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Editor's note: This report of a revival in Boone County was written by Ezra Ferris, a Baptist pastor in southern Indiana and a correspondent for this New England journal. - jrd
RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE FROM KENTUCKY.
Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman in Boon County, Kentucky, to Rev. D. Benedict, Pawtucket, [RI] dated Dec. 25, 1811.
ABOUT the close of last year, the minds of a number of the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of Bullettsburg, Boon County, Kentucky, appeared to be awakened to a sense of their danger by reason of sin, and to an earnest inquiry after salvation. The meetings in that place, attended by the Rev. Thomas Henderson and Christopher Wilson, were very much crowded. So earnest were the people to hear the word preached, that not only on Sabbath days, but in the evenings on other days of the week, the fervent storms did not hinder them from going in crowds, wherever there was an appointment for preaching. Very soon the church found it necessary, not only at their usual church meetings, but on Lord's days, to open a door for hearing experience. On every opportunity of this kind, through the Winter, Spring, and Summer, numbers came forward with the language of the Psalmist, "Come all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul." On the first Lord's day in March, 48 were baptized by the two Brethren above mentioned; and in September, they had received 177 by baptism. Numbers of them, but a little time before, were avowed enemies of the cross. During the revival, a very respectable Brother, (Absalom Graves, clerk of the Supreme Court,) who had had impressions on his mind for many years about preaching the gospel, but who had hitherto concealed them, was irresistibly aroused to a sense of duty, and now bids fair to be useful in the work of the ministry. The work has spread into neighbouring churches, which have also been blessed with considerable increase, and we may add, the work is still going on, though in a less degree.
Yours, &c.
EZRA FERRIS.
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[The grammar is unchanged, except that f is changed to s for easier reading. This article is taken from a photocopy of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Monthly, Vol. 3, June, 1812, p. 178. The document is in a collection of materials about Christopher Wilson by Alice W. Manchikes and is located in the Boone County Library, Scheben Branch, Union, KY. - Jim Duvall]
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