INCIDENTS AND CHARACTERS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF METHODISM

By

The Reverend John Elmore DuBois

Edited by Elizabeth A. DuBois
(c) 1998  DuBois Publishing Co, Simsbury, Connecticut. All rights
reserved.

Eight

"Oh! For a Mims!" 

	It seems that Seaborn Mims was an instrument in the hands of God for
the accomplishment of one great purpose, and that was the building and
establishing of churches.  He moved about from place to place and
wherever he pitched his tent in that neighborhood the church rose as by
magic.  He was not very long in any new neighborhood before the sound of
the "cross-cut," the ring of the axe and the clatter of hammers were
heard in the erection of the "meeting house;" and soon long lines of the
awakened pioneers were seen wending their way to the dedication of the
new chapel, and the silence of the wild solitude was broken by the songs
of praise.

	In the building of a church the co-operation and assistance of the
neighborhood was sought; and if obtained all well, but if not, the
church must rise, and rise it did.

	There is no estimating the worth of such a man.  Today when I look
about me and see the destitution of some communities in Church
privileges and witness the puny and sickly efforts of wealthy
communities to build them and hear that old plea of morbid avarice,
"Hard times," my heart involuntarily cries out, "Oh! For a Mims!"

	Reader, who can tell the good that may be accomplished by the
establishment of one Church? Upon it may hang the immortal destiny of
thousands.  Its effects may be felt throughout eternity.  Then give, and
give liberally and cheerfully to build them; and remember that it may
save a soul--your own, perhaps.  "What shall it profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his own soul?"

[To be continued.]

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