Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-04-03
D.. s.. j.

wv O'se'uby ltofuOUu " U Wttk6 S1uCe, We
found a Methodist Revival in full blast; and under
the 'protracted effort Of some half q dozen priests
Of that, and some other orders, continued day and
niaht for four weeks, they had been able to raise
quite an excitement upon the impossible super
situations of that community.
Having arranged with Mr.. and Mrs. Jones to
do the honors at a meeting that had been appoint
ed for US that evening, l from motives Of curiosity
went into the Revival meeting to witnes, the, to
me, novel manifestations and appliances whereby
the Methodists arc wont to get up Revivals.
To say that l was astonished at the ex,rava.
gauce, and amused at the ludicrous absurdity OF
the performances, would bur feebly express my
feelings. The deafening shouts and wells with
which they appealed to their God, reminded me Of
the vain attempts in ulden times of the pro hets
IT Bael to make their God hear, as he might be
asleep, or gone on a journey, or otherwise too
busy TO attend to applications in an ordinary tone
of voice.
After various noisy performances the REV. W.
ii. Wood' preached quite a sleepy sermon. This
Wood" l afterwards ascertained, was CORES
pondIng Secretary to the Free Baptist Associa-
zion. - an association Of Baptist churches that had
come vat" from the slavery fellowshiping Bap-
lists, and organized upon the basis Of mo fellow
ship Of Shareholders, or of those churches that do
receive them to fe .lowship." Yet here was
their chief officer in full differentiation with the
priests Of the sllveholding Methodist Episcopal
Religion, joining his sleepy sermons and more
awakening prayers aud shouts and groans, with
their noisy appliances, to the end Of making pros
al rtaa IN this a., v.lolIin .hurrh NariIv 'srnn-
sistency lisa jewel" that does not often adorn
those priests that arrogste to themselves an anti
slavery character.
At the close of ths sermon, Rev. Leonard Grit.
fng, who seemed to be master Of ceremonies, took
up the same subject, and With a masters hand,
with great tact and abilay, he elucidated and
applied the matter in a style that put poor Bro.
Woods effort entirely 10 the shade. In the course
of Bro. Grifings remarks, he said that christian
ity never made a man a drunkard, a thief, q rob
Der, or a murderer. that no true christian could
ever commit u gross and abhorrent crime"
Near the close Of the meeting, all who chose.
were invited. and urged to relate their "experi'
ence," and AFTER many had spoken, whom the resi-
came up slowly and l~agglngly in response tt
Or. filings urgent appeals, l arose and in brie
words gave my own religious experience tht
narrative of which brought out tho usual groan'
and glorys until / began to refer to Grifing',
remark that no true christian could commit gros,
crime, and ask if slaveholding was not the crosses
Of crimes, when all the responses stopped and
terrible guinness overshadowed them, and upor
my telling them that as there was not time then
| would on the morrow at Il meeting we shout,
| bnll -, tha b,,,ea no,r l., ,,,,,o H. ,.,,rr nc 4,
whether a stakeholder could De a christian, or
slaveholding church, like the Methodist Episcopal
could by any possibility be a christian church, t
which | would cordially ask the aid and p~articipa
ton of either or all Of the preachers or other rer
sons present. Bro. Grifing came rushing at IN
with outstre:ched ARM, az though he would clutc
me my the throat and choke me into silence. Blu
fortunately for me, l had finished before he arriv
ed, and subsidized into my seat when he turne
and expanded into aMethodist hymn and the meet
ing SOON closed.
None of the priests or their follow ers came t
our meeting on the morrow, which was neverthe
less well attended. Having learned that befor
our arrival Bro. Hard had notified the people tina
we. Mrs. Jones, with whom he was acquainI
ed, included. we're infiels. Mrs. j. wrote him
note requesting that he make public retraction G
the Islander which he must know from his acquair
lance with her was false. This note was delivere
by Benjamin at the close of their afternoons Low
Feast. whereupon Hard replied to him that W
had been misiniormed as to his notification, for h
had not included Mrs. j. in the category, but ha
merely said that from his knowledge of her h
had supposed her not to be one Of the in6dels, bu
she was now in bad company! and in suspicion
, employment! He was thereupon asked to retrac
this charge upon the Others, which he decline
doing "a he said he believed it to be true. Upor
ii demand for the evidence. 'he felt under n
obligation to produce it," But after duly belat
uring him with the idea that every decent or hor
est. Or chri.tian, man would make no charges bu
those he was willing to prove or %rstract, be at Las
said that the fact that we were employed by
society that had employed Henry c. Wright an
C. Z. Burleigh. who were infdels. was %suficier
evidence that we were infdels We denied tn,
!" the men specified were ~infdeis,o or ift hey were th'
he argument authorised such a conclusion, mo-
70 than il would. that we were Methodist minister
y because our society had once employed Bro. Gri
y ling. who stood behind him.
Then he said that our appearance in their NEE
. ing was evidence of our infdel character, in tn
we did not rise up with them TO sing or kne
II down with them to pray, nor had We ~dis6gur,
our faces with the painful %solemnity of ii
"mourners." hut looked pleasant and smiling. {
course we admitted these facts, but denied ii
conclusions.
Again, he pr0ued that we were iDfdels in tn
e he had seen our letters in the Bugle against Il
" Christian religion. This we denied and Gale
Tor the evidence, which of course was not fort
Y coming.
, Bro. Hard then clinched his hard array
proofs by affirming that the fact that we wei
agents for the Bugle which was an infdel pap,
WAS sufficient evidence Of our infdelity!
d During this c~olloquy more protracted and varit
n than this sketch would Indicate, Bro. Thomas OF
D others put in their aid to help the evidence again
l.. =: - -. . A - 49, al - IL. 49,