The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1898-08-04

e. SSAt,M 80 the mysterious
! M4ssE; AI.V3 workings of ma
TN& <, - ture, and he had
AHHN worshiped the
~ sun and the stars
and the clouds, the flowers and the
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 shot, 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 a demure-
looking maiden, with a good deal of
decision about her well-set mouth, and
her bearing had 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 a 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 great
belt of woodlands, and its sprinkled
population consisted of small farmers
and charcoal burners. Its backslid-
ings on the surface were poaching and
smuggling, the rest of the deadly sins
being kept we'll under. Poaching was
the objectionable sin to the squire,
the non-payment of church dues to
the priest" The poachers knew
that if they were caught they would
be ''everlastingly 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 a small knot
If Quakers who had meeting house
behind the Pit Farm, andwhose goods
were regularly distrained upon in con-
sequence. These queer people had,
it seemed, inconvenient notions as to
the payment of 1.-THE, and so their prod
uce was forcibly, aud 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 lodging among
the dwellers on the fell-side.
| Selecting a 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
i the woodlanders were there, but they
mostly stood afar off. Within the
circle, Immediately in front, were a
few of the Quakers-among them some
wonderland behind, John Shad, with
no ''religion" at all. These were the
respectful listeners. The rest were
| further away, and either gaped 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
and lose his own soul?" then paused.
There seemed something startlingly
new in thequestion, anda great silence
fell upon the crowd.
She spoke quietly and irnpfessively,
in a low, sweet voice; then, as she
caught her listeners, with more
emotion and finally, bringing up 8
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 wa:
praying.
Her pale, thin face was turned t.
the illimitable sky, and, with arms out
stretched, her appeal was toward tn
setting sun which, with its last rays
just at that moment wrapped her In
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 ha
been set against themselves.
4 Since her coming to Hattock Dina