After warning the people of the impropriety of such conduct, and insisting that if they attended the services, they should come into the church, Mr. D---- preached, and I followed by telling of the Lord’s work in the places where I had been. A deep solemnity seemed to fall on every soul, and we felt God was there. All present were well supplied with tracts.
The next day our meetings were very solemn, and still more so at night, when there were five anxiously inquiring for salvation. By the next night most of the females began to feel very deeply, and some young men began to interrupt by their talking; but I rebuked them most solemnly, and we had no more interruptions during that meeting, and I am happy to say there have been none since in that place.
This meeting began on Thursday night, and by Monday twenty-two had professed hope in Christ. Among the number was one man sixty years old. He had been intemperate forty years. Though he was then so ignorant that he did not know who was the Saviour of sinners, and did not know one letter of the alphabet, he still lives a monument of grace.
One young lady of fortune, who was there at school, and whose anxiety about her soul bordered on despair, gained a hope on Saturday. On the next Saturday she joined the church, and then told her companions, “I will go to the Lord’s table to-morrow; it may be my last Sabbath on earth.” On Monday morning she came to school apparently in her usual health, and seemed deeply affected by the opening prayer; but soon complained of being unwell, went to her boarding-house, and in forty-eight hours she was numbered with the dead. Grace and glory came very near together.
After a few days of rest, at the request of the Rev. Mr. H----, to whom I have alluded at the town of U----, I met him in an old log-church on Wolf Creek, one of his preaching-places. I left home in the morning, rode twenty-four miles, and reached the place at one. Mr. H---- was preaching to a small congregation, as it was now the beginning of harvest. After an interval of thirty minutes, I addressed the people. The next day was Saturday. The house was full; and in the evening we had five inquirers. Sabbath morning Mr. H---- preached with great power, and then left for another appointment, with the expectation of returning on Monday. In the mean time I was to go on with the services. In the evening I had thirteen inquirers; and among them was Colonel H----, fifty years old, and Major B----, sixty-eight, two men of the largest wealth and highest standing in that community, who had been remarkable instances of grieving the Spirit of God. I related in their hearing the fact of what an aged man had told me about his grieving the Spirit. I saw it affected them both very deeply. They told me they had felt all that that man did whose case I had described, and that they had now made up their minds to seek Christ. In a few days both were hoping in Christ; and two years ago they had continued active Christians.