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

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his own vicinity, but often in extensive excursions through the state, and at quarterly meetings and camp-meetings. He was venerated as a saint for his singular piety; and it is probable that no man of his day wielded, in the West, greater power in the pulpit. "Prayer-meetings," says his biographer, "were established, classes revived, societies raised up, and new Churches organized, wherever his labors were employed, or his influence felt. There are hundreds, and perhaps thousands, still living throughout the great West, who, under God, are indebted to the instrumentality of Valentine Cook for all their hopes of immortality and eternal life." The people believed that, like the original apostles, he "spoke from inspiration," and that by his prayers miracles were wrought among the sick. Marvels are told of the power of his word. A young preacher, who had never seen him, learning that he was expected to preach at a private house, rode some miles from his own circuit to hear the noted evangelist. On arriving he inquired if Cook was to preach that evening. "Yes," was the reply; "he has just walked out into the grove." His habits of devotion were proverbial, and as it was the custom among Methodist preachers of that day to prepare for preaching by hours of reading, meditation, and prayer in the woods, it was not difficult to conjecture the cause of his retirement. "Anxious to see one of the most extraordinary men of his age, I took," says the visitor, "a position on the portico that looks out unto the beautiful grove into which he had retired. At the approach of the venerable stranger, a sense of awe came over me. There walked God's devoted ambassador, lacking only the seer's gift to make him an awful prophet. My thoughts and feelings were so concentrated upon him that I could scarcely speak. Valentine Cook was slightly above the medium height and size. There was no symmetry in his figure; his limbs, being disproportionately long, seemed more like awkward appendages than well-fitted parts of a perfect whole. He was what is called 'stoop-shouldered' to such a degree, that his long neck projected from between his shoulders almost at a right angle with the perpendicular of his chest. His head, which was of peculiar formation, being much longer than usual from the crown to the point of the chin, seemed rather suspended to than supported by the neck. A remarkably low forehead, small, deeply-sunken hazel eyes, a prominent Roman nose, large mouth, thin lips, a dark, sallow complexion, coarse black hair, with here and there a thread of gray, formed a "tout ensemble" in which nature seemed to have paid no regard to order, strength, or beauty. His singularly eccentric appearance, his homely apparel, and humble attitude, as he slowly approached the house, are imprinted upon my mind as vividly now as when, for the first time, I looked upon him as I sat in that 'little portico. He laid his hand gently upon my head, and in the most solemn accents said, 'Be thou faithful unto death, and God will give thee a crown of life.' He uttered not another word; these were enough. They seemed, as they fell from his lips, to possess a weight of meaning which I had never seen in them before, and made an impression upon my mind which thirty-six years of toil and affliction have not been able to obliterate. As the shadows of the night deepened, the people from town and country began to assemble, and, though the rain was descending in torrents, every apartment of the house was soon filled to overflowing. The hour for preaching arrived, he took his position in the entry by a small table, upon which lay the 'old family Bible.' Resting his hand reverently on that blessed volume, he commenced repeating, in a somewhat indistinct undertone the affecting hymn beginning with "I saw one hanging on a tree In agony and blood; He fixed his languid eyes on me, As near the cross I stood.'
Before he reached the last stanza his voice had become perfectly clear, and so pathetic and impressive, that many faces were suffused with tears. After reading the hymn, he raised the tune himself, and the audience united with him in singing. The prayer which followed was simple, solemn, and affecting. On rising from his knees he straightened himself up, and after looking round upon the congregation a few moments, without opening the Bible, on which his right hand again rested, he announced as his text, Mal. iv, 1: 'For, behold, the day cometh.' I occupied a seat immediately before him. I knew full well that I was in the presence of a great as well as good man. Every word that fell from his lips, and every expression of his countenance, proclaimed to all, as I verily thought, the transcendent goodness of his heart, the purity of his motives, and the elevated character of his purposes. Man's responsibility to God was the leading thought. In the commencement he dwelt at some length and with great effect on the all-pervading presence of Him with whom we have to do. Never until then had I been so deeply impressed with the fact that God was all around me, above me, beneath me, within me. The sinfulness of sin and its dreadful consequences were portrayed in language and imagery most powerful and startling. I felt persuaded that no unconverted sinner, not wholly given up to hardness of heart, could listen to that discourse without exclaiming in the bitterness of his anguish, 'The arrows of the Almighty stick fast within me, and the terrors of God do set themselves up in array against me.' I could distinctly hear the partially suppressed groans and prayers that rose from different parts of the house. In conclusion, the great remedial scheme was brought to view. The ability and willingness of Almighty God, as revealed in Jesus Christ and him crucified, to save, to save now, to the uttermost and forever, were presented in such strains of simple, fervent, loving, melting eloquence, that the entire assembly was roused, excited, and overwhelmed. Some were pale with fear, others radiant with hope. Prayer and praises, cries and songs, were commingled. While the wail of awakened sinners was heard in various parts of the house, from other directions came the shouts of rejoicing saints. Christ, by his Holy Spirit, had spoken through his minister to the understandings and hearts of the people. The midnight watch had come and gone before the people could be induced to leave the strangely consecrated place. Such a sermon as that, for clearness, directness, power, and effect, I have never heard. I left at an early hour the next morning for a distant appointment, rejoicing in God for the privilege of having seen and heard such a man as Valentine Cook. I never saw him more." [16] Such was this rare man, his appearance, his spirit, and his preaching. His habitual absorption, in prayer or study, gave him an air of singularity or eccentricity. He was absent-minded in company. In his devotional retirement in the woods, he would sometimes forget his congregations. He has been known to walk home from his appointments, leaving his horse behind, unconscious of the fact till reminded of it by his family. He loved music excessively, and felt that the old Methodist singing was one of the best preparations for powerful sermons. The young people of his neighborhood, who loved him much, gratified his taste by frequently serenading him at night. In 1819 he was impressed with the thought that his end was near. He wished once more to preach in some of his old fields, and "return home and arrange his affairs for an early departure to his inheritance above." He went preaching through Kentucky, parts of Ohio, and his old battle grounds in Pennsylvania. Passing on to Pittsburgh, New York, Philadelphia, he reached Baltimore, where he spent some time preaching "to vast crowds," and "scores and hundreds were converted through his instrumentality." He returned through the Greenbrier country of the Alleghenies, visiting his early friends, kneeling at the graves of his parents, giving his final warnings to the people, and re-entered his home in Kentucky singing a triumphant hymn. He settled his temporal affairs, and in the ensuing year died, uttering, as his last
Page 1 and 2: WESLEYAN HERITAGE Library HISTORY O
Page 3 and 4: HISTORY of the METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 5 and 6: BOOK VI CHAPTER I = PART 58 METHODI
Page 7 and 8: CHAPTER IX = PART 66 METHODISM IN T
Page 9 and 10: CHAPTER XV = PART 72 REVIEW OF THE
Page 11 and 12: disappearance of Coke, Asbury, What
Page 13 and 14: convened, a second time, in Wilbrah
Page 15 and 16: yet I did not go out that year; but
Page 17 and 18: He returned again to New Jersey in
Page 19 and 20: Asbury pressed on westward with his
Page 21 and 22: congregation, and meanwhile advanci
Page 23 and 24: direction of the presiding elder, G
Page 25 and 26: traveled in Massachusetts, Rhode Is
Page 27 and 28: knowledge. His judgment was always
Page 29 and 30: He did great services and endured g
Page 31 and 32: of the itinerants. There was no one
Page 33 and 34: found adequate to the singular exig
Page 35 and 36: as a sail in a leaking canoe, and p
Page 37 and 38: [16] of his decease, sent home for
Page 39 and 40: passing through small villages; but
Page 41 and 42: HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 43 and 44: God. The Scotchman could endure it
Page 45 and 46: [7] Conference till the next year.
Page 47 and 48: y his own hands, and his furniture
Page 49 and 50: there were three circuits, with thr
Page 51: performed incredible labors and tra
Page 55 and 56: "in the wilds of Virginia, where he
Page 57 and 58: ed, and trembling with agitation. E
Page 59 and 60: this melancholy record. I never rea
Page 61 and 62: at Cabbin Creek, Ky., twenty thousa
Page 63 and 64: in that vast wilderness, and had no
Page 65 and 66: poles. This was their bedstead. Som
Page 67 and 68: Benjamin Lakin, Samuel Doughty John
Page 69 and 70: Gibson. "Here," say his brethren, "
Page 71 and 72: of the Little Miami River. On Thurs
Page 73 and 74: Circuit) for this year began at Moo
Page 75 and 76: Sale, J. Oglesby; Guyandotte, Asa S
Page 77 and 78: worst for stealing, fighting, and l
Page 79 and 80: twentieth they reached the scene of
Page 81 and 82: the toil and sufferings, of another
Page 83 and 84: ENDNOTES 1 See Extracts by Bishop M
Page 85 and 86: 37 Rev. Dr. Trimble's Address at Oh
Page 87 and 88: my father's neighborhood. The Confe
Page 89 and 90: attempted also to make local preach
Page 91 and 92: tireless apostle completed by the n
Page 93 and 94: to prepare forms of petition to the
Page 95 and 96: HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 97 and 98: a change which it has always since
Page 99 and 100: Methodism was now entrenched in eve
Page 101 and 102: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, (II, p. 171,) fol
Page 103 and 104:
Methodists in other places, and wis
Page 105 and 106:
are reported from Flint Circuit. Th
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Russell, fallen as he was from the
Page 109 and 110:
ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, ii, 194. Dunwody'
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intensely bright by the grateful jo
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eached the furthest end of the piaz
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his humble shed and the chancel whe
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class-meetings, and to no small ext
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1 Minutes, 1858. ENDNOTES 2 Rev. Dr
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grandchildren were gay and playful;
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in a swamp on the Waccamaw Lake, a
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ENDNOTE 1 A few months ago, accompa
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Asbury, in the summer of 180, wrote
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means by which this necessary objec
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I should have to preach, but determ
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themselves, it was resolved that th
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ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, though his narrat
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directions, preaching as far as Buf
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and in the States, from the Ulster
Page 141 and 142:
Conference sent over three missiona
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1814 Michael Coate, of New Jersey,
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1 Peck's "Early Methodism," p. 158.
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limits, when it will devolve upon t
Page 149 and 150:
That very significant and convenien
Page 151 and 152:
Channing, the elder Beecher, Wainwr
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in the eyes of the people, and grea
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HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
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own souls, because ye were dear unt
Page 159 and 160:
Early in the spring of 1808 he retu
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seventeen preachers upon trial. The
Page 163 and 164:
this meeting. Monday, 22d, I turned
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strengthened the whole denomination
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savage men, and venomous serpents."
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indescribable. At one time I saw at
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extraordinary learning, of tireless
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oom; but, finding there no means of
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By the end of our present period th
Page 179 and 180:
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some sixty or seventy souls. They a
Page 183 and 184:
stacked away at the end of the cour
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olled over the whole Conference." H
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ashamed of yourselves?' which only
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living; I have outlived every membe
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iographer of the itinerant. Born in
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
gentleman. While the circles of fas
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His itinerant ministry in the West
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took a prominent part in the great
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to the people, and to go back to Na
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country. These were about to return
Page 205 and 206:
of preachers had increased thirty-f
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1 Rev. F. C. Holliday, in Sprague,
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Astonishing, superhuman almost, as
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of "through the interior of Louisia
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their children. In ten years, I thi
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hates the nefarious practice. In th
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These extraordinary facts excited n
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15 I must remind the reader that I
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[3] and threatened to return home.
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he prepared for South Carolina, wit
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the expediency of increasing the nu
Page 227 and 228:
1 General Conference Journal,, vol.
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itinerants he said, "See that every
Page 231 and 232:
In our day (1866) the Methodist Boo
Page 233 and 234:
edifice was soon after provided in
Page 235 and 236:
in both hemispheres, and which prop
Page 237 and 238:
even romantic record, but our limit
Page 239 and 240:
He organized the Liberia Mission. H
Page 241 and 242:
and the moral prospects of the worl
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
ut we may well hesitate to admit th
Page 247 and 248:
They preached and suffered in Engla
Page 249 and 250:
ENDNOTES 1 An error in the Minutes
Page 251 and 252:
and great labors; his charity, his
Page 253 and 254:
directing the advancing Church with
Page 255 and 256:
history, and presents, in full vita
show all

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

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