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.

FIFTEEN [cont.] 

	Thos. M. Johnson was another Croesus of the "black belt." He lived in
Greensboro, while his plantations bloomed around him. On one of these he
had a chapel that fell in my mission. This was neat and comfortable and
well furnished with Testaments and Hymn books. He encouraged his slaves
to read; and never failed, by precept nor example, to try to impress
them with habits of neatness, with the beauty of order, and the utility
of economy. After an eventful life of the strictest discipline and the
most untiring devotion to business, he accumulated a large fortune, then
fell asleep and left it all behind him. In many respects he was a
remarkable man. His virtues were stern and rigid, and over the baser
appetites of the flesh he swayed the scepter of a tyrant.

SIXTEEN
The Mysterious Process of Assigning Preachers
	
	After the completion of the elegant church which, even to this day, in
its new dress and rejuvenated exterior, ornaments the beautiful little
city of Greensboro, the people felt that they must curtail expenses,
until the church could be freed form debt. To this end, the Quarterly
conference appointed me to attend the ensuing Annual Conference, which
convened that year in the city of Tuscaloosa, to see if I could bring to
bear any influence that would induce that body to send us a young man. I
went in obedience to authority, but I must confess with some degree of
trepidation because of the character of my mission. It is no pleasant
task to ask favors, even of so generous and magnanimous an individual as
an Annual Conference.

	Bishop Soule was presiding, with all the dignity and gravity of the
royal priesthood, with an eye to the interest of the Church, and with a
heart full of love and sympathy for the noble volunteers whose
destinies, for that ensuing year, he held in his hands.

	At the earliest opportunity, I approached him, and made known the
object of my mission. He received me cordially and kindly, but said,
"You must know, my brother, that we have not young men for all who may
apply for them, but we will do for you the very best we can." With this
answer I withdrew, patiently to await the action of the August body, and
enjoyed myself exceedingly well for several days in listening to fine
sermons, rich and spicy debates, and in pleasant communings with friends
of the long ago.

[To be continued]

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