Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1885 — OLD-TIME INDIANA PREACHERS. [ARTICLE]

OLD-TIME INDIANA PREACHERS.

Ready Wit. Rare Rloqcenoe, and Zealous Labors of the Early Men of God Raper’s Escape in Answer to Prayer— Bigelow Better than All the Bishops--How Whitten Settled a Church Difficulty. [W. H. Smith, in Indianapolis Journal.] No class of men have ever furnished a'greater fund of incident and anecdote than the early preachers who spread the gospel over the West. They passed through dangers and tails that few of the present day know anything of, and the story of their lives and of their devotion to the cause of humanity and of God would be of thr'l'ins intere t. They were quick of wit, and always ready to expose sham, no matter where found. William Cravens was one of these early apostles. He was the first circuit preacher Indianapolis had. He was a man of great power, and was possessed of a keen irony that cut like a knife. The power of granting divorces was then confined to the Legislature, and almost any one who applied was certain of getting a divorce. The preachers were dis. ussing the facility with which divorces were obtained, and severely denounced the Legislature, when a member of that body undertook to defend it. He proceeded at some lengch to enumerate causes for a divorce other than are given in the New Testament, and to show why they were sufficient. After listening quite a while, Mr. Cravens broke in with, “Ain't itwondenul Christ did not think of that?" The tone and manner were too much for the legislator, and he subsided. The preaching had strange effects sometimes upon temporal as well as spiritual affairs. Rev. Joseph Tarkington used to give an instance of this kind. Wnen he was a boy living near Bloomington, the preacher one day took for his text a passage from the Song of Solomon, which reads: “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.” With eloquent language, he pictured ■out the apple-tree, with its b autiful blossoms and lusc.ous fruit, until the mouths of his bearers began to water for the old orchards of the homes they had left in the East, and to long for them once agiin, as there were no ap-ple-trees in this sect on. So strong was this feeling upon the part of the senior Tarkington, that the next morning he started Joseph on horseback to Vincennes, seventy-five miles away, to buy some young apple-trees and bring them back. ■ '1 he country was new, and the traveling had to be done with private conveyances, and oftentimes amid great dangers. Will am Wilson was known as the "blind preacher.” He belonged to the Christian or c ampbellite faith. Those who heard him remember him as a man of rare eloquence. Once he was traveling with his wife ■over a lonely road in the southern nart of the State. Just as night was falling, they heard a noise at the side of the roa J, and his wife discovered a vi la nous-looking man with a gun pointed at them In a a whisper, she informed her husband, when Mr. V ilson spoke up in the sad voice for which he was noted: “ Friend, can you tell us the way to the next town? I am blind, and a stranger, and I fear we have lost the way.” The highwayman muttered out some sort of answer, and slunk away into the woods. William H. Raper was one of the most famous of those early preachers. While traveliug his circuit, which included all the southeastern part of Indiana, he cot lost in the woods one dar t night, and wandered about for several hours. At last he came to a creek. The rain had been falliiig for several days, and he knew the waters must be very high. Dismounting he groped along as best he could until he came to what he supposed was a bridge. He carefully led his horse onto it. As he proceeded he felt it giving under him, step by step, but he kept on until he leached the other bank. A short distance from there he discovered a house, and after arousing the inmates obtained permission to stay all night. They asked him how he had been able to cross the creek, and when he told them by the bridge, they were amazed, as he was when they informed him there was no bridge there nor never had the morning they went out and found that in the darkness he h»d. crossed on floating driftwood that had become jammed. At another time he had an experience that will furnish a nut for psychologists to crack. While crossing a very full stream at an early hour one morning, his horse threw him into the water. He was swiftly being borne out into the rapid current of the river, when he was enabled to catch an overhanging limb. To that he clung until his strength was almost exhausted. He was about to give up in despair, as no help was near, when he seemed to hear a voice saying: "Mother is praying for vou, and you will be saved.” This gave him new courage, and making a final effort, he reached the bank in safety. On reaching his mother’s house, some days afterward, she told him she had a terrible dream about him. She said that one morning she was awakened in a terrible fright, and heard some one saying: “William is in great danger.” She sprang from her bed and, throwing herself upon her knees, began praying for him. This she kept up until at last a peace fell upon her spirit, and she was satisfied that her son had escaped from his danger. On comparing the time, it was found to have been at exactly the time he was struggling with the raging waters a hundred miles distant. The memory of Henry B. Bascom is yet dear to the Methodists of Indiana. He had many narrow escapes while preaching in the new country. He was an indefatigable student, and occupied every moment possible in his studies. He loved to lie on t ie ground beneath the shade of some giant of the forest, and. with his book in his hand, study and meditate. As he was thus lying, one day, he heard a voice crying, “Lie still. Do not, move at the peril of your life.” Looking toward the point from whence the voice proceeded he saw a friend with his rifle pointed at the tree above him. Glancing quickly up he saw a huge panther in the very act of springing upon him. His friend fired, and the panther fell dead at his side. At another time, he stopped at a log cabin for dinner. While they were eating the meal a little child of his host was playing in front of the door. Suddenly the mother screamed: “Oh, my child!" They rushed to the door just in time to see a panther bearing the child into a tree. Mr. Bascom seized a rifle that was hang ng over the door, and, quick as thought, fired. The bullet sped true to the mark, and the panther fell to the ground dead. The teeth of the animal had done their fatal work on the chi d, however. Bascom's eloquence was of a peculiar kind. It was the eloquence of strength. It was an irresistible power, carrying everything before it. There was something grand, something wonderful about it. He was to theology what Webster was to constitutional law. He was the St. Paul of America. Once, while lecturing in Boston, on infidelity, he had among his auditors old Father Taylor, who was famous for his eloquence in the pulpit. During the delivery of the lecture Father Taylor stood by one of the pillars that supported the roof. He became so absorbed that unconsciously he began to raise his cane, elevating it gradually as the speaker rose in his eloquence, until at last he got it up at arm’s length. When he could raise it no higher, he waved it to and fro over the heads of the people and shouted: "Grand! glorious! triumphant l " Russell Bigelow was another of those pioneer preachers who swayed the multitudes by his eloquence. Such was his fame that when it was an ounced that he was to preach the people from many miles around flocked to hear him. His personal appearance was against him he was below the middle stature, and of slight and delicate frame. He was always clad in coarse, 111-fitting garments. His hair, uncombed, hung loosely over his forehead, which was broad and prominent. He had a keen eye, prominent cheek bones, a projecting chin, large nose, wide mouth and expanding nostrils. A skeptic who heard him at a '■ camp-meeting held near Dayton. Ohio, thus wrote of his sermon: “Having state 1 and illustrated his position clearly, he laid broad the foundation of his argument, and piled stone upon stone, hewed and polished, till he stood upon a majestic pyramid, with heaven s own light around him, pointing the astonished multitude to a brighter home beyond the sun, and bidding defiance to the enemy to remove one fragment of the rook on whi ch his feet were placed. His argument being completed, his perora'ion commenced. This was grand beyond description. The whole universe seemed animated by its Creator to aid him in persuading the sinners to return to God, and the angels commissioned to open heaven and come down to strengthen him. Now he opens the mouth of the pit, and takes us through its gloomy avenues, while the bolts retreat and the doors of damnation burst open, and the wails of the lost come into our ears; and now he opens heaven and transports us to the flowery plains, stands up amid the armies of the blest, to sweep with celestial fingers angelic harps, and join the -sternal chorus, ‘Worthy, worthy the Lamb!’

As he closed his d tscourse every energy of his body and mind was stretched to the utmost tension His soul appeared to be too great for its tenement, and every moment ready to burst through and soar away as an eagle toward heaven. His lungs labored, his arms rose, rhe perspiration, with t ars, flowed in a steady stream upon the Hcor. and everything about him seemed to say, ‘Oh. that my head were wate s.' But the audience thought not of the struggling body, tor e\en of the giant mind wi nin. for they were i aralyzed beneath the avalanche of thought that descended upon them. I lost the man, but the subject was all in all.” At one time the conference was to be held in Steubenville, Ohio. A wealthy Episcopalian went to the Methodist pastor in that place and told him if he would send him the most talented man in the conference he would be glad to entertain him. Bigelow whs sent to him. He made his appearance at the aristocratic residence in h.s homespun suit, ris personal appearance was not prepossessing, and, upon meeting the pastor, the Episcopalian complained ihat he had not been treated right. He was told that he had asked for the most talented mtn, and he had been sent to him. The pastor said to him: “He is to preach at the Presbyterian Church to-morrow morning. You go and hear him. and then, if you are still dissatisfied, I will change him and send yon the Bishop.” The host and his family attended the Presbyterian Church the next day. Mr. Bigelow took his seat in the pulpit, and when it was time to begin the services, arose and read his hymn. Such reading of poetry had never before been heard in Steubenville, and the host and his daughters exchanged surprised and significant glances. It was one of the preacher's grand days, and he electrified his audience. At the close of the serin' n the host requested his daughters to accompany Mr. Bigelow to the house, saying that he bad to attend to a little matter down street. He made his way at once to the Methodist parsonage, and < allmg the pastor to one side, told h m that he would not tiade off Mr. Bigelow, in his home-spun suit, for all the bishops. Such is the power of eloquence. John Gibson was one of the famous preachers of Eastern Indiana, and was very eccentric. His language was often rough, but it suited the backwoodsmen among whom he labored. On one occasion he was preaching at a camp-meet-ing near Richmond. A young woman persisted in standing upon one of the benches and laughing at the proceedings. She was requested several times to take a seat, but refused. Finally, Mr. Gibson broke out: “My Lord! knock that young woman down.” This he repeated three times, when the woman fell as if she had been shot. Turning to one who was sitting near him, he said: “Sister, that is what I call taking them between the lug and the horn.” A good deal has been said about prayer-cures of late.years, but a preacher once prayed a man to death. It was at a little church known as Mt. Olive, situated in the edge of Morgan County, about fifteen miles south of Indianapolis. Living in the neighborhood were several young men who attended the services of the church for no other purpose than to disturb the worshipei s. They would sit upon the back seats and play cards and drink whisky while the service- were going on. Many times they had succeeded in breaking up the meetings. This had gone on for several years. At length Levi Johnson was sent to the circuit. At one of his meetings the wickedness of Ihe young men broke out worse than ever. Finally, the preacher threw himself upon his knees, and in a voice of the most intense power, cried out, “Oh, Lord, if there is no hope that these men will ever become converted and do better, kill them at once aud take them out of the way." This he continued to repeat for two or three minutes, while a terrible awe fell upon the congregation. At the close of the prayer the leader of the young men fell from his seat, and before he could be carried out of the building was dead. Two or three of the others afterward said that they would have died if the preacher had kept on praying a minute or two longer. How to deal with refractory members has oftentimes puzzled the best of pastors, but Rev. Elijah Whitten had a way that was peculiarly his own. On arriving at a new charge once he found an internecine war raging with the greatest virulence. He tried for a while to make peace, but every effort failed. Out of patience with them, he called one day, at the close of his sermon, for the class books and church records. Upon these being procured, he took them to the stove and tossed them into the fire. After watching them until they were entirely consumed, he turned to his wondering congregation and said: “There, you now are all turned out of the churoh. You now have no church. If any of you want to get in again you will have to join on probation!”

State Items. —Bartlett’s drug store at Laporte was destroyed by fire, involving a loss of $20,000. —Henry S. Barnaby, of Jeffersonville, has been fined SIOO for gambling—the heaviest fine ever imposed for the offense in Clark County. Samuel Tilly was fined $97.65. —Both Pogue’s Run and the base-ball club at Indianapolis have dried up, and the citizens begin to long for a circus or a fair to break in upon the solemnity.— Exchange. —With the assistance of a dentist Mrs. Henry Cook, of Evansville, cut one of her third set of eye teeth the other day. It was attempting to come out laterally through the jaw bone. —Mrs. Ruth Garner, widow of the late Captain Wesley Garner, of New Albany, has just died at the age of 80 years. She had been a resident of that city for more than half a century. —Mr. J. B. Starr, the new superintendent of the New Albany schools, has been a teacher in the public schools of Floyd County for twenty years, and ranks as one among the best principals the grammar schools have had.

—The telephone companies of Indiana have devised a plan for evading the new law forbidding a charge of more than $3 per month for the use of a telephone. Extra charges are made to subscribers for batteries, service, etc. —George Steffy, who has been in the infirmary at Vincennes for ten years, dumb and helpless, suddenly recovered his speech while engaged in a scuffle, and now talks easily and rationally. He has no recollection of his ten years of silence. —A peculiar lawsuit has just been decided in the Knox Circuit Court. Last fall, a Vincennes correspondent writes, Mr. Sam Wile, Republican, bet with Mr. James Kackley, Democrat, that Gov. Oglesby would beat Carter Harrison in Illinois by 10,000 votes. The money was put up In the hands of Chris Guess, a Democratic saloonkeeper. After the election Wile claimed he won the bet, but the stakeholder would not give him the money. Wile sued, for the recovery of the stakes, S2OO. Yesterday the case was decided by Judge Mullott’s court. The Judge instructed the jury to find a verdict against the plaintiff (Wile), because he had sued for the whole amount; but the Judge held that if Wile had sued for the recovery of his own money he could have recovered. The defendant claimed that Wile had bet that Oglesby would beat Harrison by 10,000 majority, and not by 10,000 votes.