Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-08-17

birds. The night winds on his face,
the cries of migratory wild fowl cross
ing the darkening sky-these were the
things that created great yearning
within him. In short, he was Pan
theist without knowing it.
These thoughts held him until Dinah
Bebb came that way as pioneer of
the Primitive Methodists-the first
woman preacher that had appeared on
the countryside. She was demure-
looking maiden, with a good deal of
decision about her well-set mouth, and
her bearing had a quiet dignity that
comported well with her features.
Her advent to the countryside was
the signal for solemn warning
against her and her preaching; and it
was limited that she was hereto, if
she was not SO set down in as many
words. Dissent had never before
raised its head in Hattock, and now it
appeared in specially heretical form.
And SO Dinah Bebb was denounced.
Hattock was surrounded by,a great
belt of woodlands and its snrinklAa-
population consisted of small ftgmers
and iJh Jh,sasf c6aT burners. Its backslid-
ings on the surface were poaching aud
smuggling, the rest of the. deadly sins
being kept well under. Poaching was
the objectionable sin to the squire,
the non-payment of church dues to
the 'spriest." The poachers knew
that if they were caught they would
be 'severlastingly damned" and those
who neglected to pay church "dues''
) were condemned to the same state
not outwardly, but by inference.
This last was the fate of q small knot
of Quakers who had meeting house
behind the Pit Farm, and whose goods
were regularly distrained upon in con-
sequence. These queer people had,
it seemed, inconvenient notions as to
the payment oftithe, and SO their prod
uce was forcibly, and sometimes
roughly, appropriated.
Finding Dinah Bebb alone, and
learning the nature of her mission, it
was one of these who took her in, when
she had failed to find a lodging among
the dwellers on the fell-side.
Selecting time when there was no
meeting elsewhere, Dinah Bebb had
given out that she would be on the
Common on the first Sunday after
noon, and that she would then speak
to the people. AS the time arrived
the woodlanders were there, but they
mostly stood afar off. Within til
circle, Immediately in front, were o
few of the Quakers-among them some
women-and behind, John Shad, with
no religion" at all. These were the
respectful. listeners. The rest were
further away, and either saped or gig
gled as they watched the scene.
Dinah Bebb stood beneath tree
with a book in her hand, waiting.
And then, although stragglers were
still coming up, punctual to the ap-
pointed time the preacher came for
ward, and, standing upon a point OF
rock, commenced her address.
''What shall it profit man." she
asked, ''if he gain the whole world
F. and lose his own soul?" then paused
There seemed something startlingly
new in the ques ton, and great silence
fell upon the crowd.
She spoke quietly and impressively,
in low, sweet voice; then, as she
caught her listeners, with more
emotion; and finally, bringing up o
force and fire her slight frame seemed
incapable OF, she ended by an agoniz-
ing appeal that was so full of an in
finite tenderness as to sway every
listener.
She had stopped. But before the
people could recover themselves she
had dropped on her knees and was
praying.
Her pale, thin face was turned to
the illimitable sky. and, with arms out
stretched, her appeal was toward the
setting sun which, with its last rays,
just at that moment wrapped her in a
purple effulgence.
The woodlanders were impressed
shaken as they had never been before,
and they left the Common with an un-
easy feeling that, somehow, they had
been set against themselves.
Since her coming to Hattock Dinah
Bebb made the r.ost of her time. She
had found out soln ething of the wood
landers, of their homes and of what
was their condition. That night she
visited the wife of charcoal burner
in one of the huts, and as she re-
turned along one of the rides of the
forest she WAS stopped by man. He
had followed her at respectful dis
tance, and was now awaiting her. II
was John Shad.
They drew aside into cne of the
clearings, and sat down on felled
oak. Itwas late when they left the
woods. and that night John Shad COM
menced his conversion.