were precluded by many State constitutions from any participation in the
legislative authority, and their compensation depended wholly upon the
voluntary aid of those among whom they labored in charity and love. In
the wide district where the Stevens lived, the country was too sparsely
settled to support a stationed minister, and "preaching" was a luxury.
Unsustained by the rigid precepts of law in any privileges, perquisites,
fixed revenue, prescribed by reverence or authority, except such as was
voluntarily acknowledged, the clergy found that success depended upon
the due cultivation of popular talents. Zeal for the great cause mixed,
perhaps, with a spice of earthly ambition, the innate sense of emulation
and laudable pride, a desire of distinction among their cotemporaries
and brethren, prompted them to seek popularity, and to study all the
arts and means of winning the popular favor.

Travelling from month to month through dark forests, with such ample
time for deep thought, as they ambled slowly along the lonesome horse
path or unfrequented roads, they naturally acquired a pensive and
romantic turn of thought and expression, which is often favorable to
eloquence. Hence their preaching was of the highly popular cast, such as
immortalized Peter Cartwright. The first aim was to excite the
ministers; hence, too, excitement, or, in religious parlance,
"awakenings," or "revivals" became common. Living remote from each
other, and spending much of their time in domestic solitude in vast
forests or wide spreading prairies, the "appointment" for preaching was
looked upon as a gala-day, or a pleasing change, which brought together
the auditors from remote points, and gratified a feeling of curiosity,
which prompted the pioneers to associate and interchange cordial
congratulations.

As yet no meeting house had been erected in all the region where the