still a better.  In two years
after the events herein recorded, the membership of the circuit was doubled. Very
soon the meeting-houses were not large
enough at the principal appointments to
accommodate the congregations, and the
houses were either enlarged, or wholly displaced by new, more suitable, and elegant
structures.
A close observer might, with other changes,
notice that there had been some alteration
in the complexion of the Quarterly Conference: though all the brethren who composed
that memorable first Quarterly Conference
are still living.
On the edge of Oakville there stands a
white frame-house, beautifully located in a
piece of ground which measures about four
acres. Several willow-oaks stand on the
front line of the lot, and are reaching out
20*
233 
234     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
their young branches toward each other.
The fence, the stable, and all the out-houses
are in keeping with the house, which is a
tasteful specimen of rural architecture. A
woodbine has been trained, and is growing
luxuriantly all over the end of the porch,
which extends along the whole front of the
building. A lady is just now walking in
the porch, and pointing a little boy of three
summers to a horseman who is coming at a
smart pace down a hill in the distance. It
is the Rev. Jabez Carson, preacher in charge,
who is returning from a round on the circuit
to the Post-Oak Parsonage.
The final departure of the Rev. Zelophehad
Crane was an event in the history of the
Oakville appointment only second in its importance to that of his first arrival. It
appeared to the satisfaction of the First
Church that the ex-" highly popular pastor"
of Lynn had, in all, six'entire, three half,
and three one-quarter sermons These, with 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
his " serials," constituted his complete stock
of wares.  After their first blinding effect;
it was discovered by the session that they
were themselves moving on ill a circle-the
emblem of eternity-the last of one series
being but the precursor of the first of the
other. The parson was waited on at the conclusion of the seventh round. He offered to
furnish any amount of new material, if the session would furnish him with new subjects: that
his present courses of sermons and lectures
had been selected and arranged exhaustively,
with an especial view to exhaust the entire
circle of history, science, ethics, and theology
This proposition was triumphantly unanswer
able. About the twelfth round a call providen tially arose from a town where the "learned
pastor" had lectured once. After great hesi tation, correspondence, wish for Divine guid auce, reluctant consent, etc., etc., the call,
being slightly increased, was accepted.  To
follow the fortunes of the reverend gentle
235 
236       POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
man: in the course of the year after, he
received another call, which hlie accepted,
still following the star of duty. This proved
a very effectual call, as it was the last ever
made the "beloved pastor." He found in
the congregation an old planter who  had
fifty negroes, and a daughter, of otherwise
ordinary attractions, his only child. The
parson courted and married her. The old
planter died. Then from all the North-east
the Cranes came, one by one, like the first
birds of the season.  One is a schoolmaster,
another the settled pastor of the church, a
third has married a cousin of MArs. Zelophehad,
another is trying to marry another cousin,
and another is an agent for a corn-crusher,
with the right of the State. They are all
pretty much "in the one calling." Thle old
man himself presently came down to Egypt.
They say he likes it. Soon after his arrival,
he remarked that "Coloreds help can't do as
much work in a day as white help, by more 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
than half." It is thought by some that
at present the Crane family are doing thut
little to dispel the moral darkness of the
great South-west.
The pastor who now fills the pulpit of the
First Church of Oakville, immediately succeeded the one whose history wound up so
prosaically. Ile was on a visit to Oakville,
when, during his preaching, a sinner was
cut to the heart by the word, and presently
professed "peace." Being a true minister
of the cross, as well as a theological graduate, he reckoned the incident an indication
that God called him to that field. Upon
the application of the session, hlie accepted
their call. Happy day was it for the religious interests of the whole region, when he
became the pastor of the First Church at
Oakville.    He  provokes  the  Methodist
preacher to love and good works.  A good
preacher, a constant pastor, a studious, im
proving, holy man, our preachers have to
237 
238      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
work hard to preach acceptably with him in
the same town and the same day. Not long
since, he improved a Sabbath when our people would be at liberty to attend the First
Church, to preach upon the "just measure
of Christian benevolence." He gave our
people a high fall. In tihe course of his
sermon, he illustrated by citing Mr. Wesley:
his devotion to doing good; the large sums
which he gave away; and lauded him until
the Methodists were in raptures. "And yet,'
said he, "I show unto you a more excellent
way.  Behold one who gave away five times
as much as John Wesley-iMr. Amos Lawrence, of Boston."
IIe then read from President Hopkins's
discourse upon the life of this remarkable
man.  Text: "When the ear heard me, it
blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it
gave witness to me; because I delivered the
poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him
that had none to help him. The blessing of 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
him that was ready to perish came upon me,
and I caused the widow's heart to sing for
joy." Job xxix. 11-13.
"The features in the life of AMr. Lawrence which, notwithstanding his desire and
endeavors to avoid notoriety, distinguished
him above all other men of his time, were
the extent, the variety, and the manner of
his munificence. In these respects we have
not known his equal.
"laving acquired an ample fortune-as
much as he supposed would'be good for his
descendants' -he determined, many years
before his death, not to allow his property
to increase by accumulation, but to expend
the whole of his income in donations for the
benefit of others. To aid him in carrying
out this resolution to the letter, and in accordance with the system which marked all
his business transactions, he was accustomed
to take an accurate account of his property
239 
240      POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
at the beginning of each year. The follow
ing is his entry, January 1, 1852:
"' The value of my property is somewhat
more than it was a year ago, and I praj
God that I may be faithful in its use.  A3
life seems now more likely to be spared foi
a longer season than for many years past
and I never enjoyed myself more highly
Praise the Lord, 0 my soul!
"'P. S.  The outgoes for all objects, since
January 1, 1842-ten years-have been six
hundred  and four thousand  dollars, more
than five-sixthls of which have been applied
to making other people happy; and it is no
trouble to find objects for all I have to spare.'
"Hie survived one year longer, and died
before the dawn of the next New Year's
day. From a comparison of the above statement with the details on which it was founded,
and with subsequent entries, it is ascertained
that the amount of his expenditures for chari 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
table purposes, during the last eleven years
of his life, was five hundred and twenty-five
thousand dollars! From 1829 to 1842, he
gave one hundred and fourteen thousand
dollars; and, considering his known liberality and habits of systematic charity, from
the very beginning of his career, it is'safe
to assert that, during his life, hle expended
SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS for the
benefit of his fellow-men!'"
"What do  you think of that, Brother
Goodsine," asked Sister Hardiman, as soon
as church was out. "Is that true, that a
Congregationalist has surpassed Mr. Wesley?"
I hope so," he replied: "'would thlat all
the Lord's people were prophets.' It is high
time the Congregationalists, or some other
people, were doing it; for there are no Methodists that I know of either surpassing or
approaching the example of Mr.Wesley.  Mir.
21
241 
242    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Amos Lawrence, I doubt not, gave away more
dollars than )lr.Wesley, and may be favorably
compared with him as a Christian giver.
Thank God, the right stock has not yet run
out! it flourishes in our day.  The Congregationalists and Presbyterians are ahead of
us in this matter.  It is no uncommon thing
to hear of their people giving tens of thousands at a time, to endow colleges, to advance missions, or to build churches. With
us it is a rare thing. Can it be that the
Holy Spirit has cut us out after a smaller
pattern!"
"Mr. Wesley was no scant pattern."
"No, sister, no; but the race of Wesleys
is nearly extinct. We are not Wesleys."
The graveyard at Postville has been handsomely enclosed. There is a tomb there of
white marble, which rises out of a smooth
green sod, surrounded by a light railing.
The inscription on it is as follows' 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
HERE LIES
THIE REV. WILLIAM HYMES,
A Member of the Red River Conference,
Our dear Minister,
Who died in Postville
Of Yellow Fever,
Aug. 25, 1847,
In the midst of his usefulness,
Aged 23 years.
This is to his Memory,
By the
MEMBERS OF THE POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
It was in the early morning when a grayheaded negro and two plough-boys alighted
from their teams, and came into the graveyard.  As they approached the tomb, they
laid their hats upon the ground.
"Ah, boys," exclaimed the old man, in a
subdued tone, as he put his hanid upon the
-ailing, "this was our friend."
243 
244.  POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
" What was it he told you, daddy?" asked
one of them.
"' Uncle John,' said lhe,'I am very glad
to see you: I shall never preach'to you
again.''0, OAr. Hymes,' said I,'I am very
sorry to see you so ill: you have been a
very comforting preacher to me, sir.''It is
a great comfort to me now to hear you say
that, Uncle John,' said he. All the time,"
added the old man, "his face was happy and
his mind strong.'Tell my brethren,' he
said,'that you saw me die on the circuit.
0 yes, I could die twice to save one sinner!'"
While the old man spoke, the tears fell
like rain. Presently he dropped on his
knees in silent prayer, and the boys followed. In a few moments they were on
their teams, singing, as the sun rose upon
the field:
"He's gone, he's gone, his work is done;
He's fought his fight, his race is run;
And out of sight, beyond the sun,
He's living now, in glory! 
POST-OAK C.RC UIT.
CHAPTER XIV.
TOO MANY EFFECTUAL DOORS OPEN —MISSION  ARY MALT A DESIDERATUM-RUNNING TWO
SAWS.
To no one was the circuit more attached
or more indebted than to Brother Jacob
Oakhart, "the negro preacher."
Very little has been said in this history of
him, excepting to give his own account of
his      own sermon.  Whenever he preached or
exhorted-for he was only an exhortcr —a
large number of white persons were present;
and it gave him an opportunity, which he improved, of hitting the white brethren while
preaching to the colored.  His missionary
sermons, which came off once a year, usually
drew nearly the whole of the white congre        21*
245, 
246     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
gation, as they were announced the week before; and Brother Oakhart usually "spread
himself" on the occasion. Though the white
brethren of course felt that nothing that was
said was meant for them, yet it was evident
that the rough eloquence of the "negro
preacher" told favorably upon the masters and
mistresses-fully as much as the taminer and
smoother speech of their own pulpit. It was
on such a missionary occasion at the beginning of the year, after the quarterly meeting,
etc., that Brother Oakhart preached from 1
Cor. xvi. 9: "For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many
adversaries."
"Take the map of the world, my brethren,
the geography hung on the wall, and, if it's
not too old, measure the fly-specs on it, and
you have the bigness of the mission-stations
of the Church. We have been shut out a
great deal from different countries, for which
we ought to be thankful; for if we had not 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
been shut out, it would have been all the same
thing-we never should have gone in.  But
now, hear it in grief, thie doors are open, and
a good many of them at that.  First, there
is China: the Chinese, olive-skins, and their
eyes set cornering. There's where we get
our tall fowls from. They can nearly all
read-better schools than we have in this
country even-people thick as bees, and as
industrious-babies in the way-they stuff
rice in their babies' mouths, and choke them
to death on purpose. Very smart people,
but they kill their children; bury their dead
kin near the house, and keep them like sweetpotatoes; write their names on a board, ftheir
grandfathers' names, and pray to the board.
They need this gospel. Next, there's Siam:
Siamese twins, you know.  The King of Siam
says, Come along. Then we have Birmah:
Brahma-Brahma-Pootra-only  they never
eat chickens, lest they should eat.some friend
whom they believe has been turned into one.
247 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Then India; where mace and cocoanuts and
nutmegs grow, and the air is spiced; there
are countless thousands crawling in the dust
before grim idols and cruel wheels. Then
Madagascar, where the queen could eat a
missionary, but the young king has joined the
Church. Then Africa, where you all came
from; there the people are thick as leaves on
the trees, and are counted only as the sands
of Sahara; there they sell each other, and
eat each other on a pinch; there when a king
dies they kill two or three dozen of his servants to go along and wait on him.  There
you have boa-constrictors, and lions, and
oran g-outangs, and elephants, and every
sort of terrible things-but no missionaries,
except a few crouched up in one corner.
Then South America, where the pope and
the devil reign turn about; some chance
there-inot much; a good deal in Mexico,
New Granada, and Nicaragua.  So long as
thie Church won't do any thing there, I an]
248 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
glad there's a chance of United States soldiers doing something.  Then the Sandwich
Islands; some chance of their being annexed; there they have a pure gospel. Then
Borneo, where every respectable citizen has
a string of skulls and gourds hanging up in
the porch to dry. Plants half the year, and
pirates half; lays by his crop, rows off iln
his war-canoe, he and his neighbors; lands
on some island, burns their houses, robs and
murders till he is satisfied, comes home,
gathers in his crop, and triumphantly dries
his skulls. The English have sent a frigate,
and, while the Church has been holding
missionary mneetings, have cannonaded the
haunts of these bloodthirsty wretches and
opened the doors to the Church. The Lord
makes the wrath of man to praise him.
"Thus, by one thing and another, cannons
and Bibles, merchants and missionaries, treaties and traffic, guns and guano, men-of-war
and men of God, the world has been opened,
249 
250       PosT-OAK  CIRCUIT.
its doors have been unlocked or forced until
they stand wide, thousands of them, open
wide to the Church. What is wanted?
3Money.  What will send the light of heaven
into bloody Borneo? Money. What will
keep rice out of the babies' mouths? Money.
What will send the pope and the devil to
the same bed? Money. Money will print
Bibles in every tongue, and send them to
every land. Money will raise the standard
of a crucified Saviour Him that was sold
for money shall by money be lifted to the
gaze of dying myriads. Sinful silver owes
us that.
"But where is the money? In every house,
in every pocket. There's many a wedge of
gold hid. There is scarcely a Church society, even the smallest, but you may see in
it a Dives. Jerusalem had one. This Christian land can send ten thousand to keep him
of Jerusalem company, and have enough left
to make a full crop the next year.  Whence 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
came all this money? What! so pio us, and
so rich too! If you are pious, how came you
rich?  If you are rich, how keep you pious?
How keep you your piety and your riches
together?  Hark!'You have robbed me!'
Who art thou, Lord?'I am Jesus, whom
thou hast robbed.' Wherein have we robbed thee?'Behold, the hire of the laborers
who have reaped down your fields, which is of
you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries
of them which have reaped are entered into
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have
heaped treasure together for the last days.
Ye have-lived in pleasure on the earth, and
been wanton. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as
it were fire. You eat up my people as you
eat bread. Ye are cursed with a curse; for
ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.'
The Church robs God of the money that was
put into her hands for the benefit of the
251 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
world. She has become a den of robbers.
'What, ithe Christian Chlurch?' Cliristian
indeed! If the whole Christian Church of
this country goes on at the rate she has been,
giving three millions of dollars a year for
the conversion of the world, it will take a
thousand years for her to give as much as
the Jewish Church gave to build the Temple
of Jerusalem! Do you call that Christian?
three thousand millions for the Temple:
three millions for a dying universe!
"I am glad, brethren, that you are black,
and not white, that you are poor and not
rich, that you are the servants and not the
rulers, that you are owned and not owners.
You will have enough to answer for, without answering for the blood and bones of
the heathen, their miseries and murders,
their dreadful darkness, old ulcers, devilworship, and grub-worm soup.
"Under ground they read the missionary
reports! the tears in the report of the secre
252 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
tary, and the coppers in the report of the
treasurer!  They do not read "Punch," but
"Reports." They know down there how
much everybody has, and they watch how
much everybody gives.
"The Church is agoing to do something,
for she is an angel having the everlasting
gospel. She is clad in orient robes, has a
sweet face, washes in clouds of rosy dew,
sings thy divine airs of another world, and
speaks eloquently of the kingdoms of this
world, soon to become the kingdoms of our
God  and of his Christ.   She intends  a
large flight presently, to unfold her message.
She sings and plumes herself, and plumes
herself and sings.  0, what a blessing she
has in store for every heathen wretch!  Yet
never flies. For her anklets and bracelets
are of heavy gold, and a thousand ingots
are sewed up in her girdle.  John's angel
swept the mid-heavens; but this beautiful
creature trails along the ground. To the
22
253 
254      POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
poor  heathen the gates of heaveln swing
heavily on their golden hinges.
"0  ye children of the sun, who  have
drunk in the light until your skins are black,
so is it with the hearts of the race called
Christians. The love of self drinks in all.
The love of money breeds more darkness
than one world can hold.  What! will'they
make a mint of heaven, and coin the pavement of the City of the great King? ~Ay, they
will! they do! By every unpitied barbarian that dies the Church saves money. 0,
if there were no foreign sinners! then would
the Church's crown appear in greater lustre!
The conversion of the heathen will be, perhaps, the most costly piece of work on the
earth when completed.  Missionaries it migit
cost, (for them we could afford,) did it not
cost so much money.'0 dreadful cry for
money!  My  good  Christian  money!  0
my money! must I send thee out on a mission to fools-maybe on a fool's mission! 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
O heaven-born Charity, pity us! Help the
heathen, for mercy's sake! Help all of us,
0 do! This Pagan load never fell upon our
Church till now; I never felt it till now.
Would the heathen were well saved and
hearsed! If they are to be saved on this
wise, we are ruined! if they are ruined, we
shall not be saved; so, any way, we are
ruined. Who are these heathen, anyhow?
Who says heathen? Was I not a heathen?
Did I not take my chance? Who helped
mne? Were we not all heathens once? Who
helped us? They have their chance. Am I
now to be taxed, made poor-in fact, turned
into a heathen again?-for what?  For the
heathen! Turn a good Christian into a
heathen, to turn a heathen into a Christian!
No, sir: I am a heathen myself.  I will be
the heathen. I want more preaching myself:
send me the gospel; call me heathen; don't
be afraid —'ll stand it.  It costs'nothing to
be a heathen; but, 0 misery, to be a Chlris
I
255 
256    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
tian! It used to cost nothing to be a Chris
tian. But these last days-since missions,
and Bible societies, and tracts, and travelling agents, and secretaries, to every form
of heathen, have gathered the Church-I
am ruined!* absolutely stripped! I have
given away all I am worth; we are starved;
we make nothing; I have not made a cent in
two years. Who will bury us: the heathen?
Who will feed us: the heathen? Who will
send us the gospel when we run out: the
heathen? Not a bit of it. No, sir: get me
* Being "ruined" by over-giving: not an unusual
fear, though in most cases a little premature. The
following should sink into such as either have been
ruined, or fear they will be, by too much liberality:
"Brethren, [said the speaker,] I have heard of
churches starving out from a saving spirit; but I have
never heard of one dying of benevolence. And if I
could hear of one such, I would make a pilgrimage to it
by night, and in that quiet solitude, with the moon
shining and the aged elm waving, I would put my:
hands on the moss-clad ruins, and, gazing on the venerable scene, would say,' Blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord!'" 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
to heaven if you can, but don't rob me on
thie way.'
"Thus,
"' O'er dreary wastes they weep each other's woe.'*
"' They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. iHe
gave them their request; but sent leanness
into their souls.' Psalm cvi. 14, 15. The
angel has rolled back the stone from the
door, but the Church prefers to stay a while
in her sepulchre.
"For every apostle there are a legion of
'adversaries.' Who enters this door enters
it in the face of a scowling crowd. Difficulties there may be, covetous croakers there
are; but let him who loves Christ enter
boldly. Enter, that no man may take thy
crown. Send out life, that you may shine as
the firmament.   Deny  thyself, that multitudes may rise up in the judgment and call
*Pope.
22*
II
257 
258    POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
thee blessed. Better in that day be blessed,
than cursed of the heathen. Part with
earth; suffer the pang; and take the heavenly pathway of duty.
"And now for the collection.  Aunt Minty's master was once taking up a missionary
hat-collection among our white brethren; as
he passed her by, the old lady called to him,
and put in the hat six fresh eggs. The old
lady was not behind the times. In England
they use eggs to get up a missionary feeling.
Missionary breakfast at the London Hotel:
every thing on the table made out of eggs.
Ham and eggs, turkey, duck, chicken, pheasant, turtle-soup, chicken-salad, sponge-cake,
frozen custard, egg-nog, etc. With wisdom,
wit, wine, and victuals, their bowels move
toward a world in want. You cannot move
the hearts of some people until you stir their
stomachs. The Lord was merciful in this
matter.  HIad great barbacues at the Temple. Priests read the law; the people lis 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
tened: they knew that the dinner was getting done.  Maybe we in this country work
too much on a cold collar and an empty
stomach. Who knows but Jonathan has a
genius for giving after dinner? MAost of our
missionary addresses sound like after-dinimer
speeches; only we have no religious wines
in this country, and all our liquors are sinful. No Barclay, Perkins & Co.'s Entire.
Poor heathen! 0, if we had some good religious malt liquor to help out our missionary spirits!  Missionary meetings in this
country, monstrous dry work.   The Goths
drank their savage wines out of the skulls
of their enemies.   Enough  Indian skulls
about Oakville to give a tun of sweet-potato
beer a fine missionary flavor. This zeal is
too dry; too dry, depend upon it; must line
it with something pleasant. The Evil Spirit
is seeking dry places. English people give
him no quarter.  Smoking meats and large
sacrifices —' to your health and the heathen.
259 
260     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
Duty made easy; salvation of the world
made pleasant.
"We can try next time. What you do
now must be done dry; just so.  Nothing
but the plaintive wants of the unhappy:
only to ring over their dark wastes,'To you
this day is born a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord.' Dry work, brethren; but I reckon
you'll do it. As your Saviour asks you,
please to tell the poor souls of his death and
love."
Among the hearers of Brother Oakhart
was Colonel Hector G. W. Barb. The Colonel had honored the occasion with his presence.  The Colonel gave something at the
proper time. The boy who carried the hat
around, looked up at the slight sound, and
saw the Colonel's face. The Colonel had a
face. The Colonel was rich as cream; lived
pretty much on cream; and ate his own
cream. The Colonel was moral; could talk
you an hour on pure religion; he liked to 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
see that kind.  The Colonel did not like so
muich trapping in some churches-pews, and
your high-salaried clergy; costly edifices,
frescoed,  with  choirs,  and  damask- all
wrong. "The house of God, sir, should be
substantial; plain, neat, and cheap, like our
own houses."
The Colonel was so kind as to express
himself pleased with the sermon.  "Strong,
practical, pointed discourse; nourishing,
rough, and plain as the food we eat." Had
never heard  the "negro preacher" before,
but had heard of him.
The Colonel was not a member of any
Church.  Mrs. Hector G. W. Barb was-of
the First Church of Oakville. The Colonel,
however, was, on a Sabbath morning, a regular attendant at the Methodist.  "Its primitive, apostolical, popular, experimental, and
zealous ministry, doctrines, and discipline,
are the very thing, sir, for plain and unpretending men like myself."
261 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
The  Colonel's house  was  an  imposing
structure of brick, stuccoed and washed
white, with a row of pillars supporting airy
porches on three sides. It was furnished
with every costly comfortable thing, and
suggested wealth and ease whichever way
the eye turned. The parlor windows opened
on lawns, shaded with grand old pecan-trees,
and gardens which showed that no culture
or pains were spared to secure whatever was
rare or beautiful. The Colonel usually rode
the best horse and drove the finest carriage
in the settlement. When one of the bishops
once passed through that part of the country,
the Colonel had him to dinner. The Colonel
talked in great admiration of Methodism,
its missions to the slave, its itinerancy, and
its pioneering spirit:-the Bishop wished so
much that the Colonel were a member, and
thought what a tower of strength the Colonel would be to the cause in those parts.
The new preacher, whoever he might be, or
262 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
the new elder, when he saw on what a horse
the Colonel rode to church, and in what a
house the Colonel lived, and what a fine,
tall, well-favored, dignified-looking gentle man the Colonel was, usually preached right
at the Colonel for the first three months.
The Colonel would let you preach to his negroes on the plantation, or let them go to
the meeting-house, one or the other, as you
pleased. The preachers tried preaching in
the Colonel's sug,ar-house for two years.
The ruling elder of the First Church took
occasion to ask the Colonel for AMrs. Barb's
contribution for the support of their pastor.
He had been referred to the Colonel by the
Colonel's lady: she never gave any thing
herself, but left it to the Colonel, in such
matters, to do what hlie thought right. "We
are greatly in arrears to our pastor, I assure you, Colonel."
"You know, sir, that my preferences are
all Methodistic.  Mrs. Barb, to be sure, does
263 
264      POST-OAK  CIRCUIT.
not agree with me; she attends your Church,
and I do not object: in matters of religion
we should all be spontaneous and unconstrained."
"I was not questioning your preferences,
Colonel; it was only on account of your lady
that we expected you to aid us."
"Well, I am unfortunate, I confess," rejoined the Colonel. "The First Church
comes, on one side, on account of Mirs. Barb.
and one of the Methodist stewards on the
other side, on my own account: really, you
gentlemen of the Church are rather hard;
you are running two saws on me. However,
I suppose I must do something. I will speak
with Mrs. Barb about it."
" Have you any thought of trying Colonel
Hlector G. W. to-day?" asked John Bear of
Brother Goodsine, as they came out of the
church.
"Yes, possibly," answered the old man.
"I suppose patience should have its perfect 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
work in that case.  The Colonel has never
yet paid the missionary any thing for preach.
ing to his negroes."
"So great an admirer, too, of missions to
the slave," said John Bear. " I see the ruling
elder has just had a pull at him; but the Colonel is such a strong Methiodist in his feelings, I rather think the elder didn't bag much
game."
In riding home it so happened that Brother Goodsine fell in with the Colonel. The
old man had long since dispensed with all
ceremony in this case. After some weather
preliminaries, and much high compliment
upon the" negro preacher" by the Colonel,
"Well, Colonel Barb," said the old man, "we
are still expecting something from you on the
old missionary account, and for our last year's
preacher."
"Our  duty, sir, to support the gospel;
though I fear, MIr. Goodsine,'that your
preachers are getting out of the good old
23
265 
266     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
ways: it's taking more money to support
them than it used to in the days of Asbury."
"If it does, I do not know where they get
it," replied the old man: "where do you
suppose it comes from, Colonel?"
" I'm sure, sir, I know not; I only surmised and feared that such was the case, I
wish to see Methodist preachers poor and
plain and pious, such as they used to be in
Georgia in the days of old Hope Hull."
"Any amount you may pay, Colonel, I can
promise, shall go to settle a bill for the mere
necessaries of life."
"0, as to that, it is a small matter-we
ares peculiar and unfortunate: Mrs. Barb has
become a member of the First Church, and
I, you know, am of you. Here are two sets
and sorts of claims and applications-very
much like running two saws on us, Mr. Goodsine. IHowever, Mrs. Barb and I must talk
the matter over."
"I will tell you, Colonel Barb," replied the 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
old man, smiling good-humoredly, "I think it
is you that are running the saws, not we."
After they parted company, the old man
rode on alone, shaking his sides.  "Well,
well, did ever any one hear the like of that!
Colonel Hector George Washington Barb
actually running two saws! Well, well."
267 
268    POST-OAK CIRCUIT
CHAPTER XV.
THE SETTING SUN.
AN old man leaning on his staff sat at the
door of a small cottage in Oakville.
"Great grace that old man to him given had;
For God he often saw from heaven's hight;
All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,
And through great age had lost their kindly sight."
It was old Father  Hemphill.  His  granddaughter Molly, a sweet girl of eleven, had
just finished giving him his bread and milk
supper.
"Has the sun gone down yet, my darling?"
"No, Grandpa," replied Molly, "he is just
beginning to touch the hills with his lower
edge." 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
" I thought so; is not the sky very clear?"
"Yes, Grandpa, there is not a cloud to be
seen."
"Then I can see a little, my darling. 0,
how sublime is the great arch of the sky!
Nothing in nature so enlarges our sense of
being; it seems to give us room; the height
of it is so satisfying to the desire which man
has for an unbounded home. In thinking over
all the objects which I most miss from dimness of sight, next to your sweet face and
your mother's, my darling, I oftenest wish
to see once more the blue sky. What a delightful balmy day this has been, darling!
I love the fall of the year in this Southern
latitude, more than any other season. In the
North they have but an imperfect notion of
this delighitful temperature; the sensation is
to me that of bathing in air."
"Did you ever live in the North, Grandpa?"
asked Molly.
"0O yes, my darling; there are few sections
23*
269
2 y 
270     POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
of country, in the North or South, in the East
or West, where grandpa has not been at some
time.  For forty-five years I received an appointment as an itinerant preacher from our
dear bishops. But from the waters of the
Monongahela down to the Attakapas country
the greater part of my life as a preacher was
spent."
"I think you said the Attakapas was a
tribe of Indians, Grandpa: did you use to
preach to the Indians?"
"Yes, indeed, Grandpa has many a time
preached through an interpreter. Many a
time have I slept in the woods; for years, as
often there as elsewhere. This whole country
was then thinly settled.   I labored hereabouts, and all over the West and South-west,
among the early settlers."
"Was it not a hard life, Grandpa?" asked
Molly.
"It was a very glorious life, my dearest;
yes, a hard life, but a useful, noble toil. 0, 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
would that I could still preach the gospel to
poor sinners, and minister consolation to the
people of God!"
"Were you poor then too, Grandpa?'"
"Yes, my dear, I was poorthen too-often
very poor; though sometimes I had a little
beforehand. I have been once or twice, of
late, rather more dependent than any time
before. For when I was younger and could
go from place to place, God always opened
the heart of some Lydia, or some Widow of
Sarepta, to shelter and feed me.  But, my
darling, God is still good, and the pleasures
of memory, at the close of a life which has
been spent in trying to do good, are calm
and sweet to the soul as this fall-sunset."
"But just the thought of being poor in
old age, Grandpa, makes me wish not to live
to be old if I am to be poor," said Molly.
"Now suppose, Grandpa, you had neither
ma nor me to wait on you, and give you
your bread and milk: what could you do?"
271. 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT.
"Ah, my darling, the Lord has many ways.
He will fulfil his promises; and he has said
that he will not see the righteous forsaken."
" 0, Grandpa!" exclaimed Molly," I think
I see old Mrs. Hiardiman and another lady
coming-the new preacher's wife, I think."
The two ladies came upon a rather unusual
mission: they were bringing the old, wornout itinerant a new suit of clothes, and,
what was still better, were the bearers of a
letter containing a year's quarterage, (old
style,) one hundred dollars.
"I wonder if the old man is at home,"
said Mrs. Carson.
"0, yes,"  answered  Sister Hardiman;
"he does not often stir out. Hie is very
systematic; and I expect, as it's sunset, we
shall find the old man eating his bread and
milk.  Sweet old man! he never complains.
0, how often have I prayed for such a day
as this! and now the Lord has heard me.
Our people are awakening to their duty;
272 
POST-OAK CIRcUIT.
and, what is better, beginning to realize the
pleasure and spiritual profit which flow from
doing it. But here is the cottage of his
daughter."
"There they doe find that goodly aged sire,
With snowy lockes adowne his shoulders shed;
As hoary frost with spangles doth attire
The mossy brannehes of an oke half-ded."
After the usual salutations, the ladies told
the old man the object of their visRt, and
handed him the suit of clothes and the
money-letter.
"Molly, my darling," said the old man,
"did I not just tell you that the Lord had
many ways to fulfil his promises? Molly,"
continued he, addressing the ladies, "gets a
little frightened sometimes, when she sees
the meal getting low in the barrel.  But,"
hlie added, "this is no ordinary supply. It
has been a long time since my dear brethren
sent me so much  if, indeed, ever.  Tell my
dear friends of Post-Oak that, with Paul, I
273 
27 4     P0 ST-OAK CIRCUIT.
can say,'I rejoice in the Lord greatly that
now, at the last, your care of me hath flourished again.  Not that I speak in respect
of want; for I have learned in whatsoever
state I am, therewith to be content.  I know
both how to be abased and I know how to
abound: everywhere and in all things I am
instructed both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need. I can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding ye have well
done that ye did communicate with my
affliction. Not because I desire a gift; but
I desire fruit that may abound to your account.  But I have all and abound: I am
full, having received the things which were
sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a
sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God."'
"What a fine old man!" exclaimed MArs.
Carson, as they left the house. "It is worth
half a life of common pleasure to be the
bearer of a gift to such a noble spirit. How 
POST-OAK CIRCUIT,
much like an aged apostle he looked when
he repeated that beautiful scripture, and
gave us his blessing!"
She waited for an answer from Sister
Hardimian, and then saw that the old lady
was weeping.
275 
0 
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
THE HEBREW MISSIONARY: Essays, Exegetical and
Practical, on the Book of Jonah. By the Rev.
Joseph Cross, D.D. 18mo., pp. 242. Price 40 cts.
This book is a valuable contribution to our Church literature-it
exhibits great research, and abounds in eloquent passages and valuable reflections. The engravings and maps illustrative of Nineveh,
as brought to light by Layard and others, add great interest to the
w,ork.
HOME; OR THE WAY TO MAKE HOME HAPPY. By
the Rev. David Hay. With an Introduction by the
Rev. Alfred Barrett. Price 30 cts.
The author, as well as his endorser, is an estimable Wesleyan
minister in England.  His treatise ought to be in every heme where
the English language is spoken.
MEMOIRS OF THE REV. THOMAS SPENCER, of Liver
pool. By Thomas Raffles, LL. D., his Successor in
the Pastoral Office. Price 30 cts.
A beautifuli narrative of the brief and brilliant career of a lovely
young minister, who was drowned in the Mersey.
FRANK NETHERTON; or, the Talisman. Price JO CLb
The principal character of this work is beautifilly drawn, and in
it a boy's religion is charmingly described.
LESSONS FROM  NATURE: in Six Narratives.   By the
Author of "The Week."   Price 40 cts.
A revised edition of one of Mrs, Cheap's engaging and instructive
volumes.
WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. Price 35 cts.
The phenomena of organic life, in numerous particulars, are
happily brought to view in this admirable volume.
R"tttohist (Epistopat lturte2ent, 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH.
THE CHRISTIAN FATHER'S PRESENT TO HIS CHIL      DREN. By J. A. James. Price 50 cts.
This work is written in a graceful style, and is fill of excellent
suggestions, cautions, and counsels. A few editorial notes and cor rections have been made where the author's theological views ap.
peared to be defective, and inconsistent with the general strain of
the volume.
PLANTS AND TREES OF SCRIPTURE. Price 30 cts.
In revising this work, the editor has arranged the subjects in
alphabetical order, and illustrated the letter-press by a great many
elegant engravings, executed expressly for this edition.
GLIMPSES OF THE DARK AGES. Price 35 cts.
THE WORLD OF WATERS. By Fanny Osborne. With
illustrations. Two vols. 18mo., pp. 186, 224. Price
70 cts.
A couple of fascinating and instructive volumes.  The tales and
narratives beguile, like sailors' yarns, the voyage over the world of
waters. The descriptions and anecdotes blend the charm of romance
with the credibility of truth. The illustrations are superb.
MEMOIR OF JOHN HUSS.  Price 30 cts.
ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH. Price 30 cts.
FAMILY GOVERNMENT. By Bishop Andrew. Price
30 cts.
BEREAVED PARENTS CONSOLED. By the Rev. John
Thornton.  Carefully revised: with an Introduction
and Selection of Lyrics for the Bereaved. By T. 0.
Summers, D.D. 18mo., pp. 144. Price, full gilt, 40
cts.; in extra binding, 75 cts.; gilt backs, 30 cts.    24mo., pp. 144. Price, in muslin, 25 cts.
This is an elegant volume. Its contents are adapted to administer
comfort to the Jacobs and IRachels who weep for their children
because they are not. They will scarcely ",refilse to be comforted"
by th3 consolatory topics so judiciously presented in this excellent
work.
THE  STEAM  ENGINE.  Edited by Thomas 0. Summers,
D.D. 18mo., pp. 188. Price 30 cts.
A capital compa,nion in a steamboat or car. 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH.
LIFE AND TIMES OF LEO THE TENTH. Price 30 cts.
A competent pen, like that which produced this volume, could
scarcely fail to make an interesting book on such a theme as this.
LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLEMAGNE. Price 30 cts.
It contains as much information concerning the great Charles and
his times as one mighlt desire.
THE CRUSADES. Price 40 cts.
A concise, judicious history of the holy wars.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF LYING IN ALL ITS BRANCHES.
By Amelia Opie. Price 45 cts.
A cheap and handsome edition of this great classic.
SKETCHES FOR YOUTH.  By Caesar Malan. Price 25 cts.
FANNY, THE FLOWER-GIRL; and the Infant's Prayer.
By Selina Bunbury. Price 20 cts.
CONVENIENT FOOD. Price 20 cts.
The foregoing are narratives for the little folks, equally useful
and entertaining.
THE CLAREMONT TALES; or, Illustrations of the Be    atitudes. Price 30 cts.
These popular tales occupy a high rank in the species of religious
literature to which they belong.
BOATMAN'S DAUGHTER: A Narrative for the Learned
and Unlearned. By Alfred Barrett. 18mo., pp.132.
Price 30 cts.
Good judges have assigned this book a place with the "Dairymen's
D)aughlter"-a sufficient recommendation. It is adorned with a
handsome Frontispiece.
THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS FROM THIS WORLD TO
THAT WHICH IS TO COME. Delivered under the
Similitude of a Dream. By John Bunyan. New
edition, with a Biographical Introduction by Thomas
0. Summers, D.D., and handsome illustrations. 18mo.
In two Parts. Part I., pp. 272. Part II., pp. 242.
This Christian classic is presented in a very elegant dress. The
two parts are bound in separate volumes, for the convenience of
Sunday-school libraries. Price 30 cts. per volume. It is also bound
iD one volume, pp. 514. Price 60 cts. 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH.
BIBLE READINGS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR.
Specially designed for Children.   6  vols., 196 pp.
each. Price $2.00 for the entire set.
These readings go all through the Bible. The language is re.
markable for its beautiful simplicity.  The volumes are illustrated
by a dozen fine engravings. The set is a capital present to a child.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER; or, the Catechetical
Office.   By Thomas 0. Summers, D.D.  18mo., pp. 144.
Price 30 cts.
This work discusses the most interesting questions connected
with the Catechetical System-the Teacher's Qualifications, Diffi
colties, and Encouragements.  It exhibits the obligations of pastors
and teachers to the children of the Church, and shows how the)
may be discharged.
HOME TRUTHS. By the Rev. J. C. Ryle, B. A. 18mo.
pp. 324. Price 50 cts.
This book is full of plain, pointed observations, strikingly adapted
to elicit serious thought, and to induce holy living.
LONDON IN THE OLDEN TIME; or, Sketches of the
English Metropolis, from its Origin to the End of
the Sixteenth Century. Price 35 cts.
LONDON IN MODERN TIMES; or, Sketches of the great
Metropolis  during  the  last two Centuries.   Price
35 cts.
These are life-like "Sketches"-a couple of sterling volumes
The engravings of the Crystal Palace and London Bridge are elegant
FIFTY BEAUTIFUL BALLADS.  Price 40 cts.
FIFTY FINE POEMS. Price 40 cts.
A couple of elegant volumes, containing some of the cream of
English poetry. They are adorned with numerous embellishments
C,EREMONIES OF MODERN JUDAISM.  By HermaD
Baer. With an Introduction by Thomas 0. Summers
Price 45 cts.
The author-an educated Israelite, thcughli now a Christian-if
tamiliarly acquainted with the ceremonies of modern Jtunaism: he
has described them with accuracy.  Some elegant engravings embellish the interesting volume.
CHARACTERS, SCENES, AND INCIDENTS OF THE
REFORMATION. Two vols. Price 60 cts. 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE M. E. CHURCH. SOUTH.
I[EMOIR OF OLD HUMPHREY;  with Gleanings from
his Portfolio, in Prose and Verse. 18mo., pp. 272.
Price 40 cents.
The perusal of this beautiful biography will give an interest to
the various publications of Mr. Mogridge, not inferior to that throw u
around themi by the previous incogniteo of the author.  The copy,
of which this is a fa.ithfull reprint, is one of the new edition of the
London Religious Tract Society, in whose service the subject of the
MIemoir employed. for nmaiy years, his ready and prolific peli. The
Memoir should accompany our uniformn edition of Old IIumphrey's
Worlis-a capital series, which should be in every Sunday-schlool
and Family Library: they are as follows:
Cheerful Chapters, 30 cts.; Country Tales for the Young,
30 cts.; Chapters for Children, 30 cts.; Old Michael
and Young Maurice, 35 cts.; Thoughts for the
Thoughtful, 40 cts.; Old Humphrey's Observations,
40 cts.; Old Humphrey's Addresses, 40 cts.; Old
Humphrey's Walks in London, 40 cts.; History,
Manners, etc., of the Indians, 40 cts.; My Grand    mamma Gilbert, 25 cts.; My Grandfather Gregory,
25 cts.; Owen Gladdon's Wanderings, 40 ets.; The
Old Sea-Captain, 40 cts.; Homely Hints, 40 ots.;
Pleasant Tales, 40 cts.; Country Strolls, 40 cts.;
Pithy Papers, 40 cts.; Learning to Think, 35 cts.;
Learning to Feel, 35 cts.; Learning to Act, 35 cts.;
Learning to Converse, 30 cts.
THE WESLEYAN  PSALTER:  A  Poetical Version of
nearly the whole Book of Psalms.  By the Rev.
Charles Wesley. Versions of some of the Psalms by
the Rev. S. Wesley, Sen., the Rev. S. Wesley, Jun.,
and the Rev. J. Wesley; and Lists of Versions by
various Authors.  With an Introductory Essay, by
HIenry Fish, A. M,
The book is both poetically and typographically a perfect gem
It is got up as an 18mo., bound in Turkey morocco, full gilt. Price,
$2; in gilt muslin, price 50 cts. Also, in 24mo., price 40 ets.
THE HIDDEN LIFE EXEMPLIFIED in the Early Con    version, Pious Life, and Peaceful Death, of Mrs.
Florilla A. Cummings.   By her Husband.  Price
4Q cts.
An interesting and edifying biography.  The author is President
of Holston Femiale College, Asheville, N.C.  His deceased wife was
truly an excellent Christian. 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH.
THE ART OF PRINTING. Edited by Thomas 0. Sum    mers, D.D. 18mo., pp. 185. Price 30 cts.
This volume traces the art preservative of all arts from its rude
beginnings to its present approximation to perfection.  It has engravings representing presses, etc.
A TREATISE ON SECRET AND SOCIAL PRAYER. By
Richard Treffry. 18mo., pp. 215. Price 35 cts.
A very serviceable book.
METHODISM; or, Christianity in Earnest.
SABBATH-SCHOOL OFFERING; or, True Stories and
Poems.
THE DAY-SPRING; or, Light to them that sit in Dark    ness.
The foregoing three volumes are interesting little books, from
the pen of Mrs. M. Martin, of South Carolina. They are composed
of Sketches, Incidents, Poems, etc., beautifully illustrated and neatly printed. Price, respectively, 30, 30, and 25 cts.
JERUSALEM, ANCIENT AND MODERN. Two vols.
Price 60 cts.
Excellent books, embellished with elegant steel engravings.
THE PALM TRIBES-LIFE OF CYRUS-LIFE OF SIR
ISAAC NEWTON-SWITZERLAND-IONA-XMON     EY-THE INQUISITION.
These volumes belong to a series of nearly uniform size, written
by some of the first pens of the age. In every one of them a vast
amount of useful information is presented in a short compass. They
are of that class desiderated by Dr. Arnold-" I never wanted articles
on religious subjects half so much as articles on common subjects,
written with a decidedly religious turn."  They are valuable additions to Sunday-school and fanmily libraries, with special reference
to which they have been carefully revised by the Editor. They
are sold at 30 cts. each. LONDON IN THE OLDEN TIMES, and more
than thirty others, belong to this series.
VARIATIONS OF POPERY.  By'Samuel Edgar, D,D.
8vo., $1.75.
A masterly work.
VOLCANOES. Price 30 cts.
LIFE AND TIMES OF WYCLIFFE. Price 30 cts. 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH.
THE LIFE OF THE REV. JOHN W. DE LA FLECHERE
Compiled from the Narrative of the Rev. Mr. Wes
ley; the Biographical Notes of the Rev. Mr. Gilpin
from his own Letters, and other authentic Docu    ments, many of which were never before published.
By Joseph Benson. Price 65 cts.
THE LIFE OF MRS. MARY FLETCHER, Consort and
Relict of Rev. John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley,
Salop. Compiled from her Journal, and other
authentic Documents. By Henry Moore. Price
70 cts.
Cheap and convenient editions of these two Methodist classics.
STORIES FOR  VILLAGE  LADS.   By the Author of
"Stories of Schoolboys," "Frank Harrison," etc.
Price 35 cts.
STORIES OF SCHOOLBOYS.  By the Author of "Stories
for Village Lads." Price 30 cts.
These "lads" and "boys" are English; but we can find a great
many like them in the United States, though one seldom meets
withi such capital stories as these for them and of them.
ST. PETER'S CHAIN OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES. By
the Rev. C. D. Oliver, of the Alabama Conference.
Price 40 cents.
An edifying treatise, based on 2 Pet. i. 5-7.
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY: By Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.A.S.
Selected from his published and unpublished Writ    ings, and systematically arranged. With a Life of
the Author. By Samuel Dunn. Price 75 ets.
A carefully revised edition of this great work.
THE GREAT SUPPER NOT CALVINISTIC; being a
Reply to the Rev. Dr. Fairchild's Discourses on the
Parable of the Great Supper.  By Leroy M. Lee, D.D.
Price 50 cts.
There is no mincing the matter in this sturdy volume. Evenhanded justice is dealt out to Dr. Fairchild, with his aiders and
abettors: and the gospel of the grace of God is triumphiantly defended fiom their C,alvinistic imp)utations. 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH.
THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF LANGUAGE  Price
35 cts.
A work of no small research, and of great value.
THE  THREE  SISTERS: A brief Sketch of the Lives and
Death of Ann Eliza, Hester Jane, and Laura Wash.
ington, Daughters of the Rev. H. J. Perry, of the
Kentucky Conference of the M. E. Church, South,
who were burned to death in May, 1854. Price
15 cts.
A tribute of parental affection to the memory of three lovely
daughters, who in a tragical manner were hastened from earth to
,heir mansions in heaven.
IMMERSIONISTS AGAINST THE BIBLE; or the Babel
Builders confounded, in an Exposition of the Origin,
Design, Tactics, and Progress of the New Version
Movement of Campbellites and other Baptists. By
the Rev. N. H. Lee, of the -Louisville Conference.
Price 40 cts.
The anther has performed a needed obut disagreeable work; he
has done it in a caindid, charitable spirit; and we are mistaken if
hLis exposure of the rampant sectarianism which is at the head and
front of the New Version movement, do not produce a salutary
effect.
SCRIPTURE HELP.  Specially designed for Bible-classe3
and Sunday-schools. Price 50 cts.
An invaluable "ielp" to bibliceal students-multum inpaovo.
JOSE?H BROWN;  or, the Young  Tennesseean, whose
Life was saved by the power of Prayer.  An Indian
Tale. Price 30 cts.
This beantifil tale was written by a lady of Tennessee. HIer hero
is still living in this State-a venerable clergyman.  The materials
Oi the narrative were gathered from authentic sources.
LIVES OF EMINENT ANGLO-SAXONS; illustrating
the Dawn of Christianity and Civilization in Great
Britain. 2 vols., 18mo. Price 70 cts.
These two volumes shed a great deal of light on our Anglo  American laws and literature, and are well adapted to inspire the
reader with gratitude for the rich inheritance he has received from
the generations of the past.