The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-21
OUR UNCONVENTIONAL FATHERS.
BY REV. F. F. BUcKNER.

The following is from the Memo
rial Sermon at Macomb, ILL.,, Oct. IL:
Our fathers were missionaries.
They were imbued with the spirit
which spread the faith far and wide.
They labored in tireless manner to
carry the good news they were pro-
claiming to the remotest corner, to
every village and school house. We
have missionaries now who do con-
siderable for the cause, but they do
not labor amid such hardships and
against such circumstances. The
missionary travelled over the State
by coach or on horseback. Frequent
ly he walked. A clergyman in
northern Ohio frequently went afoot
the distance of twenty miles upon
Saturday without any stipulated
salary. There was no home mission
airy fund; there was no method of as
sisting the churches. These men
took what they were given without
complaint, and the people received
them with open arms of hospitality,
gave them their best while they re-
NAMED and remunerated them to the
extent of their ability; and their pow
er to paw was often limited.
The missionary had no salary to
stimulate him, and no expense bills
were allowed by conventions, for
there were no conventions, no mis-
sionary societies, no Sunday-school
children to contribute their mites to-
ward missionary work. Pure love for
the great cause was the one power
which generated impulse and con-
secrated them in their work. There
was time when every church in
our denomination was missionary
church, preaching point, and moth
ing more. Some Universalist minis
ter had strayed along at some time
and preached few sermons. A few
individuals may have been persuaded
by his reasoning to accept his posi-
ton. Months may have elapsed be-
fore another came, but the work had
been done in the hearts of two or
three, and they become the pillars for
a church. Some of the missionary
tours were carefully mapped out. l
have found one announced by Rev.
E. M. Pingree, pastor of the Univer-
salist church of Louisville, KY, fifty
four years ago. He planned to
preach twenty-nine sermons between
the fifth of November and the fifth of
December. The papers made an an
nouncement for places remote from
each other. Now there might be
nothing remarkable about this. But
who was Rev. E. M. Pingree? He
was a young man between twenty
five and twenty-six, suffering from
pulmonary trouble; with hectic
flush overspreading his face. He was
making a trip for his health and
sought to pass the time by preach
ing twenty-nine sermons in thirty
days. He rode from place to place
and the distance was sometimes
thirty miles. This same young mis-
sionary with the spirit of Wesley in
his bosom was at that time associate
editor of paper Turning over the
pages of that paper we see that he
contributed thousands Of words each
week. There they stand with his ini-
tials below them. His travelling did
not interfere with his editorial work.
But he did not close his missionary
work with thesetwenty-n nine sermons.
The young consumptive, with only
six years of life before him, pushed
on. In January following he writes:
81 have rode 1,100 miles and
preached sixty-four sermons in forty
places, passing through thirty differ
ent counties, and through eight of
them twice." Then he says this:
Notwithstanding the labor of riding
and preaching almost every day for
nine or ten weeks, and although
had to encounter all sorts of weather
and roads-sometimes rain or snow or
sleet; sometimes warm and then as
cold as Greenland; sometimes mud
and then frozen ground-take it all in
all l had very agreeable time"
When E. M. Pingree died, not much
past thirty, there faded from our
ranks a second Wesley. Had he
been given time and strength to have
organized Universalism in the West
l think we would have had a greater
church. He was one among many;
but the greatest among many here in
the West as student, writer, orator and
saint. But they were allimbued with
the missionary spirit. Here is how
one speaks of the cause: MAY her
watchmen never give sleep to their