Landmark
f«' T18 »SFKISE fHS yfilMITIIS BiPflSTS.
“TO THE lAW AND TO THE TESTIMONY.”
.Jt
I
Yol. X.—No. 1.
Wilson, N. C., No.member 15, 1876.
Whole No. ^17.
ZioiYs Landmark.
V>Y the help of the Lord, tliis paper will
e,'tmteiKl for the aneieiit hindmark, guided by
its stakes of truth,and strengthened by its cords
of love. :
,'tt Irnpefi to reject all Tit.ADlTloxs AND
A^VritCTlONS ON MEN, and regard only the
BIBLE AS THE STANDARD of TRUTH.
It urge.s people to seiireh the scriptures and,
obey Jesus .as the orriy King in the holy hit"
of Zion, kec'piiig theni.selve,s unspotted fro
the world.
It aims to contend for the niy.stery of the
faith in fiod and ilie Fatlur, Jesus the Medi-
ytor, and the Holy .Spirit, the i5le.ssed Cd'm-
foi-t-er.
All lovers of go.spel truth are invited to
write for it—if so impressed. ,,
May grace, mercy and peace, be multiplied
to sill lovers of Je.sus.
©niiirauninifcu.
Near Cor.yers, Ga., Oct- 18, 1876.
Elder P. 1). Gold.—Dear Brother:—
You will find enclo.-ieda letter from
brollter Mo.se.s Forrnby, from Floyd
Co., Ga., wherein he has'giveii a rc-
iallon of his travels from nature to
grace. Believing it will be very in
teresting to many of your readens, I
have gotten his permission to have it
published, prtivided yon will do it.—
l^friends
[should
TITe copy.
"rn'the dose I will state to you,
that we had a fine meeting at our
last Association : great preaching.—
Twenty-five or thirty preachers, some
said. We had brother Pnrsley with
ns again. We w'onld have been glad
to have you with us. We were
well pleased with the short acquaint
ance we had with you last year at
onr (the Yellow Fiver) Association.
We had a good meeting at the Mari
etta and Oconee Asssociations, All
the preaching was peace. The ac
commodation w-as good; a beautiful
time, too, for our meeting.
W. D, Almond.
Near Rome, Floyd Co., Ga., Aug. 12, 1870.
Specially Beloved, aifd Much Edeemed
Brother,—Eld. W. D. Almond:—
According to promise, I forward
yon, for investigation, my travels
and trials. Y"oii spoke of wishing to
have them published in the Signs of
the Times, while there are others who
wash them published in the Land
mark. Please request them copied,
as the most of my neighbors are read
ers of the Landmark. If it goes to
press, there is one thing I regret;
tltat is, I fear that I shall have to
write more than the Editor would
like ,to be plagued with. But I wish
to say enough to give the reader a
sense of the rugged road I have trav
eled and where I have got to now.—
I will consent to its publication to
help to pay for the joys I have re
ceived in reading others’ experiences.
I fear it will not pay others, as theirs
have benefited me. As Eld. David
Patman .said, he would despair to try
to tell it allj^so 1 feel that that is rny
case e.xactly.
Dear brother, in about my sixth or
seventh year, I fully believed there
was a heaven for the good and a hell
for the bad. I v as in my mother’s
.garden, and right there I had some
f-erions reflections, and I have not
forgotten them till this day, though
it lias been about fifty years ago. I
thought when I got grown that I
wonlti get religion, do better, etc.—
TheseYvere my thoughts frop; that
time till I was grown, thinking all
the time that when I got iny consent
to pray the Lord, do better, reform,
&c., that he would forgive my sins,
give me religion, and I would join
the church, and when I died I would
go to heaven, (I was then a full
grown arminian, But did not know
it,) but in time I hope the Lord did
arrest my poor soul. Then trouble
came, and I yet was an armlnlan. I,
like all Adam’s race, was trying rav
own strength by the law. I read and
turned from page to p-age, but found
no comfort, but dispouragement and
condemipitlon^ I ^onld reacl evdrAa
opporttfiflB^^Bjjrpray dlveii tl-o'o'
conceal ^
It .sp?(T)JBPBB^^^waSaTHance for
every one but me. I was acting in^
earnest and candor, my brother ; for
I thought if I ever intended to act
iionestly, now was my time. I was
daily visiting the secret places where
I thought I was unseen by human
eyes, in trying to pray the Lord for
mercy. Eld. Joel Colly was the pas
tor of Bullock church, at that time,
in Newton county, Ga., where I then
live 1, in one and a halt miles of Con
yers. I Avent to that church to meet
ing every opportunity, and visited
the MIssionarIe.s, Methodists, and
Presbyterians; but Primitive Btip-
tists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and
Ylissionaries all could not ease my
troubles. kSome of them would tell
the sinner to continue to pray and
the Lord would hav’e mercy on him.
Along here was trouble upon trcuble,
by day and by night. I was tempt
ed to believe that there was no reali
ty in religion, and even tempted to
believe that there was no God at all ;
for I had done all I could and yet
had no religion. It seemed that there
was a chance for every body else but
me, till finally I was thinking the
day of grace Was about past Avith me ;
for I thought the Scriptures said that
the Spirit of the Lord should not al-
Avays strive with man.
In 1845 1 had charge of a school
at Rockdale church, and I can’t tell
till this day how that school was
managed; for trouble Avas my portion
day and night when I was awake.—
There Avas a great deal of the time
that sleep fled from me. I was dai
ly in some secret place in prayer to
God to have mercy on me. (I Avas
not yet married.) I was sitting in
my school house door one day, look
ing at the children play, and had
(his thought: If Ave were all called
to die, Avhat would be the consequen
ces. My.^elf and forty children, and
not a Christian among us. Terrible!
Terrible! I tried to pray for rny
litle .school children as well as my
self. I Avas not Avilling to see any of
them lost. I Avent before my fathei’s
gate, in the lone.some hours of the
night, to an oak tree, and made that
tree a Avitiiess between me and my
God that I Avould spend the remain
der of my days in prayer to him ; for
if lost I could only pray the Lord for
mercy. At my school there was a
little close thicket near by Avhere I
daily visited to hide myself in and
try to pray for mercy. At one time
I felt that if I waited till my regular
hours to visit the thicket it AVdlild be
too late. I made excu.ses and left
tile school room. I tell you time
required haste. It appeared short,
indeed, to me. I had got in fifty
vards of the place, perhaps, when it
e^'curred to n^e that if I Avent there
V ould rake
uTstantly, and if I went not,
it was present death ; for I had been
there many times and it had done
me no good. It oocured to me that
I was only making a habit of going
there, and could see no good that it
had done. I was getting Averse and
worse continually. The more I tried
to do right the Avorse I did ; but the
very impulse of my soul was. Lord,
have mercy. I could not utter words
to convey to the Lord my desires. I
could only say, O Lord, thou knoAV-
est the secret intentions of my heart.
I have not Avords nor language to ex
press it, but grant, Lord, if consistent
with thy will to have mercy on me.
It Avas a dark and dismal time with
me about this time. My older broth
er and I Avere lying in the bed to
gether one night, up stains, and he
had been to sleep for hours, perhaps,
but I Avas turning from side to side
on mv bed, not knowing Avhether I
should live till morning light or not.
I liecame so alarmed that I \A'as mak
ing considerable noise by groaning.
I thought my heart had stojiped
beating, and that I had ceased breath
ing. I could not feel a pulse in my
arm nor anywhere else. My noise
atvoke my brother. He amse excit
ed and made me get out of Led and
carried me down stairs, and that
aAvoke father and mother, and they
bsing somewhat alarmed made me a
bed on the floor, gave me some teas,
and perhaps bathed me in camphor
a little. By the by I fell to sleep
and aAVoke no more till morning, and
a short time after, as I was meditat
ing upon my wicked and troubled
life, 1 did wish that if it had been the
will of God, I had not been born.—
I Avould gladly have exchanged plac
es with the foAvls of the air or the
brute creation. (R'ght here I con
fess I had eyes and saAv not, and a
heart and could not understand.) So
it was but a short time, just as I
awoke one morning I had a joyful
light, and that load of guilt that had
been bowing me down so long Avas
gone. I felt like the frowns of the
Lord Avere turned away from me. 1
felt calm and joyful in all respects.—
And now one of the strange things
a[)peared to me; my troubles Avere
gone and I AA^as no Christian.—
for some time, I could not tell what
kind of a fix I was in. I thought
my destiny aa'us fixed in eternal pun
ishment after death perhaps. I also
thought that it might be that the
Lord had relieved my troubles till
death ; and various other notions 1
had. I fell in conversation Avitli
Stephen Daniel, an Old School Bap
tist, and told him my situation. He
t«ld me that I ought to talk to the
church. That surprised me; but I
told him it would do me good or re
lieve n;^e to confess ray>pin.q/>o God,
AVvife 'w hell.
Avasiis much as any could say.
In February, 1851, I moved to
Floyed county, Ga., near Rome,
where I now live, and it began to be
suggested to me to talk to the church.
Finally I concluded I AA'Ould, but the
time Avas put otf, and put otf. At
length ray wife was taken sick with
slow fever. The doctor, neighbors,
and all who saw her thought she
Avould die. I then thought it aa'bs af
fliction sent on her for ray disobedi
ence. (She Avas already a Primitive
Baptist ; baptised at Bullock church,
Newton county, Ga., by Eld. Joel
Colly.) I went and got on my knees,
in secret, humble prayer to God,
and made this vow, that if the Lord
AAmuld restore her to health, I Avould
go in the discharge of my duty in
talking to the church. So it came to
pass that she got well again, but 1
could not get ready to pay ray vow,
yet kept saying I Avould, Our chil
dren took the scarlet fever, and my
little son, I thought, must die. 1
then sutfered the stripes for not pay
ing my vow. I again, in secret on
my knees, promised the Lord if he
Avould restore my little son to health,
I certainly would pay my vow with
out fail. But I had vowed and failed
to comply, and how could I expect
the Lord to believe me tlie secotui
time. So I promised him if he
v/ould restore my little son to health,
this time, and I failed to pay my
VOAV I would not ask him again to
restore one of ray family to health un
til I had jjaid my vow. My son was
restored to liealth, and then I prom
ised to go and pay my debt, but yet
could not get ready. , '
I wei*t on go for a few years, when