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��An Elder of Ye Olden Time.
��that he is another proof of the fact that to him who has the elements of real, thorough manhood the way is open to make it known to his fellow-man, and he can teach to all who come after him that, unaided by academic or collegiate education, he filled many important po- sitions in religious and national enter- prises, and Come down to old age crowned with the honor and success that ever attend upon a true, noble character.
As he approached his eighteenth year, returning alone from some place of festivity over the pastures and se- questered hills of Grafton, he heard from the sky the words ringing and clear, "You are not about the work which I have for you to do."
Halting in his walk, standing amazed, gazing into the depths of the vault above in speechless wonder, he was weighed down by unfeigned grief as the feeling settled over him that he had a work to perform of greater weight than the Grafton Mountains that looked down upon the generations of sinners to whom he was called to preach.
From this time, he renounced .worldly pleasures, and tried to obey the voice that called him at midnight to the min- isterial work. With Paul he studied and meditated upon the problems of life and death, of conviction and con- version, and the way to address sinners ; like Paul, after the memorable journey to Damascus, he would fain have gone forth to convert his fellow-man, willing to sacrifice himself that he might win a spiritual crown.
About this time, a gifted preacher visited Grafton. Standing upon the pulpit floor, clad in black, his long white locks telling of age and experience in his calling, he talked eloquently to the Grafton people of salvation by grace. John Leland, a beardless boy, clothed in homespun, and wearing his apron of
��leather, arose from the back seat, and forgetting the superiority of the vener- able preacher, in age, in intellect, and personal manners, he declared the argu- ment muddy from the fountain head, and at least so confounded the old man that he finally closed the argument, where, possibly, it would be well for wise men ever to leave the discussion over God's soverign will and man's free agency, by saying, " Well, Brother Le- land, the Lord have mercy upon us, for we are all poor, ignorant creatures."
On September 30, 1776, John Leland married Miss Sally Devine of Hopkin- ton, Massachusetts, and went with her ■ at once to Virginia. But few men, per- haps, are more blessed in their married lives than was he. This most estimable lady was peculiarly adapted to the life before her, and was wonderfully quali- fied to cheer and comfort her husband in days of clouds and adversities.
A lady of much natural personal at- tractions, she was afflicted for many years with a trouble of the throat that rendered speech difficult, and she sel- dom went from home. As Avas the fashion in those days, many ladies, especially in Virginia, indulged in the use of the magic weed given first to the world by Sir Walter Raleigh in his at • tempted colonization of that State ; and Mrs. Leland learned its fascinations early in life. Among th^ household goods taken with them, on this first trip to Virginia, was a smoking box with vari- ous compartments for pipes and to- bacco. Highly polished, of antique and beautiful design, this quaint orna- ment hangs to-day on the parlor wrJi in my mother's house, where, brought by the preacher just after he laid the com- panion of his long life in her grave, and given to my mother's mother, it is treas- ured as its beauty and associations demand.
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