Flowers and Fruits from the Wilderness; or, Forty-Six Years in Texas and Two Winters in Honduras

p. 19«ECEMBER, 1835 — October, .1871. Thirty-six years ago I planted my feet on the soil of Texas.

How great the contrast in our circumstances then N ^ and now ! And what a train of memorable events flashes upon my mind, as I review the conflicts and conquests of these years, — conflicts between barbarism and civilization, anarchy and well-regulated government; conquests of truth over error, and the faith of the gospel over priestcraft and superstition.

A brief history of some of the reasons that led the writer to Texas may be of interest. Some will, doubtless, suppose that a desire to roam over the earth, and to occupy fields hitherto uncultivated, was the only reason for this change. Not so. Perfect satisfaction was felt with the brethren, and the field of “ good old Tennessee.” But fourteen years of excessive ministerial labor in that State, attended with much exposure on long tours, swimming high waters, and preaching on an average about one sermon a day for nine years, brought on hemorrhage of the lungs, and made it necessary, according to the decision of two of p. 20our most eminent physicians, that I should emigrate south, and cease my ministerial labors, at least for a series of years. Language can never describe the sadness I felt, when I realized that the change must be made. Parting with fields, friends, brethren, and churches, where I had so long been accustomed to witness the triumphs of the gospel, to take up my abode among strangers, with shattered health, and with the responsibilities of my family and my ministry upon me, all this taxed my Christian fortitude to its utmost capacity.

My mind was turned to Texas in the fall of 1834. Its government was then veiy much disturbed. This obstacle in the way, and the additional fact that the iron arm of Catholicism was stretched over the whole land of Mexico, then embracing the State of Texas, did not make it a very desirable field for a Baptist preacher, who had always been accustomed to express himself boldly and independently. Catholicism, “ the man of sin,” I considered as a sworn enemy to me as a Baptist, and, after committing my way to God, I concluded to wait with patience for further light.

p. 20To move south was urged upon me as a present necessity, and in tears, with wife and four children, I wended my wray south as far as Yallabusha County, Mississippi, and tarried to see what the gathering cloud in Texas would bring forth in 1835.

Sam. Houston was then in Texas among the Cherokee Indians, pulling the wires, by making friends with ail the wild tribes of the red men of the forest ; thereby intending, with their aid, and with what emigration he could draw out from Tennessee and elsewhere, to set in motion u a little two-horse republic under the Lone Star,” with the fond expectation that he would be its first president. This he had p. 21A TROUBLED PREACHER . privately prophesied would be the case, in a confidential interview with his friend McIntosh, a deacon of the Baptist church at Nashville, about the time Houston abandoned the gubernatorial chair of Tennessee. Knowing that I had Texas on the brain, and in view of the fact that I had been a friend and admirer of Gen. Houston, for my encouragement, my good brother McIntosh committed this secret to me.

Months of gloom pass away, and I am still in Mississippi. Hemorrhage continues, as I wait the result of the climate upon my general health. With the prophecy previously alluded to in view, and with my mind turned south and west toward Texas, I was confidently expecting every day to learn that the political cloud had exploded, and that, as Sam. Houston’s artillery would flash its lightning and roll its thunder across the prairies, the “ Lone Star ” colors would be raised, independence declared, the Republic formed, religious liberty established, and then I could go to Texas. But, alas ! it is delayed.

With bleeding lungs, under special orders from my Tennessee ph}rsicians to refrain from preaching, and yet with fire burning in my bones to declare the way of salvation to the lost, I meet with brethren, acquaintances from Tennes-see, and am urged to preach. The temptation was more than I could bear. By the way, I have always suffered from a weakness of this kind in the midst of gospel destitution. Three new churches are soon organized. All call me to serve as pastor ; which is promptly declined, in consequence of my health and anticipated removal farther west, and I only consent to serve as a supply till other arrangements can be made. These churches, added to those already in existence in this section, make the organ-p. 22FLOWERS AND FRUITS . ization of a new association, according to the decision of the brethren, a necessity. The time and place were agreed upon, and delegates appointed to meet at Troy, a little town on the Yallabusha River, in the fall of 1835. Having had a vast amount of trouble in the old State, above referred to, with the anti-missionaries, in organizing both churches and associations, and having been repeatedly ground by them in the flint-mills of tyranny and bigotry, in my feeble and worn condition, I confess I had no anxiety to engage in a similar contest in the new State of Mississippi. Notwithstanding my protest, I was selected as one of the delegates to bear a letter for the church. This I consented to do, after the church had passed a resolution, giving the delegates authority to withdraw the letter and return it, provided the association would not agree to an organization on gospel principles ; allowing members to give to missions or not, as they saw proper.

p. 22These were days when the “ old Simon pure” (as they called themselves) really thought it was a sin to belong to a Missionary -Society, Bible or Tract Society, Sunday School, Temperance, Odd Fellows’ or Masonic Lodge. All these wTere placed in the same category, and non-fellowship declared against every member of these institutions, whether Jew or Gen tile. By the way, I had the audacity to con-tend for, belong to, and forward any or all of them, whenever opportunities were offered. We met on the ground at the appointed time, and Elder Frank Baker was chosen as president, after a sermon by Z. N. Morrell. The president elect, be it remembered, was a decided anti-missionary, a man of wealth and great personal influence ; but, withal, a warm-hearted, earnest Christian, never losing his equilibrium in the heat of debate. Courteous and kind in all p. 23A TROUBLED PREACHER. bis bearings, full of wit and humor, you could but love him, though you differed with him widely. After the temporary organization was complete a committee of five — the writer a member of it — was appointed to draft articles of faith, constitution and rules of decorum. This took place on Friday. Saturday was occupied with such business as could be properly attended to, waiting the report of the committee.