Hearne History - Page 494

[Continued from page 493]

poor, and the Baptists the negroes; it seems to me that we get some even in this quarter; there are rich among us with many others. It is said that Gen. Jackson's wife desired to join the Methodists, hut was told by her friends that if she went to the parties that the General would desire her to, that the Methodists would turn her out, so she joined the Presbyterians. It is also said that when Jackson Crawford started to preach, that Gen. Jackson said to him: "Now you have put your hands to the plow, do not look back."

At the close of his notes written a short time before his death. and perhaps the last exhortation he ever wrote (a most fitting testament to leave his descendants and friends), I find written as follows:

I have thought that when a person goes to a party, he tries to appear decent before the people, and when he goes to make a long journey, he makes preparations for comfort and decency, so he should make preparations for the journey of death, and to appear before his God. When you walk, remember you are traveling to the grave; when you stoop, recollect that if you live long you will be obliged to go bending; when you see, remember that the Lord gives you sight; when you work, ask God to wash your heart, believing it, and it shall be done; when you put on your hat or comb, ask God to give you a right to a place in heaven; when you feel proud, ask God to let you have access to the tree of life; when you put on your clothes, ask the Lord to clothe you with meekness of spirit; when you put on your shoes, ask the Lord to shoe you with the preparation of the gospel; when you step in your house, ask the Lord to give you to feel that you have a building not made with hands in heaven; when you eat natural food, think of the food of the soul; when you view beauties with your natural eyes, do not forget that you have eyes to your soul; when you drink natural water, ask for the water of life; when you pray, think of the praises above; when you sing, think of the songs of Moses; when you see blood or the appearance of it, think of Jesus; when it thunders, think this is the voice of God, Jehovah; when you see it rain, think of the flood; when you see a rainbow, think of the promises of the Great I Am; when the wind blows, think of the day of Pentecost; when it gets dark in the day, think of the crucifixion of our

[Continued on page 495]


Notes:


Copyright (c) 1999, 2007 Brian Cragun.