When I returned to New Orleans it was mid-summer, and the city presented a very different appearance from what it did when I was there the previous winter. Then business was at its zenith, now at its nadir; then the hotels, streets and marts of trade were crowded, now there was plenty of room; then steamboats and vessels were receiving and discharging freight for and from every clime, now the shipping was very meager; then the weather was pleasant, now the heat was scorching, burning, melting; then it was healthy, now the yellow fever and almost every other fever, was raging. Exposure and hard fare in Texas, ultimated in ague and fever. I had several chills while in Houston; when at sea beyond the land breeze, I was free from them; but as soon as I inhaled the air from shore, they returned with increased violence, and it was two years before I entirely regained my former good health.
I was soon on board of a steamer bound for Cincinnati, and after a voyage of two weeks, landed at Leavenworth, Ind., where I remained three months doctoring for the ague.
CHAPTER IV.
Labors of E. B. Mann—N. Wadsworth—Owner of a Horse—Preach in Indiana and Kentucky—A Profane Life—General Clarke—Atheism—The Eyeless Fish—A Presbyterian Minister’s Wisdom—No Hell, No Heaven—Travel in Ohio—Another Preacher Replies—Labors in Dayton—D. R. Biddlecom—George Messenger—R. Smith’s Somersault—J. A. Gurley—George Rogers—Start for Indiana—Battle in Harrison—Universalism an old Doctrine, and of God—Partialism an old Doctrine, but of Satan—Grove Meeting—Father St. John—Badly Treated—John O’Kane on his Creed—In Indianapolis—A. Longley—A Horse—Questioned by a Methodist—In Terre Haute—Very Unpopular.
Partially recovering, I resumed my former work of traveling and preaching. E. B. Mann resided near Leavenworth, and labored in the counties in Indiana and Kentucky, bordering on the Ohio river. He also distributed a large number of denominational books. His circuit, which was about two hundred miles round, he traveled on horseback, once a month. He was not graced by education or refinement, yet his labors were blessed with a good degree of success. He is now dead, and his mortal remains repose near Leavenworth, the center of his labors for many years.
I lectured in L. and vicinity three weeks, and then proceeded to Louisville, Ky. N. Wadsworth was then residing there, and publishing a paper called The Berean; and at his earnest solicitation, I spent three months in obtaining subscribers for it. Mr. W. was formerly a Methodist minister, but then cherished a more liberal faith. His talent was above mediocrity, his acquirements fair, was a good man, and devoted to the cause he espoused, and the profession of his choice. He was small in stature, and feeble in health—too small and feeble for his large and active mind. A year after, he moved to Troy, Mo., his periodical was discontinued, and he died of consumption, after laboring there with excellent success, about one year. His widow resides there still, and although she has changed her name, the home of brother and sister Sydnor is ever a welcome retreat for our ministers. It has been my privilege to spend many pleasant hours in their company. The humble grave of my early friend is in the Troy cemetery; and I have read the brief monumental inscription on the cold marble at its head, through tearful eyes.
I bought a horse of Mr. Wadsworth, and agreed to pay him in obtaining subscribers for his paper. It was the first horse I ever owned, and I felt quite rich, and very independent. I preached in most of the towns within fifty miles of Louisville, in Kentucky and Indiana. In Salem, Ind., I delivered a series of sermons. A merchant there told me that his counting-room was his chapel, his ledger his Bible, and money his religion. He was then doing a large and lucrative business. A few years after, he had no counting-room, no ledger, no money, and died a miserable death—the natural result of so profane a life. General Clarke, an old Indian warrior, resided near Salem. He attended my meetings, and I was often at his house. He said he had helped steal Kentucky and Indiana from the Indians. He was an intelligent man, but a zealous Atheist. He admitted that faith in a God of goodness, wisdom and justice, and in the immortal blessedness of mankind, was more satisfactory, and yielded more happiness than Atheism; and if such exalted and benevolent sentiments had received his attention ere his present views had become permanently established, he might have embraced them, but now he was too old to learn. I used to rejoin, that his admission was fatal to his creed. If a belief in God and immortality confers more happiness than the denial of a God, and a hereafter, that was the best evidence that Atheism was false, and religion truth, for truth always confers more happiness than error. Virtue is truth and vice is falsehood, because the former is adapted to our nature, and makes us happy, while the latter is a violation of our nature, and darkens and deforms the mind. For the same reason your theory, I would add, must be false, and mine correct. Not “too old to learn,” General. Your body is frail—it has been dying these many years, but your mind is vigorous. Why stop learning? If religion is true, death, that is fast destroying your body, will not invade your mind—that will live to learn forever.
Near Salem was a cave, containing water, in which were fish without eyes. God creates no superfluities. The fish of every sea, lake, river, have eyes, because there is light in those waters, but the beams of the sun had never penetrated that cavern, therefore eyes were useless, and hence the denizens of that eternal dungeon, have no visional organ. Nothing is created in vain; every thing answers some useful purpose in the economy of the Creator. Here is a solid foundation on which to rest.
In Bedford, Ind., a Presbyterian minister abruptly attacked me at the close of a discourse. “If the pains of the damned will cease,” said he, “so will the joys of the saved; for the words that express the misery of the one, express the happiness of the other.” Never, I replied, was a man more mistaken. The Bible speaks of endless life, but not a word about endless death. The terms, “endless death,” “endless misery,” “endless woe,” “endless damnation,” “endless hell,” found in the creeds of men, do not once occur in the Bible. Read all that Moses and the prophets, Jesus and the apostles, said or wrote, and you will not find those terms once, not even once, in the Old or New Testaments. “Endless” life is a Bible term, but those other endlesses are wretched fictions. The Bible says, “O hell, I will be thy destruction;” but where does it say, “O heaven, I will be thy destruction?!”
Finding but few persons of the liberal faith in the vicinity of Louisville, I concluded to go to Ohio. Preached in Cincinnati, Mount Healthy, Hamilton, Oxford and Middletown. In the latter place a clergyman attended my meetings, and at the close of every sermon entered his solemn protest against what had been said. He was a German, and in one of his harangues said, “This fellow believes the fire will be squenched, and I believe the fire will not be squenched.” But he became so interested, that he proposed traveling with me a few weeks, but not caring about his company, I did not accept of his proposition.