FJIEA \T LOS ANGELES Eld. H. S. Sturdevant LIFE AND ADVENTURES AN ORPHAN BOY From the Cradle to the Ministry ILLUSTRATED AND CONTAINING AMUSING SCENES AND ADVEN- TURES IN MISSION WORK ON LAND AND SEA ELD. HERVEY S. STURDEVANT CORNELIUS, OREGON PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR .■111 Ri[ghti RficrvcJ J5A tr^ f5/l3 PREFACE. The history of the Advent message is insepara- bly bound up with the history of its preachers, In choosing men and women for the work of preach- ing the good news of the soon-coming of his Son, God has not departed from his usual plan of not selecting many of the •' wise" and learned in the jj^ spheres of ordinary human knowledge, but he has ?' called the majority of his heralds from the plough, ^"^the store, the blacksmith shop, the carpenter's ta^ bench, and other humble vocations. g2 The writer of the following pages is happy to ITireckon himself among the number of those thus ^chosen to execute a great purpose of Almighty ^God, one of the grandest commissions ever com- **mitted to frail mortals to execute, and in this little booklet he has endeavored to glorify God by show- ing how, through varied trials, trust, and triumph, the Lord has led him until he had him fully pre- pared to go forth with this great message. It was my privilege to be present at a camp- meeting in Cornelius, Ore., in 1898, when Bro. Sturdevant was set apart by his brethren to preach the everlasting gospel, and I have since listened more than once with much interest to his pointed 28G220 IV PREFACE expositions of the Word of God, so dear to the Advent people, interspersed with incidents from his own varied experiences ; it was these incidents, some of them quite thrilhng, others laughable and others remarkable, many of them bearing on his great life work, which our brother has now por- trayed in his own style and presented to the church and the world in the form of a book to cheer the despondent, comfort the sorrowing, and make glad the hopeful. This is not a money-making scheme, as all profits derived from the sale of the book go to the mission cause. The touches of humor found throughout the little volume render it very readable, and the accompanying essay will remove many false impres- sions as to the people with whom our brother is identified. I am glad to be able to count this hon- ored servant of God, who has written so interesting a book, among my staunch friends, and hope and pray that his life of usefulness may be prolonged and enlarged should the Lord tarry. W. R. Young. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Home of My Childhood 9 CHAPTER II. The Reverse 13 CHAPTER III. The Change in Fortune 19 CHAPTER IV. Mother's Vacation 26 CHAPTER V. Among the Millerites 34 CHAPTER VI. The Broken Promise and Reminder ... 40 CHAPTER VII. Our New Home and Sunday-school ... 46 VI CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII. Homeward Bound 53 CHAPTER IX. Sunday-school Again 63 CHAPTER X. Breadwinning 72 CHAPTER XI. Through the Wilderness 77 CHAPTER XII. The End of the Exile 81 CHAPTER XIII. Our Vacation 86 CHAPTER XIV. Evangelistic Work 94 A Poem 99 What is Orthodox Adventism 103 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FACING PAGE Portrait of the Author . Title The Old Home in Pennsylvania . . . . lo The Schoolhouse Where I was Educated . 19 Shrubbery Around Our Cabin in Oreo;on . . 68 Our New House at Mt \'incent 70 The Mt. Vincent A. C. Church 74 The A. C. Church of Hillsboro, Ore., Dedi- cated Dec. 4. 1910 98 CHAPTER I. HOiME OF MY CHILDHOOD. ♦#F WAS born in Braintrem, Wyoming n County, Penn., August 19, 1848. My father and mother were Baptists of the strictest sect. We were not allowed to play out-of-doors on Sunday, and all un- necessary noise was prohibited, to such ar> extent that Sunday was a dull day to me and I was glad when the fast was over. Here I spent the few years of my child- hood. The large locust trees, the old well sweep, blacksmith shop, peach or- chard, and sweet apple tree, are among- my first recollections. "Everybody worked at our house." The girls knit, spun, rode the horse to plough corn, while the boys cut wood, ploughed the fields, picked stone off the land, and made themselves generally useful. 10 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF Father worked hard, but was rather ty- rannical. He had read in the Bible that if you spared the rod you spoiled the child, and he did not intend to spoil any of his children in that way. Mother, God bless her, had the care of eleven children ; she spun and wove the cloth for our clothes, cut the garments and made them with a needle and linen thread, that she spun herself; she also did the cooking, which was a kind of wholesale affair. I well remember the old Dutch oven where from fifteen to thirty large loaves of bread were baked at one time, and in the fall of the year pumpkin pies were served regularly. One day when mother had set some pies at the crack of the back door to cool for dinner, I came- run- ning in and stepped my bare foot in a pie, and I got that piece for mine. Our prin- cipal living in summer was rye bread and potatoes, and in winter buckwheat cakes and pork, with now and then mush and milk to break the monotony. My first recollection of work was help- ing father in the blacksmiHi shop, when I The Home of Mv Childhood ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT II had to stand on an old-fashioned beehive to reach the bellows pole, and I remember well of hoeing corn in the field when I was six years old. Our beds were not wire springs and wool mattresses ; they were the primitive kind, with a 5x5 rail, laced up with a half- inch homemade rope and a linsey-woolsey tick filled with straw. I do not wonder that people were early risers in those days. When we compare the sleeping place with the warm glow of the big fireplace, it is no wonder they were all ready to get up in the early morning. Breakfast was over and the chores done long before daylight, and things moved right along. I remember one winter's night, when I was but four years old, my sister and her husband came to make an evening call. o They carried their baby in a bushel basket- between them, and came across the fields because it was much nearer. The snow was deep and the night very cold ; they entered the long kitchen, set the basket down and went to the fireplace to get warm, and were having a good chat when 12 ELD. H. S. STURDE\\A.NT mother asked where they had left their baby. " Why," said they, " he is in the basket ; " and then there was a general rush to see if he was dead or alive. They found him sleeping nice and warm. Our rough food and scant clothing in that rigorous climate had, at least, one good effect: it produced hardy sons and daughters that were not afraid of honest toil and could battle with and overcome great difificulties in after life. We have all lived to a good old age and filled some stations of honor, and mother's prayer, that her children might become Christians and be honest, useful citizens, was an- swered long ago. Some are sleeping in the dust awaiting the sound of the last trumpet, when the sea and land shall yield up their dead. "Some sleep where Southern vines are dressed, Some in the mountains of the West. It matters not, the Saviour said, For sea and land shall yield their dead." CHAPTER II. THE REVERSE. mo doubt the reader will expect more sunshine and less shadow in this chapter, but we shall leave him to draw his own conclusions as we proceed. The winter after I was five years old our folks went visiting and left me and my younger brother at home with a sister that was eleven years old. The neighbors lived two miles away. The snow was deep and the wind was high. Sister went out- doors for something and discovered that our house was on fire. The house was two and a half stories high, and the fire was in the shingles around the stovepipe. There was no way for us to get to the fire. What could be done? Before we could get help from the neighbors the house would be consumed. We ran outdoors 14 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF and brother and I helped make snowballs, and sister threw them for a full half hour until the fire was extinguished. That was the first fire company I ever saw, but it did the work and saved the house, while other houses with no more start have burned down with men and hydrants all around. More than forty years afterward this same sister climbed out of an immigrant wagon in the middle of a Western river, and putting her shoulder to the wheel helped the oxen roll the wagon out of the quicksand. As she went up the bank of the river in her wet clothes, she swung her sunbonnet and shouted another victory won. She now sleeps in Jesus awaiting the resurrection at the last day. Her hope is chisled on her tombstone: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness " (Psa. 17: 15). But to go back to my story again. The day I was seven years old my father died after a long and distressing illness. This was at the time of a severe financial panic. The duty had been removed from foreign ELI). H. S. STURDEVANT 1 5 iron, and ships that formerly took in rocks and sand to keep them right side up while crossing the ocean, now loaded with iron at fifty cents per ton, and brought it over here as ballast. The result was, our man- ufacturies were forced to shut down, and limes were desperately hard. I think we see dollars more often nowadays than we saw one-cent pieces then. We were in debt and the situation looked blue. Al- most everything we used had to be pro- duced at home as there was no money to buy with. The first pair of store shoes I ever had was bought for me to wear at father's funeral, and as they were too small for me I had to go barefooted. The services were held in a small schoolhouse. My brother and I sat on the edge of the ros- trum to make room for older people. This was the first funeral I ever attended and is the most vivid in my memory. El- der Dimock, a very aged Baptist minister, read the 6oth Psalm, and preached the sermon, and then we went to the ceme- tery. Father was in a plain black walnut 1 6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF coffin with no handles or trimmings. The grave was narrow and deep. They had no rough box, but lowered the naked coffin down. A Baptist minister brought a bundle of rye straw and put in the grave so the stones and clods would not make so much noise. We stood there while they filled the grave. Mother's heart was broken. What could she do? She took her little flock of chil- dren and wended her way home, trusting only in him who said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." In a few days kind friends came and of- fered consolation by telling mother she would have to bind the children out, and went so far as to select a place for me. This old indenture law was a relic of the *' Dark Ages," brought over in the May- flower, and ought to have been relegated with the public hanging and the whipping post. It was simply another name for human slavery. It was practically deed- ing away all rights to one's children, and that was more than a loving mother was willing to do. She did not accept their ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 1 7 consolation, but resolved to keep the chil- dren at home. Mother was a weaver of no ordinary type. She had learned the trade when a girl, and followed it for years. She could take the wool from the sheep's back, or the flax in the field, and follow it throupjh the whole process to the finished fabric. Diamond kerseys and fancy coverlets were as simple to her as rag carpet is to the or- dinary weaver, and so she soon found her labor in demand. She rented the farm and received some help that way, but many a night I awoke in the wee small hours and heard the bang, bang, of the old loom, as mother was pounding out a living for her children. This was long be- fore the kerosene lamp or electric lights had ever been dreamed of. The tallow candle was all the go, and was an improve- ment on the glowworm or lightning bug. Sometimes we did not have even the can- dles, and then had to resort to a more ancient invention by putting some grease in a saucer and a cotton rag for a wick. I will not mention the name of this kind of 1 8 ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT a light, but I think it dates back to the days of Gideon. Some of my sisters taught school at ten dollars per month, and some of the older boys worked out for eight dollars per month. Sixteen hours were considered a fair day's work in those days. I have worked in the harvest field for three cents a day, not because I did not earn more, but mother said we must let the other fel- low set the price, and this is a specimen of his generosity. After I could swing the grain cradle with the men I worked twenty- one days for a pair of boots that cost two dollars and twenty-five cents. My schooling was very limited, amount- ing to three months a year, until I was old enough to run the farm. Sclioolhouse wliere I was Educatt CHAPTER III. THE CHANGE IN FORTUNE. ♦tff" DID not like to go to school, and II would sometimes play sick and come home ; but I could not deceive mother, and when she saw that I was playing sick, she would mix a dose -of epsom salts and tell me I must take that and go to bed. Of course I preferred school to that, and told her I felt better and would go back to school. When I was ten years old I was installed man of the house, and sent on business far and near. I had to go to mill once a month to get a grist ground, and it usually took' all day and sometimes late in the night, if I had to wait for my grist, as each one had to wait his turn. The old miller would tell me stories to pass the time away. He said he had once 20 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF been a boy, and was frequently sent from VVilkesbarre to Philadelphia after goods for the merchants. On one of these trips he had a butt of molasses in his load. When coming up the Lehigh Mountain this huge cask worked back until it was almost out of the wagon. He tried to get it further ahead, but could not. The road was dug along the side of the mountain, and there was an awful precipice below the road. As he neared the top of the mountain the cask slid out and rolled off the side, where it dropped two hundred feet before it touched bottom. He stopped the horses and looked over the clifT and saw two acres nicely spread with molasses. These stories kept me from getting lone- some until I could get my grist and start for home. At one time I had a load of land plaster, and it looked like rain. One oi the horses got sick and I tied the other'one back and made it pull the load, consequently we made slow progress. About midnight, going up a steep hill, the wagon slewed around and got fast in the roots of a ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 2 1 Stump. I could not get it out. The sick horse was now unable to go, and I thought if it rained my load would be ruined. I sat in the wagon and viewed the black, threatening clouds, then got on my knees and prayed to mother s God that he would stay the storm and help the poor orphan boy out of his dilemma. This was the first time I ever prayed. The Lord heard the prayer, and next morning a kind neighbor came with his big team and took my load home free of charge. I now worked a part of the farm. I could plough and harrow. We hired some help in harvest, and things began to take on new life. Our stock, instead of humping up behind a straw stack, had comfortable quarters. At twelve years old we cut the hay and filled the barn, and peace and plenty began to dawn. We all dressed more comfortably, and mother did not have to work so hard. It really seemed as though the spell had broken, the tide had turned, and that some of the good things were coming our way. The false creditors, with bills that mother 22 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF knew had been paid, had ceased to come, and we were out of the clutches of the Shylocks. The Civil War was now on in good earnest. Four of niy brothers enlisted, and one, a boy of seventeen, was shot within two rods of a rebel breastwork, on that memorable twelfth of May, 1864. IN MEMORIAM. " On Spottsylvania^s bloody field, The awful charge was made ; And comrades dug a shallow grave, And in it he was laid. " No battlecry or cannon's roar Disturbs his last repose ; But there he lies and sweetly sleeps. Beyond the dread of foes. " On Fame's eternal camping ground His silent tent is spread. And glory guards with solemn round The bivouac of the dead." After the close of the war I worked the farm for some time, then apprenticed my- self to learn the blacksmith's trade. I worked one whole year for six dollars a ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 25 month, and the first real dress suit I ever had I bought at this time while working for twenty-five cents per day. I found that it was not what a man earned, but what he saved that counted. I also bought my first Bible during this year. I was nineteen years old, when my employer sold out and I was forced to seek other employment. I boated for two years on the North Branch Canal, from the city of VVilkes- barre to Mehoopany, in Pennsylvania, and to Elmira, N. Y. Boating had especial charms for me, as I was naturally of a roving disposition, and wanted to see something new. In August, 1868, while our boat lay at Solomon's Rocks, below Wilkesbarre, I was taken with typhoid fever. It was a week before I could get home or have any care. I finally reached home and lay at the point of death for a long time. Many came to see me sup- posing they would never see me again alive. At the most critical time a Chris- tian lady watcher asked me to be a Chris- tian. I could only whisper, but told her 24 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF if I got well I would. She told me I would get well. Said I, " How do you know?" She replied, •' I have asked the Lord to spare your life, and I have the assurance that he will." From that time I began to amend, but was a living skeleton for weeks. As soon as I was well I forgot my promise, and became more worldly than ever. I took to using tobacco to excess, and I had also used liquor, and did many other things that were wrong. In April of this year I joined the Good Templars, and that put an end to my drinking. I went hoine and told mother, supposing she would praise me for the noble stand I had taken, but she never spoke a word. I said, " If I must fight the battle lone-handed, Jiere goes" and for over forty years I have kept my pledge, and nothing does me more good than to tell a man that I don't drink. The right way to quit any bad thing is just to quit, and never have anything more to do with it. In 1872 I signed a pledge with twenty- ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 25 two young men never to touch intoxicat- ing drink as a beverage, or to use tobacco in any form, and this pledge has been kept sacred by all but two. One of these died an infidel, and the other has seen his share of trouble. CHAPTER IV. MOTHER'S VACATION. ♦tfFN the summer of 1869 I helped build II the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The road was laid on the tovvpath of the old canal. The grade had to be changed in many places, and much of this work was done with wheelbarrows. Our gang was from forty to fifty men. After the grad- ing was done, I helped lay the track, and when the cars began to run to Waverly, N. Y., mother surprised us by saying she was going on a vacation. She had a girl cousin, and all through their early life they were almost insepara- ble ; but since they were married and moved away, they had not seen or heard from each other for more than thirty years. Somehow mother heard that her girl chum lived in Newark Valley, N. Y., and had decided to go and see her. ELD. H. S. STURUEVANT 2/ Mother was now over sixty years old, and quite feeble, but as she wanted to go we did all we could for her. I went with her a short distance on the cars, intro- duced her to the conductor, and he prom- ised to help her. She had never been on the cars before, and it was a novel trip to her. She made the two changes very nicely, and reached her destination in the evening; but on inquiring in a store was told that her friend lived a few miles in the country. " But," said the merchant, " there is a relative in town that will go right by the house, and I will find him for you." Soon the man came with his team and they started. He heard some of mother's story, and as they reached Mr. Clark's (for that was the name), he said : - " I will hitch my team and go i-n with you." As they entered the house he said':- " Auntie, this is your girl friend." The old lady arose and asked who it was, and on being informed that it was the once Betsey Hill, there was a real old 28 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF fashioned hugging bee. They laughed and cried till all the rest laughed and cried, too, and then the thirty years" experience had to be told. They could hardly take time to eat or sleep. They had ridden together in an ox wagon from Saybrook, Conn., sixty years before, and had spent their schooldays together, and sat on the same bench. It all came back fresh to their memory. There were many relatives near, and all wanted a visit, so mother was nicely entertained, and after a stay of two weeks came back to us re- freshed and happy and the old correspond- ence was renewed. If more mothers could have a vacation they would live longer. The preacher, merchant, lawyer, doctor, in fact, all branches of business have their vacation, but mother seldom gets hers. It is com- mon in these days for the girl and boy to go, and mother to stay at home. SEEKING A FORTUNE. Late in the fall of 1869, I, having be- come of age, started for the great pine ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 29 woods of Western Pennsylvania to make my fortune. I stopped for a day at Wil- liamsport, the city where Thomas Paine died, in 1809. The Philadelphia train divided here and made up into two trains. The passengers were all told to get ofT and go in a large yard enclosed with an iron fence. After the trains were ready, an old policeman, with one crippled leg, got up on a box and told the people that the front train went to Erie, and the rear train to Elmira. Said he, " Do you understand?" Then he opened the gate, stood and pointed with his cane and shouted alter- nately, " This train for Erie, that train to Elmira." And with all this instruction many would ask him which train they should board for Erie, and which for Elmira. This was amusing to me. After the trains had gone a man came running with a big satchel and asked where the train was that was going to El- mira. The officer told him it had gone. "Well," said he, " I wanted to go." The officer said, " There is a freight 30 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF just going to pull out, but you will have to hurry." The man ran until he stood side of the train, and then asked : "Where is it?" The policeman limped over to where he was and showed him the caboose, and told him to run. As he went down the track the ofificer shouted to the conductor: " Catch that man and put him in the caboose," As this was my first long trip away from home, it was amusing, and I have learned by long experience to keep my eyes and ears open and to be on time at railroads and steamboats if I wanted to ride, as a minute's delay has caused many a wreck and loss of life. That afternoon I left Williamsport and arrived at St. Marys in Clearfield County. At midnight several of us went to the hotel. The barroom was open, but no host could be found. Some sat in chairs and some lay on benches. I went into the parlor and slept on the floor, although there was no fire, and it was bitter cold. ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 3 I The room was very dark, and in the morning I found I had slept with a woman and three children, and that each knew nothing of the others' presence. "Where ignorance is bliss, it were folly to be wise." Next day we walked thirty miles to a lumber camp, but could get no work. I went from place to place seeking em- ployment until I had spent thirty-five dollars, and was hungry many times. Finally I got work on a new railroad, but the boss cursed the men almost continu- ally. I was not used to this, and resolved to quit, and so at noon I left the job with- out pay and started on the road to for- tune. It was in December, and very cold. The snow was deep and ice running in the river. I had a large satchel and bundle and the first thing I must do was to cross the river. As there was no boat I undressed in a snowbank, piled my clothes and baggage on me and waded the stream, which was ten rods wide and nearly four feet deep. This put me in good shape for walking, and I made 32 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF many miles that afternoon, footsore and tired. Just at dark the road made a queer turn and I wa,s fearful that I might be on the wrong road. As there were wild animals of all sorts in those woods I did not want to get lost and lay out all night. Just at this time I saw a man split- ting wood near a small new house. I went and asked him if that was the right road to Driftwood, and he said, "Yes." I thanked him and started on when he said : " Are you going there to-night?" "Yes," said I. " Well," he asked, " what for?" I told him I was out of work and trying to get home. " Just come right in here," he said, " and stay all night." This was about the first pleasant word I had heard for weeks, and I was not slow in accepting his proffered shelter. He inquired my name, and gave me an in- troduction to his wife. They were a rather young couple with two bright chil- ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 33 dren. Supper was soon ready, and I as- sure you I did justice to the warm meal. The potatoes and biscuits were so clean and nice. It tasted like home cooking. The man asked a blessing on the meal, and one could see the love of Christ in their faces. Oh, what a change from the rough camp I had left to this lovely Christian home ! CHAPTER V. AMONG THE MILLERITES. HFTER supper we had a long talk, and the man said they were Second Adventists. I had never heard of the sect before, but their kindness to me gave me a good impression. At bedtime the man read a chapter, and had prayer, then showed me where to sleep. His name was George Miller. I awoke in the night and heard him singing a beautiful hymn. Next morning he talked Scripture to me, and after breakfast read and we had prayer again. He inquired after my finances and told me he was afraid I would see hard times before I got home. " I will see my brother," said he, " and if he is willing we will hire you a few days, or until you can go home respectabl}-." I thanked him for his kind offer. He ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 35 soon returned and told me I was accepted . I worked for them about two weeks, get- ing out linebacked timber. This timber was made of large trees and as long as they could get them into the river. The sides were flattened and the corners left round. This timber was rafted in what they called timbersleds, and run to Ches- apeake Bay, then towed two miles and sawed into lumber. We climbed to the top of a very high and steep mountain, then felled the trees headfirst down the hill, and they ran clear to the bottom. After we had a sufificient number down we scored and hewed them. When I thought I had earned enough to take me home I told him I had better go, as he only hired me to assist me. So he figured up my wages, and said he feared I would not have enough. " You have got two pairs of boots," he said. " I will buy one pair and then you will have plenty." I sold him the boots. It was necessary for me to leave there at midnight in order to get the train at Driftwood, so I asked 36 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF hiin to call me in case I should oversleep, and he said he would. After having a good nap I awoke and heard footsteps downstairs, and thought he would soon call me, which he did. I got up and dressed, thinking I should have to start right out in the snow, but, to my surprise, he and Sister Miller were both up and had a midnight supper smoking on the table, all ready for me. I sat down and ate while they stood around and talked as they would to their own son. He gave me some copies of the Advent Herald to take home. Sister Miller filled my pockets with buttered biscuits, and then with my hands in theirs they bid me good-bye, with best wishes for my safe journey. We parted never to meet again until Jesus comes, when Brother and Sister Miller will hear the " Well done ; enter into the joy of thy Lord." They had obeyed the divine injunction, " Be not for- getful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." I was not much of an angel at that time, but I had a praying mother, asking God ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 37 to protect her wandering boy, and this is the way he did it. I reached home in three days with fifty cents in my pocket and six weeks of gen- iiine experience that was worth a whole lot to me. I gave mother the papers and told her of these good people and their religion. She said, "They must be Millerites." " Well, God bless the Millerites anyhow." Since then I had a leader in an Ortho- dox Church refuse to let me sleep in his barn, or on his place, although I offered to pay for the privilege. I went a little farther and had a good bed at the home of an infidel, and so we often find ready hands and tender, loving hearts outside the pale of the church. T saw a woman beg in the street On Christmas day for bread to eat ; The city's chimes were ringing then, Peace on earth, good will to men. I saw a churchman sleek, well-fed. As he passed the woman he turned his head ; The crumbs that fell from his table that day Would have feasted the beggar he turned away. Ji861220 38 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF Next behind the churchman came A woman whose brow was stamped with shame ; From out her purse a coin she cast, And the beggar blessed her as she passed. To the church the sleek man went his way ; The woman of shame would have blushed to pray ; Yet which do you think the more blessed will be, Magdalene scorned, or the proud Pharisee? — Selected. In one of my old school readers was something like this: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." After a stay of two days at home I bor- rowed five dollars of mother and set out again to seek my fortune. This time I wa? more successful, and got work at the hard coal mines in Scranton. This was in January, 1870. They set me to work with some German refugees that had come to this country on account of the Franco- Prussian war. They could not talk to me or I to them, so we were not very social. Everything was done by signs, and we got along very well. Within a few days I was promoted to the rank of breaker boss, and ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 39 had charge of about fifty little slate pick- ers, the ofTscouring of creation, whose only education was in the line of mean- ness. They had that to perfection, and I was glad when I got relieved. CHAPTER VI. THE BROKEN PROMISE AND REMINDER. ♦fF HAD not been at the mines long II when I was ordered to go and do some work at the shaft, which was a hole ten feet square, and nearly two hundred feet deep. I had never been there, and it was very dark under the great building. The place was full of men and they gave way and let me through until I stood within six inches of eternity, when a hu- man angel took hold of me and showed me the awful chasm at my feet. My for- gotten promise came fresh to my mind. God did not forget and gave me this gentle reminder. I was never so frightened be- fore. This was the second time I had been at death's door, and it had a great effect on me, I went to the next prayer-meeting, fully resolved that I would start to be a Chris- ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 4 1 tian, but there was no invitation or oppor- tunity given and I went home to my boarding house with a sad heart. Shortly after this I began to attend the Baptist Church in Hyde Park. They organized a Sunday-school, and our lesson was the 20th chapter of John. This was the first Sunday-school lesson I ever learned, al- though I was twenty-two years old, and raised in a Christian home. My conviction gradually wore away, and I finally went to learn photography with a cousin that was very worldly, and he thought I could wait awhile. We boarded with two maiden ladies by the name of Moore. They were cousins of the late Eld. A. P. Moore, and were Adventists. They tried to lead us to Christ, but we thought it was smart to raise objections, and we quoted Scripture that was not in the Bible to gain our points. Finally they sent for an old gentleman, by the name of Fletcher, to come and talk with us. He was an Ad- ventist, too, and a regular walking con- cordance. He took some of the conceit 42 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF out of US, and set us to reading the Bible. I studied faithfully from that time to see what the Bible really did teach. Our friend Fletcher gave us a pamphlet, writ- ten by Eld. Miles Grant, entitled, Death, not Life : or The Effeet of Sin. This led me into the truth, and removed all my objections to the Bible. In the following year mother died, and shortly after that there was a revival meet- ing in our old schoolhouse, and there for the first time I confessed my sins and asked God to forgive me. I was not will- ing to pay the price, and so the cloud of sin hung over me. This was the starting point, and led to my conversion later on. In 1872 I was married to Miss Belle A. Johnson, a member of the Baptist Church, and I was soon converted and joined the same church with her. This was the Braintrem Baptist Church, organized by my grandfather. May 24, 1794, at Lacey- ville, Penn. After my conversion I was very anxious to do something in the cause, but there \were so many old hands that the new ones ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 43 had but little show, so I had to wait. I worked with rough men, and if I made any progress it was backward. We read a chapter each day and had prayer, until we read the Bible through, then we read the New Testament through five times in the same way. I worked on the river rafting logs, and took some desperate chances. At one time I ran a log raft over a river dam, and everything went to pieces; logs turning over endways, but I escaped unhurt. In the spring of 1 875 I was employed^ to raft some mine props for two Irishmen. This was at the time of the great ice gorge in the Susquehanna. As soon as the gorge broke, which swept three bridges out of the town of Pittston, we started with* this raft, and ran what was called the Hog- hole in Horserace Dam. This was like the rapids of Niagara, but we came out all right. The river was very high, and our raft made sixty miles in six hours. This was my last trip on a raft. Soon after this we moved to Wilkes- barre, where I worked for a steamboat 44 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF company, and was policeman during the Molly IVTaguire trouble. I often went into houses in the slums and dragged men out of bed with their boots on, and lodged them in jail. I found this did not belong to Christianity, and so, in 1877, we moved to Texas. We lived one year at Seguin (pronounced Sagen). This place was named after John Seguin, a Mexican, who helped free Texas. Our house was the preachers' home, and we shared our corn- bread and bacon with many a hungry servant of Christ. I was on the road one day with some negroes, when a colporteur came along sell- ing Bibles. I told him I had one, so he turned to the colored men and sold one for $1.25. The next one said he would like a Bible, but only had six bits. The man said, " All right." The next one said he only had four bits. "All right," the man said. The next one said he only had two bits. "All right," said the man. Then the last one looked at the Bibles very wishful and said : ELD. H, S. STURDEVANT 45 " Mister, I would like one of them Bibles, but I hasn't got no money." "All right," said the colporteur, " I will give you one." These Bibles were all alike. It has been the policy of the American Bible Society for many years that every man should have a Bible if he wanted it, money or no money ; but I never saw it demon- strated before. CHAPTER VII. OUR NEW HOME AND SUNDAY-SCHOOL. HFTER one year at Seguin, we moved on to a new place four miles west of Sutherland Springs, in the oak woods ; here we built a small log house and cleared a field. One Sunday morning a Methodist neighbor came to our house bareheaded, and in his shirt sleeves, and said : " Come out and help find a place for a Sunday-school." I went with him, and we soon found a place. It was near a large blackjack tree that furnished ample shade for a hundred people. We set the next Wednesday to build the pews and pulpit. The neigh- bors all turned out and we cut logs and hauled them under the tree for seats, then split some rough slabs and made a pulpit. ELD. H. S. STURDEVAXT 47 The news went like wildfire, and the next Sunday the woods were full of peo- ple, some coming five and six miles, and three or four on the same horse. We or- ganized the first Sunda}'-school ever held in that section. The Methodist brother was chosen superintendent, and I was Bible class teacher, although I needed some one to teach me. I felt like John Wesley after he had been in Georgia seven years trying to convert the Indians. On his way home some of the Moravian mis- sionaries on the ship were so happy John said : " I have been in Georgia trying to con- vert Indians, and who shall convert me?" Well, we had a fine Sunday-school, and they seemed to think I knew it all. We had preaching once in two weeks. I had great difficulty in getting my large schol- ars to read a verse of Scripture. They seemed timid, but I found they could not read, although some of them were twenty years old. Oh, what a work could have been done here by an able man, they were so anxious to learn the truth ! I have 48 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF often thought I would like to go back and take up the work there. This place was forty miles southeast of San Antonio, in Wilson County. The people of Southern Texas at this time were very ignorant, as there were no free schools until after the war. They were also filthy in their habits. Men, women and children used tobacco, and were very indolent. They get their water largely from depressions, or hog wallows, which they called tanks. These low places fill up during the winter, and many of them hold water all summer. I have seen men dipping up water to take home for cooking purposes, and a drove of hogs lying in the same mudhole. These tanks in warm weather breed vermin, from the size of a microbe to a mud turtle. A glass of water contained thousands of them, large enough to be seen with the naked eye, and these they drank as an article of food. When I speak of Texas the reader must not think that I mean all of the State, for Texas is large enough for an empire, and north of the Guadaloupe River there is ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 49 plenty of good water and better civiliza- tion. I am simply describing the section where I lived. I never saw a more hos- pitable people in all my life than I found in Southwestern Texas. In the fall of 1879 we sold out and moved to a new place eight miles east of Sutherland Springs. This place was named after Henry Sutherland, a survivor of the Alamo. I know history says Thermopylae had one, but the Alamo had none. The historian did not know it all. The morning of the massacre Mr. Sutherland was sent out to skirmish. His horse fell on him and broke his leg. When he got back to the Alamo and his comrades saw that he would be of little help there, they told him to go to Gonzales for help. He rode his horse forty miles on the lope with his broken leg and saved his life, but not the garrison. I knew his son William T. Sutherland. He was county surveyor nine years. I went on several surveying trips with him, sometimes long distances from home and 50 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF Stayed several days. On one of these trips we camped for the night on the bank of the Eclato Creek. After supper, for we did our own cooking, we made our bed on the ground, put our blankets over us and tried to sleep ; but the wolves were plenti- ful and our little dog barked at them till midnight. Then all got to sleep and did not awake until sunrise. Mr. Sutherland raised up and said : " This is pretty cheeky." I asked, " What? " " Look here," he said ; and when I raised up there was a big hog in bed with us. That was the roughest bedfellow I ever had. As I have said, we sold out and moved to a new place. This was a very rough neighborhood. Several murders had been committed, and everybody seemed to live in a kind of dread. We camped under a live oak tree, while I built a house. We then felt the need of a Sunday-school, and so I began to look around. There were only two men in the community that made any pretentions to religion: one a Baptist, ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 5 I the other a Joe Smith Mormon. We built a schoolhouse, and then organized a Sun- day-school. The Mormon was superin- tendent, and I was instructor as usual. The six-shooter was about all the law they had, and no one knew how soon it would be read to him. There were only three men in the neigh- borhood that ever attempted to pray, and the majority seemed entirely ignorant of what prayer meant. Troops of cowboys would get up and go out during praj^er, and their clanking spurs sounded like a drove of horses crossing a bridge. It was nothing unusual for half a dozen to be talking during prayer, and neighbors brought six-shooters and shotguns to Sunday-school to kill each other with. My life was often threatened, and they were none too good to execute the threat ; not that I had done them any harm, but because I was not of their stripe. We started a day school, and our stay of one year did considerable good. The son of our Mormon was bitten by a poisonous snake, and they feared he 52 ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT would die, but the father believed in di- vine healing, so he called in certain ones to pray. There is another remedy used in Texas for snake bites ; namely, whiskey. The old gentleman said, for fear the prayer would not avail they would use both, so they gave the boy whiskey and then prayed. The boy got well. But who shall have the glory, the Lord or the devil? They used both remedies, and whiskey and prayer don't mix. Well, a missionary came from Western Texas and preached. His sermon, largely on manslaughter, took well. He said he had killed six men on his field of labor, and this seemed to suit the average Texan very well. Feeling that our labors were about ended in this place, we sold out and started for our old home in Pennsylvania, which I will relate in the next chapter. CHAPTER VIII. HOMEWARD BOUND. ♦#¥" SHALL always believe there was a II plot laid to rob us of what little we had before we got away. The man we sold out to also thought so. He had moved into the house before we left, and was to take us to Cuero, a distance of two hun- dred miles with his team. Two men came to the house and wanted to borrow our gun, saying there were horse thieves in the neighborhood. They were already heav- ily armed, and we could not see what they wanted of more guns, except it was to dis- arm us, and so we declined to loan our gun. Mr. Walker, the man who was to move us, said he thought it would be prudent for us to leave in the night instead of waiting till morning, as intended, and thereby steal the march on the would-be 54 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF robbers. So we left at midnight and were out of the country of these desperadoes by break of day. Mr, Walker was no ama- teur on the frontier. He had been as- saulted by robbers, and had had six- shooters thrust in his face, until he decided that no man would ever get to his wagon without facing a shotgun. This was the only time I ever left a country between two suns, and this was not because I owed anything to any man save the debt of love. I am not the first man that has used strat- agem to escape the designs of evil men. Our beloved Abraham Lincoln took the advice of friends and entered Washington in the night and in disguise. Well, we reached Cuero the third day safe and sound, and took the Morgan Railroad to the famous old town of Indi- anola, situated on Matagorda Bay. It was once the main seaport of Southern Texas, but at this time there was but one house left of the original town, and that a stone structure used for a hotel, and here we awaited a steamer for Galveston. This old town was destroyed in 1864, by a ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 5$ terrible tidal wave and a gulf storm. The houses were wrecked, and rubbish driven five miles inland. At this time a page or two of Texas history might be of interest to the reader. I have often asked schoolma'ams when the city of San Antonio was founded, and they would pick up their school history to tell me, but could not find it. So we have to go back to Spain for the information, and there we learn this: San Antonio was founded in 1691, by Catholic monks, when the Alamo and some mission buildings were erected. These structures were made of concrete, and stand to-day as monu- ments of the past. San Antonio was a city more than a hundred years before they had a railroad, or any way of getting supplies except by wagons, and freighting was a great business in the early days of Texas. Mr. Sutherland told me he had counted a hundred wagons at one sight loaded with freight. All supplies were hauled from Indianola, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, and I have seen sixteen roads, side by side, worn down to 56 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF the hub by these freighters. That was only one route, and they had several dif- ferent routes. Some of the rivers of Texas are pecul- iar. The St. Marcos River comes out from under a bluff all at once, and is a river from the start. The San Antonio River starts from the San Pedro Springs, just above the city, and nearly circles the city, there being only one street that will let you out without crossing a bridge. The Sibalo River sinks into the ground, and is supposed to come out at the San Pedro Springs, forty miles away. The Comal River comes out of the side of a mountain and runs down a hill for nearly a mile, making a splendid water power. Here is the German town of New Braun- fels, started by a colony in 1836. This colony was headed by a German prince that landed a shipload of emigrants at Indianola in the winter, and they had but few teams and most of them had to make the land trip on foot. They were caught in a blizzard, and many were frozen to death. A few days after the storm a child ELD. H. S. STURDFA'ANT 57 was found near the trail by some Mexicans. He was too young to tell his name, but was supposed to belong to these Germans. The Mexicans adopted him and taught him the Spanish language, and gave him the name of DutcJnnan, which he bore for forty years, although he could not speak anything but Spanish. He owned a farm, and died near Floursville, in 1879. After a stay of two days at Indianola, we took a Morgan steamer for Galveston. The weather was fine, and the water in the bay was as smooth as a millpond. Just as we were to go out into the Gulf of Mexico, a pilot came on board and said it was rather doubtful whether we could get over the bar at that stage of the tide, and so he ordered soundings made. Our boat drew eight feet of water, and we listened to the leadsman as he called out: " Fourteen, thirteen, eleven." "Now is the nip," said the pilot. "If we get a little farther we shall inake deep water." " Ten feet," shouted the leadsman, and the next throw he called out "nine." 58 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF By this time everybody stood on tiptoe, for there was only one foot of water be- tween us and the reef. Some were holding their breath, and even the captain was con- siderably agitated ; but the next throw of the lead line gave relief, as the man called out "fourteen," and we were now past all danger. We were out on the gulf before dark and headed for Galveston. We were loaded with stock and these wild Texas steers made a terrible racket. Once in a while our baby boy would say, " Whoa, cow," and I had to hold him to keep him from climbing over the rail of the ship. They ran all night by soundings and it almost seems as though I can hear the voice of the mate yet as he called out, " Five fathoms large." Next morning we reached Galveston, one day too late for the New York steamer. This was quite a disappoint- ment, and caused a delay of over a week, waiting for another ship. Galveston was a nice little city. The streets were clean and they had street cars ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 59 drawn by horses. Galveston has the finest drive in the United States. The beach is ten rods wide, and thirty miles long with- out a break. All the water for house use was caught in large tanks. Each house had from one to three of these open tanks. And oh, mosquitoes ! Troutdale isn't in it with Galveston for these little musicians. Every bed is screened, and even then peo- ple are terribly annox^ed. After a stay of one week here the ship came that was to take us to New York. It was theColorado.underCaptain Bolger.and the largest ship in the Malroy Line. It was three hundred and forty feet long, forty feet beam, and drew twenty-two feet of water. It had a carrying capacity of three thousand tons, and could make thirteen miles an hour. We took passage in this ship and had excellent quarters. They took in a part of their load and then ran outside the bar, cast anchor, and finished loading with lighters, which took two days. Then we sailed for Key West, a small is- land seventy miles from the main land of Florida. 60 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF The average schoolboy thinks of the Gulf of Mexico as a large river or lagoon, and perhaps you may be surprised when I tell you we were out of sight of land two days and a half on the gulf, and the ship was making thirteen miles an hour. It is eight hundred miles from Galveston to Key West. We saw a ship on fire near Dry Tortugas. We were so far away that we could not help them, and so went on and left them to their fate. We landed at Key West, and took on freight and some passengers. The little island is seven miles across and the principal industry at that time was making cigars. The tobacco was raised in the South, shipped to this island, rolled up and then shipped North for silly people to smoke. Is it not strange that people with brains will spend their their money for such stuff, make a smoke- stack of their nose, burn out their throat and die of slow poison before they have hardly reached manhood and womanhood ? But such is the case. Between Key West and Cuba flows the Gulf Stream, a mighty river in the ocean, ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 6 1 thirty-two miles wide and twenty-two hun- dred feet deep, and makes four miles an hour. A grand river indeed. After leaving Key West we sailed out six hundred miles from land, as the ocean was rough and they wanted plenty of room. Our little girl lost her hat in the ocean and we have never gone back to get it. My wife was terribly sick until we were nearly to New York. The first land we saw was at Ocean Grove, N. J., the great Meth- odist camp-meeting town. As we were entering the harbor at New York an accident occurred that made things lively for a few minutes. The mate and captain were on the bridge and the steam steering gear became disconnected, and we were right in a narrow channel. The mate went to help the carpenter. The captain entered the pilot house and called to me to lend him a hand. I saw the di- lemma at once, and I lent him two hands, and we braced the old ship up and kept her in the channel until the machinery could be adjusted and the steam power used again. We soon landed in New 62 ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT York. The Brooklyn Bridge was not fin- ished, and the old Fulton Ferry was all they had to cross over with. A subway had not yet been thought of, and the street cars were drawn by horses. There has been a revolution since then in the way of invention, and with the numerous subways half the travel of the great city is under the ground. We often hear the scoffer say, " Where is the promise of his com- ing? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the be- ginning of the creation." Another day on the cars and we were home again among the rock and hills of our native State of Penn- sylvania. CHAPTER IX. SUNDAY-SCHOOL AGAIN. HFTER a time I found work in a grist mill as an engineer; then I worked in a large quarry. Aly work was building and rigging derricks. I built five large derricks for this company, and kept the ropes and blocks in order, beside working in the blacksmith shop. My knowledge of iron and steel that I received when an apprentice furnished me many a good job, and what I learned about ropes while canal boating has come in play many times, and helped me to jobs when others were refused. Every boy should learn a trade, and learn it well, then if he does not wish to follow it he will find it useful all through life. To work for small wages will teach a boy or girl to be prudent and careful, and they will even save more than 64 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF Others that get much larger wages. My boss raised my wages twice while I was at the stone quarry, without my asking for a raise. That showed me that my labor and knowledge were appreciated. We lived over two miles from my work, and I walked that distance night and morning for six months; then we decided to move the house and save me the long walk. I got some help and we took the house down, moved it to the quarry, set it up and slept in it that night. We thought that was quick work, and so it was. While at this place I helped organize another Sunday- school. This time in the old schoolhouse where I received my meagre education, for we were living within a mile of our old home. I was teacher of the young people. Many of the children have since become Christians, and there is now a church in that place. While living here our third child was born, and so there were now five of us. The next spring I went into the stone business for myself. I took a partner by the name of Chase. He was a good man ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 6$ to work, and we made the rocks fly. There were thirty feet of rough rock to be taken off before we reached the bed and we would have failed had it not been for an invention of mine. We used a derrick to handle the rubbish with, but we were on a steep hillside, and when we swung a load out it would be fifty feet from the ground, and we had to lower it clear down before we could unhitch the chain. I told John (for that was my partner's name) that we must have some way to unhook while the load was in the air, but he said it could not be done. I set my genius to work and that night while my wife was washing the dishes I invented a hook that by pulling a little rope would let go five tons' weight. This little contrivance was worth a thousand dollars to us, and only cost one dollar. Other quarrymen asked me for the privilege of making and using my invention, which I granted, and now many quarries are using that hook, while the inventor is unknown. While working here I dug out a steel trap in the crevice of the rock. This trap was dragged in 66 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF there by a wild cat thirty-three years be- fore. The trappers were both living, so I gave them their trap. In the summer of 1882 I bought my partner's interest, and run the business alone. I had good success, and made money very rapidly, but became so en- grossed in business that I forgot my Christian duties to a great extent, and so the Lord gave me another reminder. This was the third time I stood at death's door, but the good Lord did not take my life, for he was not yet through with me. He was trying to drive me out into his vine- yard to gather sheaves for him. It was the beginning of winter, and I was very anxious to get my stone all shipped away before the Lard freezing weather, for the frost injures the stone un- less it is out of the bed long enough to cure or dry the sap out of it. I had a man helping me haul stone to the railroad two and a half miles, and was shipping it as fast as possible. While loading a car with heavy stone with a derrick the chain broke and let a rock that weighed fifteen ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT (ij hundred pounds fall on my feet and legs. I lay helpless all winter. It was feared amputation would be necessary, but I finally recovered. I went on crutches a long time, and then was able to walk again. I felt that I must get away from that part of the world, so sold my business and with a wife and three children landed in Port- land, Oregon, in the early winter of 1883. We soon located at Beaverton and took up the Sunday-school work there. In a business venture we lost all we had and weer heavily in debt. I think all this was a school the Lord was putting me through to teach me humility and bring me to my proper place, for I always thought the Master had something for me to do for him, although I was very self-righteous. In a Free Methodist camp-meeting at Beaverton I had the conceit all taken out of me, and the Holy Spirit put in its place. Here the Lord called me to preach and the Scriptures were opened to me as never before. I lay awake all night and praised the Lord, and ceased to mourn for lost property. 68 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF I helped organize a Baptist Church at this place and was chosen for elder, but there were many things in their belief I could not endorse. I rejected my call to preach for lack of education aud timidity. I did not go down to " Tarsus," but to the coast range of mountains and took a home- stead. I was so poor I had to borrow twenty dollars to file on my claim. We supposed we were getting land in a bourn where there was not very much timber, but in this we were mistaken. When I surveyed and found our claim it was in a gigantic forest of cedar and fir timber. The trees were from three to seven feet in diameter and two hundred and fifty feet high, and about forty to the acre. I had to carry provisions on my back to live on while I cut nearly a mile of road before we could get to our claim with a team. It took grit, grace, and backbone to hold a homestead in such a wilderness. The law required us to be on the land within six months after filing, but as my road was not done I got a man to help me carry my cook stove half a mile through >s'i''^ -'l 1 t n ^^^s :■ .. !■• ^'■^ 0. g *e^flH^^^H M^ift ■ ■"•.' w^ -tf^Sf^r^m »■ :;:_| *si.? 'Sir '^ r 1 1 WW ^^ . rj^Pf ' ^m: '^^^* W4 m^ B ^/ 'pi ' s 1 ■¥ / m' ^^: ft ^ ^ i|! ||j ^PK' II li ■HSi iM 11 M iJm pP^fN^':;BM -^9 1 b' ■■s .;'^iS Er^ K^ %l i 1 kI '■■\ ■ ' .' ■ iti Shrubbery Around Our Cabin in the Mountains ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT 69 the woods to my cabin. We crossed a canyon on a log fifteen feet high, but we got there all the same. This was a tem- porary move ; then I finished the road to our place, got a man to move us, and late in November we moved in to stay. This was late in 1885. I built a cabin 8x10 feet square. We set up two beds in the house and the stove, but had to eat out- of-doors. It was dangerous to live here on account of falling timber, so I set to work making a clearing. I had to fell the trees on five acres and then build in the center in order to be safe. This took some time, although I burned them down. Several nights we were driven out in the darkness and rain and had to seek a place of safety. One night a monstrous tree fell within ten feet of our cabin, that shook the earth, and we were in constant dread. I got the trees down and a log house reared, and when I went to put on the roof found that a kind neighbor had stolen my nails, so I only had half enough, but I went as far as I could with wife and chil- dren's help. We all wanted to get where 70 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 1 it was safe, so the day before Christmas we moved in to our new house without a door or windows or fioor, no chinking in the cracks and only half the roof on. We really felt that we had got a home and praised God for it without a mortgage. The next day I set fire to the cabin, burned it down, and then dug the nails out of the ashes with my fingers to finish the roof on our new house. How glad we were to be home once more. We were now quite comfortable, and I began to put the finish- ing touches on our house. We lived eleven miles from a store or post ofifice and I have carried flour on my back that distance to feed my family with, and the bread tasted good, too. We were now ready to begin clearing land, and with trees piled ten feet deep it was no small job. A good auger is a great factor in Western Oregon in clear- ing land of timber, and as this book may reach other sections I will give the niod?is operandi : we bore a hole in the top of a log and another in the side for draft, then put hard wood coals in the top hole, and nr ' •,■■',: i^Ei?^'' ninH fr^ 1^^ tt^. W' 1 fe;=^ m W w - wM 1 f<. ^" \ •> > \» 1 Ih9 ^^M ^_««Mii^^^^(^ > % y^ ^ ^ !^ ^ . *iin . ♦flTN considering this question we do not II propose to be governed by the opin- ions of men, nor do we take heathen mythology, false science, or any of the latter-day delusions, " new methods," or higher criticism, as our guide, but expect to lean firmly on the Word of God, as found in the Book. " Yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar ; as it is written. That thou mightest be justified in thy words." Upon a subject that was pronounced by God himself in the very beginning, that has been taught by prophets, priests, and 104 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF kings all down the stream of time, by Christ and his chosen apostles, as well as by the early fathers, and taken up dur- ing the last seventy years or more by the ablest men of this and other countries, it would seem folly for me to try to pre- sent anything new. The ground has all been ploughed and harrowed so many times, what I shall say will be simply to "stir up your sincere minds by putting you in remembrance" (2 Peter 3:1). I shall therefore take up the subject under several different heads. First, will be the second, personal, visi- ble coming of Jesus Christ to this earth, to raise the dead, judge the world, and set up his everlasting kingdom under the whole heavens. The second coming of Christ is mentioned over three hundred times in the New Testament alone, and for two thousand years the often faint heart of the Christian has been cheered by the words of the Master, as he said to his de- sponding disciples, " / zvill come again" (John 14: 3), and upon this coming hangs the zvJwlc Christian hope. It is the ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT I05 one vital truth we must cling to or we can give no intelligent reason for our hope. We would drift at once into vagaries that would have neither side nor bottoni. The second coming of Christ in some way is believed by nearly all Christians, but as to the purpose and manner of his coming the most contradictory views prevail. Does this confusion arise from the obscurity of the Word or from skeptical theology? We think the latter is the prime cause of all this speculation, for nothing in thcr whole inspired Word of God is made more clear or of more import than is the second coming of Christ, includingthe manner, pur- pose, and approximate time of that event. God said, in the very beginning, the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head (Gen. 3 : 15). Patient old Job got a glimpse of the second coming when his Redeemer would stand the second time on the earth, and said : " Oh that my words were now writ- ten ! oh that they were printed in a book ! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever ! For I know I06 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19: 23-27). The prophet Isaiah saw the second coming and said: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust " ( Isa. 26 : 19). David saw the far-off event when he said : " Let the floods clap their hands." It is going to be a day of great joy for his people when the sleeping millions stand once more on their feet and hail their coming King. He went away visible, and angels testified that he would come as he went, and why should men stretch their imagination and say that he is here now, and that he comes constantly, as some afifirm. He went away in a cloud (Acts i: 9-1 1 ). In Rev. I : 7 the angel said: "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him." He is not go- ing to come a thousand times, as some theorists say, but the second time (Heb. -9: 28), and that will be his last coming. ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT lO/ John Wesley believed and taught the second coming of Christ, and went so far as to set the time ; but many of his follow- ers, for fear of being laughed at, have sought out many inventions, and are be- ginning to say : " My Lord delayeth his coming; " but their scoffing and unbelief will not block the wheels of God. The same Jesus that went away will come again, not as the despised Nazarene who walked the earth barefooted and alone, but as Judge and King (Matt. i6: 27). " All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth " (John 5 : 28, 29). Blessed promise, glorious hope ! The Resurrection and Reward. Paul said : " I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; " and yet we are told by good men that Christ never died ! Jesus said : " I am he that liveth, and was dead'' (Rev. I : 18), and so we must demur from the statements of even great men when they contradict the Word of God. Jesus said : I08 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF " Because I live, ye shall live also " (John 14: 19), and in Luke 14 : 14, "Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just;" and so the whole Christian hope depends on the resurrection of Christ and iiis second coming to raise the dead and judge the world in righteousness. The old prophet Isaiah said : " Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead" (Isa. 26: 19). And then again hear the voice of Paul, speaking of both the living and the dead: "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we (the living) shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality " ( i Cor. 15:5 1-53 ). Again in i Thess. 4: 13, he says: "I would not have you to be ignorant, breth- ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT IO9 ren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we beheve that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (or come before) them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first." So do not worry about the sleeping ones. For at the first blast of the judgment trumpet a// the righteous dead, from Abel till the end of time, will stand once more on their feet, and be alive, because Jesus said : " Because I live, ye shall live also." Blessed hope, glorious promise, that thro ugh Jesus and the resurrection we shall all live again to die no more. Death will have no more dominion over us. But to believers in Christ is promised eternal life, and to them alone, because that through death no LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF and the resurrection Christ conquered death and became the author of eternal life, and so death and the devil will be de- stroyed (Heb. 2 : 14). What is Eternal Life, and by Whom Will it be Bestowed? Let the inspired Word speak again. In Rom. 2 : 5—7, we read : " But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God ; who will render to every man according to his works : to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life'' And so immortality and eternal life are to be sought for and put on at a definite fu- ture time; namely, the resurrectiou. Jesus said: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever" (John 6:51). Is it reasonable to believe they will live forever if they do not eat that bread? We say, no! In i John 5: 12, we read again : " He that hath the Son hath ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT III the life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." And so it is evident that eternal life is obtained through faith in Christ; it is therefore not inherent, and the wicked have not got it, because they have not complied with the conditions. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment (not punishing): but the righteous into eternal life" (Matt. 25: 46). Jesus said : " I am the way, the truth, and the life." And again : " There is no man that hath left house, or wife, or breth- ren, or parents, or children, for the king- dom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this time, and in the world to come eternal life" (Luke 18: 29, 30). Still again: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eter- nal life ; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand" (John 10: 27, 28). And so we see that eternal life is not inherent, but conditional. It is the gift of God through his Son to all that believe in him, and so 112 LIFE AM) AlA'ENTUKES OF if we want or expect this blessed boon we must accept the great Life-giver, the only name that has ever been given whereby we might be saved. And so we read : "The wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6: 23). That is, this life is in him and must be obtained through faith in him, and obedience to his com- mands ; and if wicked men and women will not submit to him they must take the inevitable, which is eternal death or end of the wicked. " For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven ; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wick- edly, shall be stubble : and the day that conieth shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch " ( Mai. 4 : i ) . What is Eternal Death? Surely, not eternally dying and never dead, for that would be eternal life; but eternally dead, the exact opposite of eter- nal life. The idea that somewhere in God's great universe wicked men and ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT ..113 devils will boil and howl throughout the endless ages of eternity, ever dying and never dead, is not a Bible doctrine; it is repugnant to men, and a libel on the char- acter of a just and loving God, and is not Orthodox Adventism, because not true. The wicked are never compared to any- thing that will endure, but always to the perishable, like chaff, tares, the fat of lambs, ashes, smoke and stubble. And so we read : " The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of Jehovah shall be as the fat of lambs : they shall consume ; into smoke shall they consume away " ( Psa. 37: 20). "As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire ; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be the weep- ing and the gnashing of teeth " (Matt. 13 : 40-42). "But for the fearful, and unbe- lieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idola- 114 - LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burnetii with fire and brimstone ; which is the second death" (Rev. 21 : 8). Salvation, or What Must I Do to be Saved ? Acts 16 : 30. This text as been quoted by millions, many of whom did not even know it was in the Bible. But when God's Spirit gets hold of a man and shows him his lost condition, when sin is revealed in all its blackness, when a man sees himself lost, and the awful doom of the unsaved staring him in the face, this is his first cry : " What must I do to be saved?" In answering tliis question many have used strange and unscriptural methods, such as self-inflicted torture, starvation, tedious and long jour- neys, bowing to idols, and many other ways. Even among Christians the most con- troverted views prevail. Some tell you one thing and some another. I once heard a minister in high authority advise the unsaved of his hearers to come to the anxious seat and stay there, mourn, weep, ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT II5 and pray until they got salvation ; even if it took days to do it, stay till they got it. Another great evangelist had cards passed through the congregation and those that desired salvation were to sign the card. These and many other devices are used in these last days to get men saved, but are they saved ? Thousands of people are duped into compliance with these means, and their names go on the church book, who have never done one single thing that Christ and his apostles said men must do to be saved. And much of this work is simply heaping up fuel for the last great confla- gration. Would God send his Son into the world to suffer and die that men might be saved and then hedge up the way so it could not be found? We say, no, a thou- sand times, no. It is made so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err. A child ten years old can understand, and will often willingly obey if they are allowed to, but in many cases even in our short experience some timid and often uncon- verted mother, or sometimes a drunken Il6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF father or husband, has thrown a barrier in the way that has doomed their child or wife to perdition. And my heart has been made sorry more than once over these things, when the patient one begged for the privilege to obey the blessed mandate, but was refused by Iheir liege lord, who was tied to a whiskey bottle, or else some timid mother was afraid that Jesus was not able to take care of his own. What right has a worldling to interfere in the matter of serving the Lord? We say, none what- ever. What, then, is necessary in order to be saved? What must I do? Jesus said: " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized sJiall be saved!' We are sometimes told by professed Chris- tians that this is nonessential. Was Christ talking about nonessentials when he com- missioned his disciples to preach the gospel that saves men? We think not. Stay at the anxious seat until you get the feeling, says one; but we prefer to obey the Lord and get the feeling that way ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT II7 — the assurance that we have obey^ed the Lord. What was it that cured Naaman of leprosy? Simple obedience. What was it that sent the eunuch on his way re- joicing? Simple faith and obedience. " And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. And they spoke the words of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes ; and was baptized, he and all his, immedi- ately. And he brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and ;r- joiced greatly, with all his house, having believed in God" (Acts 16: 31-34). And so it seems that we can get happy by obeying the gospel, or doing the things Jesus commanded. John says: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city " (Rev. 22 : 14). Oh, how it lifts us up and cheers our hearts in this world of wickedness to know we have done the things our Lord commanded and have a Il8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF right to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God. These things are ahnost too grand for human conception, and still we know they are true, because we find them in the blessed Book of God, the only guide to eternal life ; and the Holy Spirit corrobo- rates the Word. It is just a little while, till he that shall come will come, and will not tarry (Heb. lo: 37). How plain and simple the plan of salvation, and yet many try to make it so hard ; even many profess- ors go with a sad countenance, as though the Christian life was a hard one; but if any people should be happy it is God's people. We can have all that is good for much in this world and eternal life and joy in the world to come. But if we are to have eternal life, we must have some place to live. Where will it be ? The Home of the Saints. We often hear people, with more zeal than knowledge, tell of the great beyond and sing " Beautiful Isle of Somewhere," but their theories do not correspond with ELD. H. S. STURDEVANT II9 the Word. I am thankful we are not left in the dark as to our future home, and it is not to be on an island, either ; it will be on the viaitiland. God was looking out for us way back yonder, when he called father Abram to go out and look at the land he should afterward receive for an inheritance (Gen. 13 : 14, 17). In Rom. 4: 13, Paul tells us how much land was embraced in this promise, and in Gal. 3: 16, we find that Christ was the promised seed, and in the 27th verse, that "as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female ; for ye are all •one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Heirs of what? The whole world that was promised to Abraham, and is to be given to us who are in Christ. Also heirs of immortality and eternal life in him ; heirs of a kingdom, because Christ was born to be a King