Our Circuit Preachers

Led over us, he was still our only refuge, our only support. The song flowed on and ceased. The pastor arose. The opening hymn was sung and we knelt in prayer, again one with the worshippers. The text was announced, and the preacher waxed warm as he spoke to his hearers of the love of God, the atonement of Christ, and of faith in his blood. How our hearts warmed and glowed as we caught his word and caught his spirit. There was inspiration in the theme and inspiration in the scene. Ah! these our circuit preachers! We cease to wonder at their enthusiasm, at their labors, at their self denial. They are weaving for themselves a crown of immortal souls. A handful here, a handful there, some at this place, some at that, will place upon their brows a circlet more radiant than the light. There will be joy, such as the angels know, when are gathered around them those saved through their ministrations. The toil, the care, the labor will be forgotten then, or only remembered with joy as the day of sowing. How curious to a worldly eye are our circuit preachers. Some of them with scarcely decent clothing, they live in poverty day by day. What is the motive that makes them bear privation, poverty, toil? The desire to save souls. They yield to every demand upon time and ease. For them there seems to be no rest. A day or two at home only brings them nearer to hard times and privation. For them no study, "literally lined with books," invite to repose and literary recreation, where mind and body might recuperate. It makes one hungry to look into one of these retreats, with its piles of books, but they are not for our circuit preachers, as badly as they need them, and as much as they would appreciate and enjoy them. How often have we heard some of them exclaim, "My, how much I would like to have a study and money to buy books with!" But these are not for them, except in meager measure.

When they leave home it is with their anxieties awakened and strung up, frequently to the highest tension. But leaving the loved ones to the protection and care of God, they go from their homes as the soldier goes to the battle field. They suffer many things, but with lofty benevolence and firm resolution, they seek to carry the light of the gospel to the darkened hearts and homes of the poor, the humble, the illiterate. But for them not a glimmer of light would pierce the gloom of some communities. It would be hard to estimate the joy and gladness they carry along with them, and the good that is done through them. The eye cannot see as the hearts are made wiser and better and happier, and as through the preaching of the gospel they are transformed and a new hope given, which as a lamp will shed its rays even upon the darkness and gloom of the grave and disclose to the enraptured soul, the glories of heaven itself.

"How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace." C.