The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-14

go to hell and there they increase in wickedness till they become more wick ed than the devils themselves" and I instinctively exclaimed, Good Lord, deliver us." This is a fair sample of the Calvinistic preaching 125 years ago. regret my inability to give the name of the first Methodist circuit rider who | dared to climb the Catskills and meet | Calvinism in a mountain stronghold. God knows this brave mans name un- der whose preaching several were con- verted, an uncle of mine in the num- Der, to the great modification of his halfway covenant wife, Mrs, Dolly 1 (Brainerd) Hubbard When the Meth odist husband invited the preacher to the hospitality of his home, she show ed him proper respect, but made fun of him and of the Methodists as soon as he had mounted his horse and rid until quarterly meeting was announc- ed in the log school-house. She had some curiosity to know what this kind of meeting was and accepted her hus- bands invitation to attend The love feast and the sermon of the presiding elder awakened her to her lost condi- tion. She became convinced that the desplsed Methodists were the Lords people and that she ought to acknowl- edge them as such by partaking with them of the Lords Supper. But she was too proud to do this till the last person went forward, an old negro wo- man, when she came and knelt by her side at the rude slab bench. The mo- ment her knees touched the floor, her heart was filled with unspeakable joy and she began to praise the Lord Jesus for conscious salvation. She | shouted aloud as she went to her home. The pastor of her church heard of 1t and instead of visiting her to congrat- ulate her, he called a meeting to ad- minister discipline for the grave inn propriety of which she had been gull ty in being gloriously saved in a Meth odist meeting. The result was that on the next Lords day the young minis ter, the same one whom heard at the aforesaid funeral 50 years afterward, Igravely read the following announce ment: Dolly Hubbard, for conduct highly improper, is hereby expelled from this church and given up to the devil from whence she came, and the members of this church are strictly forbidden to eat and drink with her, or to shake hands with her" This prohi- bition was carefully kept She had been accustomed to minister to the sick by watching through the night. After this she took the preeaution to carry her own lunch when she watched with member of that church, for none of them dared to eat with her. The boys in the streets yelled whenever she met them, You are given up to the ldevil!" Her testimony during the days Of persecution, so happw was she, was this-that she hardly knew wheth- CT she Twas walking the earth or the air" She had lost the respect of man, but she had gained that fullness of joy which is the bequest of Christ: Peace leave with you" I am not sure that this remarkable piece of big otry should be accredited to Congre- gationalism. Henry Ward Beeeher once defined Congregationalsm as "a river that rises in New England, flows west ward and empties into Presbyterian ism" The church in Windham was Presbyterian so far back as I remem- Der. When this ecclesiastical river emp tied, whether before the exeommuni- cation of my aunt, or not, is to the VVrfnTs raA
 deacon in Dr. David Dudley Fields church in Haddam, Connecticut, came to Windham he asked the minister why he had treated his daughter so unjust ly. He replied he wished to make her an example that the rest of the flock
 might be saved from the ruinous here sy of Arninianism, and for this reason he was justified in giving her pun ishment greater than she personally deserved.
 On the old Windham circuit there are now as many Methodist churches as Presbyterian and the latter are on hand-shaking terms with the former. The future of both is in doubt by rea-
 son of the project to turn the valleys of that region into reservoirs of wa ters for the rapidly growing metropolis of this western continent The church es may survive if the last industry in which the people have been engaged Is allowed to continue. The first industry was hemlock tanning and lumber. the
 second was rye whiskey the third was
 butter and cheese, and the fourth and last is New York city boarders. It is
 for the water board to decide the
 question whether they can trust theil own people to spend their summers on the watershed of their own reser. voirs. If they give an affirmative an. swer, the churches, at least some ot them, will be needed; but if they say nay, the churches must cease to exist For preparations are evidently beine made for the condemnation of all the farms, which will probably be refor.
 ested, and for the removal of all the
 agriculturalists and dairymen. The vii.
 lages, which are on the flats, will prob ably be submerged by water deeper
 say the engineers, than the height O. the church spires, To the writer, whose birth was between those hemlock-cov-
 cred slopes, the destruction of the church of his childhood will be almost as painful as the obliteration of tho
 cemeteries where successive genera.
 tions of his ancestors
 Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamle sleep.
 Rev. pr. Daniel Steele in New Yorl Christian Advocate.
 MANY AMBITIOUS PATROT,NTEN