tings and breakings to pieces, each spontaneous
division becoming a new organism. The first church, however, for all
that it split off and cast off, seemed to lose nothing of its vitality
or fighting qualities spiritual and physical (the strenuous life in
those days!); and there came a time when it took offence at one
particular man in its membership on account of the liberality of his
religious opinions. This settler, an old Indian fighter whose vast
estate lay about halfway between the church and the nearest village,
had built himself a good brick house in the Virginian style; and it was
his pleasure and his custom to ask travelling preachers to rest under
his roof as they rode hither and thither throughout the
wilderness--Zion's weather-beaten, solitary scouts.

While giving entertainment to man and beast, if a Sunday came round, he
would further invite his guest, no matter what kind of faith the vessel
held, if it only held any faith, to ride with him through the woods and
preach to his brethren. This was the front of his offending. For since
he seemed brother to men of every creed, they charged that he was no
longer of THEIR faith (the only true one). They considered his case,
and notified him that it was their duty under God to expel him.

After the sermon one Sunday morning of summer the scene took place.
They had asked what he had to say, and silence had followed. Not far
from the church doors the bright Elkhorn (now nearly dry) swept past in
its stately shimmering flood. The rush of the water over the stopped
mill-wheel, that earliest woodland music of civilization, sounded loud
amid the suspense and the stillness.

He rose slowly from his seat on the bench in front of the pulpit--for
he was a deacon--and turned squarely at them; speechless just then, for
he was choking with rage.

"My brethren," he said at length slowly, for he would not speak until
he had himself under control, "I think we all remember what it is to be
persecuted for religion's sake. Long before we came together in
Spottsylvania County, Virginia, and organized ourselves into a church
and travelled as a church over the mountains into this wilderness,
worshipping by the way, we knew what it was to be persecuted. Some of
us were sent to jail for preaching the Gospel and kept there; we
preached to the people through the bars of our dungeons. Mobs were
collected outside to drown our voices; we preached the louder and some
jeered, but some felt