and things that he was not going to talk about, and hitting hard, till the attention and curiosity of the audience were raised to their highest pitch, when finally he remarked:

3

"The thing of which I was going to talk was chewing tobacco. Now, I do hope, when any gentleman comes to church who can't keep from using tobacco during the hours of worship, that he will just take his hat and use it for a spit-box. You all know we are Methodists. You all know that our custom is to kneel when we pray. Now, any gentleman may see, in a moment, how exceedingly inconvenient it must be for a well-dressed Methodist lady to be compelled to kneel down in a puddle of tobacco spit."

"Now,' said Judge White, 'at this time I had in my mouth an uncommonly large quid of tobacco. Axley's singular manner and train of remark strongly arrested my attention. While he was stirring to the right and left, hitting those "things" that he was not going to talk about, my curiosity was busy to find out what he could be aiming at. I was chewing and spitting my large quid with uncommon rapidity, and looking up at the preacher to catch every word and every gesture-when at last he pounced upon the tobacco, behold, there I had a great puddle of tobacco spit! I quietly slipped the quid out of my mouth, and dashed it as far as I could under the seats, resolved never again to be found chewing tobacco in the Methodist church.'"

Axley must have been a thorough student of human nature, as was generally the case with the Methodist preachers of that day. Men whose profession calls them to travel in all sections of the country, and mingle with all classes of society, as Methodist preachers have to do, must be dull students and stupid observers of men and things, if they don't become thoroughly acquainted with

men's hearts and lives. What the eccentric Axley learned in the wide field of labor before him he put to good account, and thus gave evidence that he was not like the sage of olden time, who mingled with the world only to learn its follies and then retired to his cell alone to weep over them.

CHAPTER XVII.

JOSEPH OGLESBY.

IN sketching the life of this pioneer preacher, who, for fifty years, toiled in the wilds of the west; the first herald of the cross that ever penetrated the wilderness of Illinois and preached the Gospel to its scattered inhabitants, we are at a loss for materials respecting his early life and conversion. We find his name on the general Minutes as a probationer in the year 1804, when, as we have already seen, he traveled the Miami circuit with the Rev. John Sale. The Minutes show the work on the Ohio district as follows: W. Burke, presiding elder; Muskingum, George Askin; Hockhocking, James Quinn, John Meek; Scioto, William Pattison, Nathan Barnes; Miami, John Sale, Joseph Oglesby; Guyandotte, Asa Shinn.

In the year following he was sent into the wilderness in the then distant Illinois, almost beyond the reach of the white population. Having preceded Jesse Walker, a most interesting sketch of whose labors, in that distant region, is given by Bishop. Morris in his "Miscellany," the reader has only to refer to that work to see what must have been the toils and hardships of Oglesby in planting Methodism among the semi-civilized inhabitants. The next year he was sent to Barren circuit, in the Cumberland district; in the year following to Shelby, in the Kentucky district. In 1808 he was sent to Nashville circuit, with David Young for his colleague, and the succeeding year to Maramack, in Indiana. At the close

of this year he located. How long he remained in a local relation to the Church we are not able to say exactly. In the mean time he was engaged as a practitioner of medicine, in which profession, we are informed, he was quite successful. His zeal and industry were great, both as it regarded his professional engagements in the healing art, and his duties as a preacher, being ready at all times to do good to the bodies and the souls of men. In the year 1849 we find his name on the effective list in the Indiana conference. That year he was stationed on the Martinsville circuit. The next year his name stands on the Minutes among the superannuated preachers, and the presumption is that his age and feebleness were such as to disqualify him from doing fully the work of an itinerant, and rather than be in the way of an effective man he would not insist on being regarded as fully adequate for the work when he was not. The year 1851 also finds him among the superannuated. Still he traveled extensively, and labored whenever opportunity presented; and frequently his pulpit ministrations were characterized with the pathos and power of a former day. In the Minutes of 1852, in answer to the question of the South-Eastern Indiana conference, "Who have died this year?" the name of Joseph Oglesby stands among the number. The following is the conference memoir, and though short, like the memoirs of the deceased preachers as found in the early Minutes, still it is expressive of his character and labors as a minister of the Lord Jesus, and serves to show the estimate put upon him as a member of the conference':

"REV. JOSEPH OGLESBY.-This venerable servant of God departed this life April 9, 1852, in the city of Louisville.

"We regret that the residence of his family, beyond the bounds of this conference, has prevented us from

obtaining materials for as full a report as his meritorious life demands. But what needs it? His 'witness is in heaven-his record is on high.' There dwell many seals to his ministry, and there rests his happy spirit.

"He was a pioneer Methodist minister. Nearly fifty years ago he began his arduous toils. Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, he traversed, preaching every-where the 'Gospel of the kingdom'the word of this salvation.' No history of Methodism in the vast Mississippi Valley can be complete which does not speak largely of the labors of Joseph Oglesby. Much of it 'he was.'

"In the days of his strength he stood among the strong men of Methodism. 'He was an able minister of the New Testament.' As old age pressed upon him his zeal did not abate. He continued in his superannuated days to preach Jesus, almost every Sabbath, and often through the week.

"The last Sabbath before his short and fatal illness, he preached with great power from 'O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments; then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.'

"He died with his armor on, and fell in sight of glory. Many shall rise up and call him blessed."