The grove wuz a large one, acres and acres of big trees on every side, and vehicles of every description from smart canopy top buggies, and Sarah"s, and automobiles, down to one horse sulkies and rickety buck-boards, and horses of every size and color wuz hitched to "em.
And on the fallen tree trunks sot wimmen and girls, young boys, children, and pairs of lovers wuz walkin" afoot amidst the deep green aisles. Way in the green depths of the woods you could see the glimpse of a woman"s dress, or see the head of a horse lookin" out peaceful.
But we advanced a little furder as the road led out amongst the trees and pretty soon we come in sight of a large round tent where the meetin" wuz held, and from which we could hear the voice of hims and oratory, along on both sides of the immense tent, so"s to leave a road between, wuz rows of small tents where the campers dwelt. They stretched on like two rows of white dwellings way off into the green of the woods. Josiah and I are well thought on in Jonesville, and as fur out as Loontown and Piller Pint, and a man soon advanced and gin us an advantageous position, and Josiah hitched the mair and we advanced into the amphitheatre.
The tent riz up like a big white umbrell, or like great broodin" wings overhead, leavin" the sides free for the soft air to enter. There wuz rows of seats, boards laid on wooden supports and on one side a high wooden structure, open towards the seats, in which the preachers sot or stood. A wooden railin" run along in front of that rough pulpit.
Under foot wuz the green moss and rich mold of the onbroken forest.
And way up over the white tent the tall tree tops arched, and you could look way up into the green aisles of light with glimpses of sunshine between, castin" shady shadows and golden ones on the gra.s.s and moss below.
Folks wuz settin" round of all sorts, some handsome, some humbly, some dressed up slick, some in rough common attire, but most on "em looked like good st.u.r.dy farmers and their families. The old grand-ma of ninety with bent form and earnest face, side by side with her great grand-child.
I myself with Josiah sot down by a large boneded woman with a big, calm, good-lookin" face. She had on a dress and mantilly of faded black cashmere; the mantilly wuz wadded, a pink knit woolen scarf wuz wound loose round her neck, she had a small hat of black straw trimmed with red poppies, and she wore a pair of large hoop ear-rings. Her face had the calm and sunshine of perfect peace on it. Her husband, a small pepper-and-salt iron gray man, with sandy hair and a mult.i.tude of wrinkles, sot by her, and they had a young child elaborately dressed in red calico between "em.
Beyond her sot a little slender woman in a stylish dark blue dress and turban, her face alert and eager, lit with deep gray eyes, had the pa.s.sion and zeal of a Luther or Wesley. On the nigh side of me sot two young girls in pink and white muslin; a father and mother and three children wuz behind us, and on the seat in front wuz some young men and two old ones. I hearn the big calm woman say, "I shall be dretful disappinted if he don"t come to-day."
"So shall I," sez the pepper-and-salt man, "I shall feel like turnin"
right round and goin" back home, but I think he is sure to be here."
Bein" temporary neighbors I asked who it wuz that wuz expected.
"Why, the great revivalist and preacher who is expected here to-day."
Sez I, "Who is it?" The woman said she couldn"t remember the name, but he wuz the greatest preacher sence Wesley. He jest went about doin"
good, folks would go milds and milds to hear him, and he drawed their souls and sperits right along with his fervor and eloquence. He is to a big meetin" at Burr"s Mills to-day, but is expected here for sure.
Two hundred had been converted under him at Burr"s Mills. He had been there a week.
I sez, "Whyee! is that so?"
"Yes," sez the calm woman, and she went on to say, "I hear that he used to be a wicked man, but had some trouble that made him desperate, and finally driv him right into the Kingdom, and sence that he can"t seem to work hard enough for the Master."
"Well," sez I, "Saul the scoffer got turned into Paul the apostle, and that same power is here to-day."
"Speakin" of the power," sez the woman, "two wimmen and a man had the power last night, one girl lay speechless for hours, and when she come to said she had been ketched right up into Heaven. She talked beautiful," sez she.
Sez I calmly, "That"s jest what Paul said, he said he wuz caught up to the Third Heaven."
Sez Josiah, "That power don"t come to earth to-day, Samantha."
Sez I, "Who told you it didn"t? I hain"t hearn on"t. Earth hain"t no furder from Heaven now than it wuz then, and the same G.o.d reigns."
"Amen," sez the pepper-and-salt man, I see he had zeal and religion, but I felt kinder fl.u.s.trated to be "amened" to in public, and I looked kinder meachin" I spoze, and the calm woman see I did. And she sez:
"Sister Calvin Martin lays there now in her tent with the Power. She lay there all day yesterday and all night."
Some of the boys before me begun to t.i.tter and snicker at anybody"s havin" the power, and I sez, eyein" "em sternly, "Do you know what you"re laughin" at, young men? You talk about it real glib, but have you any idee of the greatness and overwhelmin" might of the Force you"re speakin" of? That Power wuz at Pentecost in cloven tongues of flame, and strange voices and words that no man could utter. Saul laughed at the Power but it struck him blind in the street, and ketched him up into the Seventh Heaven. When that Power comes down on earth, let sinners quail, and saints look on with or and tremblin"."
They looked real meachin". But jest then the Experience meetin" begun, and a old man with thin white hair and white whiskers framin" his meek wrinkled face, come forward, and layin" his hand on the railin" sez in a kinder tremblin" voice, "Bless the Lord who has made His servant able to come to this temple in the wilderness, to witness the glory He has poured down on his people. Every camp-meetin" for years I have thought would be my last, but bless Him who has preserved me to this day."
"Yes, bless the Lord! Amen! amen!" wuz shouted on every side, and as he stopped after a few minutes" exhortation, the other ministers and some of the old bretheren crowded round the white headed old saint to shake his hand.
Then a sweet faced little girl in a pink hat got up and said "the Lord wuz precious to her."
"Amen! amen! Bless His name! He carries the lambs in His bosom!" said the white headed preacher. Then a pleasant lookin" middle-aged minister related this incident, "A young boy had been converted, and said he had a view of Heaven. A onbeliever tried to frighten him and asked him if he didn"t tremble at the thought. Sez the boy, "My feet are on the rock."
""But don"t you tremble?" sez the infidel.
""Yes," sez the boy, "I do, but the rock under my feet don"t tremble.""
"Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land-- Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land-- A shelter in the time of storm."
High and clear this believin" song floated through our souls--and up to Heaven.
Then a good lookin" young man arose and sez, "Did you ever hear of the drunken horse jockey and thief down to Loontown? Well, I"m that man clothed and in my right mind. The Lord stopped me in my evil course, and I am His and He is mine."
A bystander sez, "That is so, he is a changed man." Then they all sung:
"There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel"s veins; And sinners plunged beneath its flood Lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty sta-ains; Lose all their guilty sta-ains; And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains."
That is a melogious chorus, but so kinder floatin" on, and back and forth, that I don"t see how they can ever stop it when they begin. Of course as wuz natural there wuz some there who wuz bashful and made mistakes. A tall slim young man got up, he wuz studying for the ministry, sez he, "My friends, I am a stranger to you all, I am a stranger to myself, and I trust," sez he, "I am a stranger to my G.o.d."
He left out a "wuzn"t," he meant that he wuzn"t a stranger to his G.o.d.
Bashfulness wuz the cause. Madder red wuz pale compared to his face when he sot down, and his tongue wuz thick and husky. I wuz sorry for him. Then a woman riz up with a black bunnet and veil on and white collar and cuffs; she looked like a Quakeress, and I believe that if Emperors and Zars had stood before her she would have been onmoved, she wuz as calm and earnest as Ruth or Esther, or any of our good old four-mothers. Sez she:
"My friends, I see your faces to-day and watch the different expressions upon them. How will these faces look when we meet at the Bar of G.o.d? Will peace be on them? Or dismay and everlastin" regret?"
"Oh yes! The Lord help! Let us hear from some one else!" A slight pause ensued and then there riz up this melogious appealin" old him:
"Shall Jesus bear the cross alone, And all the world go free?
No, there"s a cross for every one, And there"s a cross for me."
A colored boy got up; he wuz tall and gant with big soft eyes full of the pathetic wisdom and ignorance of his race. He spoke kinder slow and sez, "I wuz sick once and I felt alone. I wuz afraid to die. Now if I wuz sick I shouldn"t be alone, nor afraid, I"ve got somebody with me. Jesus Christ is with me all the time. I hain"t lonesome no more, nor "fraid."
"Tell your experience, Joe, tell it here!" shouted an old man. Joe stepped forward, took the Bible offen the rustic stand, turned over the leaves to the first page, and slowly and laboriously read, "Darkness was on the face of the earth--and G.o.d said, let there be light--and there wuz light."
He closed the book and looked round with rapt luminous eyes. "That is me," sez he, "that is my experience."
"Amen! amen!" shouted the brethren. The little refined lookin" woman in the blue dress started this verse and sung it through almost alone, in a clear sweet voice:
"I am but a traveller here, Heaven is my home.
Earth"s but a desert drear, Heaven is my home.
Time"s cold and chilling blast, soon will be over past, I shall reach home at last, Heaven is my home."
"Amen! amen! Now let us hear from another." And one after another rose and told of the goodness of G.o.d and what He had done for them. The sweet earnest hims floated out ever and anon and over the place seemed to brood a Presence that boyed our sperits up as on wings, and I felt that we wuz there with one accord, and my soul seemed lifted up fur above Jonesville and Josiah, and all earthly troubles.
All to once a woman rose with a light on her face as if she wuz lookin" on sunthin" fur above this earth. She delivered a eloquent exhortation in words of praise and ecstasy. More and more earnest and eloquent she grew and lifted up from earthly influences. At last she lifted her hands and stepped out with a swayin" motion of her body, as if keepin" step to some onhearn melody that ears stuffed with the cotton of worldliness and onbelief wuzn"t fine enough to ketch, and finally her feet begun to keep step with that mysterious music, that for all I know might have been soundin" down from the ramparts of the New Jerusalem. Round and round she slowly swayed and stepped. Wuz it to the rythm of that invisible music?
There wuz a look on her pure face as if she wuz hearin" sunthin" we didn"t. I wuz riz up and carried away some distance from myself. When still lookin" up with that rapt luminous face she fell to the ground as prostrate as Saul did on the road to Jerusalem, and lay in that state, so I hearn afterwards, for a day and a night. Jest as she fell that iron gray man yelled out, "Bless the Lord!"
And I sez, bein" all wrought up, "Don"t you know when to say that, and when not to? She might have broke her nose." He looked queer.