Jonathan Cross

“ The next morning she returned again, and while the tract was reading, her face was lit up with joy, and peace came into her soul. In a few hours she was able to repeat the alphabet. ‘And now,’ said she, ‘if you will only learn me how to put two of them together, and give them a name, I can learn myself.’ This was soon done; and as soon as she went home, she taught her children all she had learned. In a few months she and her children could read all that was in the primer. We have now a good church here, and she and most of her children are members of it. ”

“ At seventeen I went with an ungodly young man into the then wilderness of Central Ohio, where for half a year I heard no sermon, hunted on the Sabbath, threw off restraints, and as it were dared the vengeance of God. Oh how astonishing the mercy of God, to continue to strive with such a rebel! ”

“ If the Spirit of God is now striving with you, it is the most momentous period of your existence. It is perhaps the 182 turning-point between heaven and hell—the songs of angels, or the wailings of the finally lost. Beware of stifling the Spirit. ”

“ When he was through, I told him I would tell him the nature of the work in a few words: that he must get a 110 good horse and a large pair of saddle-bags, fill them with books, and ride over these rugged mountains, and live on hard fare. With an awful oath he said he could stand all that with any fellow about the diggins. In addition to that, said I, you must read the Bible, and pray at every house. I never saw a man so utterly confounded, while those present were convulsed with laughter. I gave him a few tracts, and talked to him till he wept like a child. ”

“ S—— went to her and said, “Oh, mother, I have found the Saviour too.” Soon the wife of one of the elders who was there cried, “Oh, Mrs. S——, the Saviour has blessed me too. Oh, what a Saviour I have found.” This woman had been so opposed to religion that her husband could not have family prayers. All these three had been awakened by reading tracts. During all this time the old grandmother, ninety years old, and for over seventy years a follower of Christ, was walking through the house saying, “Oh, Mr. C——, is not this heaven? my poor soul can bear no more of the divine glory.” ”

“ Those enjoying the calm refinements of social life in our favored cities and villages, who have never entered the abodes of ignorance and poverty in the moral wastes of the land, may be unwilling to credit even the facts related; but in a matter of such infinite importance as the enlightenment and salvation of perishing souls, could the real facts have been consistently withheld? ”

“ After some time I was invited to the first cabin to supper. The man and his wife and children, as well as the supper, were all dirty in the extreme. I attempted to eat, but in vain. As soon as the man finished his meal, we returned to the other cabin, where I conversed with him. He was a total stranger to the simplest truths of the Bible.
I asked him if he knew any thing of the celebrated Lucas family of that county. “Oh yes,” said he, “they live all round here. Did you not meet a man as you came along to-night about the top of the hill over the creek?” ”

“ Said I, “Is it not hard to live the life of a Christian without the Bible?”
“Yes,” said he, “but I can’t help it; for even if I was able to buy one, it could not be got nearer than C——, which is forty miles distant. I never expect to be rich enough to buy a whole Bible.”
My soul was stirred within me, and I drew 96 out my pocket Bible, a fine copy which I had received as a present, and gave it to him. He looked for a moment at me with surprise, when the tears gushed from his eyes, and he exclaimed, “I am now rich and happy.” ”

“ The grog-seller said I had no business to come there annoying his customers, and injuring his business. I urged the man at the risk of losing his soul to buy and read the book. The struggle seemed to be between life and death. At last he handed me the money, took the book, and went out of the room. I then handed the landlord a book worth more than the whiskey, and told him to read it, and then sell it to make up the loss. This is only a sample of every day occurrences in village and city colportage. Eternity only will reveal the results. ”

“ I saw night would soon overtake me, and the prospect of lodging looked unfavorable. I stopped at a cabin by the roadside to inquire the way, and leave some tracts. A man came out who looked as if he was ready for any crime, and came right up to my buggy, and began to look in with a scrutinizing eye. He either could not or would not give me any satisfaction about the road. After an earnest exhortation about his soul, I gave him Baxter’s Call. All the conduct of the man was of a very suspicious character. ”

“ As to the rich blessing that has attended the reading of books and tracts, it is well for those reared in the midst of church privileges and good libraries to consider how different the influence of a good book may be on 203 such as have few books, or none at all. Take, if you please, a prosperous family in the interior of the country, far from any book-store, who may have an old family Bible, a few school-books, or perhaps some other old books moral and religious. A colporteur enters with his saddle-bags of beautiful books. The children are almost frantic with joy. ”

“ That there is a point when the Holy Spirit, if wilfully and perseveringly resisted, ceases to strive with man, no one doubts who believes in his renewing and sanctifying agency; but too many take it for granted that this point is not reached till the close of life, and neglect or resist the strivings of the Spirit till he gives them up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind, perhaps many years before their earthly existence has terminated. ”

“ As, in the providence of God, I have been brought into contact with thousands of persons who have told me with much candor the history of their own minds, and conversed freely in reference to the all-important subject of their salvation, I have thought it to be my duty to record some of the facts I have met, for the benefit and warning of others. ”

“ When I was about two miles on my way, and was rising a mountain where the road was scarcely six inches wider than my buggy, a man met me, riding a poor old horse without a saddle, all in rags and dirt, with nothing on him but remnants of a torn shirt and pants, with a rope tied round his waist, and a bottle of whiskey in his bosom. ”

“ On a Saturday evening while on my way to meet a Sabbath appointment, while descending a mountain, I met a man on his way home from mill, and offered him some tracts. “Oh,” said he, “they are of no use to me, for I can’t read, and I have no one about me that can.” I asked him if he had a family. “Yes, I have a wife and seven children.” “It is a great sin,” said I, “for you to raise a family in such ignorance.” 108 “Oh,” said he, “there is so much harm in books, they are better without them.” I handed him two or three tracts, and told him to get some one to read them to him. ”

“ THE ALLEGHANIES.
CHAPTER I.
“It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” In all my connection with the scenes here truthfully described, as in the training and discipline of earlier years through which I was brought into them, I have been led in a way that I knew not.
I was born on the border of Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, within the wilds of the vast range of the Alleghanies, where the howl of the wolf, the scream of the panther, and the Indian’s tomahawk were my dread. In infancy my father died, and a few years later my pious mother. ”

“ We set a day to visit a neighborhood that was noted for its wickedness. There were several families owning fine farms who never entered a church. On the day set, we took an early start. As we approached the first house, we saw all the inmates running to the barn. We knocked at the door, but no answer. We went to the barn; but before we reached it they were running across the adjoining field. We understood the cause, and came back to the house, and put in at the window Baxter’s Call and a few suitable tracts, with the earnest prayer for God’s blessing to attend the reading of them. ”

“ There are few towns of the size which I have ever visited where I have met with a more noble people. There was wealth, intelligence, and the highest degree of refinement. This town became the centre of my operations for three years.
The distance we had to go in moving there was about one hundred and fifty miles, up and down mountains most of the way, with scarce any thing like a road in many places: a family of five, two of them children, in a one-horse carriage, with the necessary equipage for such a journey. ”

“ The cabin was about eighteen feet square; had been the birthplace of a large family; 62 had neither floor—except the earth—upper story, chimney, chair, table, or bed, except a pile of straw in one corner, and an old spinning wheel and loom. The family we saw consisted of the father, mother, and five daughters, no one of which, we supposed, would weigh less than one hundred and fifty pounds. Each of the females had on a single garment made of coarse linen, held on by a drawing-string round the neck, all fleshy and hearty, while we could not see any thing for them to live upon. ”

“ Great fear fell upon sinners at our approach.
A few miles distant I held a prayer-meeting one night, and had a large crowd. At the close, I laid my books on the table, and told them that I would sell to any that wanted to buy. In a little time the man of the house told me that a man had stolen his pocket full; that he was a very bad man, and we should have a fight if we attempted to take them from him. Among them was a fine pocket Bible. So I concluded to let them go, and pray that God would overrule his wickedness for good. ”

“ Where God does the work, the work is well done; but where it is done by mere human machinery, the results are very unsatisfactory. The town was revolutionized by this outpouring of the Spirit. The ballroom gave way to the prayer-meeting, and the drunkard’s songs to those of Zion.
I gave Baxter’s Call to a youth during this meeting, who told me, eight years afterwards when I met him a preacher, that that book was the means of his salvation, and had it not been for it, he never should have entered the ministry. ”

“ He has prepared it, if he knows his own heart, purely with the hope it may do good. He trusts it may suggest to some whose supreme desire is to honor Christ in the salvation of men, a way by which they may gain the blessing of those who “turn many to righteousness,” and who shall shine, above the brightness of the firmament, “as 206 the stars for ever and ever.” That this may be the gracious reward of him who writes, and of all who read this book, is the fervent prayer of the pioneer colporteur in the Alleghany mountains. ”

“ He is now an able minister of the New Testament.
One day while on a journey, I came to a very small cabin on the top of a high mountain. 186 A poor widow was by the door in very homely apparel. I asked her if she had a Bible. “No,” said she, “but I have a part of a Testament, and a number of little tracts.” Seeing a number of clean but poorly clad children, I began to ask them questions. The answers they gave would have done credit to most of our Sunday-school children. I asked her if she had a church or Sunday-school near. “No; there is no church or Sunday-school anywhere in reach. ”

“ S—— carefully avoided meeting me, always turning away to shun me; but I supplied his family with a good stock of books.
At the close of my labors in that town, I entered a very hilly region of country, and stopped over night with a Mr. W——, an aged, infirm man, who sent his son with me the next day to hunt up the cabins of the poor. The son had spent some years in a roving life, and seemed totally indifferent about religion.
In the first cabin we called at, we found a young woman in the last stages of a decline. I have seldom seen any soul so full of joy and peace. ”