XII

PIONEERING AND PROSPECTING

Five months in the High school were soon passed. During that interval in my life I had one week as "supply" teacher in charge of one of the classes of the High School, whose teacher was temporarily ill, and I confess to feeling slightly exalted. Teaching had an attraction for me; but my call was to a wider sphere. The springtime examination for church orders came and passed, and there followed in a month the meeting of the District Assembly which was a preliminary to the Annual Conference gathering. As yet I was in the position of the candidates for membership in the early Christian assemblies -- they might come inside the door but their progress towards a front seat depended on the will of the elders. What my achievement at the examination had been I knew not; the report was safely kept in the hands and pocket of the Chairman, Dr Jeffers. I might enter this meeting, and sit in a rear seat, and wait there until the word was given to "come up higher". The time came. The Secretary announced that a name had been forwarded from the Board of Examiners, and thereupon the Chairman produced a Certificate, and proceeded to read from it. It appeared from his reading that the Candidate had taken an unusual stand of a First Class with Honors, and I suddenly found myself in the midst of applause, and one minister (the one who presided over the Board that recommended me) added to his words of congratulation the additional information... "You will yet be a D.D" I did not yet know what these letters stood for. Some three years later when the Salvation Army began its work in our University town there appeared on the billboards a large sign announcing that next Sunday their meetings would be addressed by "Happy Bill Cooper D.D." an announcement that very much puzzled university students who had understood that this new organisation quite despised distinctions of all sorts and especially the furbelows of the university. Enquiries were therefore instituted, and a delegation was appointed to ascertain from what university this new light had secured his distinction. The committee reported its findings to the effect that Happy Bill Cooper was a graduate of the people's university and that his D.D. meant Devil Driver!

My District examination resulted in a recommendation to Conference in favour of acceptance on trial. But Conference was not yet in session; I might wait for another month. In the meantime I followed my studies at school.

"You are appointed to York River Mission", was the message I received one day from Dr Jeffers. Conference had met and concluded, and had enrolled my name among candidates "received on trial for the ministry". He indicated the outfit necessary with which to travel over my field of labour. The field itself was in his district, but he had never seen it; he had in his younger days covered a section of country twenty-five miles out from his present abode, but this I learned in time was like a garden in relation to a twenty acre field as compared with that which I was now about to face.

I had two weeks in which to prepare myself and be on my field of labour. I was told that it would not be possible to purchase a horse in the country to which I was assigned and that therefore I would find it advisable to take a horse with me, or at least let the horse take me. I did not forget that for some years I had had the care of horses and their use on the farm, and I thought I was wise enough to take in hand and train for mission work a young horse. I therefore went out to the country where I had taught school and bought a four-year-old, which I thought would be a desirable creature to break in, and I led it into the city, walking with it for the twelve miles. From a friend I borrowed a harness and a wagon so heavy that I thought the young animal could not run away with it; and thus I ventured upon the city street to give my horse, of which I felt quite proud, a trial of skill. I certainly did not anticipate any difficulty, and was quite confident of my horsemanship; but I had some lessons to learn very shortly, and had several more in the next twenty-one years that fully disabused my mind of all ideas that I was ever intended to be in any sense a horseman. My young acquisition was proceeding along a somewhat unfrequented street quietly enough when as he was approaching a busy business cross street a noisy wagon went rattling by; the young animal which had been born and brought up in a quiet country place was so startled at the unusual noise made by the wagon, that he took stage fright and stopped instantly; when I tried persuasion with a whip he used his heels and destroyed my dashboard. After that the best that he would do for me was to back down into a ditch. I concluded at once that I had found one thing that I could not do; the breaking in of a horse was evidently more difficult than learning Latin roots, or conjugating Greek verbs.

Not far away lived a friendly farmer, who knew something of my destination, and who with his wife greatly sympathised with me and appreciated my purposes; to him I went and proposed that he should take over my four-year-old and let me have instead a sedate nine-year-old that was familiar with city noises and probably would not mind the quietness of the forest. I was to give him a sum of money for making the exchange; for this he asked no other guarantee than my word.

Now I must find a harness for my horse, a saddle also, and a conveyance for myself. The saddle I left until a later date. I was now without money, and would have to wait for three months before I should receive anything from the Board that was sending me out. I therefore visited the shop of a dealer in horse outfits, of whom I had heard that he was interested in church work, and without hesitation introduced myself, stated my prospective work, and my needs, asked the price of a set of harness, and also asked him to trust me for six months. This he gladly consented to do, taking my note at six percent, and commended the people to whom I was going, saying that he knew some of them and that it was a community of fine people.

What should I do for a conveyance? While a vehicle with four wheels might be capable of transportation over the main road, provided it was strong enough, and in such a contingency it might be too heavy for one horse to draw over the long steep hills, it was doubtful if such a conveyance would be able to follow any cross roads. It was at this juncture that I met two rag-and-bone merchants, genuine junk dealers who gathered up old iron and almost all manner of discarded things. These men were Plymouth Brethren; one belonged to the "Open Brethren", and the other to the "Close". They were good men. I had known them for a year. They were partners, and one managed the city end of the partnership, while the other travelled along the townships to gather up their stock. This travelling was the "close" brother, but in his communication with me concerning my new field of labour he became satisfactorily open. He well knew all of that back country, and he was sure that my only satisfactory mode of conveyance would be either by a vehicle with two wheels or by saddle. Saddle would at times be very uncomfortable. The tradesmen at last revealed to me that in their shed they had the two wheeled article that would just meet the occasion, and I could have it for Six Dollars, and pay when I was ready. Who could refuse a proposition like that?

The vehicle itself was known as a "sulky", and in the course of two years I often thought it was that in more than name. Could it be described? There were no kodaks in those days or it would have made an interesting study for archives. I have never seen anything like the article. It might have belonged to the days of Noah's ark. It had two wheels which might have at one time belonged to a farmer's dray cart or lumber wagon -- big hubs, heavy spokes, heavy fillies, broad tires, the whole having a strong inclination to dry, go loose, and creak unconscionably in dry weather. The two wheels were attached to an axle made of wood large enough for a farm wagon, indeed I have a strong suspicion that at some time both wheels and axle must have been a part of such an outfit. The inside of the hub must have worn away greatly and I was too unused to such things to know that the remedy for a bad wobble was a good supply of "washers", consequently the wobble gave me many a bad spill. The shafts, which were attached to the axle, were made of one long piece of wood, which had been steamed in the factory and bent, so that the rear end formed a half circle and the two ends of the pole formed the shafts on either side of the horse, being drawn to a small size to fit into the harness. A cross bar served to keep the shafts from spreading apart, and to it was fastened a whiffletree. On the axle, near either end, was fasted a heavy spring, which when the vehicle turned turtle, conveniently fell into pieces at their joints. On these springs, and supported by the half round at the rear, was built up a "box", which had a very ancient appearance, not so much by reason of its absence of paint, and the presence of a doleful, weather-beaten face, as by its shape, for it was as expansive at the bottom as the distance from wheel to wheel, and from the whiffletree in front to the half-circle behind, thence tapering upward on the four sides to a top about twelve inches square. This twelve inches constituted the driver's seat -- a very convenient size, for it precluded any temptation to carry passengers. On three sides this sloping box was boarded in, with a hole left in the front by which the traveller could insert his books and necessary luggage. It seemed to be quite the thing for an itinerant such as I was intended to be, but the people of the country through which I passed took curious looks at my odd conveyance and wondered where it originated and where it had been found.

I did set a blacksmith at it to make an improvement by attaching a high iron rail to the sides and back of the seat for back support and to prevent the driver from being wobbled out on either side, for the original had an elevation of back no more than four inches high; this improvement was made in the noon-hour while my horse was feeding. Seeing that the addition had quite a natty appearance, I mounted into the carriage to try out the fit and seated myself, but I forgot to consider and consult with the centre of gravity; my weight on the seat passed beyond the axle, and as there was no horse attached to keep down the shafts, they went up into the air, and I found myself lying back on the ground, and with the necessity for the blacksmith repeating his work. After that I had more care for the laws of Nature.

With my unique outfit I set out for my field of labour which was said to be eighty miles distant, on Tuesday morning, and I sighted my headquarters on Friday at six in the afternoon. For thirty miles my way lay along a well-made, much travelled road, by flourishing farms and ample farmhouses, where the traveller as a messenger of the Cross was a welcome guest, and through several villages.

One evening I drew up for tea at the village hotel at what was known as "The Jordan". I am sure that I did not feel at all like Joshua, I did not think my prospects in the land were to be brightened as were his, yet I think I had something of a similar courage, and the words of promise addressed to him came home to me. Like Joshua I was looking forward to duty; but I am free to say that I would have preferred to have been crossing "the Jordan" into a more attractive looking land; Joshua had enemies to fight but he did not have "backwoods". It was seven o'clock in the summer evening as I left the hotel for the stopping place fifteen miles distant; it was just midnight when I reached that destination. The glorious sun was setting just as I reached the "ten mile woods" a short distance beyond the Jordan; soon the darkness gathered about me, and I had to depend on the discretion of my trusty horse, which seemed to take many unaccountable turns in the road, went into many rutty ways, grated unmusically past rocks, splashed mud, jostled small trees, drew threateningly near to big trees whose bulk everywhere loomed skywards. It seemed that we crossed many streams of water on bridges that might carry us over but that had nothing to prevent us from going over sideways into the waters that were so deep that they rolled on their way without a fall or a murmur, only that their silence was occasionally disturbed by the crack of underbrush, and the plunge of some scarified animal into their depths. I thought of wolves; it was probably no more than a bullfrog awakened from his night nap on the bank. I was probably more frightened than any of the forest dwellers. Today I can quite excuse the young traveller of that long ago; It was no nice undertaking to enter a ten-mile sweep of forest, having no clearance in it, the road all unfamiliar, to feel the uncouth jostling for hour after hour, to see in the moon-less light of night only the trees locking their tall branches overhead, and to hear only the unknown animals moving in the underbrush or plunging in the water. Only sheer necessity would today impel me to attempt such a journey at such hours. But I was young then and Duty had a paramount claim; besides I did not know what might lie ahead; hence the comforts of the hotel where I took tea made no appeal to me. At midnight I found myself in "the clearance" and soon wakened the keeper of the "stopping place" who wondered at my late appearance and somewhat bedraggled condition. There were no thoughts to trouble me as I laid down to sleep in a dormitory which was common to all wayside travellers, and I slept soundly.

In the morning I was stiff in my limbs but I mounted my sulky and gave the word to my horse which evidently felt as bruised and stiffened as I did. I was glad to find that from this on there were no more long stretches of forest, no more Jordans to cross, but it did seem that I had opportunity to enjoy my love of landscapes, for while my road forbad swift travel owing to rocks that had to be avoided and hills that were steep and numerous, there were mountains beyond that courted ones admiration, and glimpses in the vales of picturesque lakes that suggested pleasant holidays for those who had no compelling duties.

At last I came to a bend in the road, a river that looked pleasant but swift and deep, and that wound its way windingly among low-lying hills that were crowned with a glorious summer afternoon sunshine giving a yellow glow to the southern sky; a bridge that had a railing, betokening that I was nearing a civilisation, a sandy roadway that wound around to the foot of a hill, a gravely, steep, long climb with second-growth poplars crowding in on either side, and then at last the summit was reached.

I gave my horse a rest and took occasion to feast my eyes. It was a little village in the midst of a wilderness that I beheld in the afternoon sunlight. I saw the glinting of the York River and listened to it as it fell among the rocks at the mills and thundered on its way down the gorge, a tremendous energy that was going to waste, save that it was busying itself carving out rocks. At the foot of the hill on which I had paused, was the little two-streeted village, its streets being a sort of bye-product of two colonisation roads that swept in from somewhere among the mountains and crossed each other at this juncture, one of them crossing the river on a substantial bridge. I could count three buildings on one street and four on the other. On the hillside where I rested were three buildings -- a school, a town hall and that which was to be my cathedral (for I was to become known as the "bishop" of all this country). Beyond this hamlet there arose in every direction fortresses of red granite hills, out of which came hurrying the currents of a river that, beautiful for situation, spelled power and prosperity for the future, and I fell into love with the paradise into which the hand of God had brought me. "Welcome, thou servant of the Lord" was the first greeting that I received, and this from the blacksmith's wife.

The founder of this town was an Honorable Senator of the Dominion Parliament, who although he did not reside in this locality made at least two trips per year by stage to visit and plan for his possession, and at seventy-six years of age became my friend, as he had been the friend of my friend Miss Bilbrough for many years. He was the strong advocate of prohibition and enjoined upon every deed of property sold in his townsite that no place should be used for the sale of intoxicating liquor, or it should at once revert to him, the original owner. So I had no trouble from drunkenness within my extensive parish.

One who is interested in his work and who takes his work as if the interests were really his own, has never need of a watchman; it is ever with him as if the eye of his master were upon him, or rather he is as if he were his own master; and this is especially true if he serves the Lord Christ. I came to my new field in time for Sunday services, but I had meditated on a text during the whole journey, and indeed began my meditations long before the journey began; my text was "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake". That was a good text for an introduction to a new people, the preacher however found that he had not much else to give the people, and in fifteen minutes his address was ended. He felt somewhat crestfallen, and resolved that the next week should find him producing longer things; the record shows that though he was diligent in study, the following Sabbath found that he had exhausted his thoughts once more in fifteen minutes, and this time he sat down ashamed to look his congregation in the face, and he hurried home to weep over what he regarded as a miserable failure. Some morsel of comfort however came to him when his boarding house keeper coming into the house said:-- "I would have given anything I had when I was a young man if I could have expressed myself in as condensed a manner as you have done for these two Sundays". And the next day as I took my Monday as my day of rest and quietly walked the street I met an important functionary of the municipality who greeting me said:-- "You need not feel discouraged. The time will come when you will learn to think upon your feet".

My first, and indeed every Sunday, gave me one appointment in the village, but for the morning I was twelve miles away, and for the evening I was seven miles on the other side of the village, making altogether thirty-nine miles for the day; Monday evening found me ten miles away, Saturday evening each had an appointment fifteen miles away, and Thursday evening found me with a village Bible class; my preaching stations were thus nine, and including my Bible class, it meant six services every week.

But I am somewhat anticipating my story. Following upon my first Sunday, I was eager to know and estimate my parish, and my first interest was to find out my territory. It took some time, of course, to do this, but knowing that I was the only shepherd on the ground I therefore had a responsibility and a right to every "sheep", both far and near, so that pastoral visitation, in time took me from my home many days at a time, and thus I gained a knowledge of the land and of the conditions of the people. My part then of the Master's vineyard consisted of townships with such names as Dungannon, Faraday, Herschel, Monteagle, Wicklow, McLure -- I found I had a block of townships three abreast and three deep, representing twenty-one miles across and thirty miles deep, with the privilege of going as far in any direction as I might hear that there were "settlers" -- history, science, geography, -- they were constantly brought to mind by the names of my surroundings. Lonesomeness? I could never feel it in a virgin land that abounded in gifts of beauty. There was no sameness. There might be distances of miles between the huts that indicated settlement, but that only gave one a wider view of pine forests, tall and stately, or groves of maple waiting for the hand of man to tap the trees and draw forth the sugar-making sap; or else I traced the shores of lakes, or the noble and deep river, with stately elm trees accompanied by clustering knots of cedar and spruce trees.

Then I had an interest in geology, especially historical geology, and this land in the Laurentian ranges was for me a great book which I longed to become better able to read and understand. As it was, there stood the lofty and defiant masses of granite, red with its feldspar that men would some day find useful in their manufactures over in England; away aloft the eagle built his nest fearless of molestation, while I must content myself with a narrow stretch of road in the sandy flat at the foot of the mighty range, and where once in long years before the most ancient man, the broadened river had washed against the rocky wall. And then out in the great pinery where a break had occurred in the granite wall and the river had rushed in and formed a lake, where in turn quartz, feldspar and mica had been ground into sand, unproductive, and on which it was said only a thrifty German could live, and that by growing turnips and sheep. I did love to listen to the roll of thunder, watch the flashes of lightning smite the rocks as Moses might have done, and witness the black clouds appear from behind the bush of rocks, grow taller, until rocks and trees were covered and folded by them, and I too felt the Presence in the rushing, mighty wind, felt too the deluge for a brief half hour, and hid my face, and then all was over, and there was a great calm. Lo God was there in the untamed wilderness.

All Nature interested me, but my especial interest was in humans. My diocese I have been briefly outlining; my only cathedral was the little Saint Peter which I saw on the hillside on the day of my arrival. It had the requisite gothic windows, a platform and pulpit for the minister and a gallery at the front for the choir, and it would not have been in ecclesiastical succession if it had not had a debt. The choir was small but competent, with an accomplished organist, and a small melodeon. All of this represented much in little, for when on a special occasion the church was crowded full, in gallery, on stairs, in pews and about the pulpit, the total of possible occupants was one hundred and twenty. Ordinarily our congregation numbered much fewer. And how could it be otherwise? When I had made a careful visit throughout the village and surrounding country in a radius of two miles I found that the entire population consisted of sixty-four persons of all ages, and eleven of these were in the family with which I boarded. But what our town might have lacked in quantity, it made up in quality, for it included in its citizenship an ex-editor of a Liverpool newspaper, and he was now by appointment of Government Police Magistrate of all these townships; his wife had taught music in Liverpool, and his daughters were both teachers of music and art. The postmaster was accomplished in seven European languages and his wife was a clever business woman. Two shops in the village were owned and managed by graduates from Oxford. One other villager was a retired Ontario school teacher whose standing in his profession was a First Class Certificate; he was now an herb specialist, gathering and distilling herbs, and selling his remedies among a people who had no doctor nearer than fifty miles, and who must pay forty dollars for a doctor's visit.

Naturally I felt that my situation was worthy of my best, and I should be guilty if I did not do my best. I had promised God that if He needed me I was willing and I would do my part. Here was my testing ground and I must not fail. So I kept all of my appointments, when once I had made one; I was remembering the saying of the British statesman:- "Method is the very hinge of business, and there is no method without punctuality". I copied out JOHN WESLEY'S Rules for a Minister, posted them on the wall of my room, and read them every time before going out to my work among the people. I gave heed to my studies, carried my books, at least some of them, always with me and while waiting in homes for my meals I lost no time in idleness but turned to my books; while my horse was slowly plodding up the hills I threw the reins over the dashboard and thus mastered Smith's Initia Grecia, and when I set to preparing sermons I endeavoured to use what I had learned from my various books; anything that is good is too good to be lost.

Various duties and a colorful collection of experiences came to me. Thus I must organise for an Official Board where none had ever existed, that is where the minister had been the sole authority and had depended on his own time and ability in financial matters. I must give diligence in finding out the settlers, for they were coming into the country all the time and new farms were being taken up, and this sometimes meant new preaching appointments had to be formed, or perhaps a bit of courage had to be exercised; thus it was that I was obliged to cross a bridgeless river on trees fallen from the opposite shores, and follow a cow path for two miles into an unbroken forest to find one family of father, mother and two children, whose house was one room, twelve feet by eighteen, whose furniture was all made by the father, except for the stove, and where the clearance was the ground on which the shanty stood, plus a small garden patch, and the whole had to be surrounded by a high stockade to prevent the wolves from doing them damage. This man had no coat, and thus it gave me great pleasure to bestow upon him my farming suit, as I had adopted more sombre outfits.

Similarly I found my way over fifteen miles of road to where a new arrival "from the Front" with his family had settled at four corners and opened up a place of general merchandise. On one corner was a schoolhouse and this was readily turned into use as a church on Saturday nights. It was here that on one occasion I preached on the work of the Holy Spirit, and a woman professed to be born anew; her husband was present and I afterwards learned that he manifested much anger on their walk homewards because she had made an open confession. It was two weeks afterward that I returned and preached from the text "The arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous", and that night the husband was smitten on the way home, and on the torchlit pathway in the forest, he fell on his knees in prayer and found forgiveness and peace. It was not until my visit two weeks later that I learned of these workings of the Holy Spirit.

In similar fashion did the Spirit work in another direction, and I knew nothing of it until I chanced to meet a young man a month after the event. It seemed I had preached in a private house on the parable of the Sower, and a certain young man had feared to come inside, so had listened behind the open door outside, and afterwards had remarked to another young man:- "Do you not think that the minister was very personal tonight?", and shortly afterwards it was reported that he had entered into light and was wanting to preach.

At one point of my field there was a somewhat intractable community composed of Germans. The frame of a church had been erected and closed in during the incumbency of two of my predecessors, of whom it was said that they both had broken their hearts over the enterprise; having heard such news I entered upon the ground going charily. I made a visit to the principal families in the neighbourhood, found them thrifty and well-to-do and studied how to get a move on. In time I was working in other communities five and eight miles away on either side, so I made irregular appointments for the difficult ones, such as a service at eight o'clock in the morning on my way to a ten o'clock Sunday service farther on; then I tried a ten o'clock service, and at both of them I had the largest gatherings of all my mission field, and withal the heartiest of singing. I thought it a pity that these people should present a problem, and I presently made a desperate resolve; either they must rule or I. I announced for a midweek service at two-thirty in the afternoon. That satisfied me. I had discovered that these German people were immensely fond of religious meetings, for on this weekday and in the afternoon, when my English settlers would have said that their duties at home were too important to leave, I found that the people filled the church.

As it stood, the building was an impossibility for winter use, for it was a frame of two by four timbers, with a single thickness of boards, cracks all open, covered with a shingled roof, but without a ceiling, one thickness of boarding for floor; the building was set up on blocks of wood two feet above ground and the intervening space was open to fresh air. Some blocks of wood, one above another, served as steps by which to enter, the door itself had hinges but no lock, and it was held closed by means of a long fence rail, one end on the ground, the other resting against the door. At the conclusion of the midweek service I quietly announced that a capable sawmill was not far away, that this church must be put into shape for winter use and until that was done I might not appear among them again.

Six weeks passed by, when I received a note apprising me that the church had been improved, that the Fifth of November was to be celebrated therein, and inviting me to attend. Truly an effort had been made. Borrowed boards and scantling from the sawmill had created double walls and battened cracks, two aisles and a ceiling, underpinning had been accomplished outside and stones and soil prevented the passage of air, platform and steps gave an inviting entrance and the door had been furnished with a lock. Seats for the congregation were made by blocks of cedar wood set on end and boards ranged along on top. The minister's platform was a springboard, one thickness that helped him at every step to take another, and his pulpit consisted of a huge block of pine set on end, it did duty also as a table and he had two blocks with board across as his chair. A stove was set up but there was no chimney on the building, and failing that, a pane of glass had been taken from a window and the smoke pipe projected therefrom. Surely ingenuity was manifest in this brave attempt to meet oncoming conditions and I could not but appreciate it all. Thereafter our association ran smoothly and within another year the "lumber" church had given place to a well finished, pulpit and pew furnished, chimneyed and painted church.

I considered that my calling was to do the work of an evangelist, and I gave God thanks for every individual conversion that occurred in the ordinary services, and which I regarded as "fruits" of my ministry, and proofs of my call to preach; but I was not satisfied with a few of such cases. A special effort I felt must be made to reach whole congregations, so I ventured on "revival" meetings in a country where no such thing had ever been attempted, and where my only help was a few scattered praying people and the local singing talent. Nine weeks did I spend in such work, three weeks in each of three preaching places, one of them being the village, and I found then, as I have many times found since, that the work of God grows more difficult where human associations become more complicated, and human opinions are more considered as they are more openly expressed. It was cheering to stand on a hilltop and listen to an ox-drawn wagon-load of people going home from a meeting and filling the forest with song, such songs as The Sweet By and Bye, Arise my soul arise, and Oh Happy Day. The people were made glad, and so was I.

It was a difficult work to go into a community where there had been preaching service for only six months before, and where there was but one attendant who professed to pray, but it was a glorious reward to come through at the end of three weeks and find yourself surrounded by a band of praying, testifying men and women, who without undue excitement had received the word of God by faith, and had been led by the Holy Spirit into the realm of light and peace. I am thinking of Frank -- a married man and father of two children. I had spent one week of service in the log schoolhouse where I had to sing alone, read lessons, pray, preach, exhort, and depend on the Holy Spirit to make the word of God effective; I had no way of getting among the people since I was the only human present to carry on, and after dismissal the people huddled and held together like a flock of sheep suspicious of being divided.

But as my second week began a praying German came into my meeting, and this became my opportunity. That first night Frank's wife stood in the meeting and testified in the presence of a sceptical father, and other members of her family. Frank was not present, but he was the next night, and he saw his wife as one of my assistants. The following night Frank was again on hand. As I was walking to my lodging place I came to where Frank stood at his garden gate with a company of his neighbours listening to his excited talk. I listened for a few moments, and then I said Frank, you better go into your house, read the Fifty First Psalm, and go down on your knees and ask God to forgive your sins. After that he was missing for two or three evenings, and then one evening as I walked to the meeting house he fell in with me by the way. I asked, "How are you getting on Frank?" "Oh thank God, I am happy, and I have come tonight to ask you to forgive me for the way I talked to you the other night". "And how has this all come about?" "Well God set me thinking as I was working in my barn, and presently I dropped on my knees and prayed, and as I prayed I became very happy. I am saved and I know it".

I did not need to urge Frank to pray or testify in meetings after that; moreover he always stepped to the front and faced his neighbours. I missed him during the winter months, and learned from his wife that he had gone to work in the lumber camps, and I wondered if he could hold on to God as firmly as I knew God would hold on to him. It was May when he returned to his farm, and on Sunday I found him in our meeting for testimony. "How is it," I asked him, "that you have continued faithful? I rather feared for you in the midst of the rough life of the camp." "I found another man who was a Christian" he said; "I had my Bible, and he had a book of Bible readings, so we spent our Sundays together reading and studying the Bible, and we grew in grace by doing so."

And thus did God enable me to grow in grace, and profit withal by the evidences of His presence and favour, while I had no reason to be anything but humble. I was away from a flattering world, back in the far woods, and I dared not ask for the peoples opinions of my worth or worthiness -- I was serving them and the Lord Christ. My spiritual life was largely sustained by letters every two weeks from Miss Bilbrough who assured me of remembrance at the household altar.

I must not forget to give an account of how my bodily wants were provided for. I have already indicated the small outfit that I had as I began my journey toward my mission field; that outfit did very well for summer time. But there were debts on the outfit, besides books had to be bought, the horse had to be fed and my own board bill had to be paid, heavy clothing would be needed for winter, and the horse must have a blanket for covering, and I would require a vehicle that would travel in snow. It was simply a wonder to me how these items were all met.

In the matter of books -- I found that over all of my parish the people needed hymn books, and as there were no bookshops I became naturally the book agent, and many dozens of books passed through my hands; on these the publishers allowed me a generous commission, and this paid my account for books of the study course. When I came to pay my account for board, mine host deducted one third off in consideration of the time that I spent away from home on pastoral duty. I bought horse feed at twenty dollars per ton for hay and fifty cents per bushel for oats, but this account was likewise reduced by pastoral travelling. Outside of these two items, an allowance from the Mission Committee of the denomination, plus the small contributions of my various appointments, left me a net salary for the year of Forty Eight Dollars, and as I bought but one article of clothing I was able to pay off all of my debts, and had Two Dollars with which to begin a second year.

When the weather grew cold and I needed heavy mittens and socks I was surprised to find that, as Elijah was cared for, so a kind woman whose sheep had furnished much wool, which she in turn had spun into yarn, saw my need and without word from me supplied me, not once only, but repeatedly gathered in the partly used and replaced them with new. Rooming occasionally with a schoolmaster at a distant point, he saw my need of underwear and reported to a committee of young women who bought flannelette (this was before the days of Penmans) and they surprised me with a parcel by the hands of the stage driver. In a locality twelve miles from home and where I spent each of three weeks living among the people, and going from clearance to clearance finding people, there was an offer from one man who came six miles to attend our meetings, to take my horse home for a week; I allowed him to do so, and when he returned on Friday evening I found my trusty with a winter blanket made by hand as a patchwork quilt.

That night there was a snow storm, and the next morning, as I drove towards my village home, I presently noticed an obstruction, like a rock, in the road; on looking more carefully, I was minded to dismount and make examination, and then I found that instead of a rock, it was a very large roll of shantymen's bed blanket, spilled no doubt from some load on its way to a distant lumber camp; it was sufficient to fold four times and then wrap luxuriously around me on my lap and limbs. Then my friend in the city wrote "I have a military overcoat which was worn in the Crimean war by an officer, and you may have the use of it for winter". That coat weighed sixteen pounds, and it served me in good stead for two winters. In my village headquarters was a blacksmith who had a "cutter" at his disposal, the use of which he gave me freely, and so without worry or anxious thought or word my wants were supplied, and thus it appeared as though "having nothing, I yet was possessing all things".

That winter there was very little snow, and what came did not long remain. I had to carry my saddle in the cutter, and often I have left home on Saturday with the prospect of a nice sleigh-ride on my way on Sunday, only to find by ten o'clock on Sunday morning that streams of water were running down the hillsides, and by noon I would leave the cutter in some one's yard, and take to the saddle. And how I did enjoy those saddle rides! Thirty miles on Sunday, spinning across frozen lakes by way of short cuts, preaching three or four times, and getting my evening meal when all was over -- truly then the labourer's sleep was sweet! Such a life was healthful, happy, and useful, and there were no adverse critics to put a fly in the ointment. My family was widespread and contented.