It was a generally understood principle that when one had improved his field of labour he should be promoted at his next time for moving; so my time had come. But clouds appeared above the horizon; and they did not seem to contain showers of blessing. It was a case of a man's friend not being his friend; in this case unwittingly so. A certain Doctor of Divinity had in expressing his appreciation of my studious habits coupled with his words of appreciation a comparison with other men; and that did the mischief. It was quietly resolved that he must be kept off of the Stationing Committee; and so it was. That meant for me no promotion over the heads of those having voting power. As the outcome of Conference action therefore I found myself assigned to a poorer charge than my previous one had been when I first went to it; it was apparently a call to usefulness rather than to reward. Yet it must have been difficult for the Israelites to make bricks without straw; and in the modern instance it was naturally depressing to be told to do the first works again when those works were acknowledged to be so good. I am quite prepared to admit that I did not feel sweet over the matter, and when on a certain day I met my neighbouring minister, old in years and fair in spirit, and we had a conversation, matters in my soul came to a climax. "You remember that day when I passed you on the road? I was on my way to my appointment, and shortly after I had seen you I met the President. 'Where are you going?' I told him. 'Oh yes. And you will have young [Tucker] for your next door neighbour. He is clever -- too clever -- too metaphysical for our people. He wants to push ahead, but he must be kept back'". My informant was seventy-five years old and had nothing to lose from the powers that be. I thanked him, and added "Now I know whom I serve. I have lived for the Methodist Church; henceforth I live for the Lord Christ".
This was not a pleasant shower on a summer day; it was a gust of wind that clears the atmosphere.
I looked over my field to see what I could do for the Master's sake -- not what would please the Conference. There appeared to be very little except to try to raise the standard of the people. They were very poor, and with the exception of a little village were living on land that did not promise them fatness. It was shallow land spread out on that disheartening bed of gneiss at the foothills of the Laurentians, which seems to have been moulded while it was still molten and bent, like a piece of steel or malleable iron, into manifold shapes and in such varying directions that one is puzzled in trying to determine which way the moulding forces did work -- a dark grey rock with numerous small fissures of quartz and feldspar, many of them like the tiny roots of trees and criss-crossing in the way that trees do -- this rock like a huge bowl turned bottom upward and sloping down to take another turn up and thereby form a bowl in the bottom that catches the soil that snow and rains have washed from the top and out of which these poor people try to make farms. The whole tract should have been reserved for deer and sportsmen. There has been a movement instituted by the government in recent years to remove the people to richer lands, of which there are plenty.
This new charge seemed destined to give me more time for study. I had but four preaching places -- one church and three schoolhouses, and no prospect of adding any more. Aside from efforts at evangelistic meetings, and two Prayermeetings every week, I was at home in the evenings and my light was the last one in the village to be put out -- never before twelve o'clock. My families were visited in the afternoons in connection with the evening meetings. I had no social evenings out, and when I had a meeting six miles away I was home by ten o'clock, and fresh after the drive in the air to pick up my studies where I had left off.
I had the consolation of knowing that I was not the only flower in the wilderness, for I found that the village schoolmaster, the son of a minister whose reputation had been fragrant with me far years, was directing his ambitions towards University work and ultimately the medical profession; thus for three years I had a companionship and also an unpaid tutorship, which greatly enlivened my spirit, and which served as a standard par excellence in the preparation of my sermons.
At the close of a Sunday afternoon service in a schoolhouse, where window glasses were broken, where boards in the floor were spring boards, where the snow that gathered in the chimney melted with the making of a fire, and the grimy mixture of soot and snow ran down onto the seat the minister was supposed to occupy behind the teacher's desk, and which seat he fore-bore to occupy, choosing rather to stand throughout the exercises, three men drew near to me before I stepped from the platform, and made an astonishing request:- "We wish you would build us a church". Now I had resolved I would not any more serve the Methodist Church, therefore I would attempt no church building, and I would let no one into the secrets of my mind about church building. I had kept discreetly quiet. How then did these people know that I could build a church. "Well, you have built a woodshed for the parsonage". And so secrets will out.
At my next service I called for a congregational meeting to consider the subject of building a church. How could we build a church when no one could give as much as Fifty Dollars? But our first question, taking the fact for granted, was to decide where to build it. There were so many different proposals and all of them so identified with the proposer's own conveniences that as a first point in our campaign I had to take matters into my own hands and make the selection. Here again I became land-surveyor, fixed on a corner lot that overlooks a part of the country for miles, and had been cleared and forsaken, and as before secured the patent right from Toronto. The Five Dollars necessary I contributed and said nothing about it. On a Sunday I announced for that delightful gathering known as a "Bee"; this consists of everybody turning in labour without getting paid for it. All the men of the congregation were invited to bring their lunches, their shovels, their horses and "stone-boats" prepared to dig for the foundation of the new church and to draw stone for the same purpose. A quiet smile played in the corner of some eyes.
When Monday morning arrived I, after a drive of six miles, was the first person there, and having tied my horse to a nearby tree I proceeded with my sixty-six foot tape measure to consider my layout. Some men were watching, and concluding that I meant to take them seriously, they left their homes and came to the "Bee". I was architect, and by noon the dimensions of the church were marked, a trench dug down to the rock and filled with stone to the surface. Afternoon meant that enough more stone must be drawn to build a plastered wall two feet thick and two feet high for a distance of one hundred and forty-eight feet. Towards noon a few who belonged to the ten unbelieving spies approached the scene of our operations, and when they beheld what had been accomplished they were ashamed, hastened home, notified their neighbours, hurried their dinner, and in the afternoon we had abundance of help, secured all of the needed stone, and then took further counsel. "I will build the foundation as my portion" said one. "And I will do the carpenter work in closing in the building as my share" said another. "I think that is worth One Hundred Dollars, and I will give it". "And we will do the shingling" said others.
That is all good, but what shall we do for boards and shingle bolts? It meant the calling of a logging bee to chop and haul the necessary logs to a sawmill owned by a sawyer whose home was in "the Front", but who offered to do the sawing "free". The owner of a "shingle mill" offered to make all shingles for roofing free of charge provided some one would give the "bolts", that is blocks of cedar wood of sixteen inches in length; the man who promised to do this failed us, and in the last resort I was obliged to buy the shingles ready made. In a town some distance by railway I personally purchased gothic windows and doors with their frames, the Communion railing and a Lectern which would serve as pulpit, V-jointing and mouldings for inside finishing, and cope siding and cornices for outside. Then as my carpenter had never been out of his township, and had never done other carpentering than building rough barns, I had to be instructor by putting my hands to the job, putting on some of the inside material, and I lined up the porch outside so that he might see how. To the windows I gave a "dubbing" of white paint, making them look as if of frosted glass, and reserving a tinting of blue for the gothic tops. How it all lifted up that community, and set it on an era of progress!
In all of this work I was the financier, my very slender and seldom paid salary guaranteeing me in the presence of the great credit that I had with business men; and for all of this I thanked God. I was building a church for Him but without such support as Nehemiah had.
Now just at the right moment came a letter from that generous-hearted woman of Croydon, Surrey, Miss Anna Bilbrough:- "I have been telling a few of my friends what you are doing, and I am sending you One Hundred and Eighty Dollars as their gift towards your work". That had been a purely voluntary act on her part, unsolicited by me, and unthought of; but God has His treasurers in many and obscure places, and He can prompt them to do His will. That sum of money paid off my obligations, and left enough money in hand to do the painting of the building. So I had unintentionally built a church! And when the Chairman of District came out to dedicate it we were able to hand it over "free of all encumbrance" We named it "Mount Hope".
This was just one of many little triumphs over physical and financial disabilities, which I may not take space to enumerate, with one exception which has caused me many an amused smile. The cemetery at the village was a prey to wandering cows, as it had no fence. After some consultations, I was given authority to have it closed in; and this meant that I secured gifts of cedar posts from some men, others to dig post holes and plant the posts, from others I collected money with which I sent to a distant factory and bought at wholesale price woven wire sufficient for an acre of ground, taking care to secure the ratchet necessary for stretching the wire. Then I had my part in exercise by stretching and stapling the goods. On the Sunday evening following the completion of this bit of art work, as I sat in my pulpit, and the collectors were taking the offering, a fussy little man, always well meaning, and known all over the township as Tommy, the Sunday School worker, came briskly up to me and handing me a paper requested that I make the announcement. Fortunately, and in keeping with my usual caution, I read the paper before standing before the congregation. It read:- "Now that our cemetery has a new fence, will those who have lots therein at once replenish them?" I made an announcement, but I did not read that composition to the people.
There were other occasions for smiles -- and sometimes one smiles to hide a pain. Such contributions as I was to receive from these people on salary were made in quarterly payments. My first quarter brought in Two Dollars, and I devoutly wished that I had a Bishop there to speak for me. My second quarter saw no more money, but it revealed the unexpected intelligence that the people supposed me to be very rich and therefore so much more favourably situated than they that they saw no reason for "giving their hard-earned money". Misinformation being set aside, an adjourned meeting was decided on. When this meeting convened, there was a decided improvement in the money market, and along with that came an astonishing collection in "kind", such as rolls of butter, bags of potatoes, carrots, more cabbages than we could eat in a year, bags of oats for the horse, a load of hay, a bag of corn "for the chickens", and (most surprising of all) some pieces of fat pine which the contributor had cut from a specially rich stump and which he added "would be good for the little girl's cough". I heard no more about my riches after all of that.
I think my best piece of work in this locality was in connection with Bible study and Sunday School work, in the formation of a midweek class, in the development of an esprit-de-corps. The schoolmaster by his regular attendance, enthusiasm, and manifest interest was my great helper. This Bible class followed me for months in the analytical study of whole books of the Bible, especially St Luke and St John, which later was published in book form.
It is quite probable that what we were doing was noised abroad, for while I kept to my own work (perhaps a little too much), I was surprised one day by a letter from the "Front" inviting me to attend a Sunday School Convention and to give an address on "The use of Lesson Helps in the Sunday School". I had never attended such a convention, and therefore I knew nothing of procedure, but as I had no sufficient reason for refusing the invitation, and shaming the thought of being cowardly, I accepted. I knew scarcely any one in the assembly, and I therefore spoke without partiality; but my address set some stubble on fire, and provoked a great discussion among both ministers and teachers. And the outcome of this was my election as President of the County Sunday School Association, under which organisation we promoted a Sunday School Teachers' "Normal Class" for two weeks, covering three sessions a day, five days a week, and including an interchange of pulpits among the ministers in the town of Napanee for one Sunday.
Another result was my appointment as Vice President of the Ontario S.S. Association which met in the Metropolitan Church in Toronto; this being an interdenominational association, it brought together officers and teachers from all over the Province, and naturally gave one a wide scope for address. Mr Justice J J MacLaren of Toronto was the President. On this occasion I was appointed to address Sunday School Superintendents on their "Duties". And following upon this Convention an Organ entitled "Our Sunday Schools" was issued under the authority of the general Committee with Mr J G Elliott as Editor. He was an active man, a Custom House supervisor, Superintendent of the largest Sunday School in Napanee. After six months run of his paper he wrote me one day advising me that the time had come when he must make some special provision for teachers and superintendents in connection with the Lessons, "and you are the man to do the work. The paper is issued monthly, and I want to hand over to you a half of the eight pages. The only reward I can offer you is plenty of work". And so for a year and a half I had the useful honor of speaking to an important body of Ontario people through my "Hints and Helps for Teachers' Meetings". And all this grew from the backwoods Bible class and that little address on the use of lesson helps.
It was at the end of my first year on this seemingly unprofitable Mission that I unexpectedly found myself elected as the District Representative on the Stationing Committee. Perhaps I slipped in as the dark horse between two candidates who were eagerly contending for the mastery. I accepted the verdict seriously, regarding the situation as one in which to serve the Church, and if possible the will of God, and not my own will. It was a revelation to me. I am not at liberty even after so long a lapse of time to break through the covenant of silence which we were placed under. I was the youngest member of the Committee. I had gloried in my chess play in my English school days, and here I soon perceived that I was at a live game in which piece was demanded for piece; I, along with my Chairman, looked after our own men, which was a comparatively easy task, because our district was not regarded as a very desirable one, and I was not on the committee as a "moving man". When I came to such a committee again it was nine years later and in another Conference; but the procedures were similar. I can best express my estimate of this piece of ecclesiastical machinery by saying in the language of another analyst, it was "fearfully and wonderfully made".
Again the church gave me something to do outside of my own charge -- the higher powers desired a fair conception of the Missions of our District (it was a Mission District, with two charges excepted), and so I was called upon to make a week's survey of the fields and report upon my findings. Eight years later a similar commission was assigned to me among French Canadian Missions in the Province of Quebec; and five years still later I was requested to survey Protestant ground in the county of Pontiac which lay on the north shore of the Ottawa river, draw up a map and present my conclusions to the Chairman who lived on the south shore in the Province of Ontario. This latter was the heaviest undertaking of the three, and I had the satisfaction of knowing that my recommendations were accepted in full and that by rearrangements of work the people were better served, the ministers better enjoyed their travels, and the church saved some hundreds of dollars each year with which to extend the work elsewhere.
In 1891 I treated myself to a holiday, my first real holiday in twenty years, and it lasted for three days. A onefare way by train to Ottawa persuaded me that it was a good time to see Canada's Capital. Our county representative in parliament being just then on a visit to our village, I secured from him a letter of introduction to the Liberal Whip which put me au fait and gave to me an opportunity for seeing some things that do not fall to the lot of all men. The Whip introduced me to the future Prime Minister of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who graciously shook hands with me, and paused in his walk to have a little chat. He was very affable and approachable and apparently quite unconscious of his greatness, and did not overemphasise the greatness of his office. I was introduced also by the Whip to the Liberal Member's Committee room, which made its most lasting impression upon my memory by reason of its cigar smoke; all who were there seemed to be smoking; I apparently was another-world man, and for my benefit the members indulged in conversation most suitable to my case. It was Monday, and the most fitting topic was the Sunday preaching and the City preachers. One member fearlessly expressed the opinion that preachers ought to leave politics alone as they knew so little about it, and confine themselves to preaching the gospel -- that of course was for my benefit. After that I was glad to get away from smoky politics.
I was given tickets of admission to the visitors' gallery, and in the evening enjoyed what I have never grown tired of, namely the meeting of the gladiators, whether in a law court or in a British parliament. Sir Wilfrid was in his seat as Liberal Leader. The Hon Sydney Fisher was there, one whom I came to know very personally in after years and to appreciate highly. Sir John J Abbott as Prime Minister led the House, but the evening was mostly a question time, and I did not hear the eloquence for which I thirsted.
Outside of parliament, I enjoyed the beauties of Ottawa, and felt such transports as all should feel who stand on the brow of Parliament Hill, and looking down at the rapidly rushing river at the foot of the cliff can see from an unexcelled vantage point the Chaudiere Falls to the left, the Gatineau country and Laurentian hills in front, and the Canal, the Rideau and the city parks to the right. There was beauty and grandeur everywhere, and in the city such development as gave me the impression that Ottawa was an English city. I returned from my brief holiday with enlarged ideas, and with the conviction that Canada had begun well and that there was something in the country for which to live.
During these years in the "backwoods" my salary was quite small, around Five Hundred Dollars a year, but I made it a rule to spend One Hundred Dollars a year on books, and my books were so used and marked that they became my best friends and have remained with me until the present. Then I knew that I had a better time for study than I should probably have when I moved out into the competitions of the "Front", so I continued my University courses, and what I learned therein I wrought into my sermons, perhaps sometimes over my people's heads, but I did not preach to empty seats, and I did not have and could not have a musical choir to draw a crowd, yet my village church was filled. And so it was that when I had taken my Master of Arts Degree and went on Doctor of Philosophy I undertook the refutation of that statement of Robert Ingersoll -- "We are done with the supernatural. Christianity will fade away from this world, and we shall then have reason". I undertook the refutation by a thesis on "The Finality of Christianity". It won me my degree, but that thesis arguing from the nature and purpose of Scripture, Messianic prophecy, the Personality of Christ, the nature of His work, the nature of His word, the ability of Christianity to meet the religious needs of the human race, and the harmony as between the findings of Science and the unfoldings of the Christian religion, was moulded out of a series of sermons preached to my village congregation.
My final examination was a three-hour one conducted by two professors offering questions alternately, and covering the ground occupied by "Higher Criticism" and "Evolution". When this examination was taken it was necessary to attend at the University; this coincided with the opening of The World's fair at Chicago, and being within one hundred and thirty miles of that city it a afforded another opportunity for a holiday -- a two weeks one and highly educative. With this my work on the backwoods Mission drew to a close.
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