Surely there is need of mission work here, but—There are large new-fashioned mills here, with forty years' cutting ahead of them at the rate of fifty million[152] feet of lumber3 per year. I had excellent audiences here and at Thompson, six miles away, where there was no church. Between these two places is Perryville, with 200 people and no church. Both are lumbering-towns.
Another town of importance is Iron Mountain, which then had 2,000 people; two Methodist churches, one Swedish, the other English-speaking. The place was alive with men and full of sin. Where are the right men to send to such places? If one sits in his study and consults statistics, they are plenty; but when you come down to actual facts, they are not to be found. "The Christian League of Connecticut" has much truth in it, but not all the truth. Without doubt their unwise distribution has much to do with "the lack of ministers;" but it is still a lamentable4 fact that the laborers5 are few. Not with us alone. The oft-repeated saying that "the Methodist church has a place for every man, and a man for every church," is to be taken with a grain of salt. I meet men every[153] week who tell me they have five, seven, nine, and even eleven charges. We have a thousand just such places.
Now, if churches will put up with the fifth, seventh, ninth, or eleventh part of a man, they can have "a church for every minister, and a minister for every church." This unchristian way of pushing and scrambling6 in our little villages goes a long way to explain the dearth7 of men on the frontier; and the seizing on "strategic points" in a new country often presents a sad spectacle.
I was much perplexed8 about one place. Our minister was the first on the ground; the people voted for a union church and for him; yet two other churches organized. When I visited the place I found our brother with a parsonage half built. There was nothing but the bare studding inside—no plaster, winter coming on, and his little ones coughing with colds caught by the exposure. Then, to crown all, the house was found to be on the wrong lot, which brought[154] the building to a stand-still; after that two other denominations9 rushed up a building—one only a shell, but dedicated10. There was only a handful of hearers, and our minister preached more than two-thirds of the sermons there. We had the best people with us; and yet it was plain to me there was one church more than there ought to be. Had we not been first there, and things as they were, I should say, "Arise, let us go hence!"
I am constantly asked, "When are you going to send us a man?" and we have places where there is only one minister for two villages. Ah, if the pastors12 hanging around our city centres only knew how the people flock to hear the Word in these new places, surely they would say, "Here am I, Lord; send me."
In one place I went to, there were two women who walked eight miles to hear the sermon. One of them was the only praying person for miles around, and for some years back the only one to conduct a funeral service, to pray, or to preach. At[155] this place there was an old lady who came nine miles every Sunday on foot, and sometimes carried her grandchild. Think of that, you city girls in French-heeled boots! In another place of two hundred people, where there was no church, a little babe died. The mother was a Swede, only a little while out. Would you believe it, there was not a man at the funeral! Women nailed the little coffin13-lid down, and women prayed, read the Scriptures14, and lowered the little babe into a grave half filled with water.
In another new settlement I visited, they were so far from railway or stage that they buried a man in a coffin made of two flour-barrels, and performed the funeral rites15 as best they could. But these people have great hearts—bigger than their houses. When a brother minister was trying to find a place for me to stay, a man said, "Let him come with me."—"Have you room?"—"Lots of it." So I went. In a little clearing I found the most primitive16 log house I ever saw;[156] but the "lots of room"—that was out-of-doors. The man and his wife told me that when they came there it was raining; so they stripped some bark from a tree, and, leaning it against a fallen log, they crept underneath17; and for three days it rained. The fourth being Sunday and a fine day, the settlers mocked them for not building. On Monday and Tuesday it rained again; "but we were real comfortable; weren't we, Mary?" said the man.
Then he and Mary built the house together. There was only one room and one bed; but they took off the top of the bedding, and put one tick on the floor. "That's for me," I thought. Not a bit of it. I was to have the place of honor. So, hanging some sheets on strings18 stretched across the room, they soon partitioned off the bed for me. Then, after reading and prayers, the man said, "Now, any time you are ready for bed, Elder, you can take that bed." But how to get there? First I went out and gave them a chance; but they did not[157] take it. I thought perhaps they would go and give me a chance; but they did not. So I began to disrobe. I took a long while taking off coat and vest; then slowly came the collar and neck-tie; next came off my boots and stockings. Now, I thought, they will surely step out; but no; they talked and laughed away like two children. Slipping behind the sheet, and fancying I was in another room, I balanced myself as well as I could on the feather bed, and managed to get off the rest of my clothes, got into bed, and lay looking at the moonbeams as they glanced through the chinks of the logs, and thinking of New England with her silk bed-quilts and bath-rooms, till, as I mused19, sleep weighed down my drowsy20 eyelids21, and New England mansions22 and Michigan log huts melted into one, and they both became one Bethel with the angels of God ascending23 and descending24.
I visited Lake Linden, and found the people ready for organization as soon as they could have a pastor11. A brother had[158] just left for this field; and I thought it safe to say that we should have a self-supporting church there at no distant day. We did. While staying there a man came after me to baptize two children. I went, and one would think he had been suddenly transferred to Germany. Great preparations had been made. I noticed a large bowl of lemons cut up, and the old ladies in their best attire25. I was requested to give them a baptismal certificate, and to sign the witnesses' names, as they said that was done by the minister. It was a delicate way of telling me they could not write.
But that was not the strangest part of the ceremony. The father and mother stood behind the witnesses, the latter being two men and two women. The women held the children until all was ready, then handed them to the men, who held them during baptism. I preached to them a short sermon of five minutes or so, and then, when I had written the certificate, each witness deposited[159] a dollar on the table. The father was about to hand me five dollars; but I made him give four of it to the children. They would not take a cent of the witness money; that would be "bad luck," they said. It was a new experience to me. The people had no Bible in the house. As I had left mine at the village, I had to use what I had in my heart. Here again, I thought, what work for a colporteur?
A great work might be done by one or two men who could travel all the time with Bibles and other good books, and preach where the opportunity offered. We might not see the result, but it would be just as certain; and though the people might not stay here, they will be somewhere. There are many places where neither railway, steamboat, nor stage ever reaches, and yet the people have made and are making homes there. They went up the rivers on rafts, and worked their way through the wilderness26 piecemeal27. Missionary28 Thurston carried his parlor29 stove[160] slung30 on a pole between himself and another man.
At one place, while preaching, I noticed a man fairly glaring at me. At first I thought he was an intensely earnest Christian, but he "had a devil." After meeting he told the people, "If that man talks like that to-night, I'll answer him right out in meeting." He came, and behaved himself. Some time after he had to leave town on account of a stabbing-affray, and I lost sight of him for a while. Long after I was in another place, one hundred and twenty miles away; and while talking with our missionary there, I saw a man coming from a choir-practice. I said, "Is that their minister?"
"No; he is our new school-teacher."
"Why," I said, "that is the very man I was talking to you about, who was so wroth with the sermon."
"Oh, no! you are mistaken; he is a very pious31 young man—opens school with prayer, and attends all our meetings; and I know it is not put on to please the[161] trustees, for they are not that kind of men." But it was the same man, minus the devil, "for behold32 he prayeth."
At another place I preached in a little log schoolhouse. Close to my side sat a man who would have made a character for Dickens. He had large, black, earnest eyes, face very pale, was deformed33, and, with a little tin ear-trumpet at his ear, he listened intently. I was invited by his mother to dine with them. I found, living in a little house roofed with bark, the mother and two sons. One of the boys was superintendent34 of the Sunday-school. I was surprised at the first question put by my man with the ear-trumpet,—
"Elder, what do you think of that sermon of ——'s in Chicago? I have always been bothered with doubts, and that unsettled me worse than ever."
Who would have thought to hear, away up in the woods, in such a house, from such a man, such a question? I tried to take him away from —— to Christ. After dinner he opened a door and said, "Look here."
[162]There, in a little workshop, was a diminutive35 steam-engine, of nearly one-horse power, made entirely36 by himself; the spindles, shafts37, steam-box, and everything finished beautifully. The shafts and rods were made with much pains from large three-cornered files. He was turning cant-hook and peevy handles for a living, and to pay off the debt on their little farm. The brother had a desk and cabinet of his own make, which opened and shut automatically. I was delighted. They were hungry for books and preaching. Are not such people worth saving?
These conditions existed over twelve years ago, but they are as true to-day in all parts of the newer frontiers. Meanwhile some of the above churches have become self-supporting, and are supporting a minister in foreign lands.
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1
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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conversions
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| 变换( conversion的名词复数 )； （宗教、信仰等）彻底改变； （尤指为居住而）改建的房屋； 橄榄球（触地得分后再把球射中球门的）附加得分 | |
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3
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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6
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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7
dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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8
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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denominations
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| n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 )；教派；面额；名称 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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pastors
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| n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 ) | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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14
scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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mansions
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| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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32
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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diminutive
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| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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