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CHAPTER XXIV.

THE LAST CAMP-MEETINGS. -FAILING HEALTH. -THE LAST

SERMON.

WITH the camp-meeting at Urbana, Mr. Cookman's public services with the National Committee ceased. Some of the committee, during the same season, moved farther westward, and held meetings in a large tent at Topeka, Kansas, Salt Lake City, and in different parts of California; but he was not able, for want of time and strength, to accompany them.

The effective work of the committee at Salt Lake was thus graphically described in The Methodist by the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage:

"THE BIG TENT.

"We found the track of the Methodist tent all the way across the continent. Mormonism never received such a shot as when, with Brigham Young and his elders present in the tent, the party of wide-awake Methodist ministers preached righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come in great Salt Lake City. The effect of those few days of faithful talking will never be forgotten. Hardly a service is held in the Mormon Tabernacle that an effort is not made to combat the sermons of the itinerants. On the two occasions when we were present in the Tabernacle, all the speakers felt called upon to answer the Big Tent. It was evident that the monster of sin had been speared, and the wound rankled. We have never seen the brethren of that religious storming-party, but we hail them through these columns for the glorious work they have accomplished in Salt Lake City. It was the first gleam of light that some of the bondmen of the great religious despotism have seen for many a year. If the Methodists had stayed a few days longer, and gone around the walls of that Jericho, blowing the 'rams' horns,' I do not know but that the brazen superstition might have fallen in thunder and wreck.

"Might not the Christian Church of all denominations learn a lesson from this religious crusade? Our great ammunition-wagons are so clumsy and

our big guns so unwieldy that the enemy often has us at disadvantage. I think a squad of flying artillery perhaps might go forth and surround the foe. We want more men in the religious world with the bold dash that Kilpatrick and Stonewall Jackson had in the military. We glorify the policy of 'fighting it out on one line, if it takes all summer,' but forget what a little Christian stratagem did when Gideon's three hundred men flung the pitchers and hoisted the lamps !"

Mr. Cookman sought the cottage at Ocean Grove-but not to rest. This seemed quite impossible; for the camp-meeting there was in progress, and, being pressed to preach, he could not say "No." He tried hard to obtain a substitute, even after he had consented to preach. The burden of the service, already great, was increased by the unexpected appearance of the President of the United States in the audience. The President had come down from his cottage at Long Branch to participate in the worship.

"Among the listeners, while Rev. A. Cookman was preaching this morning, was General Grant, President of the United States, and his lady-like and pleasant-faced wife. They walked in and took their seats together on one of the rough boards. The threatening aspect of the weather, and a premonitory sprinkle of rain, admonished our distinguished friends to seek the shelter of their carriage before the services were formally concluded. This saved the President from such a hearty hand-shaking as he has rarely been subject to. With many of the ministers and prominent laymen present he is on terms of intimacy, and much regret was felt that he could not remain all day in the atmosphere of prayer and praise. Brother Howland extended to him a cordial invitation to partake of a camp-meeting dinner at his spacious tables, and, had he stayed longer, he should have been made to feel perfectly at home among the tents, some of which did service in the armies he once commanded on the James River.

"Brother Cookman held all hearts by the spell of his eloquence during the presidential visit, and finished his discourse by a profoundly solemn season of prayer."*

It was the last day of the meeting that he preached. The effort had greatly exhausted his strength, but far into the last

*Correspondence of The Methodist Home Journal.

MARTHA'S VINEYARD.-LAST CAMP-MEETING SERMON. 427

night he protracted his labors-singing, praying, talking, exhorting-until his wife, extremely anxious for his welfare, urged him to desist and retire. "Oh, my dear," said he, “it is blessed! it is blessed!" Thus standing, shaking hands with all, and singing, "Oh, bliss of the purified!" he remained while. one was ready to remain and rejoice with him.

This was not enough: whether possessed of a presentiment or not that his camp-meeting career would be soon ended, a restless longing seemed to fill him for still another effort on his chosen field. The fire which had constrained the seraphic Isaiah to cry, "For Zion's sake will I not rest, and for Jerusalem's sake will I not hold my peace, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth," had touched his lips, and off he hastened to Martha's Vineyard, and there we hear of him as preaching with overwhelming effect to the vast and promiscuous assemblage which had gathered at that favorite spot:

"The preaching was unusually spiritual. Rev. Drs. Woodruff, Pierce, Tiffany, and Payne, the brothers Alfred and John Cookman, declared the truth in much assurance, and with great success. The sermon of Rev. Alfred Cookman, on ‘Be filled with the Spirit,' was mightily effective."*

Another correspondent wrote:

"Rev. A. Cookman, through God, did a mighty work for the cause of holiness. My impression is, if we, as a people, will follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, the Great Head of the Church will make our camp-meetings a wonderful means 'for spreading scriptural holiness over these lands.' Ӡ

The sermon here referred to, which was substantially the same as that preached at Urbana, on the text, "Be filled with the Spirit," was the last preached by Mr. Cookman at a campmeeting. He was much agitated as to what he should preach, and, after earnest questioning and prayer, felt impressed to take this subject. What could so appropriately have been his last theme to the general Church, represented as it was in all

*The Methodist.

The Methodist Home Journal.

its branches on that occasion, as this one great theme of his life. Lifted up-to what eye-witnesses have declared was an illumination of person and mind-there, on the remotest coast of New England, he delivered a message to the Church, which the winds of heaven have been, wafting northward, westward, and southward, till believers of every section must catch the wondrous sound, "Be filled with the Spirit." There is no legacy which a truly devoted minister of the Lord Jesus Christ could so fittingly leave to all Christians, whom he loved as he loved his life, as the exhortation and the prayer for them "to be filled with the Spirit." In this sentiment he felt was "completed and compacted" the one great want of the Christian Church.

Mr. Cookman returned from Martha's Vineyard, spent two weeks at Ocean Grove, and then brought his family home, and early in September was at the regular work of his charge. The great spiritual preparation which he had earnestly desired for his fall and winter work had evidently been granted; his mind began promptly to unfold plans of increasing usefulness, and in all the public and social services there was an enlarged attendance and a manifest deepening of religious fervor. The special service for the promotion of holiness, not hitherto appointed, was now established, and from it the happiest results were anticipated.*

There was, however, one drawback to the pastor's plans and expectations-a disturbing element had thrust itself forward and demanded recognition-a strange element, which heretofore had never entered into his reckonings, beset him; his health, always before so firm and reliable, was now weak and

* A card, neatly printed, was issued and circulated with these words: The "Higher Christian Life. A meeting for all interested, irrespective of denominational connections, is held every Friday evening, in the Chapel of Central M. E. Church, Market Street, near Mulberry. Please preserve this card as a remembrancer."

EARTH NEEDS THE GOOD.

429

treacherous. His physical constitution had lost its elasticity; accustomed hitherto to recover its vigor immediately with the suspension of hard work, it now failed to show signs of recuperation. The bow, strung too long, had lost its spring, and, when the string was loosed, there was no rebound. Alfred Cookman had gone too far for his strength—this last summer's campaign had finished what former summers' work had begun and hastened the premature decay of his bodily powers.

It is impossible, as I now enter the shadows which begin to gather about our friend, whom I have thus followed step by step until this period of his life, to dismiss wholly from sight a question which, despite the sanctity of his character, the usefulness of his career, and the triumph of his death, obtrudes itself upon me: Can his uniform course of attending and working at successive camp-meetings during the summer seasons be wholly commended? The difficulty of seeing any mistake in a life so full of good fruits is very great; and yet, when the loss to the Church and to the world which the death of such a man entails is weighed, those who feel it most deeply may be forgiven if they suggest conditions which, humanly considered, may have prevented it.

"Oh, sir! the good die first,

And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
Burn to the socket,"

is an utterance which gratifies a sort of vengeful feeling when we see the good stricken down in their prime and the wicked living to old age; but it is not such as Christianity warrants. The earth needs the good. The cause of God needs the wisdom of age as well as the zeal of youth. Life is the order of God, and, except where it can be clearly pointed out as a duty, it is not to be unduly exposed. Times may come, calls may arise which demand its jeopardy and even its sacrifice as the price of conscience, liberty, humanity; but ordinarily God is most glorified when, by a due observance of the laws of

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