After hearing this he invited us to stop at his house, about twenty miles farther down the river, and preach there on the Sunday. This we did. We had a large congregation, and found a fine opening for the spread of the truth.
At the close of the meeting, at which I preached and Elder Crosby bore testimony, we were invited to dine with a family residing there.
The wife of our host told us that, about two or three months before, the minister that had preached in that part of the country had left, and they were without any religious instructor, when she prayed the Lord to send some faithful person to supply his place.
Thus engaged, she was shown in a vision two men, the elder of whom was preaching, but the other delivered an exhortation of a different kind. The doctrine, she said, was new to her, but it seemed true.
She also recollected distinctly the clothes and appearance of these men, and, to her great surprise and pleasure, recognized them in the persons of Elder Crosby and myself, directly we entered the room. Of course our hearts were cheered at hearing this, and we felt assured that the Lord was working in the vineyard with His servants.
We commenced to baptize soon afterwards, and the Spirit of the Lord was mightily poured out, in proportion to which the powers of darkness began to manifest themselves through the unbelievers.
But that which enraged our opponents most was the baptism of some of the greatest men in the place. All manner of lies began to circulate about our conduct and intentions. Among other things, it was stated that we were in the habit of interrupting public meetings, and many such statements were privately forwarded to the governor of New Brunswick by the religious ministers and others of our enemies.
This led him to send down an order to three justices of the peace to convene a meeting, and produce whatever kind of evidence could be procured, either for or against, and report accordingly.
Before this meeting was held we ascertained that these justices, who were our most bitter enemies, had been searching law books for something to lay hold of us with, and had found an old statute, applying to the whole of the province, forbidding all dissenters to hold public religious services without a written license from the governor. But the spirit of their purpose was shown by the fact that they had never put this law in force against the numerous dissenters that had flourished there—in fact, two of these justices were dissenters themselves.
The day of the meeting arrived, and all manner of witnesses that could be raked together were produced—among others a negro's evidence was taken, who had previously been convicted of taking a false oath. But for the purpose of this holy tribunal this testimony was good enough! What mattered? He was not for the defense—upon which side of the question it did not occur to the justices, as a necessary thing, to call for any witnesses whatever.