Methodism forty years ago and now : embracing many interesting reminiscences and incidents. : also, the responsibilities, present and prospective, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Introduction by Rev. Lorenzo D. Barrows

Front matter

METHODISM

FORTY YEARS AGO AND NOW

THE RESPONSIBILITIES, PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE, OP THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

Preface

JHE following pages were commenced without any intention of publishing a book. Being physically disqualified to perform further ministerial service among the people in person by reason of a long and severe sickness, the writer, for his own pleasure and profit, began to review the social, numerical, and financial condition of the Methodist Episcopal Church forty years ago — when he became one of her members — and to call to mind interesting reminiscences connected with his early ministry, and to compare then with now. He found increasing interest in the subject, and continuing to write, he at length, by

4 Preface.

the advice of valued friends, decided to prepare a book for the press.

He does not claim for it high literary merit. Historical or statistical errors may be found in it which have escaped the writer's notice ; but he has the satisfaction of feeling that what he has recorded herein is in accordance with his best recollection of early Method'istic facts, with oral and written history, and recently published reports of our Church statistics and enterprises ; and he hopes that the task thus performed, though imperfectly, which he finds to have been so agreeable and encouraging to himself, may be as pleasant and profitable

to the reader.

The Author.

Introduction

This little volume is not the work of a croaker ; no spirit of sour godliness runs through its pages ; therefore it need not be read with any allowance for unfounded prejudice or bigotry. Though it is natural and common for those who were active in years long gone by greatly to magnify the excellences of the past and depreciate those of the present, this is not the case with our author.

Nor is his work severely partisan or sectarian, though it is thoroughly Christian, experimental, and practical. It is not so much the object of the author to disprove the doctrines and usages of other Churches, nor even to defend those of his own, as it is to set forth the particular operation of the Spirit in the awakening and conversion of men to Christ, and promoting revivals of religion. It is therefore essentially a concise and racy history of what God has wrought, and how, for the last forty years, chiefly in the Methodist Episcopal Church, beginning with his own personal Christian experience, which is exceedingly pleasant and profitable to read. Whatever honors God and brings men to Christ seems to fill his soul with delight, and you read on and on, not wishing to pause.

We must never forget that those who have by long and successful experience reached the citadel of wisdom must not destroy the ladders by which they ascended, as the climbers after them, to the end of time, will need them. Progression is a series of stages. This book is a stage for the multitude, who can no more, at a single bound, reach the highest result of Christian and revival experience, than did the fathers, into whose labors we now enter. All must rise, if at all, by steps ; and as the great masses of the people are still engaged in the battle of physical and mental want, religious helps are as needful now as ever, or man's spiritual and highest nature will suffer loss, if not defeat, in the struggle. These helps are to come, so far as they are human, from the lessons of experience and history.

Herein lies the great excellence of this new book : it is a light now burning, which shines back over forty years, from which all lovers of

Christian experience see wrought out and worked over again what in substance they have experienced, strengthening and attaching them more and more to a vital religion. No pastor can read it and not feel quickened with renewed confidence in revivals and human efforts to promote them. It is good for all to live over again and again those rich and heavenly occasions of divine visitation when God has revealed himself in saving souls, founding and building up Churches. When the ministry, the Church, or individual Christians forget those revival occasions, they are drifting in other directions the Lord only knows where.

There is a strong tendency in all institutions and usages where human agencies are involved to this drifting spoken of, and if the agencies are chiefly human, that drifting is usually from good to bad, and from bad to worse. This is especially seen in all forms of human government, political institutions, and political parties. Nations, governments, and political parties, beginning usually comparatively in modesty, feebleness, and purity, grow corrupt as they grow old under their human manipulation, and they have crumbled to atoms, never to be exactly reproduced, with as much regularity and certainty as men march to the grave. They have survived longer or shorter, just in proportion as true and good principles have or have not been let alone by the poisonous hand of man.

But the Church is a divine institution, while the means for carrying it on are largely human ; hence there is danger to the Church that she may retrograde, her light grow dim, if not " become darkness," though her foundations of eternal truth cannot utterly or finally fail. This has often been the case ; but God, to prevent her overthrow, has always appeared just in her greatest emergency, and burst upon darkness and apparent destruction with some new light and means for her recovery and revival, wherein lies the difference between the Church and human governments and other earthly institutions. He has raised up men and measures unthought of, and often turned back the tide of death with a hand of power, though human, that has shaken the world.

The apostolic Church, commencing in strict spirituality and simplicity, soon grew powerful in numbers, then in wealth and worldly power ; then formality, pride, and worldliness followed, till a dark night of a thousand years and Romanism resulted. But God would not suffer his Church to perish utterly, and so he raised up a Huss, a Knox, a Luther, and others, to call it back to first principles, and commit to the flames the " senseless mummery " of mint, anise, and cummin, which had effectually excluded the weightier matters of the law and the Gospel. Such is the result of human hands tampering with Christ's Church, putting into it what he has left out, and leaving out what he has put in. The " inventions sought out" by man to improve God's work always mar it.

On a smaller scale the Church of England, and indeed all other State Churches, continuing a long time without interruption to work out their legitimate fruits, show the historical fact of a retrogression toward the " dark ages," and a call for reformers such as Wesley, Whitefield, Chalmers, and others like them, to save these Churches from extinction. Reposing upon empty forms and a dead orthodoxy, they drifted into the current with the world rather than drew the world to Christ. Such a Church cannot be the Church of Christ — it gathers not with him, but scatters abroad.

io Introduction.

The history of the Puritans and the Pilgrims can hardly be regarded as an exception to this general fact in Church history. Much as there was that was good and apostolic in them, there was also something that must have been bad, as it has produced bad fruit in the shape of Unitarianism, Universalism, and " Liberal Christianity," or Infidelity. The humanizing hand has been too apparent in all these branches of the Church, hence they have suffered or been superseded by others, and so will it be with all others to the end of time which depart from the spirituality and simplicity of the Gospel.

The great practical and all-absorbing question with us is whether or not the career and history of the Methodist Episcopal Church shall be like or unlike those which have gone before it. Is her light also to become dim, her spirituality to depart, and her altars to be crushed with accumulating forms and empty ceremonies ? Shall her numbers and wealth, and consequently her worldly power, lead her away into pride and abandonment of the meek and lowly Jesus ? Why should we expect her history to be an exception to that of all other branches of the Church ? Human nature and the world are now as of old, and so is the philosophy of mind and morals unchanged. The same humanity enters into the modern as into the ancient Church. And do not the signs of the coming departure already begin to warn us ? A growin0" laxity in discipline, increasing devotion to style and fashion, increasing members who show no heartfelt devotion to Christ, hoarding wealth while souls are perishing, and an infant cry for " more ritual ;" the constant growth of legislation in usages, forms, and machinery with which we are loading the Church, thereby (necessarily) abstracting just that amount of attention from the vital and cardinal point — spirituality— all point in a direction of hateful memory, and should wake the attention of every watchman on the walls of Zion.

Our hope that the future of our Church shall be like its past all centers in this one thing, namely, that she shall make the spiritual life of God in the soul, the conversion of the world to Christ, and the spread of scriptural holiness over these lands so cardinal and overshadowing that all our discussions and legislation on all side issues and fixings shall be held comparatively as mere dust in the balance. These are the days of her greatest peril. Small numbers, feebleness, and persecution, have ever contributed to spirituality and growth in the Church ; but numbers, wealth, and power, to decline and downfall.

Hence this little timely book will be a most valuable aid to our reading people, turning back their minds to the days of our Church youth, when she had nothing but her scriptural doctrines and usages to commend her to the public favor, and thus grew with such unprecedented rapidity. Nothing can reveal to us more clearly than this whether or not the Church now is advancing or retrograding in what renders her really great and useful. This is the vital point to be kept before the Church to aid her to withstand all the influences and temptations now assailing her to let down her doctrines, usages, and discipline. May the history of all Churches instruct and warn us ! may the love we cherish for the Church that, under God, sought and saved us evermore, constrain us to hold fast to her landmarks, and war valiantly against all her insidious foes, and contend manfully for the faith once delivered to the saints ! God forbid that what he has given us by the high and holy character and labors of our fathers should suffer in our hands, to the irreparable loss of those who will come after us ! Every age of the Church has its responsibility. This is ours — to " hold fast that which is good."

This line of thought will be strengthened if we consult our own Christian experience. We often find, when coldness and worldliness have damped the fire of our Christian ardor and zeal, doubts, fears, and, may be, skeptical thoughts arise. Then, may be, we seek arguments to re-assure ourselves. A Butler, a Paley, a Watson, a Whedon, reason with an irresistible force ; but nothing so quickly and effectually puts the soul at rest, without one lingering doubt, as to refer to our awakening and conversion by the Spirit. In a moment the soul is filled with assurance, and "we know whom we have believed ;" and " we know we have passed from death unto life." The power of Christian experience in proof of the verity and divinity of Christianity has no equal. Hence it was Paul's sharp instrument in the most critical hour of his eventful and brilliant life. It is a sad and ominous day with the Christian when he forgets or thinks lightly of his conversion and convert experience ; and as the Church is only the aggregate of individuals, it is equally sad for her when she forgets the days of her primitive spirituality and simplicity of purpose, with her holy zeal for Christ in the days of her " espousals."

As we have read this MS. book of modest pretensions, not so much for literary criticism and speculation as to refresh our mind with the early history, struggles, and achievements of our beloved Church, we have enjoyed much its happy, brief, and racy summary of her history, doctrines, discipline, and usages, set forth in no controversial but catholic and devout spirit ; and we have felt to thank God and the author for the soul-refreshment we have received from it, and really feel our piety quickened, and more intelligently, liberally, and devoutly attached to the Church than when we commenced it ; and we hop*e it may be so with the thousands who will read it. And may the beloved and afflicted author realize before he goes home to his final reward that, under God, he has done more for him and his Church in this unpretending publication than in all his previous life and labors !

L. D. Barrows.

Lawrence, Mass., Jan. 1873.

Chapter I

MY EARLY RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE FORTY YEARS AGO AND NOW.

Early Associations with Methodism — Beginning of jny Religious Life with other Denominational Surroundings — Slow Progress — Doubt and Fear — Unite with Methodist Episcopal Church on Probation — Begin to Preach — Join in Full — Join New Hampshire Conference — Still Fearful of Acceptance with God, but Clear in Duty to Preach — Great Trial of Faith — Relief and Victory — Contrast between my Physical Condition and Religious Enjoyment Then and Now — Present Prostrated Physical Condition — Great Peace and Bright Prospects Page 21

Chapter II. Class-meetings Forty Years Ago And Now

How Conducted Then — Opposition to Them — Their Usefulness— Reminiscences — Class-meetings Now 31

CHAPTER HI.

CIRCUITS, STATIONS, AND SALARIES.

Size of Circuits — Labor Required — Mode of Traveling An

Incident — Present Stationing System — Advantages and Disadvantages— Salaries Then and Now— A Practical Lesson from " Dear-bought " Experience 39

CHAPTER IT.

QUARTERLY MEETINGS THEN AND NOW.

"Old-fashioned" Quarterly Meeting— Guarding Love-Feast Door — A Reminiscence — Modern Quarterly Meeting 57

CHAPTER V.

METHODISTIC CUSTOMS AND CHARACTERISTICS.

Style of Dress — Incident Related — Kneeling during Public and Social Prayer — Practice of Shouting and other Responses — Losing Strength — Public Testimony for Christ Page 21

CHAPTER VL

VISITING FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE.

Made a Special Duty — Different Modes of Performing It — A Presiding Elder's Advice — He Relates an Incident — Reminiscences of Personal Experience — Pastoral Visiting an Imperative Duty 15

CHAPTER VII.

CAMP-MEETINGS THEN AND NOW.

The Preparation Demanded — Inconveniences Connected with their Maintenance — Their Success — Their Present Conveniences— Attendance and Success-— Pleasant Summer Resorts — A "Word of Caution 86

CHAPTER VIII.

PARSONAGES- AND CHURCHES.

Parsonages — Pew in Number — Frequent Inconvenience in respect to Location — Scarcity of-itoom and Furniture — Present Number and Accommodations — Churches — Style — Cost and Number compared with Forty Tears Ago — Rapid Progress* in Church Building — Free and Modest Churches our Church Policy 92

CHAPTER IX.

OPPOSITION TO METHODIST DOCTRINES AND USAGES FORTY YEARS AGO, AND FRATERNAL RELATIONS WITH EVANGELICAL CHURCHES NOW.

High-Church Opposition to Methodistic Ordinations and Sacraments— Calvinistic Opposition to her Doctrines — Reminiseences— Opposition to her Separate Sunday-School, Bible, and Tract Societies — Home Missions — Reported Moral "Waste in Valley of Mississippi — Incompetency of the Ministry there— The American Temperance Society Question — A Reminiscence — Universalism — Anecdotes — Present Fraternal Relations of the Churches of Evangelical Faith Now Page 99

CHAPTER X.

WOMAN'S WORK IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH THEN

AND NOW.

The Public Testimony for Christ in Promiscuous Assemblies — Her Sphere of Usefulness and Special Labors Then — Her Increased Sphere of Usefulness Now — " The Ladies' and Pastors' Christian Union " — " The "Woman's Foreign Missionary Society " — General Conference Report on " "Woman's "Work in the Church " 126

CHAPTER XL

METHODISM AND SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.

Position of the Methodists Respecting Them at the Time of their Origin — "The First Sunday-school in America" — Their Number and Condition Forty Tears Ago — Their Present Number and Condition — Sunday-school Library Books — Periodicals and Requisites — Normal Department — Demands for Increased Efforts — Other Improvements Needed 133

CHAPTER XII.

"GATHERING FRUIT UNTO LIFE ETERNAL."

Interesting Instances of Conversions by Special Efforts years ago — Important Results since ^ 242

CHAPTER XIII.

EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES FORTY YEARS AGO AND NOW.

Academies and Seminaries Then— Their Condition and Number—The First One Established by the Methodist Episcopal

Church — Number and Condition Now — Colleges and Universities Then — Wesleyan University — Its Origin — Dickinson College and Alleghany College — Previous Disadvantages and Embarrassments in Educational Interests — Number and Condition of Colleges and Universities in the Church Now — Female Colleges — Appointment of Secretary of Education — Theological Schools — Former Prejudice Against Them — Efforts used to Establish Them — First One Established — Present Number and Condition Page 159

CHAPTER XIV.

METHODISM AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVEEY.

Position of the Church on the Subject Forty Years Ago — High Prior Antislavery Position — Beginning of the Abolition Excitement — General Conference Discussion in 1836 — "The Immortal Fourteen" — Southern Secession in 1844 — Its Causes — Rapid Spread of Abolitionism — War of the Rebellion — President Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation — Methodism and the War — Present Mental, Social, and Moral Condition of Freedmen 174

CHAPTER XV.

LAY DELEGATION FOETY YEAES AGO AND NOW.

Strongly Opposed Then — Stormy Discussions — Secessions from the Church — Rapid Progress of Lay Delegation Sentiment — Plan Proposed by General Conference of 1868 — Indorsed by both Ministers and Lay Members — Lay Element in General Conference of 1872 188

CHAPTER XVI.

NUMEEICAL STEENGTH OF METHODISM FOETY YEAES AGO AND

NOW.

Statistics Then — Rapid Growth — Present Numerical Strength — Growth in the North-west — Rapid Growth among German Immigrants — General Conferences of 1832 and 1872 196

CHAPTER XVII.

BISHOPS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

Bishops Forty Tears Ago — Previous Bishops — Those Elected and Serving the Church from 1832 to 1872 — Those Elected at General Conference of 1872 — Efforts for Bishop of African Descent— Colored Bishops for Liberia Mission Page 207

CHAPTER XVIIL

METHODIST BOOK CONCERN FORTY TEARS AGO AND NOW.

Its Valuation in 1832 — Its Origin — Its 'Removal to and Enlargement in New York City — Its Destruction by Eire — Its Re-establishment — Its Progress and Reputation — Its Edifice in Broadway — Exciting Reports of Fraud and Mismanagement — Various Investigations by Book Committee — Final Verdict by General Conference of 1872 219

CHAPTER XIX.

METHODIST MISSIONS FORTY YEARS AGO AND NOW.

Their State of Progress in 1832 — Origin and Success of Wyandotte Indian Mission — John Stewart its great Apostle — Origin of the Liberia Mission — Melville B. Cox its first Missionary — His Death — Origin of the Flathead Indian Mission — Jason and Daniel Lee its first Missionaries — Great Interest created by the Establishment of the African Mission — Interest felt in the Flathead Mission — Progress of the Missionary Cause since — Present Number and State of our Missions— Demands for Increased Efforts 242

Part II. Chapter I

METHODISM — HER DANGERS AND DUTIES.

With Reference to Her Numerical Strength— Her Financial Prosperity— Her Ministry— Her Mission Work 259

CHAPTER IL

METHODISM AND THE TODTH OP OUR COUNTRY.

The Great Number of Yoath to be Cared for— Facilities for their Education in Seminaries — In Sunday-schools — Efforts Demanded for their Education and Salvation Page 212

Chapter III. Methodism — Her Converts And Probationers

Her Revivals of Religion and Rapid Church Increase — Her Special Privileges to Converts — Their Early Reception as Probationers Important — The Manner of Reception Considered — Faithful Instruction and Encouragement Demanded — Lack of Nurturing Hazardous — Their Individual Responsibilities — Church-members and Probationers Urged to Duty 280

CHAPTER IY.

MUTUAL CLAIMS GROWING OUT OF OUR ITINERANT MINISTRY.

Mutual Submission to the Appointing Power of the Church — Mutual Receptions Required — Mutual Aid with Reference to Removals and Parsonages — Salaries — Early Acquaintance to be Mutually Sought — Liberty of Conscience Necessary in Matters of Political Action — Reputation of Pastors and People Mutually to be Sought — Closing Duties Required of Both at Termination of Pastoral Relation 286

Chapter V. Methodism — What Are Her Assurances For Future Success?

Practical and Experimental Godliness — It will Secure Her Against Heretical Doctrines — Give Safety to the "Workings of Her Ecclesiastical Polity — Give Catholicity of Spirit — Give Proper Direction to Her Vast Resources — Secure Divine Protection — Secure the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit. . . . 303

METHODISM FORTY YEARS AGO AND NOW.

art if xx s i.

CHAPTER I. My Early Religious Associations and Personal Experience

THEN AND NOW.

[p^ROM early life I have been somewhat familiar with Methodism. My father was a member of the first class formed on the " Old Barnard Circuit" in Vermont, in the early days of our Church in that State. In his days of active business life, he, for years, held official relations therein. My mother, though not a professor of religion, was deeply interested in the moral welfare of her household.

Our house was frequently favored with visits from many of those early veterans of the Cross, whose names are familiarly known in our Church histories. The influence they bequeathed to us is as fragrant -as "the precious ointmenl poured forth." From a child I have heard theii names spoken and their deeds praised. Man} of these were our circuit preachers and frequenl visitors at my early home. Their countenances, style of speech and dress, mode of traveling manner of preaching, and general appearance became familiar to me. Our house, being large, was sometimes opened, for the want of a more convenient place, for public religious services on the Sabbath and other days. These early associations had a powerful influence on my youthful heart and life.

When in my twenty-first year I sought, and I trust found, " the pearl of great price." I was then away from home, engaged in teaching. My denominational surroundings were very unlike those with which \ had been previously associated.

The pastors of the different Churches were good men and popular preachers, and many of their members worthy Christians ; but I could not be edified with the High-Churchism, and, to me, dull formalisms of the Episcopalians ; nor with the Calvinistic and freely-expressed opinions concerning the fearful danger of entertaining a " false hope," held by the Congregationalists ; neither with the sentiments, tenaciously

My Personal Experience. 23

advocated by the people called "Christians," with reference to the character of Christ, "the sleep of the dead," and " the annihilation of the wicked."

Though I sought to be faithful in Christian duties, and never failed to take some part in their social meetings, yet I found myself often unconsciously utteri ig sentiments which were adverse to theirs, sometimes subjecting me to the necessity of self-vindication.

Such surroundings and influences had an adverse effect upon my progress in the divine life. My experience was unsatisfactory. I could not tell the time nor place of my conversion, and had almost constant fears that I had not " passed from death unto life."

Well do I remember the first love-feast I ever attended, some months after I began the Christian life. The testimonies there given were very positively expressed. Various ones said that they knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they loved God, and could tell just when and where they were converted. Such positive testimonies grated upon my ear. I thought they were a little too certain about -it, and that becoming modesty required that they should be less positive.

After the love-feast was through my excellent pastor kindly asked me, " How did you like the meeting?" I answered, "Very well, only they were a little too sure they loved the Lord;" and believing him to be a judicious man, inquired, "Don't you think so too ?" His reply disappointed me. It was this, " I am willing people should love the Lord, and if they do, it is proper that they should say so ! " This was a kind and gentle rebuke to me for my uncharitable suggestion, and it had a good effect upon me. I concluded it was not best to complain of others for having reached an experience beyond my own. Though I could not say that I knew that I loved the Lord, yet, if others did, they might " say so" and I would try to love him too.

On the 15th day of July, 1832, 1 was baptized by our preacher in charge, Rev. E. Jordan, and received on probation into Society.

Having felt it to be my imperative duty to preach the Gospel, I began, with the approbation of my pastor, six weeks after this, my life-work, and continued to hold meetings to the end of my probation, when I was received into full membership in the Church, and at the same time was licensed to exhort. Three months after this the quarterly conference licensed me to preach, and recommended me as a suitable

My Personal Experience. 2$

person to join the conference. The Rev. B. R. Hoyt, the presiding elder, immediately employed me for the remaining three months of the conference year to fill the place of the junior preacher, whose health had failed. Six months from the time of my reception into the Church I was admitted into the New Hampshire Conference, and received my first appointment.

My evidences of divine acceptance continued to increase, until at length I proclaimed to the people that " I too loved God with all my heart." Then followed "a great fight of affliction." " Satan desired to have me that he might sift me as wheat." Sift all the wheat out of me, and leave only the chaff. It was the hour of the " prince of darkness."

For the space of two weeks I remained in a state of deep despair. All hope of heaven had left me. I felt that I was surely doomed to eternal despair, and that already " the pains of hell had gotten hold upon me."

During all this time I did not question my duty to warn the people " to flee the wrath to come," as I visited from house to house, and kept on preaching according to previous notice. I even, conscientiously, refrained from speaking of my despairing feelings, lest I should wound the precious cause of Christ. I could not preach the Gospel, for this was hid from me, but could and did " proclaim the day of vengeance of our God." At length I found sweet relief from this sad state of mind at a little old hut, where lived a blessed saint of deep experience in the things of Gospel grace, who was nearly a hundred years old. By her godly counsel, cheering assurances, and earnest prayers, light dawned upon me, which gradually increased unto a joyful, cloudless day.

Such a "horror of darkness" has never yet returned to me. With my "shield of faith" I have been enabled to "quench all the fiery darts of the enemy." Indeed, when having the " whole armor on, I have been conqueror, and more than conqueror, through Him who has loved me."

A sense of my unfaithfulness and weakness has often oppressed me. I lament to-day that I have not been, and am not now, a better Christian. But " I know whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that I have committed unto him against that day " when he shall gather his own into joys immortal. " The name of the Lord is a strong tower ; the righteous runneth into it and is safe."

This early experience I will now compare

My Personal Experience. 27

with my present. In doing so I purposely omit to refer, with any definiteness, to my subsequent labors, conflicts, and triumphs while in the active ministry, as not relevant to my present arrangement of thought, and call the reader's attention to my more recent experience in the divine life. My fortieth year in the ministry began in utter physical prostration, great suffering, and almost certain prospect of death. I continued in this condition for about eight months, with no other expectation for the major part of that time than the daily prospect of exchanging earth for heaven.

During all this time I was sustained by the grace of God, comforted by the precious promises of his word, cheered by his conscious presence, and filled with bright hopes of the better life. My joy was not ecstatic. It was perfectly satisfactory to feel that, " though my heart and flesh fail," God would be "the strength of my heart, and my portion forever." And now, though but partially recovered and still a cripple, with but faint prospect of ever recovering health beyond its present state, I am calm, peaceful, hopeful, and, I think, resigned to my lot. I greatly marvel that such a poor and unworthy sinner, though saved through infinite grace in Jesus Christ from the guilt of sin by pardoning mercy, can thus be kept from desponding feelings. I attribute all to the special care of Him who tenderly puts "underneath me his everlasting arms" of love and mercy. In my physical prostration and earthly unfavorable prospects I can truly say,