Most of the facts and incidents in these sketches were committed to writing about the time of their occurrence, and may be relied on as simple verities. Much of deep inherent interest, which met my eye, or fell upon my ear, might have been added, but for its inappropriateness to the character of this work, or unduly swelling the narrative.

Those enjoying the calm refinements of social life in our favored cities and villages, who have never entered the abodes of ignorance and poverty in the moral wastes of the land, may be unwilling to credit even the facts related; but in a matter of such infinite importance as the enlightenment and salvation of perishing souls, could the real facts have been consistently withheld?

In the providence of God I was sent out as a watchman, not upon the walls of Zion, but outside of those walls; and ought I to conceal the facts, and report, “All’s well,” when hundreds of thousands are dying in sin and ignorance of the great salvation? Would not such unfaithfulness be criminal in the sight of God?

And when the Holy Spirit was poured out in marvellous effusions, almost as in the day of Pentecost, should not the facts be recorded to the praise of divine grace in Jesus Christ?

Reared as I was from infancy under religious privileges, I had no idea that any part of our land was in the sad moral condition which I found actually to exist; or that the distribution of printed truth and personal labors “publicly and from house to house,” were ever so richly blessed. And such erroneous and defective impressions as to the wants of our fellow-men, and the encouragements to labor for their good, I believe are very prevalent.

I remember the day when I was confident that all around me were well supplied with the Bible, but on examination I found eight families, and among them my next door neighbor, who had no Bible; and a pastor who regarded Bible efforts in his congregation as quite unnecessary, on investigation received from family after family the report, “No Bible,” the family of his own sexton being among the number. An excellent young man, now a missionary in a distant land, on faithfully exploring a wealthy county, stated what he had seen to Mr. W——, a distinguished Christian citizen. “I have heard of you,” said the gentleman. “I don’t believe the statements you are making about the moral destitutions of this county. I have made up my mind to go with you and see for myself.” The young man welcomed his company. In the first dwelling they entered the family had no books, not even a Bible. Said Mr. W——, “Give them $2 50 worth, and I will pay for them.” In the next they entered, and in the third, they found equal destitution; and in each case Mr. W—— said, “Give them $2 50 worth, and I will foot the bill.” They went further, but soon Mr. W—— said, “My young friend, the half is not told; take this $20 and go on with this heaven-directed work.”

As to the rich blessing that has attended the reading of books and tracts, it is well for those reared in the midst of church privileges and good libraries to consider how different the influence of a good book may be on such as have few books, or none at all. Take, if you please, a prosperous family in the interior of the country, far from any book-store, who may have an old family Bible, a few school-books, or perhaps some other old books moral and religious. A colporteur enters with his saddle-bags of beautiful books. The children are almost frantic with joy. Each member of the family gets a book. It is devoured with greediness—not by a gospel-hardened sinner, but by one who has few or no gospel privileges.

Is it strange that such a one, on reading the Pilgrim’s Progress, the Anxious Inquirer, or Come to Jesus, is immediately awakened to seek for pardon and salvation? Is it not rather more strange, that every one who attentively and solemnly reads such a book is not led to Christ?

And when we come down to those who are wholly destitute of books, who rarely hear a sermon, and yet are able to read, the effect is often still more powerful for good.

Notwithstanding all that has been done, I believe one half of all the families in our land now belong to one of these two classes.

Hence the necessity of this system of evangelization. We fear the time is far distant when our country will be so well supplied with churches and pastors as to reach the surging masses of all languages that are crowding our vast territories, seeking homes for themselves and families.

Let each one ask himself, in view of the final account he must give to God, “What can I do for these perishing thousands?” Here a way is pointed out by which every one can do something, either by laboring, praying, or giving. An old lady unable to move about, with an income of $600 per annum, gave $150 each year as the salary of a colporteur, and she had a few other ladies to meet her once each week to pray for God’s blessing on his labors. Few men in latter days have done as much good as this colporteur, Mr. C——r. She thus labored by proxy. The man is still living who at first paid $150 for my support, and was thus instrumental in whatever good I have done. Hundreds would be ready to go and work in this department of Christian effort if means were provided.

This system of labor developes the dormant power of the church. Hundreds whose influence for good was never felt outside of their own family circle, have become successful laborers in this heaven-born work. Many of them are now able ministers of the New Testament, who would have remained “hewers of wood and drawers of water” had it not been for this system of doing good. I call to mind the names of a score of men who have been brought into the work of the ministry either directly or indirectly by this system of colportage.

Shall a work of so much power for good, and so much needed, be unsupported? The price of one ocean steamer would support it efficiently over the whole land for one year.

The issuing of this history is what the writer never intended to do, or allow others to do while he lived. He has prepared it, if he knows his own heart, purely with the hope it may do good. He trusts it may suggest to some whose supreme desire is to honor Christ in the salvation of men, a way by which they may gain the blessing of those who “turn many to righteousness,” and who shall shine, above the brightness of the firmament, “as the stars for ever and ever.” That this may be the gracious reward of him who writes, and of all who read this book, is the fervent prayer of the pioneer colporteur in the Alleghany mountains.

Note.—The labors of this single-hearted, devoted, and fearless servant of Christ were at first secured for one year to explore some of these wild mountain gorges. Having been continued five years as above, they were extended southward in the Alleghany range, and at length over the whole states of Virginia and North Carolina, till he had had the coÖperation of three hundred colporteurs, and their visits had reached five hundred thousand families, over forty thousand of whom attended no place of evangelical worship. Usually they read the Scriptures, conversed, and prayed in each family; and they gathered into Sabbath-schools seventy thousand children, many of whom received their first book and learned their first lesson through this agency. Such wonderful effusions of the Holy Spirit as in some instances above recorded, were rarely witnessed, but these continued labors were evidently owned in the conversion of multitudes of souls. As the writer of the above sketches, now a commissioned minister of Christ, has well said, “It must have been the work of God, who causes weak things to confound the mighty. It was God who led the way, and raised up men and means, and guided his servants, and blessed them with his presence; and to him be all the glory.”

W. A. H. Sec’y.

New York, December, 1863.