In the brush

by Hamilton W. Pierson

CHAPTER XVI.

WORK ACCOMPLISHED IN THE SOUTHWEST.

I do not propose to give anything like a full account or even a summary of the work accomplished in my special mission by all these long rides and years of earnest and cheerful labor in the Brush. That has not been my object. It has been rather to describe the manner of performing these labors, the incidents connected with them, and to portray the character, manners, customs, and peculiarities of the people who received me so cordially, and with whom I mingled so freely in their rude homes. But I should fail to give a full and true idea of their social and moral condition, especially as indicated by their want of education, and their destitution of Bibles, if I did not give some of the results of these labors. I have described the manner in which I explored different counties, organized or reorganized Bible societies, and secured the appointment of distributors to canvass them.

One of these men, Mr. Guier, a well-known citizen of the county, visited five hundred and fifty-eight families, of whom one hundred and sixty—more than one fourth—were destitute of the Bible. They contained four hundred and thirty-five persons. In sixty-four of them either the husband or wife, or both (according to their own statements), were members of some Protestant church. Sixty-two Bibles and ninety Testaments were sold, amounting to one hundred and fourteen dollars and eighty-five cents; and thirty-three Bibles and six Testaments were given away, amounting to ten dollars and forty cents. Mr. Guier communicated to me the following facts in connection with his labors:

"I visited a man at his house, and asked him if he had a Bible. He said no. I told him he ought to have one. He said he was not able to buy. I told him that I could sell so cheap that any man could buy. He said he had not paid for his land yet, and he had no time to read. I then took up my saddle-bags to go, and offered him a Bible as a gift. He said: 'Stop, sir; I will pay you for it. I would not have my neighbor to know that you gave me a Bible.'

"I found a poor widow at work in her garden, who told me she had no Bible, and no money to buy one with. She was a church-member, and very anxious to have a Bible, but she was not willing to receive one as a gift. She said she had a kind neighbor, who would always lend her money when he had it; but her little son was some distance from home, at a blacksmith-shop, and she could not send for the money. As she was so anxious to get a Bible, I found her son, and went with him to see the neighbor, who loaned her one dollar and twenty-five cents to get the Bible she wanted. May God bless it to her!

"I was one day taken so sick that I had to stop by the side of the road a half-hour or more. I then rode on to a cabin, and told the lady I was very unwell, and asked if she could let me have a bed to lie upon. She seemed alarmed, and said she would have no objection if her husband was at home. I told her I was very ill and could not ride, and that I was distributing Bibles. She at once told me to get down and come in, and she nursed me with the greatest care and attention until her husband came. On his arrival I explained to him why I was there; and he said they would take the best care of me they could, which they did until the next morning. They told me they had no Bible and no money. I offered to pay them for keeping me, but they would receive no pay. I then gave them a Bible, which they received very thankfully. The lady was a church-member, and I have heard that her husband has since been converted and united with the church.

"I asked a man in a field if he had a Bible. He said he did not know, but his wife could tell. I went to the house, and she told me they had no Bible, but she was very anxious to get one. Her husband came in, and I told him his wife had no Bible, and he ought to get her one. He said he would like to have a Bible, as the leaves would make good wadding for his gun; and made a good many other remarks of the same nature in regard to the Bible. His wife sat and wept all the time, and, as I thought it useless to talk with him longer, I prepared to leave, and she handed me the Bible she had been looking at. I told her to keep it. She said she could not—she had no money. I told her that made no difference; the Bible Society would give it to her. She was greatly rejoiced at receiving the unexpected gift.

"I found an old sailor who was plowing for a neighbor to get corn for his family, who told me he had no Bible. He had been a member of the church about two years, and seemed to be very religious. He was very glad to see my Bibles, but said he could not buy one. He had no money, lived on rented land, and could with difficulty support his family. I told him that, if he was too poor to buy, he was not too poor to read, and that the Bible Society enabled me to give him a Bible. He received it with astonishment and joy, and praised God aloud that he had lived to see the day when the poor were supplied with the Bible without money and without price. I left him in the field, shouting aloud his praises to God that he now had the blessed Bible to read.

"I saw a man about sixty years old, who had raised a large family and was now living with his third wife, standing by his field and looking at a lot of fine colts. I asked him if he had a Bible. He said, No; he had no use for a Bible. I then asked him if he had ever had a Bible in his family. He said, No; he had no use for a Bible. After doing my best to sell him a Bible, I told him the Bible Society made it my duty to offer him one as a gift. But he refused to receive it. I was told by one of his neighbors that he did not think he had been at church for years.

"The country I have visited is exceedingly rough and broken. It has been very hard work to climb all the hills and knobs, and hunt up all the people scattered over them, and up and down the valleys. But I have endeavored to explore it faithfully, and leave no family unvisited, and without the offer of a Bible. I have been in a good many families and neighborhoods that had never before been visited by a Bible distributor. I was born in this county, and when solicited to undertake this work I thought it was entirely unnecessary. I had no idea that twenty families could be found in the county without a Bible. And now, before the work is half completed, the exploration reveals such facts as these."

In the thorough exploration and supply of another county, Father J.G. Kasey, the venerable Bible distributor, visited six hundred and fifty-five families, of whom one hundred and twenty-seven—nearly one fifth—were destitute of the Bible. Eight of the families supplied were entirely without education; and six families refused to receive the Bible as a gift. He sold in the county one hundred and forty-one Bibles and Testaments, amounting to sixty-three dollars and ninety-one cents; and gave away eighty-one Bibles and Testaments, amounting to twenty dollars and seventy-five cents. Father Kasey's labors were eminently of a missionary character. He sat down with the people at their fire-sides, exhorted Christians to greater fidelity and zeal in their Master's service, kindly warned and urged sinners to flee to Christ for salvation, and then, bowing with them in prayer, humbly and earnestly besought God's blessing upon them. What enterprise is more Christian, or what work more blessed, than the distribution of the Word of God, accompanied with such labors? He said:

"I have cause to rejoice for the success I have met with in supplying the people with the Holy Bible, and imparting religious instruction. I have been able to have religious conversation and prayer with almost every family I have visited, and from all I could learn I was induced to believe that it made a good impression on the most of them. I found a comfortable home one night with a kind old brother, of the Episcopal Church. After supper we sat in the parlor, and he went on to speak of his efforts to train up his children in the fear of the Lord; but none of them were yet Christians. He had become discouraged, and seemed almost to give them up. I advised him to continue his prayer and efforts, believing that God would bring them in—if not in his day, when he was gone. Some of his children were present, and my conversation and prayer seemed to make a good impression upon the family. Some time afterward several of his children were converted and united with the church.

"In my travels I called at a house where they had no Bible or Testament, but gladly received one as a gift. After conversation and prayer, I exhorted the woman to seek the Lord. She wept very bitterly as I addressed her, and said she intended to do so. She was as deeply affected as any person I ever saw, and as I bade her good-by she held me by the hand several minutes, refusing to let me go. She said she had not been in the habit of attending church, but she would do so from that time. I pointed her to the Lamb of God, and she promised to seek religion with all her heart. She said I must attend a meeting that had been appointed to be held in the neighborhood. I did so, and found her happy in the love of God, and she has since united with the Church of Christ. I afterward saw her husband, who was a very wicked man. He seemed deeply affected, and promised to seek religion; and I trust he, too, may be converted.

"I called upon another family, where the man had previously had a Bible, but had burned it. Afterward he became convicted, and was anxious for another. I sold him a Bible, exhorted him to become a Christian, and trust he will be a better man.

"I found another man who had lived to a good old age, and had twenty children now living, three having gone to the eternal world. The family was destitute of any portion of the Bible. I gave him the Word of God, exhorted him to seek the Lord, prayed with him, hoping that the good Lord would save him and his large family, as they were all irreligious. He received my visit thankfully.

"I rode up to a very poor cabin, in a hollow, and found a woman plowing with one horse. Several little children, very ragged, were playing near her. I asked her if she had a Bible. She said she had not—she was very poor; her husband was dead, and she had several children, none of whom were large enough to help her, and she was trying to raise something for them to eat. I asked her if she did not want a Bible. She said, 'Oh, yes, very much, but I am too poor to buy one.' I told her it was my business to seek out the poor and the destitute, and supply them with the Bible. I then gave her one, which she received with a great deal of thankfulness. I told her the Lord had promised to be a God to the widow and the fatherless, and exhorted her to put her trust in him. As I rode away, she followed me with her thanks, and her prayers that the Lord would bless me.

"There were many other interesting circumstances, that made a lasting impression upon my mind. The good accomplished by the Lord, through his humble servant, by this distribution of the Word of God, will not be known in this world. My heart is in this work, for I know I am engaged in a good work."

I gave her a Bible, and as I rode away she followed me with her thanks and her prayers.

Mr. Lutes was commissioned to undertake the re-exploration and supply of a county where I had reorganized a society that had been inactive for many years. During the first three months of his labor he visited six hundred and thirty-three families, of whom one hundred and twenty-eight—more than one fifth—were destitute of the Bible. He sold two hundred and twenty-eight Bibles and Testaments, amounting to one hundred and seventeen dollars and six cents, and gave away forty-five, amounting to ten dollars and forty-nine cents. In speaking of his great amazement at finding so many families destitute of the Bible, he said:

"Experience has taught me that a poor and very incorrect estimate will be made in regard to this matter while we remain at home—while we look upon our Bibles and say: 'How cheap such books are! Surely everybody must have them.' I have found, to my great surprise, fifteen families in which either the husband or wife, or both, were members of some Protestant church, and had no Bible. I visited three destitute families in succession: the first, a poor widow; the second, husband and wife, both members of the church; the third wanted spiritual-rapping books, but was finally persuaded to buy a Bible. I gave a poor man a Bible, and next Sabbath he and his wife were both at church, a very uncommon sight. I visited a school-teacher, a liberally educated Irishman, but very poor. He said he had neither Bible nor Testament, and that he should like a large Testament in his family. He cheerfully paid me for one. I visited a poor widow, a church-member, who had been a housekeeper many years, had children married and removed to a distant State; but she had no Bible. Poor creature! I gave her one, and she wished me to fill out the family record for her; but she had neglected the matter so long that she had lost all trace of the date of births, marriages, and deaths. In the next family the husband seemed indifferent about the book, but the wife wanted it, which I readily discovered. 'I'm poor,' said he; and his wife said, 'He was unable to work during the summer.' 'I have Bibles for thirty cents.' 'Well, I haven't money enough to pay for one.' 'You can have it at your own price.' 'I don't like to take a book that way.' 'It makes no difference; I am authorized to make this offer to you: you can have it for ten or fifteen cents.' 'Certainly; I'd give ten cents for a Bible any time.' This saved his pride. He has been greatly pleased with his Bible, and whenever I pass his house he comes out and asks me questions relative to my success, and gives me directions how to pass over the country, as if he were one of the 'Executive Committee.' I sold a Bible to an Irish toll-gate-keeper. I had been on the pike about a mile, and asked him the toll. 'Nothing, sir; are you a doctor?' 'No, sir, I am a bookseller. Do you wish to buy?' 'I reckon not; I work six days on the road, and on Sundays I read a newspaper.' 'Have you a Bible?' 'No, sir.' 'Wouldn't you like to have one?' 'I believe I would, but I have no money.' 'It makes no difference; if you have no Bible and want one, I'll leave it.' 'I don't like to take it in that way.' 'No difference; if you'll read it carefully, we shall be well paid.' 'Why,' said he, when I told him the price was twenty-five cents, 'in Ireland the binding would be more than that; and I'll pay you the first time you pass this gate.' I went down a creek nearly a mile to see a family, and came back. When some three hundred yards from the toll-gate, I saw the keeper sitting upon the ground, leaning against the house, perfectly absorbed in reading his Bible. He has since paid me for it, and he and his wife are greatly pleased with it. Staid all night with a poor family; wife a church-member, and no Bible; husband careless, but wife anxious to have one. In the morning I took a thirty-cent Bible from my saddle-bags and commenced filling out the family record. Said he: 'I don't want you to give me that book. I don't charge you for staying all night.' 'I find you destitute, and wish you to have a Bible.' He stood for some time, then went to a drawer, and, finding a quarter, gave it to me, saying it was all he had, and kindly invited me to call again.

"One day I visited twenty-one families, eleven of whom were destitute of the Bible. Another day I visited twenty families, and found ten destitute of the Bible. During the spring I left a box of books at the house of a magistrate, as a depositary, while I visited the neighborhood. Said he, 'Do you think you will find anybody here without a Bible?' 'I don't know, sir.' 'Some two years since,' said he, 'I looked around and could not find but one man destitute, and him I supplied.'

"I commenced my labors, and found his partner in a mill destitute; then one of his hands, having a family; then an old neighbor, who was a church-member. The squire gave it up, and said it was necessary to have colporteurs.

"In some of these destitute neighborhoods they told me that no person had ever visited them before with Bibles and Testaments. They occupied a very broken country; their houses were cabins scattered over the hills and up narrow valleys, with very small patches of ground fenced in around them, generally with no bars, and always with no gates. I traveled among them, following the rocky beds of the streams, and frequently led my horse up and down the steep hills, and pulled down fences, till at night I was so tired I could scarcely walk. I have had many discouragements, many taunts and sneers to bear from those who had not the love of God shed abroad in their hearts; but then I have had the smiles, the assistance, and the warm coöperation of Christians to hold up my feeble hands, and cheer up my desponding heart. I have found such families with six, eight, and ten Bibles in a single house; I have found many who have thrown open their doors and bid me welcome to the hospitality of their homes, who, by their kind words and their questions respecting my work, caused me to forget the sneers and taunts of others, and made me adore the Almighty for the success with which he crowned the labors of his servants employed in his vineyard. May the Lord inspire the minds of Christians with greater zeal for the dissemination of his Word!"

In another county Mr. Temple visited seven hundred and three families, of whom eighty-three were destitute of the Bible. His sales of Bibles and Testaments amounted to ninety dollars and forty cents, and his donations to the destitute to forty-three dollars and twenty-five cents. The exploration of the county revealed a much greater amount of poverty and destitution of the Word of God than he had expected to find. The following are some of the incidents connected with his labors:

"A poor widow with five children had no Bible, but she had a small Testament, which she got her children to read to her, as it was difficult for her to read such small print. She had long been anxious to get a Bible, and was delighted when I told her I had Bibles for sale, but she feared she had not money enough to get one. She was greatly pleased with the large Testament and Psalms, as she could read the print. She gathered together all the money she and her children had, and made up twenty-five cents, for which I gave her the Testament and Psalms. In another neighborhood I was told by a good many persons of a poor widow that had no Bible, who was very anxious to get one. Her Bible had been wet and ruined in moving from North Carolina, and she had been several years without one. She had been saving money from the sale of eggs and chickens to get enough to buy a Bible. When I reached the place, I found a poor cabin in an old field, and everything indicating great poverty. A chair was standing in the door, which was open, but there was no one at home. I wrote in a Bible, 'Presented by the Bible Society,' and left it in the chair, and rode on.

"I heard of one old man who had nine grown children, and had never had a Bible or Testament in his family. I was told that he was a skeptic and very profane, and that I had better not visit him, as he would treat me roughly. I found him plowing, and talked with him a long time about farming, and at length about our dependence upon God for crops, and finally told him I was selling Bibles. He invited me to dine with him, and I went to his house and sold him a family Bible, and also sold Bibles to a married son and daughter. The old man did not use a profane word during my visit, and I was never treated better by any man. He thanked me for my visit, and begged me to call on him whenever I passed that way.

"I visited a house and found no one at home. As the family was evidently very poor, and I had learned that they had no Bible, I wrote on one, 'Presented by the Bible Society,' and left it between the logs, near the door, where they would be sure to find it when they came home. I rode on about two miles, and called at another house. As soon as I showed my Bibles, one of the women said she was sorry she was not at home, as she had no Bible and had long been anxious to get one. She thought she had money enough to get a thirty-cent Bible, and if I would go back with her she would buy one if she could. I then told her I had left a Bible for her, and where she would find it, and she thanked me very warmly for the gift.

"I visited another family that had no Bible, and sold them one. As the children were looking at my books, I heard a little girl, about ten years old, say that she wished she had money enough to buy one of these Bibles; that her mother, when she talked with her before she died, had told her she must get a Bible as soon as she could, and read it, and be a good girl, and meet her in heaven. I inquired her history, and learned that she was an orphan. I then gave her a Bible, and she commenced reading it. Dinner was soon ready, but she could not be induced to stop reading long enough to eat, and when I left the house she was still reading her new Bible."

Father Eggen, a veteran Bible distributor, said: "One man told me he had a neighbor who was very poor, who had no Bible, and I gave him one to send to him. I afterward called on this family, not knowing it was the same. The house was without floor or loft, and was inclosed by nailing rough boards upon posts that were driven into the ground. It had a stick-and-mud chimney on the outside, and was without floor of any kind, the family living on the ground. The man followed making split-bottomed chairs, and was very poor indeed, but he insisted upon paying for the Bible that had been sent to him, and did so.

"In one neighborhood where there was a small supply of Bibles and Testaments at a store, the man who had them, a professing Christian, insisted that there was no necessity for employing a distributor to go around; said that, if people wanted Bibles, they could easily come to the store and get them. I, however, went through this neighborhood, and found in one day fifteen families without a Bible. Some of them were very large families, and had been destitute for many years."

It is now (August 1, 1881) more than twenty-three years since I resigned my commission as an agent of the American Bible Society. During the last week I have visited the Bible House, examined their well-preserved files of letters, and read the correspondence between Secretary McNeill and myself during the last months of my connection with the Society. Some extracts from these letters will appropriately close this brief review of "work accomplished in the Southwest."

Louisville, Kentucky, April 2, 1858.
Rev. James H. Mcneill, Secretary of the American Bible Society,
New York.

My dear Brother: Herewith you have my annual report.... My duties the last year, as well as all the other years of my agency, have involved a great deal of labor and self-denial. The field assigned to my supervision is very large, and, in order to accomplish thoroughly the great work of "home supply," it has been necessary for me to visit every county on horseback. I have thus ridden many thousands of miles, exposed to all the extremes of heat and cold, traveling over the roughest of roads, fording rivers, penetrating the wildest regions, eating the coarsest food, and sleeping in the worst of beds. But I have everywhere received a cordial welcome, and I wish here to record my testimony that such service in such a cause is a blessed service. I weep tears of gratitude that God has permitted me thus to labor for the dissemination of his Word. And now that his Spirit is being poured out so copiously all over our land,[5] I rejoice exceedingly that I have been permitted to coöperate with others in sowing so much "good seed" against these times of refreshing from on high. I pray that all the seed thus sown may bear abundant fruit.

Yours cordially,
H.W. Pierson.

Louisville, Kentucky, May 28, 1858.
Rev. James H. McNeill, Secretary of the American Bible Society.

My dear Brother: I reached the city on my return from the western part of the State on Wednesday morning, after an absence of more than six weeks. The tour was one of the most successful and gratifying I have ever made. I find here letters and papers that have been accumulating during my absence, and have been exceedingly busy in posting myself up, and getting square with the world. All your anniversary excitements have come off while I was in the Brush, and I have been trying to find out where you have left the world. I have read the "Christian Intelligencer's" full report of the meeting of the American Tract Society. I should have been delighted to be an eye-witness of the fight.[6] On my last tour I learned that, of nine hundred and twenty-five families visited in G—— County, one hundred and sixty had no part of the Word of God in their houses—not a leaf or a letter! Oh, it is a burning shame to American Christianity, and especially to the American Bible Society, that such facts as these can be reported in the forty-third year of its history! But I am speaking warmly, nevertheless truly.

I leave the city to-day, and expect to spend the Sabbath at Paducah, Kentucky, and go on to Princeton early in the week. I have been unanimously elected President and Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Cumberland College, at Princeton, Kentucky, and the terms are so very liberal, and the people are so very earnest to have me accept the appointment, that I am going down to see them and give them my answer. The probabilities are, that I shall accept, and send you my resignation, to take effect as soon as I can close up the work in several counties where it is nearly completed. I will thank you not to make this matter public until I resign formally. I write now in order to have you take steps in regard to my successor. I feel a good deal of solicitude to have one appointed who will carry on the work as I have been prosecuting it. I think there will be a general solicitude on the subject over the field. I have, therefore, kept this college matter a secret here, in order than you might have more time for considering the subject before my resignation is known to the public. I will cheerfully render any advice or aid in my power in the matter.

Yours ut semper, H.W. Pierson,
Agent of the American Bible Society.

Bible House, Astor Place, New York, June 28, 1858.
Rev. H.W. Pierson.

My dear Brother: ... But what shall I say of the announcement of your purpose to leave this good work? Only that I regret it most deeply. I stated to the Agency Committee your intention and its reasons. Of course, they could not oppose your wishes, and directed me to inquire for your successor. I am anxious to find a man who will carry on the work as you have been doing. Can you name any one? Do so if you know the man. But I trust you have ere this reconsidered the matter, and will withhold your resignation. In my opinion, your present position is one of far more usefulness than the presidency of Cumberland College, if that were the greatest college in the land. Let me hear from you soon.

Cordially yours, James H. McNeill,
Corresponding Secretary of the American Bible Society.

Louisville, Kentucky, July 9, 1858.
Rev. James H. McNeill, Secretary of the American Bible Society,
New York.

My dear Brother: Since my last report I have completed my annual exploration of the seven counties lying west of the Tennessee River, and known as "Jackson's Purchase"—from the fact that General Jackson was the agent of the United States Government in buying it from the Indians. I have been greatly delighted at what I have learned, in all these counties, of the progress that has been made in the good work of Bible distribution during the past year. A little more than a year ago I organized the Paducah and Vicinity Bible Society, including McCracken, Marshall, Calloway, and Graves Counties. I immediately visited and preached in all those counties, secured colporteurs sent them Bibles, and made full arrangements to have them thoroughly explored and supplied. I have already ordered more than fifteen hundred dollars' worth of books for this Society, and the good work has progressed most encouragingly. One of the distributors reports: "I have been laboring in one part of the most destitute portion of the county. The part of which I speak is a slope in the northeast corner of the county, embracing, perhaps, a hundred families. In this whole slope there can scarcely be said to be any church. Most of the people are uneducated, there having been no schools. I one day visited seventeen families, nine of whom had no Bible, and several of whom had no book of any kind in their houses."

It is impossible to give to any one who has not a personal knowledge of the country thus visited any adequate conception of the good accomplished by these labors. Less than half the county has been explored, but I have made arrangements with Father Gregory, the distributor, to continue the work until every family has been visited and all the destitute supplied.

After completing my work in these counties I went to Columbus, Kentucky. Here I found a very noble work had been accomplished. I have ordered for them during the year more than seven hundred dollars' worth of Bibles. I next visited Hickman, Fulton County. The society that I organized there last year has not been able to secure a colporteur, but hope soon to make arrangements to have their county supplied. I have already ordered about twenty-five hundred dollars' worth of Bibles for the "Purchase," and more than one thousand dollars' worth more will be needed to complete the work that is in such successful progress. The friends of the cause in all these counties are astonished and delighted at what has been accomplished already, and the bright prospects for the future. Laus Deo.

Your brother in Christ, H.W. Pierson,
Agent of the American Bible Society.

Bible House, Astor Place, New York, July 15, 1858.
Rev. H.W. Pierson.

My dear Brother: I have just received yours of the 9th instant, giving an account of your visit to the seven counties lying west of the Tennessee River, and known as "Jackson's Purchase," where you have the satisfaction of observing decided and gratifying progress in the good work of Bible distribution during the past year. In reading your report of what has been accomplished, I was almost as much "delighted" as you could have been in seeing with your own eyes the progress of the good work.

And, now, can you reconcile it to your own heart and conscience to abandon such a field and such a work? I confess I do not see how you can, and I hope to receive very soon your ultimate decision declining the call to the college at Princeton. Did you receive my last at Louisville? Since writing it I have had a letter from our friend Rev. W.F. Talbot, of Columbus, Kentucky, protesting against your being allowed to leave the Bible work, and urging us to do all in our power to retain you. I answered him that I hoped you would not be tempted to leave us by any considerations other than those of clear and imperative duty; and, as your own mind had not been fully made up when you last wrote, I thought it most likely that you would continue in the Agency.

Now, let me again, in behalf of our committee, in behalf of the great work now in progress in that field, and in behalf of the future interests of the Bible cause there, protest against your desertion! Think of the many friends whom you have gained for yourself personally, while you were securing their affections and coöperation for the Bible Society, who will be in great danger of falling back into their former indifference and inactivity, should they lose your active support. In fact, I do not see how we can let you go! If you do go, it will be in the face of our remonstrances, and those of every friend of the cause in your field. Please let us hear from you at your earliest convenience.

Cordially yours,
James H. McNeill,
Corresponding Secretary of the American Bible Society.

Notwithstanding the earnestness of these entreaties, I felt compelled to retire from this work. No one could appreciate its importance more highly than, from my personal knowledge of its needs, I did. But for more than ten years since my graduation from the theological seminary, I had been constantly "on the wing." As stated in my opening chapter, I had spent five years as an invalid wanderer. I had roamed over the Southern States nearly a year, had made two visits to the Island of Hayti, and spent a second winter in the South. I had then entered upon these itinerant labors, in which I had spent nearly five years more. I was not weary of the work, but I wanted change; I sighed for rest and an opportunity to study—to commune again with my beloved books that had remained unopened during all these years. In addition to these personal desires, my labors had revealed the imperative demand for the liberal education of as many as possible of the young men in the wide region I had so thoroughly explored; and a large number of my "many friends" had signified to me their strong desire to place their sons in the college should I accept the appointment. I therefore wrote my resignation, as follows:

Louisville, Kentucky, July 12, 1858.
Rev. James H. McNeill, Secretary of the American Bible Society,
New York.

My dear Brother: I have already informed you that I had been elected President and Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Cumberland College, Princeton, Kentucky.

After mature and prayerful consideration of the whole subject, I have decided to accept the appointment; and I therefore resign my commission as Agent of the American Bible Society for Western Kentucky.

It is not without deep emotion that I thus sunder my official connection with this noble institution. For nearly five years I have labored to promote its interests, and during this entire period all my correspondence and intercourse with its different officers has been of the most pleasant character. I can not recall a single word or act that has marred the harmony of our relations.

The field assigned me is very large—with meager facilities for traveling—and on this account my duties have been very laborious. I have again and again ridden on horseback over all the counties southward from this city to the Tennessee line, and westward to the Mississippi River. I have preached repeatedly in all of them, solicited donations, secured colporteurs, ordered Bibles for them, and made full arrangements to have all the families visited, and every destitute household supplied with the inestimable Word by sale or gift. I have thus ridden thousands of miles over the roughest roads, exposed to every variety of weather.

But, though laborious and self-denying, I have found this a blessed service—rich in physical as well as spiritual rewards. Commencing with lungs diseased, and a body enfeebled by years of ill health, I have rejoiced in an almost constant sense of returning strength and vigor, up to the present moment—until now there are few that can endure more physical toil than I can.

My numerous reports have furnished abundant yet very inadequate evidences of the rich spiritual rewards that have crowned these efforts to scatter the "good seed" of the Word. Again and again the sower and the reaper have rejoiced together. Hundreds and thousands of families, that were living without the sacred volume, are now rejoicing in its blessed light; and other multitudes that are still destitute will soon receive the heavenly boon. And God's blessing will surely attend his own Word. "For as the snow cometh down, and the rain from heaven," etc., etc.

Be assured, my dear brother, I shall ever cherish a profound and lively interest in the operations of the American Bible Society. Though Providence seems to call me to another sphere of duty, I shall ever rejoice to do all in my power to promote its interests. I shall ever cherish the most pleasant recollections of my connection with it, and especially of my correspondence and associations with you.

Praying that God may richly bless you, and all its officers, agents, and friends, I remain

Yours in the best of bonds,
H.W. Pierson.

In the following October I mounted my horse at Princeton, Kentucky, and rode to Hopkinsville to attend the Louisville Annual Conference, as I had regularly done so many years before. In a copy of the "Hopkinsville Mercury," October 20, 1858, now before me, I find the following notice of my address, and the action of the Conference upon that occasion:

The Rev. H.W. Pierson, of the Presbyterian Church, having labored for a number of years, with eminent success in this State, as an agent of the American Bible Society, appeared in Conference on Tuesday morning and announced that he had resigned the office in the discharge of which he had made the acquaintance of nearly all the Methodist ministers in Kentucky, as well as those of other churches. His remarks, in which he expressed the deep regret and pain with which he took this step, were very appropriate, simple, and touching, and were responded to in very handsome terms by Bishop Kavenaugh, and other members of the Conference. The following resolution was then unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That we express our high appreciation of the faithfulness and efficiency of Rev. H.W. Pierson, A.M., as agent of the American Bible Society in Western Kentucky; that we most cordially reciprocate the feelings of brotherly love which he has this day expressed, and that we fervently pray the blessings of the great Head of the Church upon him, wherever his lot, in the providence of God, may be cast.

A. Brown,
Thomas Bottomly,
R. Dearing.

Cumberland College, Princeton, Kentucky, October 12, 1858.
Rev. James H. McNeill, Secretary of the American Bible Society,
New York.

My dear Brother: ... I have had a very pleasant time at Conference. The "Bible Committee" presented a most flattering resolution in regard to my agency labors. I made the Conference a valedictory address, and the Bishop and others responded to it in the kindest manner. Another resolution, commending my labors, etc., was then offered, and the members were requested to vote upon it by rising, when the whole Conference arose to their feet. I could but be deeply moved by their expressions of kindness, and many tears were shed by them. I confess I am amazed and astounded at the kind words I have received on every hand. I had no idea that my labors had made such an impression upon the public mind. To God be all the praise!

Yours, as ever,
H.W. Pierson.

CONCLUSION OF BIBLE WORK.

To see what I have seen, and to know what I have known, of the good accomplished by my labors, have been abundant compensation for all my travels and for all my toils; and I await, with bright and happy anticipations, the fuller revelations and rewards of a blissful eternity.

LABORS FOR THE COLLEGE.

I entered upon my duties as President of Cumberland College, at Princeton, Kentucky, the second Monday in September, 1858. Of the commencement of my labors there I wrote as follows:

Cumberland College, Princeton, Kentucky, October 12, 1858.
Rev. James H. McNeill, Secretary of the American Bible Society,
New York.

My dear Brother: I have been very anxious to write you ever since I reached here, but have been so very busy that I could not get the time. I have had a great deal to do here in the commencement of my duties, and then I have been absent every Sabbath, and a portion of each week, attending presbyteries, synods, etc., to promote the interests of the college. Its friends are very sanguine in regard to its prospects. They think they have not been as good for many years. All the religious bodies that I have visited, the newspapers, and the public at large, seem interested in my success, and are doing all that they can for the college. I hope that I may do a great deal of good in this work.

Yours as ever,
H.W. Pierson.

My labors here until 1861 were not less exhausting than they had been since I entered upon my Bible work in 1853. In addition to my duties in the college, I traveled extensively, "electioneering" for students, as was the custom in that region. Their numbers increased to such an extent that we needed an additional building. I appealed to the people of the village and the county, and they responded most nobly by subscribing twenty thousand dollars, and erecting a college edifice, with a large assembly hall, library, recitation and all other needed rooms. I had the pleasure of taking my esteemed friend, the Right Rev. B.B. Smith, D.D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Kentucky, through the building, on one of his annual parochial visits to the village, and he pronounced it the most perfect and beautiful specimen of architecture in the State.

The attack on Fort Sumter, and the events that followed it, compelled the suspension of this, as they did of nearly or quite every other college in the Southwest and South, and terminated my labors there. Wishing to engage in similar educational work elsewhere, I asked for testimonials from a few of my friends, including Bishop Smith. He kindly gave the following, with which, as I at that time terminated my labors in the State, I will close this very personal volume, descriptive of my always pleasantly and gratefully remembered life and labors in the Southwest:

Louisville, Kentucky, September 19, 1861.

... I first knew Dr. Pierson (then Mr. Pierson) when acting as Bible agent in the waste places of Kentucky, and our hearts were strongly drawn toward each other in consequence of our having been "companions in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ"—I having labored and suffered in behalf of the same class of persons as Superintendent of Public Instruction, traveling for the greater part of two years over the roughest portions of Kentucky. To elevate our fellow-creatures so that they can read the Bible for themselves, and then to give to all such a Bible in their own tongues, is a noble work, and great suffering may well be cheerfully endured in the prosecution of it.

His exertions in behalf of the college at Princeton have attracted more of my attention, and elicited my most cordial admiration, beyond anything of the kind in this State for thirty years. The difficulties to be overcome were of no common kind, and the means at his disposal very limited; the skill with which he met the one, and the wisdom and energy with which he drew forth the other, have rarely been exceeded. And I have it from the lips of the most intelligent persons in the village, during my periodical visits, that no person they ever knew could have awakened equal enthusiasm in so good a cause. For myself, I should have looked upon the task of raising half the sum of twenty thousand dollars in such a village, for such a purpose, as altogether impracticable; and yet Dr. Pierson seemed to succeed with perfect ease.

The teaching he was, of course, obliged to devolve in great measure upon others. But it has come to my knowledge that he was considered the animating spirit of the whole concern. And it is only necessary to converse with him, from time to time, to become impressed with a sense of his literary attainments, fine taste, genial nature, and earnest, unaffected piety.

His loss to the college, should he leave it, will be irreparable, and long will it be before his place will be made good to the general cause of education in the Commonwealth, and in the esteem and affection of

His and your friend, etc.,
B.B. Smith.