The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-02 00:00:00

964 not that ruffled shirt wits bprroweil." This brought him off the seats in a mighty rage. On another occasion an awkward young fellow persisted in taking his seat on the benches re served for the female worshippers, although he had been several times requested not to do so. It was the fashion then for gentlemen to " roach " their hair, and this young man had a mighty " bushy roached head of hair." On this hint our friend Peter acted, and induced some " row dies " to ask the fop to accompany them a little way from camp to drink whisky with them. When they had got him far enough away, they held him tightly, and with a pair of scissors cut and " haggled h►s hair all over at a masterly rate." When Peter saw him afterwards in this state he had very hard work, he tells us, to keep down his risibilities. The rowdies, however, were not always so well disposed to oblige him. The brother of the very man who took the leading part in the cheap hair-cutting movement, well nigh succeeded in playing him a sorry trick. He had been foiled in an attempt to run the preacher's waggon into a creek, and only escaped being roughly handled by plunging into a deep hole of water and swinuning to the other side. For this he swore to have satisfaction, and eagerly watched for an opportunity to avenge his immer sion : On Sunday night, our aliur was crowded with weeping penitents. While I was in the altar, labouring with the mourners, I saw William come up and lean on the pale, on the outside of the altar. I kept my eye on him ; and suddenly he leaped over into the altar, and fell at full length, and roar.id like a bull in a net, and cried aloud for mercy. While I was talking to and praying fur him aid othere, I trod on something near where he had been standing that felt scut. I stooped down and looked, and, lo and behold, what should it be but a string of frogs, strung on a piece of hickory-bark I I took them up and carried them int) the tent, not knowing what it meant. Just about daybreak, Monday morning, William P. raised the shout of victory, after struggling hard all night. Our meeting went on gloriously all that day, and fit several days and nights, with very little preaching or intermission, and many were the happy subjects of converting grace. Some time on Monde) my notorious William came to me, and told me that he gathered and strung that batch of frogs, and brought them to the altar, intending, while I was stooping and praying for the mourners, to slip them over my head and round my neck; and while he was seeking an opportunity to do this, the mighty power of God fell on him. He said he never wanted to be any nearer hell than he felt himself to be when the power of God arrested him. Though a man of peace, the worthy Peter was an " awkward customer " when his blood was roused by opposition. At a certain camp-meeting he was frequently interrupted by a number of rowdies, who were armed with dirks, clubs, knives, and horsewhips. Sunday morning was selected for their final operations, but, as will be seen from the following extract, they had reckoned without their host : About the time I was half through my discourse, two very fine-dressed young men marched into the congregation with loaded whips, and hats on, and rose up and sto , ,d in the midst of the ladies, and began to laugh and talk. They were near the stand, and I requested them to desist and get ott the seats ; but they cursed me, and told me to mind my own basin. as, and said they would nut get down. I stopped trying to preach, and called for a magistrate. There were two at hand, hilt I saw they were both afraid. I ordered them to take these men Into custody, Lut they acid they could not do it. I told them, as I left the stand, to command me to take them, and I would do it at the risk of my life. I advanced toward them. They ordered me to stand off, but I advanced. One of them made a pass at my head with his whip, but I closed in with him, and jerked him off the seat. A regular scuffle ensued. The congregation by this time were all in commotion. I heard the magistrates give general orders, commanding all friends of order to aid in suppressing the riot. In the scuffle I threw my prisoner down, and held him fast; he tried his best to get loose; I told him to be quiet, or! would pound his chest well. The mob rose, and rushed to the rescue of the two plisciiers, for they had taken the other young man also. An old and drunken magistrate c rine up to tne, and ordered me to let my prisoner go. I t him I should not. He swore if I did not, he would knock me down. 1 told him to clack away. Then one of my friends, at my request, took hold of my prisoner, and th i drunken justice made a pass at me; hut I parried the stroke, and seized him by the collar and the hair of the head, and, fetching hint a sudden jerk forward, brought him t► the ground, and jumped on him. I told him to be quiet, or I would pound him well. The mob then rushed to the scene ; they knocked down seven magistrates, and several preachers and others. I gave up my drunken prisoner to another, and threw myself in front of the friends of order. Just at this moment, the ringleader of the mob and I met; he made three passes at me, intending to knock me down. The last time he struck at me, by the force of his own effort, he threw the side of his face toward me. It seemed at that moment I had not power to resist temptation, and I struck a sudden blow in the burr of the ear and dropped him to the earth. Just at that moment the friends of order rushed by hundreds on the mob, knocking them down in every direction. In a few minutes, the place became too THE PItE S S, OCTOBER 2, 1858 strait fur the mob, and they wheeled and fled in every direction ; but we secured about thirty prisoners, marched them off to u vacant tent, and put them under guard till Monday morning, when they were ►ried, and every man was fined to the utmost limits of the law. The aggregate amount of fines and costs was near three hundred dollars. They tined my old drunken magistrate twenty dollar:, and returned him to court, and he was cashiered of his odice. It frequently happened that the ground was strewed with the fallen, though from a very dif ferent cause. On that same Sunday evening a goodly instance of this strange phenomenon occurred : The encampment was lighted up, the trumpet blown, rose in the stand, and required every soul to leave the tents and come into the congregation. 'there was a general rush to the stand. I requested the brethren, if ever they prayed in all their lives, to pray now. My voice was strong and clear, and my preaching was more of an ether union land encouragement than anything else. My text was, " The gates of hell shall not prevail." In ahout thirty minutes the power of God fell on the congregation in such a manlier as ii seldom seen; the people fell in every dirt (Aloe, right and left, front and rear. It was sup• posed that not less than three hundred fell like dead men in mighty battle; and there was no need of calling mourners, for they were strewed all over the eamp•ground; I.md wai!ings went up to heaven from sinners for mercy, and a ganerul shout trom Christians, so that the noise was heard afar off. Sonic time after this Peter addressed a Baptist meeting with great effect, notwithstanding the rudeness of the minister's daughter, Betsy, who would jump on the seats and laugh when any one fell under the power of God," profanely describing it as "a Methodist fit." She was destined, however, to see the error of her ways. Peter was "closing up" his sermon and pressing it home with all his might, when " the power of " God suddenly was displayed, and sinners fell " by scores through all the assembly" : We had no need of a mourner's bench. It was supposed that several hundred fell in live minutes; sinners turned pale; some ran into the woods, some tried to get away and fell in the attempt; some shouted aloud for joy; among the rest my Baptist pr,:acher's daughter, whom we have called Betsy. As I went through the assembly I came across Betsy, who had fallen to the earth, and was pr.tying at a 'nighty rate. When I came to her, she said to me—" 0, do pray for me ; I ..m afraid I am lost and damned for ever !" I said to her, " Betsy, get up; yon have only got a Methodist tit" (wing her former lan guage); hut she roared the louder two or three times. I bid her get up, raying to her, "You are playing the hypo crite, and have only got a Methodist tit. Get up, Betsy." But assure you she was past getting up. Poor Betsy " wrestled and prayed all night. " Next morning, about sunrise, the Lord in a " powerful manner converted her. She rose and " went over the camp-ground like a top." A still more remarkable conversion was that of a gentleman near llopkinsville, who had threatened to horsewhip the redoubtable Peter for obtaining so much influence over his wife and daughters. The eldest of the latter warned the preacher of her father's designs, but he replied that he was " wide awake and duly sober" I said to her, " It is not the old big devil that is in your father ; it must be a little weakly, sickly, devil that has taken possession of him, cud I do not think that it will be a hard job to cost him out. Now," said I, "it God takes hold of your father and shakes him over hell a little while, and he smells brimstone right strong if there was a ship•luad oh these little sickly devils in him, they would be driven out just as easy as a tornado would drive the regi- ments of musquitoes from around and about those stagnant ponds in the country. Cheer up, sister; I believe God will give me your father before we return." And so it came to pass : On Sunday night, when such a tremendous power fell on the congregaion, and my gang of rowdies fell by dozens on the right and left, my special persecutor fell suddenly, as if a rtlle•ball had been shot through his heart. He lay powerless, and seemed cramped all over, till next morning; and about sunrise he began to come to. With a smile on his countenance, he then sprang up, and bounded all over the campground, with swelling shouts of glory and victory, that almost seemed to shake the encampment. This was a glorious time for his daughter; she came leaping and skipping to me, and shouted out that those little mean and sickly devils were cast out of her father. He joined the Church, went home, and for days the 'sillily did little else but sing, pray, and shout the high praises of In the winter of 1812 a severe earthquake took place, and many thought the day of .judgment had arrived. Among these were " old Brother " Valentine Cook, of very precious memory, with " his witi: Tabitha " He and wife were in bed when the earth began to shake and tremble. He sprang out of bed, threw open the door, and began to shout, and started with nothing on but his night-clothes. He steered his course east, shouting every step, saying, " My Jesus is coming." His wife took after him, and at the top of her voice cried out, " 0, Mr. Cook, don't leave me." " 0 Tabby," said he, " my Jesus is coming, and I cannot wait for you ;" and on he went, shout ing nt every jump, "My Jesus is coming; I can't wait for you, Tabby." This earthquake produced "a mighty shaking " among the drybones, and a blessed revival " broke out," and many reprobates being con victed of their former levities became Methodist s and died " shining and shouting Christians." The Baptists appear to have bee n less moral and abstemious than the professors of Mr. Cartwright's creed, and even their preachers occasionally in dulged to excess in fermented liquors. One of them, though a very popular man, at a court time in Springfield, Tennessee, drank "the health " of the company in what he called the health " the Devil drank to a dead hog—Boo !" Perhaps not one of Peter's victories was more decisive than the one he gained over a re gu l ar scold, who described herself as one-half alligator and the other half snapping-turtle. The means adopted for her cure were rather physical than spiritual, for they consisted simply in her being forcibly ejected out of her husband's cabin and kept in the open air till she promised submission and joined her family in prayer. Peter himself speaks of this achievement as " one of the hardest " cases I ever saw on this earth." Let it not be imagined, however, for one mom en t that we do not fully appreciate the inestimable good that, has been wrought by such sincere, earnest, and simple-minded men as Peter Cart wright and his colleagues. Their, style of preaching, ludicrous in our eyes, was no doubt well suited to the rough, ignorant, unspiritual audiences to whom they (addressed themselves. Nor can too much praise be given to these zealous pioneers of the Gospel for their marvel lous courage, endurance, and self-denial. Their lives were spent in wandering:over thinly-peopled and almost unknown districts. Hunger, fatigue, and thirst were their daily companions. Con stantly in peril from Indians and from still more brutal white men, and exposed to all kinds of violence, annoyances, and discomfort, uncheered by any prospect of riches for themselves or their families they nevertheless persevered in doing what they regarded as their highest duty, content to look for their reward in an approving conscience and the sure hope of eternal happiness hereafter. Such men as these are worthy of respect and admiration, though we fail to repress a good humoured smile at their oddities of speech and manner. PERIODICAL LITERATURE, THE two most noticeable arti;les in the October num• ber of Blackwood are "A Plea for Shaini," and " Lord Clyde's Campaign in India." The first•men tioned is a very clever anti well-timed article, the tenor of which muy be gathered from the following extract : But the one leading note in the most popular literature of the day is this modern cynicism—that everything is a " sham. The writers just mentioned seem to have it constantly in view as the great doctrine they are called upon to preach ; and they bring to their task, each in their own line, powers of humour, of descrip tion, and of language, which insure them at least a ready audience. They put forth the boldest type of Mate rialism as the highest philosophy : what you can touch, what you can see, what you can taste—these alone are real. All that appeals to sentiment—all that idealizes this coarse outward lite of ours---any decent garb in which poor humanity, conscious of his weakness and naked: ness, tries to sbrowd itself—all these are " shams. Loyalty, reverence, hereditary respect, are " tlunkeyista.' I' Bishop," and " bar," and " respectability "—all these are. sneered at. The new maxim is, " whatever is , i s wron g .' All the right there is now upon earth is illegitimate. Virtue, religion,' kindness of heart—all these are the growth of poor neglected soils, which society is doing its beat ;o keep barren for ever. Our whole civil, poli tical, religious, and social framework is rotten carpentry covered with tinsel. The secret of its unreality and hollowness has been revealed to these few ; and a heni of admiring followers take up the cry, and proclaim a crusade against "formulas," "quackery," and „beadle' dom." It is not a philosophy of very diffi cu lt growth' " He that goeth about to persuade a multit ude the) are not so well governed as they ought to be , " smith Hooker, "shall never lack ready and attentive heare rs." So ale° he that runs atilt against establisLed respectabilities will always find himself a popular champion. - - The Indian article is highly graphic and picturesque. The charge of the oth Lancers and Sikh Cavalry at Futtyghur, for instance, is a brilliant piece of mih' tary description. Nor will the writer lose much in comparison with Mr. Russell, to whom he modestly pays a very high compliment at the conclusion of his paper. "What will he do with it r hangs a little heavy this month. There is too much about Darrell and Lady Montfort. The striking incident of the number is an attempt by Jasper to rob Darrell's I