The New York herald., 1920-12-24
Saddlebags and Theology.

The Gambler School of Theology Of
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia,
received recently from the Rev. PAY
TON A. SowELL the saddlebags which
he had carried as circuit rider in
one Of the remote districts OF Tennes-
see. In a letter which accompanies
the unusual gift and which is pub
lished in the Leaf Chronicle of Clarks
vile, Tennessee, the giver pays high
tribute to these companions of his
years of itinerancy." He is sending
the saddlebags when he is ~, he
writes. and the memories "of the men
who made them, the little churches
where / carried them, the plain peo-
pie who sat on the rustic benches and
the humble, kind homes where l ate
and slept make a strange moisture fill
my eyes"
When young SowELL was about to
begin his career as baclSwoods min
lister in Tennessee the acquisition of
saddlebags was not an unimportant
matter. The calf for the flaps and
the kid for the body Of the bags
were tanned by the old bark soze
process which required more than
twelve months. The two skins were a
present to him from an uncle who
brought them distance of thirty
seven miles over the mountains on
horseback. Young SowELL then car
ried them thirty miles to the Rev.
JOHN SHERRELI, a saddlebags maker
and circuit rider of considerable
reputation, who at the end of several
months had them made into saddle
bags which met the young preachers
every requirement.
They were his trunk. wardrobe and
bookcase. They carried the library
upon which he depended and from
which he acquired his theology.
library made up OF WEsLEY's SER
mons, lALsToNs Elements, the Dis
cipline, the Bible, and a Methodist
hymn book The saddlebags and the
preacher rode on the back of Ross, a
fine young Tennessee single footer.
which any lover of horses would have
admired.
Ross was more than mere horse;
he was companion. His dumb fell
lowship as he wendell his way along
the hundred miles Of the circuit was
genuine. says the old circuit rider.
and he adds. Il might be a heather to
say that Ross was religious but Mt
least he had as beautiful a spirit as
most Christians"
The Rev Mr.. SowErL came n gen
Grafton or two after his distinguished
prototype, PETER CARTWRIGHT. In the
backwoods " Tennessee he found
country as new and raw as CART
WRIGHT found in Kentucky, Indiana
and Illinois. He had the same hard
pioneer religious work 20 perform,
the long, lonesome rides through
thinly populated land with widely
scattered and Isolated congregations.
His was militant. aggressive Chris
tianity and It's chief glory was I'm the
struggle. He writes, 81 might say in
the presence Of these saddlebags as
my silent witnesses we did not think
OF temporary reward"
What this temporary reward was
he tells more in detail, not In n spirit
ol complaint but rather with feel
ing of pride. when he writes:
''These saddlebags were present at
the FIRST quarterly meeting when the
ten preaching places paid me 81.
And again. when on the Saturday
before the second Sunday in March.
when the next payment occurred.
And they know that with s5 cents TO
begin with lived free from debt"
Another thing for which the old
saddlebags might stand as silent wit
noss. thing of which the owner
made no mention, Is that the good
effect of his work remains uniu-