University of Virginia Library

GOES ON WITH HIS CHURCH.

We hed a blessid and improvin time yisterday. My little flock
staggered in at the usual hour in the mornin, every man in a heavenly
frame uv mind, hevin bin ingaged all nite in a work uv mercy, towit:

2 mobbin uv 2 enrollin officers. One uv em resisted and they
smote him hip and thigh, even ez Bohash smote Jaheel. (Skriptooral,
wich is nessarv, bein in the ministry.) He wuz left fer dead.

We opened servis by singin a hym, wich I writ, commencin es follows:

I then held forth from this text:—“Whar hev ye laid him?” I
statid that the person I referred to wuz the marterd Vallandygum,
and I, in behaff uv a outraged Dimocrisy, demanded uv the tyrant
Linkin, “Whar hev yoo laid him?” A unconvertid individooal sed,
“He's laid him out!” wich remark cost him a broken head I went
on to show why our saint hed bin martered. It wuz becoz he wuz a
Dimocrat—becoz he dared to exercise the rites garanteed to every
American, exceptin Ablishnists and niggers, aboosin the Guverment.
Fer this and nuthin else wuz he eggsiled. “My frends,” sez I,
drawin myself up to my full hite, and lookin ez much like Fernandy
Wood ez possible, “I am willin to be marterd. I denounce this war
as unholy, unconstooshnel, unrighteous and unmittygated. It is
nuthin less than a invashen uv Dimocratik states, fer the sole purpus
uv freein niggers. Linkin is a tyrant, Burnside a tool, order 38 a
relik uv barberism, and I will resist the enrollment, the conskripshen
and the tax. Hooray fer Jeff Davis.

Our class meetin wuz more interestiner than ever. One old, white
headed brother sed that at times his way was dark, and his pathway
gloomy. Wunst he wuz very near becomin a infiddle. He reely be
lieved at one time that the nigger was human, and wunst he voted fer
a Republican road Supervisor. But he hed repented, and was, he
trusted, forgiven. His mind wuz now easy, and he should vote the
whole Dimocratic tickit.

Two backsliders who scratched their tickits last fall, confest their
sin, publicly. I exhorted em two hours, fined em a gallon uv whisky
apeece, and took em into full communion. The whisky will be devotid
to the missionary service, wich is me.

This is a deliteful feeld uv labor. At the Corners they give me
sech flooids ez I need, at all the doggeries but one, and at that one
they trust me wich amounts to the same thing. I hev borrid uv my
flock over 60 dollars already. It is a rich feeld, and wun which
will endoor much workin. My nose is deepnin in color every hour.