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Chapter VIII · Twenty Years on Horseback; or, Itinerating in West Virginia

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  Chapter eight of twenty years on Horseback or itinerating in West Virginia. This LibriVox
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  recording is in the public domain Chapter eight. But Cannon was again the seat
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  of conference and was in charge of Bishop Weaver. This was his last visit
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  to West Virginia. My district reported about six hundred conversions and ascensions to the
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  church. The average salary for the pastors of the conference was two hundred and
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  thirty dollars after paying house rent and car fare. I had three hundred and
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  sixty five dollars and seventy nine cents left for the support of a family of
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  five, and with which to purchase books, papers, and stationery. But
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  I did not complain. It was more than the average circuit rider was getting
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  on this little sum. We seemed to live fairly well and imagined ourselves as
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  respectable as anybody in the town. In looking over my report, I see
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  it at close the following significant statement. Now, brethren, suffer a word
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  more. I kindly and earnestly request that you relieve me from district work.
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  Eight years out of the past eleven have been given to this kind of service.
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  While I certainly appreciate what you have done for me. I must say
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  that I am tired of the place. I am anxious that some one else
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  take it all there is in it, whether money, distinction, responsibility,
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  or hard work. I cheerfully surrender to some one else, with the earnest
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  wish that he may prove more efficient than I have been, and that under
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  his labors and larged blessings may come to the district. This was my last
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  year as a presiding elder in the Dear Old Conference. It is now many
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  years so I was transferred to another field, But almost daily my thoughts go
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  back to my native home and to the twenty years of unceasing toil given to
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  the building up of the church in that mountainous region. Indeed, I could
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  scarcely get away. It was no easy matter to sever the relations of a
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  lifetime. In looking over my brief record of daily happenings, I find the
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  July sixteenth, eighteen eighty nine, while pastor at Buchannan, I wrote received
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  a letter today from Reverend C. Wendell urging me to come to Rock River
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  Conference. Bishop Kephart also writes, in like manner, do not know what
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  to do, but must do right. Lord help me. October third I
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  expressed my thoughts and feelings as follows at home, trying to pack our goods.
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  What a task it is is God in this, I do hope.
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  So it is so hard to leave West Virginia. These hills and valleys all
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  seem sacred to me. The last time I visited my parents before removing West,
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  I was deeply affected to see how frail they seemed, and thus referred
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  to it. Parents are getting old, how they are bending beneath the weight
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  of years, alas how short life is. Twenty years ago when I left
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  home, father had no gray hairs, Now his head as white as wool.
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  Mother, what a faithful soul, how self sacrificing anything to help her
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  children and make herself a blessing to others. Heaven is anxious to get such
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  an angel. May Earth keep her yet a long while. These excerpts from
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  my diary into hate that it cost me something a heart struggle at least,
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  to turn my back upon scenes and associations which were as sacred as life itself.
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  But in making the change, I felt I was following the leadings of
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  Providence, and that all would be well in the end. The fellowship of
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  the Brethren, I left behind was sweet. Those who looked on were compelled
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  to say, behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to
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  dwell together in unity. There was a little jealousy and self seeking and rivalry
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  in the conference, as I ever found anywhere. We all were poor and
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  could sing like the old Methodist pioneer on his four weeks circuit. No foot
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  of land do I possess, No cottage in the wilderness, A poor wayfaring
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  man I lodge while in tents below, or gladly wonder to and fro till
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  I my cannon gain nothing on earth. I call my own a stranger to
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  the world unknown, I all their goods despise. I trample on their whole
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  delight, and seek a country out of sight, a country in the skies.
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  There is my house and portion fair, My treasure and my heart are
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  there, and my abiding home for me. My elder brethren stay, and
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  angels beckon me away, and Jesus bids me come. There was another verse
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  we all cherished and often sung it, as it seemed so appropriate. A
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  tent or a cottage, Why should I care? They're building a palace for
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  me over there? Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing all
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  glory to God. I'm the child of a king. In all my travels
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  throughout the church, I have never found any conference that could sing as the
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  West Virginians did. Diddle, Harper, Graham, or hit Holden and Wood
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  were among the earlier men. Later their places were taken by Cunningham, Pigot,
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  Salaz, Slaughter, Carter, and Robinson. But it is hardly fair
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  to name a few. All could sing, and so they can today.
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  Singing was an inspiring feature of every conference gathering. It made the air electric
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  and caused high voltage pressure. We would sing on the train, on the
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  boat, at the hotel, everywhere on our way from conference. In eighteen
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  seventy nine we all stopped at a hotel in Weston for dinner. As usual,
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  the singers were lined up in a little while and fairly shook the old
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  inn with some of their latest and freshest selections. Before we quit. The
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  town was thoroughly stirred up. People left their business places and came to listen.
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  Women and children stood on the doors of their homes or looked out the
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  windows and wondered what it all meant. Two young men some blocks away heard
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  the singing and started on a run for the hotel. As they passed some
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  parties, one of them was heard to say, I'll bet five hundred dollars
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  they are Brethren preachers. Professor Diddell, assisted by others, published The West
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  Virginia Loot in eighteen sixty eight, which had a tremendous sale both among our
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  people and those of other churches. Then Baltzil's Music Probably Golden Songs came next
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  among our own publications. This was also a popular book and one of great
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  merit. While it contained many imperfections, it was nevertheless thoroughly orthodox from our
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  viewpoint. The author was not a scientific music writer. He did not grind
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  his songs out at the organ in a mechanical way, but manufactured them in
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  his heart. Such music always takes There is something about it that gets hold
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  of the soul and stirs its deepest emotions. I do not understand what that
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  something is, but it is there all the same. It was a very
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  common remark among the people of other churches. If you want to hear singing,
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  get a lot of Brethren preachers together. We had no organs or pianos
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  in any of the churches with skilled performers to lead the audience. To aid
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  in getting the pitch, a tuning fork or horn was used, a clever
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  little device which every leader carried. But few of the brethren, however,
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  understood the grammar of music. They had no special training, but no difference.
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  They could sing anyhow. They were not poets, but had the poetic
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  touch. I have heard these men of God again and again, sing until
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  the audience was fairly entranced, and until the fire of joy was kindled to
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  a flame in their own hearts. They were rivals of Israel's shepherd king,
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  and wrought things more marvelous than he through the melodies they sang. While their
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  music was not classical, it seldom failed to strike fire. The people liked
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  it and were charmed, encouraged, and in a thousand instances saved by it.
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  Mister Alexander, the great revival singer, has the right view of things,
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  he writes. Musicians often say to me, why do you not use
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  classical music above the style of gospel songs. I reply, when you can
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  show me similar effects following such high class music and moving the hearts of men
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  and women, I will use it fast enough. Until then, I shall
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  keep to gospel songs which have a wonderful way of reaching everybody because they touch
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  the soul. Volume, fervor, soul enthusiasm is what we want in all
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  our church music away forever with that operatic nonsense which the artistic would introduce into
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  our present day religious services. What glorious revivals were promoted like cyclones? They
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  seemed at times to lay everything low in their core. How sinners wept and
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  repented, how saints shouted aloud for joy? Wildfire? Does someone suggest maybe
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  it was? But it achieved wonderful results. The present ministry of the conference,
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  with a great majority of the true and tried layman who constitute the very
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  backbone of the church, were converted in just such meetings. And it is
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  quite likely that the leading ministers in layman of every other conference in our zion
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  were converted under like circumstances. Call it wildfire, if you will, but
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  I would like to see a good deal more of it. A revival that
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  arouses a whole community and brings fifty or a hundred, or perhaps two hundred
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  into the kingdom, some of whom become prominent preachers of the Word, while
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  others become pillars in the Church is not to be ignored or or decried by
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  those who are too slow and formal and dull to create a stir. Better
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  have a little wildfire than no fire at all. Personally, I believe in
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  excitement. Nothing worth thinking about is ever accomplished in its absence. We cannot
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  relish food or enjoy sleep until first excited by hunger or fatigue. Why should
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  not the church manifest as much zeal and enthusiasm in her work as political parties
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  or commercial clubs do in theirs. I'm tired of that contemptible sentiment which stands
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  ready everywhere and all the time to denounce everything that has to do with the
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  emotions. Religion I readily grant does not consist of noise and bluster. It
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  means vastly more than that. Nor does it consist in sitting around like so
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  many lifeless knots on a log. We are told that it is the lightning
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  and not thunder that kills. True enough, but lightning in the absence of
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  thunder is harmless. Lightning makes the thunder in our work. But little was
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  said about the new theology or higher criticism. Watson and Ralston in their theologies,
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  and Smith and Clark and Lang and Barnes, and their expositions seldom referred
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  to the new fangled theories which confuse and chill and curse some of the churches
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  today. We all believed that Moses wrote the Pentateuch and Paul the Epistle to
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  the Hebrews, and personally, I have never had any reason for changing my
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  views. It had never occurred to us to put Job and Jonah on the
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  fictitious list. We actually believed and preached that they lived and wrought one in
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  the Land of Uz and the other in Nineveh. After escaping from the whale's
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  belly. We tried to tell of the awfulness of sin as well as the
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  joys of religion. We believed in a heaven and would often talk and sing
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  and preach about it until we felt ourselves within its very suburbs. When Jesus
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  said, and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, we supposed he meant
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  it, and no one attempted to put an artificial bottom into the bottomless pit.
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  We divided our time pretty well between Sinai and Zion. The Decalogue and
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  Beatitudes were included ofttimes in the framework of the same sermon. We knew there
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  were some inaccuracies in the authorized version, but nothing sufficiently serious to affect the
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  fundamentals of Christianity. We were justified, as we thought, in preaching the
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  whole Bible as it was commonly understood and interpreted, because in doing so we
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  were blessed and sinners were saved. The mourners bench was always a part of
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  the program in our revival work. While no one insisted that a man must
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  be saved at the bench, if saved at all, we believed, nevertheless,
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  that coming forward and bowing at the altar was a good way of confessing
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  sin and of plighting fidelity to Jesus Christ. I would not serve as pastor
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  of a people who objected to the use of an altar. If some of
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  the unsaved wanted to seek their Lord elsewhere and in some other way, I
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  should not object, but I should insist upon it that those who wanted to
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  come forward for prayers should have the privilege of doing so. It is refreshing
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  to see how simple and direct doctor Torrey, Billy Sunday and Gipsy Smith are
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  in their methods and the wonderful results that follow. They do not mince matters.
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  They go to the people with a burning message from the Throne, and
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  deliver it no matter what anybody may think or say about it. With sledge
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  hammer blows they drive it home to the hearts of their hearers that no man
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  can be saved until he confesses his sins and his savior. They follow largely
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  the old line of revival work and succeed. The preacher who cannot build a
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  fire in his church is a failure. In no other way can he attract
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  attention. The Church of God has been used to fire from the beginning.
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  Moses got a good warming up before the burning bush on Horeb, so did
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  Elijah and others on Carmel. The disciples were not rid oft to preach or
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  the church to work until a burning Pentecost came and the fire flakes fell from
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  heaven upon them. We need great revivals and can have them if we are
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  willing to pay the price. One serious endrance to the work is the fact
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  that too many profess to have found a new way the counsel moderation, and
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  would have us go about the business with that cold mathematical precision which the astronomer
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  employs in measuring the heavens. As the result many of our revival efforts turn
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  out to be very moderate affairs. They are self constituted appointees to shut off
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  steam and put down the brakes, and they succeed. What we need is
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  more steam, that is purpose, push and power. And I rejoice in
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  the thought that the thing for which we have waited and prayed is at hand.
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  The semi skepticism and indifference which have so handicapped the work of evangelism in
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  the last twenty five years, are giving place to larger activities and simpler methods.
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  We are facing the morning light. The reaction, action, and readjustment
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  will bring in a new era of moral and spiritual triumphs and soul winning.
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  The Church at large knows but little about the excessive labors and sacrifices of the
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  early ministry in West Virginia. My heart still weeps as I think of what
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  some of the brethren endured. But brave souls they were. They did it
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  because they loved the Church and her Christ. Only three or four remain who
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  were in the conference when I joined thirty seven years ago. Four others,
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  Reverends E. Harper, I AM Underwood, A. Orr, and doctor
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  J. L. Hensley, have located in other conferences. But the great
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  majority have gone to heaven. From hillside and mountain top. They ascended to
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  a place of honor by their Lord, and to live in the white light
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  of the throne forever. Oh, how sweet it will be in that beautiful
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  land, so free from all sorrow and pain, with songs on our lips,
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  and with harps in our hands, to meet one another again. Does
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  anyone inquire to know the real secret of their power? It is not easily
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  explained. They had intellectual girth, but this was only incidental to their success.
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  Their surroundings were inspiring, their spirits exuberant, their physical endurance tremendous,
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  their zeal unflagging. But the secret lay deeper. These were only tributary.
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  It seems to me that the one quality which exalted them and gave them the
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  mastery over men was reality. They were genuine. God counted them among his
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  captains, and they were loyal to the l last. Duty and destiny were
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  to them overwhelming. Suggestions in them were wrapped up the present and the eternal.
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  Hereafter, I can still hear brother Graham singing as he rode through storm
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  and heat, carrying aloft the banners of the church, above the waves of
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  early strife, above the ills and cares of life, where all is peaceful,
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  bright and fair. My home is there, My home is there.
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  Chevalier's divine their burning zeal, no languor new for Christ, his cause His
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  tempted few at home abroad, where their lot their much loved theme. They
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  ne'er forgot one swoth and another reapeth the divine law. The foundations of the
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  Church among the Virginia hills and mountains were laid amid self givings known only to
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  Him who gave to his servants their marching orders, and who accompanied them every
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  foot of the way. A better day has come to the conference. The
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  fields of labor have been greatly reduced in size, Pastoral support has been improved,
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  educational advantages have been increased, which means so much to the itinerants family,
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  and in other respects conditions made many fold better. The present membership is
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  fifteen thousand, divided among sixty circuits and stations. Two hundred and six church
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  edifices worth two hundred and forty three thousand, eight hundred and sixty nine dollars
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  are reported, and thirty eight parsonages valued at thirty one, nine hundred thirty.
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  The territory embraces four districts. While the number of presiding elders might be
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  diminished, it would not be wise to try the experiment of giving one superintendent
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  charge of the whole conference. The country is too rough, the distances too
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  great, and the public facilities for travel too meager for one man to do
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  it all. The average salary paid the pastors in nineteen o six was three
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  hundred and seventy nine dollars and forty five cents, including house and rent and
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  special gifts. Three of the charges went to between eight hundred and nine hundred
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  dollars, one paid from six hundred to six hundred and fifty eight, others
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  over five hundred each. The presiding elders averaged five hundred and sixty three dollars
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  and ninety seven cents. For all purposes, fifty thousand, five hundred eighty
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  nine dollars and forty nine cents was collected. These figures show that, in
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  spite of the adverse circumstances with which we had to battle for the last half
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  century, real progress has been made, but more ought to be done in
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  the next fifteen years than has been accomplished in the last fifty Some portions of
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  the state are becoming immensely wealthy through the oil and mining industries. Our people
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  are sharing in the general prosperity, and many of them are growing rich.
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  The commercial possibilities of the state are great and promising, as its hidden treasures
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  are brought to the surface and put on the world's market. The work of
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  the present ministry is to broaden the benefactions of our membership by teaching them the
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  true meaning of Christian stewardship and the obligations which it imposes in proportion. As
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  this is done, salaries will be increased more and more, the offerings to
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  the various benevolent societies multiplied, and larger sums provided for Ottoman University and Union
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  Biblical Seminary. There is quite a stretch of time between the penning of these
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  lines and the day I started for my first circuit. Thirty seven years is
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  a good while. My experiences have been numerous and varied. The way at
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  times has been rough, the tasks difficult, and the responsibilities great. But
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  after all, if I had my life to live over, I should spend
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  it in the Gospel ministry and start again in West Virginia, end of Chapter
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  eight and end of Twenty Years on Horseback, or Itinerating in West Virginia by
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  William Marion Weekley