Women of distinction/Chapter 35

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE GREAT PART TAKEN BY THE WOMEN OF THE WEST IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE A. M. E. CHURCH.

In reviewing the annals of our past history we can discover no agency that has contributed more to the moral and religious development of the colored women of the United States than that of African Methodism. To her it was an open door by which to enter the arena of public action. Long had she waited for moral and intellectual recognition from the world. Too long had the vail of obscurity, like the gall of death, shut out the knowledge of her existence from the sisterhood of earth. Her patience and sacrifice in trials and her fortitude and heroism in adversity had never been recorded by the pen of a writer that others might read and admire her virtue, her patriotism and her piety. Her soul had never been stimulated by the genial influences of fraternity and hope of honor to grasp after higher attainments and that moral elevation which enables her to look above the common things of life to a nobler and more exalted existence. Though her capabilities for intellectual expansion and mental development were as ample as were those of the more favored daughters of earth, yet was every bud of hope which expanded in ' her soul blighted by the withering blast of scorn, and when fancy spread its wings for an exalted flight the chilling winds of adversity brought her to the earth, where it drooped in sadness and pined in solitude. But she was not altogether discouraged with outward circumstances with which she was surrounded. She prayed, and trusted and waited until the "day spring from on high visited her" and through the rifted cloud she could discover a brighter era. In religion she had always found a solace for a wounded heart and the ordinances of the Church had been precious to her soul; but even in these sacred rights she had been made unwelcome, and though willing and ready to perform the most arduous duties, with contempt she was pushed to the background. But when African Methodism appeared, bringing an array of obligations and duties in which she could bear an active and untrammeled part, she hailed it with that joy and readiness which only the spirit of God can impart. Many intelligent Methodist women seemed to take it as a God-sent blessing. They flocked to its standard and enlisted heartily into the work. In the early days of the Church when its ministers were illiterate and humble, and her struggles with poverty and proscription were long and severe, and it required perseverance, and patience, and fortitude, and foresight, and labor, the women were ready, with their time, their talent, their influence and their money, to dedicate all to the upbuilding of the Church. No class of persons did more to solicit and bring in the people than they. They raised money to build churches and to support the ministers. They assisted in the prayer-meetings and class-meetings and Sabbath-schools, and taught there to love the ordinances of the Church and to respect the ministry. Where there were no churches built they opened their doors for public worship and gladly received the care-worn and weary traveling preachers into their families and provided bountifully for their necessities. They were not only zealous in labors, but were talented in speech. Some were gifted in prayer; so much so that persons were often convicted by hearing them pray, and were led to God and soundly converted and became useful members of the Church. Others carried great power with their religious experience when related in class-meetings or love-feasts. Many who had been hardened sinners dated their conviction and conversion from the time of hearing the Methodist women talk in their closed-door meetings. There were notable preachers among their number also. In drawing off the Church from the white and establishing the A. M. E. Church in the West there was no one who took a more conspicuous part than Mrs. Jerrinna Lee; she was a preacher of great power and demonstration. The word of God from her mouth was like a sharp sword which pierced the sinner to the heart and like a healing balm to the heart of the believer; she was attractive in manners and pleasing in person and won the esteem of all who saw her. In the years of 1828, 1829 and 1830 she traveled and preached through the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Great numbers of both white and colored people flocked to hear her. She sang well and prayed fervently, and when after her sermon had closed and the doors of the church were open to receive members numbers would come forward and joyfully cast their lot with the despised Methodist. The holding of camp-meetings was one m-eat method of making African Methodism known to the world. In these the women bore the heaviest burden, they would make great provision to feed the multitudes that would gather there and hundreds would enjoy the hospitality of those good and pious women, while their souls were being fed with the bread of eternal life from the sacred altar. They thought no sacrifice too great or labor too hard if it only tended to build up and expand the Church they so much loved. The freedom which they enjoyed in their worship and the satisfaction arising from equal rights in church privileges made the work more precious and secured to them greater hopes for future success. In raising funds with which to build churches no difficulties deterred them from their efforts and no dangers affrighted them from their purpose. Through heat and cold and storms and fatigue and hardships they gathered a little here and there, while the}' made what they could with their own hands, which many times was only the widow's mite; but when these small sums were put together they were sufficient to raise a monument in the name of God to dedicate to His worship. Like Lydia of old they had long prayed for the time to come when they would be thought worthy to take an active part in the Master's cause; this was God's opportunity and well did they serve it. It is a significant fact that whenever there is especial work to do in any good cause God raises up and endows persons with peculiar abilities adapted especially for each department. Thus it was with Methodism; her notable women were not only filled with the Holy Ghost, but were possessed with the energy and zeal of the Apostolic ages, and their love for God and His cause made them as strong as giants. There were honorable women, not a few, who deserve to be remembered by the Church; they are dead, but their works yet speak. There were Mrs. Barret, of Columbus, Ohio; Mrs. Reyno; Mrs. Woodson, of Chillicothe; Mrs. Leach, of Jackson, and Mrs. Broady, of Cincinnati; also Mrs. Baltimore, of Missouri; Mrs. Elsworth, of Illinois, and many others who helped to build up the strongholds of African Methodism, whose names are recorded on high, and when the books are opened and their deeds of love for the Master made known, they will hear the welcome sentence, "Come ye blessed of my Father, enter into the joys of my Lord," and they, amid the swelling song of the redeemed and harps of angels, will enter in to come out no more. Mrs. Sarah J. W. Early.