People I Have Met

"From this time on two things impressed us above all other manifestations of the holy life in Ernest. One was his untiring zeal in the service of God, and the other his perfect love.

He did not obtain a new set of brains, but remained ordinarily gifted as before, although full salvation undoubtedly helped what he did possess in mental lines. But the devotion to Christ and the tender love for souls he constantly exhibited we have never seen equaled by any young person, and surpassed by few of older years and riper Christian character. It became a pleasure to have the lad call, to hear him talk, and watch the holy light which a God of Love had kindled in his countenance." P. 3

"It would be impossible to describe the strange power of the Singer's voice or depict his manner, as he, in less than five minutes, sang that drowsy, apathetic congregation into a wide-awake state of intense and sympathetic listening.

Standing in the flickered light of the old bush arbor, the Singer seemed to fix his eyes on the distant blue sky over which a few white clouds were softly floating. It looked like he was thinking of the City and Country beyond and above this world, and had his gaze fixed even then on the heavenly company of the martyrs, apostles, prophets, and the very persons about whose suffering, triumph and translation he was singing.

Watching the people we saw that the Singer, without having made any special effort, without musical knowledge or gifted voice, yet through the power of the Holy Spirit in him had the entire audience under perfect sway. On all sides numbers were bending eagerly forward; tears were trickling down scores of faces; and when after singing several stanzas the man of God reached the third line of the chorus...  P.5

"He was an old gentleman of sixty-five, wore closely cropped gray hair, had a clean shaved face,and rather ruddy complexion. His suit of clothes was a business one of a snuff brown color. He was the picture of primness and neatness from his well tied cravat to his polished shoes.

He invariably sat in a chair directly in front of the audience, facing the speaker, and with one leg crossed over another. He never looked at the preacher, but sat as described with a toothpick in his mouth, his hand covering the top of an old-style ivory-headed walking stick, and his eyes never lifted higher than the knee of the minister in the pulpit. He had but three motions, a slight chewing on the goose quill, a soft rubbing of the ivory head of his cane with the palm of his hand, and a change in the leg that was crossed; this last, however, occurring but rarely....  P. 10

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