tached *, and whose popular talents he had no doubt would be eminently useful in that country,) should accompany him into Virginia, and assist him in his evangelical labours there for a few months. Mr. Rodgers consented to go. The Presbytery made the appointment accordingly: and the two friends, without loss of time, prosecuted their journey together, and reached Virginia toward the latter end of April.

This journey was attended with an occurrence too remarkable to be omitted. Mr. Rodgers, from his earliest years, had been unusually fearful of lightning and thunder. So great, indeed, was his agitation and suffering during thunder storms, that the approach or prospect of one made him unhappy. He had taken much pains to get the better of this weakness; but, to use

The attachment between President Davies and Dr. Rodgers was unusually ardent and uniform. The former named one of his sons John Rodgers, after his friend. The latter, on his part, was not less affectionate and constant in his testimonies of regard. He received Mr. Davies' mother, after the premature and lamented death of her son, into his family, where she was treated with filial kindness and respect, for a considerable time, and where she died.

his own language, "neither reason, philosophy, ❝nor religion availed any thing;" and it was the more distressing, because he feared it might, in some degree, interfere with his ministerial usefulness. But in the course of the journey under consideration, he was entirely delivered from this infirmity, and by means the most unlikely that could be imagined to produce such a happy effect.

The

While he and Mr. Davies, after they had entered Virginia, were riding together one afternoon, they were overtaken by one of the most tremendous thunder storms ever known in that part of the country. They were in the midst of an extensive forest, and several miles distant from any house which offered even tolerable shelter, either to them or their horses. storm came up with great rapidity; the lightning and thunder were violent beyond all description; and the whole scene such as might be supposed to appal the stoutest heart. Their horses, terrified and trembling, refused to proceed. They were obliged to alight; and standing by their beasts, expected every moment to be precipitated into eternity by the resistless element. Providentially, however, they escaped un

hurt: and the consequeuce was as wonderful, as the preservation was happy. From that hour Mr. Rodgers was entirely delivered from the infirmity which had long given him so much dis tress! On whatever principle we may attempt to account for the fact; whether we suppose that he was so completely saturated with fear on the occasion, as to be, ever afterwards, unsusceptible of its influence from the same source; in other words, that he was literally "frightened "out of his fear;" or whether we suppose that so signal an experience of divine protection, was made the means of inspiring him, thence forward, with a larger share of pious confidence, when a similar danger arose :--whether we resolve the fact into one or the other of these principles, still the fact itself is unquestionable that during the whole of his after life, he displayed an unusual degree of composure and self-possession amidst the severest thunder

storms.

The rise and progress of the body of Presbyterians in Virginia, to whom the labours of Mr. Davies and Mr. Rodgers were now directed, deserve some notice, before we proceed. They deserve this notice not only as being remarkably

interesting in themselves, but also as throwing light on the treatment received by the subject of these Memoirs, in the course of the southern mission of which we are speaking.

The first settlers in Virginia were generally connected with the Episcopal church. Episcopacy was early established in the Dominion, by law, and remained so until the revolution which terminated in American independence *. A

* In 1618 a law was passed in Virginia which enacted, that "every person should go to church on sundays and "holy-days, or lye neck and heels that night, and be a "slave to the Colony the following week." For the second offence he was to be a slave for a month; and for the third, a year and a day. Stith's Hist. p. 148. In 1642 a law passed, which enacted, that "no minister shall "be permitted to officiate in the country but such as "shall produce to the governor a testimonial that he "hath received his ordination from some Bishop in Eng

land; and shall then subscribe to be conformable to "the orders and constitutions of the Church of England: " and if any other person, pretending himself to be a mi"nister, shall, contrary to this act, presume to teach or "preach, publicly or privately, the governor and council "are hereby desired and empowered to suspend and silence "the person so offending; and upon his obstinate persis"tence, to compel him to depart the country with the "first convenience." Laws of Virginia. Edit. 1769. p. 3.

very small number of Presbyterians from Scotland, and a still smaller number of Dissenters from South-Britain, were thinly scattered through the Colony; but they were so few and so destitute of religious zeal, that no ecclesiastical organization different from that of the establishment seems to have been thought of, (excepting on a small scale on the eastern shore, as will hereafter appear,) until between the years 1730 and 1743, of the last century. During that period, a few Presbyterian Churches were formed, under circumstances too remarkable and interesting to pass unnoticed.

About the year 1730, there resided in the great Northern Neck, between the Rappahannoc and Potomac rivers, a certain John Organ, a pious schoolmaster, from Scotland. Soon after his establishment in that country, finding that there was no place of public worship in his immediate neighbourhood, and that a large portion

Several of these laws were afterwards repealed, or their penalties mitigated; but they remained severe until the revolution. We are accustomed to smile at what are called the blue-laws of Connecticut; but it would be difficult to find any thing in them equal to the first act abovementioned.