Two wealthy and prominent men, who used their influence and the power of their wealth and position-to retard the work of the Lord here, met with sudden and unexpected deaths.
Many other incidents of like nature might be mentioned that occurred here during our stay. So many of them, in fact, occurred, that great fear came upon the people.
While we labored in poverty, in all humility, contrite in spirit, reaching out in our weakness after the honest-in-heart, many souls were added to the Church. The poor had the gospel preached to them, the Lord giving us a harvest of sheaves. The people hung upon our words as the words of life; every expression and every movement was narrowly watched. They read their Bibles as they had never read them before; "They that erred in spirit came to understanding, and they that murmured learned doctrine;" and they rejoiced in the Holy One of Israel.
How faithful then ought we messengers of the gospel to be, in the trust that is reposed in us, to carry this glad message to our poor, fallen brethren and sisters in humanity!
In conclusion, I wish to offer a little advice to the boys and young men who may read this: Be very diligent in storing your minds with all useful knowledge—with all the truths of the new and everlasting gospel. Live pure lives in the sight of heaven, and the angels that constantly watch every act of your lives. Be truthful, honest, sober, virtuous and faithful in all things. The Almighty wants you, with your innocence and purity and strength, to redeem the nations that sit in darkness. And you may yet stand before rulers, kings, emperors, and the great of all nations of the earth, when they will tremble and quail before you, because of the power of God that will rest upon you.
CHAPTER II.
VISIT TO A BAPTIST MEETING—ABUSE OF THE VARIOUS CHURCHES, ESPECIALLY THE "MORMONS"—BOASTED BIBLE-NAME AND RELIGION—RETURN TO THE TEXT—THE "HARD-SHELL" WAIL—REPLY TO THE FALSE ASSERTIONS—THEIR "BIBLE-NAME" DISPROVED—THE TRUE SCRIPTURE NAME POINTED OUT.
While Brother H. K. Coray and I were laboring as missionaries in North Carolina, we attended a Baptist meeting, rather on his account than mine, as he had never been to such a meeting.
It was on Saturday, and the meeting was held in a bowery in the edge of a wood, in Stokes County.