It is seldom that profanity receives so sharp and witty a reproof as was administered by Mr. Rogers to a Tennessee boatman. One day, when seeking for a place where he could safely ford a small river, he sought information from a person whom he saw upon the opposite side, and the following dialogue ensued:—
Rogers.—"Hollo, stranger! Can you tell me if there is any place about here where I can safely ford?"
Stranger.—"Go to hell!"
Rogers.—"What is that you say?"
Stranger.—"Go to hell!"
Rogers.—"What? Where is that place you speak of? I am a stranger in these parts; can I reach it tonight?"
This witty retort so amused the stranger that he courteously told Mr. Rogers that he was the ferryman, and that if he would drive back to the ferry he would take him across. When subsequently he offered the ferryman the accustomed toll, it was flatly refused. "No," said the ferryman, "I take no toll from you. You are the funniest man I ever rowed across this drink. I take no toll from you." Thus a witty answer turned away wrath.
He was in presence a modest, meek man, with thin voice as a speaker, but clear and profound in his discoursing, and in religious debate wary, keen and pointed in his reasoning, and, like Apollos, "mighty in the Scriptures." Soon after his last visit to New England, in 1846, his death took place in Cincinnati. Rev. A. C. Thomas, who was present at his departure, writes: "The valley of death was radiant by reason of the glory beyond. We conveyed his body to the quiet burial ground in Delhi, near Cincinnati. I had introduced him to the Universalist ministry, and it fell to my lot to deliver the funeral sermon. A monumental obelisk was placed on his grave."
Among the active ministers of Universalism in the Southern States from 1831 to 1875 was Rev. Lewis F. W. Andrews, M. D., a son of Rev. John Andrews, an eminent minister and journalist of the Presbyterian Church. He was favored by his father with the advantages of a classical education, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky. He practised as a physician in Cleveland, Ohio, and in the region round about Pittsburg, Pa. His attention was first called to the claims of Universalism on hearing a sermon by Rev. J. C. Waldo, in Augusta, Ky. Mr. Andrews had requested the preacher to discourse on the parable of the Sheep and Goats. He did not suppose the minister able to give a reasonable interpretation of it in the light of the Universalist faith. He was greatly disappointed, however, and though he came a doubter, he remained to accept thankfully and joyfully the doctrine of the preacher, for he professed to have been converted by that sermon. He soon afterwards, by the aid of Rev. Mr. Waldo, then of Cincinnati, entered the ministry, and in 1832 became pastor of the Second Universalist Church in Philadelphia. In 1834 he travelled extensively in the South, visiting New Orleans, Mobile, and Montgomery. In the last-named city he gathered a society and started the "Gospel Evangelist," a paper which was subsequently moved to Charleston, S. C., and Dr. Andrews became pastor of the Universalist Society in that city. In 1836-7 he was senior editor of the "Southern Pioneer and Gospel Visitor," then published in Baltimore, Md., it having been founded in 1832 by Rev. O. A. Skinner. After this removal to the far South, Dr. Andrews published the "Evangelical Universalist." Like that persistent itinerant, George Rogers, he journeyed extensively in the Southern States, preaching wherever a door of opportunity was opened to him. The "Universalist Register" said of him: "In labors abundant, in long and frequent missionary journeys, and in the midst of opposition and great tribulations, he, like our other Southern preachers, had to fight his way in the promulgation of the doctrine of a world's salvation. Dr. Andrews was steadfast in his Universalism to the last. He was generous, free-hearted, liberal, almost to a fault. His prodigal generosity tended to improvidence. The marked trait of his mind was activity. All he could know he grasped at a glance. Hence, though not profound, he was ready for all encounters." He died suddenly at his home in Americus, Ga., March 16, 1875, in the seventy-third year of his age.
Rev. Charles W. Mellen was a worthy minister and pastor in Massachusetts for twenty-seven years. Simple and unostentatious in his manners, he was thoroughly consecrated to his work. A clear and strong writer and impressive speaker, his discourses were characterized by sound sense and earnestness. He worked from love of his calling. He was hopeful and active in the temperance and anti-slavery reforms, and was a son of consolation in his ministries with the sorrowing, afflicted, and bereaved, who looked to him for sympathy. He passed from this life in Taunton, Mass., while pastor there, in 1866, aged forty-eight.