A hero of faith and prayer; or, Life of Rev. Martin Wells Knapp

Front matter

A Hei'o of Faith and Pr'ayei^

Life of Rev Martin Wells Knapp - - >'mH — ^ -

A.M. HILLS

Chapter I. One of God's Surprises

Wliere he finds Great Men — David, Elijah, Ehsha, Amos, Martin Luther, Lincoln — The Mother of Jesus — Obscurity — Brother Knapp one of the Divine Surprises — His Humble Birthplace. — Martin' s Poetic Description of it, - - - 15

Chapter II. His Parentage, Birth, and Boyhood

God appreciates a Christian Parentage — His Father a Shouting Methodist Class-leader — His Triumphant Death — His Mother Timid, but Strong in Spirituality — A Precious Mother-in-law — Remarkable Influence over Martin — Great Men's Mothers — Boys — His Birth — The Family — Incidents of Childhood — His Abnormal Timidity — Small Promise, 22

Chapter III. Going to College — Finding His Life Companion, and Finding God

His Mother's Energy and Prayers — His Industry — The School of Trial — Lucy J. Glenn — Her Account, and Burden of Prayer — Martin's Story — Tribute to his Mother's Piety, and to Lucy's Piety and Fidelity to Christ — Conviction, Conversion, - 28

Chapter IV. Marriage — Entering the Ministry — Early Pastoral Experiences — Sanctified

In College — Married — Description of the Young Minister — Small — In the Strawstack — " Not Much of a Church " — Widely Missed — A Picture of the Apostle Paul — His Experience in the First Pastorate — His Wife healed in Answer to Prayer — Picture of Second Pastorate — A Real Passion for Souls — Getting Sanctified — Six Noble Years of Ministry, 36

Contexts.

Chapter V. Third and Fourth Pastorates- Revival Experiences. Page

Lions — Going to Montague — Revivals at "\Miisky Creek — Regan — Reed City — Ludington — Vei-mont\-ille — iSIontague — Kalamo — Richland — Enters Evangelistic ^York — Resolutions of Conferences, - 58

Chapter VI. A Life of Faith — Revival Work — Tempted and Tried and True — Books

AND Revivalist.

Am Painting a True Picture of Brother Knapp — Bessie Queen' s words — His Great Faith in Finances — Renews Covenant — Torturing Instruments — ' ' \Miatsoever ' ' — Enlargement — Evangelistic Work — Eaton Circuit — DeWitt — Reading — Spring Lake — Eaton — Rheumatism — His Books, ''Christ Crowned Within," Revivalist, "Out of Eg}'pt into Canaan" — Remarkable Ten Years — Holy Spirit Power, 72

Chapter VII. Going Down into the Deeps

Two Years of Suffering and Trial — " Full of Cheer" — Algansee Revival — "Revival Tornadoes "begun — Sick — Mrs. Palmer's Works — The Devil — Working on His Book — Spirit-filled — Great Heaviness — God's Presence — Finished " Re\'ival Tornadoes" — Thirteenth Anniversary of Marriage — Wife Sick — Partnership with God — Knapp Sick — Great Camp-meeting — Ionia — A Crisis and Dark Hours, 86

Chapter VII I. The Furnace Seven Times Heated.

Still Holding on — Wife Translated — Resignation — "Glorified" — Her Worth— The Iron \Mieel— " Not Shut in"— " Polishing Tools" — Sick — Anna a Comfort — Dead to all but God — Father's Death — Reed City Camp — " One Year !" — On the border of Paradise — Weak-Spine Family — Unexpected Trial — Victory — Another Furnace — Furnace Lessons — Port Huron Revival — Agony — Healed 99

CONTKNTS. 7

Page

Chapter IX. Trial and Deliverance

Fruitfulness — Still Missed — "Deep, Deep Wound " — Satan's attack — Anniversary — Heartache — God All — Victory — God - refining — Thirty-ninth Birthday — ' ' Impressions ' ' finished — Insight into Soul Troubles" — Authorship — "Revival Kindlings" — Impressions — Wonderful Achievement — Married — Cincinnati, - Ii8

Chapter X. Life's Work and Development IN Cincinnati

Pushing his Revivalist and Book-publishing — An Unpromising Field — The Devil's Finest Work — " Double Cure" — " Beulah Heights" — "Tears and Triumphs " — " Bible Songs," - 129

Chapter XL Greatness in Service.

A True Greatness — "A Living-light Fountain" — "[Lightning Bolts" — < < Worse than Pagans " — " Genuine Repentance ' ' — Editorials — " AppalUng Results " — " Sanctification in the Knees" — "Spiritual Wolves" — "Mistakes About Consecration" — "Mistakes in Believing" — "Take Time to Pray" — Premillennial Views Adopted — " Heavenly Treasures," - - - 144

Chapter XII. A Potent Influence

Finger Marks ' ' — Last Four Years — Intimacy — My Publisher — A Bundle of Nerves, Brain, and Heart — Opening a Mission — Seven Flundred and Fifty Souls — A Failure Somewhere — A Sad Event — Knapp tried Before his Conference — Maryland Camp-meeting — The Battle Won — How it Looks to Outsiders, - - - 158

Chapter XIII. A Growing Power

• A Spreading Benediction " — The Revivalist becomes a Weekly — Colportage Library — A Monthly — "Pentecostal Wine" — "Jesus Only "—Critical Study of Methodist Church— Starthng Editorial — " Revival Poison in the Methodist Pan" — " Poison in the Zion Pan," 183

8 Contents.

Chapter XIV. Courage to Venture. Page

Lifted above *'tlie Curse of Commonness " — Purchasing the " Mount of Blessings" — How the Money Came — Striking Incidents and Answers to Prayer — The Texas Farm — Tlie First Money, - 203

Chapter XV. Withdrawing from the Methodist Episcopal Church

A Blest Man — God in His Life — A Painful Event — Batteries of Abuse — His Two Accounts of Why he left His Church — Reply of the Editor of Pittsburg Advocate, - - - - - -215

Chapter XVI. Leaning Hard on God, and Persecuted FOR Righteousness' Sake

Started a Foreign Missionary Movement — Wanted to be a Missionary — His Last Book, "Pearls from Patmos" — Ripening for Heaven — Last Meeting with Knapp — Arraigned Before the Police Court — Knapp' s Testimony — The Lawyer's Plea — Decision of the Judge — Knapp' s Comment — Items of Interest, - 236

Chapter XVII. Nearing Home

Watching for Light and listening for Heavenly Voices — Bessie's Account — The Last Communion — Wonderful Love for His Pupils — No Regrets — The Rescue Home — The Young Unfortunate Mother — Revelation — "Up in Heaven" — "For Africa" — Leaning on Knapp — Saturday Night — " Consuming Passion for Souls" — " Prevailing Prayer," --.... 274

Chapter XVIII. Emancipation — Translation

A Long Life — Many Times Healed — Couldn't Get Hold — Last Songs — Ripening — Kissed into Slumber — A Vision of Life — A Week's Illness — Worn out — A Quiet Death — "I have no regrets" — Simple Ceremonies — Godbey's Prayer and Sermon — Mrs. Knapp' s Journey Home — A Night with Jesus, - - 291

Chapter XIX. Life After Death Through a Holy Influence. Page

Undying Influence — Tribute of Belle Staples — Loyal unto Death —

The Cremation — Home Life — Reading Hearts Intuitively —

Love for His Children — Business Methods — Only Holiness

Books — Living by Faith — Long Days of Toil — A Clean Paper

-God's Wonders, 315

Chapter XX. Outpourings of Sympathy and Sorrow

"Better to have loved and lost" — The Saddest Telegram — Letters from Julia T. Randolph, Noah, Mena B. VonHolt, Mrs. Kent White, M. l'. Haney, Rev. Wm. Taylor, W. T. Davis, S. Bufes,

B. F. Walker, Charlie and Letde Cowman, Wm. N. Hirst, ** R," L. C. Pettit, B. S. Taylor and wife, Ida Wetmore, Mrs. J. H. Sparling, John C. Beach, S. Medden, Anna R. Colp, Elma Upperman, Rev. B. E. Paddock, M. L Ryan, Mrs. E.

C. Harnor, Jessie and James Hundley, .... ^39

Chapter XXL A Stream of Hopeful Sorrow.

Widely Missed — Letters from H. E. Malone, Mrs. R. Vandiwort Delia Brown, J. C. Turner, L. C. Hodgin, E, Townsend Jones, Mrs. Myra Richardson, Herbert L, Henry, E. A. Fergerson, M. D. Warburton, John C. Beach, Hope Alvord, Wm. and H. E. Taylor, C. M. Keith, Seth C. Rees, Arthur F. Ingler and James B. Howell, S. H. Bolton, A. Lee Gray, Kate Applegate, F. M. Messenger, E. A. Kilbourne, Gertrude Moon, Grace A. Fisher, Emily P. Carter, F. Voget, Mrs. Myra Crozier, F. E. Morehouse, Mrs. H. Briggs, Geo. B. Kulp, - - 369

Chapter XXII. The Hero Promoted

Tribute and Poem from some one at the Boston Convention — Tribute of Brother Godbey — From "Holiness Advocate," Goldsboro, N. C— From "Little Visitor," Port Huron, Mich.— From Zion's Outlook — Tribute of Seth C. Rees — Words from Mrs. Knapp — The Author's Tribute, ..... 400

Introduction

The life of Rev. Martin Wells Knapp was so unique and striking and many-sided, so beautiful in its simplicity, so fruitful in noblest achievements, that it fully deserves a permanent place among the biographies of great souls, the saints of God. He was one of the few really great Christians whom my life has touched. I quite expected that his biography would be written; for I have considered him for some time the most potential leader and foremost character in the holiness movement. But I never dreamed that the sacred privilege would be conferred upon me to weave the chaplet for his brow. I did not feel myself worthy, and it did not enter my mind, until I learned from a clipping of a great city journal, which reached me by way of New York City, that I had been chosen for the work. I did not pray to be excused ; I did humbly suggest to the family that either Seth C. Rees, of Chicago, or Dr. Godbey, of Bveryzvhere, should write the book. During Brother Knapp's later and most fruitful years they had been more intimately associated with him than I, the field of my labor, for the most part, lying in far-away Texas. Both of them loved him with a love like that of David and Jonathan. Each of them had superior talent for such a work. I both wrote to Brother Rees,

II 12 Ixtroductiox

and in person urged him to undertake it when he and his precious wife were guests in my home. But for some reason he refused. He consented only to write one chapter, as did also Dr. Godbey. I cheerfully accepted the sacred trust.

But when the material for the book was sent me, with the request that I have the manuscript in the publisher's hands in seven weeks, I confess I was startled. Teaching four college classes and delivering an expository sermon to the students at chapel daily, and writing several columns a week for the holiness papers, and tending to necessary college correspondence, it seemed impossible to do so much more. But I said, ''If God wants it, by the help of His Spirit and contributing friends, it can be done." And so, with a prayer for help, I bend to the task.

I ought not to call so sweet an employment a task; it is a delight and a benediction to my own soul. As I look into the mirror of this saintly spirit, I see my own littleness and unworthiness, and it sends me to my knees with a heart hungering to be more like Christ. Such tenderness and fervor of love, such wide outlook, such unswerving loyalty and inflexible purpose and heavenly heroism and unflagging zeal as characterized him, how they shame us all ! O God, help us to have a portion of his spirit !

This book will be helpful in many ways. First, it gives us an inside view of the Divine workshop in which God fashioned His precious servant, and fitted him to

Introduction.

be a chosen instrument for the accompHshment of great good. Here are the furnace-fires of affliction, the anvil of suffering, and the hammer of pain, the rasping and poHshing tools of trial and commingled defeat and success, sorrow and joy, out of which there came this giant fitted for achievement and storm and battles.

Again, this story will inspire hope in the breasts of the obscure and humble. How few start under more unpromising skies, or end their earthly career in such radiance of sunset glory !

This biography also will illustrate the tremendous power of a truly Christian woman's influence. It rarely falls to the lot of any man to have such a prayerful, sanctified mother, and two such sanctified wives as God gave to Brother Knapp. They, and Bessie Queen and Mary Storey, all sanctified, were potent forces in the inner life of this receptive and appreciative soul. Bessie's contributions to this book wiU be the gems of the whole. I here acknowledge my indebtedness to her account of his last days.

Lastly, the book affords a remarkable illustration of the power of faith and prayer and the transforming influence of the sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost in a life. Who can account for the transformation of the timid boy depicted in these pages into such a courageous Great-heart, or explain the world-wide influence of the humble country circuit-rider, whose early death was mourned around the globe, save on the principle of the Pentecostal enduement of power from

Introduction.

on high and the heart-cleansing baptism with the Holy Ghost? This humble man blazed in the sky of Christian thought like a star of the first magnitude. Leave out the permanent factor of an abiding and indwelling Christ and the overshadowing influence of the Holy Ghost upon him, and an explanation of his remarkable career is impossible. No one would be so quick as he to give God all the glory. He shall have it all. Live on, beloved brother ; though dead, thou dost yet speak to all our hearts, pointing to the Pentecostal chamber as the real birthplace of Christian power and abiding usefulness, and to the closet of prayer as the place where the soul clothes itself with strength and puts on the armor of heaven !

May his God be ours, and a portion of his spirit rest upon each of us ! May the perusal of these pages prove a blessing to many hearts !

A Hero of Faith and Prayer; or, Life of Rev. M. W. Knapp.

Chapter I. One Of God's Surprises

" For mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men." — Shakespeare. *' The mill streams that turn the clappers of the world arise in solitary places." — HELPS.

Nothing is more remarkable than the surprising places in which God finds great men. It has been so through all ages. When God wanted to find the greatest king that ever sat on Israel's throne, the world's poet laureate, he passed by the city palaces and the families of the titled and the great, and all the stately elder brothers, and went out into the sheep pasture of a Bethlehem farmer. His mother was so unknown as never to have perpetuated her name. Even the prophetic vision of Samuel would have missed him. His own brothers saw nothing whatever of hope or promise in him, and rebuked him sharply for leaving his few sheep in the wilderness to visit the army at all. Not a soul dimly conjectured that the immortal giant-killer, the teacher of psalmody to our race, and the kingliest spirit his nation ever would produce, stood before them.

i6 A He:ro of Faith and Praye:r.

When the chosen people of God had touched the darkest midnight hour of national backsHding, and king and queen and courtiers and pomp and power had all forsaken the Lord, and none would speak for Him because of terror, it was then that God, hunting for a real hero to lift Jehovah's standard, and dare to rebuke crowned iniquity, and brave the wrath of the monster Jezebel, passed all the schools of the prophets, all the robed priests and Levites, and all the princes of the people, and found his man "in the obscurity of a mountain village" east of the Jordan — ''Elijah the Tishbite." Here was the man who was to lock up and unlock the skies, slay the false prophets, and be the mouthpiece to a guilty nation of the God that answered by fire.

And when this majestic character was approaching his translation, and must select a successor, nobody but God would have told him to pass by all the sons of greatness and the men of renown, and select, as the great miracle-worker, the counselor of kings, and the guide of a nation's destiny, EHsha the plowman.

This same wonder-working God, whose ways are as much above ours as the heavens are above the earth, and who never sees as man sees, passed by all the strong and the great and the promising, and elected to a delicate and difficult mission "Amos, the herdman of Tekoa, and the gatherer of sycamore fruit."

Who but God would have ignored the claims of the titled and noble born, the kings and dukes and princes of modern Europe, and passed unnoticed all the seats of learning and the heirs of power and wealth and culture, and would have gone to the miner's hut of a German peasant to find the boy who should throw all Europe into ferment, and make popes tremble, and

Life: o^ Re;v. M. W. Knapp. 17

launch upon the world a new civilization, a renewed Christianity, and all the tremendous forces of the Reformation? Modern progress, civil and rehgious liberty, and the teeming impulses of the foremost nations of all history came from that peasant hut where God found Martin Luther.

If the wisest and most far-seeing men in all America had been put to the work of discovering the birthplace of the child who should become the future President of the greatest Republic of earth, the greatest genius and most unique character of all the Presidents, and the only . one who would be the companion and peer of Washington in the enduring esteem of mankind, no one would have thought of the comfortless log-hut, with its dirt-floor and its shiftless, ignorant father, in the hills of Southwestern Kentucky — the hut in which Abraham Lincoln was born. All these cases that I have mentioned, and thousands more that might be named, are God's surprises in history. He loves to laugh at human pomp and pride, and set at naught our calculations, and bring the unexpected to pass.

When He chose a Jewish maiden to be the mother of the incarnate Son of God, he passed by all ranks and titles and exalted stations, and chose Mary, the peasant girl in the extreme of poverty, so that the baby wail of the newborn Lord of earth was first heard, not in a palace chamber, but in a stable by the beasts of the stall. And this God-child became a Galilean Carpenter.

This is not unusual; indeed, it is almost the customary method of God in finding His most distinguished servants. "The strongest trees are not found in sheltered nooks, but in the most exposed places, where sweeps the full fury of the storm ; the hardiest 2 flowers grow, not in hothouses, but on the mountain-side, in close proximity to the glacier and the snow; and God's grandest heroes are taken, for the most part, not from the lap of luxury or the home of affluence, but from the dwelling of penury and the abode of obscurity. Their very struggles have developed strength, and the difficulties which they have been forced to encounter have quickened inventiveness and inspired resolution."

Brother Knapp was one of these Divine surprises. If the astutest committee Methodism could have produced had been sent out to find in Southern Michigan the home in which would be born and from which would go forth the most prolific author, and the most successful publisher, and the most potent editor in the holiness movement of our time, not a member of it w^ould have thought of inspecting that one-roomed log-house in Clarendon, Calhoun County, as the possible place. They would all have said that out of such cramped and meager conditions nothing great could come. They would all have passed by, looking at everything else within the bounds of the horizon but the humble yet sacred place where "the hero of faith and prayer was born. "Ye behold your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called ; but God chose the foolish things of the world, that He might put to shame them that are wise ; and God chose the weak things of the world, that He might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things of the world and the things that are despised did God choose, yea, and the things that are not, that He might bring to nought the things that are : that no flesh should hi^^ o^ Rkv. M. W. Knapp. iq

glory before God." (i Cor. i, 26-29.) ''Even so, Father ; for so it seemed good in Thy sight."

God seems to Hke to do such things to magnify himself, and to exalt the humble and the meek of the earth, while ''He scattereth the proud in the imagination of their heart." "He hath put down the princes from their thrones, and hath exalted them of low degree."

I find no description of that lowly home but one in a little New-Year's poem written by Martin to his mother in 1897, which I subjoin here :

New Years, 1897. 7b Mother from Martin.

OUR CHILDHOOD DAYS.

The advent of another year Again is drawing very near, Reminding me of flight of time And thoughts which shape themselves in rhyme. Our early days and childhood home, Like pictures, to my memory come.

Like Moses' rod they strike my heart. And from my eyes the teardrops start ; Upon my cheeks they freely flow In memory of long ago.

The old log house I plainly see

Just as of old it used to be.

Though rough and rude ' t is sacred yet,

A place we never can forget.

Where first our early being proved

A mother' s care, a mother' s love.

The wooden pump, the cherry-trees.

The grapevine and the busy bees ;

The locust-tree, and walnut too.

Beneath whose shades we played and grew ;

The currant-bushes, green and red.

Beneath whose shelter chickens fled ;

20 A Hi:ro o^ Faith and Prayer.

The orchard with its golden boughs,

And shading trees behind the house ;

The fences, barn, and fields of grain,

Though years have fled, I see again.

Pet "Penny" dog, I think I hear.

And "Prof." seems barking very near;

And "Jack" and "Rock," with prancing feet,

Just as of old I seem to greet.

Full may many a ' ' Jack ' ' I since have seen, But none like him to me has been.

These scenes, and many more, arise And pass before my tear-dimmed eyes. But time has swept them all away.

Till scarce a trace remains to-day. But dearer still, and far more fair, The forms of those who mingled there. There mother, kind and true to God, Each day exemplified His Word.

Within her heart the Spirit's power Beamed brightly every passing hour, While patient, tender, good, and true, She told and lived what we should do. Upon our mother, evermore.

May God His richest blessings pour ! Praise Him, she lives our lives to cheer, — ■ May she remain for many a year !

But he who toiled in want and pain Has vanished back to dust again.

He felled the forest, tilled the soil, But now is free from care and toil. He passed triumphantly away To sights and sounds of endless day. Our oldest sister, young and fair Had gone before to meet him there.

We four remain, and God knows why.

And who will be the first to die.

While, sundered far upon life's sea, We hasten to eternity.

Lii^i^ OP' Rkv. M. W. Knapp. 21

I feel a deep and pungent pain That I CO recreant had been.

that I then had faithful proved !

More kind have been, more truly loved ! But vain regrets can not atone

For all I should have been and done. In vain in harvest time to weep, —

1 did not sow, I can not reap, Nor present works can wash away The evil of an early day ;

And though the past is all forgiven By loved ones and by God in heaven, Yet still there lives a lingering pain, That much of life would live again, If with the present gift of grace I could again its steps retrace.

I trust we each again shall meet Before Life's journey is complete.

And that in heaven we shall share A kingdom and a mansion fair, Which never more shall fade away.

But brighter grow through endless day.

To Him be endless thanks and praise. Who thus hath lengthened out our days, Atonement made for all our sin ; His light without, His love within, His Son to save and sanctify, To conquer death and glorify ; His providence on every side.

His Spirit, too, to keep and guide. His Word to bless. His presence cheer, His fire to banish every fear.

O may we each His name adore, And serve and love for evermore.

His Pentecostal power prove.

And live and die in perfect love !

A happy blessed bright New- Year, Replete with heavenly love and cheer !

Chapter II. His Parents, Birth, And Boyhood.— Ancestors

" A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." — Lord Macaulay.

'* The man who has not anything to boast of but his illustrious ancestors, is like a potato — the only good belonging to him is underground." — Sir T. Overbury.

Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round !

Parents first season us. Then schoolmasters Deliver us to laws. They send us bound

To rules of reason." — George Herbert.

' * Home is the first and most important school of character. It is there that every human being receives his best moral training or his worst ; for it is there that he imbibes those principles of conduct which endure through manhood, and cease only with life."

God does make something of ancestry, especially of a Christian parentage. God-fearing parents who assume the solemn duty of parentage in the fear of God and for His glory may rationally hope to have children that "are an heritage of the Lord." Brother Knapp may have had humble and obscure parents, of whom the world would scarcely expect so illustrious a son; yet he had just the kind of pious parents that the loving Father watches over with sleepless vigilance, and loves to bless.

His father, Jared Knapp, was an old Methodist class-leader for years — one of the shouting kind. He

" Grandma " Knapp.

Life o]? Rev. M. W. Knapp. 23

was one of the men, all too few, whose moral backbone was not a cotton-string. When he was converted in early life, his father wanted him to do something that was wrong, and he left home rather than do it. Perhaps this was partially the human origin of that inflexible moral stamina that was such a striking element in Martin's character. This old-fashioned Methodist, who made no excuses and asked nobody's pardon for being a Christian, had a triumphant death at an advanced age. For a week before his departure he would look up and wave his hand to celestial visitants. The day before he died he heard their music, and spoke of it to his family. He passed away in Martin's home. May 24, 1891. He came to Michigan from New York in 1836, and was one of those godly pioneers who helped to save that beautiful peninsula from godlessness, and plant in it the institutions of Christianity.

These are all the facts I have about Martin's father. Few indeed they are ; but perhaps they will answer our purpose. From him, I suspect, Martin inherited a physical frame deficient in robust vigor and nervous power — in short, a rather depleted vitality — but also drew from him a certain persistence of character and fervor in his religious life.

Of his mother we know much more. She is still with us. We have lived weeks with her under the same roof. She is one of the most retiring of women, reticent and timid, but of a strong character and firm convictions. If Martin inherited the intensity of feeling from his father, he acquired the deep spirituality and superior brain from his mother. She is the "still water that runs deep." Her reverent daughter-in-law, whose soul is knit to hers as Ruth to Naomi, writes me : ''She always has seemed to me like a root-Christian — little

24 A Hero op^ Faith and Praykr.

seen of her; but great results have followed her beautiful life. I have never Hked the v^ord 'mother-in-law' used around me, as she has been so lovely and been a real mother. She has lived with us twelve years, ever since we were married, and is heart and soul in the work. She has never done much public work, but has achieved much by fasting and prayer."

Through life this strong, sterling woman had a remarkable hold upon her son; and he, on his part, was fully conscious that he was his mother's boy. Indeed, I think history will show that most great men are masculine reproductions of their mothers. What greater crown was ever laid on the brow of motherhood than the phrase, "The mother of the Wesleys?" This seems to be God's usual way of permitting great mothers to move the world. Largely denied publicity themselves, they make their impress on the world through their great sons.

Mrs. Knapp certainly did this. She says when her children were placed in her arms at birth, one by one, she felt that they were a sacred trust from the Lord, and that He said, "Train this child for Me;" and she felt responsible for them always. O that all mothers would feel this sacred responsibihty, and train their children for God !

This mother was exceedingly industrious, thrifty, and economical. Martin was a grown boy before he had his first suit of store clothes. His mother made the others. She taught him never to buy anything he did n't need ; and that was a fixed habit with him always, and it was a needed discipline, fitting him to face the grave financial problems that always confronted him.