CHAPTER 30 MARCUS LINDSEY

CHAPTER 30 MARCUS LINDSEY The subject of our narrative was born in Ireland, and brought to this country when quite a boy. His parents were Protestants, of which the "Emerald Isle" has produced some of the stanchest. Well was it for Ireland that the benevolent spirit of Methodism crossed the British Channel, and bore the messages of mercy to a spiritually-dead form of religion, on the one hand, and an equally-corrupt form on the other. Neither the Church of England nor the Church of Rome had done much for poor, unhappy Ireland, in rousing its poor, downtrodden masses from the sleep of death. The parents belonged to the Church of England, and, of course, young Marcus was trained up in the peculiarities of that faith. Being of a naturally-reflective turn of mind he was early impressed with religious thoughts, and convinced of the depravity of his young heart, as its waywardness manifested itself in disobedience to God and his parents. His convictions in regard to his sinful state were greatly increased in being permitted occasionally to hear Methodist preaching. The sermons that young Lindsey heard from Wesley’s missionaries resulted in his awakening and conversion to God. It was not long after this event that he felt deeply impressed with the belief that it was his duty to exhort sinners to flee the wrath to come, and be saved from their sins. After exercising awhile in this relation, and his brethren being convinced, by the gifts and grace which he possessed, and the fruits much attended his labors, that he was called of God to devote himself exclusively to the work of calling sinners to repentance, he was recommended to the conference, and accordingly received into the traveling connection in 1810. His first appointment was to the Hartford circuit, Kentucky, on which he labored with great zeal and devotion through the year, at the expiration of which time he was ordained a deacon for the missionary work, and appointed to Big Sandy river. This was a wild, mountainous, half civilized region of country, and remains so to some considerable extent at the present day. The Big Sandy was a kind of neutral ground between Kentucky and Virginia, and its deep glens, and mountain gorges, and dense, unbroken forests, made it the home of a daring, reckless race of individuals, and the horse-thief, and gambler, and counterfeiter has often sought refuge in its dark defiles from the pursuit of justice. We could describe many scenes of terror and darkness that have transpired in that region, but we must proceed to our sketch. The youthful herald entered this field of labor, and braving every difficulty and danger, he penetrated its wilds, and proclaimed to its startled and scattered inhabitants, salvation in the name of Jesus. Many heard the joyful sound, and turned their feet from the ways of sin and wickedness to the ways of righteousness and peace. We may talk about the desolation that reigns in the jungles of India, and on the wild and gloomy mountains of Africa, or the solitudes of Oregon, but we have the heathen in the form of half-civilized man, in some of the wild places of the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia; ay, they may be found in some of the garrets and cellars of our dark alleys in the city full of Churches, where thousands are contributed yearly to convert the Hottentot, the Chinese, and the East Indian. We are not afraid, though we thus speak, that the charity that begins at home will end there; no, for those who care most for the destitute around them are sure to feel deeply and care largely for those who are abroad. The next year he was appointed to Little Sandy, and here his labors were crowned with the most abundant success; and at the close of this year he was sent into Ohio, and stationed on the Union circuit. Here success attended his labors in the kingdom and patience of Jesus. We have not time, however, nor space, to enter into any detail in regard to the triumphs of the Gospel which he witnessed in this field. In 1815 he was removed to the Marietta circuit, where he was made the instrument of much good. While on this circuit he was instrumental, in the hands of God, in the conversion of John Stewart, the colored man, who went out as the first missionary among the Wyandott Indians. Stewart had been a very dissipated man, and, in one of his drunken fits of delirium tremens, he had started to the Ohio river to drown himself. On his way he had to pass by the place where Lindsey was holding meeting. Being attracted by the sound — for Methodist preachers generally cry aloud, and spare not — he drew up, and stood by the door, where he could distinctly hear all that was said. The preacher was describing the lost sinner’s condition, his exposedness to death and hell; and then he presented the offers of mercy, showing that Jesus died for all, and the worst of sinners might repent and find pardon. It was a message of mercy to that poor, forlorn, and ruined soul.

It turned his feet from the way of death to the path of life. He returned to his place, and falling upon his knees, he cried for mercy. God heard the poor Ethiopian’s prayer. While piteously he pleaded for mercy, salvation came to his heart. At the next meeting he was found at the church, sitting in the back corner, but clothed in his right mind. When the invitation was given to persons to join the Church, he went forward, and the preacher received him and instructed him more perfectly in the way of the Lord. He had received some education, and was enabled to read and write. Like most of his brethren of the African race, he was an admirable singer, possessing a voice of unusual sweetness and power, and he took great delight in singing the hymns and spiritual songs of the Church. Some time after his conversion he became greatly exercised on the subject of preaching. So intense and all-absorbing became his thoughts on the subject that he could neither eat nor sleep. He was continually engaged in reading the Bible and in prayer for weeks. His long fasting and almost ceaseless vigils were broken by a vision which he told us came to him one night. Whether awake or asleep he could not say; but in the transition he heard a voice distinctly saying, "You must go in a north-westerly direction, to the Indian nation, and tell the savage tribes of Christ, your Savior." He had this vision for three successive nights.

It is said that dreams indicate the mind’s anxieties, and it is highly probable that the things which engross the mind by day continue to occupy it by night — at least so far as to give a bent and coloring to the thoughts when the outward senses are locked up in sleep. This being the case, then, from the fact that Stewart was greatly exercised on the subject of preaching, we may be led to infer that his vision, or dream, was but a part of his call to preach the Gospel. The only thing wonderful and extraordinary in the dream, is the specific nature of the call, designating, as Paul’s vision of the man of Macedonia, the very place to which he should go. Now that revelation is exhausted, and the Bible is to be regarded as a finality on all subjects pertaining to belief and duty, we have but little faith in dreams, or "spiritual communication,’’ so called, as constituting any part of the rule of faith or practice. The sure "word of prophecy," which God has given us, will, if understood and followed, guide us into in the ways of truth and righteousness.

Stewart was poor, and destitute of friends, with the exception of the Methodists, who received and treated him as a brother; but, even among his brethren, who could he get, by any possibility, to believe that he was called to go on a mission to preach the Gospel to the Indians? Firmly impressed however, with the belief that a dispensation of the Gospel had been committed to him, he made all the preparation his circumstances would allow, and, with his Bible and hymn-book, started out, not knowing whither he was going, save that the vision directed him to the north-west. Abraham, when called from the Ur of the Chaldees, had, doubtless, much greater faith when he entered upon his journey than this sable son of Ham; but there was not less uncertainty in regard to the unknown destination. Stewart continued his travels; and hearing of the Delaware Indians, on the Muskingum, he directed his course thitherward. When, he arrived among them he commenced singing, and praying, and exhorting, but it was in an unknown tongue. The peaceful Indians gazed upon the dark stranger with silent wonder, but were not moved by his tears and entreaties. Being impressed that this was not the tribe to which he was called he hurried on. After a fatiguing journey, he arrived at Pipetown, on the Sandusky river, where he found a large concourse of Indians engaged in feasting and dancing. They were in the very midst of their wildest mirth and revelry when he appeared among them. Being a dark mulatto, he attracted their attention, and they gathered around him, and asked him to drink of their fire-water but he to well knew the fatal effects of the deadly draught to allow it to pass his lips. At this refusal the Indians became angry and were beginning to manifest signs of hostility; but he commenced, in a clear, melodious voice, singing one of the songs of Zion. Its strains rose above the din and uproar of the multitude. They were strangely enchanting, and, like the voice of Jesus on stormy Galilee, they calmed the tumult of passion which threatened his destruction. The war-dance and song ceased. The multitude gathered around him, and hung upon his lips in breathless silence, as if enchanted by the sound. When he ceased he fell upon his knees, and poured out his heart to God in prayer for their salvation. There stood by him an old chief, who understood his language, and as word after word escaped his lips he interpreted it to the listening hundreds. When his prayer was ended, he arose and exhorted them to turn away from their drunken revelry, and Indian ceremonies, to the worship of the true and living God, assuring them that if they continued in this course they would be forever lost. As the earnest entreaties of the colored preacher were communicated by the old chief, many were deeply impressed with the truths which he uttered, and the work of God might have then and there at once commenced, but for the interference of Captain Pipe, the head chief, who became violently enraged, and, brandishing his tomahawk, swore if he did not cease he would kill him on the spot. John ceased his exhortation, and turned, with a sorrowful heart, away. Being ordered to leave immediately, on pain of death, he again started out upon his journey, and guided by an invisible hand, he went to Upper Sandusky. Here he found another band of Indians, and among them a black man named Jonathan Painter, who had been taken prisoner by them at the mouth of the Big Kanawha, in Virginia, when a boy. He was a good interpreter. With this man he soon became intimate, and procuring his services, he went with him to attend a great Indian festival. When he arrived he begged permission to speak to the assembled multitude; but they paid little attention to his request. He still pleaded for the privilege; for his heart burned to tell the wandering savage of Jesus and His love. After much entreaty, through his interpreter, they agreed to let him speak to them the next day. The time and place of meeting were fixed, and when Stewart, with his interpreter, appeared, how was his heart chilled and discouraged only to find one old Indian, by the name of Big Tree, and an old Indian woman, called Mary! To these, however, he preached Christ and the resurrection. God attended his word; and though small and feeble was the beginning, yet the labors of Stewart were blessed. He continued to hold forth, as opportunity favored, the word of life to the Wyandotts, and as the product of so feeble an instrumentality, the mission to the Wyandotts was established by the Church, an account of which may be found in our History.

We now resume our sketch of brother Lindsey, through whose instrumentality this remarkable man, in some respects, was brought to God. After finishing his term on the Marietta circuit he was sent to the Salt River district, in Kentucky, where he continued for two years, laboring with his accustomed zeal and usefulness. From this district he was sent to the Green River district, which he traveled three years; thence to the Kentucky district, which he traveled four years. After this he was returned to the Salt River district, where he remained three years, and at the expiration thereof he came over to the Ohio district, which he traveled one year, when he was removed to the Cumberland district. Here he continued for three years in labors more abundant. His next appointment was Shelbyville, and the Brick Chapel. Thus we trace this indefatigable man from circuit to district, from district to district and station, laboring on with a tireless zeal in the service of his Master. Could a history of the fourteen years, in which he traveled over vast districts of country as presiding elder, be written out, how full would it be of stirring adventures and thrilling incidents; but the memory of them has perished with the departure of the man, and we can only give a rapid outline, of the fields which he has successively and successfully cultivated.

We have already brought our readers down to the last appointment, and it only remains for us to say, that while actively engaged in this field of labor he was arrested by that fell disease, the cholera, which garnered such precious fruits for the tomb from among the ministry, and which, in July, 1833, terminated his career on earth and ushered him to heaven. He was a man of stout, athletic frame, black hair, a keen, dark eye, over-arched by heavy brows. He was much given to despondency, which would occasionally cast a gloom upon his countenance, that at times would make his appearance rather forbidding; but under all there was a large heart full of tender sympathies. When his mind was not overcast, and in heaviness through manifold temptations, his bright, happy spirit would make sunshine all around him. Some men can never be fully known in this life, however transparent their character. There is a deep, inner life that lies far down beyond the ken of mortals, which the tongue, if it could, will not reveal. That life can only be known hereafter. Till then we must wait for the solution of difficulties, inconsistencies, and mysteries, which here we shall never know. Lindsey was a powerful preacher, a faithful pastor, and a great terror to evil-doers. He abounded in zeal and good works, and thousands will bless God in the day of eternity, that to him was committed a dispensation of the Gospel.