Neville Trueman, the Pioneer Preacher Part 12

The marks of recent conflict were everywhere visible, and--saddest evidence of all--was the mult.i.tude of soldiers' graves whose silent sleepers no morning drum-beat should arouse forever. The peaceful parish church of Niagara had been turned into a hospital, where, instead of praise and prayer, were heard the groans of wounded and dying men. Everything in fact gave indications of military occupation and the prevalence of the awful reign of war.

Seldom has the frightful destructiveness of war been more strikingly ill.u.s.trated. The commerce of the United States was completely crippled by the blockade of her ports, her revenue falling from $24,000,000 to $8,000,000. Admiral c.o.c.kburn, of the British Navy, swept the Atlantic coast with his fleet, destroying a.r.s.enals and naval stores wherever his gun-boats could penetrate.

Great Britain also recovered her old prestige in more than one stubborn sea-fight with a not unworthy foe. On a lovely morning in June, the United States frigate "Chesapeake," of forty-nine guns, stood out of Boston harbour amid the holiday cheers of a sympathizing mult.i.tude, to answer the challenge to a naval duel of H. M. S. "Shannon," of fifty-two guns. They were soon locked muzzle to muzzle in deadly embrace, belching shot and grape through each other's sides, while the streaming gore incarnadined the waves. The British boarders swarmed on the "Chesapeake's"

deck, and soon, with nearly half his crew killed or wounded, she struck her colours to the red-cross flag. In five days the shattered and blood-stained vessels crept together into Halifax harbour, the American captain, the gallant Lawrence, lying in his cabin cold in death; the British commander, the chivalric Broke, raving in the delirium of a desperate wound. The slain captain was borne to his grave amid the highest honours paid to his valour by a generous foe. Amid the roar of Broadway's living tide, beneath the shadow of old Trinity Church, a costly monument commemorates his heroic and untimely death. A few days later, the British brig "Boxer," of fourteen guns, surrendered to the U. S. brig "Enterprise," of sixteen guns. In one quiet grave, overlooking Cas...o...b..y, beside which the writer, one sunny summer day, meditated on the vanity of earthly strife, their rival captains lie buried side by side. Some kindly hand had decked their graves with tiny flags, which in sun and shower had become dimmed and faded; and planted fair and innocent flowers which breathed their beauty and fragrance amid the shadows of death. So fade and pa.s.s away the false and transient glory of arms. So bloom and flourish in immortal beauty the supernal loveliness of virtue and piety.

It is a relief to turn away from these scenes of war and bloodshed to the record of human affection and heroic self-sacrifice and devotion.

George Morton, the faithful Canadian patriot, crippled, impoverished, sick at heart, and despairing of ever claiming Mary Lawson as his bride, returned after the burning of his native town to the ashes of his ruined home to begin life over again. A partial indemnity from the Government enabled him to resume business on a modest scale, which, by thrift and industry, grew and increased with the gradual growth of the town. Ensign Roberts was among the slain at the taking of the Fort, and Mr. Lawson's property was destroyed by the conflagration that followed. The old man, broken by his losses and by exposure, gradually sunk, and died, Mary nursing him devotedly to the last. After years of delay the love of the no longer youthful pair found its consummation in a happy marriage, followed by a calmly tranquil wedded life.

"Although this cruel war," whispered George to his bride upon their wedding-day, "has robbed us of all our own worldly wealth, has cost you your father, and has left me a cripple for life, yet it could not take from us the priceless wealth of our affection."

"Nay, dear heart," she replied, "the long trial of our love has purified it from earthly dross, and proved it the type of love immortal in the skies."

In after years, to children and to children's children on his knees, George Horton used often to recount the perils of those fearful scenes of war and wasting; but no theme was more pleasing to himself and to his youthful auditory, while the comely matron in her mature beauty blushed at the praise of her own heroism, than the episode of the fair Mary Lawson's midnight adventure in the ice on the Niagara, in the terrible winter of the war.

CHAPTER XIV.

TORONTO OF OLD.

The state of religion in Canada could not be expected to be prosperous during the prevalence of the demoralizing influences of war. The Methodist circuit work, as well as the work of other denominations, was very much disorganized. It was, from the interruption of intercourse caused by the unnatural conflict, without any supervision of the American Conference by which the Canadian preachers had been stationed. They were consequently left to their own resources to carry on their work as best they could, and most of them struggled bravely, like Neville Trueman, the example we have selected for ill.u.s.tration, against the various obstacles in their way--the recklessness and spiritual indifference begotten by the war--and the unjust and cruel suspicions and aspersions to which they were themselves subject.

The Rev. Henry Ryan, as Presiding Elder of the Upper Canada District--extending from the banks of the St. Lawrence to the banks of the St. Clair--endeavoured, by frequent journeyings throughout the vast field, to encourage both preachers and people in carrying on the work of G.o.d, amid the disheartenments and difficulties of the times. The Rev. Ezra Adams, in his recollections of the period, says, "He used to travel from Montreal to Sandwich, holding Quarterly Meetings: to accomplish which, he kept two horses at his home at the Twenty Mile Creek, and used one on his trip from the Niagara Circuit on his down country route; the other he used on his Sandwich route."

Supplementing this statement with additional facts, the Rev. Dr.

Carroll, in his invaluable "History of Canadian Methodism,"

further remarks: "As his income was very small and precarious, he eked out the sum necessary to support his family by selling a manufacture of his own in his extensive journeys, and by hauling, with his double team in winter time, on his return route from Lower Canada, loads of Government stores or general merchandise."

Such were the s.h.i.+fts to which Methodist preachers had to resort in order to sustain themselves in a work which they would not desert.

Mr. Ryan, by his loyalty, gained the confidence and admiration of all friends of British supremacy, and, by his abundant and heroic labours, the affections of the G.o.d-fearing part of the community.

During the progress of the war he held three Conferences, one as we have seen at St. David's; another, in 1813, at Matilda; and a third, the following year, at the old Methodist settlement of the Bay of Quinte.

After the burning of Niagara, and the complete disorganization of his circuit by the border strife, Neville Trueman sought an interview with his Presiding Elder during one of his periodical visits to the town of York. In consequence of the military exigencies of the times, navigation was maintained across the lake by armed brigs and schooners during the greater part of the winter. Taking advantage of one of these trips, Neville obtained permission from the military authorities to take pa.s.sage in the armed schooner _Princess Charlotte_ to York. The voyage was tedious and the weather bleak, so he suffered severely from the cold. As York harbour was frozen over, he landed on the ice and made his way to the twice-captured capital. It presented anything but a striking appearance, unless for dreariness and ruin. The half-burned timbers of the Parliament Building, Jail, and Court- House, showed in all their hideous blackness through the snow that failed to conceal beneath its mantle of white the desolation of the scene. In its most flouris.h.i.+ng estate before the war, the town hardly numbered some nine hundred inhabitants, whose residences, for the most part humble wooden structures, were grouped along the loyally-named King Street, near the river Don. At the western extremity of the straggling town were the ruin-mounds of the fort, rent and torn by the terrific explosion of its magazine. On the banks of the Don, and commanding the bridge across that sluggish stream, as though the enemy thought it not worth the trouble of destroying, stood a rude log blockhouse, loop-holed for musketry, the upper story projecting over the lower, after the manner of such structures. [Footnote: A cut of this is given in "Lossing's Field Book of the War."]

Neville proceeded to the hospitable house of Dr. Stoyles, on King Street, near the intersection of the little-used road leading to the country,--Yonge Street, now the great artery of the circulation of the city. Till the erection of the first humble meeting-house, the Methodist preaching was often held in Dr.

Stoyles' house. That gentleman also gave a cordial welcome to the travelling preachers of the day, and here Trueman found, as he expected, Presiding Elder Henry Ryan.

The following is the account given by Dr. Scadding, our Canadian historiographer and antiquarian, in his charming book "Toronto of Old," of the mother Church of Methodism in this goodly city, the parent of the fair sisterhood which now adorn its streets: "The first place of public wors.h.i.+p of the Methodists was a long, low, wooden building, running north and south, and placed a little way back from the street. Its dimensions were forty by sixty feet. In the gable end towards the street were two doors, one for each s.e.x.

Within, the custom obtained of dividing the men from the women; the former sitting on the right hand on entering the building, the latter on the left."

The learned Doctor then goes on to ill.u.s.trate historically the separation of the s.e.xes in places of public wors.h.i.+p, from the time of the Jews and the primitive church down to the modern Greek Church, so that at least the early Methodists had good precedent for their usage.

This old church was situated on the south side of King Street, on the corner of Jordan Street, so named from Mr. Jordan Post, the pioneer goldsmith of the capital, while the street in the rear commemorates the name of Melinda, his wife. When the Adelaide Street Church, which, for the time, was a very imposing brick structure, was built on what was then the public square, the old mother church was converted into a "Theatre Royal,"--to what base uses must we come!

All this, however, at the time of which we write, was still in the future; and Elder Ryan preached and prayed and exhorted to a little company in the worthy Dr. Stoyles' great kitchen, which was employed for that purpose as being the most commodious room in the house. It was the day of small things for Methodism in the capital of Upper Canada. But of the religious zeal of the little company of believers, we may judge from the fact that several of the members of the society came from two to eight miles, through the proverbially wretched roads of "Muddy York," to the cla.s.s meeting.

[Footnote: Carroll's "Case and his Cotemporaries," Vol. II., p.

167.]

CHAPTER XV.

A QUARTERLY MEETING IN THE OLDEN TIME.

Having enjoyed the counsels and encouragements of his Presiding Elder, Neville gladly embraced the invitation to ride with him in his substantial sleigh, well filled with wheat straw, on which they sat, to the village of Ancaster, where a grand Quarterly Meeting was to be held, to which the people came for many miles around. Religious privileges at that time were few, and these occasions were made the most of by the Methodists of the day.

There was preaching on the Sat.u.r.day; then a business meeting, when the contributions of the several cla.s.ses were received. Of money there was very little; but promises of contributions of flour, pork, potatoes, hay and oats were gladly received instead.

On Sat.u.r.day night a rousing prayer-meeting was held in the log meeting-house. Fervent exhortations were given, for the preachers looked for immediate results of their labours, and they were not disappointed Several of the brethren and sisters "got happy," and expressed their religions enjoyment in hymns and spiritual songs often of rugged rhythm, but, sung with fervour as they were, they seemed to bear up the soul as on wings to the very gate of heaven.

Most of these hymns had a refrain of simple yet striking melody, in which every one in the house took part. A great favourite was the following:

"O the house of the Lord shall be filled With glory, hallelujah!

With glory, hallelujah!

With glory, hallelujah! Amen

"Let the preachers be filled with thy love.

Sing glory, hallelujah! etc.

"Let the members be filled with thy love, Sing glory, hallelujah! etc.

"And the work of the Lord shall revive, Sing glory, hallelujah! Amen!"

The tide of religious feeling rose higher and higher. The standing invitation of Methodism to weary souls seeking the forgiveness of their sins, was given. Several persons presented themselves at the "penitent bench," most of whom were enabled to rejoice in a sense of conscious pardon.

Sunday was indeed a "high day" at the old Ancaster log meeting- house. From near and far, in sleighs, on horseback, and on foot, came methodist wors.h.i.+ppers, and found hospitable welcome with the families of the neighbourhood. First there was love-feast at nine o'clock. The cruel war had not left unscathed that rustic congregation. There were rusty weeds of woe,--a black ribbon, a bit of c.r.a.pe, or a widow's cap,--that bore witness to the loss of husband or son in the sad conflict. The empty sleeve, pinned across the breast of one stout young fellow, showed that the strong right arm with which he had hoped to fight his battle of life, and hew out a home in the wilderness, had been buried in a gory trench with the bodies of his slain friends and neighbours.

But their temporal sufferings seemed to have driven these simple- minded people nearer to the source of all comfort and consolation.

Many of the experiences and hymns had quite a martial ring. One of the latter was as follows:

"Ye soldiers of Jesus, pray stand to your arms.

Prepare for the battle, the Gospel alarms.

The signal of victory, hark! hark! from the sky; Shout, shout, ye brave armies, the watchmen all cry, Come with us, come with us, Come with us in love, Let us all march together to Heaven above.

"To battle, to battle, the trumpets do sound, The watchmen are crying fair Zion around; Some shouting, some singing, salvation they cry, In the strength of King Jesus, all h.e.l.l we defy.

Come with us," etc.

As this was taken up by one after another and welled into a grand chorus, it was impossible not to share the enthusiasm that it created. Another prime favourite was the following:

"Jesus, my king, proclaims the war; I want to die in the army; Awake, the powers of h.e.l.l are near, I want to die in the army.

"'To arms! to arms!' I hear the cry, 'Tis yours to conquer or to die,'

O the army, the army, the army of the Lord!

I want to die in the army."

The G.o.d-fearing Canadian yeomanry, as they sang these strains, nourished at once their religious feelings and their patriotic enthusiasm. They felt in their hearts that love of King and country, and their valiant defence and self-sacrifice on their behalf, were also an acceptable service to G.o.d.