2 34
��Afi Elder of Ye Olden Time.
��stopped at villages along the way, preaching wherever the door opened for him, and gained the name of the Mam- moth Priest from the crowds to whom he preached.
John Leland had a keen vein of hu- mor in his make up, and never failed to help on a good joke. Upon a time, he was expected to officiate at a day's meet- ing, and travelling on horseback reached the house of the gentleman near the meeting-house, where he was told prep- arations were made for him. Some-
- vhat travel-worn, brown with the dust
of the road, and simply clad, he did not appear like the celebrated minister ; and when he asked if he could be accom- modated for the night, was told that they had no place for him, that the R'ev. John Leland was to be their guest, looked for every inoment. But the traveller was weary, and would sleep anywhere — in the sen^ants' hall — would be satisfied with any fare, even a bowl of milk. So he was allowed to stay ; he sat by the kitchen fire as the maidens hurried back and forth mak- ing arrangements, and ate his simple meal while the room was fragrant with savory viands cooking for the distin- guished preacher, who did not come.
As the evening advanced the master of the house catechised the stranger concerning his religious attainments, and among other questions asked him how many commandments there were ; to which the old man said lie thought there were eleven, and was chided for such ignorance. The next morning dawned cloudless and the meeting- house was filled. The old man ac- cepted an invitation to attend Church and occupy a seat with his entertainer. When the hour arrived at which the service was appointed, he arose and walking deliberately to his place in the pulpit. He, after the opening prayer, took for his text, " And a new com- mandment give I unto thee, that ye love one another."
Imagination can picture the dismay of the host, and the amusement that twinkled from the eye of Leland as he told the story.
Both music and poetry, as we have said, he loved, and spent many hours of leisure in the compO'Mtion of the latter, which he set to the tunes he best loved,
��selecting once a popular dancing tune for a hymn. He was spoken to con- cerning it by one of his deacons, and replied :
" Yes, I know, but I do not propose to allow the Devil to have all the good tunes for his worship."
Some of his hymns have taken a place in standard works and are read often from the desks of all our Churches. Who does not remember the touching one commencing :
" The day is past and gone, The evening shades appear."
It was near the beginning of 1841, and at the extreme age of eighty-six, that death found him at his post. His strength had not declined nor his health failed, until one evening, after having spoken to a large congregation and re- tired to his room, he was taken ill, and for a few days lay upon his bed, serene, cheerful, in fiiU possession of his rea- son ; but according to his owni words, " With nothing to do, but die," for he had not received "the token" of re- covery and was positive his end was very near. He conversed calmly with his friends, and called their attention to the fact that his thoughts seemed to linger with the scenes of the past and with her vvtio had so often in other days leaned over his bed in sickness.
And so he died and was t?ken back to his home of half a century, which he had left only a few days before in health, and although the wintry winds swept the broad streets, and blew like a wail up the aisle of the old Church where he had so often trod, a laree concourse gathered to look for the last time upon the face of him who had ministered to them in holy thin^ for so many years ; and they buried him in the central lot of the sunny cemetery where rest the dead, and where are paid to them the tributes which have ever obtained through every clime, 'mid every race and creed, since that first one made just outside of Eden's gates.
The spot is marked by a simple mon- ument bearing the words, " Here lies the body of the Rev. John Leland of Cheshire, who labored sixty-seven years to promote piety and vindicate the civil' and rehgious rights of all men."
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