History of the M.E. Church, Vol. IV - Media Sabda Org

y his own hands, and his furniture rude fabrications from the forest wood, made with such tools as
he had carried in his emigrant wagon. The first meal of the bishop and his family in his new abode
was of roasted potatoes only, and it was begun and ended with hearty thanksgiving. Here he lived
in the true simplicity of frontier life, toiling, at his occasional leisure, in the fields. The allowance
for his family expenses, besides two hundred per annum for quarterage, was, during most of his
episcopal career, from two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars per annum; at least this was the
case till 1836.
Simple and severe as this western life was, it was legitimate to the character and position of
Roberts; it comported with the new field, the great diocese of the Mississippi Valley, into which he
was thrust. There was in it a compatibility with the genius of the country, with the circumstances of
time and place. Such was the life for such a field; and Roberts was the man for both such a field and
such a life.
Naturally cheerful and amiable, his piety was never gloomy, though seldom ecstatic. He was one
of the most agreeable of companions; he could calmly endure afflictions, and compassionately
forgive offenses; he was fitted for domestic life and permanent friendships. As is natural with such
a disposition, he was generous and liberal. Those who knew well his private affairs have estimated
that his pecuniary contributions, during his ministerial life, amounted to more than all his receipts
from the Church for domestic expenses. He was especially liberal to literary institutions. He prized
learning from a sense of his own need of it, having had but about three months' instruction after his
seventh year. On an episcopal visitation to New Orleans he found the brethren attempting, with few
resources, to erect a church; he sold his horse, and, giving them all it brought, a hundred dollars,
made his way with many difficulties to Nashville, where his friends provided him with another and
funds with which to finish his journey. While at home, in the periods between his episcopal tours,
he worked hard in the fields that he might have the means of indulging this propensity of his
generous mind. He was as whole-hearted in his ministerial labors. According to his routes, the last
year he lived, he must have traveled between five and six thousand miles, visiting some half dozen
states, and nearly an equal number of Indian nations.
As a preacher he was always interesting, and frequently eloquent, though his passions never had
undue play in the pulpit. A thoroughly systematic arrangement of his subject, readiness of thought,
fluent and generally correct diction, and a facile yet dignified manner, were his characteristics in the
desk. His large person -- corpulent, and nearly six feet in height, his strongly-marked features,
elevated forehead, and manners of extreme simplicity and cordiality, gave to his presence the air of
a superior man -- one to be remembered, revered, and loved.
It is certainly no small tribute to his character to say, that its greatest apparent defect was the
excess of a very amiable quality -- he was constitutionally diffident. In his earlier life this disposition
rendered him painfully modest, and throughout his career it deterred him from many bold and
energetic measures which his position and abilities justified, and which might have been of wide
influence on the Church. He often referred facetiously to instances of his early embarrassment. For
a long time after his appointment as class-leader among his rustic neighbors, he could not assume
courage enough to address them individually, and he had actually to be superseded by another leader
till he conquered this timidity. In his first attempt at public exhortation; he suddenly sat down