Second Great Awakening Part Four - Casualties
As is commonly known, when a work that God initiates is ongoing two opposite things will be seen. It will on one hand be a source of redemption and blessing, and on the other hand it can be a source of judgment to those who oppose what He is doing. It is one thing to oppose some work that has it’s origin in men, but an entirely different thing to oppose a work that has it’s origin in the heart of God. I am going to list three occasions where judgment was administered to individuals who persisted in not only resisting God- but violently opposed- what He was doing and attempted to hinder others in the process.
Account #1:
”It was at Old Gasper [KY] that the first camp meeting in Christendom was held. It was here, just a century ago, that the Spirit of God so wonderfully operated on the hearts of men, convicting the stubborn-hearted, and often overpowering them so that they fell to the ground in an utterly helpless condition. On one occasion, a married lady went to the altar for prayer, and her husband, a very wicked man, went and very roughly dragged her away, and on this spot God struck him dead! Ah, those were wonderful days! Would [that] we had the power from on high today, as our fathers had it then, for [if] were it so, no power could stand against us!”
https://www.cumberland.org/hfcpc/churches/GasRivKY.htm
Account #2:
“While I am on this subject, I will relate a very serious circumstance which I knew to take place with a man who had the jerks at a camp-meeting, on what was called the Ridge [TN], in William McGee’s congregation. There was a great work of religion in the encampment. The jerks were very prevalent. There was a company of drunken rowdies who came to interrupt the meeting.
These rowdies were headed by a very large, drinking man. They came with their bottles of whisky in their pockets. This large man cursed the jerks, and all religion. Shortly afterward he took the jerks, and he started to run, but he jerked so powerfully he could not get away. He halted among some saplings, and, although he was violently agitated, he took out his bottle of whisky, and swore he would drink the damned jerks to death; but he jerked at such a rate he could not get the bottle to his mouth, though he tried hard. At length he fetched a sudden jerk, and the bottle struck a sapling and was broken to pieces, and spilled his whisky on the ground.
There was a great crowd gathered round him, and when he lost his whisky, he became very much enraged, and cursed and swore very profanely, his jerks still increasing. At length he fetched a very violent jerk, snapped his neck, fell, and soon expired, with his mouth full of cursing and bitterness.”
Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, p. 4
Account #3:
“The great revival was underway in Sumner County in the summer of 1800, when a large number of people assembled at a sacramental meeting held at Robert Shaw’s [TN] on the head waters of Red River near the Robertson County line. Those attending were quickly caught up in the spirit of the Kentucky revival as they listened to Reverend McGready of Logan County. He was assisted by Presbyterians Rankin and Craighead of Nashville, and William McGee of Shiloh, all of whom would continue to promote camp meetings during the next decade.
Years later, John McGee recalled in a letter an incident at this meeting: ‘There was a man at the ridge meeting who got mad, cursed the people, and said he would go home, but before he got out of sight of the campground, a tree fell on him, and he was carried home dead.’”
The Great Leap Westward: A History of Sumner County, Tennessee, Walter T. Durham
This last example is certainly not among those who opposed God’s work, but instead gave their lives to facilitate what He was doing at the cost of their own lives. I have listed them as casualties because they fought bravely and selflessly to promote what God was doing among the pioneers on the frontier of Kentucky and Tennessee. Perhaps instead of the word ‘casualties’, the word ‘martyrs’ would be more appropriate because they did not value their own lives above what they saw God doing on the frontier.
“It was the circuit riding preachers of the Methodist church who helped to spread much of the revival fire. Circuit riders often traversed dangerous venues in order to bring the gospel to the frontier. One-half of these brave soldiers of the cross died before their thirty-third birthday.”
Firefall, page 237