There may be said, with some degree of truth, that there are more books published than are read, and yet, doubtless, such will …

INTRODUCTION .

There may be said, with some degree of

truth,that there are more books publ i shed than

are read , and yet, doubtless , such wi l l always

be the case,while the world st i l l hungers for

books . There are many books,but there i s

need of many more, and that o f such a kind as

the author of“My Life, Travel s and Sermons

”

has produced . We want l iving books,such as

express the heart experience of men—booksthat help to lead men away from the bondage

“

of s in and the flesh, out into the free l i fe that

belongs to the true chi ldren of God . We needbooks such as can demonstrate the poss ib i l ity

of l i fe in Christ and Christ in the l i fe, for every

manwho wil l accept the guidance of God as revealed in the Word of God .

'

We bel ieve it is

the mission of th i s little book to l ead men out

into the fulness of a sanctified l i fe, and as suchwe wish i t God-speed in its great work for theMaster .

REV.w. J. S IPPRELL , B .A.,B .D . ,

Principal of Columbian College,NewWestminster,

Briti sh Columbia .

F RANK COL EMAN, EVANGE L IST .

PREFACE .

This l ittle handbook has been written for al lclasses of people who love the doctrine offreedom

,and in i t I try to tel l my experience

so clearly,and in such s imple

,condensed form ,

that many may be l ed into the ful l l ight of

hol iness .I have not written this book that it shouldbe presented as a l iterary treat to men of letters , but as a

‘

help to the poor in spi rit ,” and

the hungry-hearted,those who long for

l ight , and have been hindered from receivingthe blessed experience of holiness . I bel ieve

that al l who wil l lay aside human standardsand opinion

,and be guided by the Word o f

- God alone,will be convinced that it i s the

blood-bought privi lege of every bel iever to

gain,and retain

,the glad experience of entire

sanctifica'

tion’

.

F . C . COLEMAN .

CONTENTS .

PART I .

MY L IFE AND TRAVELS .

1 . Happy Days of Chi ldhood

2 . Days of B oyhood3 . F rom Romanism t o Prot estant i sm4 . My Ca l l t o the Work

PART I I .

SERMONS .

The Grea t Day ofHis Wra th i s Come

Overcoming the World ”

The Crucifixion of the Old M an

He tha t F ea reth is not Made Perfectin Love”

The Bapt i sm of the Holy Ghost and

F ire ”

Preva i l ing Prayer

Glorify God in Your B ody

He t ha t is Fil thy , let him be F i lthy

S t i l l ”

Quench not the Spir it“The Chris t ian Ladder

MR . CoLEMAN’s M OTH E R .

CHAPTER I .

HAPPY DAYS OF CHILDHOOD .

My father , leaving the home of hi s chi ldhood , in Lower Canada , at a very early age , didnot return unti l hi s twenty-first year , when , tohi s great sorrow

,he found hi s beloved mother

dead and hi s father very i l l . Thi s i l lness provedto be his last , for in a short t ime he passedaway to the great hereafter

,l eaving two sons

to mourn his loss . There being no more tiesto bind him to his home , father again went

away . In the year 1863 my father marriedand settled in Toronto , in which city I wasborn . After my birth he moved to the country ,where the most of my chi ldhood days were

spent . Oh , the happy days‘

of childhood"Free ,without care, trusting enti rely to a kind fatherand fond mother"For in many respects , fatherand mother were kind and loving, and nodoubt loved thei r chi ldren dearly . Our

home had none of the refining influences o f

rel igion . Christ did not reign there . Myparents being French Roman Cathol ics , theywere not supposed to read the B ible , and , consequently

,were deprived of the knowledge to

be gained by al l who read it . The Sabbath

18 My L ife,Travels and S ermons .

was not observed in our home . Much unnecessary work was done both by father and mother .The sound of the axe was often heard cuttingthe needed supply of wood , and often , whenthe neighbors came in , the day would be spentin playing cards

,and other amusements . The

most implicit obedience was required from mysister and me by our father

,wh ich was per

fectly right . But when obedience was not

granted,at the first bidding , oaths and curses

would ofttimes fol low . From my father I firstlearned how to play cards . O ften unti l midnight

,or the early morning, we would sit and

play together . While it i s true that father neverattended church

,and that I never saw him but

once on his knees in prayer,i t i s also true that

he was never seen under the influence of strongdrink ,

and he taught his chi ldren to be industrions and honest . I remember once

,when I

was quite young,going into a blacksmith’s

shop on my way from school,and carrying

from it , for a plaything, a small bit of i ron .

When my father found out what I had done,

he made me walk al l the way back ( a distanceof about a mile ) and came with me himsel f,to see that I made a proper confess ion . The

free country l i fe about us,and the happy love

of everything, inspired us , as my only si sterand I frolicked and played

,entirely sati sfied

with each other . When the bloom was on theclover, and the blue was in the sky

,and my

happy heart brimmed over in those happychildhood days , l ittle did I think that it was

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20 My Life, Travels and S ermons .

heaven,and

,therefore, was a sinner . I felt

the burden of my sins so much that many nightsI sleepless ly lay with the th ought before methat I was unprepared to meet God . Playoftentimes became uninteresting and undesir

able,and thi s made me miserable .

One day I went to mother and asked her toteach me how to pray . She began then to

insti l into my heart and mind the doctrines ofthe Roman Cathol ic Church . I learned that al lProtestants were lost eternal ly

,and that only

Roman Cathol ics went to heaven . How gladI was then that I was born in a Roman Cathol ic

house . At her knee I learned “The Lord’s

Prayer,” “ Ave Maria

,

” “ Hail,Mary

,

” “The

Acts ,” and “

The Confiteor .

” Alas"none ofthese prayers brought rel ief to my troubledsoul . I then learned the Ten Commandmentsof God , as taught by the Roman Cathol icChurch , which are as fol lows :

I st . I am the Lord . Thou shalt have nostrange gods before Me .

2nd . Thou shalt not take the name of theLord thy God in vain .

grd . Remember thou to keep holy the SabbathDay .

4th . Honor thy father and thy mother .sth . Thou shalt not ki ll .6th . Thou shalt not commit adultery .

7th . Thou shalt not steal .8th . Thou shalt not bear false witness againstthy neighbor

.

9th .

Happy D ays of Childhood.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s

wife .

Ioth . Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s

goods .

You will notice that in these the secondcommandment i s omitted , and to make out the

ten the tenth i s divided into two parts .Now, the commandments , as found in the

20th chapter of Exodus , in our Bible , are asfol lows :

I st . Thou shalt have no other gods beforeMe .

2 nd . Thou shalt not make unto thee any

3rd .

4th .

graven image , or any likeness of anything that i s in heaven above , or that i sin the earth beneath

,or that i s in the

water under the earth . Thou shalt notbowdown to them nor serve them ; forI the Lord thy God am a j ealous God ,vis iting the in1quities of the fathers uponthe chi ldren unto the thi rd and fourth

gemration of them that hate Me,and

showing mercy unto thousands of themthat love Me and keep My commandments .

Thou shalt not take the name of theLord thy God in vain ; for the Lord

wil l not hold him guiltless that takethHis name in vain .

Remember the Sabbath Day to keep itholy . S ix days shalt thou labor anddo all thy work, but the seventh day

2 2

sth .

6th .

7th .

8th .

oth .

My Life,Travels and S ermons .

i s the Sabbath of the Lord thy God . In itthou shalt not do any work , thou , nor thy

son,nor thy daughter , nor thy manser

vant,nor thy maidservant , nor thy

cattle,nOr thy stranger that i s within

thy gates . For in sixdays the Lordmade heaven and earth

,the sea , and all

that in them i s,and rested the seventh

day . Wherefore the Lord blessed the

Sabbath Day ,and hal lowed it .

Honor thy father and thy mother , thatthy days may be long upon the land

which the Lord thy God giveth thee .

Thou shalt not ki l l .

Thou shalt not commit adultery .

Thou shalt not steal .

Thou shalt not bear fal se witness againstthy neighbor .

To'

th . Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s

house,thou shalt not covet thy neighbor

’s

wi fe,nor his manservant

,nor hi s maid

servant,nor hi s ox

,nor lfls ass

,nor

anything that i s thy neighbor’s .

There are s ix addit ional commandments of

the church,which I wi l l give

,viz

I st . To hear mass on Sundays , and HolyDays of obl igation .

2nd . To fast and abstain the days command

3rd .

ed .

To confess your sins at least once ayear .

Happy D ays of Childhood. 23

4th . To receive worthi ly the blessed Euchari stat Easter

,or within the t ime appointed .

0

sth . To contribute to the support of yourpastor .

6th . Not to solemnize marriage at the forbidden t ime (meaning L ent ) , nor to

marry persons with in the forbidden degrees of kindred

,nor otherwise prohib

ited by the church , nor clandestinely .

The church teaches that the sacrament ofbapti sm cleanses from all original s in

,or what

Paul terms the old man ,” “ the lust

,

” “ theflesh .

Anxiously and di l igently d id I study thecatechism

,in preparation for my first confess ion ,

for there is no pardon without confession . To

confess,a priest i s necessary ; therefore , 1f no

priest,we are le ft without salvation , conse

quently no heaven . What an awful teaching,

to think that heaven i s gained by prayers , penance

,and money"But the way was dark and dreary ,When His face I could not see .

”

I then learned the formof confess ion . Onentering the confessional

,the sign of the cross

i s made,by placing the right hand to the fore

head,then under the heart

,then to the left

and right shoulder,saying at the same time ,

“

In the name of the Father,and of the Son .

and of the Holy Ghost . ” Then with bowed

head and downcast eyes,you implore the priest’s

bless ing in these words,B less me

,Father

,for


I have sinned,after which you repeat the

Confiteor , which i s as fol lows“ I confess to

Almighty God ; to blessed Mary , ever virgin ;to blessed M ichael , the archangel ; to blessedJohn the Baptist ; to the Holy Apostles , Paul ,and Peter

,and to al l the Saints , and to you ,

Father,that I have sinned exceedingly , in

thought,word

,deed

,and omi ss ion

,through mv

fault,through my fault , through my most

grievous fault . ”

This I S a long way to the Throne of Grace .

F irst the f rayer i s sent to the Virgin Mary,then to M ichael

,then to blessed John the Bap

tist,the Holy Apostles , Peter , and Paul , and

al l the Sa ints , and then to the priest . Thi s is

destroy ing the S cripture doctrine,which teaches

there is only one Mediator between God andman

,the man Christ Jesus

,

” and how wil l ingGod is “ to forgive us our s ins , and to

cleanse 11s from al l unrighteousness,

” and Heis the Propitiat1on for our sins ; and not forours only

,but for the sins of the whole world .

”

I . John 2 : 2 . It i s necessary to tel l the priest howlong it has been since your last confess ion . I fit be the first time of confession

,he must be

told ; after which the chi ld , whether male orfemale

,discloses to the priest all things con

cerning both his or her private or publ ic l i fe ,go through all the commandments

,from the

first to the tenth ; and also from the first preceptof the church to the sixth .

This undoubtedly gives the priest a great holdon his adherents . It has been said with truth ,

Happy D ays of Childhood . 2 5

by one writer,that one Roman Catholi c priest

has more power in a town than twelve Protestant ministers .In the first s ix verses of the fourth chapter

of the first Epi stle o f Timothy we read , Nowthe Spirit speaketh expressly , that in the lattertimes some shall

.

depart from the faith , giving

heed to seducing spirits , and doct rines of devil s ;speaking l ies m hypocri sy ; having their con

science seared with a hot iron ; forb idding to

marry , and commanding to abstain from meats ,which God hath created to be received withthanksgiving o f them which bel ieve and know

th e truth . For every creature of God i s good,

and nothing to be refused , if i t be received with

thanksgiving : for it i s sanctified by the wordof God and prayer . I f thou

,put the brethren

in remembrance o f these things,thou shalt be

a good minister o f Jesus Christ,nourished up

in the words of faith and of good doctrine,

whereunto thou hast attained .

Time went on ; a l ittle brother, and then al ittle s i ster, came to our home , and when mother

got them bapti sed,she allowed me to go with

her to church . This was a memorable eventin my young l i fe

,as I never before had the

privi lege of going,or of even seeing the priest .

We j ust went to his house . My mother hadtold me that i f I displeased the priest in any

way he might pronounce a great curse uponme . I

,therefore

,fol lowed her in trembl ing,

and,in my fear

,had forgotten to remove my

cap . The priest,looking down

,said to me ,

2 6 My L ife,Travels and S ermons .

Take your cap off . This reminder so frightened me that I began tugging at the strings

,

but,in my fear and excitement

,I could not

untie them . At last , grabbing my cap by thecrown

,I dragged it over my head, breaking

the strings in my hurry . There I stood beforehim feel ing very guilty , and expecting everymoment to hear the awful sentence . However ,no more was said to me , and we went to thechurch . Leading me to a seat , my mother toldme to kneel there unti l she returned from having the chi ldren baptized , and there she found

me,kneel ing

,wi th my back to the altar, whichshe told me was a very wicked act . I wenthome

,feeling very sad that I was so s inful ;

and the eventful day , which I had looked for

ward to with much pleasure , had proved to bea fai lure .

I tried then , by learning all the prayers , ( ihcluding the rosary ) , that home and neighbors

could teach me, to get rel ief for my poor soul ,but without avai l . In talking to mother aboutit, she said I would be old enough soon to goto confess ion , and there have al l my sins forgiven . How eagerly I looked forward to the

time when this great burden of sin would be

removed"I was taught to look alone to thepriest as my guide , and was told that , after atime , I could take my first communion , whichwould be of much benefit to my soul . Gradual lyI became establ i shed

,and by the time I was

thirteen , I was a zealous and earnest defenderof the faith , and very bitter against the various


28 My Life,"Travels and S ermons .

CHAPTER I I .

DAYS OF BOYHOOD .

Unt i l I was thirteen years o f age,most of

my time was spent in attending the Publ icS chool . When I first commenced , at about theage of seven , I could not speak one word ofEngli sh , our conversation at home al l beingcarried on in French . S ince that time I haveoften looked back and pitied the young lady

teacher, who not only undertook to teach methe alphabet

,but also howto speak the Engl ish

language . I was cal led “ the l ittle Frenchboy at school by my teacher and,

the scholars .When the teacher wanted to cal l me up for a les

son she would have to do it by signs , not beingable to speak French hersel f . At recess theboys would gather around me and ask questionsin Engl ish

,while I would talk to them in

French,and then we would laugh together over

our inabi l ity to understand each oth er . I wasproud of my teacher

,and was

,I bel ieve , a

favorite of hers . She was very kind to me . Iloved to attend the school , and looked forwardto the time when I would be able to speak andread Engl ish . Some of -the larger boys usedto play tricks on me . One day they fi l led mydinner pai l with mud

,and although I was in

thisway deprived of my dinner, I never men

D ays of Boyhood. 29

t ioned the fact to my parents , lest they shouldkeep me home from school . More than onceIwas punished by my father for speaking Engl i sh at home . He did not understand thelanguage himsel f

,and he had no desire that

we should speak it,l est we should forget our

mother tongue . Yet I anxiously persevered in

its study,andwhen I knew the alphabet , and

could count from I to 12 , and from 12 to I , Iwas a proud boy indeed .

B efore I was a year at school you wouldscarcely know that I was the same “ l ittl e

French boy,” for I could speak the Engl i sh

language quite fluent ly . As I grew older andstronger

,des ires would rise up within me to

earn money of my own , and o ften I would

persuade father to al low me , on Saturdays , to

help the neighbors husk thei r corn . In thi sway I earned my fi rst pocket money

,which I

would always proudly hand over to mother,

while she in turn would spend i t in buyingbooks and clothes for me . At about the ageof ten

,while alone in the house one day

,I con

ceived the idea of adding to my accompl ish

ments that of chewing tobacco and smokingFather’s p1pe and tobacco were lying conven

iently on the window seat , so I first took a largechew of tobacco ; then I proceeded to l ight thepipe and have my first smoke . Mother di s

turbed me by coming in soon after, so I laiddown the pipe in a hurry, and swal lowed thetobacco I had taken . Feel ing drowsy soonafter

,I lay down by the fire and went to sleep .


I awoke in a deathly sickness . Mother wasalarmed

,supposing I had taken poison . So I

had,but not j ust the kind she supposed . The

house seemed to be whirling around,and I

clutched the floor in my anguish . Soon afterI recovered . It was at that time my father firstcommenced to insti l into my mind the evi l sof tobacco . He described to me the way inwhich he was led into the habit

,and warned me

faithful ly not to commence this evi l practice .

However,I thought I knew better than father .

Others around me used it,and I felt that I

would never be quite'

a man unti l I could carryaround and use a pipe and tobacco of my own .

When my father saw that I was not convincedby hi s arguments , he promised me a nice gunwhich he had, and which I was very fond of ,i f I would promise him never to use tobaccoagain . I promised , and I received the gun frommy father , and determined , in my own mind

,

never to use tobacco again . For some time Iremained faithful to my promise

,but as my

companions used it , the evi l habit graduallvfastened itsel f upon me , unti l almost before Iknew it mysel f, at the age of thirteen I was aconfirmed smoker . We moved

,in the year

1875 , to a nice l ittle farm near Sydenham , Oh

tario . Here I had my first experience in plowingand breaking up a fal low with a yoke of oxen .

The following year we again moved to a farmnear Harrowsmith . I was then nearly twelve

,

and was very anxious to earn money for mysel f.

One day when father was away,and I was out

D ays of B oyhood . 3 1

in the field working , a man ,who l ived abouteight miles away

,drove along , and wanted me

to engage to work for him for the summermonths . Without stopping to question whetherfather would be pleased or not

,I accepted the

man’s offer,and with l ight heart and fleet foot

I ran to the house,and a fter gathering together

a fewof my clothes , I bade mothe r adieu . Iwas soon driving along the country road alongside of my employer , feel ing very much a man ,and elated at the thought that I would soon

hold in my hand money that I had earned mvsel f .Home and parents were very dear to me , and

every Saturday night I,used to walk home ,

and never fai led to find father sitt ing up forme , even though ofttimes it would be nearlytwelve o’clock before I would reach home . In

that part of the country oxen were pr1nc1pallyused on the farm .

B efore I left the farm that summer,a Meth

odist mini ster conducted a series of revival services in a schoolhouse near by . My employer

being a Protestant,he and his family attended

the meetings . Not wishing to make mysel fconspicuous

,Iwent with the others , but re

mained outs ide . I would pass and re-pass thedoor

,l istening to the singing and occasional

words that would float out to me from thel ips of the preacher . My

'wages during the

summer had been eight dollars per month . In

the autumn I hired with another man nearerhome

,for the sum of thi rteen dollars per


month . My work was ploughing with oxen .

I was then thirteen , and was very large andstrong for my age . Part of that winter I attended school

,unti l the month of February ,

when a hotel-keeper near by persuaded myfather to al low me to work for him unti l thespring

,at which time my father promised me

that I should learn a trade . I accepted the

situation . Needless to say,I was del ighted ,

and sleep deserted my pi llow,as I lay making

bright plans for my future .

My heart felt ful l o f gladness as my father

harnessed the horse and we startedon our drive,

and as we chatted together, he gave me good

advice for the future . We soon arrived at thehotel . I imagine I can see him sti l l as he placedhis hand on my shoulder and said

,Frank

,be

a good boy .

”S imple words

,but howdear,

coming from a father’s l ips"My heart wentout to h im as never before , and I stood andwatched him unti l he vanished from my sight .Then came the new li fe amongst strangers .

Oh , the temptations that presented themselvesto me" Here I first tasted l iquor

,and first

felt the al lurements of a gay and godless l i fe .

From that time the desire for l iquor was uponme , and an equal desire for a sporting timeseemed to cl ing to me . O f course

,I though t

nothing of th i s kind of l i fe,as al l my friends

and acquaintances‘

followed, to a great extent ,after the same things .But Providence willed it otherwise than thatI should stay at this place

,for in a week’s time

D ays of B oyhood. 33

I got a telegram . Awful was the shock I re

ceived when I read of my father’s sudden death .

I immediately started for home . There I foundmother standing by the window weeping, and

the chi ldren cl inging to her .

Scarcely can I describe the hopeless sorrowwhich I felt when I looked at them and gazed

upon my father as he lay motionless in dea th .

My mother told me that when he was returningfrom the town of Napance , he had stopped atthe vi l lage of Odessa

,with the view of trading

hi s horse . A fter supper , when he was backingout of the shed, he said to a man standing near,Do you think that I made a good bargain"

”

The man answered , I guess you made abouttwenty dollars and in the act of laughing

over it,my father dropped . They carried him

into the hotel,and cal led in the coroner , who

pronounced him dead .

B efore taking him home they sent a lady

friend ahead to in form mother o f what hadoccurred , but when sh e went in and saw everything in readiness for father’s return

,she had

not the courage to tel l her . ,The fire was burning brightly

,the kettle steaming

,and the supper

was all ready and waiting on the table . Every

little whi le mother would look anxiously out ofthe window , wondering at hi s delay . Just aboutdusk they drove along with his body

,and when

they came to the door she glanced out of thewindow and remarked that he had come

,and

was bringing company .

with him . S ti l l the ladysat there unable to tell the awful news . But

34 My Life,Travels and S ermons .

j ust as the door opened , mother heard one of

the men say,

“Does she know yet"”

Then ,and not t i l l then , did the truth dawn upon herthat something had happened to him . But

after they had brought him in , mother couldnot bel ieve that l i fe was extinct . I t was thenext morning that I received the despatch .

How my heart ached,as mother and I looked

upon him who had always been our comfortand stay . And to think that I had so shortlybefore parted with him and he seemed to beal l right . I shal l never

,no

,never forget i t .

I f I had only known then of the Saviour’spower to comfort in the hour of grief, how

gladly I would have gone to Him,and

,real ized

the words of the poet

What a Friend we have in Jesus,

Al l our sins and griefs to bear"What a privi lege to carryEverything to God in prayer"Oh , what peace we often. forfeit ,Oh , what needless pain we bear ,All because we do not carryEverything to God in prayer .

As i t was,I had to bear my trouble alone .

What was most crushing to us all was that hehad not made his Easter duties ; and was ,therefore, deprived of the right of being buriedin the Roman Cathol ic cemetery

.

During the last year of his l i fe,owing to his

having been troubled with rheumatism,we had

become greatly reduced in ci rcumstances,and

,



as motherwas very anxious to have me withher, and , to my great del ight , I got a situationin a grocery and dry—goods store .

That same spring,1878, Iwent\to con fession

for the first time . For the last month we hadbeen saying the Rosary , and as I had been at

tending church every night,conviction was

deepening on my soul . On Saturday eveningmy cousin came to me and said

, Say we goto confess ion to—night I consented

,and we

started for the church,but on my way I began

thinking about it,and the nearer I got the more

I dreaded the ordeal . By the t ime I arrivedthere I was so nervous I could hardly speak .

However,I made my way to a seat

,knelt down

,

and began to pray .

There I knelt for a long time , and a greatfear came over my soul . I began to watchthe men and women going to and coming from

confessmn . There seemed to be a great mysterypervading the place

,and I had not the courage

to go up when I thought of the hol iness o f it,and I such a vile and sinful creature in thesight of God . B esides

,I did not know what

the priest might say to me . But as I looked

I sawyoung girl s and boys , even younger thanmysel f

,going

,and I thought that i f they could

go,why not I" So I arose, and with great

solemnity made my way down the aisle tothe priest

,bowing as I passed the altar . After

making the usual preparation for the formof confession

,I,with great awe, unbosomed

my heart to him . Confess ionwas not such a


trial as I thought i t would be . The p riest askedme a few quest ions

,and then gave me absolu

tion by waving h is hands gently over my head

and repeating a prayer in Latin . Then he said

in Engl ish,Go in peace and sin no more .

I arose , . and with a l ight heart retraced my

steps down the ai sle and went home rej oicingthat my sins were forgiven , and that what I

had been dreading for so long had proved.to

be but an easy matter .

I now began to prepare for first communion .

According to the teachings of the Roman

Church,the B lessed Euchari st

,under the ap

pearance of bread and wine , i s really the body ,blood

,soul

,and D ivinity Of Jesus Christ , that

i s,after the priest pronounces

,in the sacrifice

of mass , the words of consecration , though it

st i l l retains its usual substance , it real ly becomesthe very body and blood of Jesus Christ .The priest taught that Christ i s real ly andbodi ly present in two places : in heaven

,s itting

on the right hand of God , and in the tabernacleon the altar .The preparation for first communion isconsidered very sacred and solemn

,so with

great reverence and devotion I prayed,and

fasted , and went to confes sion , and did al l inmy power to make mysel f worthy of the reception of Chri st ; for it i s a great sacrilege toreceive Christ unworthi ly . I was also taught

that thi s would be the happ1est day in my l i fe ,i f I received the Euchari st worth i ly ; but themost miserable i f I received it unworthi ly . The


morning that I had looked forward to withsuch j oy and reverence at last arrived . It i s themorning of the Precious B lood . About fortyof us meet together, and walk , two by two, in

a long procession to the church . The girl swear long veil s over their h eads

,and are dressed

in white,symbol ical of innocence and purity .

The boys are dressed as nearly alike as possible . At last we are in the church . Then

at the consecration and elevation of the host ,every head i s bowed in prayer . I shal l neverforget the awful hush and sti l lness that pervaded

the church . At thi s very moment , the veryChrist

,body

,soul

,and D ivinity

,has come to

the altar . A l ittl ewh1le and the bel l rings ,wh ich i s a sign for the communicants to receive .

We go to the altar rai ls , two by two ,with bowed

heads and eyes cast down, and kneel reverently .

This was a very solemn moment for every

child , as we bel ieved that we real ly receivedthe Christ . I returned to my seat

,and the

service continued ; but when I left the churchI felt very much disappointed and sorrowful

,

as I was taught that Christ was only with me

while I was at the altar . A sad thought , thatChrist only abides with us for a short time .

Now I have learned to know that Christ,i f we

accept Him as our Saviour,will leave His

presence with us always . For in Heb . xi i i . 5 , 6,we read : Let your conversation be withoutcovetousness , and be content with such thingsas ye have, for He hath said, I wi ll never leavethee nor forsake thee . So that we may boldly

D ays of B oyhood . 39

say,The Lord is my helper , and I wil l not fear

what man shal l do unto me .

” And in the last

verse of the last chapter of Matthew it i s written : Teaching them to observe al l things what

soever I have commanded you; and lo , I am

with you alway,even unto the end of the

world .

The most of my spare time was now taken

up with looking after mother and the chi ldren ,for at father’s death ( I being the eldest o f thefami ly ) mother looked to me as her chief support and comfort

,and I was glad that I was

able to help her .The hours in the store were very long, and

it'

was often late at night before I could returnhome to my l ittle brothers and sisters . Natur

al ly I had a very weakwil l-power,and thi s

gave the enemy great power over me for evi l ;consequently I was often led to do -wrong

,and

then left in despai r . My mind at thi s t ime wasso much taken up with making money and get

t ing along in the world , that it took away , to’a great extent , the despondency I had on ac

count of so often fall ing . I bel ieve I would

have almost gone out of my mind,because of

my awful conviction of s in,had I not been so

interested in my home , and the getting of this

world’s goods . It was now two years s ince

my first communion . I began to lose al l bel ie fin rel igion . I saw the emptiness o f it al l

,and

I did not derive from con fess ion that which I

had expected . Th e consolation which I firstused to receive was fast leaving me

,and I felt


as though I was wandering in the dark . The

only glimmering of hope that I had was thatthe time of my confirmation was drawingnearer .

Now I thought that I would be made a per

fect Christian , and no more would I have thataching void

,but that confirmation would sati s fy

the hungering after righteousness , which wouldgive contentment to the inmost longing of my

soul . I now thought confirmat ion would bringa change over my inner li fe

,and looked forward

to the time when the good in me would pre

dominate .

The sacrament of confirmation i s permittedto be received before communion

,but , as a rule,

Cathol ic chi ldren receive thei r communion first .

The church teaches that this sacrament makesus strong and perfect Christians . The holyoil mingled with balm

,and blessed by the bi shop

on Holy Thursday,i s called chism . The only

preparation before confirmation i s to make agood confession

,and fervently pray that the

Holy Spirit of God might descend on you . I tis considered an awful s in to neglect being

confirmed , as in this sacrament the seven gi ftsof a l e Holy Spirit are received

,which are : Wis

dom , understanding , counsel , fortitude , knowledge, piety , and the fear of the Lord . You alsoreceive grace to confess the Cathol ic faithopenly .

After the bishop confirms you,he gives you

a stroke upon the cheek to recal l to your mind


that confirmation strengthens you to suffer, andi f necessary to die

,for the church .

The long- looked- for day arrived . It I S morning . I had spent a sleepless night thinking ,

with mingled j oy and fear,of the great bless

ings I would so soon experience . I though t thatsoon I would feel God’s presence within me , thatIwas coming nearer and nearer Him

,for the

bishop i s cons idered to have more power withGod than the priest

,and I longed for the trans

formation which I thought would take place

in my soul .

Aswe went to first communion , so we wentto confirmat ion

, in a process ion to the church .

I can remember with what feel ings of holy

expectancy I knelt at the altar rai l ; howI feltthat the bi shop was near and I dare not l i ft my

eyes to look at him . I could see him as hepronounced a benediction on the first ch ild 1n

the row, and nearer and nearer he drew towardme . At last he stands in front of me and offers

up a prayer in Latin ; then he gives me a stroke

on the cheek , and he has passed on to the next .My heart ceases to beat , and I can think of

nothing . Presently the last chi ld i s blessed andwe return to our seats . The service of Mass

i s celebrated , and we are exhorted and encour

aged to continue in the faith . Itwas nearlytwo o’clock in the afternoon when I got home ,and I felt Very t ired .

Again Iwas disappointed , for confirmationbrought me nothing . The desire to do evi l wasas strong upon me as ever . A l l my hopes had


fal len to the ground , and , as before , al l wasemptiness in my soul . I came to the conclusionthat there was nothing in rel igion but forms andceremonies . Now I cal l them vanity and l ies

,

and bind the gospel to my heart . ” But as Iwas taught that thi s was the only rel igion bywhich a man could enter heaven

,I became

wholly resigned and made up my mind that

perhaps through the priest’s intercess1ons andprayers

,I might in some way enter heaven

,be

l ieving that this was the only open door .

Shortly after thi s I gave up my srtuation in

the store and went to work in a factory wherethe hours were shorter . One day as my chum

and I were passing the saloon,the saloon

keeper induced us to go in and have a game ofpool . One game

,h e said

,would cos t us no

thing My chum consented . I hesitated fora time

,but afterward j oined him. We found it

so pleasant that first afternoon that we soonwent again

,and soon all our spare time and

money-

went in the same way . After the firstday we were charged ten cents a game

,and

somet imes a game can easi ly be played in tenminutes . The day I stepped across the thres

hold of that saloon was the day that I started togo down into the darkness and blackness of hell .God only knows what a young man learns whenhe frequents such places . As time went on Ibecame one of the saloon-keeper’s favorites

,and

often was entrusted with the bar in hi s absence .

A shudder comes over me when I think of thesin and misery I beheld during my stay at thi s


44 My Life ,Travels and S ermons .

fluence of l iquor, l eaving his wi fe and familywith no means of support , but with the blackened memory of an unfaith ful husband , and

heartless father,who spent the money , so much

needed at home,to support in luxury the wife

and,children of another . Oh , dreadful thought"

I was the man who served him the stuff thathelped to send him— where -I know not .

I t was a common occurrence . fo-r young mento come into the saloon , perfectly sober ,withmoney in thei r pockets , and when all thei rmoney was spent— even before and perhapswhi le drunk— they would be pushed headlong

out upon the street by the rough hand of thesaloon-keeper . I have seen them lie as theyfel l thus for some time

,and watched the blood

trickle down the sidewalk from the cut in thei rheads caused by their fall . I t i s hard to makeyoung men who hold a good social position

,and

who walk up to the bar for the first time to takea social glass , bel ieve that they wi ll ever cometo this . Oh"young man

,i f you wish to remain

a man and retain your sel f-respect,and continue

to respect womankind as you'

now do,take the

advice of one who has watched the physical andmoral destruction of many .

S ince God has l i fted me up out of this sloughof misery and degradation

,my heart goes out

in a great longing,and pity

,to save

,if poss ible ,

the multitudes of young men who are takingtheir first steps in this downward road

,which

the devil has paved for the certain destructionof both soul and body . I would say to the


young men,DO not do as I did and when

the saloon-keeper invites you in for a free gameof pool or for a treat , give a decided NO , and

pass on .

One day my factory employer came to meand sa1d ° Frank

,I want a man that I can

trust to stay in the factory at night to keepwatch . Would you l ike the s ituation" I

thought a while,accepted the offer , and gave

up the work in the hotel . I watched the factoryat night

,slept in the forenoon and put in the

afternoon according to my own sweet wil l .

A fter a time I found employment for myspare time in the factory . Here I worked , both

in the afternoon and night,for nearly eighteen

months,when I took very ill of measles , which

were raging in the town at that time . Our

whole family lay s ick . This was an awful t ime

for mother . Night after night she watchedover us

,and with affection I shal l always

remember her faithfulness and tenderness dur

ing this time of affliction .

Milo , my youngest brother, was a very smartchi ld

,and much beloved by al l who knew him .

He always came running to meet me when I

came home from work,with hi s l i tt le arms out

stretched and hi s l ittle face upturned to mine .

He was a child possessed of those cheery,inno

cent ways which become so endearing to olderpeople . In his l ittle cradle he lay

,and was very

i l l,but through al l we thought he would re

cover . One day a great change came over himHe waved his l ittle hands and seemed to be


trying to speak . We were al l about him as helay in his cradle , and as we watched him hequietly sank to sleep . After a wh i le we put himto bed

,and mother lay down beside him . She

being very tired fel l asleep , and when she awoke

he was dead .

How our hearts were again fi l led with sorrowand how we missed him"No more did wehear his cheery prattle about the house . Nomore did we hear the patter of l ittle feet coming

to meet us . E vervwhere about the house andeverywhere we went we found something toremind us of “ l ittle M i lo .

We buried him in the Cathol ic cemetery inthe holy ground

,with great confidence that he

had gone to heaven . Thi s was a great tie between us and eternity . Up to this time

,mother

and I wept a great deal over father’s suddendeath

,and the way in which he was buried

,and

because of his be ing deprived of the bless ingsof the Church .

When we first moved to Gananoque motherhad natural ly unbosomed her trouble to thepriest . He advised her to make a general confession to him of all the sins my father had

committed which were known to her, and toreceive communion for him

,for the Ohurch

teaches that the l iving can do penance and act

for the souls in purgatory .

At first a fter father’s deat h my wages werevery low . It took great economy to keep thefamily’s wants supplied

,for there were seven

chi ldren of us . Yet we deprived ourselves of


many things to rai se money to have masses said

for the repose of father’s soul . We could notbear the thought of hi s suffering in purgatory .

It seems hard to think of this priest l iving onthe fat of the land

,with all the luxury and ease

it i s poss ible to get,wearing the best and car-1

rying a gold-headed cane , and taking money

from a poor widow for that wh ich he knew hecouldn’t give . A fter death the minister mavpreach

,and your friends may pray and persuade

themselves to bel ieve that you are in heaven,but

look to it yoursel f,brother

,

'

sister,that you are

sure of heaven . I beseech you,brethren

,for

Jesus’sake,to make sure that you are accepted

of Him . Rest not unti l you have received thewitness of the Spirit . Care not for the world

or what the world may think of you . Let people cal l you what they l ike

,but lose not your

immortal soul : For what wi ll i t profit a mani f he shal l gain the whole world and lose hisown soul

When I recovered from the measles I shortlya fterward gave up working in the factory , not

being very strong. I accepted a s ituation and

took charge of a bi l l iardroom,I being an ex

pert poo l-player . Few men in Gananoque couldbeat me . In this place I first commenced toplay for money . We would often gamble anddrink unti l nearly morning . Mother never feltsati sfied to have me out so late at nights

,but I

loved that gay ,wi ld l i fe . I made plenty of

friends , and felt happy while with them . Weoften went on excursions and h ad gay times


together in other towns . My mother at lastsucceeded in persuading me to leave the bil l iardroom . By thi s time I was wel l steeped in tobacco

,could drink freely, and was quite a gam

bler . Being out of work, I determined to seemore of the world

,so made my way to the city

of Ottawa .

When I arrived in Ottawa,fortunately I fel l

in with good company . I succeeded in gett ing

a good situation and boarded with an aunt , whowas very kind to me . I remained there foreight or nine months , when my grandfather andgrandmother

,who were both very old

,andwho

wished to vi sit my uncle in Norwood,asked

me to accompany and,assi st them on the j ourney .

I did so,and had a pleasant vis it at my uncle’s .

Shortly after I returned home . My two cousins ,whose home was in the vicinity o f Toronto , werevis iting in Gananoque , and persuaded me toreturn home with them . Thinking therewasa good prospect of making money

,I did so . I t

was a failure,however

,and I returned home

quite sati sfied with what I had seen of theworld

,and will ing to remain there . In the

spring I hired with a Protestant farmer forthe summer months . He proved to be a beauti ful Christian . Night and morning the largefamily B ible was brought out

,a chapter was

read,and prayer offered . I l iked very much

what I heard read from the B ible . I d id nothear much of the prayer

,as my prej udice would

ri se up to such an extent I would put my handsover my ears to shut out the sound . Neverthe

Days of B oyhood. 49

l ess,the good seed sown in my young heart in

that home has never ceased growing to thi s day .

One Sabbath I noticed that they had left theB ible on the window sil l . In the afternoonthey al l went out for a walk . Th i s temptationwas too great for me . I went quickly up to thewindow

,and taking the forbidden Book , hid it

under my coat,and ran to the barn , where I

hid mysel f in the hay loft and read eagerly al lafternoon . I forget now what knowledge I

ga ined ; but what I read took a great ho ld on

my mind . I was very much afraid that the peo

ple might return and miss the book, but to myrel ie f I found that they were sti l l away . I careful ly placed the book back On the window si ll ,leaving it in the same pos it ion as I found it , oras nearly so as I could .

When I returned home , the Holy Spirit , Whohad inspired that book I had been reading

,went

with me , and worked mighti ly upon me . Hegave me an appetite for this spi ritual food .

My soul was hungering and thirsting after the

truth . Oh , how I would have appreciated thehelp of a teacher , but dared not ask a Protestantfor instruction . L ike the two disciples going toEmmaus , my heart burned within me as Chri st

talked with me and revealed Himsel f to me .

And day after day, as I pondered these things

in my heart,I felt l ike the poetwho said

Leave me not to doubt and fear,Groping on in darkness drear .

”

Oh, howgood Godwas to me, when I was

My Life, Travels and S ermons .

groping in the darkness in my search of Him ;and the abiding , genuine peace of rel igion ,through what seemed to me then an accident , Inow look on as providential .While on these trips to the country

,I could

not help notic ing the great difference betweenProtestants and Roman Cathol ics by thewayin which they kept Sundays . The Protestants

seemed to keep the Sabbath so sacred, whilethe Cathol ics

,as soon as Mass was over, would

begin al l sorts of revel ry, such as playing cards ,fishing

,and any kind of recreation . Many

a time,when a viol ini st could be procured , did

we laugh and dance and chat al l afternoon,and

think nothing of i t . My ears were often of

fended at the awful swearing, for although

being thrown a great deal where there wasmuch profanity used

,such as at the hotel , I

never indulged in it much mysel f,and a dread

ful oath always made me shudder .Once when there were miss ionaries in thetown I had hopes of receiving a great deal of

l ight . Two Fathers opened special services inthe Roman Catholic Church . Five services atleast a day were held

,with the obj ect in view

of reviving people,bringing them out

.

to confession

, and making their Easter duties . Usual lywhen special services such as these were conducted , many who had become neglect ful wouldturn again

,and become reinstated .

The first of these serv ices was at 5 a m . forworking men , who could not leave thei r employment to attend the day services . Itwas


5 2 My L ife,Travels and S ermons .

Romans : For they being ignorant of God’srighteousness , and going about to establ ish

their own righteousness , have not submittedthemselves unto the righteousness of God . For

Christ i s the end of the law for righteousness

to every one that bel ieveth . For Moses describeth the righteousness which i s o f the law,that the man which doeth those things shal l

l ive by them . But the righteousness which i sof faith speaketh on thi s wise

, Say not in thine

heart,who shal l ascend into heaven"( that i s ,

to bring Christ down from above ) or, who shal l

descend into the deep"( that i s , to bring upChrist from the dead ) . But what saith it"

The word i s nigh thee , even in thy mouth , and

in thy heart ; that i s , the word of faith , wh ich we

preach : that i f thou shalt confess with thy mouththe Lord Jesus

,and shalt bel ieve in thine heart

that God hath raised,Him from the dead , thou

shalt be saved . For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness

,and with the mouth

confession is made unto salvation . For theScripture saith

,Whosoever bel ieveth on Him

shall not be ashamed . For there i s no differ

ance between the Jewand the Greek : for thesame Lord over al l i s rich unto al l that callupon Him . Forwhosoever shal l cal l upon thename of the Lord shal l be saved .

”

I dearly loved to ramble about the woods atmy will . O ftt imes I would l ie by the creekunder a tree on the cool grass

,and l i sten to the

water rippling on the pebbles . I del ighted towatch the little birds flying from tree to tree


and l i sten to them s inging in al l their joy andfreedom . And perhaps again whi le watching

the fleecy clouds floating in the blue sky I wouldl ie, and think , and think , and think . I specu

lated on what I would do when I became aman . I thought of the money that I wouldearn ,

and the money I would save . I imaginedwhat I would buy

,and the kind of people I

would associate with,and what I would

,do for

mother and the l ittle ones . At such times thewoods would seem so tranqui l and peaceful .

The l ittle insects and birds , and even the leaves

on the trees as they rustled in the breeze , seemedto be whispering joy, joy , joy, and peace , peace ,peace

,and I wondered why was not man so .

Whatwas thi s spi rit o f di scontent which layin man’s breast . Why could al l people not l ivein harmony and peace" Why had I not thi s

spi ri t of calm which seemed to be pervading

and fi l l ing everything except’

my own breast"I twas the result of s in . Th i s dreadful burdenof s in

,which was weighing men down , was the

cause ofmy discontent . Was there no remedy"

Was I to go on forever l ike this : saying beads,doing penance

,wearing scapulars

,making

con fess ion , and yet no rel ie f"I wondered i f Iwould ever get to heaven . I longed for heaven ,yet I knew that no s in would enter that place .

I ‘was told that the soul could be cleansed frommuch sin in purgatory , and that for mortal s inthere i s no escape from h el l . The mortal s insare these : ea ting meat on Friday , missing Mass ,murder, and the grosser s ins . I saw people


l iving good lives , and I wonderedwhy I couldnot l ive good l ike they did . My poor soulwaslonging for Jesus

,but I did not know it , and I

would l ie there in those woods until I wouldbecome sad

,my heart d isconsolate , and my l i fe

dark and helpless . I was very fond of s inging

and knew a great many songs . Very Often Iwould hear Protestants singing hymns . I some

times also heard them praying aloud , but wouldnever al low mysel f to l i sten to them , as I considered i t a great s in . Roman Cathol ics con

sider it no sin to take part in playing ball , fish

ing, dancing, and such amusements on Sabbath

afternoons,providing that they attend Mass in

the morning . It was a common thing for me

after I had attended Mass on Sabbath morningto return home , and after an early dinner, getout my boat and fishing tackle

,and

,with a suf

ficient supply of beer and whiskey,start Off up

the river with my young comrades to spend the

rest of the day in fishing,drinking

,bal l-playing ,

and such l ike . Some have said to me ,“ Mr .

Coleman , did the priest al low you to do thesethings"” I have always answered

,Yes , the

priest himsel f setting the example . Father

Kelly, our parish priest,when he went to S t .

John’s I sland to say Mass

,was known more thanonce to take part in the games played there onthe Sabbath , and itwas reported around that hehad been under the influence of strong drinkmore than once . When such priests are questioned about drinking whiskey

_to excess , the

answer invariably i s : Don’t do as I do , but

Days of Boyhood. 55

as I say . I might j ust say here , that in al lthe t imes I have con fessed to the pri est he nevertold me not to drink whiskey , but would alwaysask me i f I had been guilty of drinking to excess . I f not

,nothing more was said .

My brothers and s i sters were nowgrown upand earning money for themselves , consequentlydid not require so much of my support , and leftme with le ss responsibi l ity

,and I for the first

t ime since my father’s death sawmyway clearto learn a trade . I scarcely knew at first whatto go at . A cousin of mine came over one evening and asked me to shave him ,

so I having nothing better

,sharpened up an old case-kni fe

and went at it . At last I got through , and Ithink I enjoyed it much more than he d id

,as he

never wished to have it repeated in j ust the

sameway . Iwas so pleased with the succes sI had with my cousin that I decided barberingshould be my trade . In less than one year Ihad learned my trade

,and I set up a nice l ittle

shop of my own at Lansdowne S tation . At this

I worked very hard . O ften it would be two or

three o’clock in the morning before my workwas done . Saturdaywas always my hardestday , the shop being often thronged unti l Sunday

morning . I twas during this time that I first

met my wi fe . I got acquainted with her on the

twenty-fourth of May, and in the following

autumnwe were married . I had“ never beenknown to keep company with a young lady be

fore , and had never even been seen walking on

the street with one . Though my li fe had been


rough in many respects , I had never been wanting Iin respect towards womankind . No doubtI was very ignorant concerning the rules o fcourtship

,

' but nevertheless one evening shepromised to be mine . My wi fe being a Pro

testant and I a Cathol ic,she kindlv consented ,

after some persuasion , to be married by thepriest ; and on the first Sabbath the priest cameout to Lansdowne S tation to say Mass , I wentto see him about marrying thi s Protestant girl .He urged me very strongly to have nothing todo with her

,and gave me no decided answer

as to whether he would marry us or not . Ireturned to my shOp thinking very seriously ,and shutting mysel f up in my own room , knelt

down,and took my beads to pray to Mary , the

mother of God,and to the saints , desi ring

direction as to whether I should marry this ladyor not ; not des iring the curse of the church to

rest on me .

Whether the saints answered me or not, Iknow not

,but one thing I do know ,

that thelonger I prayed the more determined I felt inmy own mind that she alone should be my wife .

A decided next to write the priest a letter informing him of my deci sion . He answered myletter tel l ing me

,i f I was determined to

marry, to come to Gananoque , and that aftercertain conditions had been met

,he would

marry us .

On the twentieth of July, 1886, I being now

twenty-two years of age,we drove to Ganan

oque , a di stance of eight miles,to the priest’s

Days of B oyhood. 57

house .

'

He read to us the rules with whichwe would have to comply . F i rst we had topromise that i f chi ldren should come to our

home,we would bring them up in the R0

man Cathol ic fa‘ith . Another was that I wasnever to attend a Protestant service . Weagreed to these . There were many others , toonumerous to mention . I then went to confes

s ion . At confess ion the priest told me that I

could not have the blessing of the church onmy marriage . He would simply marry me as

aProtestant i s married . Soon M i ss Watt s wascal led to my side

,and she became my wi fe .

My wife’s parents were ve ry much opposed to

our marriage,for

,she be'ing a Protestant , they

feared that the difference of rel igion might

bring trouble to our home . A lthough my tradewas prospering at Lansdowne

,I st i l l seemed to

cl ing to Gananoque,as the re my young days

were principally spent,and there was the home

of al l my friends and acquaintances . So I' gave

up my bus iness and moved back to my formerhome . Here I bought a comfortable house on

S tone street,and secured a position as appren

tice in a spring shOp,where I remained

,for a

number of years . As our health was good,and

my wages afforded us a comfor table l iving,we

spent our spare time in a round of gaiety and

pleasure—seeking . Most of our eveningswere spentvis iting from house to house

,playing cards, danc

ing, and s inging . My wi fe , who was very fond

of this kind of l i fe,made it very pleasant for

me . For three years our l ives were spent in


this way—careless and happy, life was one roundof pleasures

,and in al l thi s t ime the only

thought that marred my happine sswa s thatmy wi fe was not a Roman Cathol ic . I nevermentioned thi s thought to my wi fe

,therefore

we never disagreed on religion or any other im

portant subj ect, and , as a natural consequence ,our l i fe was one of peace and happiness .

On the Sabbath we would leave home together

,go as far as the corner

,where we would

part,she going to the Methodi st Church

,and I

going to the Roman . The Methodist people

would usual ly be dismissed first,and my wi fe

would come and wait at the corner,near the

Roman Church,unti l I would come out and

j oin her . Then we would return home together . For a number of years my wi fe and Inever mentioned rel igion to each other : Veryoften my wife would come to my church with

me and wait in one of the pews wh i le I went toconfession . While at confess ion the priest

would particularly warn me not to attend anyProtestant church

,or rel igious meeting .

’

Itried to convince the priest that it might be better for me to sometimes attend the MethodistChurch , with my wi fe, so that she might comemore often to the Roman Church with me , andthat in this way I mightwin her over in timeto the Cathol ic faith . But the priest would not

permit me to do so,fearing so doubt that I

would be led astray . Although I never saidanything to my wi fe respect ing her rel igion , yetI felt anxious that she should reach heaven . I



chips . It was soaked with rain , and its leaveswere stuck together . I brought it into thehouse

,and my wife told me it was a B ible . The

covers were torn off , and al l Genesi s was gone .also nineteen chapters of Exodus . I looked atthe first page

,and there before my eyes were

the words,

“Thou shalt not make unto thee

any graven image ,” and I read on through the

commandments . I took this l ittle book homewith me

,and night after night I was lost deep

in the wonderswhich I found in it . Throughthe day

,while at my work in the shop

,I would

think of what I had been reading,and longed

to know for mysel f what the Cathol ic Bible wasl ike, as I could not help but bel ieve that theremust be a vast difference between the two books .

From Romanism to Protes tantism. 6 1

CHAPTER I II .

FROM ROMANISM TO PROTEST

ANTI SM .

One evening, which i s a memorable one to

me,we were out to a dance in a Cathol ic home ,

and my wife happened to notice a Roman Cathol ic Bible lying on the table . She opened it and

began to read .

’

Itwas that chapter where ourS aviour turns the water into wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee I not iced that mywi fe continued reading a long time ,

'

and notic ing

howsuddenly serious she had become , Iwondered at her thought fulness .On my way home , I asked her what she hadbeen reading .

“ Oh , she said,

“ I was j ustglancing through the Bible I sawthere . Iwasreading in the second chapter of S t . John ; and ,Frank

,that chapter reads j ust the same as it

does in our B ible ; what would you think ifboth B ibles were the same t " I felt somewhatindignant at the question , and at the thoughtthat there could pos s ibly be any compari sonbetween the two books . I thought that theCathol ic B ible must be so mudh the superior .

However, I said nothing, but determined in myown mind to have a Cathol ic B ible

,and convince

her some day of the vast difference therewasbetween the two books . For the next week


religion was the chief topic in our home . Wetalked much on the subj ect , but both tried , Ibel ieve

,not to hurt the other’s feel ings .

Going and coming from the factory,and while

busy at my work , my mind was fi l led with con

flicting thoughts . My l i fewas j ust as great amixture . One evening at the dance, anotherspent at the card table, and yet another thinking

and talking earnestly on the subj ect of rel igion .

Must this state of things continue"How shouldthey be settled" What wi l l be the end"Ianxiously asked mysel f . I must confess

, on

looking back now, that I was then in a stateof great spiritual darkness .

Oh, th e darkness,how it thickened ,

L ike the brooding of despair"”

And yet I bel ieve God was leading me . The

Good Sh epherd had come to seek and to saveme ; nor did He leave me unti l I was safewithin the fold . Before this

,my wife and I

had reached the deci sion to each have a largefamily Bible of our own ; but before purchasingthem my wife urged me to first borrow aCatholic B ible

,so that we might compare them ,

and i f they were the same s‘he economical lydeclared that “ one Bible would be sufficientfor both of us . ” I thought it a reasonablerequest

,and determined to borrow one at the

first opportunity . I would say here, that thoughBibles are sometimes found in Cathol ic homes

,

they are never supposed to read them, as thepriest is supposed to be the only proper interpreter .

F rom Romanism to Protes tantism. 63

My wi fe had given me to understand thati f I could find the Roman Cathol ic doct rine inthe Cathol ic Bible

,she would be a Cathol ic as

I was . So I borrowed a B ible and I searched ,and searched

,but could find nothing about con

fessing to the priest,or holy water

,or praying

to the saints . Nothing about purgatory ( thatplace of punishment in the next world ,wheresouls have to suffer before they reach heaven ) ,nothing about Mas s or transubstantiation . The

only difference I could find was that one saidRepent

,

” and the other Do penance ;” one

said,Veri ly

,veri ly , I say unto thee,

” and theother said , Amen , amen , I say unto thee, andI turned over lea f after lea f

,thinking that

at every page I would find someth ing aboutour doctrine

,unti l I reached the end , but closed

the book in despai r,feel ing that I had been

awfully deceived,and I made up my mind I

would not go to confess ion , or conform to anymore rules until I had received more light

,and

was convinced of the rights of rel igion .

The Church’s teaching i s to pray to the Virgin

Mary to intercede for us at the throne of mercy,and that she has great power with her Son Jesus ,consequently the most of prayers are offered toher . I could find nothing of the Virgin havingthis power .

In the second chapter of John, 3

-

5 , I readthat at the marriage in Cana of Gal i lee whenthey wanted wine

,Mary said to Jesus , They

have no wine .

” Jesus answered ,“ Woman ,

what Ihave I to do with thee"M ine hour i s not


yet come . You will notice she i s not referredto as mother , but our Saviour only says , Wo

man ,” and He cal ls God Father . Nor could

I find any place where He call s her mother .In the fi fth verse she tell s the servants to doas He bids them , and in the twel fth chapter ofMatthew , 47

-

50, we read , Then said one untoHim ,

B ehold Thy mother and Thy brethrenstand without desiring to speak with Thee .

But He answered and said unto him , Who i sMy mother"and who are My brethren"AndHe stretched forth His hand toward Hisdisciples and said

,Behold My mother and My

brethren"For whosoever shal l do the will ofMy Father Which i s in heaven, t he same i sMy brother, and sister, and mother . Though

al l reverence be due to her,and we honor her

as a good and saintly woman,and a woman

on whom the blessings of God rested,yet this

chapter proves to us the corrupt teaching thatthe Virgin Mary is any more sacred than anyother saintly woman . And aft er a careful study

of the Holy Scripture , we fai l to find a singlepassage which would cause us to

’

believe thi s

awful doctrine .

On the contrary,Jesus Christ i s the only

Mediator between God and man , for we read ,“ I f any man sin

,we have an Advocate with

the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous .”There

fore,we wish to impress our readers with

the thought that thousands of people are beingdeluded by the teachings that they will get toheaven through the mediation of the Virgin

Mary .


You wil l see in the fi ftieth verse the possibi l ityof being on the same level with her in the s ightof God . The verse reads as fol lows : Forwhosoever shal l do the wil l of My Father Whichis in heaven

,the same is My brother , and s i ster ,

and mother . Reader,notice particularly the

clause,

“ Whosoever shal l do the wil l of MyFather, thus agreeing with another passage ,I f any manwi l l do His wil l , he shal l know of

the doctrine,

” and “Whosoever wi ll , let him

take thewater of l i fe freely .

”This verse

impl ies that we must be born again in order tobecome a brother

,s ister, or mother of Jesus

Christ, Who becomes our Elder B rother .

We find Nicodemus coming to Jesus by nightand receiving such instruction concerning thi snewbirth . We read in the third verse of thethi rd chapter of -John that Jesus said

,Veri ly ,

veri ly,I say unto thee , except a man

' be bornagain he cannot see the Kingdom of God

,and

in the explaining verse we read,Except a

man be born of water and of the Spirit , he can

not enter into the Kingdom of God,

”i.e .

,he

cannot become an hei r of God and a joint-hei rwith Jesus Chri st . Thi s being born again en

grafts us into the True Vine . John xv . 5 says ,I am the Vine

,ye are the branches . Th i s

i s theway we are adopted into God’s family ,and , brother, do not rest content unti l you havethe experience which we read

,of in Romans

vi i i . 16 :“The Spirit i tsel f beareth W i tnesswi th

our spi rit , that we are the dhildren of God .

”

Looking up , I said ,“ Wife

,I am no more


a Roman Cathol ic . I stepped going to Mass ,stopped going to confession, and refused toidenti fy mysel f with any denomination . I became undecided as to the real it ies of rel igion,and sank rapidly in despair, which was so greatI knew not whichway I should turn to obtainl ight . I t seemed as if no man cared for mysoul

,and gradually I sank so lowthat nothing

could reach me,and I felt more and more that

vain was al l earthly help .

My Sabbaths were principal ly spent on thei slands with my associates

,drinking beer, play

ing cards,playing ball , and such l ike . Home

lost its attractions , and as soon as I had hadmy supper

,after my day’s work was over, I

would go up town,trying to drown the awful

thoughts that pervaded my mind by walkingabout the streets and j oining in the revelry .

I hardly ever got home unti l hal f-past ten or

eleven o’clock, and then went to sleep l ike adumb brute

,without ever saying a prayer, and

arose the same way to confront the dangers of

another day without the blessings of God uponme . At the same t ime I tried to cheer mysel fwith the anticipations of the nearness of Chri stmas and New Year’s hol idays . We alwaysmade great preparations

,and indulged in much

joll ity and gaiety at this season .

At last Christmas had come and gone again,

and New Year’swas a thing of the past . Isank deeper and deeper in sin . One night

,

after a day’s sport

,I was making myway home

ward , walking very slowly and thinking over



an evangeli st named Vermilyea , from Bel levi l le .

I h ad always despised these services , whichthe Protestants cal led revivals . ”

My wife had never urged me to attend theProtestant Church , but on this occasion she ihformed me of the meet ings , told me about thegood singing, and asked me i f I would l iketo go . After thinking it over

,I decided to

accompany her, intending to critici se and makelight of the whole service . B e fore I had beenthere long the Holy Ghost began to do Hi s workin my heart . The evangel ist preached from thetext, Go forward"” and pleaded with the people

,with tears in his eyes , urging them to give

up all and follow Jesus . Numbers went forwardand knelt at the penitent form . At last theservice was closed a nd we went home . I didnot make l ight of the service

,as I had intended

doing . Convict ionwas deepening in my soul ,the Holy Spirit was doing His work . In a

few nights I went again,and at the close of

the service the mini ster asked al l thosewho ex ~

pected to get to heaven to stand up . Everyperson in the bui lding seemed to ri se but me .

Just then the old Roman prej udice against theProtestant rel igion rose within me as it hadnot done for years . Someone -beside me j ustthen asked me the question

,Don’t you expect

to get to heaven"” .More through shame thananything else, I then rose to my feet . Nextnight being Lodge night I did not attend

,but

a few nights after thi s,hearing that the revival

services were about to close,I went to hear the

From Romanism to Protes tantism. 69

closing sermon . Thait service I think I wil lnever forget while I l ive . The evangel ist

preached with untold power . My wi fe, through

th e day , had made up her m ind to go forward

to the penitent form that night . Accordingly ,after the sermon was ended and the invitationgiven

,my Wi fe left my side and , with a number

of others who,l ike her, had decided to give up

all and fol low Jesus , made herway to the

penitent bench . S ti l l he continued to plead , andconviction seized upon my soul . My kneesseemed to knock together, and with this awfulconviction of sin

,there came a strong voice

within me bidding me go to the front . Withoutreal iz ing what Iwas do ing, I walked towardthe front and knelt down as a penitent s inner ,will ing to give up al l for the Lord . Iwassti l l very sceptical about the Protestant rel igion ,and as I sought pardon for my soul I offeredup a prayer to God after this manner : O God,i f there i s anything in thi s rel igion , give it tome"” There and then I fel t the burden rol lfrom my heart

,and I real ized that I was free .

Test i fyingwas a thing that I had always op

posed,but nowI stood before a large congre

gation,tel l ing them with j oy the glad news that

God had saved my soul . Before, whenever Iwas in a Protestant house and they began topray, I would put my fingers in my ears , so thatI would not hear them . NowI l i stened withjoy and gladness , and longed for the time tocome when I could rai se my voice to God inprayer and praise .


Some people have asked me whatwas thed ifference between having my sins forgiven atconfession

,and my sins being forgiven by the

Lord . My answer has always been that the

new birthwas so real that God left me withouta doubt that my s ins were forgiven

,and I have

never had a doubt since, whereas before I hadgreat efforts to make mysel f bel ieve, and sti l lI doubted .

I left the church feel ing as I had never feltbefore . Everything changed, as in a twinkl ing .

The streets , the houses , everything looked different . Everywhere I looked I sawnoth ing butjoy, joy, j oy . The trees , and al l l iving things ,seemed to say, Praise the Lord"” Homewas brighter now. I fel t l ike a newman ; anewl i fewas before me . I nowcommenced familyworship, and our first prayers were at our bedside . NowI would not say my prayers frommy book

, or on my beads , or make the s ign of

the cross . I had prayed so much from books ,and knew so many prayers by heart , that Ithought it would not be much of a task to prayaloud

,but I had hardly started before I found

it a great task , and I became si lent . The Lord

seemed to take my conceit from me, and let melearn that self must not pray any more , and God

must be All-in-All to me .My wife had gone forward with me, but had

not got converted . She, nevertheless, beganasking a blessing on our meals, and both our

l ives became holier.

The readerwi l l know that natural ly the news

MR . AND MRS . COLEMAN .


of my conversion soon spread itsel f al l aboutGananoque

,especial ly amongst my associates ,who were mostly Roman Cathol ics , and in a

short time it reached my old mother that I hadturned from the Roman Cathol ic faith and hadj oined wh at they cal led Heretics . ”

My mother wept bitterly , for she thoughtthat her boy had left the only true Church

,and

was lost eternal ly . There would be manyprayers and Masses said for my return to theRoman faith

,and for a short time mother treat

ed me with great kindness in hopes that I wouldreturn again , and I have always been under

'

the impression that the priest had been themeans of turning her away from me , forwhenI remained unshaken in my rel igion

,my mother

became cold,and di stant

,and final ly ceased to

recognize me at al l .The enemy troubled me grea tly with regardto my associates

,as I was converted in the

middle of a very gay career . We had been inthe habit of spending our evenings card-playing,and such like . I was afraid that

”

a party of

friends would come to our home to spend the

even ing in thi s manner,and I was embarrassed

as to how I would act under the circumstances .But the good Lord opened up thi s Jordan and

del ivered me, for they never came nea r me .

They must have heard of my conversion . Oh ,how good God was to me"Nearly al l myshopmates were Romans , and you can imaginethe commotion that would be rai sed as I enteredthe shop the next morning . Many that I met


on the street laughed and hooted me , and somecast a searching glance at me

,and some smiled

mal iciously . S ome seemed grieved at what they

th ought was my downfal l .I started my work as usual

,and it seemed

as i f I needed so much help from God to sustainme in those trying times . I must say God did

not fai l me on that morning ; He truly i s a

Friend that st icketh closer than a brother .

Our dinner hour lasted about an hour and ahal f . Before this I would always be back tothe factory in hal f an hour

,or less

,and I would

j oin the rest of the laborers in games,such as

pit ching shoulder stones,or horseshoes , and all

such games . But thi s day I stayed at homeand prayed that God would give me grace for

the afternoon’s confl ict and so j ust returned in

time for work at one o clock .

Gananoque i s a great Roman Cathol ic community . My wi fe was afraid to have me goout at night for fear of something happening

to me,for once or twice stones had whistled

past my ears,thrown , I have no doubt , by some

j ealous Church member .

Short ly after my conversion,I purchased a

Bible of my own , and finding it very inconvenient to find the places I wanted

,I e xchanged

it for one with a thumb index, and I began toattend the different Protestant Churches . I

usual ly carri ed my Bible under my arm . The

Roman Church put it down that I was not rightin my mind . O ften when the mini ste r wouldgive out his lesson and text, I would search , and


search,but would have to give up until I would

get home ; then my wife and I would find it .O ften I would ask the person sitting next tome i f that lesson would be found in the O ldor NewTestament . Some of the people beganto find out that I could not find the places , . and

many times I would see them watching me .

At last I got so that sometimes , after lookingover two or three pages , I would hold the bookopen in my hand and look down at the page,j ust as though I had the proper place . Thesewere my disadvantages because of no early

teaching and no Chri stian influence .

Many nights were spent studying the Bible .

Nearly every night I would attend some rel igious meeting, for my hungerwas so great afterrighteousness , and I felt I had been so longdeprived of spiritual ity , that I must hurry andcatch up the long-hidden knowledge . Sometimes I would hitch up my horse and drive tomeeting in othe rwces, often going as far astwenty miles . Oh

,howI would weep when I

read and heard of Jesus , as my first years weremostly spent in thisway .

Never wil l I forget the first evening I wentto class meeting . We had been going to publ icservices al l along

,and someone said

,

“ Whydon

’t you go to class meeting"

” I wonderedwhat that was l ike . Class meetingwas on

Tuesday evening, andwe made ourway to thechurch parlor . There were only a fewwhenwe first entered

,but gradually they kept coming .

In the meantime some strange thoughts



So I kept growing in grace , and in the know

ledge of God my Saviour .

After my conversion I had , with my wife;j oined the church on probation . A fter threemonths we were received in full connection bythe Methodist Church in Gananoque . Rev. Mr .

Hughes,a grand

,noble-hearted Christian min

ister,was pastor . These were the dayswhen

I endured hardship ; having lost al l my Romanfriends

,and not being very wel l acquainted yet

with my Protestant friends , I felt that I was ,in a sense , standing alone . None but Godknows how much Iwas helped by Rev . Mr .

Hughes and by the local workers of our church .

I spent most of my spare time in studying theBible and in secret prayer . I st i l l had al l theroots of the old carnal nature to battle with,which made it doubly hard for me . Th ere were

the roots of fear,anger , pride, etc . After I

became converted I came to the conclusion thattobacco was a fi lthy habit

,and that I must give

it up . I had been a heavy user of tobacco frommy boyhood . I both smoked and chewed it .I wi ll never forget the Monday morn ing I gaveit up . I fil led my pipe to the top, as usual , andhad my last smoke . It seemed to me that

tobacco never tasted so sweet as it d id to methat morning . After I reached the factory Ipromised the Lord that

,i f gracewas given ,

Iwould never use tobacco again . He took thedesire completely away from me .

My wife’s father told. me , about thi s time ,

of a great revival service going on down at


Lansdowne S tation , conducted by Rev .M r . Cummins

,assi sted by S i sters Birdsi'll and Mason .

My wi fe and I drove down to attend them , andremained over Sunday . Miss B irdsill conductedthe service on Saturday evening , along the l ineof Chri stian perfection . After the meeting wasover I had a long talk with her about the secondbless ing, and how to obtain it . I gave her myexperience along the l ine of conversion

,and

s he in formed me that there was a greater blessing for me

,such as freedom from slavi sh fear,

etc . that the carnal nature might be total ly destroyed, for we read in I . Cor . i i i . I , And I

,

brethren , could not speak unto you as unto

spi ritual , but as unto carnal , even as unto babesin Christ . You see, they are sti l l carnal and

yet in Christ . That i s where S i ster B irdsill

found me . You will notice in Romans v i i i . 6 ,For to be ca rnal ly minded i s dea th ; but to bespi ritual ly m inded is l i fe and peace . My read

er wil l notice that the carnal mind cannot getto heaven . I . John i i i . 8,

For this purposehe Son of Godwas mani fested that He mightdestroy the works of the devil In I . Thess .

2 3, we read ,“ And the very God of peace

sanctify youwholiy .

”

I seemed to feel the need of thi s bles singbecause of fear . I saw in I . John iv . 18

,Th ere

I S no fear in love , but perfect love casteth out

fear,because fear hath torment . He that fear

e th i s not made perfect in love . I knew I wasnot there yet . I had peace , but not perfectpeace ; I had j oy , but not perfect j oy . I hadn’t


that experience that the Apostle Paul had inI . Thess . v . 16

,17 and 18

, where I could re

jorce evermore,” “ pray without ceasing,

” andin everything give thanks . I sawi twas myprivi lege

, and I made up my mind to go forward

on Sunday morning, seeking the bless ing, and ,according to Romans xi i . I

,I presented my

body a l iving sacrifice to God, and God didnot turn me away . In less than one minuteall s lavish fear le ft me enti rely

,and I felt that

I could sav with the Apostle,He whom th e

5 0 1 sets free is free indeed .

”

I went home feel ing that I had an experiencethat I had never known before . I le ft my wi fein Lansdowne for a couple of days . Now comesa very memorable event in my l i fe . I got homevery late at night

,overj oyed at my great free

dom .

The next morning I went to work, feel ing

more j oyous than ever, and that evening I camehome

,and I was so taken up with thi s new

experience that I dressed myself up and.started

off to the meet ing and forgot to eat my supper .

I went to our meeting and told them what Godhad done for me

,and then went to the Salvat ion

Army barracks the same evening to tel l themalso . I prom i sed the Lord -when He

sanctified me that I would do this,and tel l

of the blessing I had received. The S ergeantwho was leading the meeting said that he hadnot received this bless ing

,so he got right down

on his knees among his people , sought andreceived the blessing . Finally

,I was appointed


to conduct a class meeting on Sabbath morning .

The reader wil l understand the feeling of in

abil ity that I had ou conducting a meeting on

such a short experience . I was hoping thatthere would only be a fewat the meeting. The

hour at last arrived,and I gave out a hymn ,

after which we had prayer,and then I read the

first Psalm . I was a l ittle nervous at first , but

the Lord gave me strength and encouragement ,consequently the meetingwas success ful

,be

cause of the presence o f the Lord . From thi s

time forth I had a keen desire to save soul s ,and would often speak privately with thosewhoknew not the Lord .

I remember one evening I met my brotheron the street

,while Iwas burdened for his

soul . We ta lked ti l l nearly eleven o’clock, and,to my great surpri se, he gave his heart to theLord a fewdays afterwards . I took him to

my home, and we had a pleasant time . I must

say here that he had no less to contend withthan I had ; he being much younger than I ,the world had a great hold on him . Many

times since I have seen him stand on the streetcorner, and sing and give his experience .O ften I mysel f have worked for God bytesti fying wherever I got a chance

,holding

meetings here and there, both on the street andin the field. Many of my old associates would

come to the meetings when Iwas going tospeak, and as soon as Iwas through they wouldleave the building . One day

,at the factory

,

the’

men began talking to me about the change

80 M31 Life, Travels and S ermons .

that had taken place in my li fe . In a short:time they surrounded me , and wanted me

'

to

return to my old rel igion . I told them I waswil l-ing to

,on conditions that thei r doctrine

could be found in their B ible . I al so said Iwould go with them to the priest’s home

,and

would take my B ible with me,and ask h im

where the apostles heard confession,and used

holy water,or took money for prayers

, or evensaid Mass

,for on the contrary

,Jesus sent them

to preach repentance . Jesus said Freely yehave received

,freely give

,

” and Th i s Gospel

i s without money,and without price .

”

I soon found out I was not wanted at thepriest

’s h ome . For a time the whole topic of

conversation was,Who can know their s ins

are forgiven"” and while these days were verytesting to my experience, the Lord was always

very present with me,and passage after passage

of S cripture would come to my mind to encourage me . Sometimes , on Monday nights , themen would coax me to go into the h otel tohave a social drink

,and go back to my old habits .

I have often thought since that that was a wol fin sheep’s clothing .

I went home several times to see mother, and

sometimes was led to read from the blessedbook . One day my wife went to see her andfound a big change in her . We think thepriest brought it about . She said to my wi fe ,Tell Frank never to darken my door again ,for i f he returns I shall scald him .

” At firstIwas under the impression that everyone would

From Romanism to Protes tantism. S r

be glad to hear of my new-found joy,but I

found it quite th e contrary . Whenever an

opportunity presented itsel f to me for work, I

never refused . Sometimes the minister would

be holding special services,and would ask me

to take a service for him ; consequently in thisway I could work for the Lord .

I used to work al l day and in the eveningshold services about three miles away . Here I

received much persecution , and often theywhoopposed me would come and try to disturb themeetings . Quite frequently they would throwth ings in when the door would open . The Lord

gave me grace to bear this , with many otherthings

,and through it all I never felt a move of

anger, or fear, or pride in my hea rt , for with

the Apostles,in the forty-first verse of

the fi fth chapter of Acts,I could rej oice

to‘

know I was worthy to suffer shamefor the Master’s sake . When I think ofwh at the Apostles suffered for the Lord , itmakes my offences very l ight . I might j uststate here the persecuti ons of the ApostlesMatthewwas martyred in a city of Ethiopia .

Markwas dragged through the streets of Alexandria

,Egypt

,t i l l he expired . Luke was hanged

on an ol ive tree in Greece . Johnwas miracul:ously delivered from a cauldron of boil ing oil

in Rome,and ban i shed to the I sle of Patmos ,

where hewas permitted to witness the wonderful apocalpytic vision , and i s probably the onlyonewho d ied a natural death . Paulwas beheaded ou Nero’s block without the gates of

82 My Life,Tm '

vels and S ermons .

Rome . James the Elderwas slain with thesword . James the Lesswas thrown from apinnacle of the temple and beaten to death witha fuller’s club . Andrewwas crucified on across in Armenia

,and preached to the crowd

ti l l he expired . Bartholomew was flayed al iveby order of a barbarous king . Thomas pen

etrated away to the interior of India , and theresuffered martyrdom by having a cruel i ron

thrust through hi s body . Through coming up

out of great tribulation , having washed our

robes and made them white in the blood of theLamb

,we shall pass through the gates into the

city,henceforth to serve close by the. throne of

God . My heart cont inual ly rose in prayer that

God would spare them a little longer, unti l theywould see the true Light .One evening

,when returning home from the

service, a shower of stones fol lowed me , and ,praise the Lord

,there wasn’t one touched me .

I simply bel ieved that God would protect me ,and according to my faith it was done untome . When the stones ceased to fly

,and I had

gone a l ittle further,I knelt down by the road

side and prayed,thanking the Lord for del iver

ing me .

After this I felt strongly impressed to go

and hold meet ings e ight or nine miles away,but felt my inabil ity to work alone . I prayed tothe Lord to give me help

,and He seemed to

direct me to a young manwho kindly consentedto help me . The name of thi s place was MarbleRock . I might say that at this place no rel igious


84 My L ife, Travels and S ermons .

rose so high at th i s t ime that every church , hal l,and schoolhousewas closed against me . No

place was left but the open grove or street corner . Many times during the past year I hadavailed mysel f of these privileges , with markedsuccess .As I said before , this young man . kindly con

sented to help me in the services at Marble Rock .

We had one service on Sabbath morning aton a large hi l l . Many people came to

the service . Numbers , no doubt , through curiosity, others to make l ight of it . We hadmorning and afternoon service

,and a brother

Oddfel low kindly consented to let us have hishouse for the night service . Thi swas a memor

able service to me . After my fri end had

preached , I gave out a hymn , and we made thedamper of the stove our first penitent

‘

form .

Five souls knelt that evening at the altar, andcried to God for me rcy . On the Sabbath daysfor two years

,these services were cont inued

by us . My text bookwas the Canadian Hymnal .When I preached

,i t was general ly from some

such hymn as,There i s a fountain fi l led with

blood,or

,What a Friend we have in Jesus .

On this hi l l I first met Brother F rank Goff,his home being only di stant a fewmiles . I tseems to me that I can see him st il l , s itting atthe trunk of a large tree . He held up hi s handfor prayer

,des iring to be remembered . Some

time after this Brother Goff sold out his earthlypossessions and went out as an evangel i st .

Thousands have since been converted throughhis instrumental ity .


As people sawthe good work thatwas beingdone the opposition gradual ly decreased , and I

was given a schoolhouse to preach in .

One eveningwe were much disturbed by anumber of young men in our meet ing . I toldthem thatwe must have order . After the servicewas over a number of them laid wait forme on the road bywhich I usual ly reached myhome ; but the Lord took me home anothe r waytha t night . To God be al l the glory .

I sti l l worked in the shop , but spent muchof my time lin this kind of work . Final ly Iwasimpres sed to go and spend a week or two ingiving my l i fe

’s experience night after night .

No doubt you will know that I had some hardships to endure . On one occas ion , after securing a schoolhouse to del iver my lecture in , theRomans found out my intentions , and they suc

ceeded in frustrating my plans by having theschool closed ; but a committee kindly rented

me a hall , and after my lecture was del ivered

they refused to take pay .

Short ly after this a young evangel ist washolding a revival about twenty-two miles frommy home . I had been help ing him,

and on

S abbath morning I announced that I wouldreturn on the fol lowing Tuesday evening togive my l i fe’s experience . The night turned outrough and stormy , and the roads impas sable ,forcing me to stay at home . Afterwards Iwasinformed that this night a number of men hadprepared to mob me . I have always bel ievedthat God brought about this storm to protect me


from evil . Never before or s ince have I disappointed a congregation , and Iwas taught byGod that He could prot ect mewhen I workedfor His glory .

We used to have cottage prayer meetings in

different homes in the town , call ing ourselvesThe Praying Band .

” Many times , whenpeople have been seriously i l l

,they would send

for us and have us pray for them . Never will

I forget one Sabbath afternoon . While beinggreatly burdened for my own people , i t seemedthat the Lord revealed the lost soul s to me asnever before

,and I received from Him what

I had never yet experienced . I had never hearda sermon on the baptism of fire

,but I knew I

had ‘it . I felt i t in my flesh,and as a fire shut

up in my bones that I could not stay . Thi s mademe more eager than ever to work for the Lord .

I remember one Sabbath night Iwas manym i les from home, and being caught in a storm ,

I did not get back unti l eight o’clock on Mondaymorning, too late to go to my work . I did not

understand why the Lord al lowed me to losemy forenoon’s work

,but I found out afterwards

—He had something for me to do . A ladywas passing away

,and requested me to go

and see her as soon as I returned . She wantedme to pray and sing for her

,but the Lord took

her away, and I expect to see her some day .

I nowreceived word to go and hold revivalservices about eighteen miles away ; so I went ,and on the first Sabbath morningwe had verygood success . No less than four pro fessed

Fro/m Romanism to Protes tantism. 87

salvation at that meeting . I worked there forabout a week

,while the enemy sorely tempted

me to quit the work and go home . I

thought itwas the voice of the Lord,and I

gave up the work, and went home with my

mind ful ly made up to never take another service . I thought I would j ust go to meeting,

go home , and confine mysel f to that . I thoughtth e Lord did not wi sh me to do work in thatway, and that Iwas dishonoring Him . Myfather—in-lawfor a long time had been anxiousfor my wi fe and I to go and l ive on a farm withhim.


CHAPTER IV .

MY CALL TO THE WORK .

In a short t imewe moved on a nice farm in

Springfield , a distance of about s ixteen miles .Here I sunk mysel f seven hundred dollars indebt . I had made up my mind to let no one

know that I had been a worker,and presented

my letter of recommendation to the minister,that Iwas a member in good standing . For a

month or more I j ust went to church on Sundaysand once through the week . The Rev . Mr .

Robertson,whowas our minister, heard that

I had been in the habit of taking meetings ,and asked me to take work at once . He ap

pointed me to take the morning services at

Rock Port,and God wonderfully blessed me

and my hearers .We commenced farming in March, and were

getting along nicely with the work . The ownerof the farm retired to Brockvil le

,but t iring of

retired l i fe,returned and wanted us to give

back the farm . This I did not want to do, asI l iked outs ide work . I felt that Godwantedme to preach

,but thought tnat I could do i t

and work on the farm too. God soon made thatimposs ible

,and showed me clearly that He want

ed me in the Gospel work .

On the fol lowing twenty-fourth of May my

My Call to the Work. 89

wi fe and I drove out to see a friend , and on our

return our horse ran away and pitched us bothout of the rig. My wi fe received no inj uries ,but I had a couple of ribs broken , which mademe unable to do my work . We were milkingforty-s ix cows at the t ime, so in a fewdays afterthe accident my wi fe’s wrists began to pain ;the painwas so severe she could not sleep, and

in a fewdays more the hired man took sick,leaving my wi fe’s father to milk the forty-sixcows .

It seemed impossible at this time to hire a

man or woman . The owner of the farm stil lwanted it back , and offered to take everythingoff my hands , and give me one hundred dollarsfor the time Iwas on it . I accepted this offerand in a short time moved back to Gananoquein our own house again . In thi sway the Lordblocked myway for farming, and I felt moreand more convinced that He h ad called me intothe work, and yet I did not feel sure .

About six.

months passed away,and stil l the

cal lwas before me . At last I said , Lord,i f

i t i s real ly Thy will that I should go into thework , give me some proof .

” I prayed a greatdeal over this , so one night I said , Lord

,i f I

am to go into the work, give me a dream inwhich I am conducting a meeting .

” When Iwoke up I had been right in the work . The

devi l had tried to make me think I would havedreamed that anyway, so I said ; Lord

,Gideon

had the second s ign ,” “

and asked Him to let medream the same again . Again I dreamed of


conducting a meeting . In the morning I saidto my wife

,I have had a definite cal l to the

work,

” but at night I prayed again and said ,

Let not the Lord be angry, and I wil l speakthis once . I f You want me in the Gospel fieldlet me dream that same th ing over again . Inthe morning when I awoke I had been in ameeting al l n ight

,and since that t ime I have

had either to preach or go to h el l .

My reader wi l l remember that at the age of

fourteen I lost my father, and at the age of

twenty-six Iwas converted , losing a mother’ssmiles and affections , and nowI am leaving mydear wife for a whi le to preach the Gospelamong strangers . But I am standing on thatblessed promise

,Lo, I am with you a lway ,

even unto the end of the world .

”

I nowsaid to the Lord , Lord , i f Thou wilt

sel l my horse for me,I shal l start on Thursday .

I then left i t al l with Him , and on WednesdayHe sent the man to buy the horse . Thi s wasa very trying time for me , but according to mypromise

,I gathered my clothes up

,andwas

ready to leave by noon .

We had an early dinner,after wh ich we

prayed together . God only knew i f i t wouldbe the last t ime

,but

,prai se Him

,i t wasn’t . My

wife came with me partway to the station ,and on a big hi l l we kissed ea ch other good

bye and wept . We then parted , and I took thetrain for Aultsville

,where I had a standing

invitation to hold a m’eeting . I was al l of

seven months away from home,and in al l that



Afterwe reached Shawville, late on Saturdaynight

,we had a distance of about ten miles towalk beforewe reached our destination . Aswecl imbed the hil l s and walked through the val leys

on that memorable night,we would pass everyfewmiles a small log house .

Iwas much tried on account of the distancebetween the houses and the

,apparent scarcity

of the people . Surely, I thought , much cannotbe accompli shed here Finally we reachedhome . It had been announced that I wouldpreach three times on the Sabbath . In themorning servicewe had a small congregation ,a larger number in the afternoon , but at nightthe buildingwas packed to the door . The mystery to mewas wh ere the people came from .

Throughout that winter I labored in Claringtondistrict . Th e fol lowing spring I got a largeGospel tent and continued preaching throughthat di strict during the summer . As nearly as

I can remember,I received less than one hun

dred dollars for my first year’swork . Pre

vious to my going out on thi s work I hadearned good wages , sometimes earning as highas fourteen dollars per week ; so my reader wi llunderstand that Iwas not working for money .

When I consecrated mysel f to the Lord for

this work I had promised Him that as long asmy wifewas provided for, and I had the necessaries of l i fe— even though my food should bebread and water—I would not murmur .

While in Lower Canada my health becamevery poor ; so that Iwas unable to proceed with


my work as formerly,and almost thought that

i f thi s should continue,I might have to give

up the work ; and yet it seemed too bad , as theinvitat ions for me to go and preach were numer

ous .Iwas informed by two servants of God ,

that i f I would look to God for health He wouldgrant i t to me . So I made known my desi re tothe Lord and asked Him to restore my health .

In a short t ime my healthwas perfect ly restored ,and with thankful heart I continued my work

with renewed vigor .

Revival work has been my choice , for the

Lord has bles sed my labors very much in

Throwing out the l i fel ine to danger- fraughtmen

,S inking in angui sh where we

’ve never

been .

In the autumn of 1897 I Opened a new churchin the suburbs of Shawvil le, and made my homeat Mr . Will iam McDole

’s . Never wil l I forget

the fatherly and'

motherly care I received from

that aged couple . I remained th ere s ix weeks ;after which I went home on a vis it, having beenabsent about seven months . I spent a pleasanttime at home, including the Christmas hol idays ,for about three weeks . I might say here thataltogether I spent about two years in LowerCanada and in the out ski rts of Ot tawa .

I remember whi le there a voung French lady

got converted . She was very dlever, and one ortwo of her brothers were priests . She bel ieved

that her friends were determined to convey heraway by stealth to the nunnery . Shewas notthen l iving at home , but was among Protestant


friends . When she wished to attend churchwe would form a body guard around her

,and

see her safely to and from the church . Shewasmuch afraid to be alone a moment and wouldwarn us not to leave her . One night her mother

came to the church and tried first to coax andthen to compel her daughter to leave her Pro

testant friends and return home with her . But

to return with her mother meant to give upJesus

,and she chose rather to Suffer affl iction

with the people of God than to enj oy the pleasures of sin for a seasonA Cathol ic man and h is wi fe were also

soundly converted to the Protestant faith . Hispeople strongly urged him to give up the Pro

testant faith,but it was useless to talk along

that l ine to him,for he had experienced the new

birth . About two years a fter his convers ionGod cal led him to the better land . I visited himon his deathbed and witnessed a scene I hopenever to see again . During his last days hisfather

,mother

,and friends visited him

,with the

determination,no doubt

,to persuade him i f pos

sible to renounce hi s newbel ief . The dyingman lay th ere very weak in body, but strong in

the Lord . A day or two after these things hisspirit had fled . His remains were taken to theProtestant church on the day of the fun eral .A large congregation assembled

,for he was wel l

known . The front seats , as usual , were l eft forthe mourners , but no mourners came . Hisfriends refused to pay thi s last mark of respect ,and so strangers buried him . As I witnessed


thi s scene the thought strongly impressed i tsel fon my mind S ome day you wil l be treated in

l ike manner ; but I thought, what differencewil l it make as long as I have Jesus with me"

When thy father and mother forsake thee,then the Lord wil l take thee up .

”

I could relate many other instances i f t imewould permit . Oh, the glorious victory ofwinning thi s class of people from darkness to light"One such instance i s worth the work of a li fe

time .Next I went with my Gospel tent to a place

called Algonquin,and remained there for five

weeks . Numbers were converted to the Lord .

One young man,who attended our meetings ,

and made l ight of them afterwards , took very

i l l of typhoid fever,and in about twenty days

he died.

’During hi s s ickness he had a wonderful

conversion . After sending for me, I went intohis room , and he said , Oh

,Mr . Coleman , Iwas mean in that meeting in refus ing to yield

to the Lord"” He prayed very much , and Godpardoned hi s s ins . The last morning of hi sl i fe, he told the people that hewas ready to

die, and, holding up his hands , said , I see theLord coming.

” In the act of kissing our

Saviour he passed away . We think hi s con

vers ion and dying testimony brought salvationto his wi fe, and many others . All the next

weekwe had great victory . Wholle famil ieswere seen at the altar seeking salvation . Onelady converted in those meetings died shortlyafterward , from consumption . In the last week


or two that she l ived she did nothing but preachto al lwho came to see her . It was wonderfulto hear her"Even hardened sinners

,moved to

the heart , would leave her bedside with tears .

Another lady converted in the same revivalwasso bitterly opposed by her husband for attending

,that he locked the door on her one night

and she had to spend the night in the cellar .

She told afterward that when the morning sunrose she felt sorry . God had been with her inthat cellar as never before , and she had spentmuch of the night prevai l ing with Him in prayerfor the conversion of her family . When I lookback nowand think howvery l ittle i t was thatI gave up for the Lord

,and howwonderful ly

He has blessed my efforts in bringing many outof . darkness into l ight , I feel lost in wonder ,love, and praise . F rom Algonquin I went toForester Falls , and held a revival there . OneMonday evening, to my great surpri se , a fter Ihad dismissed the congregation

,a Presbyterian

friend said to the people, Be seated .

” When

all were seated he walked forward to the front ,carrying a large parcel . He opened it, andl i fting out a beauti ful fur coat , wrapped it aboutmy shoulders

,saying, Here

,Mr . Coleman

,

please accept thi s smal l gi ft from your friends . ”

My heart was fil led with thankfulness . Many

times since that coat has kept me warm andcomfortable, and Iwant to say to the dear people of Forester Fall s that I have the coat yet .My next revival was on the outski rts of Pem

broke,and from there I went to Beachburg .


While I remained at Beachburg I l ived in thehome of Mr . and Mrs . Gracie The town hal lhad been provided for me, and I gave themthree weeks’meetings . Next I went to Shawvil le

,and from there home . After a short rest

at home I went to the outskirts of Carleton

Place,and held a revival of five weeks . God

gave us many soul s . One evening the hotelkeeper

,with a number of his fri ends , drove over

to our meeting . When the invitat ionwasgiven for seekers to come forward , the hotelkeeper came forward with the others . Hewasthe worse for l iquor . The next night , to the surprise of us all , hewas at the meeting in goodtime

,respectably dressed, and when the invita

tion was given , came forward again to the altar .That night he went home a converted man andgave up the business of sel l ing Whiskey entirely .

He became an establ ished fol lower of the LordJesus . Two years after thi s Iwas privi legedto hold meetings in Carfle ton Place . This man’s

home being only about eight miles distant,he

attended the meetings . I found to my delightthat hewas sti l l pressing on in the goodway .

In this second revival hi s W i fe became con

verted. So muchwas accompli shed in thesemeetings that almost directly one whole year’sworkwas open for me . For some reason or

other, perhaps because of my lack of ministerialqual ifications

,I general ly have people attend my

meetingswho will not attend the ordinary services . Thi s seems to be my field of labor . Inthe spring of 1898 I went home for the purpose


of having a rest,and of working a whil e to

make some money for mysel f and wife . Wewere in need of a fewl itt le things for the house ,and besides , we had a fewdebts we wanted toclear off. I had been home about a week whenB rother Frank Goff ,who had been laboring inM eaford, came to my home and asked me toreturn with him . Some money unexpectedlycame to our home which made it pos sible forme to leave home at once . I rode on my wheelfor a distance of two hundred miles or more ,and on a Tlhursdav'I arrived at Mr .D ean’s . They

welcomed me to their home . Bro . Goff had alarge Gospel tent . We first put it up on the 9thl ine, near Meaford . Beforewe had finishedthere we received an invitation to hold our nextrevivall at Clarksburg . When the news reachedClarksburg

,the opposit ion became so great that

the manwho had sent us the invitation mountedhis horse in the night and came over to tel l u snot to come . We simply laughed and said , I fthere are as many devil s in Clarksburg as thereare tiles on the roof, we wil l go anyway .

” Onereason why we were so much opposed in thisplace was becausewe had carelessly left homewithout bringing any recommendations w ith us .

On the next Sabbathwe commenced our revivalin Clarksburg . At first very fewattended .

S ome called us Spiritual i sts , others Dowieites ;and even the Chri stian ministers of Clarksburgwarned their people to be careful about attending these meetings .But with al l thi s oppos ition the Holy Ghost ,


100 My Life, Travels , and S ermons .

himsel f of the though t that he did not possessthi s real peace— f f the gi ft of God

’s love .

” Atlast

,he thought, I am going to get rid of thi s . ”

So he went out in the orchard and had a smoke .

But the pipewas not suffi cient to smother thesti ll, small voice in hi s hea rt. So he enteredthe house and inquired , Where is that hymnbook"”They gave it to him . He Opened the book ,and there before hi s eyes lay the hymn that hadso troubled him . He read it through , closedthe book

,and went outside much troubled . I

will soon get rid of thi s,” he said to himsel f , so

he proceeded to take two or three drinksthinking this would help him"But not so. Con

viction only deepened ; and I have heard him tel lmore than once that that nightwas a memorableone to him . The Holy Spirit so mightily trou

bled him that he wanted to come over to the

tent in the night . He tells us that before morning hewas in such agony of mind over his lostcond ition that it took four men to hold him inbed . The next evening he came to the tent, andj ust as hewas entering, I unknowinglywasgiving out that hymn that had so troubled him ,

Sweet peace, the Gift of God’s love .”

I want to say , dear reader, that itwas a greatvictory to see dear B ro . Smithson trembl inglymake hisway to the altar that night , with manyothers . He and hi s family have since becomeestabl ished Chri stians

,and have j oined the

Methodist Church . Many times s ince he has


found hisway to the pulpit , and has preachedto others the unsearchable riches of Christ .Ask him to-day what hi s favorite hymn is ,and he wi l l tel l you

Sweet peace, the Gift of God’s love .

In about four weekswe moved to Heathcote ,a distance of about five miles , and I remainedthere with Bro . Goff about two weeks , afterwhich I went home

,having important business

to attend to . When I had been home about aweek I received a letter from Rev . Mr . Moore ,of Thornbury and Clarksburg

,stating that the

Quarterly Board desired me to return and givethree revivals in the three churches on his ci rcuit . Some weeks after I retuined and gavetwo revivals , one in Thornbury and o-rie on thetown- l ine . In this reviva'l five of Mr . McCaus

l in’s family were converted .

“ One of them afterwards became a preacher, and I bel ieve God hasmighti ly used him in the conversion of s inners,and in leading bel ievers into the experience of

perfect love .The demands for me in other places were so

great that I did not remain on th i s ci rcuit for thethird revival

,but wen t to Tottenham , to assist

Rev . Mr . Large on that circuit . My first re

vival therewas at the Connor appointment .There I remained for five weeks , where Godgave me some very dear fri ends .

At my first service about seventeen were present

,but from night to night the congregation

increased,unti l the building was crowded to the

door .



So the good work of God went on . Afterthi s I returned to assi st Revs . Large andWallace , at Beaton , Ont . , where a goodly number were born again and received into theChurch . Thi s being the month of March, 1900 ,

I went home for a short rest , and in the montho f Apri l I returned to M r . D insmore’s home in

Clarksburg,where I made mysel f a large Gospel

tent and prepared for the summer’s work . InMay we set up my new tent in Mr . D insmore

’s

grove , and on Sunday , the 2 7th ,held the dedi

cation service . We have always bel ieved thatno less than twenty soul s were blessed that dav .

In that revival the power of God was mani festedas I had not seen it for years .

Fewof the services held there could be closedbefore twelve o’c‘lock at night .From there I moved to Mr . Hewgill’s grove .

Itwas a beauti ful s ituation . I placed my tentalongside a clear-flowing stream . The birdssang in the branches above me and the grass

beneath mewas l ike a carpet . I was there ass i sted by B rothers Norman McCauslin andFrank Hewgill, who had been converted in mymeetings recentl and had given their l ives

into this work . A fter la‘boring there for fiveweeks I moved to Duncan

,a place three miles

distant . Here I held the crowning revival of thesummer . As there was no church here , the religious services were held in a smal l Orange hall ,the English church minister and the Methodistminister preaching alternately once in twoweeks .

During our short stay in Duncan , I believe one

A GRO"P OF YO"NG PREACHERS .


hundred and forty souls experienced the newbirth

,and at the close Of thi s revival I felt

strongly impressed that this people should havea church to worship in . SO while a number Ofkind friends took down my tent and moved i tto Clarksburg

,wherewe were going to hold

ten-days’meetings,I went around among the

farmers,taking up a subscript ion for a new

church . Mr . A . McKewen headed the l i st bydonating the grounds and fifty dol lars . I met

with such a spi rit Of l iberal ity among the peoplethat I had very l ittle trouble in securing thepromise O f enough money to build a church .

The people felt that a church was needed , and

gave accordingly . SO the stakes were set'

for

the newchurch and the stone foundation laidthat fal l . At first the intent ion Of the peoplewas to build a frame church

,but after consid

eration they decided that it should be brick .

In the ten-days’meetings held at Clarksburgwe had three services a day through the weekand five on the Sabbath . This series of meetings wil l never be forgot ten by the Clarksburg

people . I took sudden'ly ill in the closing service, andwas carried from the tent in a semiconscious condit ion to the home of kind friends,who took care of me unti l I recovered . As itwas nowsomewhat late in the autumn, I put mytent away for the wint er months and went backto assi st Rev . Mr . Wash ington ,who was nowstationed on the Klineburg Circuit, near TO

ronto . We spent some rich times together inthe services and in visiting from house to house.



commendation from thi s district . At last Idecided to return with Mrs . Hall to Briti shColumbia .

I received from the different ministers thefollowing recommendations :

January 1sth 190 1 .

This certifies that I am acquainted with Mr.

Coleman, the bearer Of thi s document . For

about two years he has been holding Evangelistic services through these parts

,and through

hi s instrumental ity many have been saved .

I esteem him,as I think al l dowho know him ,

as a man of God,and a zealous worker in His

cause .M . L . PEARSON ,

Ex-President Toronto Conference .

Chairman O f the D i strict .Indorsed by H . MOORE

,Jan . 15 , 190 1 .

Pastor M . C.,Thornbury .

Inglewood,Ontario

,April 12 ,

1900 .

Bro. F rank Coleman held revival services forfour weeks in F ebruary and March last 1n Inglewood . They were marked by the presence andpower of God, and were fruit ful in good re

sults to the Church and to outsiders .Bro . Coleman has special gi fts for Evangel

istic work. The emphasi s with which he proclaims the doctrines and experiences, special lyemphasized by the success ful Evangel i sts andm inisters of earl ier Methodism , i s an el ementof great power, and thi s , together with j udiciousmanagement and a loving sp ir it, by the bless ing

‘

Of God,made the meetings a great success .

GEORGE WASHINGTON ,B .A . ,

Pastor .

My Call to the Work 109

Towhom it may concern.

We are l iving in an age which seems to demand special qualifications for a special work .

The more a person is engaged 1n special work,the more proficient they become 1n the same .

I t can be truly said Of Bro . F rank Colemanthat he 18 a man Of God, qual ified by God theHoly Ghost for the special work in which hei s engaged . He has labored with us in Beatonfor a period O f three weeks , and his work hasbeen blessed of God in the building-up Of thepeople and in the conversion of the s inners toChrist . We hearti ly commend our brother toany ministerwho may desire the help Of onequal ified for special work .

W . W . WALLACE ,

Pastor .Beaton

,Apri l 24,

On a brigh t S aturday morning in February ,Mrs . Hall and her l ittle gi rl

,Marj orie, and I

took the train from Thornbury to B riti sh

Columbia . We were five days and n ights on thejourney .

This wil l be a memorable j ourney to me aslong as I l ive . Whenwe reached Winnipegwe had to wait there for about six hours .While waiting I walked through the principalstreets Of the town , but itwas so cold I couldnot keep warm with two undercoats and a largefur coat on . As we passed over the prairies ,I was told by those famil iar with the routethat the paths Of the buffalo can sti l l be seen .

The mountains , while stil l one hundred miles

1 10 My Life, Travels and S ermons .

distant , could be plainly seen by us . When Iawoke in the morning, about two O’c‘lock,wewere in the mountains . Oh "~ those toweringpeaks , and yawning chasms Looking backward I could see the long train windingsnakel ike along the s ides of the mountains .Sometimeswe would enter a tunnel , and in amoment would be enveloped in total darkness .Then suddenly the train would dash out intothe bright sunlight . At lastwe reached theGlac ier House

,where the train stopped long

enough for the passengers to have breakfast .

Near this Glacier House there are thousands

Of acres of sol id ice and snow , and the waterrunning from beneath this field Of ice and snow

past the Glacier House , i s a beauti ful" sight . Ihad been told by Mrs . Hall that the weatherin British Columbia was warm , but it seemedto me the nearer I approached that country thecolder it got . The evening before we reached

NewWestminster, I looked out and sawthatthe trainwas covered with ice ; icicles werehanging from the s ides . Mrs . Hall remarked ,TO-morrow ,

about noon,we shal l be in NewWestminster . ” Wel l

,

” I thought,

“ theweather wi ll have to change wonderful ly i f it i swarm there . ” Sure enough ,we reached NewWestminster the next day . The sunwas shining brigh tly, and the weather seemed to meto be as warm as summer .I had intended resting a week after reaching

NewWestminster, as I felt tired from thej ourney . But

,

' on the fol lowing Sabbath , Iwas


1 12 M3: Life, Travels and S ermons .

After my tents were completed I left thecity for Chil l iwack, wh ere I had a standinginvitat ion to attend the camp meeting whichis annually held there . Before Iwas long th ereIwas in formed that I might expect to be askedto submit to an examination on doctrine

,before

the chai rman of the D i stric t . The Rev. Ebenezer Robsonwas present during the examination

, and he and the chairman , Rev . T. W . Hal l ,agreed that Iwas in strict a ccordance withtheir standards of doctrine . On thi s historicalcamp ground there are two large frame bui ldings , almost surrounded by a semi—circle of

smaller houses , consisting of two or three roomseach, where the people l ive during their twoweeks of M p l i fe .

One of the large buildings mentioned abovei s used exclusively for the Indians ,who assemble here sometimes in great numbers . I twasinteresting to see them, after the night serv ice ,s itting in circles on the ground around thei rcamp fires

,s inging, until a late hour, the sweet

songs of Z ion .

-I had the privi lege of preaching

to fihem twice while there,Mr . Crosby, the

M i ssionary to the Indians, acting as interpreter.Iwas privi'leged also to preach to the wh ite

people two or three times , and to take someof the a fter-meetings . We had a grand campmeeting. At the close I put up my Gospeltent in Chill iwack

,where, for four weeks ,we

had good meetings . S ince I had been out in

this work,I have nowhere met with greater

kindness thanwas shown me by the people o~f

Chil l iwack valley .

"My Call to the Work. 1 13

My next move was to Ladner , situated onthe Fraser River

,and ’ about fourteen miles

from NewWestminster . Thi s was a verybusy time both among the farmers and in the

fish canneries . S ome advised me to take ashort vacation unti l the rush of workwas over .Thi s I d id . During my vacation I made it mybusiness to visi t the different canneries . The

first I visited was at Point Roberts . I willnever forget the s ight . I think there were fiveor six large scows ‘ loaded with beauti ful redsalmon . I watched the Chinese and Japanese

laborers as they un‘loaded the fish and threw

th em into the large slaughterhouse . Each fish-is separately dealt with . First the head , tail ,and fins are severed from the body , then it i spassed to another man , who thoroughly scrubs

and washes it,under a constantly flowing

stream'

of water . The fish i s next conveyed

in loads to another part o f the cannery,where

it i s pressed into cans and the l ids soldered down .

This part i s al l done by machinery . These

cans are then carried in truck- loads to the largefurnace

,where the fish is cooked and each can

examined . I t i s then placed in the Warehouseready for market .I had always had my doubts about whether

canned fishwas clean or not , but since seeingthe way the work is done, al l

’ my doubts havebeen removed .

‘It i s only'

about once in four

years that the fish in the Fraser River are sonumerous as I saw them in the year 190 1 . I

have only described my visit to one of the many


large canneries buil t along the banks of the

Fraser . It was a real treat for me to see thehundreds of fishing boats dotting the surface ofthe F raser River . To give my reader some

idea of the multitudes of fish found here,I

might say that o ften these large boats are fil ledinside of an hour . The fish are conveyed by

scow-loads from the boats to the cannery .

I spent another part of my vacation diggingclams out of the beach , with the Rev. Mr . Scott .I also spent a short time at Engl i sh Bay , Van

couver . This i s a summer resort, ofwhich

many people avail themselves during the summer months . Here, while the weather i s warm ,

you can see numbers of both sexes in bathing

from morning til l night . I enj oyed the luxuryof a sea-bath many times mysel f while there .My vacation of two weeks being ended , I

proceeded to Ladner, where I held meetings fortwo weeks . The beginning of a good workwas done here . After promising them to re

turn I left for Vancouver, to assist in a tendays meeting .

A fter this I went to Langly Pra irie to assi stRev . Mr . Sharp . We had large crowds andgrand success . My home , while I was there ,was at Mr . T. Mutford

’s .

We next gave a week’s meetings at Tynehead . B el ievers were helped

,backsl iders re

claimed,and sinners converted he re . At our

last meeting held there every person was forward , not one unsaved person remained awayfrom the altar .


1 16 M y Life, Travels and S ermons .

My last revival was held at Fort Langly .

A few great victories were won here . Thi sfbeing the latter part of November, a

’

nd as'

I }

had now been away from home almost a year,

“

I began to make preparations to return for the '

Chri stmas hol idays .On November 2 3rd I took the boat for New

'

Westminster . When I reached there I founda letter awaiting me from Mr . McKewen,Duncan

,Ontario . My reader wi ll recol lect .

that this was the place where the crowning re

vival of my last summer’s Work in the East

“ took place,and where the people had given so

liberally towards the bui lding of thei r newbrick church .

The letter was from M r . McKewen,inform

ing me that thei r new' churchwas almost ready;to open , and that I should return and conductthe opening services . I sent Mr . McKeWen

,

word that I could be there for the open ing on:D ecember 8th . From there I expect to go homefor my

"

.Christmas hol idays .

When I took“ back over theyears , and thinkof the wonderfulway in which God has l ledme -out of darkness into l ight , ‘ I look upi to .

Him in deep thankfulness . Andwhen I kneltwith my back to the altar

,when a

~

l ittle'

boy,"

“

unconscious ly, it seems to have'

been a'

blesséd

prophecy , for in the future I did turn my backupon forms and ceremonies

,the world and

darkness , and faced around to the l ight of God .

I can say that even thi s book has been a

great blessing to me already . In this great

Mi ' Call lo thework. 1 17

work that the Lord has given me to do , therehave been few thorns and manv roses along my

path:

I t i s with great pleasure that I think of al lthe people I have met , and from whom I havereceived such kindness . A lthough many havepassed away to the better ‘land , and many I shal lnever see again

,they al l h ave a warm spot in

my heart . "O memory,pricel ess gift of God"

I am determined to travel thi s way alone , i f Ishould have to,

and on the great JudgmentMorning

,when the dead come forth

,I shall

come forth with my garments washed in theblood of the Lamb .

Now,dear reader

,in conclusion

,I would

say, with the poet

I have tried many ways to the Kingdom ,

But thi s i s the best of them al l ;I t took all th e shrinking from Peter

,

And strengthened both S i las and Paul .

When fast in the stocks o f the pri son,

I fancy I hear them both say :Oh , the toi l s of the road wil l seem nothingWhen we get to the end of the way

.

’

When leaving B riti sh Columbia for the East,

I was given the fol lowing recommendations :

With pleasure I bear my testimony to themarked and continued efficiency of the laborsof Evangel ist B ro . F . C . Coleman during thepast ten months . His first series of meetingsin B riti sh Columbia was held on my circuit

.

Wh i le there, there were many remarkable con


vers ions,and several backsl iders were restored,

The most marked feature of the work amonguswas the sanctification of bel ievers , some of

whom received the conscious infilling of theHoly Ghost

, of Whose indwell ing as a definiteexperience they can testi fy to thi s day . Wehad al so a very blessed and widespread revivalamong the Sabbath S chool chi ldren . BrotherColeman is emphatical ly a man of ‘

one book .

’

His teaching 15 not only thoroughly evangel ical ,but intensely Wesleyan, being in perfect harmony with Rev . John Wesley’s Plain Accountof Christ ian Perfection .

’While B ro. Colemanis wel l qualified by the grace of God to be helpful to any pastor who wil l give him ‘right ofway,

’he i s especial ly adapted to be useful among

Methodists , as all of hi s presentations of doctrine are most surely bel ieved among us

,though

,

alas"seldom possessed and enjoyed .

J. P . BOWELL,

( S ecretary of the B . C . Conference,and former

pastor of the West End Circuit,New

Westminster . )

New Westminster,B C.

Dec . 2nd, 190 1 .

Towhom it may concern

This certifies that B ro . F rank Coleman hasbeen engaged in evangel i st ic work on thi s Distriet s ince last June . At our first meeting, onJune 29th, Bro. Coleman wi ll ingly submittedto an examinat ion conducted by Bro. EbenezerRobson and mysel f

, on the doctrines bel ievedand preached by him

,andwe found Brother

Coleman,as far as gone in his study , in strict

harmony with our standards of doctrine, his



good opportunity to observe the methods andstatements of doctrine o f B ro . Coleman

,and

cons ider his methods highly commendable andhis doctrines sound . B ro. Coleman’s work isdeep . sound , and spi ritual , and I have greatllopes of the stabilitv of the Christian l i fe of

those who have been led by the Spirit into newness o f l i fe through the agency of our brother .

Cordial ly submitted ,

Rev .w. J. S I PPRELL ,B .A.

,B .D .



The Apostle Paul said , Be not deceivedGod i s not mocked for whatsoever a mansoweth , that shal l he also reap .

”L et us look

for a moment at God’s deal ings with men inthe past . Let us turn to Genesis

,and

.see how

God dealt with humanity after they had beenfaithful ly warned by Noah to renounce their

wickedness .God’s wrath was poured out in the form

of water , and al l , save eight souls ,who hadnot defiled themselves , were destroyed . Let

us next vi sit the cities of the plains . We be

hold S odom and Gomorrah , thos e beauti fulcit ies

,and I imagine I hear the inhabitants say,

God is love .

”But I look again , and what do

I see" Fire and brimstone descending .upon

the defenceless heads and homes of the inhab

itants .

History states that in the past , fifty-two cities,

besides towns and vil lages , have been destroyedby earthquakes .When the I sraelites 'were j ourneying t0 ' the

Promised Land,t housands of

‘

them were destroyed

'

because‘

of s in .

I imagine I h ear my reader say,

"

Thosecalamities occurred in the old dispensatic

’

m.

’

We

l ive in a new dispensation; and these things

have been done away with .

”

Our Lord'

is the same ; He has not changed .

He is the same yesterday,to for

ever . Let me ask you to read the 9th chapterof Mark, where Jesus speaks of the worm thatdieth not , and the fire that i s not quenched , and

S ermons . I 2 G

then turn with me'

to the l 6th chapter of Luke ,

and there behold the rich man looking afar

Off,and pleading that Lazarus might be sent

with a drop of water to cool hi s parched tongue ,for he said , I am -tormented in thi s flame .

”

Turn again to Rev . 2 1 : 8, and listen to thewords of thi s God Of love , as He tel l s us -whatshal l .. become of the fearful and unbel ieving,and the abominable

,and murderers , and

whoremongers,and sorcerers

,and . idolaters ,

and a ll liars .”

God says ,“They ' shal l have

their . part in the lake which burneth with fire

and brimstone .

”

The great day Of God’s wrath i s not yet come .

John - the D ivine,' looking down through the

great telescope of l i fe,

“ saw the dead,small and

great, stand before God ,” waiting to receive

thei r sentence— some O f eternal happiness andothers O f eternal woe . God has greatly favoredus,

“by reveal ing to us, through the revelation

giventoQJoh‘

n,the t hings thatwi l l surely come

to Before us , dear ' reader, l i es the pictureo f the j udgment, placed there by the loving handof our God

,so

“

thatwe may -not be deceived :

In thi swe surely,

must appear . There,

. in mid

heaven,s its the Judge . A mighty angel spreads

the book Of ‘ God’s -

”remembrance . p palling

s i lence re lgns . Man, angel, and devil stand

motionless . Now from. the Judge the longexpected sentence fal l s u pon : the wicked

,and

from H is presence they are"dr iven into endles‘

snight

,to weep and wai l

"

for; evermore .

Those who received the sentence Of eternal


woe may weep for mercy , and methinks I canhear the cries of the eternal ly lost"The Judgenowto the righteous turns , and approves themthus : Come, ye blessed Of My Father ; inheritthe kingdom prepared for you from the founda

tion of the world .

”

Where are the wicked " Come and see .

There i s the burnmg pit , and from the fire I

hear,as it were

,voices saying, Have mercy

on me,and send Lazarus that he may dip . the

tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue ,for I am tormented in thi s flame"” Across the

fiery gul f,over which angelic pinions never

passed , the damned see the heaven of boundlessand nightless glory

,which they have for ever

lost . The day of mercy has for ever passed,

and the reign Of j udgment has commenced .

Where are the righteous " Come and see .

Lead me, Thou I l lustrious One , to the Palaceof

'

the great King.

” What superb gates arethese These are the gates O f Z ion . Whatbeauti ful streets, and these j asper wal ls ; howgreat and high"Howcalm

,lovely

,and change

less i s the l ight of th i s c ity"These mansions,

oh, howvast and resplendent"These goldenstreets, how glittering"Wlhat river i s this

,

sweeping onward in maj est ic grandeur"I ti s the River Of L i fe which proceedeth out Of thethrone Of God and the Lamb . Oh

, howsweetlythose happy beings s ing as they

‘

compass thethrone of Him Who was slain for the redemption of the world , and howglorious nowap ~

pear the wounds , which He received on Cai



S ERMON NO. I I .

OVERCOM ING THE WORLD .

Whosoever is born of God doth not comm it'

sin .

”-I . John 3 : 9 .

Someone has well put the following questions

,with their wisely-drawn conclusions .

‘I fa man gets drunk , what i s he" A drunkard"I f he gambles , what i s he" A gambler . I f hesteal s , what i s he" A thief . I f he murders ,what is he" A

.

murderer .

'

Then i f he sins,

what i s he" Surely not,

a Chri stian"There can be no doubt that a great -many

people who to-day cal l themselves Christians,

are deceived by thei r own blindness . Theypick out the trust passages in their l ittle

marked,l i ttle—worn B ibles

,and lul l themselves

more soundly asleep every day,in a self-begot

ten assurance of mercy . Such people as these

Often find their way into our testimony meetings

,and Sunday a fter Sunday give an exper

ience something like thi s :“ I am thankful for

what the Lord has done for me . I know Iam very unfaithful

,but I want to do better ;

and I thank God for the good des ires He hasgiven me .

”Test thi s person

,and he has to

admit that he 13 not an overcomer SO far

from the B ible standard Of“ more than con

querors through Him That loved us,he i s a

l ittle less than conqueror . His temper i s great

S ermons . 129.

er than . hi s strength ; his fear wi l l only let him

testi fy Onconvenient occasions ; hi s pride pro

hibits him from recognizing all h i s acquaint

ances ; hi s mal ice succeeds in holding spite ;hi s stinginess keeps him from giving cheerful

ly ,and i t maybe he has secret s ins he wil l not

tel l you of. He may not have al l these fail ings ,but he that Offendeth in one point i s gui ltyof al l .

Who dares to say,I am

'

a Christian , a

member of the church of Christ— the bride,the Lamb’s wi fe

,arrayed in fine l inen

,clean

and white,

” and yet continue in his un-Christl ike actions"

,Who can say,

“The Lord is my

Shepherd,

” and then fol low the thief thatcometh up some other way”" Who can say,“ I consecrate mysel f to Jesus , and yet befound partaking Of the very fol l ies the worldloves". When Jesus said that His di sciples

were not of the -world,He meant it . Pure

rel igion and undefiled .before God and the Fa

ther does not consi st in doing as we l ike al lday, and asking . forgiveness at night ; itdoes not consist in Offering .

God what i s lefta fter We have satisfied the flesh ; but it i s thi sTo V i s it the fatherles s‘ and widows in theiraffl iction , and to keep himsel f unspotted fromthe world I t means Jesus first

,Jesus only

,

and Jesus always . I t means a heart for ever

closed to all but Him .

” Not one whit less thanthi s:

S eek ye first the Kingdom of God and Hisrighteousness ,

”1s a passage Often quoted , but

130 My Life, (Travels and S ermons .

l ittle practiced . Rea l ly,i t seems as i f i t were

anything but Jesus first .

Room,for business

,room for pleasure

,

But for Chri st,the crucified

,

Not a place that He can enterIn the heart for which He died .

True, many hearts wi l l offer Him some place,but on the unexpressed, though understood,condition that He keep si lent

,only when they

wish to display His virtue, or on such occasions

as they might be afraid to walk alone . Butsince our Lord wil l never take up any abodeunless it be free to Him, yea , and to Him

alone, i t may be that some fal se spirit of darkness

,trans formed into an angel of l ight,

”

has taken up his abode in such a heart, and ispers i stently singing his lul laby of “ Peace ,peace l”wher. there i s no peace .There i s a great deal of talk about faith inthese days

,but a great deal O f ignorlng that

“ faith without works i s dead, There i s a

great deal of talk about consecration , but veryl ittl e working at it . In the enthusiasm of great

conventionswe love to s ing M i ss Havergal’shymn

Take my li fe and let i t beConsecrated , Lord, to Thee .

Too often,we fear, thi s hymn is sung byprofessorswho use thei r 'lives, hands, feet, s i lver

,talents

,voices

,wil l s , hea rts, and love, al l

on their own business, and their own pleasure .

They say, Oh, for a thousand tongues to



. Under the direction’

of the Holy 'Ghost,we

bel ieve, we have been -trying . to write what ' aChri st ian is not ; and , under that same direction ,we want now to

'

speak of what a Christian ,

i s'

,

and we shal l j ust take S cripture for it .Jesus

says , Not everyone that saith unto Me,Lord

,

Lord , shal l enter into.

the Kingdom of Heaven ;but he that doeth the wil l o f My Father Whichi s in heaven .

”This can mean nothing less

than what it says . “ He that i s born of Goddoth not commit sm. Oh

,you say

, . thi s

harping about l iving W i thout sin .

” Yes, and

i t ~ i s the same harping all through the B ible .

God wil l have a people of clean hands,

”o r

He .will have no people at all . I, would

thouwert cold or hot , He says . Becausethou art luke-warm

,and neither cold nor hot ,

I wi l l spue thee out of My mouthA Christ ian

,we bel ieve

,I S j ust what John

Wesley said of a Methodist Onewhose onedesire i s the one des ign of h is l i fe

,namely

,to

do not his own wil l , but the will o f Him That

sent him. His one intention at al l t imes and inall places is not to please himself ; but ,HimWhom his soul loveth . . As he loves God, sohe keeps His commandments ; not only some

or most of them,but al l , from ~ the least to the

greatest . He is not content to‘keep the whole

law and offend in one but has,in al l

points ‘a conscience void of offence towardGod and toward man .

’ Whatever God has for

bidden,he avoids ; whatever God has enj oined ,

he does . It i s his dai ly crown of j oy to‘do

S ermons .,

133

the wil l bf God on earth , as it i s -done in heaven .

’There i s no lower state o f grace than

that of l iving without wil ful s in . We read ofno state lower than j ustification

,and certainlywe find no such thing as j ustifiable s in . Where

can the now—a-day professors find S criptureprinciple to back up their s inning religion" I tis

'

a wonder to common sense,and i s an error

for which they wil l smartly pay,unless they

repent before borrowed breath i s lent to themno more .

A fol lower of Jesus i s onewho knows something of -what it i s tO ‘ drink of the

'

cup'

that

He'

drank of ;'

to go with Him through the

garden,and keep with Him all theway . One

who loves to si t at Hi s feet and learn O f Him,

and 'who loves to go and do those things hehas learned ; He

Takes time -to be holy,

Speaks oft with hi s Lord ,Abides in Him . always ,And feeds on Hisword

Makes friends o f God’s chi ldren,

Helps thosewho are weak ,Forgetting in nothingHis blessing to seek .

’

A Christian bears. the fru it o f a Chri stian .

Every branch in Me that beareth -not fruitHe taketh away .

” I f a branch bear not th e

fruit Of the Spir it there is great’

reason' for

alarmf ~ The Husbandman a'lways finds the


fruit in its season when He comes to the branchthat abides in the vine .

A Christian ,we bel ieve, never owns.

anything— he i s only steward over his Lord’s possess ions . When occasion comes to spend moneyevery cent of i t goes with the blessing of God

upon it . SO far as he knows,he spends it j ust

as Jesuswould . He may make mistakes in

jiidgment, but is free from sin of the heart .

A great deal Of interest has been arousedover Sheldon’s idea l Christian

,and many have

smiled atwhat they term too good to be true,”

“impossible

,

” etc . But let the scorner

'

showus where Jesus preached a Christian l i fe at al l

that was anything less than Sheldon’s ideal

In His S teps .”

A Chri st ian has a single eye , and that fixed

on Jesus ; he has a miss ion in l i fe , and he can

not be stopped in it . O f course,i f he i s

stopped,he no longer goe s ahead , and wil l

only have to start again before he dare bearthe holy name of a di sciple of Him Who left

the glori es of His Father’s home to die on

Calvary .

A Christian i s Of a hospitable spirit . He

may know very l ittle of what men cal l wealth ;but hospital ity i s no form with him. I t i swhole-hearted , and does not come from thattrifl ing disposit ion that good-naturedly “ putsthe bottle to hi s brother

’s l ips —whether thatbottle has passed over the blood-stained bar ,or has been fil led in the kitchen at home, i tmatters not—but it comes from that spirit that


136 M y L ife, Travels and S ermons .

Take my intel lect— no talent of ' mine shal l belent to the enemy of souls .

Take my S 1lver and my goldNot a mite wil l I withhold .

Take my wil l ;'

no more shal l I ask,Would

I l ike to do thi s"” but -_always ,

“ I s i t Thypleasure"” The quest ion shal l not be

“

_Whith

er"” but only.

“ Whence"” Take my heart;no strange idol shal l have one word to say inits rul ing ; i ts door i s locked , and Jesus holdsthe keys .

Take mysel f,and I w il l be

Ever,only

, all for Thee .

”

I .wi l l abstam from al l amusements and habitsupon wh ich I cannot real ize God’s bless ing .

I .wil l follow the example o f Christ so closelythat I wi ll never be found anywherewhere myLord would not lead me ; never do anythingHe would not help me to do ; never withholdanything He would ask of . me ; n ever singany song that would, not be melody to Him ;never read any book that i s not in harmonywith the teachings of His book ; never harbora thought that my Master would be displeasedto findwhen He searches the heart and reins ;but “flee these things

,and fol low after right

eousness, godliness , faith, love , pat ience, meekness ; fight the good fight of faith ; lay hold011 eternal l i fe .

”S teadfast

,immoveable

, al

ways abounding in the work of the Lord .

”

S ermons . 137

l used to pray,Oh

,help me , Lord ,

That I may keep the narrow way ,And feed upon Thy l iving word ,And never

,never disobey .

”

And then I’d say ’twas all in vain ,I never could such vict

’ry gain ;

But when I le ft the world behind,

And came,in faith

,thi s grace to find ,

Down at His feet, and pleading there,I found that Jesus answers prayer .


SERMON No. I I I .

THE CRUCIF I"ION OF THE OLD MAN.

Knowing this,that our old man is crucified

with Him .

” —Rom .

Th i s old man is as old as Adam . He foundhis first home in the hearts of our first parents ,and ever s ince he has been a welcome guestto thei r posterity .

We would impress our reader with thethough t that be fore salvation can be obtained

thi s crucifixion of the old man must take place ,and for thi s reason so fewpeople receive thenewbirth . You wil l have some idea Of the old

mode of crucifixion among the Jews , and whatit meant to the criminal . There was noth ing

pleasant about it . O ftt imes he would weepand plead for d el iverance , and would never gounti l compel led . The old mode of crucifixion

among the Jewswas after thi s manner : F i rstthe criminalwas tied to the cross . Then the

first nai lwas driven in . Oh , howhe wouldgroan and plead for liberty Fewpeople couldstand and look on without being greatly moved ,even though it was the unanimous feel ing thathe should die . S ti l l , at the expense of al l this,the crucifixion went on . When the nai l s haveal l been driven into hi s hands and feet , the



crucifixion, they always obtain an unmistakableevidence of thei r acceptance . Thi s i s whatcauses people to rej oice and praise the Lordwith all thei r hearts . They have received anexperience they love to tel l about

,and , l ike the

Apostle Paul,they can say

,I am not ashamed

of the Gospel of Christ . for i t i s th e power ofGod unto salvation .

You wi ll never find a clear witness of j ustification among people who ignore th is crucifixion . But they l ive in that up and down ex

perience

S ometimes trusting,sometimes doubting

,

lSometimes j oyful,sometimes sad .

This i s a sad state of affairs,under the

Gospel light,for men and women to be groping

their way in darkness,not knowing whi

'

t‘herthey go . I t i s very different from what theApostle Paul tried to preach after h is crucifixion on his way to Damascus .

We have two classes of people to deal with .

For instance, two come to the altar . One

ignores crucifixion . He wil l not cruci fy hisfear, and give hi s voice up to God in prayer .Then his pride comes up and says

,You can

not pray ; you wi ll make mistakes , and the people wi ll only make light of you .

” And so ittriumphs , and he does not get the bless ing .

And ”i f hi s spiritual adv isers have not a properconception of crucifixion

,they will advise him

to claim it by faith . They will turn over to

the Gospel s and quote passages such as,

“ He

S ermons . 141

that cometh unto Me I will in nowise cast out,or

,He that bel ieveth on the Son of God hath

everlasting l i fe,

” or,

“ Bel ieve on the Lord

Jesus Christ and thou ‘

shalt be saved . Theyforget that thi s i s only part of the -plan ofredemption

,-so t hey advi se him to arise and

testi fy . that God has saved himby faith , andtel l zhim ‘

not - to doubt , but hold on , when hehas nothing to h old to . So he leaves the altarwithout the c rucifixion

;consequently without

salvation . Now,the individual t ri es to ll ive by

faith ,without the witness of his acceptance .

Watch ‘him in l i fe, and you will soon see thathis . life i s _no better , with

'

the exception of

being reformed from some of his grosser s ins .

He goes'

to church— not because he loves togo

,but he feel s i t to be hi s duty . You might

catch him in class-meeting sometimes,and

,i f so

,

you would almost gather from his looks that

he -was at a funeral . The fact o f the matteri s , he has no j oy , no peace, nor no sati s faction .

But by the t ime the clas s leader reaches himhe i s al l in a tremble

, but when urged to speak ,he ari ses and test ifies in an almost inaudibletone, and i s glad when it i s over . Some such

pro fessors take up family prayer, and some donot . We think it i s immaterial whether they

do or not , for we read in the Sacred Book thatGod does not h ear sinners

,but if any man be

a worshipper of God , him He beareth .

”

Yes , i f you have watched such a person , youhave al ready noticed that, at times , his temper

gets the better of him , and hi s fear triumphs ,

142 M31 Life, Travels and S ermons .

and so with all h is inward foes . To spiritualpeople this i s a sad sight .

Reader, you wil l observe thatwe stated thattwo came to the altar for salvation . You cansee what the first got by ignoring crucifixion .

Now , the other compl ies with our text, and

crucifies the body of s in . When his fear risesup, he does not ‘let it triumph, but nail s i t tothe cross and prays ; and so with every inwardfoe . And when he has crucified hi s last inward foe, and, by prayer,

lhas prevai led,he i s

brought out into the l ight, and the in fal lible

witness has reached him . He needs no one'

to

tel l him to believe, for the Spirit bears witness

with 'his spirit,that he i s the Lord’s

,and he is

fi l led with joy and peace'

in the Holy Ghost .

He testifies because he is in love with his ex

perience.

Reader,watch this man also . Youwi l l soon

deite'

ct that he is nowunder grace , and he keepsal l hi s inward foe s crucified

, or suppressedIn fact, he could not retain his j ustification anddo otherwise . -

.You wil l find this young con

vert busy in the classroom and prayer-meetings .

He goes because hewould rather be there thananywhere else

, and he i s very act ive . He prays

because he loves to pray, and he is in love withthe fel lowship meeting. Notwithstanding allthi s

,he st i l l has his inward foe s to contend

with ; but the does not give over to one of them .

He has them all nailed to the cross, and, by

the grace of God, he keeps them there . Some

times he wil l detect two spirits within him .



with al l my heart , andwith andW 1th al l my strength , and my neighbor as mysel f . ” Then

,an d only then

,can you sing

Safe in the arms of Jesus ,Sa fe on His gentle breast ,

There by His love o’ershaded

Sweetly my soul shal l rest .

S ermons . 145

S ERMON N0. IV .

HE THAT FEARETH I S NOT MADE"1 PERFECT IN LOVE .

”

He that feareth i s not made pe r fect in love .

I . John , iv . 18.

There is no fea r in love , but perfect love

casteth out fear, because fear hath torment . We

suppose that among Christians to-day tlhere i s

no great er hindrance than slavi sh fear ; and

yetwe dare not say that they have never been

converted . We see fea r man i fest in mostly everyprayer-meet ing, especial ly i f people are askedto speak or pray . We think it is our privilege

to l ive in a much higher state of grace than

this . The Apostle John tel ls us that perfect

lovewill ca st it out , andwe know ubat noth ingelsewill cast out s lavish fear but the love of

Christ ; and whenwe see men andwomentroubledwi th thi s,we always come to the conclusion that the perfect love of Chri st has neverreached the i r hearts . I t i s with this class of

people , by the help of God’s Holy Spirit, thatwewish espec ia l ly to deal . We understand ,by a ca re ful study of the Word of God,

that

there are two works of grace plainly taught ;and it i s with the second work, and the Chris

tian privi lege of obtaining this great blessing,thatwe wish to deal . Thosewho profess to


have attained to this experience of perfect loveare greatly opposed

,as a rule ; because the

carnal mind i s enmity against God : for it i s

not subj ect to the lawof God , neit‘her indeedcan be and

,i f it is true that there are two

benefits in the atonement,the human heart w

’

i l lnever be satisfied with the first

,namely

,s ins

forgiven . When Ch ri stians ‘have never heardthe doctrine of hol ines s preached , they struggle

for years unsati sfied because of the carnalnature which sti l l remains ; not knowing howto get rid of i t . God promises to sati s fy thelongings of every soul . Are you ready , dearreader

,i f Christ should come to-day— th is mo

ment— are you ready, or do you feel that somepreparat ion i s sti l l necessary" Christ com

mands,Be ye also ready , for In such an hour

as ye think not , the Son of Man cometh .

” Ourloving Saviour never gave His fol lowers acommand which He did not intend them to

keep . It i s gloriously pos sible for us to l ive inreadiness for Hi s coming at any moment . The

question may be asked,Howshal l we prepa re

so that we may l ive in that state of continued

readiness" To the person who ’has the knowledge of sins forgiven

,and on _ whom

now rests no condemnation,I would say ,

under every circumstance,has al l s lavish

fear been removed By thi s term ,

“ slavish fear,” I mean a fea r that creeps

over us when called upon to pray or speak .

Oh"the thousands“

of Christianswho sufferthrough slavish fear

,not knowing that every



foe that be l ievers are troubled w ith . Some j usti

fied people are troubled with the roots of eviltemper, others with pride, some with selfish

ness, oth erswith j ealousy . There are manyother roots, too numerous to mention , that arein the hearts of j ustified people, but neverovercome them . We know that the patriarchs ,prophets, and apostles taught this higher l i fe .

Jesus meant nothing less when He said

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shal lsee God . Mult i tudes of people are ful l of

unbelief concern ing thi s great doctrine of perf .

feet love . They think that somehow,at the

hour of death , they wil l be perfected in love,and so obta in an entrance into heaven

,for most

people knowthat the B ible teaches thi s doctrineof hol iness, without wh ich

,no man shal l see

the Lord .

”—Heb . xi i . I 4 ; and we want toprove by the Holy Scriptures that it can be ohtained and retained in thi s l i fe . See Luke ,i . 74-75 : That

'

He would grant unto us , thatwe, being del ivered out of the hands of our

enemies,might serve Him without fear, in

hol iness and righteousness before Him , al l the

days of our l ives .” These passages ough t to

make it plain to any unprej udiced reader, thatitwas for thi s purpose Chri st came into theworld ; thatwe might l ive in the world in theenj oyment of thi s perfect love all the days of

our lives—not to be obtained at“ death , but now.Let us heed the Saviour

’s voice and obey .

“Be

hold , I s tand at the door and knock : if any manhear My voice, and open the door, I will come in

S ermons . 149

to him and wil l sup with him ,and he -with Me .

Dear reader, let us take a look through the

Holy S criptures, and prove, to our own sat isfaction

,th i s doc trine of perfect love . See Gen .

xvi i . 1 : God ca l l ing the patriarch Abraham intothis experience of perfection . God said to

him Walk before Me, and be thou perfect .”

This took place many years after his conversion

, for Abraham.was converted whena child .

You wi ll al so notice that Jacobwas led intothis great experience, after prevail ing al l n ight

with God in -prayer, about twenty years afterhis supposed convers ion . Let us hear whatDav‘id says about this higher _experiencePsalms l i . 2 , Wash me th roughly frommine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For

I acknowledge my transgress ions, and my sin15 ever before me.

”Can you see the two

works o f grace there"Transgress ions in theplura l number, and sin in the s ingular number,referring to the sin of the heart When the

sin of the h eart i s removed,then

, . and only

then, canwe say that our heart s are pure . On

a l itt le . further,in the tenth verse, David prays

for a clean heart, meaning the same thingperfect -

Jlove. Let us return to -Matt . -v . 8 :

Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shal lsee .God .

” Andwhen the heart. i s pure ,a ll im

puri ty i s removed . I t could not be otherwise .

The discipleswere led into this blessing aboutthree yea rs after the i r conversion ; for al l hol i

ness 'writers agree t hat, when the d isciplesforsook al l to fol low Jesus , they were accepted


of the Lord . I t i s true that there i s no placein the Holy S criptures describing the conversion of the disciples

,butwe think there i s

recorded something better . After the disc ipleshad been on probation three years

, on thei r return from a tour of preaching

,Jesus tel l s them

not to rejoice because of thei r succes s,but to

rej oice rather because their names were

written in heaven .

— Luke x . 20 . We do notthink that the names of menwho were s innerswould be placed

‘

in the Book of Li fe . In thefifteenth chapter of the Gospel of S t . John wehear our blessed Lord say : Nowye are clea nthrough the word which I have spoken

unto you. Abide .in Me . This impl ies

that they were already in Christ,and

yet they were not'

sanctified, or madeonel, and in the seventeenth chapter ac

cording to S t . John,Jesus offers up that beau

ti ful prayer for thei r sanctificat ion, or one

ness ; and over“

in the twentieth Chapter of theGospel by S t . John and twenty-second verse,the blessed -Lord

,breathing on His di sciples

says, Receive ye the Holy Ghost .” We bel ieve they then received the internal evidenceof thei r sanctification . The external evidenceof their sanctification i s found in the first

chapter of the Acts, where they tarried with one

accord for ten days for the baptism of fire .

This proves to us that Jesus’ prayer in theseventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel had beenanswered, wh ere He prayed five t imes for theironeness ; and the disciples, after receiving thi s


15 2 My Life, Trav‘

els and S ermons .

tion of it ,“

he experi ences a‘ total death‘

to -sin

and“an entire renewal in the love and image r

'

of

God, so as to re j oice evermore, praywith"out

’ceasing,

and in everyth ing to give thanks .Not that to feel all love and no s in is

’

a suffi

cient proof ; several have experienced thi s : for

a time

’

before thei r soul s were fully renewed ;None

,therefore

,ought to bel ieve that the work

is done ti l l there’

is added the test imony of the

Spirit, witness ing his enti re santification ,as

clearly as hi s j ustification . In conclusion,Iwant to g1ve my testimony, that , aft er having

l ived one year in the grace of j ustification , Iwas led into the bless ing of perfect love, thatcasteth out slavi sh fear.

S ermons . I 53

SERMONNo. V .

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOSTAND F IRE .

He shal l baptize you with the Holy Ghostand with fire .

”-Mat t . i i i . I I .

These words were spoken by the forerunner

of Chri st to His di sciples , tel l ing them what theChrist would do for His fol lowers . Wefear that many have a wrong conceptionas to what th i s bapti sm of fire

means . We bel ieve they‘

are honest in

their .bel ie f ; but for lack ,

Of careful study of

the Word of God, and because Of early teaching, they have been misled . We fea r therehas been a great

i

deal of mixing-up done, such

as ca l l ing regeneration sanctification,and sanc

tification the baptism of fire . Our hearts bleedwithin us,

whenwe hear express ions such as ,The discipleswere converted on the day of

Pentecost,”or

,they received the bless ing. of

hol iness on that day We consider this a

grave mistake . We have been ful ly convincedOf the great . necess ity of , getting out a sermon

on this irnportant subj ect . Having l ived underthis bapti sm . Of fire for nearly n ine . years , - and

having received it as a defin ite bless ing,welove to teach i t as such“ We thinkwh en people . .study the Bible , under , the Holy Ghos t ,along these l ines, they wil l agree with us .

154 My Life, Travels and S ermons.

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghostand with fire Th i s qualification is for sou lwinning only . We think the disciples wereconverted about three years before the day of

Pentecost ,whdn they forsook all to fol lowJesus .D ear reader

, you may not agree with us as tothei r salvation at that t ime . To some it would

be more sati s factory i fwe had on recordthe words used by Christ when He forgavetheir s ins

,aswe have in other cases , such as

Thy s ins be forgiven thee"” “ Arise and

walk"” or , GO in peace, and sin no more"”Dear reader

, you wil l notice that after three

years’probat ion the Lord Himself said to them ,

But rather rej oice because your names arewritten in heaven .

”— Luke x . 20 .

Previous to thi s Jesus had sent them out topreach the Gospel

,and devi l s were subj ect to

His name . We could not bel ieve that God

would use menwho had no rel igion to preachthe Gospel . Again

,the fi fteenth chapter Of S t .

John’s Gospel wi l l prove to any unprej udicedreader that the di sciples were converted men .

Nowye are clean through the Word which Ihave spoken unto you,

”

( verse Moreover,they were ordained of God to preach .

“ I havechosen you,

and ordained you.

”

( verseThis proves to us that they were convertedmen ; yet they had carna'l nature to contend

with . On one o ccasion John, the beloved ,wanted Jesus to cal l down fire from heavenon a certain vi l lage lin S amaria .

“Lord,wilt



shut for fear of the Jews . Jesus came v-and

stood. in . thei r midst and breathed on them andsaid ,

“Receive ye the Holy Ghost"” Th is,we

think, is the internal evidence of their sanctification . Th en, after His ascens ion ,we find themreturning to Jerusalem with great joy,

andtarrying with one accord , in one place, for tendays , for the baptism Of th e Holy Ghost andfire . We would l ike to ask you,

reader,

“Wherecould -we find one hundred and twenty

,or even

twenty, in the churches O f to-day,who wouldtarry with one accord for even five days for thebaptism Of . fire"” We imaginewe can hearthem beg1nn1ng to make excuses, after tarrying

even for one day , such as :“ I must go home ;

my wi fe wi l l not know where I am . I want al lthe Lord has for me . Pray for me, that I mayrece1ve 1t as I go.

”SO he leaves , leaving one less .

After another hour two or three more ‘arise

and say : F riends,we cannot stand this ; 'we

are so burdened for the lost ;we think God can

baptise us 'as wel l preaching as staying here .

God -1s no respector of places . ” And so theyleave .

. Others continue making excuses , suchas :

:

“My fami ly i s in need of my presence andhelp . And they will quote S cripture, and

say : .He that doth not proy ide for ,h is own

house i s worse t han an infidel , and has alreadydenied the faith And they leave, request ingthe prayers Of God’s people that they mayreceive it as they go . But, thank God, i twasnot so with the disciples"They tarried ; untilthey received it . So does every sanctified man

S ermons . I 57

that knows i t to be hi s privi lege to be bapti sedwith the Holy Ghost and fire . YouWi l l observethat they had the blessing of oneness for, atleast

,ten days before the Day of Pentecost .

This wi l l prove to our reader that the bapti sm

Of the Holy Ghost and fire i s a blessing apartfrom sanctification .

“ And when the Day OfPentecostwas ful ly come , they were al l withone a ccord in

.

one place . And suddenly therecame a sound from heaven as Of a rushingmighty wind , and it fi l led al l the house where

theywere s itting. And there appeared unto

them cloven tongues l ike as Of fire , and itsat upon each of them . And they were al l fi l ledwith the Holy Ghost

,and began to speak with

other tongues , as the Spirit g ave them utterance .

”

He'

shall bapti se you with the Holy Ghostand with fire . In other words

,Ye shal l be

enduedwi th power from on high .

”This i s

not conversion, for the Lord does not bapti ses inners with the Holy Ghost and fire . Hej ust saves them from their s ins . Even thenHe does not baptise th em with the Holy Ghostand fire

,because they have slavish fear in thei r

hea rts , and would be l iable to quench the SpiritOf God, and to bring disgrace upon His cause .

I f‘fiyou s ti l l have the carnal nature to contendwith, such as pride

,hatred

,j ealousy

,anger

,

bigotry, malice, fear, temper, and doubt , youhad better go to the seventeenth chapter of

the‘ Gosp el Of S t . John , and the seventeenthverse, and let

'

your prayer be : Lord , sancti fy


me whol ly"” before you go into the upper roomto wait for the bapti sm Of the Holy Ghost andfire . 5 0 many come to our altars night afternight , seeking the enduement of power for soul

winning, but cannot receive it because Of unbel ief . We think when a man i s sanctifiedwhol ly he has fulness o f faith

,so that he can

say to that mountain : Be thou removed"”and it should obey him . And when he i s therehe has no trouble in seeking and Obtain ing thebaptism of the Holy Ghost and fire . Whenmen and women come to our altars seekingthe bapti sm of the Holy Ghost and fire

,and

begin to repent, .we think it i s evident that

they have inward foes to be destroyed . Sanctified people have nothing to repent of , fortheir hearts are clean . They continual ly praise

the Lord . The bapti sm Of the Holy Ghostand fire i s the equipment for soul-winning only .

God gives it only to those who have Obtainedpure hearts

,who would

,i f necessary

,tarry ten

days for thi s power . Jesus,the holy Son of

God,had a pure heart

,and before He went

out into His holy ministry He saw His need ofthis bapti sm of power .

“ And,10

,the heavens

were opened unto Him,and He saw the Spirit

of God descending like a dove,and l ighting upon

Him .

”

(Matt . 3 : How much more oughtwe to feel our need of it"A great many saythis baptism is not for us

,but for the Son of

God only ; but Jesus said , With the baptismthat I am bapti sed withal shall ye be baptised

”

(Mark, 10 : You will Observe that the



them , l est they should make an error in grammar before their congregation . We would l iketo see such come up with us, by the way of the

disciples , through the seventeenth chapter of

St . John’s Gospel,into the upper room

,and

receive the bapti sm of fire for soul-winning .

We think i f they were carried away,under the

Holy Ghost,into the deep things of God ,

'

they

would lose sight of thei r manuscript, and feedtheir congregations instead of starving them .

We would not leave our reader under the im

press ion thatwe ignore education , but, on thecontrary

,we th inkwe cannot have too much of

it,when it i s sanctified .

D ear reader, in conclusion , we pray you

search the S criptures and see what are yourprivi leges in the Godhead , and embrace them ;

forwe can never have too much power .We see the masses in their blood ,

Condemned in sin to d ie ;Endue us with the power Of God,

To work and draw them nigh .

S ermons .

SERMON No. VI .

PREVAIL ING PRAYER .

And hast prevai led .

—Gen . 32 : 28.

History states that Jacob left hi s home abouttwenty years before this , -andwas convertedon hi sway to ‘his uncle s . (Gen . 28 : Heentered into a covenant with God, that if He

would prosper him so that he would come

back to hi s father’s house in peace, of al l

that God would give him ,

‘he would give Hima tenth . ( Gen : 28 : 20,

Notwithstandingall this, Jacob sti l l had hi s evi l nature to contend W i th, being sti l l a supplanter. . Nowheis on hi sway to 'hi s father’s home

,and he fears

that his brother may slay him ,so he causes hi swives and family

,and his cattle to pass over

the brook Jabbok, and he was le ft alone . And

there wrest led a man with him “unti l the break

ing .of the day .

”

(Gen . 32 : Jacob said,

I will not let Thee go,except Thou bless

me .

”The Lord demanded that he should con

fes s hi s old nature before He would bless him .

When he confessed,

-the‘

Lord changed hi s na2

ture, and hi s name from Jacob to I srael .

Z -We would impress'

upon our reader that

Jacob’sway i s the only rightway to

“

p revail;Unless men andwomen adopt that plan theyare never success ful in that kind of

‘work. We


fear that many of our profess ing Christianshave a very lowconception of what prayer i s ,much less prevai l ing prayer . We bel ieve there

i s a vast d ifference between saying prayers andpraying ; some times men do not prevai l when

they pray . You wil l observe that Jacob prevai led in secret prayer . We believe it i s notonly the privi lege

,but also the duty

,of every

Christian to preva i l w ith God in secret dai ly .

There should be a set time for secret devotion .

The world crowds hard upon us , and unlessthere i s a time sacred to God, i t wi l l al l bestolen from us by the cares of l i fe . O f al lthings

, our rel igious dut ies are most easi lyhurried out of their place . It was a customamong the Jews to prepare some sacred placein al l thei r dwell ings . I f we have no placeset apart

,the probabi li ty i s that the duty wil l

be greatly neglected . A short,s i lent pet it ion

when lying on our beds , or walking by theway, does not meet the case . God loves tohear us pray whenwe get away in secret

,and

in agony of soul cry mighti ly unto Him . Chri stused to do this . A grove, a mountain, or agarden were His frequented pla ces . And i fwehave no such place we will have no secretprayer

,aswe fear i s the case with many mem

bers of the church to-day .

Ezekiel wen'

t forth to the plain ; I saac made

a closet of the field ; Daniel , of the river side ;Nathanael

, of th e fig tree ; Peter, of the housetop. When you feel incl ined to indulge inneedless s leep

,cal l to your mind the image of


164 M3: L ife, Travels and S ermons .

M r . Wesley claimed he could pick them out

in his congregat ion,and so can any baptised

,

ministe r . Such people make i t easy for theminister in charge to preach . Itwas a verycommon thing in those days to have convers ions in every service

,and the people of God

were very much disappointed i f there were not ,and it caused a great searching of hea rtsamong them . We are praying that God willspeedi ly bring back the old-time prevai l ing

power .

Some professing Christians tel l us they donot know howto prevai l . Thi s i s an unmis

takable evidence that they have never been

converted ; for men who are converted knowhowto prevai l— at least for themselves . Th i smay appear to be strong language to some ;but it i s . high t ime the churches of to-dayshould be mighti ly aroused . The people of

to-day say that they have not time to pray .

They are more in love with temporal things

than with the things of God . This proves to

us that they . are worldly-minded . We coul dnot expect that class of people to preva i l for

others,not having prevai led for themselves as

yet . We understand that Mr. Wesl ey oncesai d : I have so much work to do to-day that

I shal l have to pray four hours to get i t done .”

This i s the spi rit of every man of God , the

more work he has to do, the more he prays .

This is j ust the opposite from the worldly man .

Our reader wil l gather the secret from this,that .the reason men do not prevai l i s because

S ermons . 165

they -h ave no salvation . Mr. F inney’mightily

stirred up the churches of his day'

along thel ines of prevai

vling‘

p rayer ; as' did al so Mr .

Wesley, and al l other Holy Ghost men in their

day, and you will observe thei r opposit ionwasgreat

'

b’

ecause of _ this ; We would leave out

reade rs under’

the impress ion that the devi lbit terly opposes prevail ing prayer, for i t alwaysmeans the overthrow of his kingdom ; and i f .

you W i l l pray unt i l you prevai l wit h God , you

may expect that all hell wil l be let loose upon

you. Because of‘

thi s strong,oppos it ion , men

'

do‘

not prevai l, but s imply say a few. words inprayer and arise . ‘Ne understand there is. a

vast difference between praying and prevai ling .

Prevail ing is a continuation of prayer unti l

you have received the infal l ible witness thatyour prayer i s heard . Reader, you have not iced

that j‘

iafter praying a certain length of t ime theimpress ions have been very strong to stop.

These ; impressions nearly always come fromthe enemy . I f you ,

wil l j ust pray on t hrough

that da rk cloud,even though the enemy sorely

tempts you to stop, you wil l soon know what

it is to prevai l with God, whether it be for

yoursel f or for others ; and th e oftener youprevail the easier

'

it becomes .Reader, have you ever thought of the greatvictory _ Jacob got when he prevai led" Youwill observe that even his wives were not permittecL to be with him We think that preva iling prayer implies being alone with God ,

separated from our nearest and dearest friends ,


and there praying unti l we can feel that heaveni s very near, and communion very sweet .

We have strong faith that Jesus cannot say

nay to us . Abraham had the secret of prevai l ing prayer when he prevailed for Lot , inSodom . (Gen . 18th chapter . ) The Childrenof I srael

,being in bondage in Egypt

,prevailed

with God for del iverance (Ex . 3 : and Godsent Moses

,and it was a great victory to them

that obeyed . We would not forget Joshua ,the great prevai ler

,whose faith enabled him

'

to command the sun to stand sti l l ('Joshua 10 :

Elisha prevai led and received a doubleportion of the Spir it ( 2 Kings 2 : Hezekiahhad fi fteen years added to his l i fe because ofprevai l ing prayer ( 2 Kings 20 : 1 Solomon ,in answer to prayer, caused fire to come downfrom heaven

,and consume the burnt offerings

and the sacrifice ; and the glory of the Lordfilled the house ( 2 Chron . 7 : I saiah ,through prayer, received an experience that

enabled him to say ,“ Here am I

,Lord

,send

me"” ( I sa . 6 : Daniel,in answer to prayer

,

was del ivered from the den of l ions (Dan . 6th

chapte r ) . Chri st,

“being in an agony,prayed

more earnestly , and His sweat was as it weregreat drops of blood fal l ing down to theground .

”

(Luke 2 2 : The disciples,after

praying for ten days , prevai led (Acts“ And what shal l I more say" For the timewould fail me to tel l o f Gedeon , and of Barak ,and of Samson , and of Jephthae ; of David al so ,and S amuel

,and of the prophets ;who, through



SERMONNO. V'

I‘

I .

GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY.

Therefore glori fy God in your body .—I .

Cor. 6 : 2

Our text is a command , andwe think thatGod expect s us to Obey it as careful ly as thoseother commandments

,namely

,Thou shalt not

steal,

” “Thou shalt not kil .1

”There are

fewpeoplewho ever think Of glori fying Godin thei r bodies . Once they make a profess ionOf religion they think they can indulge in al

most anyth ing, even at the expense of dishonoring themselves and the cause of Ch ri st . Peacewith God. through Christ , evidenced by a l i feof holy labor for God’s glory , and the goodof others

,secures the highest possible happiness

in this world . And , as a test Of al l our indulgences in eat ing

,drinking

,dressing, amuse

menlts, d ivers ions , enterta inments ,“

or recrea

tions,we should use '

the words of our textThere fore glori fy God in your body and inyour spi rit

, Wt'h are God’s .” Some peop l e

never think that they dishonor God by attending the fancy ball, where the cotil l ion, quadri l le,waltz , polka, and minuet are elegantly per

formed by superbly dressed and scented gentlemen tripping the l ight toe with the hal f-dressed ,

S ermons . 169

l ight-heeled ladies , reel ing and whirl ing to the

enchanting sound of music t i l l the dead of night

or: early morning“ Ballrooms find ample work

for divorce courts ; floods of tears have fol lowed,

the wake of publ ic, fancy , and fashionable bal ls .Hearts ; bleeding and bru ised , have there re

ceived their deadly wound . When the sexesmingl e in such dances

,real modesty gradually

withers ; true virtue, the virtue Of’

the heart ,s ickens . and dies

,and from

'

i ts ashes loftenspring the rscoffer and sc

'

orner Of humble piety .

Performers Or defenders of mixed dancing,

i f they have anything at al l to: do with rel igionand attend any

‘

of our'

churches , will be at least )

lukewarm ; but more probably those of whomthe .Church “i s ashamed , and over whom it

mourns , as‘

lovers Of the world more than lOVersOf God , and Often stumbl ing-blocks t o others.

D epend upon’

it,the truly godly

,the earnest ,

consistent workers in our Sunday S chool s andchurches , those Who have experienced a changeof . heart , and try to tread in the steps Of themeek and lowly Jesus

,who s igh and cry overthe sins of the people

,will never be found

defending or pract icing dancing.

'

We cannotglorify God in our bodies and conform to theworld . Are they not amongst the worst of

men, the most c orrupt in heart and l i fe, thatdevise these dancing part ies"Loose in moralsthemselves , they have little “ regard for the

mora ls of others , and a midnight revel withvifomen i s a sensual gratification j ust adaptedto thei r sensual n ature . In nine ca ses out of


ten,thi s i s the true origin of al l ball s and all

dancing parties ; and it i s sad to see howwomen are so willing to be caught in the trap .

I f these officious gentlemen had to dance by

themselves i t would be a j ubi lee dance—oncein fi fty

,

years . D ear reader,have you ever

noticed that these devisers of polkas and j igs

have hitherto been consistent in one thing . Ihave never heard of them propos ing to Openeven a charity ball

, or any other danc e, with

prayer,imploring God’s bless ing to rest richly

upon them while they dance . They have not

yet dared to insult heaven by such an impiousact . You never heard them prais ing God, or

speaking of the cleansing blood of Jesus . I fHis name is mentioned at al l it i s used in blas

phemy . Oh , howcanwe glori fy God in our

bodies and attend such places"And here isour point

,Ought any of our Sunday S chool

scholars or teachers , any making a profession

of rel igion in any of our churches , to sanction ,by their presence

,or defend in any degree ,

what they cannot and dare not ask God to

bless"” Arewe not commanded to glori fy

God in our bodies and in our spirits , which areHis , and are the Obscene , mixed , midnigh t

dances of the present day, to His glory"I fthey are not, what is our duty respecting thembut to shun them

,under whatever pretext they

are devised,in whatever place they are held ,

as insulting to al l true modesty , degrading to

womanly dignity,and dest ructive of al l true

piety" Jigs and psalms , polkas and true pray



us that M i riam danced,that D avid danced

,

that they danced when the prodigal son re

turned . We admit that M i riam did dance,

and said as shewas dancing,S ing ye to the

Lord, for He hath t riumphed glorious ly"Herjoywas boundless for the great del iveranceGod had wrought for long-oppressed .I srael .David and the elders of I srael went to bring

up . the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out

of the house of Obed-Edom , to the tent hehad pitch ed for i t in Jerusalem

,that mysterious

s acredA‘rk

,the vis ible symbol of God’s presence ,

and so great was hi s joy that he dahced beforei t

,with al l hi s might . And the dancing men

tioned at the return of the prodigal sonwasindicative of joy at the return of the lost one .

The Bible says there i s a t ime to dance, butthe dancing mentioned in the Bible was clearlya rel igious exerci se

,an outburst of exuberant

gladness and gratitude for great bless ings sentof God

, or a solemn act of pra ise ; but -never

performed by the mixed sexes , and never in thenight ; and they were regarded as wicked and

in famous personswho perverted dancing fromits sacred use . But ' thosewho try to make theBible sanction thei r fol ly, will perhaps remem

ber the cost of one dance mentioned in the

fourteenth of Matthew . When Hero'

d’s birthday came, i t seems to have been kept up, l ikemany st i l l are, in revel and riot ; and the daughter Of the wicked Herodias ‘pleased Herod by

casting aside her modesty and dancing beforehim, unti l he promised with an oath to give

S ermons . 173

her whatsoever she would ask , and she , beingbefore

°

instructed of her mother,said

,Give me

here John Bapti st’s head in a charger . Herodsent and beheaded John in the prison

,and

thus the prophet and preacher in the wi lderness,

he that bapt i zed the world’s Redeemer in Jor

dan,and

,according to Chri st

’s own testimony,

the great est man born of woman,was cruel ly

murdered at the instigation of thi s dancing

daughter of a W icked mother . D epend upon

it,th i s atrocious event i s not recorded as a mere

link in the biography of John ; i t is a great

moral lesson,teaching us that the most fiendish

cruelty can lurk in the breast of hal f-robed

gaiety,and that the dance of one may cause

another to weep . I f there i s a place in theworld when the lust of the flesh , the lust of the

eye,and the pride of l i fe, may be seen in ful l

bloom,i t i s in the ballroom . Some say, There

can be no harm in parlor dancing at home,”

but thi s is only the int roduct ion ; for ofttimeswhen a young person lea rns howto dance it i shard to tel l where they wil l end, for some of

the lowest on our streets took their first downward step in th e parlor dance, at home .

”


S ERMON NO . VII I .

HE THAT I S FILTHY,LET HIM BE

F ILTHY STILL .

He that i s fi lthy,let him be filthy sti l l .

Rev . 2 2 : 1 1 .

Filthiness becometh not the house of God,

much less our bodies , which the B ible declares

are the temples of the Holy Ghost . Knowye not that ye are the temple of God , and thatthe Spiri t of God dwelleth in you"

” I . Cor . 3We think that our text dwell s especial ly

on filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit . We

have no direct command in God’s Word,pro

hibiting the use of tobacco among profess ingChristians

,but we think that

,indirectly

,God’s

Word teaches that the use of tobacco will keep

precious soul s out of heaven ; for God says ,He that i s fi lthy

,let h im be fi lthy sti ll . ” Do

not think,precious reader

,that God wil l admit

a fi lthy man among those who have washedtheir robes and made them white in the blood

of the Lamb , for when Christ’s precious blood

reaches the h eart,it wi l l cleanse him “ from al l

filthiness of'the flesh and spi rit , perfect ing

hol iness in the fear of God .

” We do not thinkit strange to see tobacco used freely in barrooms, and such places ; I bel ieve that bar

rooms , whiskey , and tobacco are inseparable ;



the ear, such as inabi lity clearly to define sounds

and the annoyance of a sharp,ringing sound ,

l ike a whistle or a bell ; ( 5 ) in the brain, sus

pending thewaste of that organ, and oppress

ing i t i f it be duly nourished ; ( 6 ) of the nerv

ous fi laments and sympathetic or organic ne rves

l ead ing to deficient power in them and to over

sec retion on those surfaces—glands—over

which the nerves exert a controlling force ; ( 7 )in the mucous membrane of the mouth, causing

enlargement and soreness of the tonsils, smok

ers’ sore throat , redness , dryness, and occas

iona l pee l ing-off of the membrane , and eithe r

unnatural firmness and contraction or spongi

ness of the gums ; (8) on the bronchial surfaceof the lungs ,when that is already irrita ted , sus

ta in ing the irri ta tion and increasing the cough .

J . H. Kellogg,MD in Health Science

"

l eaflets, No. 16,says Chemists , botanists .

and physicians unite in pronounc ing tobaccoone of the most deadly poisons known . No

other'

poison ,with the exception of prussic

acid,wil l cause deat h so quickly—only th ree or

fOur minutes be ing required for a fatal dose to

produce its ful l effect . The act ive principle of

tobacco, that i s, that towhich its narcotic and

poi sonous propert ies are due , is nicotine—a

heavy, oi ly substance ,which may be separated

from the dried lea f of the plant by dist illationor in fusion. The proport ion of nicotine varies

from two to e igh t per cent—Kentucky and

Virginia tobacco usual ly conta ining six or seven

per cent . A pound of tobacco contains , on an

S ermons . 177

average, three hundred and e ighty grains of

this deadly poison , ofwhich one-tenth of a

grainwill kill a dog in ten minutes . A caseis on record in wh ich a manwas killed in thirtyseconds by th is poison .

”

Hottentots use the oil of tobacco to kil lsnakes—a single minute drop causing death as

quickly as a lightn ing stroke . It is much usedby gardeners and keepers of greenhouses to

destroy grubs and noxious insects—its propersphere of use fulness. One of the greatest

curses of the day among our young people is

cigarette-smoking.

The samewriter, in speaking of cigarette

smoking, says We should remember that

there always is present in cigarettes n icotine, a

far more deadly poison than opium. Yet nico

tine is not the only poison present in the c igar

ette. The tobacco prepared for ciga rette-mak

ing has to be ground small. and so the bet terquali ty of leaves are never used . The refuse

of the manufacturer is doctored up to the re

quired flavor by the addition of rum and vari

ous drugs . especially opium. Thewrappers inwhich this ground-up tobacco is rolled are

supposed to be rice-paper. but , as this is expen

sive and a cheap subs titute can be made by

bleaching a very common grade of paperwithlime , and then treating itwith a preparation

of essence of lead. many brands of cigarettes

are thus encased. The result of holding th is

kind of paper between the lips is very harmful

to the lin ing membranes of the mouth , throat ,

178 M3: Life, Travels and S ermons .

and nose . The boywhose father has been asmoker can often smoke a cigarette without

any inconvenience whatever,and , even i f at

first s l ightly nauseated by it,the sickness and

headache soon wear off. I t i s an easily- formedhabit . The use of cigarettes does not leavethe strong odor on either the clothes or breaththat tobacco in pipe or cigar does . I t i s therefore an easily-concealed habit . Children canindulge without the knowledge of thei r parents .It i s an inexpensive vice

,and

,therefore, within

the reach of chi ldren . There i s sad reason tofear that many a cent or s i lver piece intendedfor the Sunday S chool collect ion-plate, finds itsway across the counter of the grocer or tobacconist in exchange for the cigarette .

”

D r . J . N . Nelson , of Danvil le, says Cigarette-smoking is dangerous because of the fact

that much of the smoke is filtered through theair passages and lungs

,every whiff leaving on

them a deposit of nicot ine,which is a very

deadly poison . Five years ago the only sonof a wealthy New Yorker died at twelve yearsof age of excess ive _cigarette-smoking . The

physician asked the father i f he might not examine the remains . Consentwas given , andthe bodywas taken '

to Bellevue‘

Hospital . Itwas found that the throat bronchial tubes,and

even the smallest air cells,were perfectly black .

They were covered throughout with a depositof nicotine .”

We are ashamed to confess that,with

astounding rapidity, the cigarette habit i s



your bodily health, and, in the end, may cause

you to lose your soul .

TOBACCO—A PARABLE .

Then shall the kingdom of Satan be likenedunto a grain of tobacco seed, which , though ex

ceedingly small , being cast into the ground,grew

,and became a great plant, and spread its

leaves rank and broad, so that the huge andvi le worms found a habitation thereon .

I t came'

to pass in the course of time that the

sons of men looked upon it and thought it beauti ful to look upon, and much to be desired to

make lads look big and manly . So they did put

forth'

their hands and did chew thereof . And

some it made sick ; and others it caused to

vomit most filthily .

And further it came to pass that thosewhochewed it became weak and unmanly, and said ,We are enslaved

,and cannot cease from

chewing it .” And the mouths of al l that wereenslaved became foul

, for they were seized witha violent spitting

,and did spi

'

t,even in ladies’

parlors,and in the house of the Lord of hosts,

and the saints of the Most High were greatlyplagued thereby . And it came to pass

~ that

others snuffed it,and

'

they were taken suddenly

with fits , and they sneezed with a mightysneeze, insomuch that thei r eyes were fi l ledwith tears

,and they did look exceedingly si l ly .

And yet others wrought leaves in rol ls,and did

set fire to the one end thereof, and sucked ve

S ermons . 181

hemently at the other end thereof, and did lookvery grave and cal f- like, and the smoke of thei rtorment ascended up forever and ever . And

the cult ivat ion thereof became a great and

mighty business in the earth, and the mer

chants waxed rich by the commerce thereof .

And it came to pass that the saints of the MostHigh defiled themselves therewith , and even the

poor,who could not buy shoes, nor bread, nor

books for thei r l ittle ones , spent their moneyfor it . And the Lord was greatly displeased

therewith,and said :

,Wherefore thi s waste

,

andwhy do these l ittle ones lack for bread,and shoes , and books" Turn nowyour fields

into corn and whea t,and put th i s evi l thing

away, far from you, and be separate, and de

fil e not yourselves , and I wil l bless you andcause My face to shine upon you .

”But with

one accord they al l exclaimed We cannotcease from chewing, snufiing,

and puffing ; weare slaves .”


SERMON No . I".

QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT.

Quench not the Spirit . — I . Thess . v . 19 .

Our text impl ies that there i s a danger ofquenching the Spirit of God . We think thatD aul was much afraid of this among his people .

I f therewas a danger then , howmuch the people of our day should guard against it . Wethink that our text appl ies not only to theChristian , but also to the unconve rted . Everylost spirit in hel l has been gui lty of thi s awful

crime of quenching God’s Spirit . We knowthat God the Holy Ghost came all. the wayfrom heaven to earth

, to convince men of

s in, of righteousness , and of a j udgment to

come . But the puny arm of rebel l ion is raised

and humanity says to God, its maker : wewill not have Thee reign ove r us . The

Holy Spirit of God does not leave, but worksin other ways . Holy Ghost sermons arepreached by Christian min i sters and evangelists . People feel that God’s Holy Spirit i s dealing with them

,yet they resi st .

There are numerous other ways in whichGod deals with the conscience of men . Sometimes the idol of the home is taken

, or someother calamity overtakes them, and they arecompelled to think . I have said in my evan



what caused them to covet these offices . You

will find that God in the newdispensation “has

made us unto our God kings and priests .Rev . v . 10 . In this dispensa tion it i s the privilege of al l to have and to be led into al l truthby Him

, on condition thatwe do not quench,or grieve Him .

—Joel i i . 28 : “And it shal l come

to pass a fterward that I wil l pour out MySpirit upon al l flesh .

”See Acts i i . I 7,where

Peter refers to the above pas sage while preaching to the Jews at Jerusal em .

Christians should ever remember that God’sSpirit is easi ly quenched, and cannot remain inthe heart except He

‘ reigns there . Whenwetalk of being led by

'

the Spirit of God , we donot mean thatwe are led by every impress ion .

So many make a great mistake right here .

They think that i f they do not obey every voicethat comes to th em, they W i l l be gui lty ofquenching the Holy

‘

Spirit . John the D iv inesays : B eloved

,bel i eve not every spirit

,but

try the spirits whe ther they are of God .

I . John iv . 1 .

The enemy of al l souls haswon many a victory righ t here . He comes l ike a flash andleaves almost as quickly . I f the impress ion isfrom God’s Spirit

,it wi l l be in accordance with

the S cripture and with a sanctified j udgment .Any impre ssion, therefore, which i s not in ac

cordance with S cripture and a sanctified j udgment, must be rej ected as from Satan .

Howcanwe distinguish the voice of God

from that of the enemy,and be always sure"

S ermons . I85

Th i s i s whatwe are going to try and makeplain to all our readers by the right Spiri t .

I t i s in the power of the enemy to approacha soul as an angel of l ight . Unless the individual i s wel l fortified with B ible t ruths

,he

will suffer many defeats . We would say toour reader — Never be in a hurry to obey im

press ions,but “

try the spirits wh ether they areof God . There i s a way out of al l these difficulties to the ful ly-surrendered soul . I wouldrepeat, ful ly-surrendered , because i f there i s anyreserve of will upon any point, i t becomes al

most impossible to find out the will of Godin reference to that point

,and therefore the first

thing i s to be sure that you real ly do purposeto obey the Lord in every respect .

There are two special ways in which God re

veal s His wi l l to us through the S criptures ,and by means of the direct voice of His Holy

Spiri t making impress ions upon our hearts andour j udgment . The first of these i s the guid

ance to be found in the B ible . When our Fa

ther has written out for us a plain direct ionin the B ible

,He wil l not of course give us a

spec ial revelat ion in regard to that thing . I fwe fai l to search out and obey the S cripturerule when there i s one, and look instead for

an inward voice,we will open ourselves to the

deceptions of sa tan, and he wi l l not be slow totake a dvantage of us and bring us into error.

Whenwe find ourselves in any difficulty concerning guidance

,the first th ing we should do

i s to find out what our heavenly Father has to


say to us about it ; but i f after careful searchwe are not able to distingui sh the voice of

God from that of the enemy , the only thing wecan do i s to commit the whole matter to theLord in an absolute surrender . Say

“Yes , Lord ,yes

,only show me Thy wil l . I am eager and

will ing to follow wherever Thou dost lead .

”

Then trust Him absolutely to guide . He wil l

sure ly do it . Take , for instance , t n 10 : 3

He calleth His own sheep by name and leade

'

th them out”

; or, John xiv . 2 6 :“The Com

forter,which is th e Holy Ghost, whom the

Father will send in My name, He shal l teachyou all things , and bring al l things to your re

membrance,whatsoever I have said unto you” ;

or, Jas . i . 5-6 :“I f any of you lack wisdom

,let

him ask of God,that giveth to all men l iber

ally and upbraideth not ; and it shal l be givenhim .

” As soon as the world ceases to quenchthe Holy Spirit o f God , that moment she wil lbecome reconciled to God . The s inner in hisdesperate state i s busy every moment quenching the Spirit o f God . For God’s Holy Spiriti s busy every moment reproving the world of

s in, of righteousness, and of j udgment . I ti s very hard to make men and women bel ievethat as long as they stand aloo f from the re

ligion of Christ, they are fighting against God,Reader, are you converted"I f not, you arecontinual ly raising your puny arm of rebel l ionagainst the Most High . Oh"“We pray you,

inChrist

’s stead, be ye reconciled to God

“For

our God i s a consuming fire .”



( I . Cor . but he receives grace from God

to keep it suppressed, or, as PaulI says , in Rom.

6 : 6, this nature is crucified . In order to

have perfect love,thi s carnal nature must be

total ly destroyed and cast out, aswe find inthe latter clause of Romans 6 : 6 . John Wesleydescribes this change as a definite, instantaneeus work of grace, wrought in the soul , whichcleanseth the heart from all s in .

By reading the fol lowing passageswe findthat al l the way down through the ages Godtaught His people this second work of graceGen . 17 : 1 ; Gen . 32 : 28 ; Ps . 5 1 : 10 ; I s . 6 : 7 ;Matt . 5 : 8 ; 5 : 48 ; John 17 : 17 ; ActsI I . Cor . 1 : 15 ; Rom. 12 : 1 ; I . Th ess . 5 : 23 ;John 15 : 2 ; I . John 4 : 18. By the evidenceof the Spir it we know beyond the shadow of

a doubt whenwe gain this rung of the ladder .For references on the evidence, read Matt . 56 ; Acts 9 : 17 ; John 20 : 2 2 ; I . John 4 : 18.

Then may be appl ied the text : Grow in graceand in the knowledge of our Lord and SaviourJesus Christ .”

No man should be deceived as to where he i s

l iving, when God’s Word makes everything so

pla in .

The following I S copied from Wesley inChristian Perfection

,page 49

The holiest men sti l l need Christ as theirProphet, as the L ight of the world

, for Hedoes not give them ligh t but from moment to moment— the instant He withdraws, all i s darkness . They st ill need

S ermons . 189

Chri st as thei r King. For God does

not give them a stock of hol iness . But unl es s

they receive a supply eve ry moment , nothingbut unhol iness would remain . Th ey sti l l need

Chri st as thei r Priest, to make atonement forthei r holy things . Even perfect hol iness i s

acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ .

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