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diff --git a/8802.txt b/8802.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..227b5f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/8802.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2252 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Elizabeth: The Disinherited Daugheter, by E. Ben Ez-er + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Elizabeth: The Disinherited Daugheter + +Author: E. Ben Ez-er + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8802] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 10, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETH *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +ELIZABETH THE DISINHERITED DAUGHTER + +BY E. BEN. EZ-ER + + + + +PREFACE + + +This booklet is little more than a compilation. The materials were abundant +for a much larger book. Elizabeth's divine _experience_ was so striking, so +valuable to the cause of truth, that it has not been essentially abridged. +But the _results_ in biography, though well known to all who knew her, have +been cut down to the smallest dimensions that would allow that brilliant +experience to shine out. + +Elizabeth had a lifelong conviction that God required the publication of +His remarkable dealings with her, and in her approach to the river of +death solemnly enjoined it upon her youngest son and executor. His own +convictions also agree with the requirement. Here are obvious reasons: + +1. The early history of Methodism has suffered by the dropping out of +many striking illustrations of her power. By neglecting to record them +permanently while well authenticated, they are now beyond recovery. As this +providential work moves on gloriously, making world-wide history, these few +preserved incidents of her early triumph become more and more valuable by +the lapse of time. + +2. Providentially this experience is too rare and too far back in American +Methodism to be lost out. + +3. The controversy in which this experience was so strong a factor has not +become obsolete. The "horrible decrees" have indeed been very generally +driven from the pulpit, but not entirely. Our work as polemics will not +be finished until they leave the schools and the books, and cease to be +pillows for the multitudes who lull themselves to slumber over the notion +of "sovereign grace and waiting God's time," and cease to goad despondent +souls to despair, with the charge of being "from eternity passed by" as +unredeemed "reprobates." + +E. ARNOLD. + +_Thousand Island Park_, 1893. + + + +CONTENTS + + * * * * * + +PART I. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER I. + +THAT STRANGE LETTER + + +CHAPTER II. + +ELIZABETH'S ALIENATION FROM THE ANCESTRAL FAITH + + +CHAPTER III. + +THAT ALARMING MESSAGE + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ORDER OBEYED + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE FIERY FURNACE + + +CHAPTER VI. + +GREAT VICTORIES + + * * * * * + +PART II.--THE GREAT WOBK OF LIFE. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER I. + +ELIZABETH AS MISTRESS OF THE "COTTAGE CHAPEL". + + +CHAPTER II. + +RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES AND ENJOYMENTS + + +CHAPTER III. + +ELIZABETH AS AN EVANGELISTIC LABORER + + +CHAPTER IV. + +REMOVAL TO A WILDERNESS COUNTRY + + +CHAPTER V. + +VOLNEY, OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HARDSHIPS OF THE NEW COLONY + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE QUARTERLY MEETINGS + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +EXTENDS HER LABORS + + +CHAPTER IX. + +AS A CAMP MEETING WORKER + +CHAPTER X. + +"THE CHAMBER ON THE WALL" + +CHAPTER XI. + +MRS. ELIZABETH ARNOLD AS A MOTHER + +CHAPTER XII. + +DOUBLE DILIGENCE + + + * * * * * + +PART III.--RETIREMENT + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER I. + +HOMES OP EARLY METHODISTS + +CHAPTER II. + +JOSHUA ARNOLD + +CHAPTER III. + +SEPARATION + +CHAPTER IV. + +CONCLUSION + + + + + +ELIZABETH, THE DISINHERITED DAUGHTER. + + * * * * * + +PART I. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +THAT STRANGE LETTER. + +It was in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The dwelling was a +plain frame structure, spacious, and of the style of that day (the second +story projecting a few inches beyond the first), and was kept painted as +white as snow. It stood in the south suburb of the then little city of +Middletown, Conn., between two hills on the right bank of the Connecticut +River, at the bend called "the Cove." The first break in the happy family +circle was made by the departure of a daughter to another State to engage +in teaching. Few letters were written in those days, and the postal service +was a slow and small concern. But this absent school-teacher had written +with much care and vivacity to the dear circle at home as regularly as the +months came around. But now, for long, anxious weeks, no tidings from the +absent one had reached that saddened home at the Cove. "Why don't we get +a letter from Betsey?" was often asked by the fond parents, the loving +sisters, and thoughtful little brothers; but no satisfactory answer could +be given. + +The father would hasten to the city as often as "mail day" returned and +watch for the ponderous stagecoach, but come back more moderately, with a +shadow upon his countenance, and "No letter!" "No letter!" would deepen the +sorrow of the circle. One day the son "Siah" was sent, and in an unusually +short time was seen coming over the hill with a speed so unlike a +disappointed lad that the watchful mother was "sure the dear boy had +tidings." Her lip trembled as she motioned to the father and called out, +"Where's Esther? Where's Sam? Call 'em all in. Siah's coming real fast; +I guess he's got a letter from Betsey!" "How he does ride!" says Hannah. +"Dear fellow, I most know he's got a letter!" "Yis, yis," says little +sharp-eyed Sam; "see, he holds suthin' white higher'n his head." Sure +enough, on comes the rider, flourishing in his hand the long-looked-for +message from the absent one! + +It was but the work of a moment for the excited lad to leap upon the block, +throw the bridle over the post, and run in, letter in hand, vociferating, +"Don't ye worry any more about Betsey; she's all safe and sound. See, it's +in her own handwrite." "Yis, daddy, and stuck together with that same red +wax you gin her," says little Sam. + +Ruth breaks the seal and finds a large sheet, and closely written. A glance +from the father brings the house to silence, and she begins to read. Never +a letter began with more tender words or in a sweeter spirit; but all +sounds so precise and awfully solemn that the voice of the reader falters; +tears fill the eyes of the mother and sisters; the father turns pale; +little Sam looks frightened and grips his mother's arm, while Josiah sobs +aloud. But the resolute reader moves steadily on, and only breaks down when +she reaches the name, "Your loving daughter and sister, Elizabeth Ward." + +These words stung that proud father to the quick. To hear his darling's +name attached to _such_ a letter, and find his cherished plans thwarted +forever, was more than he could endure. He arose in a paroxysm of wrath and +left the house. The mother, watching him, became greatly alarmed, for she +had never seen him so angry. + +As the boys lead the horse to the stable the girls take the letter to their +room, where they weep much, pray some, and read over and over again that +strange document. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +ELIZABETH'S ALIENATION FROM THE ANCESTRAL FAITH. + +Elizabeth Ward was the eldest of six children. She had a tall, straight +form, rather stern and dignified airs, a keen black eye, and a beautiful +countenance, though rather on the masculine order. Her father, Samuel Ward, +was a wealthy farmer and stock grower and a skillful horseman. He had +determined to give this, his eldest daughter, a liberal education, and have +her assist in the instruction of her sisters. She proved so easy to learn, +and showed such aptitude and application in study, that he afforded her the +best opportunities given young ladies in New England at that day. And +in his pride of horsemanship he took much pains to make her a skillful +equestrienne, and never seemed prouder than when riding out with Elizabeth +by his side upon an elegant steed in costly equipage. To carry out +his notions for the perfection of her accomplishments, he sent her to +Pittsfield, Mass., among wealthy and cultured relatives, to devote a year +or two to association with elegant society. And to avoid that horror of the +real Yankee's dreams, "shiftlessness," she was to take up a small select +school for employment. There too, as at home, she must have a splendid +horse at her command, and no cost must be spared to make her equipage, as +well as wardrobe, as elegant as the best. Morning and evening rides must +be kept up for health and recreation, but not less to indulge a doting +father's pride. + +She found her new situation very agreeable. Her relatives were educated and +fashionable, and soon became very dear to her heart. Her school consisted +of a suitable number of misses from wealthy families, as cheerful as the +larks and as gay as butterflies. Her opulent friends very readily entered +into her father's plans, and were especially delighted with her experience +and skill in horsemanship; and a sufficient number equipped and joined her +in this healthy movement to insure her the best of company in her morning +and evening rides. And her popularity as an equestrienne fed her pride, +and her gay letters home were full of it, and very agreeable to her proud +father. Nor did the rapid improvement of her associates in this elegant +accomplishment, under her teaching and example, escape the notice of their +fond parents and of their townsmen, and "The way that tall schoolmarm rides +is wonderful!" was spoken by many an observer, and many a young woman +envied the proud troop "their chance to learn how to ride a-horseback." + +In the daily excursions of these gay cousins they sometimes passed, on +a retired street, the meeting place of "a new and strange people called +Methodists." Jesse Lee, George Roberts, Francis Asbury, and others, mighty +men of God, had just gone over New England like a thundering legion, +proclaiming everywhere a "free salvation for all, even for John Calvin's +'reprobates.'" They had glorious success, even in cold New England, and of +the fruit of the revivals which attended their labors formed many small but +excellent "societies." One of these was established in Pittsfield. + +The sweet and moving singing of these people arrested the attention of our +heroine and her friends as they occasionally rode by; and, pausing in their +saddles to listen, enough of a tune would get into their heads and keep +ringing there to turn their course that way again. Catching a charming +tune, they "must get the words, at least a verse or two." So, from pausing +outside to listen, they grew bolder, tied their horses, and civilly sat +down inside, not only charmed with the songs, but curious to hear the +fervent prayers and testimonies and occasional shouts of this bright-faced +company. When their friends said anything against this people as being +"unpopular," or "despised," these young fashionables would sing them a +Methodist verse or two, and perhaps join in the ridicule by mimicking their +shouts. And yet in their sober judgment they honored these honest and +devout worshipers for their fervent piety and zeal, and wondered at their +rapturous joys. But they were quite mistaken in their confidence that an +occasional attendance upon worship so spiritual was perfectly safe. The +Holy Spirit dwelt with this people. These gay young attendants became the +subjects of mighty prayers and powerful exhortations. Bows, "drawn at a +venture," threw arrows with great force. The Spirit directed one to +the proud but honest heart of Elizabeth Ward, and she was "thoroughly +awakened." Perhaps in the few prayer meetings these young people had +dropped into within the past year they had imbibed more gospel truth than +in all their former lives. But the songs which had so captivated them, many +of which they had learned to sing, had struck those truths into the mind +indelibly, and had so enlisted the moral nature of Elizabeth that the Holy +Ghost had written convicting impressions upon the inner tablet of her +heart. She did not long resist this new "conscience of sins." She clearly +saw and deeply felt that she was a sinner, and on the way to ruin. In more +of desperation than hope she set out to "flee from the wrath to come." + +In this state of alarm, she walked alone to the Methodist prayer meeting, +made known her convictions and purposes, and sought instruction and help. +She returned from that meeting feeling that she had almost entered a new +world. Gospel hope, now for the first time in her life, began to spring up +in her heart. She had settled the question of submission to her Maker, and +began to seek Him with purpose of heart, resolved to confess and forsake +her sins and seek pardon and peace in Jesus Christ. Still, as to several of +the counsels of her new religious instructors she was undecided, because +not yet convinced. They advised her to seek the Lord "by prayer and +supplication." To "ask," to "knock," to "call upon Him," and especially to +"cry unto the Lord with her voice." But she had been taught from infancy +that "none but the elect should pray; nor even they until regenerated by +sovereign grace;" and that "no woman should pray or speak in a public +assembly." But a heart overwhelmed with a crushing sense of sin at length +broke out, almost against her decision, and cried, "God be merciful to me +a sinner!" and such hope of relief sprang up while she prayed as to settle +the question of prayer; and thence on for weeks all the relief she found +was in prayer and confession; a few crumbs of comfort to encourage her to +persevere in seeking; for she began to wonder why she had not found peace, +when she had sought so long and tried to give up all for Christ. + +One day, in the retirement of her room, her mirror revealed a gayety of +apparel that struck her as unsuitable for a poor, guilty sinner. The +fashions of that day were very profuse in ornamentation; and as she saw +herself in the glass, her eyes red and heavy with weeping, and yet her +attire as gay and vain as if prepared for a ball, she felt sure that her +mode of dress had all this time been a hindrance to her; and she then and +there concluded to reduce all to plainness, much like the people who had +led her to penitence. The pride of dress and equipage seemed now to be +about the last idol to give up, and, all of her own counsel, she did the +work very thoroughly; and as to her abundant jewelry, the result of her +spontaneous zeal was rather ludicrous. "Determined that it should never +prove a snare to any other poor soul as it had to her," she passed it all +under the hammer until there was nothing left but unseemly lumps of gold +and silver; the precious stones were utterly demolished. + +From that work this hitherto gaudy maiden came out as plain as a Quakeress, +and hastened to the Methodist prayer meeting. Seeing her thus evidently +taught of the Holy Spirit, they took hold of her case with new courage as +she bowed with them crying for mercy. The prayers of the early Methodists +were something wonderful, and this broken-hearted penitent drank into their +wrestling spirit. They claimed for her the "exceeding great and precious +promises," with mighty faith; she claimed these promises with them. They +took hold on Jesus; she put her hand with theirs into His with a strong and +steady grip, and He accepted her. + +The conversion of Elizabeth was instantaneous, and exceedingly clear and +powerful, and its assurance overwhelming. Her long night was at once turned +into day, and that clear daylight was also a blaze of glory. Her joy was +ecstatic. Her tall form, which had been gaudily adorned, but now attired +for the meek and lowly Saviour, was at times prostrated by divine power, +and her regenerated soul filled with the rapture of heaven. Night and day, +for weeks, her only relief from ecstasy was by settling into solid +peace, thus alternating from the quiet valley of "peace that passeth +understanding" to the glory-crowned hilltops of "joy unspeakable." + +After a sufficient time had elapsed to demonstrate the genuineness and +unfading glory of her experience, Elizabeth wrote home a plain account of +it, concealing nothing. This was the astounding and alienating letter that +so stirred up things at the Cove. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +THAT ALARMING MESSAGE. + +The Wards, at the Cove, continued to be much troubled over Elizabeth's +letter. Had a note or a messenger announced her serious illness, or her +elopement or sudden death, the first pang would have terminated in some +sort of relief, or at least a breathing place; but this letter was +suffocating, and the dense fog seemed to grow darker as it stretched into +the future. "A religious fanatic!" "A Methodist lunatic!" "Has our darling +set out upon such a life?" + +"I'm afraid it will kill your father; it struck him dumb. I can't draw him +into any conversation about her; and he is so angry!" Thus the troubled +mother would talk and cry. The sisters and brothers listen to her, and, +without comprehending "the prospect so awful in Betsey's future life," +would keep dumb, like "daddy," and cry, like "mammy." + +Finding no relief at home, Mrs. Ward consulted their aged parson, "Priest +Huntington," and placed the ominous letter in his hands; and he took the +troublesome document home for professional analysis. It is not to be +supposed that the Holy Spirit left this letter to pass through such a +crucible alone. The experience it told was substantially His work, and +the hand that wrote it was not wholly without His guidance; and now the +cultured mind which examined it was that of a logical analyst, however +strong his prejudice. The old parson was struck with its simplicity +and soundness, and hastened to the Cove to "pronounce Miss Elizabeth's +experience genuine, and even wonderful," and that he believed her to be +"one of God's chosen vessels to bear witness of His sovereign grace." + +So favorable an opinion from such an authority greatly relieved the +apprehensions of the family; all but the incensed father, who would neither +talk nor allow others to talk to him about the absent one for several +weeks. + +All these were not only precious weeks to Elizabeth, but lengthened out a +most valuable epoch of her life. At length the wily parson succeeded +in getting to the stormy heart of this enraged and unhappy father, and +portrayed in glowing colors the clearness of Miss Elizabeth's "effectual +call" and "blessed hope," and managed to bridge over "that awful slough of +Methodism" by descanting gravely upon some of the "mysterious leadings of +sovereign grace." "And now, if our dear lamb of the Saviour can be rescued +from those deluded people and carefully instructed in 'the doctrines of +grace,' what an ornament she would be to our church with such a brilliant +experience, and such 'a burning and shining light!'" + +Whether the hard heart of that father relented, or whether, weary of +brooding over his disappointed hopes of a worldly sort, his pride saw +prospect of indulgence in another direction, we leave it for subsequent +events to determine. The kind parson was successful, and Elizabeth was soon +ordered to return home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +ORDER OBEYED. + +The order to "close up her school and return home" did not disguise the +anger of the father over the radical change in Elizabeth's religious +condition and associations. But she had ever yielded unquestioning +obedience to that father's commands; and so with all practicable dispatch +she now prepared to comply with the stern and precipitant demand. + +It was painful to be suddenly torn from her agreeable relatives in +Pittsfield; for, although she had departed far from their notions of +doctrine, dress, and usage, and fully adopted the principles and spirit of +a new and despised people, they had never reproached her for her religion, +but, deeply impressed with the genuineness of her experience and sweetness +of her Christian spirit, had regarded and treated her with tenderness and +respect. + +It was not easy to bid adieu to her pupils who clung to her with much +affection. But it was the hardest parting from the church which had led her +to the Saviour. But here, too, grace triumphed, and she spoke rapturously +of meeting that dear people "where parting will be no more;" and, catching, +as if by divine suggestion, a strong presentiment, she declared her +impression that even in this life they should enjoy each other's society +again--"even in this blessed place, where my sins were forgiven and I +have received such valuable lessons and enjoyed such glorious seasons of +communion with God and His people. Pray for me!" + +"We will continue to pray for you, dear sister; and we too hope that our +heavenly Father may so order your lot that you may meet with us again in +the place of your espousal to Christ; but let us so live that we may all +meet in glory." And then they broke forth into song: + + "Amen, amen, my soul replies; + I'm bound to meet you in the skies, + And claim my mansion there!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +THE FIERY FURNACE. + +Elizabeth's reception at her father's surprised her by its coolness and +reserve, as if she were a stranger or a visitor. + +At once a happy thought struck her with great force: "If my religious +profession puts such a distance between me and all my father's family, the +throne of grace must, if possible, unite us." So, before retiring for the +first night's rest, she asked and obtained authority to set up a family +altar, and for some months at least one of that family enjoyed freedom of +spirit and tenderness of heart. + +Parson Huntington visited her with much paternal kindness; and although, in +presence of her joyous piety, he often seemed embarrassed, yet he remained +true to his first conclusion as to the "effectual character of her call and +blessed hope." But the promised "teaching" found her a less tractable +pupil than he had hoped and led the father to hope. She ever treated his +instructions with profound respect, but seemed to be a dull learner. Alas, +that she was all the while imbibing more than they or she supposed! Still, +the predestinarian aliment did not set well on her palate, or nourish her +young and tender graces of spirit. Her father sought to confine her to that +sort of diet--at home, at church, everywhere; for his only hope of rescuing +her from Methodism seemed to center in a thorough course of Calvinian +instruction, excluding with rigid surveillance everything Arminian. + +But she longed for the food her soul had fed upon with such relish and +profit; and, after a while, hearing that the little Methodist society of +Middletown held noon class meetings, not far from the church which she +was required to attend, she often managed to slip out during part of the +intermission and go and commune with that humble few in class meeting. This +fellowship, with a diligent attention to closet devotions and Scripture +study, and conducting family worship, kept up a subdued but living piety. + +But at length her clandestine attendance of class meetings was discovered, +and father and parson were highly indignant, for they saw their cherished +hopes blasted, and, in their mortification, severer discipline was decided +upon. "She must be closely watched and confined at home; her favorite horse +taken from her; her conducting of family worship suspended; her familiarity +with her sisters" (who somewhat sympathized with her) "much abridged." The +kitchen maid was dismissed, and the tall, delicate Elizabeth was driven to +the drudgery of kitchen and washroom, and ordered to "be quiet and diligent +as a servant," under charge of having proved herself "unworthy of a +daughter's place in the family!" To this servile toil Elizabeth submitted +without a murmur, and patiently plodded on, her strong constitution and +heroic courage and steady faith bearing her up. But the accusation of +"ingratitude and disobedience" was so false and severe as to be very +depressing to her spirits. And, never having been inured to hard labor or +parental censure, these double tribulations were almost crushing; and to +help her courage she kept up the low, almost inaudible hum of the sweet +tunes she had so loved to sing among her chosen people, and, thus +abstracted, toiled on week after week. + +Such patience proved provoking, especially as what could be detected of the +tunes, in the snatches heard, indicated to her father's enraged feelings a +stubborn attachment to that people from whom he was trying to wean her; so +even this little comfort was sternly denied her; and, while strength was +gradually giving way under her heavy burdens, she was compelled to toil on +in silence. Under all these sore trials not only her angry father but the +evil one kept up the accusation of "stubborn disobedience." + +At length she broke down under her burdens and troubles. Health, courage, +and joy in the Lord gave way together. For the drill of Parson Huntington +in Calvinian theology for nearly a year past now came up, enforced by the +instructions of childhood, with fresh power; and she began to suspect +that she was one of the "ordained reprobates," "passed by and doomed from +eternity to endless ruin!" The whole system of "free grace," impartial +atonement, and the Spirit's assurance, in the light and joy of which she +had exulted for months in Pittsfield, and been so comforted in these +subsequent months of hardship and false accusation, strangely faded before +these childhood and recent instructions; and gradually this pupil of +Augustine and Calvin sank into the doctrinal abyss of the "horrible +decrees." Nor would her broken and depressed spirits allow these sudden +conclusions to affect her as abstract dogmas. They struck her, by Satanic +power, like lightning, as terribly personal realities. "I, even I, +Elizabeth Ward, have been awfully deceived! I am one of the reprobates! I +have preferred my father's commands to God's favor! I have committed the +'unpardonable sin!'" + +How unaccountable is desponding unbelief! how ingenious and active under +diabolical management! The Holy Spirit quoted to this poor, despondent girl +"the precious promises," but she "refused to be comforted," and hastened to +pass them all over to "the elect." He called to mind her rich experiences. +They seemed to her far off in clouds of dim dreamland, and she called them +a reprobate's delusions, "sent" on purpose to make her "believe a lie that +she might be damned." He called her attention to the blessed word, to +prayer and praise. She promptly swept all such observances away from +reprobates to the ransomed "few," and, gnashing her teeth in anguish, sank +to _utter despair!_ + +We will not attempt to describe a conscious reprobate, "passed by" and +"ordained from eternity" to all eternity a lost soul! Such was the dark, +dank night that settled down upon Elizabeth as she sank under her burdens, +her temptations, and cruel, wicked unbelief. In this dismal, hopeless "hell +upon earth" she pined away for weeks and months, utterly shrinking from +Bible reading, prayer, song, or religious conversation, and studiously +guarding against religious reasoning, and even thought, as abominable for a +"reprobate." + +It is not easy, in this age of religious liberty, to understand or +apologize for such intolerance as Mr. Ward and Parson Huntington exhibited +toward this innocent Methodist girl. But it should be remembered in +charity: + +1. That that age was about a century nearer the long period of persecution +than this. + +2. That a stern and terrible system of religious doctrines prevailed +throughout New England at that day, not fruitful in charity, nor respectful +toward any faith that differed from it. + +3. That Methodism was new there then, and generally misunderstood, and such +of its features as were correctly read were intensely hated--even such as +are now admired and revered. + +4. That parents, especially fathers, were then allowed by public opinion to +hold more control over the consciences of their children, and variations +from ancestral faith, and even ancestral error, not so frequent as now. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +GREAT VICTORIES. + +Seven months of despair had now worn slowly away. This poor supposed +"reprobate" had all that time been buffeted by Satan without mercy. She had +wasted to a skeleton. Her large, sharp eye had become heavy and lusterless, +and her ruddy cheek pale and sunken, and every expression sad and hopeless; +and the "enemy of all righteousness" got into a hurry to secure his prize, +and brought all his arts to bear upon the suggestion of suicide! + +Such a temptation aroused her to a sense of her real danger--no longer the +victim of ingenious devices to harbor gloomy forebodings, but a wretched +sinner, about to destroy soul and body in hell, on the verge of destruction +to character, and all good influences by an act of her own! Desperately, +in spite of her dread of prayer, she cried to God against that dreadful +temptation, and instantly she had full victory over it. The eyes, long +dried in the desert of despair, were moistened with tears of wonder and +gratitude. Astonished at such a clear answer to prayer, she prayed again +for deliverance from Satan's power and all his enchantments, and they fled +away like the shadow of a cloud. Her dungeon flamed with light, before +which the horrible decrees also vanished, falling into line, and following +their author to the land of darkness, never to trouble her more. + +The light shone on, more and more; and although at dead of night, her room +seemed to her to shine above the brightness of the sun at noonday; and the +doctrines of free grace seemed to flash about her with transcendent glory, +until investing her entire being. She knew she was not a reprobate; for God +had heard her desperate cry against that greatest of sins. She saw in God's +own light the blessed assurance that Jesus died for her and for all; and in +driving away the enemy and the dense cloud of error, that had long shrouded +her dungeon in Egyptian darkness, she clearly saw glorious demonstrations +of divine clemency in store for her. She deplored her unbelief, and humbly +sought forgiveness and full restoration; and there, and then, by faith in +Jesus, she accepted Him again as her Saviour. + +Instantly her raptures returned, with more than their former power and +glory, and she went off into a perfect gale of ecstasy. Such sounds had +never been heard in that mansion before, and the family hastened to learn +the cause. There lay the wasted form upon what they thought to be the bed +of death. Her thin arms were stretched upward, and her pale hands came +together with frequency and energy quite remarkable. Her countenance seemed +lighted up with an unearthly glow, and her words were ready and full of +heavenly felicity, and uttered with a strength and sweetness of voice quite +beyond her power. All these evidences, added to the fact that their tender +and anxious questions remained unanswered, and their presence and weeping +seemed entirely unnoticed, struck them as demonstrations that "the angels +had come for poor, dear Betsey," and that in her triumphant flight from her +cruel sufferings "she had already passed beyond them, and would never speak +to them again." + +After some time, however, she seemed to them to have been brought back +by their lamentations and self-accusations, and, hushing them to silent +attention, she assured them that this was "not dying," but "living, and +preparing to live," by a return of her first love and a glorious victory +over temptation and error. + +From that blessed night her convalescence was much more rapid than anyone +had thought possible. Peace of mind is a marvelous restorer, especially +when despondency has driven health away. + +On a beautiful morning, a few weeks after, Elizabeth was agreeably +surprised by an unexpected announcement made at the door of her room. She +had had remarkable liberty that morning in conducting family prayer, which +by consent of her parents she resumed soon after her recent victory. Her +father came to her door, and, in a voice which sounded so much like the +good days gone by, announced his plan for "a short ride." Her own horse was +at the block; and as the strong arms of her father placed her in the saddle +the noble beast gave signs of joy over her returning health. + +The horseman by her side, in the ride of that and several following +mornings, seemed agitated by conflicting emotions, yet making special +efforts to be social and attentive. O, how she enjoyed those morning rides! +Yet now and then she felt, though she could scarcely tell why, that a +strange agitation, embarrassed her father's spirits. Was he trying to +muster courage to acknowledge his wrong in persecuting her? Was he really +"under concern" for his own soul? or was he unhappy because she was not +more gay and worldly? It was useless for her to conjecture; he was a +reticent man, and allowed no one to meddle with his thoughts. + +She had now nearly regained her usual strength, and the time drew near for +her to attend church. One morning, after a pleasant ride of unusual length, +drawing near home, the father broke out in tremulous tones: "Now, Betsey, +you won't go with the Methodists any more, will you? I can't allow it--no +more at all. I command you to have nothing more to do with that people." + +They had reached the block, and the agitated girl hastened to her room, and +most of the day and evening she was seeking the "wisdom that cometh from +above." She easily settled all questions but one. She saw clearly what +system of doctrines she must subscribe to and advocate and exemplify; what +means of grace she needed and must have and honor by her attendance; and +she knew where her heart centered, and where her covenant vows must be +taken and fellowship cultivated and enjoyed. All was plain as noonday +except her father's commands and her duty to him. This last problem she +laid before the Lord; and no sooner was it fully committed to him than the +Holy Spirit quoted the filial duty with a peculiar emphasis to her heart: +"Obey your parents in the Lord." "He that loveth father or mother more than +Me is not worthy of Me." + +Her line of duty was now fully decided, cost what it might. Saturday +morning they were again in their saddles, and side by side, beginning a +long ride in silence. Elizabeth was desirous of telling her story and +kindly explaining her views of duty, and, obtaining permission, she began +at the beginning and rehearsed the dealings of God with her up to that +hour. She then declared her filial affection and her readiness to obey +implicitly in all matters where duty to God and conscience would permit. +Finally, she appealed to her father "not to hinder or embarrass her, seeing +the Lord had so marvelously rescued her from the power of the enemy and +snatched her from the very jaws of death and ruin." + +All this time the stern man had kept silence. They were nearing home. He +opened his mouth and firmly told her that he "should at once and finally +disinherit her if she went to Methodist meeting again!" + +No more was said. Elizabeth that day looked upon all the familiar objects +about that dear old home of her childhood as no longer hers in any sense. +Her pets, especially her noble horse; her home, in which she was born and +reared; the sick room, where she had suffered unutterable horrors and +gained such memorable victories; her own dear room, where she was finally +to spend that, her last night, as having any right there. She came, at +last, late in the evening, to sweet slumbers in the "peace that passeth +understanding." + +Early Sunday morning she was plainly attired and slowly walking toward her +beloved church, a plain chapel in a part of the city of Middletown near two +miles from the Cove. There she feasted upon the word and publicly gave in +her name as a probationer in the Methodist Episcopal Church. + +From that moment she was afloat--out on the broad sea of life, without +a home; a disowned, disinherited girl! She left home this morning, a +comfortable, stately, dear old home of wealth, elegance, and affection. She +must not return to it to-night. She was but yesterday an heiress. To-day +she is poor, a wanderer in the earth. But she has at last a church-home, +and her life really begins to-day. Father and mother have cast her off for +her religion, but "the Lord hath taken her up." She is not without friends. +Several doors are open for her. Almost before she knows she is homeless she +has resumed her work of teaching and has a delightful home in a Methodist +family. + +Thus favorably situated for study, she takes up the doctrines of the Gospel +as believed and taught by the Methodists, and makes rapid proficiency. +Her pastor, one of the flaming heralds of early Methodism in New England, +furnished her with the best of reading, and all her associates in the +studies and active work of Zion wondered at the rapid progress of the +disinherited girl. Little could they realize how vividly those doctrines +shone in her heart as she came out of the "fiery furnace," and how +intensely interested she now was in principles which had cost her so much, +yet were worth, in her account, infinitely more, and well deserved to be +studied and propagated. + +A young man belonging to the Methodists of that city now enters into our +narrative. He is above the ordinary size, about twenty-eight years of age, +and some four or five years before this was clearly converted under the +preaching of Bishop Asbury. He also is a teacher, and a very sound, logical +student of Methodist doctrines and usages. + +It is not many months before it is noticed that a mutual attachment seems +to be springing up between this young man and Elizabeth, above the ordinary +sympathies of teachers and church classmates. And as they had been +acquainted from childhood, and fully understood each other's history and +families, and were members together of a society of plain people, they did +not consider a long courtship necessary. They were both of Yankee stock, +both escaping from Calvinism and ardently attached to Methodism, both +studious and competent to teach, and loved to teach, and both were active +workers in the church they ardently loved. + +So Joshua Arnold, aged twenty-nine, and Elizabeth Ward, aged twenty-one, +were united in holy matrimony in the charming month of May, the last +year of the eighteenth century. Thus closed the maiden life and homeless +loneliness of the disinherited daughter. + +She had been ruthlessly turned out of a stately mansion which she loved as +her birthplace and childhood home, disinherited from her rightful heirship +to several thousands, and disowned by her family, whose well-being she had +faithfully labored to promote, and all for no fault of hers, but wholly +for a matter of conscience and principle. But in less than a year she was +settled in life in a home of which she was mistress, with a worthy husband, +of church membership and affinities like her own, and in the free enjoyment +of church privileges and holy fellowships, for which her persecuted soul +had "panted as the hart panteth for the water brooks." + + + + +PART II. + + +THE GREAT WORK OF LIFE. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +ELIZABETH AS MISTRESS OF THE "COTTAGE CHAPEL." + +One of the most natural consultations of the newly married couple is the +plan of their first house. How chatty and cheery a pair of newly mated +birds appear, in counsel over their nest-building! This schoolmaster and +mistress are home from their toil and care for the day, and are again +devoting an evening to the scheme of their first dwelling. It is not a +large or magnificent concern, but it has already been neatly draughted, +carefully considered, and builders' estimates footed up. All seems to be +about right; but Elizabeth has gone off into a brown study. Her countenance +betrays unusual agitation, and her pensive eye is filled with tears. Her +husband supposes she is thinking of the mansion from which she has been +spurned, as contrasted with the humble dwelling they are planning, but she +hastens to correct the mistake and assure him that her musings were in the +opposite direction entirely. "I was thinking of our dear people, and how +much they need in this suburb of the town some place to hold meetings in. +And this thought struck my mind almost like an inspiration: Why not extend +our plan up high enough for an 'upper room' for meetings?" This notion, +carefully considered, not only in these consultations but in the prayers +that closed them, impressed them both as a divine suggestion. The house was +built accordingly. An outside staircase gave access to the upper story, +which was all finished off in a rough, cheap manner for a chapel, and +immediately and for a few years was occupied by the Methodist people of the +south part of Middletown and of the farms adjoining, for prayer meetings, +class meetings, and occasional exhortation and preaching. + +Among the church privileges which had cost this disinherited daughter so +dearly few ever equaled in sweet enjoyment this cottage chapel arrangement. +She no longer had to steal away and snatch a few minutes once or twice a +month to associate with the advocates of free grace, as she once did, nor +be shut entirely away from their beloved society, as for nearly a year, in +that terrible season of persecution and despair. The church she loved came +to her door. Her home echoed their prayers, songs, testimonies, and shouts. +She lived, toiled, ate, and slept under the shadow of the hallowed "upper +room," so often, like the one in Jerusalem, "filled with the Holy Ghost." +She knew, as no one else could, how much such privileges had cost her, but +still insisted that they never cost a tithe of what they were worth. Nor +was the gratification of this ardent lover of Methodism the chief result of +this chapel arrangement. There the Church found asylum from persecution; +and if we may estimate the value of such a refuge from the alarm of the +enemy it must have proved a precious boon. Often were the pious band +obliged to come early and lock themselves in to escape the fury of the mob, +which would curse and mock without. But sometimes, unable to reach them or +seriously to annoy them by their howlings, they would vent their spite +upon the premises. Now it would be by breaking windows. Again, finding the +windows guarded with thick board blinds, they would tear down fences, fill +the well with wood, etc. In several instances it came out in one way and +another that some attendant of the "standing order" furnished the rum that +stimulated the rabble to make these attempts to drive off these "deceivers +of the last days, that should deceive the very elect." But "the more they +afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew;" so that in a few years +the place became "too strait for them." Even members of the mob of one +meeting would be "awakened" while listening for something to mock, and +scarcely able to restrain themselves, while with their comrades they would +come early to the next meeting, get fastened in with the pious and the +penitent, and, making humble confession, seek and find salvation, and +become lively members of the church they had persecuted. + +Who can estimate the amount of good done in that "upper room" at the dawn +of the nineteenth century? "When God writeth up his people" of how many +will it be counted, "This man was born there?" Who can stand on the hill +where once stood that unpretending home with a "meeting house" on the top +of it, and look over to University Hill, crowned with those Methodist halls +of science and art, and see no connection between the humble seed-sowing +and the waving harvest? + +Soon after the supersedure of this chapel loft Mrs. Elizabeth began to +reckon her work nearly done in Middletown; and, a good offer being about +that time made for their valuable situation, she began to hope and pray for +the accomplishment of a cherished longing to live near the place of her +spiritual birth. + +Mr. Arnold had followed two lines of business from his majority: Teaching +through the long winters of New England, and coast trading summers. He was +brought up a farmer, but fancied that he had but little genius for that +vocation. After his marriage and settlement he shortened up his summer +sailing, giving himself time during spring and autumn to cultivate, or at +least plant and reap, his rich little place. + +With the growing cares of the family the wife and mother was desirous to +"get him away from the water" and settle down upon a farm. As they pondered +the question, and committed it in prayer to Him whom they trusted to "set +the bounds of their habitations," they seemed to hear in gentle whispers, +"Ye have compassed this mountain long enough;" "Arise, for this is not your +rest." + +So they concluded to sell out their first home, bid adieu to the beloved +church at Middletown, and try to find a home somewhere near Pittsfield, +Mass. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES AND ENJOYMENTS. + +The religious ecstasies experienced by Elizabeth in Pittsfield during her +young convert days had impressed her very deeply, and left a pleasant +notion of a paradise upon earth. It was a sort of dreamy vision of the +glory of Zion at her best. It had come to her many times in the intervening +years with marked force. It was not the picture of wealth, or ease, or +luxury, or any worldly good; but the notion of a settlement near the place +where she first found pardon and peace to her soul, and where she could +enter again most heartily into those rich fellowships and rapturous +enjoyments which she then found, heightened and intensified by a deeper and +broader experience, maturing now for near a decade. + +But Providence seems to have had other and higher designs, and evidently +guided her course to the indulgence of these blissful fancies. In a short +time they had purchased and settled upon a rich farm, of moderate size, +upon the Housatonic River, in Lenox, near Pittsfield, Mass. + +Precious, indeed, were now her privileges. The word was ably preached +and was a feast to her soul. Her church associates were all that she had +desired, and much more numerous than she had expected, and they were living +all around her. She was also near her beloved relatives, and that sacred +place where she first found the Saviour, precious to her soul. + + "There is a spot to me more dear than native vale or mountain; + A spot for which affection's tear flows freely from its fountain. + 'Tis not where kindred souls abound, though that on earth is heaven, + But where I first my Saviour found, and knew my sins forgiven." + +She was greatly blessed in all these privileges. It seemed, indeed, "a +heaven to go to heaven in." But still she found emotions of loneliness, at +times, which she could not explain--an indefinite fear lest she become so +filled and satisfied with these religious luxuries as to lose sight of +stern diligence in the Master's work. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +ELIZABETH AS AN EVANGELISTIC LABORER. + +Rejoicing greatly with "the ninety and nine," the pious zeal of Elizabeth +wept over "the lost sheep in the wilderness," and she longed to go out +among the mountains as a personal coworker with the chief Shepherd and +bring them to the fold. In fact, her ideal of the destitute regions she +had dreamed of was substantially answered by territory near her home, and +providentially brought to her notice. + +On "Washington Mountain" were several neighborhoods of irreligious settlers +at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Our itinerant ministers had +occasionally passed; over the foothills and given off a message or two +among these neglected inhabitants, but in the main they were destitute of +Gospel truth and the means of grace. Elizabeth had not been more than +a year or two in the adjoining valley before she more clearly saw that +evangelical labor, as well as religious privileges, had providentially +called the family to their present location. + +True, she was a woman, and the Master had chosen "men to preach," and +"women to guide the house," and win souls in a quiet manner. But she could +attend faithfully to household affairs, and also do something as a private +member to lead sinners to Jesus, even though miles away on the dark +mountain; for she was an expert rider, very spry and strong, and only +thirty years of age, and had a fleet, easy horse that could climb those +slopes and fly across those table-lands and be back home in a few hours. + +So, in the name and fear of the Lord, this cultured woman began among the +rough settlers of Washington Mountain as a religious visitor from, house +to house. At first her visits were between 1 P.M. and sunset; but as the +people became awakened, and gathered in groups, requiring more exhortation +and wrestling prayer, she spent more time with them, frequently mounting +her boy behind her for company, and always reaching home before she slept. +Local preachers and exhorters followed up the work. The circuit preachers, +by an occasional visit, gathered the lambs into folds, and thus the fields +were cultivated, while this pioneer woman searched out other destitute +groups and introduced them to Gospel privileges and blessings. + +In this rapid riding and visiting, as a true shepherdess, hunting up the +lost, she cautiously occupied mostly fair afternoons, and on an average, +in moderate weather, only one or two afternoons a week. But in a few years +even that amount of time, well employed, produced glorious results. Her +work in this line was somewhat like that of a modern "Bible reader," only +that it was much more rapid. What would her father have thought, when +teaching his proud daughter horsemanship, if he had been told what use she +would make of it? + +What a contrast between the riding done by this woman now, and a dozen +years ago in the same county! In skill, and speed of movement, and grace +of attitude she is much the same; but how different her dress, her +countenance, her aims and hopes! Her father then was proud of his darling; +now, how mortified and angry would he be could he see her spring to her +saddle and start off toward Washington Mountain, in search of souls! "God +seeth not as man seeth." Then he beheld the "proud afar off," but now +"giveth grace to the humble," and crowneth her labors with divine approval +and success, while he giveth to her heart the "peace that passeth +understanding," and the sweet promise that "they that turn many to +righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever!" + +What Mrs. Elizabeth did to save souls on the mountain was only in the line +of extraordinary labors, and was not made an excuse for neglecting any of +her ordinary church duties. As before observed, her visits being mainly in +fair weather, and only once or twice a week, except in times of revival, +she counted them as many people do one or two weekly recreations, not +allowed to interfere with anything else. + +Indeed, they did not satisfy her own zeal for extraordinary work. She +scattered some of the young people of the mountain among the Methodist +families of Lenox and Pittsfield as domestic help, greatly to their +advantage. She invited her church associates to her house for extra prayer +meetings, for the special benefit of serious persons from the mountain and +other neglected neighborhoods nearer her home, thus bringing them under +strong religious influences. Of course all the young laborers from the +mountain, working for families not too far off, would want to attend such +meetings and see their kindred, and their employers would encourage them +and lead them to faithful cross-bearing on such occasions. + +She even set up a private school for neglected children, and her church +classmates put some of their own children into it "to help leaven it," as +she suggested, and it became, in answer to their united prayers, a revival +school. One family[1] who thus assisted her had two little boys converted +in her school, right among the ragged, ignorant children, and they grew +so strong in the work of these daily prayer meetings that one of them[2] +became an able itinerant minister, and the other,[3] in the wilderness to +which both families subsequently moved, became a class leader, having +for several years some of these same schoolmates (then, like himself, in +midlife) in his class, and even Mr. and Mrs. Arnold themselves and several +of their children! So glorious are often the compensations of true zeal, +even in "the life that now is." + +[Footnote 1: That of Thomas Hubbard.] + +[Footnote 2: Rev. Elijah B. Hubbard.] + +[Footnote 3: Jabez Hubbard.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +REMOVAL TO A WILDERNESS COUNTRY. + +How mysterious are the leadings of Providence! The most inviting scenes, +the happiest state of society, the richest farm lands, the best educational +facilities, sometimes fail to content even good people who live not to get +rich, but to fulfill their mission in the service of their "generation by +the will of God." + +The young man marked by the Redeemer for a Gospel herald is not the only +sort of Christian who feels uneasy in the crowded nursery, and groans to be +torn out and transplanted on some bleak hillside where, shaken by fierce +winds, his roots may strike deep, his branches spread wide, and he bear +much fruit. + +Families have thus caught the emigrating spirit in sufficient numbers to +form clans of pioneer evangelists, and torn themselves out of little Edens +to found colonies in dreary moral deserts; and as "the kingdom comes" with +more rapid strides such single-eyed emigrations will become more frequent. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +VOLNEY, OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK. + +We are now suddenly introduced into a new country of heavy timber. The +people have settled near together, and yet so thick are the woods, and so +small the clearings, that nearly every family is alone, and cannot see out +in any direction but by looking up toward heaven, a habit they learned +before settling in these woods. + +It is a Massachusetts colony from Lenox, Pittsfield, and Washington +Mountain. These people came here for two purposes: to "get land for their +children," and to "take the new country for God and Methodism." But the +last object was first, and ever held its rank. + +As you call around upon these detached families you find them thoughtful, +intelligent, and decidedly religious; although each family is alone in the +woods, they are not very lonesome, for familiar sounds reach them almost +every hour of the day. The deep-sounding cow bells, the dinner horns, the +ring of the ax, and the thunder of the falling tree keep them in happy +remembrance of their brethren and of their diligence and success, and often +wake the anticipation of the coming Sabbath, when they will blend their +songs and prayers around the mercy seat. + +And now the longed-for Sunday morning has dawned. The woodman's ax lies +still, the dinner horn hangs upon its peg, and no treefall breaks the +sacred silence. The half-burned "backlog" is buried in ashes on the broad +stone hearth, and the door of each log cabin is simply shut--it needs no +lock--and from every direction all the people are seen approaching a large +log dwelling in a small clearing of central situation. It is the newest +house in the settlement, as its occupants have been here only a few weeks. +But they are well known in the colony, and have cordially "opened their +doors" and "provided for the meetings." + +Joshua and Elizabeth Arnold are once more in their much-loved relation to +Methodism, the master and mistress of the "cottage chapel." And now, as the +meeting hour draws nigh, you see the people entering this little clearing +by two or three footpaths and two highways, a few in wagons and sleds drawn +by oxen, but mostly on foot. They are plainly but neatly clad, and every +requisite of becoming Sabbath decorum is plainly to be seen in both adults +and children, and even in young men and misses. The family chairs are +occupied by the aged and the ailing, while most of the people sit upon +benches without backs. The singing is superior, both in the structure of +the tunes and the fullness and sweetness of voice of most of the singers. +Such tunes as China, Mear, Northfield, Windham, Exhortation, etc., set to +our most solid hymns and sung with the understanding and in the spirit, +have never been excelled, and probably will not be in this world. The +preaching also is excellent, and the hearing corresponds. Tears are +abundant, and responses neither scant nor misplaced, and impressions deep. + +At the close of the public service nearly all "remain for class meeting." +The speaking is clear, direct, and candid; the singing spontaneous, brief, +and spirited. When the class meeting closes, hand-shaking and shouts close +the scene, and most of the people return immediately home. + +No tobacco smoke has polluted the air of the place. No gossip or worldly +talk has profaned the sacred day. Such as by distance, feebleness, or any +other cause would be likely to fail of coming back to the late afternoon or +evening meeting are led, if possible, to remain and eat with the family. +From half a dozen to a dozen usually accept of the cordial invitation, and +find a strong evangelical influence in the very atmosphere of this place of +worship. + +At the closing meeting in the latter part of the day some fruit usually +appears from the personal labors bestowed upon guests between meetings; +thus putting the divine seal upon the hospitality and influence of the +cottage chapel. + +The picture of this day is substantially the description of the Sabbaths of +years at this meeting place. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +HARDSHIPS OF THE NEW COLONY. + +It is no small undertaking to reduce heavily timbered lands to farms, +especially where there are few, if any, kinds of timber of any market +value, as was the case in the Oswego wilderness subdued by this +Massachusetts colony and others who settled in with and around about them. +All the land had to be cleared twice, and much of it three times, of some +tons per acre of encumbrances. First, the trees must be felled, cut up, +rolled into heaps, and burned to ashes. Then the huge stumps must take +a few years to decay, and then be torn out, piled up in heaps, and also +burned. Last, but not always least in labor and cost, a burden of stones +had to be drawn off from portions of most of the farms and piled in +heaps or wrought into walls. But our colonists were sober, diligent, and +persevering, and under their cheerful toil the wilderness was reduced to +fruitful fields. The temporary log houses and stables soon gave place to +comfortable buildings; and the "clearings" met as the woods disappeared +before the ax. + +The log chapel dwelling, sacred though it was as God's house and heaven's +gate, was one of the first to disappear. A goodly frame house was just +covered and its floors laid, but no partitions set up, when it was +gloriously consecrated by a most powerful quarterly meeting. + +This was in the summer of 1823. Rev. Goodwin Stoddard was the presiding +elder, a mighty man when fully aroused. Sunday evening he preached in the +new house during a fearful thunderstorm, and seemed girded like Elijah +running before the chariot of the king. While Jehovah spake in the clouds, +and for a long time the heavens seemed to be "a sheet of flame." He also +spake by his servant, and the response from the people was in tears and +sobs, groans and shouts; and at the conclusion of nearly every sweep of the +preacher's wonderful flights could be heard above the whole a shrill shout +from the hostess, followed by a tornado of amens! When the sermon closed +the storm ceased, and the "slain of the Lord were many." Memorable night! +The people found neither slumber nor weariness, and when the morning dawned +very few had not found a brighter dawn. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +THE QUARTERLY MEETINGS. + +These meetings, held in the summer season upon these premises for near a +dozen years, were greatly enjoyed by Elizabeth and the family. The circuit +was large, and most of its two or three dozen appointments would be +represented at what they called the "quarterly visitation." For two or +three hours before noon on Saturday the people were pouring in from all +parts of the circuit, and some from adjoining circuits. Besides what would +consent to sit down to dinner, "lunch" was freely distributed, which very +few refused after a long ride or walk. This lunch business was very handy, +and not unpopular. No plates were used; the people in house or yard took in +their hands the cold meats, biscuit, cheese, and doughnuts, while pans of +milk and pails of water, provided with tin cups, were set conveniently. +After the Saturday sermon the preacher in charge distributed the guests +among the hospitable homes of the society. But as the Quarterly Conference +was yet to be held the local preachers, exhorters, stewards, and class +leaders, and usually their families, either stayed there or, perhaps, a few +of them, at the nearest neighbors'. + +However scattered during Saturday night and Sunday night, they had a +rallying time at the place of meeting before starting for home Monday, +when, by more or less delay, time wore on, and the "lunch" came around +again. Fifty to a hundred meals, and two or more general lunches, were not +remarkable at the cottage chapel; while for lodging, divided bedding and +shawls scantily covered upon beds, benches, and floors, the women and +children in the house, and a little new hay divided among the men and boys +in the barn, made their rest somewhat tolerable. + +At this distance of time and custom one would be sure that the hostess, +after such a siege, would be worn down, nervous, and melancholy; but those +who understood her best could have borne witness to a change of spirits, if +any, in the opposite direction. As early as Monday on ordinary occasions, +and Tuesday after the great quarterly visitation, the brick oven was sure +to turn out its usual supplies for the family. + +Nor could the holding out of strength and spirits be credited principally +to a good constitution; but while much was due to the pious joy with which +she did all, more, perhaps, is to be laid to what her Yankee friends called +"faculty." Solomon's temple was not more accurately prepared than this +housewife's arrangements for receiving and caring for her meeting guests. +Nor was she less skillful in selecting and directing such youngerly women +from among the guests as she needed for helpers and waiters. Her stock of +aprons was marvelous, and the dispatch with which she equipped her corps +and clothed their ruddy countenances in smiles was only equaled by the +speed with which everything was finished in time for meeting call, and her +"girls" and herself in their places in good time. And whatever woman in +the meeting did not do her part of the praying, speaking, singing, and, on +occasion, shouting too, that woman was not Elizabeth Arnold. + +When Zion's hospitable entertainers shall be acknowledged before assembled +worlds, and all their liberality and painstaking in the spirit of their +Master, who fed the multitude, shall be mentioned to his glory and their +credit through his grace, will not the humble name of Elizabeth Arnold be +spoken with the honorable mention of that host of noble, patient toilers +who fed the people, that they might thus detain them under the influence of +Him who stood waiting to feed them with the bread of eternal life? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +EXTENDS HER LABORS. + +After about a dozen and a quarter years the Arnold place lost the meetings +both of the circuit and of the society. + +The changes of business and travel left the place quite one side, and +the meetings had been gradually removed to more central and convenient +locations. Mr. Arnold had been called by the church to hold meetings as an +exhorter, and had sought out some destitute neighborhoods as his chosen +field. It was natural and appropriate for his wife to accompany him. + +They were both good singers, and had sung together a third of a century. +They were ready speakers and mighty in prayer, and in the quiet way of lay +workers they went from house to house, and to a family in a place they +presented the great salvation in conversation and psalm, and commended the +people to God in prayer. + +It was not long before they collected in congregations; and while the +"licensed" exhorter, who really "preached many things to the people in his +exhortations," always led the meetings, the real exhorter followed with +cutting appeals. This destitute region was thus visited occasionally for +several years, and this couple had the honor of being its successful +pioneers in Christian evangelism. In a central position has long stood a +Methodist Episcopal church, and members of its society, fifty years after +these humble labors, acknowledged them in the hearing of the writer as the +means of their salvation. + +Elizabeth was now between fifty and sixty years of age, was no longer the +nimble rider, but somewhat heavy and clumsy; she preferred the carriage +seat to the saddle, but still in her numerous visits to the sick and such +as she could bless by religious calls she continued her old method, as +being more independent. Many wondered at the ease and skill with which a +woman of her age and size would spring on and off and manage her horse. +She would modestly reply, "My dear father taught me how, and I have always +liked it." + +She early became a skillful nurse, and was for many years a diligent +visitor of the sick, especially among the poor and the ignorant. Her saddle +horns were hung with budgets of medicinal herbs and little comforts, and +she would find out the sick and suffering, and administer both to their +physical and spiritual wants, and return to her household duties almost +before her family knew she had been gone. + +About this time a new field of labor was providentially opened to this +Christian worker. The Presbyterian and Baptist churches in that town began +to employ "evangelists" to hold "revival meetings" of a new order; but when +the people appeared to be thoughtful, and they got them into the "anxious +meetings," they found it almost impossible to get them to praying or +the church to praying for them directly and earnestly, especially the +sisterhood of the Presbyterian church; so the deacons and elders, in their +strait, begged Mrs. Arnold to "come over into Macedonia and help." Much as +she had suffered in her early religious life from predestinarianism, she +never was a bigot, and so she, like Paul, "gathered assuredly" that the +call was of the Lord, and "without gainsaying" went and helped them +publicly and from house to house as best she could. The result was that +during the balance of her active life she was urged into and did much of +this inter-church work in their periodical revivals, and obviously with +good effect. + +But, grateful as were these churches for such help, and encouraging to +her heart as the fruit appeared, she ever labored in these Calvinistic +associations under more or less embarrassment. To be at once true to her +principles and true to interdenominational courtesy left her rather a +narrow platform to work upon; but, limited as it was, she would not +transcend it in either direction. When, however, she could find revival +work within reach among her own people she ever gave such calls the +preference; and from their arrival in the new country down to the +retirement of infirm old age, more than a quarter of a century, "Sister +Arnold" was known for many miles around as "an excellent revival laborer." + +Several allusions have been made in this narrative to her shouting; but +it should be understood that she was not in the habit of "shouting before +getting out of the swamp." The order of her work was solemn, steady, +earnest, and in mighty faith; but when the struggle was over, the victory +gained, sometimes that solemn countenance would become suddenly luminous +and her shrill shouts would pierce the very heavens. These loud +exultations, however, were indulged in in no meetings but those of her own +people, and grew less frequent as age crept on, giving place to tears of +joy and whispers of praise. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +AS A CAMP MEETING WORKER. + +When health and distance would permit, Mrs. Elizabeth could be depended +upon as a tent holder and laborer at every camp meeting. She had a superior +tent, and it was in its place and order from the first to the last hour. + +It was a little odd that Mr. Arnold had very little camp meeting zeal, when +his wife had so much. He would go when entirely convenient, enjoy a few +sermons and some pleasant conversations with friends, when he "must go +home, see to things, and regain the rest he had lost." "Mother and the +children were sufficient to see to the tent, and enjoyed such mode of life +better than he did." + +With her the camp meeting was neither a place of recreation nor weariness. +Its single object was to save souls. True to this purpose, she forecast for +weeks to obtain as tent guests thoughtful persons of honorable character +whom she could bring and hold under the influence of the meeting until they +were converted. + +For one meeting a Presbyterian deacon, who lived in a neglected +neighborhood, was induced to bring his children and near a dozen more, all +young people nearly or quite grown, and stay through the meeting. Of course +these guests would help stock the tent, and would feel bound in courtesy to +attend the meetings of the tent as well as preaching at the stand, and the +good deacon have to do his share in conducting these tent meetings. When +the deacon returned home he carried with him a beautiful flock of the +Saviour's lambs; and while the most of his own children joined his church, +several miles away, the rest of these lambs were gathered into a Methodist +fold at their own schoolhouse, the nucleus of a church which now has a good +church edifice and has long had a prosperous existence. It is worthy of +remark that to this day this church is next neighbor to the one founded +soon after upon the work of the exhorters before alluded to. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +"THE CHAMBER ON THE WALL." + +The active part of the married life of Joshua and Elizabeth Arnold was +over forty years. During that period their house--as may be inferred from +preceding pages--was the ever welcome home for the itinerant preacher. +The presiding elder and the preacher in charge often met there to counsel +together. The junior preacher, who was usually a single man, made it one +of his homes, where he came to rest and study. The "best room," with its +fireplace, bed, table, etc., was occupied more by the preachers than by +all other company, and was known as "the preachers' room." Both circuit +preachers frequently passed a night there together in their rounds; but the +senior, having a home somewhere, would speak of this as the junior's +home, and of himself as "his guest," as well as the guest of the family. +Sometimes all three of the itinerants would meet there for days at a time. +Such were seasons of great joy all around, and of some little pleasantry, +although cautiously indulged in in those days. + +On one such occasion, as the three preachers and the family were sitting +around the large fireplace on a winter evening, and conversation had +about quieted to a lull, one of the elders hunched the junior, and with a +significant wink suggested to him to ask counsel of Sister Arnold, who was +busy sewing by the candle-stand. Now the said junior was a very promising +boy of nineteen, but, withal, a little too boyish to quite suit the ideal +of this grave woman. So while he stated the question she listened with her +attention mostly upon her work. "Mother Arnold, I have, as our Discipline +requires, counseled with these my seniors upon a very important question." +She glances at him very slightly. "It is the question of marriage." Another +glance, which is enough to wilt a boy of ordinary courage, and instantly +her eye is on her work again. He rallies, however, and begins again: "I am +advised by several to marry, and am thinking seriously of doing so. I now +desire your advice." Slowly her spectacles mount to her forehead, her keen +black eye seems to look right through him, and she slowly and gravely +replies, "Well, my advice is, that you wait until you get to be a man." The +effect of such a shot may be better imagined than told; not only there, +but elsewhere, as long as he stayed on that circuit. He did wait, and in +waiting made a more judicious choice, and one of the sons of that wise +marriage is now one of our bishops. + +Severe as this sounds, it was a word in season, and fully met the approval +of the senior brethren, and of the junior himself, who greatly venerated +her, and ran a very successful, although short, race, and left an excellent +influence behind him. + +Eternity alone will fully declare how valuable were the counsels of this +"Aquila and Priscilla," who in this itinerant's home took many a young +"Apollos" and "expounded unto him the way of the Lord more perfectly." + +But while nothing Mr. and Mrs. Arnold did for the meetings at their home or +anywhere excused them from personal activity in those meetings, no pains +or expense in entertaining the preachers were ever a substitute for the +regular support of the Gospel by prompt and liberal payment through the +stewards. + +But beyond the regular "quarterage" they appreciated the need of +"presents." And probably, in the forty-two years of their active business +life together, seldom, if ever, did a Gospel minister make a pastoral visit +at their home and go away without carrying with him some little token of +the veneration and love there cherished for his holy office and work, or +of remembrance of his lone family, so much of the time deprived of his +presence, and of many delicacies which he had among his people far away. +The "fatted calf," lamb, or fowl would in many places be dressed for his +feasting, while the family at home, in some inferior quarters, were having +rather dry fare, if not scanty fare; the thought of which would often mar +the pleasure of his most sumptuous entertainments. + +Economical, not to say penurious, stewards demanded an "account of +everything given to the preachers;" but Mrs. Arnold insisted that besides +salary matters presents were needed, and it was the privilege of that house +to give them at pleasure, and the left hand must not know what the right +hand conferred. Often the minister himself knew nothing of it until some +one of his family searched the box of his carriage seat, which they were +not slow to do when it came from certain parts of the circuit--some article +of provision for the table, common and plenty enough in the cellar or dairy +of the farm, but not certain to be flush in the parsonage; some tidbit or +condiment to humor a delicate appetite; some choice fruits or knickknacks +for the children; some material from the sheep or flax of the farm spun by +her own diligent fingers to be made up in the lonely parsonage for the wife +or children, or underwear for the man of God. When the minister's family +was within reach of this very busy mother in Israel she would often relieve +the loneliness, and sometimes the wants, experienced in his "long rounds" +by her visits to the sacred rooms, which in those early years of Methodism +were oftener parts of some kind member's home than a regular "parsonage" +or "rectory." So when the weary itinerant would return and find that his +family had not been entirely neglected in his absence he would take new +courage to pursue his toilsome way. + +As already intimated, Mrs. Arnold usually made the "junior preacher" of the +circuit an object of motherly care. He was generally a single man in those +early days, and often scarcely out of his boyhood. Many a worn garment was +overhauled and repaired; many a pair of new warm socks or mittens was laid +with new underwear upon his pillow. + +Although for several weeks of the year he and his horse had made the Arnold +place a pilgrim's rest, never was a dollar paid the place for board, nor +was the circuit permitted to charge him a farthing upon his salary for that +or the presents he had received in that welcome home. + +The junior preacher seldom served the same circuit more than one year of +his apprenticeship. When he left this, his favorite home of rest, of study, +and of repairs, the parting scene brought tears from all eyes; and long did +the echo of those loving adieus ring in all ears, especially as uttered by +that matronly voice, "Do well, and farewell. God bless you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +MRS. ELIZABETH ARNOLD AS A MOTHER. + +Eight children were given to this pious couple--five sons and three +daughters. Two of the daughters were recalled between the ages of two and +four. Lovely and much loved, they were still resigned to Him who demanded +their return, and that, too, without a murmur. + +The remaining daughter and all the five sons were converted in the morning +of life and joined the Church so dear to the parents, and the two younger +sons became ministers of the same, and all the six lived to advanced age. +The writer once overheard Mrs. Arnold answer the anxious inquiries of a +young mother who had several little ones she was yearning to see early +saved: "O, sister, it is all of the Lord. But it is true that He has +wonderfully blessed our family altar, the visits of our dear ministers, and +the meetings in our house for many years. And as you are a mother, and seem +anxious to learn a mother's duty and privilege, I will frankly give you my +experience. I did not play much with, our children, nor caress them much. I +hadn't time, and I didn't wish them to be babies too long nor waste much of +their precious morning of life in play. I did not flatter nor praise them +very much. I was afraid of fostering pride. But I have instructed them in +our glorious doctrines with diligence and all the skill I could command. +But their early salvation and lifelong piety and usefulness seemed to be +laid on my heart by divine power, and the spirit of prayer for them was one +of the abiding influences of the Holy Ghost. God had plainly answered my +prayers for my brothers and sisters till they were all converted, and would +not my heavenly Father answer my prayer for my own offspring? O, sister, it +was no task for me to pray for my children. My life was in it. + +"When I fed them I prayed the Lord to give them the bread and the water of +eternal life. When I took off their garments I asked the Lord to strip them +of sin; and as I clothed them, that He would clothe them with the garments +of salvation. When I laid them down to sleep I prayed that they might be +fully prepared for the bed of death, and to sleep at last in Christian +graves. And when I took them up from their slumbers, how earnestly I prayed +that they might have part in the resurrection of the just! And, my dear +young sister, I was not content with prayers for my children, nor with our +family prayers with them; but as they grew old enough I took each one to my +own little prayer room with me, and poured out my soul for that one. And +I seldom retired to my pillow until I had "tucked up" my sleeping little +ones, given them a word of counsel, and offered a prayer for them; and +I had no trouble in getting their wakeful attention. I assure you, dear +sister, that a Christian mother's advantage just here is very great. Don't +let any hurry or weariness rob you of that hold upon the hearts of your +children." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +DOUBLE DILIGENCE. + +Mrs. Elizabeth Arnold was a very busy woman. During the forty-two years of +her mature active life she could almost be said to have accomplished double +work. Both her conscience and her nature seemed to be all alive to the +rules of our Discipline: "Never be unemployed;" "Never be triflingly +employed." Her large size, large brain, and preponderance of bilious +temperament seemed to call for much sleep and moderate motion. But her +motions were quick and efficient, and her sleep could not have averaged +over six hours in twenty-four. But eighteen hours a day could not satisfy +her longing for "the improvement of her precious time." So she managed, +when alone or not engaged in reading or conversation, to keep up what at +a little distance might be taken for mere humming, but what was really +intelligent singing, simultaneous with the most active work of her hands. +It might begin with a hymn, but would glide on beyond into her own words of +praise or prayer in impromptu music. This free, original singing was the +settled habit of her most driving business hours, and was not annoying to +others. But how those black eyes would sparkle and those florid cheeks glow +with heavenly light as her whole soul seemed absorbed in this spontaneous +singing, while the work of her hands went briskly on, leaving in speed or +finish no mark of absence of mind or false motion. + +But this was not her only method of doubling her diligence. Her experience +and wisdom brought her many inquirers after the truth, and demands upon her +conversational powers were many and imperative. Yet those busy, provident +hands, long acquainted with needles, seemed to make them fly and click in +about even race, with the mind and the tongue, "Diligence in business," +"singing with grace in the heart," and "conversation seasoned with grace" +mingled in her methods of "redeeming the time." + + + + +PART III. + +_RETIREMENT_. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +HOMES OF EARLY METHODISTS. + +From the earthly point of observation how sad is the breaking up of +Christian homes! The genuinely hospitable homes of the early Methodists +were peculiar. There were elements in their hospitality which do not quite +find their equal in our day. The old circuit system set everything in +motion. Not only were the "circuit riders" circulating everywhere, but +quarterly meetings, "two days' meetings," and even regular circuit +preaching, whether on a week day or Sunday, stirred up the people. And +as they were scattered in residence, and traveling was slow, every +comfortable, hospitable Methodist residence became not only a free stopping +place, but a house of entertainment, where both soul and body found +refreshment, and the one just as free and cordial as the other. The guest +did not embarrass the host or hostess, for nothing but plain fare was +expected; and as to spiritual refreshment, he left a blessing behind him, +and with rekindled joy went on his way rejoicing. So also it was when his +turn came to entertain. + +The homes of the early Methodists, especially in the country and in the +rural villages, were much more permanent than in this day--not rented, +but mostly owned by their occupants--and every year seemed to add to the +sacredness of these hospitable old abodes. The trees, the watering +trough, the well sweep, the plain old buildings, the very ground, seemed +consecrated to God and his cause. + +But the kind host and hostess "have finished their course" and been called +up higher. The honored old place is honorable no longer. The tenants or new +owners, or, worse still, ungodly children, have desecrated everything. The +old-time guests pass it with a sigh. The hill, the brook are there, but the +aged horse looks in vain for the welcome open gate and watering place, and, +drooping his head, walks slowly by in sadness. Ministers and church people +tread that yard no more. The very ground seems backslidden. Sabbaths have +fled. Prayers and praises are no longer echoed. That light is put out, and +"how great is that darkness!" + +The time came for Joshua and Elizabeth to yield to infirmity, and retire +from active life. The hard work of the new country told seriously upon even +strong constitutions. Some of the members of their society older, and some +even younger, than themselves had yielded and gone. + +For long, happy years they had kept up an establishment of an unusually +hospitable order for even a cordial church and a free, social age. They had +been more able, more willing, more zealous, and had more "faculty" for it. +But old age came on then earlier than now. The "threescore years" of which +they had so long sung had already gone by. Their younger sons were away +in the itinerant ministry. The old farm was too broad for their age and +infirmities, and they found the order given to Daniel, "Go thou thy way: +... for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days" (Dan. +xii, 13), appropriate to their condition, and allowed an elder son to +remove them to town, under his care, and near church. In this retirement +they enjoyed choice church privileges. Several of their old-time friends +had collected in and near the place, among whom were a few of their old +Massachusetts classmates and, above all, the aged and excellent local +preacher[1] who was praying for Miss Elizabeth Ward in Pittsfield when she +was converted, and who had for so many years lived near the family and had +preached in their house nearly or quite as much as all other ministers. He +and his venerable companion had retired there, too, with one of their sons. + +[Footnote 1: Rev. Thomas Hubbard.] + +But besides these retired neighbors, their retreat being but five miles +from their old farm and whilom cottage chapel, several of the village +residents had long been camp meeting and quarterly meeting associates. +So, with a dutiful son and near-by church, this superannuated couple, +surrounded by congenial society, surrendered their beloved public life and +sought an evening of rest, in which to ripen for heaven. + +Hardly could aged people be happier or more quiet and free from worldly +care. The storms of life were past; the crowd of business, the rush of +labor, the study of complicated lines of duty--all these have gone by like +a storm, and left a great calm. Still they find some little to do with what +little strength they can command and the limited income left them. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +JOSHUA ARNOLD. + +No life experience of Elizabeth would seem at all complete without a +chapter giving a somewhat connected view of her _companion_, near a half +century by her side, in her toils, liberality, and church work. Did she, +when driven by persecution from her father's house, take up, under stress +of calamity, an inferior associate for life? Let us see. If, as many claim, +the wisest matches are founded on contrast, this must have been _par +excellence_. For if we except their large size and mutual endowment +of sound common sense, there was very little natural similarity. In +Connecticut the farms of the Arnolds and the Wards joined, and yet they +were not intimate as families, for there was, for that day, too great +disparity in property and style. Both were moral and intelligent, but the +large Arnold family on the hill, though in comfortable circumstances, did +not train in the same "set" with the elegant establishment at the Cove. + +Of the numerous family (of almost giant size) of Ebenezer and Anna Miller +Arnold there were only two sons. Ebenezer, among the eldest, had the +ancestral name, took to a mariner's life, was a few years a sea captain, +and lies at the bottom of the ocean. Joshua was the youngest of the family, +the almost idol of his parents, and of a house full of lusty sisters, who +vied with one another which should teach him most and secure most of +his confidence. So he lived on until nearly thirty a bachelor. Such +opportunities as were afforded the common farmers' boys of New England in +the eighteenth century young Joshua diligently improved, and became a close +student, and well qualified as a teacher of common schools of his day. His +specialties were mathematics, penmanship, bookkeeping, business science +and forms, and navigation. And he continued to do more or less in this +profession until fifty years of age. He was converted among the first +fruits of Methodist labors in that part of New England. + +Then, every Methodist studied closely into her doctrines, and this young +man became qualified to state clearly, and ably defend, all that was +peculiar to that Church. The cast of his mind was logical, candid, +patient--he was never inclined to hasty conclusions. He loved to dig +deep, collect strong evidence, and wait till conclusions were sound and +inevitable. + +His brethren soon marked him for the ministry, and so advised; but, with +his great modesty and high opinions of a divine call, he was not then, and +never was, satisfied that he had such an essential individual commission. +Without a full consciousness of duty in the line of that awful +responsibility, this pious young man refused to look in that direction. He, +however, cherished a high sense of the honor involved in the confidence +of the Church, and felt impelled to lay himself out to do his best as a +private member. + +Under the ministry of such able Methodist preachers as Asbury, Jesse +Lee, and George Roberts, young Joshua had imbibed the main doctrines of +theology, and set out in earnest to "search the Scriptures," both "for +correction" if wrong, and for confirmation in the truth he had received and +experienced. Thus fairly started on the King's highway of truth, he became +profoundly interested in Bible study; and continued both the study and the +intense love of it through life. He dug in this mine more than a third of a +century without any human commentary, and found, to his great joy, that +the poet had struck it: "God is his own interpreter, and He will make it +plain." So diligently did he search for the "interpretation of Scripture by +Scripture," that he largely learned the doctrinal Scriptures by heart, +and also book, chapter, and verse; and to family and friends he was "both +concordance and commentary." + +Near the middle of his experience and biblical research Mr. Arnold was +urged, almost driven, to take license to exhort, and more publicly divulge +some of the treasures of his years of study. He had thus "improved in +public" (as exhorting was then called) but a year or two when his brethren, +finding more of the expository than hortatory in his discourses, urged that +his proper office was that of a local preacher. But to this he had two +objections: lack of a distinct call, and a settled fear that the Church was +growing too numerous a secular ministry; so he utterly refused. + +For the balance of his active life, as health and opportunity permitted, he +"preached many things to the people in his exhortations," always laying +for them a solid doctrinal foundation, and plentifully using Scripture +language, both accurately quoted and wisely applied, and book and chapter +usually given. His appointments for exhortation never lacked attendants or +interest; and when called, as he often was, to "supply the appointment" of +a circuit preacher, the substitute was not met with wry faces nor spoken of +in frowns. Yet his highest apparent successes in speaking, if estimated by +the excitement, were his brief speeches in love feast, not boisterous, but +invariably stirring the deep of the heart of the meeting. + +Joshua Arnold's singing was no way superior in kind and had no marked +defect, unless it was that time sometimes yielded to sentiment. But the +amount of psalm singing done in a half century by this peaceful man was +certainly marvelous. The leading of most of the hymns in the social +meetings was a very small proportion of it. Whenever he found a psalm, +a hymn, or a chorus that struck a chord in his devout heart he laid it +carefully away in his retentive memory, and it was instantly called up when +he wanted to sing it. + +But what was most noteworthy in his singing was that his happy heart, and +soft, sweet voice, and abundant store of pious psalmody kept him singing +wherever and whenever he could with propriety. + +Mr. Arnold was the opposite of a business sharper. He was a moderate, +patient toiler, but traded no more than he was obliged to, and always with +frank, honest words, and very few words. He hated extortion, avoided debt, +and threw nothing away in interest or in lawsuits, and was both careful and +skillful in maintaining a good influence. Like his wife, he was economical +and liberal; and the Christian liberality of their home knew no bounds but +the limit of their means; nor was that limit dreaded, nor often, if ever, +found, when it embarrassed the case on hand. + +As Joshua Arnold was no ordinary man, so his _personnel_ was rather +peculiar: nearly six feet in height; large, but not fat; wore a shoe of +size number twelve, and hat size seven and a half. His eye was blue, large, +and mild; forehead broad and high; nose long and straight; lips long and +thin; mouth and chin small and delicate; hair brown, fine, straight, and +complexion florid. His motions were moderate, and temper very steady and +mild. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +SEPARATION. + +But this aged couple were to share their joys and sorrows in their +retirement but a few years. Joshua was the first called away. He died in +his seventy-seventh year, in peace with God and all men. Just before +his speech failed one of his sons inquired how long he had been in the +Methodist Episcopal Church. His answer came slowly but firmly: "Fifty-two +years ago I said to this people, 'Whither thou goest, I will go; and where +thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my +God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.' + + 'The word hath passed my lips, and I + Shall with thy people live and die.'" + +And the good man had the desire of his heart. + +Elizabeth was now a widow, and had nearly reached her "threescore and ten +years." She was not much bent with age, though "compassed with infirmity." +She still found some little to do among the sick, the poor, and the +perishing, and was not gloomy or desponding in her loneliness. She wrote +much to her scattered children, who were too distant to be seen often, and +her letters breathed the spirit of heaven. + +When possible to attend the preaching of the word she was "not a forgetful +hearer," but kept up her old method of prayerful abstraction. She had +during her whole religious life followed it. She would early enter the +meeting as if she saw no one and go solemnly to her seat, and either kneel +or cover her face for a time, and thence on until the voice of the opening +service aroused her would be absorbed in devotion. As long as able to +attend, her voice was heard in prayer and class meetings; and many came to +her room for counsel and help in their experience. + +It was marvelous to see what a change retirement and its quiet had wrought +in the spirit and manner of this woman. The drive and hum of busy life were +over; a heavenly calm had ensued--solemn, serene, peaceful--no agony of +prayer, no ecstasy of spirit, no shouts of transport, no fiery trials. Her +infirmities accumulate, but still she rejoices in sacred, hallowed peace. +She becomes a cripple, almost confined to her bed, and continues so for +years; but her mind retains its strength and serenity, and her whole heart +rejoices in God, her immovable Rock. + +The last decade or more of her life was marked as a continual feast upon +the holy word of God. She learned what her blessed Saviour meant when he +quoted and sanctioned that Scripture, "Man shall not live by bread alone, +but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," and also, his +promise that the Holy Comforter should quote to the faithful such passages +of the word they had studied as their circumstances might require. + +So every day, and usually oftener, the Lord would give her a "passage to +feed upon," "day by day her daily bread." On the last day that she could +speak her pastor's wife inquired after her "passage for that day," and she +instantly quoted Josh. i. 5, and Heb. xiii, 5, "I will never leave thee, +nor forsake thee." + +Just before her speech failed her she called to her a daughter-in-law and +gave her a minute account of her graveclothes, which had been ready for +several years, and she found everything as she had described them. Thus, as +"a shock of corn fully ripe," she was at length gathered home. She died in +Fulton, Oswego County, N. Y., in August, 1865, in the eighty-eighth year +of her age, and in the seventieth year of her religious experience, and +is buried by the side of her husband in Mount Adna Cemetery, where they +together await the resurrection of the just. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +CONCLUSION. + +The "disinherited" Elizabeth was never restored to her rights and heirship +as a daughter. As old age came upon that rigid father he partially relented +and doled out a few hundreds to her where his other children had their +thousands. + +He even sent to Massachusetts for her to visit him on his deathbed and +counsel him concerning salvation, and pray with him; and he indulged some +hope under her prayers; but he made no confession of his wrongs to her, nor +amends for his injustice. + +Her two brothers and three sisters all credited their religious experience +to God's blessing upon Elizabeth's prayers, counsels, and life; but only +one of them ever undertook to restore what the father had taken from +Elizabeth's right and given to her, and she did not do it until she was +about to die without issue. With one voice they freely condemned her +disinheritance and the persecutions she had had to suffer. But when, their +souls being "ill at ease" under the remembrance of her wrongs, they spoke +to her on the subject (for she would not introduce it), they would simply +repeat, "Father so willed it, and you know, dear sister, that no one could +ever turn him." + +All became church members, and so lived and died, but all in Calvinian +communions; while all of Elizabeth's children became Methodists, and two of +her sons, as we have seen, itinerant ministers. She and her pious husband, +as before stated, were industrious, economical, and liberal, and Agar's +prayer, "Give me neither poverty nor riches," was their prayer, and with +its answer they walked happily and usefully through life, "serving their +generation by the will of God," and passing in peace to their reward. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Elizabeth: The Disinherited Daugheter +by E. 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