The Earnest Christian
By C. H. Zahniser
Chapter 7
EARLY PERIOD OF SUPERINTENDENCY 1860 TO 1870
Mr. Roberts, following the pattern of the two years pursuant to his expulsion, continued his strenuous labors in travel. William Gould attributed the extent to which the new church enlarged in that early period to "the apostolic travels and self denying work"[1] of the first General Superintendent. Heeding the calls that came to him from all quarters, he went north, south, east, and west, taking advantage of every opportunity that presented itself. He journeyed to Binghamton; and thence south and east. He preached on the street in Carbondale in 1861 and went on to New York City where a holiness meeting was started in the home of the Rev. William Belden, a Presbyterian, who became one of his fast friends and strong helpers. There he came into fellow-ship with D. F. Newton, editor of The Golden Rule; and in 1862, Mr. Newton became joint-editor of The Earnest Christian. He was back in New York three times in 1864; and records of his visits to Windsor and Deposit are found. In 1865 he was at White Haven and Canaan; Catasaqua, Pennsylvania and Vineland, New Jersey in 1867, and later at Elizabeth, Kingwood, and Dover in the same state. The year 1869 found him at Harpersville, Bainbridge, and Philadelphia and many other points.[2] Mrs. Roberts, who had previously seemed to discern some things on the basis of the labors which her husband had already begun, had a vision, so she records, of what her husband was to do. In her diary are found these words:
True to this "vision" Mr. Roberts went from place to place, preaching and endeavoring to extend the work which he had begun. In October of that year, he recorded that he held a grove meeting at Bonus, Illinois, where he had been one year before, and where there had not been a single Free Methodist in the neighborhood. He was surprised on arriving to discover "thirty large tents well filled with devout worshippers."[4] There he found the meeting "progressing most gloriously" under the management of the Rev. Judah Mead, District Chairman. On Sunday, he said, "the whole country turned out for miles around," and listened attentively to the Gospel. Twenty-seven united with the new church.[5] Several were converted in a meeting which he held in Washington Grove, Illinois, and he recorded that so great was the interest with some that the occupants of two of the tents remained on the ground a week after the camp meeting had closed and continued the services and that ten more professed conversion.[6] Just before this in Vestal, Broome County, New York, a two-day meeting had continued, he said, for a third day with "people flocking in for miles around."[7] When he returned home at the end of November, Mrs. Roberts recorded in her Journal, "It does seem so pleasant to sit down alone with my dear husband and children. Yet this is a rare thing with us, and as the Lord seems to order otherwise, I must be content."[8] At the time of a General Quarterly Meeting held in Albion, the Rev. Asa Abell, who for forty years had been a travelling preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, cast his lot with the infant church. He was a man of recognized ability in his church, having been a delegate to four General Conferences of the Methodist Church, and a presiding elder for eighteen years. Mr. Roberts reported that there was scarcely a dry eye in the convention when Mr. Abell announced his conviction that the time had come when he must change his church relations. Mr. Abell expressed deep regret that the time had come when he felt he must take such a step, for he said of the Methodist Church, "She is my mother."[9] He believed, he said, that the holiness revival in that region which had been branded fanaticism, was a genuine work of God, and hence his sympathies were with those people. However, it was not without a real pull on his heartstrings that he made the decision he did, for he said that he "could sit down and cry for an hour."[10] He was made chairman of the Genesee District. The Reverend Levi Wood, who had been a member of the East Genesee Conference, also joined the new church about that time and twenty-eight of his members joined with him.[11] In the beginning of the year 1861, the Rev. C. D. Brooks, who, although a Methodist, had suggested the name for the new church, withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church, and with most of his members, joined the Free Methodist Church.[12] 4. Reactions to Issues of the Day The reactions of Mr. Roberts to the issues of the day are also discovered in the performance of his task. An experience is recorded that a camp meeting in Illinois was dismissed a day early so the people could go home to vote against a rearrangement of the congressional districts because Mr. Roberts feared the pro-slavery party would get an advantage if the proposed redistricting were passed.[13] While he was in New York in 1864, he was stirred by the great masses of people and the apparent inability of the church to meet their needs. The statistics which revealed that need once again gripped him as it did in previous years when he wrote his first articles while still in the mother church. At this later date, he had read in the Christian Advocate and Journal that there were not quite one half as many Methodists in New York then, as there had been forty-three years before, when one out of every thirty-eight of the population was a Methodist; at that time, only one in eighty-two. "Then they were a plain humble persecuted people," he affirmed,
Mr. Roberts was still crusading for free seats. In the month of January, 1864, Roberts traveled over twenty-eight hundred miles, preached eighteen times, provided matter for the February number of The Earnest Christian, besides writing letters and attending to other official duties. He reported that one half the calls that came to him could not be attended to. On the third of that month, he preached twice in Buffalo to a congregation much larger than he expected. The day was so cold and stormy that two women who had started home under the influence of liquor had fallen down by the way and had frozen to death. Starting out on the Great Western and Michigan Central Railroad in a storm that was raging furiously, he arrived at Detroit where he improved his time at an excellent public library gathering selections of some of the old divines for his magazine. He went on to Clintonville, Illinois, where the second Free Methodist Church was built, and preached; then proceeded to Freeport where he ministered to "a large, intelligent, and attentive congregation."[15] Then he traveled back to Ransomville, New York where he held a Quarterly Meeting. There the Wesleyan Methodist Church offered them the use of their house of worship, and "made themselves at home" among them. Fifteen persons joined the church at that meeting. Barnerville, Scoharie County. New York was next in line for a Quarterly Meeting, made possible by the labors of a Mr. A. Burdick. There he visited Howe's Cave, a natural curiosity of "surpassing interest" and entered its cool depths for two of the thirteen miles that had been explored. He took a ride in a small skiff on a creek that flowed in its depths and was wonderfully exhilarated in being permitted to enter for a short time "into another world where darkness forever reigns."[16] The Nazarite Band sometimes caused trouble and confusion, as they did at the Allegheny Camp Meeting where they held meetings in the rear of the Wales tent outside the circle of the regular encampment. Alanson Reddy, their leader, did not make things easy. Mr. Roberts recorded in his Journal an incident showing the confusion that sometimes came with their presence. During the regular service at the stand, the Nazarites held a separate service of their own, on the same campground. Mr. Roberts went to the Wales tent and found a number of "brothers" and "sisters" seated at a table while a Mrs. D. was "struggling about preaching." Mr. Roberts said he kindly asked them to close the meeting and go to the stand, and then at the close of the regularly scheduled service they might continue all night if they so desired. One of the women replied, "We will close when God tells us to," and another said, "The Holy Ghost began this meeting, and let Him close it." Then one of the Nazarite men sang to Mr. Roberts, "If you can't stand this Nazarite fire. . . ." They continued this meeting until some rowdies broke it up by imitating them in louder tones, and the whole ended in confusion. In spite of the attempt to disrupt the regular service, they had a good service at the stand, so Mr. Roberts thought.[17] Mr. Roberts said of this Nazarite Band that instead of aiming to get sinners converted, they seemed to direct their efforts at what they called "a free time," that is, throwing off all restraint; that they put the leadership of the Spirit above the direction given in the Bible, and that instead of seeking purity and power, they seemed to seek reproach, and to glory in that. Also he felt that some of them had given way to a strong will and indulged in a wrong spirit.[18] One of the Nazarites arose in a regular service of the camp meeting, and stated that the Lord wanted her to say Mr. Roberts had a devil, and that the Rev. Asa Abell had been preaching for the devil ever since the camp commenced. So annoying had the fanaticism among the Nazarites become that Mr. Roberts said that many of the best people in the region had become afraid of any demonstration whatsoever, and that they were "afraid almost to let the Lord bless them."[19] The travelling Superintendent was touched with the feeling of the infirmities of others. His own past experience had taught him to sympathize with the preacher of small means on a rundown charge. Many years later, Bishop Burton R. Jones said that he had often known Mr. Roberts to divide his wardrobe with the frontier preacher whose coat had grown "seedy" and thin with age. His attitude toward the young preachers in their ministrations was also mentioned by Bishop Jones. To one young preacher who expressed to Mr. Roberts his dread of preaching in his presence at camp meeting, he replied, "You need not be afraid of me; no one ever heard me criticize one of our young preachers." The young man said his manner was so kind that he felt the utmost freedom, sure of a sympathetic listener.[20] Mr. Roberts as a traveler may be seen with his wife near Detroit, "crossing the river in a boat" and while so doing, calling for a cup of tea; and then bringing out a little package and eating their own "bread and butter."[21] Or he may be observed absentmindedly leaving the cars at Lockport on his way to Buffalo without his coat and having to spend a dollar and greatly inconveniencing himself to recover it."[22] Or perchance, he may be seen lying on a "wooden bottomed lounge" in a depot to snatch "a couple of hours of good sleep."[23] Twice within a month, in 1867, while riding on the cars, he was carried past the place at which he wished to stop. Though naturally of great vigor, his labors were exhausting. The first experience of passing his stop occurred on New Year's day when he was going a few miles to unite in matrimony "an interesting couple of young disciples of Jesus." A conveyance was in waiting for him at the depot. The name of the station was duly called out, but he "paid no attention to it, for, worn out by toil and watching," he was fast asleep. When he awoke, he was miles away from the scene of the wedding. Fortunately another train was soon going back, but by then the conveyance was gone from the depot, and he had to walk two or three miles to reach the house of his friends. He was still there in time for the "interesting services."[24] He was, of course, more watchful for a season. However, some time later, he started for home, a distance of ten miles. The weather was cold, the cars warm, and he was exhausted from the labors of the Sabbath, and "the toils of the day." He heard the name of the station four miles from home called out; he remembered having a feeling of drowsiness, but after that he recalled nothing until he was near a station four miles beyond his desired destination. Anxious children were looking for their father at the proper station, and cordial greetings were waiting at home, but his "senses were locked in sleep." He had to make his way back through the storm and cold on foot, the best he could. He finally reached home in safety, but said he "learned a lesson" that would not "soon be forgotten."[25] On another occasion he slept at "Brother Stoutenberg's" from 3:00 A.M., intending to get up for the 6:45 train. He did not waken until seven, but jumped up and ran to the depot, only to find that the cars were gone. Satisfied then to go back to the house to write letters, he again made his way to the depot to take the cars at 4:30. He was no more than seated before his host arrived to tell him that the stage did not leave Chenango till morning. That night he wrote, "I went back to the house and stayed all night. I went to bed at night, but did not sleep very well. I am tired and worn."[26] Again, seated by the side of a "Brother Hook" who took him with his horse and sleigh to a place formerly known as Whopponock to a school, he arrived to tell his experience.[27] This was located four miles north of Norwich, on Christian Avenue. The next evening after preaching from the text, "Escape for thy life"[28] he returned to Norwich over four miles of drifted road, the horses walking nearly all the way. He did not reach his place of abode until half past eleven. It was probably the next morning when he penned these words in his Journal: "Retired very weary after twelve. A good day, but worked hard and had a cold ride."[29] The January of 1869 found him starting out the new year "with hard work" and "a determination to work for the Lord" with all his might. He had dedicated a church at Pittsford, New York, the last day of the old year, and had then ridden to Rochester, where he took the cars to Lockport, and thence by sleigh to Charlottsville ten miles, and preached at a watch night meeting in the Baptist Church. He recorded, "The Lord helped me." That morning, he arose early and went ten miles to Lock-port, and took the train at night. At Spencerport, his two sons, George and Benson, met him with a sleigh to drive him on home. It was a "very cold, blustering day."[30] In May of the same year, he was off to Spencerport, driven there by his son George, to take the 6:50 A. M. train for Rochester. There he spent the day until 4:00 P.M. mailing out The Earnest Christian. He then took the cars for Kennedy to go to Ellington. He reached Corning, New York, about eight o'clock that evening. There he called on an Amos Hard, whose name appeared in the past history of the movement. At nine he went to a hotel, slept until twelve and once again took the cars for Kennedy, which he reached at seven the next morning. After taking breakfast with the pastor of the Baptist Church, the Rev. Mr. Willoughby, he rode with him five miles in his buggy to Ellington, where a Secret Society Convention was in progress, and where he was to give two addresses. He said, "I spoke in the evening, and endeavored to show that secret societies were wrong in principle and hurtful in their tendency. Some professed to be converted."[31] On May 6, his Journal entry records, "Spoke again in the convention this morning. Endeavored to show the demoralizing influences of secret societies upon their members."[32] Leaving the Convention, he tried for the express, but it did not stop, so he "took way freight to Salamanca,"[33] and from Salamanca rode the. express and "had a berth in a sleeping car."[34] After preaching in the church in New York on May 7th, he "had a very good night's sleep in the parsonage on the church cushions."[35] He then took the Erie Railroad cars for home, stopping at Binghamton at three o'clock in the morning, and called at "Brother Stoutenberg's." He rode with the Stoutenbergs in their buggy to Union to see Dr. Whitney. Then he was off on the accommodation train which reached Rochester at about eleven o'clock at night, and being too far from home and without a means of further transportation, he stayed in the Exchange Hotel that night. The next morning he spent writing in his office until twelve, and then he went home on the cars. There he "found all well," but discovered as he jotted down, "Satan is not dead, but Jesus prevails."[36] As a traveler, the main purpose of Mr. Roberts was to extend the work of the church he had helped to organize. He expressed as his hope that he would see the time come when free churches would be opened all over the land. He had no desire, he said, to build up a large denomination, but he did hope to see earnest Christianity prevail in all the churches. To this end, he believed that free churches were essential.[37] However, he worked hard, and put others to the task of promoting free churches and organizing them whenever possible. On January 28, 1861, Mr. Roberts wrote to his wife of a meeting the day before which had lasted from nine o'clock in the morning till three in the afternoon. Then he rode six miles and preached that evening at Lyndonville where they organized a church.[38] The church at Rochester, New York which had been formed under the old discipline before the date of the formation of the Free Methodist Church, had grown from about twenty to sixty members. Since that date, they had adopted the discipline of the new church.[39] At a "Love Feast" there, they heard the testimony of a man, one hundred and one years old, who had been a drummer boy in the Revolutionary War. Converted just six months before that, the old man spoke with all the young ardor of a new convert. He had been in Van Schoik's regiment in Fort George, and in the battles of Saratoga, Monmouth, and Yorktown. He had good use of his senses, Mr. Roberts wrote, and had walked three-fourths of a mile to church. When the opportunity was given to join the new church, the centenarian went forward with fourteen others.[40] 2. Reports on the Work of Others It was a test of faith when the first preachers were sent out from the first Conventions to raise up their own churches. As those men were able to succeed in their undertaking of establishing new churches, it was their custom to write to Mr. Roberts to tell of each new "victory." It would be impossible to reproduce even a small portion of such correspondence that poured into the office of Mr. Roberts. Letters telling of revival meetings, the organization of classes, dedication of churches, camp meetings, came in from all the various parts of the country whence the free church advocates had spread and begun their labors. From Allegheny, New York, came word of a revival in which, it was reported, forty professed religion. About three miles from there, a number of men had been engaged in lumbering. Several wild fellows gathered together at the house of a Mr. Wheeler, talking and making sport of religion, when one of their number suggested in fun that one of their group, Mr. Johnson, should preach them a sermon. Johnson took up a Bible, read a chapter, his hand trembling. He then began to preach "with power," and two were converted including the preacher. The following Sunday evening Rev. Curry went down to preach and several arose for prayer.[41] From Burlington, Illinois, A. B. Burdick reported, "Almost everybody wants this old kind of religion."[42] Charles Hudson wrote that stone and timber were on the ground for the construction of their new meeting house at Wales.[43] E. Osborne reported that at St. Charles, Illinois, where they had already organized, they were "prospering beyond anything we have known."[44] In June, 1861, less than a year after the formal organization of the new denomination, Mr. Roberts wrote that "from all directions calls are coming for the establishment of free churches."[45] Only the most pressing of these could be met because of the lack of suitable preachers. He declared he was not desirous of promoting secessions except from sin to holiness, and averred that he was not conscious of even the slightest ambition to build up a new denomination, but preferred that the existing denominations would adopt the principles of experimental and practical godliness and free seats for the masses. He concluded that perhaps the only way to inculcate them was for those who had sufficient faith in God to lead the way.[46] Hence he launched the new church with all the vigor and aggressiveness his young spirit and faith prompted. (a) Roberts Dedicated Many Churches. Mr. Roberts announced the dedication of a Free Methodist Church in Perry, New York, on July 20th, 1861. Perry will be remembered as the place where Mr. Roberts had been expelled from the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Rev. Asa Abell and the Rev. Loren Stiles were to officiate on that occasion.[47] At West Falls, where Mr. Roberts' close friend, William Kendall, had ended the closing days of his life, a new church was erected.[48] On April 13th, 1862, a free church was dedicated in Gowanda, the home town of Mr. Roberts, and where his parents still lived. Mr. Roberts was called on to preach the dedicatory sermon. The church was filled with an attentive congregation for the special services, and some conversions were professed before Mr. Roberts left.[49] In October of that year, a new church in Marengo, Illinois, the scene of the labors of Dr. Redfield, was dedicated by Mr. Roberts. The church had cost only eight hundred and fifty dollars, and caused him to exclaim upon the extravagance of building churches to surpass those of other denominations. "No more such splendid pewed churches are needed," he asserted, "and we devoutly pray that no more may be built."[50] (b) Work in Michigan Begun. The work of the new church which began in Michigan early in 1863 through the labors of the Rev. E. P. Hart, had its beginnings in an approach made to him concerning the same in the fall of 1862. Mr. Hart stated that in the Conference session of that year, Mr. Roberts spoke to him about it on the basis of a letter he had received from a man in Michigan who desired a Free Methodist Church. When Mr. Roberts asked Mr. Hart if he would go, he replied, "If you say so, and I can get there, I will go to the North Pole." However, because the Conference did not have enough ministers to supply the churches that were developing in that region, Mr. Roberts sent Mr. Hart back to Marengo, stating that the brethren there had consented, if he were sent back, to let him take three months at any time of the year he might choose to visit Michigan.[51] Mr. Roberts turned over to Mr. Hart the letter which Henry L. Jones of Ida, Michigan, had written, and requested him to begin correspondence with him. Before he got away for the trip, however, Dr. Redfield, after having suffered more than two years with a stroke of paralysis, succumbed to his illness.[52] Mr. Roberts was requested to preach the funeral sermon, which he did to a crowded house although the day was very stormy, the "rain falling in torrents."[53] Mr. Hart thought the work in that section seemed not to suffer in consequence of Redfield's long illness. The enterprise in Michigan which Mr. Hart was then contemplating, had been brought about by a copy of The Earnest Christian, which a Mrs. Knoll had obtained while visiting a sister in Buffalo where the magazine was then published. Mrs. Knoll had handed a copy of it to Mr. Jones, who, after reading it carefully, wrote to Mr. Roberts, requesting him to send them a Free Methodist preacher. The visit of Mr. Hart began early in the year 1863. (c) Helpers in Illinois and in Missouri. Mr. Roberts was in close correspondence with all the men who were endeavoring to spread the work of the new church. Those men, commissioned by Mr. Roberts, were loyal and self-sacrificing in all their labors, going out without promise of salary or other earthly benefits, and many were the comforts of life they were called upon to forego. It was this selflessness which touched the heart of Roberts and made him share even his own clothes with his Co-laborers. J. G. Terrill wrote from Lebanon that God was with them and that he was setting his mark for a Southern Illinois Conference. He thought with "salvation to make the people tractable and discipline to straighten up their lives" they would yet see "a noble people in Southern Illinois."[54] This young man told how he had lost his way in the woods but "Jesus had hold of the bridle" and he was led to "a neighborhood forsaken of the means of grace" and so was able to establish a new preaching appointment. He stated that if the church they were trying to obtain in St. Louis did not materialize, an old sea captain by the name of Loveland would give one of his farms and an additional one thousand dollars if needed to make possible a new church. If the first proposition for a church worked out, he said they would, if possible, repair it and then "send a Habeas Corpus for Benjamin Titus Roberts to come and dedicate it." He closed his letter with a cordial, "What do you think of that?"[55] The following year, Mr. Roberts was called to dedicate "an edifice of brick, which formerly belonged to the M. E. Church South" for which they paid nine thousand dollars. It was located on Fifteenth Street, between Franklin Avenue and Morgan Street. The dedication gave occasion for Mr. Roberts to remark that in St. Louis, a city of one hundred eighty-seven thousand people, there were but seventy-six churches, twenty-eight of them being Roman Catholic. He then calculated that if each would hold on an average of five hundred, there would be room for only twenty-one thousand souls. He was pleased with the good location of the church just purchased in a city which he declared "must always be one of the most important cities in the United States" because of its advantageous location, its manufacturing facilities and iron and coal deposits.[56] That church, which had been organized through the influence and labors of Dr. Redfield, was to be a memento to his memory, and a marble slab was to be placed on its walls. Mr. Roberts called for six hundred subscribers at ten dollars each, through the columns of The Earnest Christian.[57] (d) Hard Times in Michigan. The work in Ida, Michigan, which began as a result of the letter written to Mr. Roberts, was soon given his attention. On his way there in 1864, his train missed connections with the Great Western Road by about ten minutes, and he was compelled to stop over from two until ten o'clock, although he could have gone to Detroit for six dollars, but since that amount was double the fare from Buffalo there, he said, "I did not choose to pay it." At Paris, a little town where they had stopped, he went through the village the next morning canvassing for subscriptions to his magazine, The Earnest Christian, probably inspired by what the magazine had done in Michigan. Everybody there complained of hard times, and he sold but one number for ten cents in silver! He importuned, "I pray the Lord to make that number do the devil more harm than he did by keeping me over."[58] That day he reconsidered his decision and took an accommodation train to Detroit, walked about the city, spent an hour in the reading room of the Young Men's Association, and then went on to Ida which he reached late at night. The next morning he walked about a mile and met the Mr. Henry Jones who had written the letter requesting a Free Methodist Church. He received a cordial welcome, and was taken to the place of the meeting.[59] There, he discovered to his own satisfaction that the Lord had "been helping the labors of Brother Hart" and he thought a good work had begun in that area. He reported a large attendance, some people having driven seventy miles in a wagon. Mr. Roberts felt special help in preaching, and expressed the wish to preach every day if he could have so much help. He felt that was due to the prayers of his wife, for he wrote to her, "You must have been praying for me."[60] Apropos to the work in Michigan and its results is a write-up of the Huron, Michigan Camp Meeting in 1868 where he saw more people converted and reclaimed than at any other meeting that year. There were often twenty or thirty forward for prayer at a time. He believed that the work received a new impetus there. He expressed encouragement in the subsequent Conference held at North Raisinville by "the peace and harmony" which prevailed, the gratifying increase in members, and especially the fact that five young men joined the Conference and were sent out "as laborers in the vineyard."[61] The following year, Mr. Roberts wrote about a camp meeting at Coldwater, Michigan, where it had rained every day. He said he had never seen people so willing to stand in the rain and listen to preaching. At the close of the camp he said, "it rained Sunday most of the time, yet five sermons were preached out of doors to attentive audiences." Money was raised and plans formulated there to purchase a large canvas tent so that meetings could be held from place to place.[62] (e) Closing Items. A detailed study of the period shows constant labors in holding meetings and the organization and dedication of new churches, which became more or less routine. All during those years, Mr. Roberts was found working in close conjunction with his fellow-laborers, and was almost continuously travelling in his work, and only occasionally being able to spend a few days at home with his wife and children. Wherever a free church was organized, Mr. Roberts was sure to receive a report of it, which he frequently published in the correspondence section of his magazine. In 1867, Mr. Roberts referred to a new work which had been started in Ontario by a "Brother Olney." Mr. Roberts administered the ordinance of baptism to more than thirty candidates, including Mr. Olney's two daughters who had been recently converted. "Some were immersed, others sprinkled, others still were baptized by effusion," reported Mr. Roberts, and "all these modes appeared to be endorsed by the Spirit for on all the candidates His glorious power manifestly rested."[63] Another church at Bushnell's Basin had more than doubled its membership that year "by God's blessing."[64] The work of raising up free churches had already begun in Pennsylvania. Mr. Roberts held a meeting in Pittsburgh. Mr. S. K. J. Chesbrough appeared again in the picture, this time by a letter from Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he was working for the establishment of a free church. He reported that the Lord had graciously revived his work in the hearts of some of his children.[65] Mr. Roberts had more to do with two societies in his native state. December of 1868 found him spending two Sabbaths in Brooklyn, where a Mr. Mackey, a business man, had moved and had opened up a hall, as well as his own home, for religious services. There a Rev. George Anderson, who was destined to become the first Principal of Chili Seminary, was preaching. Mr. Roberts dedicated there a church capable of seating about five hundred people, on May 9, 1869. The church had been purchased by Mr. Mackey at a cost of nineteen thousand dollars. Mr. Roberts described it as a large, plain, convenient building where the seats were to be "free for all who wish to attend upon the means of grace."[66] In October of that same year, he dedicated a church in Buffalo, the scene of his many labors. It was a building of brick, forty-two by seventy feet, two stories high; the lower story had two class rooms and a large prayer room, while the auditorium was above. Of it Mr. Roberts said, "It is as plain as a Quaker could ask for, and yet as comfortable as any who wished to worship God could desire." He said he knew of no church which had been instrumental in doing more good in a given length of time than the Free Methodist Church of Buffalo.[67] (He served on its Board of Trustees for many years and from 1877 until death was president.) The then far-off Minnesota was not forgotten. The Rev. and Mrs. T. S. LaDue had gone there to hold meetings. Mrs. LaDue was formerly the wife of the Rev. William Kendall whose ministerial work had been cut short by his untimely death. Mrs. La-Due wrote to Mrs. Roberts that she could not begin to tell the "glorious times" in Canon Falls, Minnesota. A large number of young people had been converted, and she believed some of the young men were going to preach. If they did not, she continued, some of the young ladies said they would "for Minnesota has got to be redeemed." Locked out of the school house, they had gone from house to house, and held all day prayer meetings, in one of which, three persons who had walked ten miles to the meeting, were converted. They went home the next day, stopping at every house to tell "the good news," and when they reached home, each one called together the family and read the Bible and prayed with them. As a result several in each family had been converted. These young folk had started meetings and the last Mrs. LaDue heard, eight or ten had been forward for prayer and "the whole neighborhood was under conviction." She predicted that they would have their church before another fall, and requested Mr. Roberts to go out for the dedication. She reported that the interest was spreading to Red Wing, where was located the Methodist University to which Bishop Hamline had donated twenty-five thousand dollars. She announced that at Northfield "they are now waiting for us," and also at Orinoco. They had been well supported, having had the use of a horse and "cutter" that winter, but money was scarce. She hoped to have something for the Roberts soon, and judged that they must have their faith and patience tried, but declared, "God who started this whole thing will surely take us through, school and all."[68] With people who were willing to go out and work with very little monetary remuneration, and make whatever sacrifices were necessary to the accomplishments of their purpose, it was inevitable that Mr. Roberts could show advances in the various parts of the country to which the preachers and Christian workers had spread in their evangelistic zeal for the cause they espoused. Mr. Roberts very early realized that if the church he had helped to start was to grow into a well-balanced organization, there must be a school to provide for the training of ministers and Christian workers, as well as laymen who would be capable of bearing intelligently the responsibilities that had come to them. With this in mind, Mr. Roberts moved to Rochester, New York, in order that he would be nearer the site on which he hoped, and was already planning, to build and establish a school. His plans were not brought to a consummation until 1866. The chapter following will elucidate this matter. Two Conferences were organized in the very beginning of the new church; the Genesee and the Western. It was from that small beginning that the work spread. 1. Organization of Susquehanna Conference In December, 1860, Mr. Roberts had organized a society at Rose Valley, Wayne County, New York and on February 12, 1861, he organized another at Huron in the same county.[69] Mr. Roberts had labored widely through eastern New York and churches had been established in New York, Binghamton, Union, Syracuse, Utica, Rome, Rose Valley, and Clyde. His work had been carried on in conjunction with the work of the Rev. Zenas Osborne, Rev. William Cooley, and others. After the work had continued to grow in extent, it was deemed necessary to form another Conference.[70] This was done at Union, Broome County, New York on April 10, 1862, in an outdoor Convention, the members sitting informally upon a pile of rails in an apple orchard. This official act was the cause of future discord for Mr. Roberts because it was felt by some that he was assuming powers that were not his. This disaffection is attributed, by his son, to the fact that a few were disappointed in the Superintendency, and to the opinion of others that the organization was premature.[71] It is evident that this feeling must have manifested itself soon after the organization of the church, for there is no mention of the election of Mr. Roberts as General Superintendent in The Earnest Christian. The omission might have been, and probably was, in accordance with the general policy which Benson Roberts alleged his father followed, that of refraining from any mention, in his magazine, concerning his own personal advancement to office, or to the position he held as General Superintendent.[72] The statement of the son with reference to the policy of his father in such matters is confirmed by a study of his reports in the succeeding issues of The Earnest Christian. The basis of the dissatisfaction revolved around the fact that nothing had been said in the adopted Discipline about the organization of Conferences, although the General Superintendent had been authorized to travel at large in the interests of the church. A little note on "The Slandered" which Mr. Roberts wrote the following month expressed his views. It was on the basis of a comment of a venerable old man who had offered comfort to the slandered that "only at fruit trees the thieves throw stones." To a man who does his duty, Mr. Roberts affirmed, there will be some who "will not be slow in stirring up the polluted waters of defamation and slander."[73] The whole matter was more aggravating to the original Genesee Convention, due to the fact that these same brethren of the new Susquehanna Convention met in session the following September and elected delegates to the ensuing General Conference, to be held in St. Charles, Illinois, the following month.[74] Nine persons belonged to the new Susquehanna Convention, and Mr. Roberts believed that all of them were "wholly devoted to God and his work."[75] The Genesee Annual Convention convened September 18-22, 1862, with Mr. Roberts in the chair. That year the work was manned in three districts, Northern, Middle and Southern, with Loren Stiles, Asa Abell and A. F. Curry as district chairmen. There were reported twenty-three preachers and sixteen hundred members, and twenty-three circuits, some of which embraced several points, and more than one preacher. That session was somewhat stormy arising over the question of the organization of the Susquehanna Convention and the right of their delegates to be admitted to the General Convention. Attempts were made by Loren Stiles, Asa Abell, G. W. Holmes, and H. Hartshorn to call a separate convention at Perry for November fourth of that year, evidently to procure a condemnation of the official action of Mr. Roberts. At a late date, Mr. Roberts was invited to attend, but having a previous engagement for the adjourned session of the General Conference, he expressed his regrets at not being able to attend, and gave a full statement to those brethren with reference to his action. So conclusive were the arguments presented, Benson Roberts wrote, that the proposed convention was cancelled.[76] A session of the Western Convention was held in the Free Methodist Church in Marengo, Illinois, beginning October 2, 1862. It was reported that "many" who were there said that there was at that session "the most of the wearing, cementing love of Jesus," that they ever witnessed at any ministerial gathering. Mr. Roberts reported the work of the church in a prosperous condition, the Conference having received ten in full connection and one member on trial. Although many of the members had gone to war, still there was "an increase on the whole." One preacher, R. M. Hooker, who had been Captain in Farnsworth's Illinois Cavalry, and one "distinguished for his undaunted bravery" had fallen in one of the battles before Richmond.[77] Gains in that area were evidently not due to any easy disciplinary measures. Mr. Hart wrote to Mr. Roberts early that year, informing him, "We are living to the discipline." He gave the following illustration of what he meant. One Wednesday evening, several persons not members of the church entered a "Brother B's class." When the time arrived for beginning the class meeting [a testimony and experience meeting], after speaking of the rules of the Discipline, Mr. B. kindly requested the visitors to retire. "They found a good deal of fault, but finally went out," said Mr. Hart. The leader of the meeting was greatly tempted over the matter, but he "looked to Jesus for deliverance" and before the meeting was closed an old man came along and was "soundly converted to God." Just the evening before when "Brother R's class" was meeting a middle-aged man came to the door. The leader, opening the door, inquired if he wanted religion and the man replied that he did. Whereupon that man was invited in, the people prayed for him and he professed to have his sins forgiven.[78] The new church organization was following the old Methodist system of the closed class meeting, where none but members were permitted to attend. In early Methodism, a ticket was issued to those who came up to the standard, and none were admitted except those who could present a ticket. The first General Conference of the Free Methodist Church, held at St. Charles, Kane County, Illinois at the Free Methodist Church, convened on October 8, 1862. B. T. Roberts was president and Joseph Travis was elected secretary. The time of the Conference was employed mainly in revising the Discipline, the revisions appearing in the 1862 edition. The Genesee delegates, who had previously taken a position against the organization of the Susquehanna Convention, at their own Conference, were opposed to recognizing the men elected from the Susquehanna Convention as bona fide delegates of the Convention, and wanted to refuse them admittance on the ground that the Susquehanna Convention was not legally established. Mr. Roberts decided that all who came with proper credentials were members and should be so regarded for the purpose of organizing. He maintained that every organized body must be a judge of the qualifications of its members. The Gene-see delegates refused to organize, though two of them did cast their ballots for a secretary. Mr. Stiles prompted Mr. Holmes to move that the Susquehanna delegates be admitted. Mr. Roberts decided that the delegates had already been admitted and that the proper form of the motion would be that they were not en-titled to seats as delegates. This did not satisfy the Genesee delegates, who did not desire to keep out the Susquehanna delegates but did wish to strike a blow at Mr. Roberts for organizing that Conference without being specifically empowered by the Discipline to do so. After sundry arguments concerning the matter, the Genesee delegates absented themselves and a resolution was passed by the remaining delegates that the Genesee delegates would no longer be considered members of the Convention, and they proceeded to the business of the Church.[79] B. T. Roberts was then unanimously elected General Superintendent.[80] He, with Joseph Travis and Moses Downing, were elected a committee to publish the revised Discipline. Mr. Roberts, Joseph Travis and Thomas Sully were made a Committee to draft a Constitution for a Missionary Society of the Free Methodist Church, and to secure its incorporation in the state of New York. Mr. Roberts was elected president of the new society, and B. P. Rogers secretary, and a third member, C. T. Hicks from Syracuse, was added. The following motion was recorded on October 13th:
The Convention then adjourned to meet in an adjourned session at the city of Buffalo, New York, November 4, 1862. The session opened with Mr. Roberts leading the devotions. After opening in due form, opportunity was given for the Genesee delegates to state their case which they did, demanding that the General Convention should not consider itself organized, and that it should organize anew excluding the Susquehanna delegation. This petition was denied inasmuch as this was but on adjourned session of the former one at St. Charles, duly organized, and that they considered the Susquehanna delegates as clearly entitled to their seats as any other, and that no reason of any weight had been offered for their exclusion; further that any exclusion could only be effected by the General Convention after it was organized.[82] Mr. Roberts insisted that the Susquehanna Convention was as properly organized as either the Genesee or Western Convention, since both of those Conventions had been organized under the same Discipline with its lack of specific instruction as to the same, as had been the case when the third Convention was organized. If the delegation from one Convention were disqualified, then the delegations from the other two must also be disqualified.[83] Mr. Benjamin Hackney, formerly a member of Congress and a delegate from the west, strongly supported the right of Mr. Roberts to organize the said Convention in the absence of any specified law to the contrary, declaring that he would rather see the Free Methodist Church, as much as he loved it, split in its infancy than to compromise on a principle of righteousness.[84] When the matter was settled unanimously against the Genesee delegates, Loren Stiles and G. W. Holmes retired and the two reserve delegates, Titus Roberts, father of B. T. Roberts, and the Rev. Levi Wood took their places. The salary of Mr. Roberts was set at five hundred dollars a year and travelling expenses.[85] Mr. Roberts, Joseph Travis, and Moses Downing were made a committee to revise the Discipline.[86] The name of the General Convention was changed to General Conference. To the credit of the Genesee Conference, they passed a resolution thirty-five to two in the 1864 convention in which they stated that although they still held the same opinion as they had formerly expressed, and although they thought they should have been met at least half way, they agreed to waive the entire matter, and adopted the 1862 Discipline.[87] Be it said, however, that Mr. Stiles, who seemed to be the leader in the opposition, had by that time succumbed to disease. Mr. Roberts, nevertheless, paid him a fine tribute at his death, and seemed never to show any outward signs of resentment toward his old friend whose attitudes, if persisted in, might have well nigh wrecked the infant church on the rocks of a technicality. This General Conference, which convened at Buffalo on October 10, 1866, adjourned the thirteenth to meet at Albion on the fifteenth. The Michigan Conference had been organized in the interim of the last General Conference, making the list of conferences four. The General Superintendent Roberts was given charge of all missions outside of the recognized bounds of the annual Conferences.[88] Mr. Roberts was again elected General Superintendent, receiving seventeen of the nineteen ballots cast; the other two votes were cast in favor of Levi Wood. The Executive Committee was empowered to elect an additional Superintendent, if in their judgment "the interests of the cause of God demands."[89] Mr. Roberts, together with Asa Abell and D. W. Thurston, was appointed a committee to apply to the state of New York to incorporate the Free Methodist Church.[90] In that Conference, the requirements for church membership were made more rigid. No member was to be admitted on probation until he gave evidence of "a desire to flee the wrath to come by saving faith in Christ and consent to be governed by the general rules."[91] They also adopted a rule forbidding membership in secret societies on the part of its members, and also declared against the raising of hops for the general market, thus interpreting one of the general rules which forbade "evil of every kind." Statistics for that year show eighty-five preachers, and four thousand, eight hundred and eighty-nine members. That General Conference recommended the publication of a weekly paper, to be called The Free Methodist, on condition that five thousand dollars be raised first. The Rev. Levi Wood was to raise the sum, and if successful, edit the same. He was not successful in raising the money, but he published the paper in Rochester, New York, for two years and nine months on his own responsibility.[92] The Earnest Christian was widely read among the members of the Free Methodist Church, but Mr. Roberts had never conducted it as a denominational publication, for which the leaders were beginning to feel a need. The third General Conference session was held at Aurora, Illinois, beginning October 12, 1870. Out of a total of twenty-nine votes cast for General Superintendent, Mr. Roberts received eighteen, and the Rev. E. Owen received seven votes.[93] H. Hornsby presented a charge of maladministration against the General Superintendent. Mr. Roberts, vacating the chair to B. Owen, argued in his own defense. After considerable debate, the following resolution was passed unanimously, "Resolved: That the charge against B. T. Roberts be dismissed."[94] Rev. Levi Wood, having become financially involved in the publication of The Free Methodist, offered it for sale to the General Conference and the offer was accepted. The Rev. Epenetus Owen was elected editor but resigned the same day. Mr. Joseph Mackey, the business man responsible for the opening of a Free Methodist Church in Brooklyn and New York, volunteered to take the responsibility for the debt which rested upon it, and publish it for the church. His first issue was November 10, 1870, published in New York.[95] The competition of another periodical, published so near the place of publication for The Earnest Christian, was removed, and The Earnest Christian carried the news of the change with the comment, "The people may expect a live, stirring paper, issued promptly."[96] A new Conference, the Kansas-Missouri, had been organized. Mr. Roberts reported that the statistics showed "a gratifying increase in nearly all the Conferences."[97] Mr. Roberts was elected a delegate to the Anti-Secret Society Convention to be held in Philadelphia in June of 1871, and was requested to appoint two delegates to the State Anti-Secret Society Convention to be held at Syracuse on November 15th of that year.[98] Mr. Roberts had attended a meeting on Anti-Secrecy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May, 1868, where a permanent organization had been effected. That Convention, composed of one hundred eighty delegates and representing thirteen denominations, was entertained largely by the United Presbyterians and the Reformed Presbyterians, who were prominent in the organization.[99] Mr. Roberts, who was then in the throes of establishing a new church, was nevertheless not too busy to give time to write about the principles and issues involved in the Civil War which was just beginning. He recorded in his Journal of January 11, 1861, "News came that South Carolina has commenced war on the United States, by firing upon a steamer sent for the relief of Fort Sumter."[100] The first firing upon the flag had been on January 9th by the batteries erected against Fort Sumter, the inciting cause being the appearance of "The Star of the West" off the harbor, bringing supplies from New York.[101] Mr. Roberts wrote of the electrifying effect of that act in an article on "Our Country," published in The Earnest Christian, beginning with the cryptic statement, "Civil War is upon us," and declaring that now "the appeal has been made from the ballot-box to the sword." He declared that "the cold-blooded North was fully aroused."[102] Active preparations for war were going on in city, town, and country. The flag was flying from public edifice and private dwelling, from the heads of horses, the shoulders of girls, the hands of boys, as well as in military companies. The determination had gone forth, strongly expressed "to protect it at any cost, from being despoiled of a single star." Ex-President Fillmore, a conservative, had presided over the first war meeting that was held, and paid the first contribution for the support of families of volunteers. Manufacturing companies paid wages to their workers who had enlisted, and expressed a determination to keep the jobs open until they returned. After citing instances of the southern aggression, taking free colored citizens from ships in southern harbors and selling them as slaves for their jail fee, the suppression of the press and speech, Senators murderously assailed in the halls of Congress for uttering their sentiments, the mails robbed, and anti-slavery periodicals consigned to the flames, he concluded by affirming that now she had "robbed the treasury, stolen the property of the government and commenced civil war."[103] He thought that never was a contest more righteous than this, to rid the state of "the sum of all vallainies," and as Wesley asserted, an institution "the vilest upon which the sun ever shone."[104] (a) Slavery the Central Issue. While Bishop Janes and Bishop Simpson of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as the great pulpit orator of that period, Henry Ward Beecher, were lecturing in this country and Mr. Beecher making a trip to Europe, in behalf of the Northern cause,[105] Mr. Roberts was defining the issue in his magazine, The Earnest Christian. Roberts did not feel that the cause of this conflict lay in any real hatred between the people of the North and South, nor in a desire for separation on the part of the South, but back of the whole issue, he believed, was "a deep seated conviction" in the minds of the people of the North that the system of human bondage was wrong. Hence, he believed that the nominal issue of separation was not the real issue, but that the South was really fighting to perpetuate slavery. The North, he said, was fighting for the freedom of "four millions of human beings who are now groaning in the house of bondage." He believed that if some of the Christian denominations had taken a firmer stand against an institution, "the most hellish that ever was devised" it would not have developed into a monster too big to control. "LET SLAVERY DIE!" he concluded.[106] (b) Reverses in War Necessary to Arouse North. After one of the first great reverses for the North, Mrs. Roberts wrote in her diary, "Read an account of the horrible battle of Bull Run: it is awful indeed. The killed and wounded are estimated at 1000."[107] That first great defeat that has begun in a retreat and ended in a rout,[108] astonished the North. The reaction of Mr. Roberts was that "this is as we expected it would be. Our government needs some severe rebuffs to make it less tolerant of slavery."[109] He continued:
He maintained that there could be no peace as long as slavery existed, and that it would be better by far to let the South separate with slavery than to "compel her to return bringing slavery with her."[111] In October, Mr. Roberts carried a popular article entitled "Praying About the War" which dealt with the Fugitive Slave Law. "Blind Henry" rode on the cars with Mr. Roberts on the way to a camp meeting, and while discussing the war, he told Mr. Roberts that he could not pray for the success of the cause, even though he greatly desired the success of the Union cause and was strongly opposed to slavery. "When I pray for the Lord to give us victory," said Blind Henry, "He looks me in the face and asks, 'What are you fighting for? Before I can interfere in your war I must know what you are contending about.' " "Why Lord," he answered, "we are fighting for the Union, for the Constitution and the laws of the United States." Said the Lord, "Let me see your constitution to compare it with my Bible, for I cannot fight against myself, against my law." Blind Henry continued:
(c) Emancipation Called For. Little time elapsed before Mr. Roberts went to the heart of the issue and began to plead, editorially as well as vocally, for the emancipation of the slaves. He inveighed against "the hesitation of the government to strike at the root of the difficulty." He wrote:
He declared, 'The offer of freedom must be made at once to every slave in the rebellious states." If we had followed the English system of compensated emancipation, war might have been avoided, but that day was gone and "emancipation by the sword, or inglorious defeat," were the alternatives he presented. He declared that if the government would proclaim this policy, such an enthusiastic support would be given as to render its arms irresistible, and at the same time, four millions of friends, ready to stake their lives upon the issue, would be secured in the heart of the rebellious states. He contended that Congress had the power to do it since the Constitution of the United States granted the power to "insure domestic tranquility" and "to provide for the general welfare."[114] In an editorial Mr. Roberts summed up the reverses of the Union forces and then made a moral application. He wrote of the "inglorious defeat" of our "Grand Army" at Manasses, and the manner in which they fled "as fast and as far as they could" from the field of battle; the surrender of the heroic Mulligan at Lexington; the eastern division of the army hemmed in at Washington, and the national metropolis being in little better than a state of siege; Fremont, with his well-known energy, building forts at St. Louis instead of driving the rebels out of Missouri; the disabling of our blockading fleet at the mouth of the Mississippi; the gallant Ellsworth from whom much was expected, smitten down by the assassin's hand; the "noble, brave, patriotic" Lyon, by his "dashing, heroic achievements" which had won the admiration of the country, fallen upon the field of battle. After this account, he asked, "What then is the cause of our reverses? Why then do we meet with so little success?" He answered by asserting in a long paragraph that the war was fought on the issue of restoring the Union rather than on the real issue of slavery, and that many in high places who were in authority were profiteering rather than working for the welfare of the nation. He told of his own visit to an encampment of a cavalry regiment raised by a member of Congress, and that he had been "creditably informed" that the horses bought for the regiment were the most common kind of plow horses, bought for seventy-five to eighty dollars, when the Government had allowed one hundred and twenty dollars apiece for horses adapted to the kind of work they were required to do, thus robbing the Government in those twelve hundred purchases of about fifty thousand dollars. He emphasized the necessity of stopping such swindling, while "our beloved country is bleeding at every pore."[115] Meanwhile, the Government, in the midst of its reverses, had called for a day of national fasting and prayer, set for September 26, 1861. Mrs. Roberts, then in Aurora, Illinois, with her husband, recorded in her diary, "This day has been set apart as a day of fasting and prayer on account of the condition of our country. My husband preached on the National sins this afternoon in the Hall."[116] Mr. Roberts recorded that day that he preached from Isaiah 58:6, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?" He made a short review of his message thus: "We showed that slavery was an institution contrary to the Bible and bringing upon us the vengeance of heaven. We must 'let the oppressed go free' before we can expect God to bless our arms."[117] (d) Emancipation Realized. In the year of 1862, Mr. Roberts was still insisting, editorially, upon the emancipation of the slaves. He expostulated:
Writing later, he spoke of the affairs of "our poor bleeding country" growing more desperate, and said, "Oh what a pity it is that our rulers cannot rise to the sublimity of the occasion! God is calling in thunder tones, 'Let my people, the oppressed go free.' " He thought the President ought to see that the war could never be ended in favor of the North while the institution of slavery was still preserved, that he should realize the importance of surrounding himself with men who were heartily in favor of human freedom, and gain the added strength of "four millions of the bone and sinew of the South."[119] President Lincoln, however, had been awaiting a more propitious hour, and when Lee was checked in his invasion of the North, that long contemplated document, "The Emancipation Proclamation," was issued.[120] Its importance stems from the fact that henceforth the war was to be waged not only for the preservation of the Union, but also for the permanent banishment of the slave, which Mr. Roberts had contended was the real issue from the beginning. From the summer of 1862, Lincoln made both the emancipation of the slave and the restoration of the Union the price of peace.[121] Mr. Roberts greeted the Emancipation Proclamation as "the long wished for Document" and as an indication that God had answered prayer. Announcing that for the African in our midst, the year of Jubilee was about to dawn, that January first, 1863, would set free all the slaves of the rebels, he rejoiced that this "blessed act" would secure cooperation of all the good. and the favor of Heaven, and would commend the cause to the liberty loving world. Under the belief that this moral issue had been settled, he predicted that the nation would enter upon an unprecedented era of prosperity. He also prayed God's blessing upon the President in his efforts to restore peace.[122] Through the columns of The Earnest Christian, Mr. Roberts promoted the formation of "Earnest Christian Bands" among the men in the army. These Bands were formed in different regiments of the army, and many were the letters Mr. Roberts received from the soldiers, thanking him for his magazine, and the blessing it had brought to the fighting forces. Some of these letters were printed in The Earnest Christian. A letter from one of the soldiers stated that he was writing to give Mr. Roberts an idea of the good that his magazine was doing in the army. Eight months before, the soldier said, he had never heard "the doctrine of sanctification preached or explained, never had seen anyone who enjoyed it, consequently knew nothing about it." He said that a copy of The Earnest Christian had fallen into his hands, and through reading it and the Bible he had "embraced the blessing" on May 17th. Then he reported that they were having a glorious revival there at Little Rock, Arkansas, and that over sixty had professed conversion. He reported that souls were "being converted in the woods, cornfields, cane-breaks, and in camps as well as in the church." He felt that God was calling him to become a preacher of the Gospel.[123] Another letter from Anson G. Foote of Savannah, Georgia, stated that he had taken The Earnest Christian for four years. and thought he could not live without it, declaring he had found it "a Christian soldier's comforter, as well as a guide in the divine life." He thanked God that although some thought religion could not be lived in the army it had been "fully demonstrated to the contrary in thousands of cases." Jesus was found "in camp, on the march, among the soldiers everywhere." He closed by wishing the editor and the contributors to his magazine "a Happy New Year, a fervent God speed, and a heartfelt God bless you."[124] At the close of the war Mr. Roberts announced in his magazine that God had graciously given victory to our armies. He then asked the soldiers to send in their change of address, so The Earnest Christian could be sent to their home address.[125] (e) Assassination of Lincoln. The assassination of Mr. Lincoln called forth an extended editorial in The Earnest Christian. When Lincoln had been elected, Mr. Roberts wrote, "The Union has gone. The god of politicians, to which many have paid an idolatrous worship, has broken in pieces." The Union had "fallen to pieces by its own corruption." He then judged that "the election of a Republican President is the ostensible cause," although he hastened to add, "the real cause is the ungovernable spirit of slavery."[126] However, when the news of the death of Mr. Lincoln came to the nation, he spoke of "a mighty outburst of sincere, spontaneous grief" which had filled the land. Public and private buildings were covered "with solemn drapery," the slow tolling of bells was heard from morning till night, immense funeral processions, and the "saddened looks and silent tears" gave but a faint idea of the anguish felt by thirty millions of people at the loss of their honored dead by the assassin's hand. Roberts believed that this man who had arisen from common man to the "Chief Magistrate of this mighty Republic" had "acquitted himself so as to win the admiration of every lover of his race." He described in some detail the task that had been his; he spoke of how the one who "sat highest in the affections of the people" had suddenly been smitten down by the hand of the assassin, and his chief minister stabbed as he lay helpless in bed. "The nation reeled under the shock, and grief and horror swayed every mind." Roberts again saw the hand of God in all, for he declared that the nation in its rejoicing over victory was fast forgetting "the hellish nature of that vile institution" and were in danger that all the sacrifices "of blood and treasure" would have been in vain. But now, since "slavery personified" had showed its "diabolical spirit" the nation had been aroused and united as never before. He believed that a future course demanded "that traitors be disfranchised, and that loyal men, be they black or white" should be entrusted "with all the rights of citizens."[127] (f) Freedmen Taught. Reference has been made to the purchase of a church in St. Louis. In the same year, Mr. Roberts announced that a school for the benefit of freedmen was taught evenings in the basement of that church. Also, in the year 1867, he mentioned that the Rev. William Cooley and wife had started work in Cairo, Illinois, among the freedmen, and called for the friends of an earnest Christianity to support those who went South, not to promote "a more orderly mode of worship" but to encourage them to trust in God and enjoy religion.[128] The issues for which Mr. Roberts had contended through many years were now settled, and in an editorial the year after the close of the war he rejoiced that "slavery is dead beyond the possibility of a resurrection." It was a cause of great rejoicing indeed for the man whose first public speech had been against slavery and who recounted that "brick bats and rotten eggs were the arguments" they had to meet in those days. Mr. Roberts had extensive opportunities for preaching in his traveling and administrative work. The peculiar characteristics of his ministry during those early years are revealed in part. Preaching for display he thought was wrong, for he stated that he would "no more dare to dress up his sermons than he would his person" for he believed that anything that savored of "showing off" one's education, or wealth, or good standing, evidenced a want of humility.[129] He felt that he and others ought to be directed in their preaching by the Holy Spirit. At one time he recorded in his diary: "I tried to preach, but did not follow the Lord fully in the opening exercises, and the meeting suffered in consequence."[130] Occasionally Mrs. Roberts thought her husband failed. In her diary she wrote, "My husband preached . . . . but he did not have his usual power. He did not get the right subject."[131] At other times, he felt he was specially helped of God in his preaching. In his Journal is the entry, "The Lord helped me in preaching, much more than I had reason to hope. The congregation was large and attentive. It appeared to me that many were deeply convicted."[132] The idea of getting the right text seemed at times to bother him. After a "love feast" in which he said "the Spirit came upon the people in mighty power," creating "a deep feeling all over the house," he recorded that "the Lord helped me in trying to preach, though I am not certain that I hit upon the right text. There was an appearance of deep feeling over all the house." He did not seem to be satisfied even though there was an evident continuation of the spirit that had pervaded the "love feast." "At times the people were so blessed that we could hardly go on with the service."[133] According to Mrs. Roberts, the congregation did not always respond readily, as she noted when her husband preached at Carbondale, "He preached the truth and was helped, but the people looked as though they were hearing strange things."[134] At other times, such as that recorded at the Ogle Camp Meeting, she thought the reaction to his sermon was good "especially when he dwelt upon the people's giving their substance to the Lord. The Spirit came in the meeting. It did not seem like the same place."[135] She received such help personally that she wrote, "I grew rich all the time he was talking."[136] Preaching in a shoe shop which had been rented and fixed up for meetings in the city of Akron, Ohio, to about twenty or twenty-five persons, he recorded, "The Lord helped me some."[137] In the Indiana Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago, he observed that he had never preached to a people "that seemed more hungry for the Gospel in its purity. Many of the congregation were melted to tears; and the plain truth was not only received but welcomed."[138] On the other hand, he had an experience where the people did not like his direct dealing. He had been called to labor in a revival where it was reported that over a hundred had been converted, and the whole community was said to be under conviction. Mr. Roberts heard that the evangelist who had conducted the first part of the revival meeting had preached his farewell sermon on Sunday morning and left on the cars Sunday afternoon. To one who believed in a strict observance of the Sabbath day, that seemed "a very suspicious circumstance" with reference to the genuineness of the revival. Arriving at the scene of the meeting, he preached "two plain, gospel sermons" in which he endeavored "to lay the axe at the root of the corrupt tree," but was halted in continuing with any more services, being "kindly informed" that they thought they could get along better without him. They told him that his preaching discouraged the converts because it left too much for them to do. Mr. Roberts explained that these converts had been taught that Jesus had done all, and faith only was necessary, while he insisted upon the necessity of repentance, restitution and confession as a preliminary to saving faith. The "brightest convert" of the previous evangelist said after hearing the first sermon of Mr. Roberts that if his preaching were true, then he had never been converted, and quite evidently so, for he continued to engage "in the damnable work of selling liquor."[139] With such a background of experience, he was able to tell with sympathetic understanding of a preacher who turned to medicine, and finally to law. When asked the reason for this strange conduct, he replied that he left the ministry because he found that people cared more for their bodies than for their souls; he took to law, because he discovered that they would pay more to have their own way, than they would for the preservation of soul and body both.[140] An experience was related which occurred at a camp meeting in Wayne County, Illinois, when Mr. Roberts was preaching on the text, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit."[141] He wrote to his wife that the Spirit of the Lord had been "poured out upon the people in a remarkable manner," and that the meeting had gone on through the night until six o'clock the next morning. He said he was conscious that the Lord greatly helped him and that he felt the "Spirit's power as he had seldom felt it. The preachers broke down, and fell on their knees before the Lord, and the Spirit came upon them mightily." He commented that it was a time never to be forgotten, and added, "I feel as if my commission were renewed," and desired that his wife pray for him that he might never again "grieve the Holy Spirit in any way."[142] Mr. Roberts encouraged his preachers, not only by his own continuous activity but by exhortations as well, never to be content with preaching two or three sermons a week. "If you cannot find attentive hearers in one place, go to another. Stir about Visit the people from house to house; exhort them, pray with them, and kindle a revival flame." He could not see how a preacher who was fully consecrated to God and "baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire" could settle down, take it easy, and lead a "self-indulgent life."[143] The monthly accounts of his own activities in meetings, published in The Earnest Christian, were a means of stirring the preachers of the new church to follow the example of their General Superintendent, and were doubtless instrumental in a wider diffusion of the work of the church. In November, 1861, he noted that he "made pastoral visits in Niagara County. Encouraged the people to look for revivals."[144] He also told them that he once lived near a blacksmith in his early ministry, who was diligent in his calling. The ring of his hammer roused Mr. Roberts to read God's Word and pray, to study and devotion. "The Holy Spirit said, 'Ought you to be less diligent to lay up treasures in Heaven, than this man is to secure an earthly competence?' "[145] He enforced upon his co-laborers the necessity of pastoral calling and personal work by referring to a most interesting meeting which he had held about four miles from Norwich, Chenango County, New York. A Mr. Charles Howe, an exhorter, had gone out into an irreligious community to hold meetings. For two or three miles not a single professor of religion could be found, and the people were not accustomed to attend services. That man did not pretend to preach and never took a text, but simply went to work for others. He reported that nearly every one in the neighborhood was saved. In ten families, living along in order on one street, the parents and children were all converted during these meetings. Seven husbands with their wives joined the church, along with several others. He noted that this was the product of the efforts of a cartman who was "thoroughly in earnest in trying to get souls saved."[146] Mr. Roberts demonstrated to his preachers the value of personal work by speaking to people as opportunity afforded wherever he went. He was traveling on "the cars" in January 20, 1866, and talked with "two dissolute fine-looking young men" who had been in the army. They acknowledged their need of religion, and one of them told him he "expected to die of consumption." He tried to get across the message of salvation, and trusted that "a good impression was made."[147] 2. Mission Activity, Work Among the Poor A Gospel for the poor had been the theme of Mr. Roberts as he preached and wrote against "stock churches" and promoted the free. In April, 1861, he told the people to build churches "perfectly plain" and not more expensive than was absolutely necessary, since "splendid churches" were the "offspring of pride" and pride produced formality. If rich men became necessary, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had said then it was "farewell to Methodist discipline if not to Methodist doctrine." Then, too, where there were the rich in fashionable array, the poor man in cheap raiment would not intrude. "You need never expect to see a simple hearted, spiritual people worshipping in a magnificent temple" he averred. He was opposed to every procedure that would keep away the poor.[148] He was also in favor of taking the Gospel to the poor. Mrs. Roberts recorded of the people in Buffalo, "My soul clings to this people. God is with them. How I love their souls. I feel reluctant in leaving even for a season. My soul longs, pants, thirsts for a mighty work here among the poor."[149] Later in the same year she stated that the Lord was sending among them "the poor and those who prize his favor when they get it."[150] That was the spirit of her husband who wrote definitely against trying to reach the rich. "Fish for the rich folks, do you?" he inquired. "Friends, beware of worldly policy, the trap of Satan." He enforced his idea by pointing out that God hath chosen the weak and the despised and the foolish, and confirmed the truth by the Scripture, "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?"[151] The outcasts were sometimes reclaimed. As far back as Albion, Mr. Roberts had been doing religious work in the jails. He recounted the incident of a young man and his wife who greeted him with cordiality on the Bergen Campground, and when he could not recall him immediately, the young man said that it was he who had been converted through the efforts of Mr. Roberts in the Albion jail. After the trial of the young man, and sentence was pronounced, Mr. Roberts went to the men of whom the young man had taken the property, addressed a letter to the Governor certifying to the previous good character of the convicted man, and joined in a petition for his pardon. The Sheriff then took the documents and went to Albany and procured his pardon. All this came about because Mr. Roberts had been a little too late for the cars, and he had redeemed the time by holding the jail service.[152] In 1862, he made mention of the fact that he had opened a mission on the Five Points, in Buffalo, a place that was as truly missionary ground "as any that could be found in India or China." Here, where "Satan reigned supreme" In that degenerate area between the canal and the lake, "almost every building" had "a brothel and a bar," Mr. Roberts noted. In these "suburbs of perdition"[154] he had been aroused by an incident that occurred in connection with services which he had held on the docks the previous summer.[155] Of that work he had written to his wife, "The meetings in the dock are full of interest. Souls are awakened and some from there have gone to the church and been converted."[156] A boatman, living in the worst part of that section, who had attended the services of Mr. Roberts, took sick and thought he was going to die. He called for some of the people to pray for him which they did. "The noise of singing and praying brought many in from the adjoining saloons," he recounted, and most of them knelt while a spirit of "deep solemnity pervaded the room." He felt that he ought to have services down in that "desolate dark place" and after visiting among the people and praying with them, and looking around, he found a large hall over a saloon which he rented at ten dollars a month, "seated it," and commenced meetings. No bell was needed as the sound of prayer and praise brought a congregation. Five young men, and two young women of ill-famed character, were converted by the time the meetings had been held five weeks. Mr. Roberts and his good wife furnished a home for these young ladies for a time until they could find work "to take care of themselves in a respectable manner."[157] He published a notice in The Earnest Christian that if any of the "Sisters" would be willing to help these unfortunate but penitent girls by taking them into their families and helping to establish them in a better manner of living, to let their wishes be known.[158] In 1868, Mr. Roberts wrote of attending a service in a colored home where Mr. Mackey had been holding meetings once a week. He found it a free place in which to preach. The singing was "in the spirit such as you found among the colored people that enjoy religion." A number had knelt for special prayer and several "clear testimonies of the power of Christ to save were given," two from persons over one hundred years of age. During that visit to New York, he found "Sister Jane Dunning" of Binghamton with three other women engaged in work among the poor, but more especially among the sick and dying of the large colored population. Dr. G. A. Sabine, a medical doctor, paid those four women an aggregate of one hundred seventy dollars a month for doing that charitable work, and they went to the poor in garrets as well as cellars, distributing clothes and food, helping them to get fuel, and reading the Bible to them and praying for them.[159] In 1869, he wrote about the work being done in the Water Street Mission in New York by Frank and Emeline Smith, who had been members of the Brockport Methodist Church when Mr. Roberts was pastor there. An active friendship and correspondence had been maintained between Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Smith from that time. The meetings of that mission had commenced in the dance house of John Allen, a man who had professed conversion but had not endured. The meetings had to be moved to another building. The Smiths were working there without salary, and Mr. Roberts made an appeal for assistance for them. Thus, Mr. Roberts labored for the poor, and endeavored to encourage the workers who gave themselves to it.[160] 3. Religious Meetings of Various Kinds (a) Outdoor Meetings. At the last charge Mr. Roberts had in Pekin, New York, while still in the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he had a regular appointment every Sunday afternoon in a grove. Hundreds attended, he said, so that no house in the vicinity could have accommodated them. He said of these meetings in the open, "God honors out-door meetings," and be estimated that they were among the most successful meetings he ever held. He told of receiving a letter from a lady who said she listened to him preach through the windows of her house, which adjoined the city park where he had held meetings for several days, and as a result she "gave up the world," and the last he heard from her "she was walking in the light of the blessing of holiness." He added, "We prefer a grove, an orchard, a shady park, or even an unsheltered common, to the best churches, especially if the right to worship God in them is a subject of merchandise."[161] One of these outdoor services he held about seventy miles southwest of Chicago, in Aurora, Illinois. After the camp meeting held in that place had closed, Mr. Roberts preached in the public park in the afternoon, on the east side of the river, to a "large and attentive congregation." Since the preaching appeared to take effect, they held another meeting the next day. One person "deeply pricked to the heart," went forward to seek salvation. The next day Sabbath services were continued. Mr. Roberts said that when Mrs. Roberts related to the "weeping multitude" what God had done for her, and exhorted them, he had never seen "more deep feeling manifested" than in that large congregation which had listened with "intense interest."[162] Mrs. Roberts in her diary spoke of outdoor meetings the following year. While at Carbondale, they went on the street about 6:30 in the evening and began to sing and the people gathered to listen. As Mr. Roberts preached they kept coming until there was "a large crowd." After he finished he called on Mrs. Roberts to speak, which she did, although it seemed to her that she did not have "a word to say." But when she began to speak, she felt the Lord "did greatly bless" her. Afterwards another "sister" talked some. Since there seemed to be "great conviction" they proceeded to the house of a "Brother B.," followed by many of the crowd, and "some sinners, four or five, were reclaimed. It was a blessed season."[163] The next day at Binghamton, New York, they went to the Court House about the same hour as the previous evening where a meeting had been announced. She confessed, "It was a great cross to me to go there but the Lord went with us. Mr. Roberts preached and my soul was stirred while he talked to the people." After he finished she talked and her "soul was filled and blessed." She exclaimed, "Oh, what a love Jesus gives me for those who do not hear the gospel. My soul is stirred."[164] The following day, they reached Caryville, New York. In the afternoon they went to a grove where a meeting was scheduled, and though but few attended, Mrs. Roberts recorded that for her at least it was a "profitable time." Mr. Roberts preached about "being joined to the Lord in a perpetual covenant." After trying a meeting in the hall that evening, and finding it "was hard moving anybody," they learned that "the brethren and sisters," who had evidently gathered in for the service in the grove, were going back home.[165] In June, 1865, Mr. Roberts attended another open air meeting, held near Dublin, Indiana. The people, he stated, were Quakers from Carolina, and Lutherans and United Brethren from Pennsylvania. Here a "regularly licensed female preacher" of the United Brethren Church preached "a good, sound, effective sermon." A Quaker preacher, Enos Prey, gave "a powerful exhortation," and told "as clear an experience of experimental piety" as Mr. Roberts had ever heard, and demonstrated by shouting for joy.[166] In August of that same year, he conducted a grove meeting at Canaan, Pennsylvania, ten miles over the mountain from Carbon-dale, for a three day period. Of it, he said, "Some eight or ten, we trust, obtained forgiveness of sins, and believers were quickened and encouraged."[167] (b) Camp Meetings. The Bergen, New York Camp of 1861 was scheduled to begin on the twentieth of June, and Mr. and Mrs. Roberts arrived the day before from St. Charles, Illinois, where they had been helping in a camp meeting. When they reached the ground, they found that their tent had been erected along with the others, and was located just in back of the stand. Mrs. Roberts did not like a location so close to the place of meeting, but "concluded the Lord might be in it all." She was even "a good deal tempted over having a tent," probably expecting a room would be provided for them, but she reconciled herself to it, stating, "But it is right I know and I will make the best of it." They prepared their camp beds for the night. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, four others were also placed in the same tent. Before retiring, they had tea together, and then had a prayer meeting in the tent. Mrs. Roberts recorded in her diary, "My husband took hold and consecrated himself anew" and "God gave him a baptism of the Holy Ghost I shall long remember that meeting. Brother Fay Purdy [the lawyer-evangelist] was in it and many saints of God."[168] Mr. Roberts preached the next day at 10:00 o'clock, and although Mrs. Roberts thought the Lord helped him, she recorded, "He did not say all he ought to the pilgrims; if so, he would have said some close things."[169] That evening, the Rev. Levi Wood, reputed in the church in after years for being lengthy, "preached a long sermon - till after eleven o'clock."[170] On the 24th she said that "Brother Reddy [Alanson Reddy of the Nazarite Band], made some remarks which did no good." On the 25th Levi Wood again preached, on the subject of sanctification. Just how long it was she did not say, but probably long enough to produce patience. She said Mr. Gorham, editor of The Guide to Holiness, made some pertinent remarks in application, which other misapplied, and it brought great distress to Mrs. Roberts and confusion to others. Mr. Roberts arose and talked and, his wife said, "cleared up things" considerably. The matter for confusion centered in some remarks by Mr. Reddy, the Nazarite Band leader, immediately following the sermon. The misapplied remarks of Mr. Gorham had referred to Mr. Reddy. Mrs. Roberts recorded that she believed there was a class doing more harm than Alanson Reddy, although she did not think he was "right by any means." She hastened to add, "His heart is right, I believe, but not his head."[171] Mr. Roberts, passing over the little details that hold a woman's interest, reported "the success of this meeting was fully equal to that of any which had been held upon that Heaven-favored ground."[172] Mr. Roberts recounted that people came from as far as New York City and New England to see if the "extravagant misrepresentations that some professedly religious papers published" of the meeting the year before were so. Mr. Roberts said their testimony, before leaving, was that "this is old-fashioned Methodism. This is what we used to see years ago, and what we still believe in."[173] This campground, which Mr. Roberts and Mr. Stiles had personally secured, was soon out of the hands of the Free Methodist people, because of certain clauses in the title, previously referred to, which made it legally the property of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Pekin Camp Meeting, held in August of 1861 in the grove of Isaac Chesbrough, had about thirty tents pitched on a poor uneven ground, most of them out in the "blazing sun" since there were only a few shade trees.[174] A young man, who had been convicted of sin in "pilgrim meetings" before enlisting in the army, and whose religious interests it was reported had been maintained by reading The Earnest Christian sent to him by a friend while he was at Fortress Monroe, attended the Bergen Camp that year, and while there he "enlisted for life in Emmanuel's army."[175] Mrs. Roberts recorded in her diary that at the Pekin Camp Meeting, there were several tents with the name "Nazarite" on them, and that there seemed to be "much feeling among them in reference to the free church movement."[176] These Nazarite "protestants" took a prominent part in the meeting evidencing their enthusiasm with much shouting and bodily exercise. Mrs. Roberts gave as her opinion that "the work in their hearts is quite superficial," and that she felt more than ever "that God is a God of order."[177] The Pekin Camp Meeting was followed by one at Rose, New York, and another at Yates, New York. At both of these camps, the Rev. H. Belden, a Congregational minister, and D. F. Newton, editor of the Golden Rule, attended and rendered assistance. At the Rose Camp, Mrs. Roberts recorded that a "missionary subscription" was taken for the church in Buffalo.[178] At the same camp the following year, Mr. Roberts recorded that the attendance was large, but that "Satan, transformed into an angel of light" had succeeded in pushing some "beyond the kingdom of grace into his own territory." These "precious but deluded souls" had been led into "many acts of extravagance and folly." Because there was quite a group of extremists on the ground, many others, without being aware of it, fell under their influence. Mr. Roberts said that he met this influence "kindly and firmly, with the Word of God and the power of the Holy Ghost." He wrote that the victory was complete and "the spell was broken, and nearly all of the captives were delivered."[179] The Susquehanna Annual Convention was held in conjunction with that meeting. Then there was the Ogle Camp Meeting where "most of the tents leaked" but Mrs. Roberts was fortunate in being able to write, "Ours did not."[180] Of the Barnerville, New York Camp Meeting in 1864, Mr. Roberts recorded the written request that prayer be offered for rain, phrased as follows: "Dear Brother Roberts, please pray for rain: the ground is parching under the burning sun, vegetation is suffering, and the fountains of water are drying up." A fervent prayer was offered by Mr. Roberts, and the people said, "Amen." The morning service had just closed "when the sky was overcast, and a downpour of rain caused streams of water to run on the ground, and the thirsty land drank from its pools."[181] In 1865 at the St. Charles, Illinois Camp Meeting, Mr. Roberts estimated that one hundred were justified, and a still larger number sanctified. The service that began on Sabbath afternoon never closed until six o'clock the next morning.[182] Great camp meetings were still in progress among the Methodists in that day. Mr. Roberts visited the New York Camp Meeting of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867. Though he said he noticed "a good deal of show and fashion," he was struck with the large number of plain, unpretending people in attendance. He believed that Methodism had a strong hold upon the common people and that it was "a great mistake to let go that hold under any pretence whatever."[183] The same year, Mr. Roberts attended a camp meeting near Freeport, Michigan, which he felt to be a "most satisfactory meeting." Mrs. Martha LaDue reported the meeting in glowing terms. She spoke of a sermon preached by Mr. Roberts on the subject of holiness in which he endeavored to prove that the standard of holiness generally taught fell below the Bible standard "of a true gospel awakening." The last night scores thronged the altar, and as they found pardon, they gave place to others, who kept coming, invited and uninvited, until after midnight. When an effort was made to form the usual procession for marching around the ground to say their farewells, nothing could divert the seekers praying at the altar. Father Benjamin was reported to have said that he was "set back twenty years" in his life, and "Brother Ely" formerly of the Genesee Conference, said that he felt "the same fire that he used to feel when laboring with Brother Roberts in the Genesee Conference."[184] 1. Mutual Understanding Between Husband and Wife In 1860, Mrs. Roberts confessed in her diary that she was discouraged because Mr. Roberts did not hold on in prayer for all he wanted and saw he needed when she felt her faith was strong enough to claim that promise that one could "chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight."[185] The next morning she confessed to her husband that she felt she had done wrong "in yielding to discouragement." "He prayed for me," she wrote, "and the Lord blessed us both."[186] After being away from home for a time she recorded that she was "glad to be at home . . . . with my dear husband." She continued, "We never felt so strongly united in Jesus as now. Oh what a blessed union. We knelt together as is our custom often, I might almost say always, and prayed." She thought the Lord graciously blessed them both, and that her husband was "nearer to Jesus than ever before."[187] No doubt that sense of union was greater because they so fully shared every experience. She found herself clinging to her husband so closely at times that she exclaimed, "How careful we have to be lest we cling to some creature good more than God. I sometimes fear I love my husband too well. Yet I would not. Jesus keep and save me."[188] At another time when he had just returned from a trip, she recorded, "I was rejoiced to see him."[189] When he was gone, she spent a morning making her husband "a . . . . wrapper"[190] and when he got back after an absence, and much other company which had caused her to withdraw within herself, it seemed "so pleasant to sit down alone with my dear husband and children."[191] Mr. Roberts, comforting his wife, wrote to her, "Darling, you have a great work to do for the Lord, and I pray often that you may have all the grace you need. You must look up and keep blessed and not be tempted."[192] A letter written back the next year could have been for some such word as above. She glowed, "You are such a light to me, such a help to me, such sunshine to my soul and spirit. May you have a long life to bless me and gladden your children and cheer the many that love you." Then she added, perhaps because of something he had written, "You must never think that there are few that love you, for there are many, and they are those that love Jesus."[193] That Mr. Roberts was not always the perfect lover, at least in remembrance, is indicated in a letter Mrs. Roberts wrote to him while he was on his way to the St. Charles Camp Meeting. After telling him that she was glad to receive his recent letter, she said, rather reprovingly, "You left without even saying Good-bye to me," but then added hastily, "But I know it was unintentional." Was it a coincidence of trial that just at that time, S. K. J. Chesbrough, their dear friend of the past as well as of the future, would not go to Charlotte and preach. Neither would he preach on Sabbath morning, but, she said, he "sat down like a mule and said, 'Let anyone exhort or pray.' Is there any wonder that she exclaimed, "It was up-hill work. The Spirit did not help any one do anything." He wouldn't even "speak a word of experience. If he had been out of the way we should have had a better meeting." Then she added, "Lord bless and take care of you. I want you to be free at St. Charles Camp Meeting. Go around and talk with the people in their tents."[194] Such a little act of forgetfulness as the above did not change the love of Mrs. Roberts for her husband. In 1867, when he arrived unexpectedly, she wrote, "My dear husband came to my surprise. He looked good to me." This lifted her spirits to the point where she testified, "He is the Master's child." Then added, "I feel few if any are so blessed as I, for a dearer companion no one ever had." The secret of their closeness she divulged, "The Lord gives us great union of soul and union of sentiments and views. To the Lord be all the praise."[195] In 1870, Mr. Roberts wrote his wife that his stay away from home might be a longer one than he had planned since he felt that he should go on from Chambersburg to New York and Brooklyn to see that help was given there. He added, "I do not know how to stay away so long. I want to be a greater blessing and a greater help to you than I have ever been."[196] Mr. Roberts, although away from home much of the time, felt a true paternal affection for his children. He wrote his wife in 1860, "I do not think you had better leave Charlie. If anything should happen to him people would talk about us more than ever."[197] Probably this note of caution arose out of an experience earlier when their little Sarah had died. Mrs. Roberts had gone to a camp meeting to spend two days, leaving the child well and happy, in the care of friends. When she returned home two days later, it was to learn that the child had taken suddenly ill and died shortly before her mother arrived. He closed his letter of caution to his wife with a "kiss to Charlie" and a request for prayer.[198] In 1862 he wrote his wife affectionately telling her that he loved her, his "precious one, very dearly-never so much" and added, "also our precious children." He then expressed as his hope that God would spare them to do the work that he seemed "to get along with so poorly."[199] The children wrote to their father when he was away. His son, Benson, while visiting an uncle and aunt at Bonus Prairie, Illinois, wrote his mother in a childish hand so different from the finished flourishes of his mature years, saying, "I wrote to Father the eighth of July and mailed it the 9th and as I have not heard from him yet, I concluded that he had not got it." After telling his mother to "tell Pa" that he liked "The Life of Summerfield first rate," and asking for his brother George to write, he made a further requisition. "Tell Pa if he has time I would like to have him take my . . . . book back to the Young Men's Association." After telling them that he went "barefoot all the time," he made a religious close, "Give my love to all and accept it yourself. I pray for you all and want you to pray for me." The letter was signed in very large letters, "Your Loving, Affectionate Son, B. H. Roberts."[200] The one statement that stands out with reference to his father is, "if he has time." Probably the busy father could not spend too much time with his growing children. However, he was always very glad to hear from his precious wife and children while away.[201] Their son George wrote to his parents in 1865 when they were in Marengo, Illinois. After telling them how glad he was to receive a letter from them on Saturday, he questioned, "Did you say that I should speak to Ma McCall about the strawberry plants?" indicating that the parents were assigning him home duties during their absence. He broke in with the information, "Cornelia says we're all doing well." Then quickly getting away from the subject of behavior to things less personal, he told them that Cornelia had been going to work with beans that week. He also suggested to them that peaches were coming down in price, and that "we could get them for one dollar a basket Saturday." "School begins today" he injected between peaches at one dollar a basket and instructions Cornelia sent for them to stay until they got through. Then he closed with this intimation of industry, "I am very busy getting ready for school," and signed his name as "Your affectionate son, George L. Roberts."[202] Mrs. Roberts recorded in her diary a homely little scene of Mr. Roberts in the woods with his boys, with Mrs. Roberts observing them. "The boys with the help of their father have begun to make maple sugar." Evidently standing for some time and watching their activities, she commented, "It is a slow process. It only drops." Then putting her finger out for a taste, probably at the suggestion of one of the boys, she discovered it was "not very sweet," yet added "it makes sugar."[203] Others, too, tried to make the boys happy. A communication from Mary Hicks in Syracuse, after asking about Sammie and "Benjie," stated that "Brother Hicks is building him [probably Sammie] a hen coop." She said it was a very "nice building" and Mr. Hicks was working on it "every morning before light." He was also furnishing nine or ten hens to go with the coop.[204] At one time when Mrs. Roberts was away, she wrote to her husband regarding his duty toward the children thus:
Mr. Roberts did not always find his finances easy. During the early years following the organization of the new church, there was little financial backing. Added to that, he had personally assumed the responsibility of the first free church in Buffalo and had sold his own home to make the first payment on the building. About four months after the founding of the new church, he sent fifteen dollars to his wife, with the comment, "I would be glad to send you more if I could. But debts are horrid looking things, and I have to face them when I get to Buffalo."[206] With reference to the financial stress occasioned by giving up their home to buy a church, his Journal records, "We saw no way to do it but by turning in our house." He recorded that after giving the thousand dollars realized from the sale of their home, he borrowed eleven hundred dollars beside to put on the church, and added, "This I owe, and the want of it embarrasses me a good deal. But the Lord will bring us through. Our trust is in Him. I will not be troubled after doing my duty. Lord, let me have thy presence and favor." He noted that "we have had to pay repairs, interest, etc."[207] Writing again of the same matter, he said, "The financial load upon me is felt sometimes as I go to Buffalo; but the Lord keeps me. I have not yielded to temptation this time as I have too often under such circumstances."[208] According to Mrs. Roberts, the matter came to a successful close. She recorded in her diary, "My dear husband began to ask Jesus for faith that would enable him to carry his financial load. He claimed it. It was so clear, his taking it. Bless God, he was greatly blessed."[209] That the rising costs during the war period increased his difficulties, there is little doubt. Mrs. Lane wrote in 1862 about butter being thirty-one cents a pound in New York. She also noted receiving a "firkin of butter" which had cost two dollars and seventy-five cents for express alone. She thought Mr. Roberts might have had it sent to her.[210] Coming to the close of the war period, Mr. Roberts wrote, "There is scarcely an article which a family needs to eat or wear that does not cost at least twice as much as it did before the war broke out." Coal, he said, had gone up in price from four dollars and fifty cents a ton to seventeen dollars; flour from five dollars a barrel to fourteen; butter formerly priced from thirteen to twenty cents a pound, had gone up to forty-five and fifty cents. Other things went up accordingly. He remarked that the merchants were not affected unfavorably, for money was plentiful and their profits were greater than ever before. Farmers had been bettered in their condition since the crops of the previous year had been fair and the price of farm products compared favorably with other things. Mechanics' and laborers' wages had doubled. He then made the following appeal:
Even though the above stringency was evidenced, yet it appeared that the finances of Mr. Roberts must have improved through this period. Among the personal papers of Mr. Roberts is to be found the record of a transaction which took place in October, 1865, in which Benjamin T. Roberts and James Mathews bought the patent right for an improved water-proof blacking for the sum of two thousand seven hundred and eighty dollars, part of which sum had been paid to Mr. D. L. Pickard prior to his application for patent rights.[212] Also among his personal papers is to be found a Quitclaim Deed from this same Daniel L. Pickard to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin T. Roberts, for 160 acres of land in West Calhoun County, Iowa. A statement at the end explained that the same property had been conveyed to him, probably in payment on the patent mentioned. By then Mr. Roberts either had sufficient money to buy it back, or had borrowed sufficient for that purpose.[213] Mr. James Mathews, whose name appeared on the patent rights for the blacking, later became involved financially and wrote to Mr. Roberts about his plight. He said, "You have trials one way, and I in another. They say that you are 'sharp enough to line your own pockets' and that I 'don't know enough.' So it goes. God help me." He closed with an appeal for Mr. Roberts to do something for him with a J. R. Annis with reference, evidently, to easing some financial pressures centering in the buying of a house.[214] This might indicate that the blacking enterprise did not pay off, for Mathews said that if they got no return from the blacking they would have to let the home go and be "homeless wanderers."[215] It is possible that Mr. Roberts, becoming suspicious of the blacking enterprise, had turned back his rights to Mr. Pickard and received in return his property in Iowa. Certainly Mr. Roberts had to be a good business manager, for his salary was small, and before the date of a regular salary, he had to support himself, largely, it would appear, through The Earnest Christian enterprise. The Roberts were very kind to Mrs. George Lane during the years subsequent to the death of her husband, often sending her supplies which she needed. A letter, marked as her last letter, dated July 5, 1866, contained a request for a dollar to buy coal.[216] The financial assistance they gave to Mrs. Lane came back to them at her death. She willed one thousand dollars to the Roberts.[217] This money, which came to them that year, plus the money which probably came back to the Roberts from their investment in the Buffalo Church, accounts for some of the ready cash they had. 4. Personal Religious Experience The close union of husband and wife who had each declared their devotion to Christian service was probably a factor in the spiritual life of both. In times of pressure they prayed with and for one another. In a letter to his wife, Mr. Roberts requested, "I want you to continue to pray about the printing. I do not want to get out of God's order again. It makes such confusion when I do."[218] To someone who remarked about the spiritual life of Mr. Roberts, he replied, "My wife keeps an altar up all the time. If I need to be prayed for, it is there and she is ready."[219] He did not consider himself sufficient, as one may judge from his letters and diary, but was seeking continually to have a deeper spiritual life. At one time his faith was sorely tried, yet he recorded that he knew God's promise "has never yet failed." He then confessed, "But I feel so deeply my unfaithfulness and sinfulness in the sight of God that it sometimes seems hard for me to claim the promises. My fear is that I do not meet the conditions."[220] Part of this feeling evidently stemmed from his failure to do all he thought he should. He continued, "I try to do all I can, yet I do not feel satisfied with the way in which my time is passing. I am not idle, and yet it seems as if I accomplish but little." He then wrote a prayer for assistance, "Lord make me diligent, active, useful, devoted," followed by this expression of desire and determination, "I want to be filled with the Spirit. I will do the will of the Lord, if he will only give me His light and His help."[221] In the midst of what he termed a "good meeting" he wrote, "1 am trying to seek the Lord with all my heart; but it has seemed to me some of the time that I should die." He then referred to the first twenty verses of the sixty-ninth Psalm as the best expression of his experience. These verses speak particularly of reproach:
What the immediate circumstance was which occasioned this feeling he did not say, but closed the paragraph by remarking, "I know you pray for me; for I feel the effects of your prayers."[223] All within the new church was not easy sailing, for the turbulence of varying ideas and opinions that were held before the councils of the church could settle a fixed course, kept the waters troubled. Mrs. Lane wrote a little before this, "I am astonished that people under your influence can so soon stray away from God. Do they truly walk in the light? If so, how can they knowing its blessedness so soon lose what they gain?"[224] A source of encouragement should have been Mrs. Lane's statement, "I never lost, (all, at least) of what I gained when I was there with you in Albion."[225] No doubt the problems of the Susquehanna Convention and of the General Conference of that year were still weighing heavily upon Mr. Roberts. Everything had not been smooth at the General Conference, and the withdrawal of the Genesee Conference delegates doubtless brought upon him great concern. A little incident that revealed the way pressures might arise occurred the next year. He had an appointment somewhere near Fort Plain, but when he arrived at the nearest depot, there was no one to meet him to take him on to the place of the meeting. The stage was full and would not take another passenger except he would go through to Cooperstown. The roads were muddy and it was dark and rainy. Moreover he said, "I was tired and sick at heart." So he took the cars and went back to Rochester. Following that, he received a letter from "Brother John Dunckle" which he began to read, but finding it condemnatory, "had not the courage to go through." He said, "He thinks that I am very wicked in not going to my appointment there the last time." Mr. Roberts turned the letter over to his wife, requested her to read it and "make the best defense of me to him you can." He expressed a wish, "I do hope the Lord is not going to let me lose all my friends."[226] Later he was able to write that although "many things look discouraging," yet "the Lord lifts up my head and keeps me full of courage."[227] A still more triumphant ring, arising no doubt from the fact that The Earnest Christian was succeeding, "The Lord has in a wonderful manner kept me thus far by His mighty power. The temptations with which I have been assailed are losing their power. Under the most depressing circumstances I have been kept joyous."[228] His own ministry sometimes brought him spiritual help, as when he preached on being led by the Spirit. Not only did light come to other minds, but was shed especially on his. A prayer service followed in which the people petitioned for a baptism of the Holy Spirit, in which he said, "The Lord held me to a fuller consecration to Him than I had ever made." After consecrating to deny self, redeem the time, and to "go forward in the work of God as much as I feel I ought," he expressed the belief, "The Lord accepted and blessed me, and gave me His Holy Spirit."[229] The months immediately following the rejection of his appeal from expulsion from the Methodist Episcopal Church were probably one of the darkest periods of his life, and it was during that period that much of the above, pertaining to times of discouragement and darkness with his attempts to rise above them, was written. In 1864, although he had been among members who were "tempted with one another, looking at one another," he could say, "I feel very well in body, and the Lord is helping me in my soul, and I believe is going to give me more power and salvation than I ever had," and then added, "But nothing but power divine can make me what I should be." The closing paragraph of the same letter opened with the words, "We must keep full of courage."[230] When he wrote those words, he was near Oberlin College where Charles G. Finney, then still living and greatly admired by Mr. Roberts, was president. Perhaps nearness to that great man of faith inspired his own faith. Also his good health and naturally great vigor were a proper basis for his cheerful spirits. The next year at the Wayne Camp Meeting where he estimated that one hundred had been converted and another hundred sanctified, he reacted normally, "My courage is greatly increased. Bless the Lord."[231] But when others were discouraged, it was time for him to encourage. After having received a letter from a disheartened preacher, he wrote back that he was sorry things were in such a state, with the church cold, members backslidden, sinners indifferent, congregations small, and but little interest in religion. However, he consoled, such a state of things was by no means uncommon, for Christians even in the days of the Apostles went back to the "beggarly elements of the world" and that "fatal fashion has had followers ever since." Then he encouraged, "But as matters are, they are not hopeless. God still lives. His word has lost none of its efficacy. It is still quick, and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Try that." After further advising him to begin with his own heart, and to "probe it thoroughly" for the presence of compromise or the want of self-denial, or receiving honor from men, he expressed his opinion that "seek to disguise it as he may, he who was once successful in saving souls, but fails now, month in and month out, is back-slidden, more or less from God. His power is gone."[332] Then he advised this preacher, "If this is the case with you, own it to yourself; do not attribute your failure to circumstances. Lay it to its true cause, your want of grace. Then whatever else you do, get the grace that will make you conqueror."[333] His further exhortation that he should humble himself before God, and should ask until he received a baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, expressed his own belief, and was probably the cause of his frequent practice of seeking the Lord. Mr. Roberts not only thought that disheartened minister should make his confessions, but he believed also that whole societies should do the same. After preaching in North Chili, New York, in 1868 from a rather strange text, "They shall devour and subdue with sling stones,"[234] he recorded, "The Lord helped me and I was somewhat blessed." That little touch of blessing did not keep him from adding, "But I feel discouraged about the work here, on account of the unwillingness of the members to break down before the Lord. They feel satisfied with themselves." He observed that "God had opened the eyes of some, and convicted them of the need of getting the spirit, but others heal them up."[235] Wearied in body while in a meeting at Chambersburg, he was nevertheless trying to "look to the Lord for such a blessing" on his soul as he had never had. That afternoon he felt "a good deal drawn out in prayer" and expressed a desire that he would be made a "lasting blessing" to the people. He then entered the confessional, "But I want to be blessed myself most of all," and added, "I must say that I feel very much humbled and encouraged."[236] In the same meeting after "a good day yesterday" in which he thought the Lord helped him very much in preaching, he gave an experience which he said was somewhat typical. "I was a good deal blessed in my room before going to church; but not being satisfied that it was of the Lord, as you know is very apt to be the case with me, I got down in the parlor to pray again, and was a good deal tempted." What the cause of his temptation was he did not say, but the incident revealed a tendency for him to doubt God's presence and help, suggested also by his constant seeking. In any case, his desires and longings were Godward. Coming out of a camp meeting in Meadville, Pennsylvania, he noted, "Yesterday morning, in the woods by myself, I felt my heart very much melted and I feel a good deal encouraged about myself. The Lord will take me through."[237] A great many persons, down through the years, shared the hospitality of the Roberts home. The times when they were alone became increasingly rare, just as the letters expressing appreciation for their influence and help became more common. A letter illustrating their influence was written by "Orpha" who had gone to school and had stayed in the home of the Roberts. After returning to her own home, she wrote, "To me, to come from your house here was like going from Heaven to earth." A little later in the letter she said that "not to condemn one's self or anybody else is glorious." She expressed confidence that God "would give you and others at your house a big reward for all you have done for me." Her faith for the future was based on the help she had obtained there, for "there were seeds sown in my heart at your house," she asserted, "which I believe will grow and make me a mighty instrument in God's hands for good."[238] In the latter part of that year, Mrs. Mary Hicks from Syracuse, New York wrote appreciatively of a letter written by Mr. Roberts to them, saying, "Brother Roberts' few lines were worth a thousand dollars to me. I thought if he had some faith, my case wasn't helpless."[239] In the early years of the formation of the Free Methodist Church, Mr. Roberts was invited to attend the Annual Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, held at Wheaton College. He wrote about that trip to "a new, beautiful village on the open prairie, about twenty-five miles out of Chicago." In the college chapel he addressed the Conference from "Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." Dr. C. A. Blanchard was president of the college at that time. It was his opinion in the beginning that the Free Methodists should have united with the Wesleyan Methodists,[240] but he later changed his mind. Referring to his address, Mr. Roberts said, "The Lord graciously assisted us to enforce the claim of holiness to the personal and earnest attention of all . . . . especially of ministers of the gospel." He said the ministers were greatly affected so that "some of their strongest men wept like children." Mr. Blanchard, who was a Congregational Doctor of Divinity, "endorsed the doctrine," and said that he had not been "a stranger to the experience of this state of grace, and hoped to come again into its enjoyment." Mr. Roberts wrote that he would be greatly disappointed if the Wesleyans did not double their membership within the bounds of the Illinois Conference, and that his visit to Wheaton would long be cherished among his most pleasing recollections.[241] At the first General Conference of 1862, B. T. Roberts was made chairman of a committee of four members to confer with the Bible Christians, with reference to uniting with them. The committee was "to take such steps toward effecting said union as God by His providence may indicate to them."[242] Mr. Roberts stated that the Bible Christians were a branch of the Methodist family which arose in England in the year 1815. From all he could gather, they were "a pious, zealous people, laboring to promote the Gospel in its sincerity." Mr. Roberts at that time believed that the experiences through which he had passed brought on a loss of strictly sectarian zeal on his part. In a running account of his life, he said,
However, before he concluded the article he announced that he expected to live to see "free churches all over the land," especially in the cities where the poor were congregated. In July of 1865, he attended a convention at Cleveland which had for its object the union of all non-episcopal Methodists into one body. There were one hundred preachers and laymen in attendance. Among them were a number of preachers "eminent for their abilities" and for the "sacrifices they have made in standing by their convictions of duty." Although he remarked upon the "kind, Christian spirit" which prevailed, he was evidently not there with' the thought of becoming a part of the merger. He was obliged to leave the second day of the convention, but thought the indications were that a majority would unite on "a congregational basis, each local church to decide upon its own doctrines, and conditions of membership."[244] It is probable that the Free Methodist Church was too episcopal in its nature, and the ideas of Mr. Roberts too wedded to the Methodist system to be interested in a merger of that kind. In August of 1867, he attended part of the National Camp Meeting, which had been called for the special purpose of promoting the work of holiness. It was held at Vineland, New Jersey. He thought the results would be far reaching since people attended from points as far away as Maine and New Orleans, and that it would aid "in introducing into many localities a higher standard of Christian experience."[245] About the same time he attended a large Methodist Camp Meeting at Sing Sing. The next year Mr. Roberts attended the National Camp Meeting held at Hamilton, Massachusetts. He estimated that there were from six to seven hundred tents on the ground and three or four thousand people in regular attendance. It was thought there were twenty thousand people present on the Sabbath. Four hundred preachers were on the ground. He appraised this as "the greatest camp meeting ever held on this continent; and probably the greatest held in the world, since the days when Israel kept the feast of tabernacles seven days unto the Lord."[246] The year following Mr. Roberts did not attend, but a testimony of the Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy was published in The Earnest Christian, in which he said, "I feel grand that Old Methodism can get up the biggest meeting ever held on this continent." He spoke of it as "National" in the sense that "the desire to return to the old landmarks of essential Methodism" was "as broad as the nation, and more intense than any national feeling."[247] No mention of such a camp was made in The Earnest Christian during the next two years. Evidently the little new stream of Methodism was busy making its own channel, and its leader was actively engaged in deepening the same. The new church that had started as a protest movement, was leveling off to a more normal development during the first ten years of its history, largely through the attitudes of Mr. Roberts and others, particularly Mr. Loren Stiles, who passed away in 1863. Mr. Roberts was not quite so rigid in his attitudes as Mr. Stiles, who was accused of persecuting those who differed with him.[248] The Nazarite movement, composed of those who remained either within the Methodist Church or became largely independent, had to be controlled. The attitudes and actions of Mr. Roberts tended in the direction of conservatism. In 1861 he said, "We do not fear any of the manifestations of the Spirit of God," but added this caution to "let the emotion you manifest be an effect produced by the Divine Spirit. We may shout until shouting becomes a habit." He thought such a procedure would result in ill effects upon both the person himself and the people who heard. "There may be a formal noise as well as a formal silence," he said. "What we want is not noisy meetings, not still meetings, but the Spirit of the living God in all our worshipping assemblies."[249] Referring the following year to a certain fanaticism which had been among them, Mr. Roberts said, "That hateful fanaticism which has so long grieved God's people is pretty much subdued. Its successor, the fierce "think as I do or be damned" spirit is quitting the field, and pure love is the acknowledged leader of God's forces." He exhorted the people "east and west, north and south" to "enter the chariot of love."[250] It has been noted that so fearful did the people become of fanaticism, that many good people did not give what might have then been considered a normal expression to their religious fervor. Perhaps Mr. Roberts felt the pendulum was swinging too far in the direction of formalism by 1869, for his sentiments then appeared to be somewhat in reverse. In December of that year, he wrote about putting on a campaign for the salvation of souls, and told the people not to be afraid of excitement. "You cannot have a work that will amount to anything without it. In business and in politics, the first effort is to get up an excitement. To do anything toward saving men their feelings must be stirred." He expressed it as his opinion that it was "the greatest absurdity to suppose that the vast interests of eternity" could be properly attended to without excitement. "It is absolutely impossible" he averred. "If God begins to work in some unexpected way, so as to excite attention all over the country, do not get alarmed."[251] Near the close of the first ten year period of the history of the new movement, the Rev. Joseph McCreery wrote his judgment of conditions in a rather graphic manner. Mr. McCreery will be remembered as one of the expelled ministers of the Genesee Conference, who had been charged in the Conference of 1855 with saying startling and unwise things. Mr. McCreery, in a letter to Mr. Roberts said:
When men were able to reflect in self criticism upon their own movement, there was an indication of some change. |
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[1] William Gould, General Conference Daily of the Free Methodist church, (October 21, 1898). 7. [2] Ibid. [3] Mrs. B. T. Roberts, Diary for March 31, 1861. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [4] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (October, 1861), II, 323. [5] Ibid. [6] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (November, 1881), II, 354. [7] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (August, 1881), II. 289, 290. [8] Mrs. B. T. Roberts, Diary for November 28, 1851. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [9] B. T. Roberts, Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., 249, 250. [10] Ibid., p.250. [11] Ibid. [12] Letter from B. T. Roberts, to his wife, Allegany. New York, written from Buffalo, January 28, 1861. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [13] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (July, 1852), IV. 29.30. [14] B T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (January, 1864), 32. [15] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (February, 1864), 65. [16] Ibid. [17] B. T. Roberts, Journal of July 10, 1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts,. opt. cit., pp. 319, 320 [18] B. T. Roberts, Journal for August 16, 1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 321, 322. [19] B. T. Roberts, Journal for August 30.1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p.323. [20] Burton R. Jones, The Free Methodist, (May 4, 1897), 12. [21] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts. entry for June 19, 1861. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [22] Diary of B. T. Roberts, entry of September 5.1861. [23] Letter from B. T. Roberts. Ida, Michigan, June 13,1864. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p.346. [24] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (February, 1867), XIII, 62. [25] Ibid. [26] B. T. Roberts, Diary, February .7, 1853. Quoted by B. H. Roberts. op. cit.. p. 381. [27] B. T. Roberts, Diary, February 8, 1868. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 382 [28] Gen. 19.17. [29] Diary of B. T. Roberts. February 8, 1868. Quoted by B. H. Roberts. op. cit., p. 362. [30] Ibid., January 1,1869. Quoted by B. H. Roberts. op. cit.. p. 383. [31] Ibid., May 5, 1869. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 392. [32] Ibid., May 6,1869. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit.. p. 392. [33] Ibid. [34] Ibid. [35] Ibid., May 10, 1869. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 383. [36] Ibid., May 12.1869. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 393. [37] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (March. 1861), II, 100. [38] Letter from B. T. Roberts, Buffalo, to his wife, Allegany, New York. January 28 1861. Found among letters of Roberts family. [39] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (April, 1861), II, 129, 130. [40] Ibid. [41] Letter from Charles Hudson to B. T. Roberts. Quoted In The Earnest Christian, (March, 1861), 98. Letter dated January 24,1861. [42] Letter from A. B. Burdick to B. T. Roberts. Quoted in The Earnest Christian, (March, 1861), 99. [43] Letter from Charles Hudson to B. T. Roberts, February 8, 1881. Quoted In The Earnest Christian, (March, 1861), 98. [44] Letter from E. Osborne to B. T Roberts, March, 1861. Quoted In The Earnest Christian, (April, 1861), II, 130. [45] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (June, 1861), II, 192. [46] Ibid. [47] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (July, 1861), 228. [48] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (November, 1861), 355. [49] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (April, 1862), 129. [50] Ibid., (November, 1862), IV, 158. [51] Edward P. Hart, Reminiscences of Early Free Methodism, (Chicago: Free Methodist Publishing House. 1903), p.74. [52] Ibid. [53] Ibid., p.75. [54] Letter from J. G. Terrill, Lebanon, Illinois, to B. T. Roberts, November 24, 1864. Found among the personal letters of Roberts. [55] Ibid. [56] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (April. 1865), 127. [57] Ibid.. 128. [58] B. T. Roberts, Letter to his wife, written from Ida, Michigan, June 13, 1864. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, opt. cit.. p. 346 [59] Ibid. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 547. [60] Ibid. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 347. [61] B T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (October. 1864). 118. [62] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (July. 1869), 33. [63] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (September, 1867), 98. [64] Ibid. [65] Letter from S. K. J. Chesbrough. Meadville, to Mr. Roberts. Quoted in The Earnest Christian, (March, 1867), 98. [66] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (June 1869), 189, 190. [67] Ibid. (November, 1869) 162. [68] Letter from Mrs. T. S. LaDue, Canon Falls, Minnesota, to Mrs. Roberts, March 11, 1869. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [69] Wilson T. Hague, op. cit.. I, p. 357. [70] Ibid., p.358. [71] B. H. Roberts op. cit., p.274. [72] Ibid. [73] B T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (May, 1862), III. 164. [74] Wilson T Hogue, op. cit., I. p.351. [75] B T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (October, 1862), 123. [76] B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 283-290. [77] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (November, 1862), 158. [78] Letter from 11. P. Hart to Mr. Roberts, written from Marengo. Illinois. January 7,1862. Quoted by B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (February, 1862), III, 65. [79] B. T. Roberts, Personal Account of First General Conference. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 218-282. [80] First General Conference Minutes of the Free Methodist Church, Denominational Headquarters. Winona Lake, Indiana, p.6. [81] Ibid., p.10. [82] Ibid., p. 12. [83] Letter from B. T. Roberts to disaffected Genesee Conference members to meet November 4,1862 at Perry, New York. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., 288. [84] Moses Downing, Personal Account of First General Conference. Adjourned Session, Buffalo, November 4, 1862. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit.. 281. [85] General Conference Minutes of the Free Methodist Church, Winona Lake, Indiana, p.14. [86] Ibid. [87] Minutes of the Genesee Conference of the Free Methodist Church, 1864. Quoted by Wilson T. Hogue, op. cit. I, 370. [88] General Conference Minutes of the Free Methodist Church, 1868, Winona Lake, Indiana, p.31. [90] Ibid., p.29. [91] Ibid., p.19. [92] The Free Methodist (November 6. 1936), 4, [93] General Conference Minutes of the Free Methodist Church, 1870, p.48. [94] Ibid., p.45 [95] The Free Methodist, (November 6, 1936), 4. [96] The Earnest Christian, (November. 1870), 162. [97] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (November, 1870), 162. [98] General Conference Minutes of the Free Methodist Church, 1870, p.49. [99] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (June. 1868), 186. [100] Journal of B. T. Roberts, January 11, 1861. quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 305. [101] Americana Encyclopedia, (New York: Americana Corporation, 1941), VII, p.6. [102] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (May, 1861) II, 180. [103] Ibid. [104] Ibid. [105] Life of Henry Ward Beecher. (New York: Hurst and Company), p.40. (No author listed). [106] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian. (July, 1861). 224. [107] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts, entry for July 29, 1861. Found among the personal papers, of the Roberts family. [108] Americana Encyclopedia. (New York.. Americana Corporation, 1941), VII, p. 8. [109] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (August, 1861), 255. [110] Ibid. [111] Ibid. [112] The Earnest Christian, (October, 1861), 322. [113] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (September, 1861). 289. [114] Ibid. [115] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (November, 1861), 352, 353. [116] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts, September 26, 1861. Found among personal belongings of the Roberts family. [117] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (November. 1861), 354. [118] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (May, 1882). 155. [119] Ibid., (September. 1862). 91, 92. [120] David Saville Muzzey. The United States of America, (Boston: Gins, and Company, 1922), 572 (footnote). [121] Ibid., pp. 595,596. [122] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (October, 1862). 122. [123] Letter to Mr. Roberts from "J. W.," Little Rock. Arkansas. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit.. 343,344. [124] Letter to Mr. Roberts, from Anson G. Foote, Savannah, Georgia. Printed is, The Earnest Christian, (March, 1865). 98. [125] The Earnest Christian. (August. 1865). 65. [126] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (April, 1861), 128. [127] Ibid., (May, 1865), 157, 158. [128] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (February, 1867). 64. [129] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (August. 1864). 65. [130] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 10, 1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p.305. [131] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts, September 6, 1861. Found among personal papers of the Roberts family. [132] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 13,1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 306. [133] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 27.1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 313, 314. [134] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts. August 6, 1861. Found among personal papers of the Roberts family. [135] Ibid., September 19, 1861. [136] Ibid. [137] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 31.1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 316. [138] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (October, 1861), 355. [139] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (January, 1866), 9. [140] Ibid., (November. 1868), 159. [141] Ephesians 4:30. [142] Letter from B. T. Roberts, Wayne, Illinois, to his wife, June 13, 1865. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 350, 351. [143] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (July, 1867), 33. [144] B. T. Roberts The Earnest Christian, (November, 1861), 355. [145] Ibid., (March, 1869), 97. [146] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (April. 1868), 123. [147] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 20 1866. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 375, 376. [148] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (March. 1861), 100. [149] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts, May 14,1861. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [150] Ibid., October 31, 1861. [151] James 2:5. [152] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (January, 1862), 31, 32. [153] Ibid., (June. 1862). 187. [154] Ibid., 188. [155] Ibid. [156] Letter from B. T. Roberts, Buffalo, to his wife, Chicago, October 1, 1860. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [157] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (June. 1862), 188. [158] Ibid. [159] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (April, 1868), 122. [160] Ibid., (May, 1869), 159. [161] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian. (May, 1861), 161. [162] Ibid., (October, 1860), 321. [163] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts. August 7, 1861. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [164] Ibid., August 8, 1861. [165] Ibid., August 10, 1861. [166] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (July, 1865), 33. [167] Ibid., (September, 1865), 97.. [168] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts. July 20-25, 1861. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [169] Ibid. [170] Ibid. [171] Ibid. [172] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (July, 1861), 226. [173] Ibid. [174] Diary of Mr. B. T. Roberts, August 23.1861. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [175] B T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (October, 1861), 323. [176] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts, August 17, 1861. Found among personal papers of the Roberts family. [177] Ibid. [178] Ibid., August 23-28, 1861. [179] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (October. 1862). 123. [180] Diary of Mrs. Roberts, September 19.1861. Found among the personal papers of the Roberts family. [181] A. B. Burdick, The Earnest Christian, (March, 1987), 85. [182] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (July, 1865), 32, 33. [183] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (August, 1667), 66. [184] Martha LaDue, The Earnest Christian, (October, 1867), 131.132. [185] Deut. 32:30. [186] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts, February 11, 12, 1860. Found among the personal papers of the Roberts family. [187] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts, July 12,1861. Found among the personal papers of the Roberts family. [188] Ibid., July 31,1861. [189] Ibid., August 3,1861. [190] Ibid., September 28, 1861. [191] Diary of Mrs. B. T. Roberts, November 26,1861. [192] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, May 2, 1862. Quoted by B. H. Roberts. op. cit., p.284. [193] Letter from Mrs. Roberts to her husband, November 21, 1863. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [194] Letter from Mrs. Roberts to her husband, May 30, 1865. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [195] Diary of Mrs. Roberts, February 1,1867. [196] Letter from B. T. Roberts, Chambersburg, to his wife, March 3, 1870. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p.397. [197] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, December 19.1860. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [198] Ibid. [199] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, written from Binghamton, New York, December 29, 1862 Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p.295. [200] Letter from B. H. Roberts to his mother. written from Bonus Prairie, Illinois, August, 1864. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [201] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, written from Wayne, Illinois, June 13, 1865. [202] Letter from George L. Roberts to his parents, Marengo, Illinois. September 4, 1865. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [203] Diary of Mrs. Roberts, March 1,1867. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [204] Letter from Mary Hicks, Syracuse, to Sammie and "Benjie" Roberts, December 14, 1870. [205] Letter from Mrs. Roberts to her husband, written from Williamsburg to North Chili. Undated. Found among letters of family. [206] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, written from Utica to Buffalo, December 21,1860. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [207] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 18,1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts. op. cit., pp. 308, 309. [208] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 25, 1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 312. [209] Diary of Mrs. Roberts. February 2, 1861. Found among personal papers of the Roberts family. [210] Letter from Mrs. Lane to Mrs. Roberts. December 6, 1862. [211] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (January. 1865), 64. [212] Assignment of Patent Paper. Found among the personal papers of B. T. Roberts. [213] Quitclaim Deed. Found among the personal papers of B. T. Roberts. [214] Letter from James A. Mathews to B. T. Roberts, written from Garnett, Kansas, February 4, 1869. Found among personal letters of B. T. Roberts. [215] Ibid. [216] Letter from Mrs. George Lane to Mrs. Roberts, July 5,1866. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [217] Will of Mrs. George Lane, recorded 1859. Found among the personal papers of the Roberts family. [218] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, May 2, 1862. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p.294. [219] Statement of B. T. Roberts. Quoted by Adella P. Carpenter, op. cit., p.42. [220] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 19, 1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p.309. [221] Ibid. [222] Psalms 69:7, 8, 9, 20. [223] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, December 29, 1862. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 294, 295. [224] Letter from Mrs. Lane to Mrs. Roberts. December 6, 1862. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [225] Ibid. [226] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife. written from Binghamton, February 2, 1863. Found among persona] letters of the Roberts family. [227] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 21, 1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p.310. [228] Diary of B. T. Roberts, January 29, 1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 335. [229] Ibid., July 10,1861. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op,. cit., p.319. [230] Letter from B. T. Roberts to hi wife, written from Wheaton, Illinois, June 14, 1864. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [231] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, written from Wayne. Illinois, June 13, 1865. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [232] Letter from B. T. Roberts to a disheartened preacher, written in 1867. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 377, 378. [233] Ibid. [234] Zach. 9:15. [235] Diary of B. T. Roberts, February 2, 1888. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., p. 381. [236] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife. written February 26, 1870. Quoted by B. H. Roberts, op. cit., pp. 395, 396. [237] Letter from B. T. Roberts to his wife, written from Meadville, Pennsylvania, June 27.1870. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [238] Letter from "Orpha" to Mrs. Roberts, written from Syracuse, New York, March 12, 1870. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [239] Letter from Mary Hicks. written from Syracuse, December 14, 1870. Found among personal letters of the Roberts family. [240] General Conference Daily of the Free Methodist Church, Vol. II, No. 12, (October 21, 1860). p.162. [241] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian (October, 1860), 321. [242] Minutes of the General Conference of the Free Methodist Church, 1862, p. 13. Found at Denominational Headquarters, Winona Lake, Indiana. [243] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian. (January, 1865), 7. [244] B. T. Roberts, "Union Convention." The Earnest Christian, (July, 1865), 13. [245] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (August, 1867). 68. [246] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (September, 1868), 82. [247] Benjamin Pomeroy, The Earnest Christian, (September, 1862), 99. [248] Letter from Mrs. Martha LaDue, to Mrs. Roberts, October 18. 1861. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. [249] B. T. Roberts, The Earnest Christian, (July, 1861), 226, 227. [250] B. T. Roberts. The Earnest Christian, (November, 1865). 183. [251] Ibid., (December, 1869), 188, 182. [252] Letter to B. T. Roberts, from Joseph McCreery, written from California, January 10.1870. Found among the personal letters of the Roberts family. |
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