Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-07-10
A ucthodist Ghost story.


One secret Of the power which at
tends the simple miuistrations of the
Methodist preachers of the primitive
type was that spiritual and unseen
things were to them what they are tru-
", more real than the objects of mere
sense. The training of some of these
men was favorable to this. An illus
'ratiop was once given by an old man
with whom | used TO chat i'm the neigh
borhoGd Of Boscastle. One evening,
MS we sat by the hresidc, ] referred TO
the old Minister Church not far off, in u
romantic valley, and spoke of the Curl
Gus, CHASTITY legends that tloatcd about
it, Yes, sir, said he, "qucer things
have been said, and queer things have
been mc6 with, say what we may.
There was one John Warden, sir-ycs,
John Warden that after wards got TO be
% preacher John Warden, sir, was II
farmers bov--a Iaborcr. poor fellow.
The Lord touched his heart. sir. and
john Warden turned Methodist. Wen,
sir, his master and all about him turu-
ed upon him, and the poor hoy had to
bear all sorts of persecution. One
night, as ihey were all sitting around
the fire i'm the kitchen, and many ways
had been tried TO nut poor John out of
temper. the master said at last: 'Relig-
ion, eh!' said hc What kind Of reIig-
ion hast thee cot, john, eh2 Whv
thee st be afraid to go down to the
church Tonight 9 II o'clock Religion,
chr This was sort of challenge,
sir, to try whether John was good
enough to be above fear Poor John,
sir, i'm the simplicity Of his heart,
thought the credit of his religion was
really at stake, and scrowing up his
courage, he said quietly: No, | bean
afraid to go to the church by might or
by day. VIII thee 90 tonight, then,
and let's see what your religion is
made OPP Yes, will They waited
till midnight, and John started, sir.
The farm was not far up from the val
ley. The question was now they should
know NE had been to the church A
plan was hit upon. lie was to take .
large spike nail AID q hammer, and TO
drive the nail into the church door.
John went of with his hammer, nail,
and lantern; and ue told me after
ward, years atterWgrd when he was u
preacher-yes, sir, lie never forgot it,
AS l went down among the trees. SAYS
John, and the wind moanod, | felt a
little queer, but l got to the church all
right though just rs | was going into
the church the wind came whistling
round the church, and out went my
light | declare / then wished myself
away from the place 1t was pitchy
dark. | asked God to help me- and |
then felt my way TO the door, put my
nail to it and gave the first blow. felt
u tingling all over me as the echoes
went round inside the church. They
sounded hollow. But picked up cour-
ace and hammered away until tho nail
was a long way in. Then l turned and
CROPPED my way back to the farm.
They laughed ut me, and said they
would go down in the morning to be
sure l had been there They went
down carly, and there was the nail.
But when they opened the door to see
whether it had went through, oh, how
they stared at one another. There was
the nail turned back. turned in and
cleuched to the door rs if The cleverest
carpenter in the world had done it. n"
Sunday Magazine