REMINISCENCES OF THE PAST.
BY ELDER JOHN ROGERS.
BRO. FRANKLIN:—I am now holding a meeting in Harrison Co., on Beaver, at the Republican meeting house, in the vicinity of which I preached at least thirty- seven years ago. I was then a mere boy, not yet twenty years old. I am now an old man. An entire generation, and more, has passed away since that period. The whole earth has been more than once emptied of its thousand million of inhabitants, since my first visit to this vicinity! What a thought is this! And what trains of thought does this awaken in a thoughtful mind! “Man dieth, he wasteth away, yea he giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” Aye, that is the great question. Where, oh where, are the millions upon millions that have gone to the spirit-land, since my youthful feet, with light and elastic step, first pressed the sod of Beaver, at the stand in the woods, just by the Cave Spring?! And echo, in mournful accents, repeats, Where! God only knows. This, however, we know from the word of truth: the good are in Abraham’s bosom—are thrice blessed; the bad are with the rich man in hell. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here, and about here, I used to meet the venerable, the learned, the smooth, the highly polished Christian gentleman, B. W.
Stone, and hear him, in his own soft, soothing, earnest, and persuasive eloquence, preach Christ and him crucified to admiring thousands. Here, too, and often, about this time, I was permitted to meet and hear those holy, self- sacrificing, apostolic men—those sons of thunder, Reuben Dooley, and James Hughes, in their own fervid, stirring, heart-felt and heart-moving eloquence, preach the gospel of the blessed God. Eternity only will disclose the good accomplished by those men of God. They counted all loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. They were men of but little education in the popular acceptation of that term, but they were deeply learned in the things of God—were graduates, with the highest honors, in the school of Christ, the school of experimental and practical Christianity They were plain, simple- minded, simple-hearted, and pre eminently single-minded men. They never thought of making fine sermons—of coming before the people with excellency of speech or man’s wisdom. They preached not themselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and themselves the servants of the people, for Jesus’ sake. In the light of the Bible, in their closets, in their families, in all their conversations, in their journeyings, they studied God, and Christ, and man—life, and death, and judgment, with all their unspeakable realities, of eternal happiness and eternal misery. They came before their audiences, therefore, hiding themselves in the shadow of the cross, with their souls full of these great themes, and burning with an ardent desire to en- courage and comfort the saints, and bring poor sinners to the foot of the cross. I shall never forget an anecdote, illustrative of the character of Father Dooley, showing his appreciation of the elevated and highly responsible position of a preacher of the gospel.
REMINISCENCES OF THE PAST. 253
At an early period, in the history of Ohio, not much short of a half century ago, a number of preachers of different religious denominations were members of the Ohio Legislature, and among them were two or more belonging to what was then called the Christian, or, more
commonly nicknamed, the New Light Church. This
church repudiated all sectarian names and creeds, as tests of Christian character and fellowship, and was seeking very earnestly for original Christianity, in faith and practice, and pleading for the union of all God’s people, scattered in the dark and cloudy day of Popery and
Protestant schisms, upon heaven’s own platform Father
Dooley was one of the pioneers in this great religious
movement. Distressed to know that so many men, who
claimed to be preachers of the gospel, and especially
some of his own brethren had stooped from the great work of calling men to repentance, and urging upon Christians that purity of heart and life which Christianity requires, to mingle in the exciting scenes, and amid the corrupting influences of politics, he made a special mission to the capitol of the State, and getting the
Legislators together, gave to his preaching brethren an
earnest and most scathing discourse founded on the words
of the angel to Elijah, 1 Kings, xix.: “What doest thou here, Elijah?” In his plain, heart-searching manner, he sought to convince them that they were in the wrong place, and engaged in the wrong work; that the work of building up the church of God—seeking after and promoting the unity and purity, and the salvation of sinners, is as much above the work of human legislators, as eternal things are above temporal; that their work being the highest and holiest of all works in which man can be engaged, is more than enough to engross their entire time
and talents; and that, therefore, they should never stoop
from the lofty eminence they occupy, to breathe the tainted atmosphere of party politics. How many preachers, as well as people, need to be warned against the dangers of political, partisan strife! How many preachers should
remember the saying of the Master, “Let the dead bury
their dead; but go ye and preach the kingdom of God!!” During my visit to Beaver, I went to the house where
old Father Robt. Snodgrass lived, a few hundred yards
below the Cave Spring alluded to above. This was my usual stopping-place, when I preached on Beaver.
Leonard J. Fleming, at my instance, made his first public prayer in this house. I shall never forget it. He and I had
spent the winter of ’19 and ’20 in Georgetown, Ky.,
attending a school conducted by the venerable Stone. In the spring of ’20, was ordained at Minerva, and commenced riding and preaching extensively, principally through the counties of Scott, Bourbon, Harrison,
Nicholas, Fleming, etc. Leonard Fleming was determined, by the help of God, to be a preacher, and took his first tour with me, upon my extensive circuit, in 1820. He had never attempted to
speak or pray publicly. He was a very pious young man in his 23rd year, but very diffident. On our first tour, we
staid all night with Father Snodgrass, and in the morning
when the family was convened for worship, I urged Bro.
Fleming to take the books, and lead in the exercise. With much trepidation, he consented, and, turning his back to us all, he went through the exercises as best he could. I
knew him more than once, during his first efforts in
praying and speaking to become so embarrassed that he was obliged abruptly to stop. It was two or three years before he could make even a respectable exhortation. But his whole soul was in the work, and he persevered until he
became an excellent preacher. He was plain and practical,
both in and out of the pulpit. He was remarkable from his
youth up. His father was wealthy—decidedly a man of the
world—greatly devoted to the sports of training and
running horses. Leonard, when a small boy, told his step- mother, he thought it was wrong to train horses on
Sunday, and would sometimes absent himself from the house on Lord’s day, to avoid doing what he believed was wrong. His mother prevailed on his father not to impose upon him what he was unwilling to do. This thoughtful and serious turn of mind, in Leonard, was by no means agreeable to his father. But all his efforts to turn his thoughts into a different channel, were abortive. Under the religious training of Father Stone and others, he became a member of the Christian Church, and turned all
the energies of his mind to the study of the Scriptures, and the urging upon the church, and the world, submission to
their requirements. His father, after he became of age, finding he was fixed in his purpose, and was evidently a good man, gave him a good farm, which he kept till his death. He never married. He traveled extensively, and for the most part sustained himself. He never tried to add to his property, but took care of it, and spent his income in doing good. Some twenty years of his life were devoted to the work of evangelizing. He was a good and true man; I loved him as a brother. He was a man of excellent sense, common sense; a good expositor of the Scripture; a safe, conservative Christian teacher. He died full of faith and hope, near old Union, in Kentucky, on the 22nd of July, 1840. “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.”