and having spoken to him he looked at me in a very impudent manner and said, "I dare you to convert me to such a gospel as you preach." I replied, "I will do so, sir." He said, "Do so, sir, and you will have my assistance here, for you preach the simplest gospel I ever heard of." I said, "I will convert you before I am done with you, but I cannot do you much good till you read and inform yourself." He said, "I am not afraid, sir, to read anything you will furnish me." I took him Bro. Franklin's Sermons. He went to work in earnest to gather the points and arrange his scripture to refute them. As he told a friend, however, the Bible all turned against him. This so disappointed him that he concluded to be an infidel. He was not, however, the kind of material out of which infidels are made. He then concluded that Universalism would be a good substitute for the ninth article of their Discipline- if not so wholesome, but it would be very full of comfort. He soon concluded, however, that he could not be a genuine Universalist, but that the best thing would be to obey the gospel and live a Christian. This he did, and so made his word to me good, for we had his assistance, and he worked in earnestly.
When the conclusion was that all things were favorable for a protracted effort in Berryville, we secured the services of Jesse Alderson of Barry Co., Mo. to do the preaching. The meeting lasted four weeks, and there were forty additions. The brethren of the entire country cooperated in the meeting, and Bro. Alderson received, by way of remuneration, $40, and a suit of clothes. The people of those parts thought that was wonderful, and many said, a man that will accept that much money for holding one meeting was preaching for the money. One old man made himself incendiary there during the protracted meeting. He gave Bro. Alderson a pair of beautiful fat hogs, and called it his donation. The hogs were worth as many dollars money as Bro. Alderson was receiving, and calculated what he could do with this it costing him much. He had several nice porkers, and he had six nice ones butchered and sent them to Bro. Alderson's family. After his liberality had been well noised abroad, he went among the brethren privately, told them what the hogs were worth, and he thought the brethren ought to pay him for the hogs. No one, however, felt under obligations to do so, as he had not consulted any of them before making the donation. His religion did not last very long.
We received for our second year's labour about twenty dollars, for the third about thirty dollars. During the third year we preached some in the regions known as the Hale Barrens. There was a congregation of Baptists there. Some of them became dissatisfied, some became alarmed. They sent for Uncle Ike, and notified him that he had to meet us there and refute what we taught or they would leave the Baptist Church.
A Bro. Hanby lived there who managed the matter on our part, and arrangements were made for a debate. The founding of the church, and the design of baptism were the points for discussion. W. B. Flippin of Yellville, Ark. was our moderator, and really constituted the board. He had been judge of the court, and a member of the legislature, and, consequently, was familiar with parliamentary usage. I met Bro. F. at a point twenty-five miles east of where I lived and we reached our house the day before the debate began. I noticed Bro. F. had his large saddle-bags filled to their utmost capacity. Soon as we were seated in our house he began to show us different authors
