The Grace of God Manifested. 1 EXTRACT FROM A SERMON DELIVERED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE REV. ALEXANDER CUMMINS. BY THE REV. RUSSEL BIGELOW. ALEXANDER CUMMINS was born in the state of Virginia, on the 5th day of September, 1787. He continued there till he obtained a tolerably good English education. At an early period of life he was united to the partner of his joys and woes, whom he has now left behind to mourn her loss. He soon after removed to the state of Ohio, and settled for a time near the Scioto river, where he was made a subject of awakening grace; and after struggling for some months, he obtained peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This change he experienced at a prayer-meeting, in the twenty-first year of his age, at which time he was enabled to testify that God had power on earth to forgive sin, which evidence he retained till the hour of his dissolution. Not long after his conversion he was exercised about preaching the everlasting gospel. He viewed the world lying in wickedness, groping in darkness, and exposed to misery as he had been. He pitied its condition, and desired its deliverance. He saw a fulness in Jesus; he tasted the sweetness of his grace and mercy; and heartily wished that others might share largely of those heavenly joys. Such were his exercises, his piety, and his gifts, that his brethren soon perceived that the Lord had called him to the work of the ministry. They considered that the circumstances justified them in supposing that the Holy Ghost was addressing them, saying, Set apart ALEXANDER for the work whereunto I have called him. Hence they gave him license to preach as a local preacher. He was soon after admitted on trial as a travelling preacher at the Conference held in Cincinnatti in 1809, which was fourteen years ago, and two years and a half after his conversion. He travelled regularly for five years. The first year on Brush-Creek circuit; the second on Pickaway; the third year on Delaware (now Columbus) circuit; the fourth and fifth years on Deer-Creek circuits. During these labours he suffered many inconveniencies, and endured many hardships. He laboured so regularly and zealously by night and day that his constitution seemed to give way; and he found it necessary to rest one year, which he employed in teaching school. Having gained a little strength he again engaged in the work, and was appointed to the charge of Miami circuit, which at that time was quite laborious. The two following years he was stationed in Cincinnatti; the three following he was presiding elder on Kentucky district; at the close of which he returned to the Ohio Conference, and was appointed presiding elder on Miami district, where he spent the two past years, and ended his labours and his life. In taking a review we may say, first, that VOL. VII. 29 ALEXANDER Cummins, was a man of a sound mind and good judgment, particularly in spiritual matters. He took considerable pains to improve his mind by reading and a close application to study. As a man and acquaintance he was kind and agreeable, and very much respected. As a husband he was affectionate and provident. As a parent he was tender, yet strict and particular. As a Christian he was humble, pious, devout, sober and cheerful. As a minister he was regular, zealous, acceptable and useful. His language was good: his sermons in the general, pointed and weighty. His talents were not the most brilliant; but his greatness consisted in variety and goodness. And such was his zeal, variety and usefulness, that few, if any, were more acceptable or popular. His success has been more than ordinary. I have been informed, that many were converted during the first years of his ministry. The first information I ever received concerning him, was just after he had left his third circuit; I formed an acquaintance in several neighbourhoods in that circuit, in which his zeal and usefulness were much spoken of: and when I travelled that circuit nine years afterwards, I found several of his spiritual children, who were still pressing through difficulties, on their journey to the promised land. My acquaintance with him commenced in the latter end of the year 1815; at which time we were appointed to labour together on the Miami circuit. I was young and inexperienced, but in him I found a father, an instructor, and a firm friend. Long shall I remember the good advice and many instructions I received; and the pious examples set before me, by the beloved minister, whose funeral sermon I preach. He laboured that year with diligence, zeal and success. His zeal, piety and usefulness, while stationed in Cincinnati the two following years, I need scarcely mention; you, my brethren, are his record; you call to recollection his piety, his devotion, his fervour, his diligence, his watchfulness, his anxiety, his pathetic sermons, his fervent prayers. You call to recollection the happy hours you enjoyed under his ministry. And many of you, I presume, consider him as the instrument of your conversion. You view him as your spiritual parent under God; and will have cause to praise God for ever, that you have had the privilege of sitting under his ministry. The three years he laboured as a presiding elder in Kentucky, he was acceptable and useful, highly esteemed by preachers and people. His rides were long (and in some parts) rough and mountainous, and his labours so abundant, as to exhaust his debilitated system. The district he has travelled the two past years, is also large and very laborious. He however performed his duties acceptably and usefully, but with great pain, often travelling and preaching when he ought to have had rest, particularly the last six months. I have already said considerable concerning our departed brother, but, I cannot forbear mentioning his wisdom and firmness as a governor in the church. It was here he excelled; here his true greatness appeared. He was not one of those hasty, rash sort of men, but firm and fixed. His weakly constitution which was severely racked with incessant labour, was often attacked with wasting disease, but he bore all with Christian patience. About six months before his death, he was severely afflicted with the meazles, but by the divine blessing, he partially recovered, and entered again upon his work. And I think it probable, that his exertion before he was fully restored to health, was one cause of bringing on the disease which terminated his earthly career. He visited the circuit of which I had charge, but a short time before he was taken with his last sickness, and seemed equally diligent and fervent as formerly, though hardly able to keep about. He left our Camp-Meeting on Sabbath evening and came home. On the following Friday, rode out to Mechanicsburgh, about eighteen miles from this place, (Cincinnati) to attend a Quarterly Meeting. On Saturday he preached his last sermon, with his usual zeal and pathos, on "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth." That night he was attacked with the disease, which terminated in his death. He was brought home in a wagon and laid on his bed, where he remained for eight weeks, a man of sufferings, racked with pain, and scorched with fever; but he bore all without murmuring. He was grateful for every kindness shown him, and appeared calm, resigned and patient. He said indeed but little about dying, nor did he praise God aloud as some have done; It was not his usual way when in health, but what he did say, was satisfactory. To one friend he said, that he had no anxiety about living, but should be willing to live, till he could settle up his temporal business, if it was the will of the Lord; because he could do it better than others, and thereby prevent trouble after his death: but he was nevertheless willing to resign all into the hands of the Lord. I visited him one week before his death for the first time, and several times afterward. On one of my visits, I talked to him respecting the state of his mind; he seemed composed and resigned, and said he felt that his peace was made with God. The brother who attended on him, asked him a few hours before his death, if he was sensible that he would soon go; he said "yes, I shall soon be in eternity." The brother asked him, if he had any doubts or fears; he said, "not any, my way is clear." His departure was on the 27th day of September 1823, a little before seven o'clock in the evening. Thus lived, and thus died our beloved brother CUMMINS, a pattern of piety, a way mark to Heaven. We do not mean to say that he had no failings, but we say they were comparatively few. He now rests from his labours, and his works follow him. Miscellaneous. THE WEAKNESS AND WICKEDNESS OF AN INFIDEL: OR THE AWFUL STORY OF WILLIAM BEADLE. From PRESIDENT DWIGHT's "Travels in New-England and New-York," Vol. I. pp. 195-200. WETHERSFIELD is remarkable for having been the scene of a crime, more atrocious and horrible than any other which has been perpetrated within the limits of New-England, and scarcely exceeded in the history of man. By the politeness of my friend, COLONEL BELDEN, I am enabled to give you an authentic account of this terrible transaction, taken from the records of the Third School-District in Wethersfield. I shall not, however, copy the record exactly, but will give you the substance of every thing which it contains. WILLIAM BEADLE was born in a little village near London. In the year 1755, he went out to Barbadoes, with GOVERNOR PINFOLD, where he stayed six years, and then returned to England. In 1762, he purchased a small quantity of goods, and brought them to New-York, and thence to Stratford in Connecticut, where he lived about two years. Thence he removed to Derby, where he continued a year or two, and thence to Fairfield. Here he married MISS LATHROP, a lady of respectable family, belonging to Plymouth in Massachusetts. In 1772, he removed to Wethersfield, and continued in this town about ten years, sustaining the character of a worthy honest man, and a fair dealer. In the great controversy which produced the American Revolution, he adopted the American principles, and characteristically adhered with rigid exactness to whatever he had once adopted. After the continental paper-currency* began to depreciate, almost every trader sold his goods at an enhanced price. BEADLE, however, continued to sell his at the original prices, and to receive the depreciated currency in payment. This money he kept by him until it had lost its value. The decay of his property rendered him melancholy, as appeared by several letters which he left behind him, addressed to different persons of his acquaint ance. By the same letters, and other writings, it appears, that he began to entertain designs of the most desperate nature three years before his death, but was induced to postpone them by a hope that Providence would, in some way or other, change his circumstances for the better, so far as to make it advisable for him to wait for death in the ordinary course of events. But every thing which took place, whether of great or little importance, tended, he says, to convince him, that it was his duty to adopt the contrary • The paper-money emitted by Congress during the revolutionary war determination. During all this time he managed his ordinary concerns just as he had heretofore done. His countenance wore no appearance of any change in his feelings or views, and not one of his acquaintance seems to have suspected that he was melancholy. The very evening before the catastrophe, to which I have alluded, took place, he was in company with several of his friends, and conversed on grave and interesting subjects, but without the least appearance of any peculiar emotion. On the morning of December 11, 1782, he called up a female servant, who slept in the same room with his children, and was the only domestic in his family, and directed her to arise so softly as not to disturb the children. When she came down, he gave her a note, which he had written to DR. FARNSWORTH, his family physician, and told her to carry it, and wait till the physician was ready to come with her; informing her at the same time, that MRS. BEADLE had been ill through the night. After the servant had gone, as appeared by the deplorable scene presented to the eyes of those who first entered the house, he took an axe, struck each of his children once, and his wife twice, on the head; cut their throats quite across with a carvingknife, which he had prepared for the purpose; and then shot himself through the head with a pistol. DR. FARNSWORTH, upon opening the note, found that it announced the diabolical purpose of the writer; but, supposing it impossible that a sober man should adopt so horrible a design, concluded that he had been seized by a delirium. DR. FARNSWORTH, however, hastened with the note to the Honourable STEPHEN MIX MITCHELL, now Chief Justice of the State. This gentleman realized the tragedy at once. The house was immediately opened, and all the family were found dead in the manner which has been specified. I knew this family intimately. MRS. BEADLE possessed a very pleasing person, a fine mind, and delightful manners. The children were unusually lovely and promising. BEADLE in his writings, which were numerous, professed himself a Deist, and declared that man was, in his opinion, a mere machine, unaccountable for his actions, and incapable of either virtue or vice. The idea of Revelation he rejected with contempt: at the same time, he reprobated the vices of others in the strongest terms, and spoke of duty, in the very same writings, in language decisively expressive of his belief in the existence of both duty and sin. The Jury of inquest pronounced him to be of sound mind, and brought in a verdict of murder and suicide. The inhabitants of Wethersfield, frantic with indignation and horror at a crime so unnatural and monstrous, and at the sight of a lady and her children, for whom they had the highest regard, thus butchered by one who ought to have protected them at the hazard of his life, took his body, as they found it, and dragged it |