In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

THE BOY OF BATTLE Form 14 [} the pulpits of the country,whether educated CHAPTER XX. or unedu'cated, whether saved or unsaved, who do not and cannot comprehend the work before them, or realize the responsibility resting on them nor the golden opportunities passing before them. I believe I then would have preferred death rather thaD. to assume the ministry unless called of God to the work. But if caUed I would prefer the ministry of the gospel, regardless of all conditions, to any other thing or place unde,. the heavens . I believed then, and I believe it more surely now, that of all the foolish men \vho ever tried to serve the Lord the man who crowds himself into the pulpit uncalled is the most foolish fooL When God calls a man into the minis'iry he tells someone else of the fact in due time. On all very important occasions since that time I have been reasonably courageous, but on less important occasions I still hesitate and stammer. I had another chill two dars afterward and another one two days later. I then stopped them with quinine, tiD specific for chills then. I felt no signs of a chill till I had been trying to preach ten or fifteen minutes that day, and it mi,ght have been induced by my nervousness, so far as I know. I did not again visit that meeting nor do I suppose anyone grieved over my discontinuaTlce. In th1 interest and well-being of short-lIved humanity everywhere, and the excellence of the only ·religion that saves in present and future world I have detailed a fair samp1e of the infiuences that contributed tJ the transformation of the Boy of the B'ltTleFord into the man of twentyeight and one-half years, full of hope, and zeal and energy, happy in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, happy in having something to live for worthy the attention and affections and unceasing service of all intelligencies on earth and in heaven. THE task I had long expected to per- :form is done. I should here lay my pen down and rely on God to make this true and uncouth story a blessing to many whose soyls' weigh heavily on ~he author 's heart but for the fact that the readers will generally wish to know if the Battle Ford MAN is still pursuing the straight and narrow path with the same zeal and energy and happiness after the passing of n10re than thirty-eight years of his pilgrimage in the world of E'in and sorrow and toil and death. Hoping that a yery brief summary of events along a very nanow line of action may be both interesting and profitable to those who have fol.. 10'wed the boy of the Battle Ford to manhood , with humility and with joy, with tear;; and with ecstacy I here append the following pages: The preachers who constrained me to first try to preach nearly thirty-e.ight years ago have long ago laid their Bibles down, .closed their lips in death and sU.rrenrterp.n their bodies to the earth. Their souli.! have returned to God who gave them. The plain olel worshipc':'s of that generation have largely. disavpeared and their places are occupied by a later and more up to date people. The old songs of the fathers with their charges of guilt and grace have befln largely discarded and their places in worship are filled with modern productions, ,-"orne of which entrance us with the beauties , of heayen, but too much i,gnore .the horrors of the pit. The hearty offhand singing of that time has been supplanted by· the choir and the organ, which sometimes act as an octopus on the suffering worshipers.. ' The common seats of that period on which QUI' parents sat for an hour or more at once listening with willing ears and throbbing hearts and tearful eyes while 146 THE BOY OF BATTLE FORD the red hot sermon or exhortation greeted besides my brother and myself. The four their anxious ears, have passed away years ago, together with the house of worship built by those plain but earnest worshipers , and seats took their places so convenient and tidy that most church members and some worldly persons can without injury to their physical nature and with only partial interruption to their mental enjoyment sit for twenty or thirty minutes and listen to the minister of the gospel...

Share