CHAPTER 28 ALEXANDER CUMMINS

CHAPTER 28 ALEXANDER CUMMINS

Among that class of preachers, distinguished for zeal and talents, who entered the itinerancy in the great west in the beginning of the nineteenth century, was the Rev. Alexander Cummins, a short sketch of whose life and labors we propose to give. He was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, September 5, 1787. His parents sent him to school, and he received a liberal education for that day. In the twentieth year of his age, after having removed to Ohio and settled in the Scioto Valley, he was awakened to a sense of his lost condition as a sinner, and, after a severe struggle against sin and temptation, he at length was soundly converted, and entered the path of life. Being awakened and converted through the instrumentality of the Methodist pioneers, he connected himself with the Methodist Church as the one of his choice.

It was not long till he became deeply and intensely exercised on the subject of calling sinners to repentance, and offering the cup of salvation, whose life-giving waters had so quickened and refreshed his own soul, to the souls of his fellow-men. He saw the world lying in wickedness, and guilty multitudes pressing on the way to death and hell, and his spirit was stirred within him to go out and warn them to flee the wrath to come. The same mercy which had been manifested in his own behalf, he was assured would be extended to others. His feelings could not be concealed. The Lord had called him, and the Church was not long in discovering that the concern of mind under which he labored, associated, as it was, with grace and gifts of no ordinary degree, united in constituting an indication of the will of God that he should enter the ministry. While the Church prayed "the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers," she was ever watchful of the result, and waited for an answer, not by any miraculous interposition, but that God would, from their own number, raise up, call out, and qualify, by his Spirit, faithful messengers of salvation. Hence, the subject of this sketch was soon recognized as the called of the Lord, and license was given him as a local preacher. At the conference held in Cincinnati in the year 1809, between two and three years after his conversion, he was admitted on trial in the traveling connection, and appointed to Brush Creek circuit. He went out in the spirit of his Master, and labored with a zeal and devotion which gave evidence that he felt the burden of souls as a mountain pressure resting upon him. If he could have had the time to turn aside from the rough and rugged toils of itinerant life and cultivate the flowers of literature, he had no disposition. he was "a man of one book" and one work, and, by night and by day, he exhorted sinners to flee the wrath to come. Filling out his appointed time on Brush Creek, he was next year sent to Pickaway circuit, where the same zeal and devotion characterized his labors. The ensuing years he traveled successively Delaware and Deer Creek circuits, on the latter of which he remained two years. During his labors he suffered many hardships and privations; and such was his burning, unconquerable zeal that his constitution gave way. The sword proved too sharp for the scabbard, or, in other words, his flaming spirit consumed the earthly tabernacle in which it was lodged.

Rest was inevitable, as his overtaxed strength would not be able to stand another year of toil without it; and he must cease from toil or cease to live. Accordingly, he was induced to be left without an appointment for one year. But, alas! is there any rest for a Methodist preacher? Then they were poor and almost friendless, and when they were obliged, from want of health, to desist from preaching, it was absolutely necessary that they should work, or starvation would ensue. The Church then, and now, to a very great extent, virtually says to its preachers as a certain master once said to his servants on a holiday, "Boys, you may quit work and go to piling boards for the balance of the day, seeing it is Fourth of July." Teaching school in those days was a drudgery and toil that would not be likely to insure much rest to the body and quiet to the mind. In this employment Cummins engaged, and at the close of the year he became again effective, and entered the itinerant ranks. He was appointed to the Miami circuit, which, at that time, embraced an extensive and laborious field. The two following years he was stationed in Cincinnati, at the expiration of which term he was sent to preside over the Kentucky district. In that field he labored with his usual zeal and fidelity in the cause of his Master, and thousands in the day of eternity will thank God that they ever heard the voice of Alexander Cummins. Having filled his mission as the servant of the Church in Kentucky, he returned to Ohio, and was appointed presiding elder of the Miami district, where he labored two years, at the expiration of which time "he ceased at once to work and live." The following tribute of respect was paid to the memory of this sainted man by the Rev. Russel Bigelow, one of his contemporaries, which we copy from the Methodist Magazine, Vol. VII, being an extract from the funeral sermon, delivered by that eloquent and powerful preacher:

"Alexander Cummins was a man of a sound mind and good judgment, particularly in spiritual matters. He took considerable pains to improve his mind by reading and a close application to study. As a man and acquaintance, he was kind, and agreeable, and very much respected. As a husband, he was affectionate and provident. As a parent, he was tender, yet strict and particular. As a Christian, he was humble, pious, devout, sober, and cheerful. As a minister, he was regular, zealous, acceptable, and useful. His language was good; his sermons, in the general, pointed and weighty. His talents were not the most brilliant, but his greatness consisted in variety and goodness. And such was his zeal, variety, and usefulness, that few, if any, were more acceptable or popular. His success has been more than ordinary. I have been informed that many were converted during the first years of his ministry. The first information I ever received concerning him was just after he had left his third circuit. I formed an acquaintance in several neighborhoods in that circuit, in which his zeal and usefulness were much spoken of; and when I traveled that circuit nine years afterward, I found several of his spiritual children, who were still pressing through difficulties on their journey to the promised land. My acquaintance with him commenced in the latter end of the year 1815, at which time we were appointed to labor together on the Miami circuit. I was young and inexperienced, but in him I found a father, an instructor, and a firm friend. Long shall I remember the good advice and many instructions I received, and the pious examples set before me by the beloved minister whose funeral sermon I preach. He labored that year with diligence, zeal, and success. His zeal, piety, and usefulness while stationed in Cincinnati the two following years, I need scarcely mention; you, my brethren, are his record; you call to recollection his piety, his devotion, his fervor, his diligence, his watchfulness, his anxiety, his pathetic sermons, his fervent prayers. You call to recollection the happy hours you enjoyed under his ministry; and many of you, I presume, consider him as the instrument of your conversion. You knew him as your spiritual parent under God, and will have cause to praise God forever that you have had the privilege of sitting under his ministry. The three years he labored as a presiding elder in Kentucky, he was acceptable and useful, highly esteemed by preachers and people. His rides were long, and, in some parts, rough and mountainous, and his labors so abundant as to exhaust his debilitated system. The district he has traveled the two past years is also large and very laborious. He, however, performed his duties acceptably and usefully, but with great pain, often traveling and preaching when he ought to have had rest, particularly the last six months. I have already said considerable concerning our departed brother; but I can not forbear mentioning his wisdom and firmness as a governor in the Church. It was here he excelled; here his true greatness appeared. He was not one of those hasty, rash sort of men, but firm and fixed. His weakly constitution, which was severely racked with incessant labor; was often attacked with wasting disease; but he bore all with Christian patience. About six months before his death he was severely afflicted with the measles; but, by the Divine blessing, he partially recovered, and entered again upon his work. And I think it probable that his exertion, before he was fully restored to health, was one cause of bringing on the disease which terminated his earthly career. He visited the circuit of which I had charge but a short time before he was taken with his last sickness, and seemed equally diligent and fervent as formerly, though hardly able to be about. He left our campmeeting on Sabbath evening, and came home. On the following Friday, rode out to Mechanicsburg, about eighteen miles from this place, [Cincinnati,] to attend a quarterly meeting. On Saturday he preached his last sermon, with his usual zeal and pathos, on ’I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth.’ That night he was attacked with the disease which terminated in his death. He was brought home in a wagon, and laid on his bed, where he remained for eight weeks, a man of sufferings, racked with pain and scorched with fever; but he bore all without murmuring. he was grateful for every kindness shown him, and appeared calm, resigned, and patient. He said, indeed, but little about dying; nor did he praise God aloud as some have done.

It was not his usual way when in health; but what he did say was satisfactory. To one friend he said that he had no anxiety about living, but should be willing to live till he could settle up his temporal business, if it was the will of the Lord, because he could do it better than others, and thereby prevent trouble after his death ; but he was, nevertheless, willing to resign all into the hands of the Lord. I visited him one week before his death for the first time, and several times afterward. On one of my visits I talked to him respecting the state of his mind. He seemed composed and resigned, and said he felt that his peace was made with God. The brother who attended on him asked him, a few hours before his death, if he was sensible that he would soon go. He said, ’Yes, I shall soon be in eternity.’ The brother asked him if he had any doubts or fears. He said, ’Not any; my way is clear.’ his departure was on the 27th day of September, 1828, a little before seven o’clock in the evening. Thus lived and thus died our beloved brother Cummins, a pattern of piety, a waymark to heaven. We do not mean to say that he had no failings; but we say they were comparatively few. He now rests from his labors and his works follow him."