hed
a point of great perplexity and trial with reference to the ministerial
calling as a profession. Not that I entertained a serious thought of
accepting it, but, on the contrary, was wholly averse to it. But,
strangely enough, while I was thus, both in feeling and convictions,
opposed to the measure, every one else seemed to accept it as a matter
already settled that I would enter the Itinerant field. From the good
Rev. John B. Stratton, the Presiding Elder of the Prattsville District,
New York Conference, within the bounds of which I then resided, and his
immediate successor, Rev. Samuel D. Ferguson, down through all the
ministry and laiety of my acquaintance, I was made the special subject
of attack. But from what all others thought to be my duty, I shrank
with a persistence that admitted of no compromise. The plan I had marked
out for myself contemplated, ultimately, the position of a Local
Preacher, and a life devoted largely to literature and business. On this
plan I fully relied, and thought myself settled in my convictions and
fixed in my purpose. Yet I am not able to say, that at times it did not
require some effort of the will to keep my conscience quiet and my
thought steady. A young man, from eighteen to twenty-two years of age,
who was subject to so many attacks, especially in high places, and who
constantly felt himself preached to and prayed at in almost every
religious assembly, must be more than human, not to say less than a
Christian, to bear up under such a pressure. I clearly saw that one of
two things must be done, and that speedily. Either I must yield to the
manifest demand of the church or "go west." I chose the latter. Nor was
this decision mere obstinacy. There were several things to be considered
and carefully weighed and determined before entering upon a work of such
grave responsibilities as the Itinerant ministry. First of all, the
question must be settled in a man's conviction of duty; then the
question of one's fitness for the work; and, finally, the financial
question could not be ignored. To enter the Itinerancy involved
responsibilities that could only be sustained under the deepest
convictions that can possibly penetrate a human soul. The minister is
God's ambassador to lost men. He can only enter upon this work under the
sanction of Divine authority. Having entered he is charged with the care
of souls, and if these shall suffer harm, through his inefficiency or
want of fidelity, he m