OUR LEGACY FROM THE PAST - NCCUMC

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Lewis said to me: "Dr. Closs is ugly when he cries, and he is ugly
when he don't cry." That broke the spell on me, and I looked over
the congregation, and the people seemed to be beside themselves.
Strong men were weeping, and gazing at the Bishop as he soared
away on such flights of eloquence as I had never heard. I do not
believe that I could have told anything about it, if Brother Lewis
had not broken the spell that bound me.
On the following Sunday nearly the whole of Greensboro
turned out to hear the wonderful preacher. The house would not
hold one-tenth of the people who were anxious to hear. I was
among the number to be ordained, and had a chair in front of the
chancel. But the Bishop did not come up to expectation, and
preached a commonplace sermon. He was not a uniform
preacher. He succeeded beyond anybody at times and again
preached a very ordinary sermon. I never expect to hear anything
equal to his Thanksgiving sermon while I live.
From Greensboro Conference I was returned to the
Williamston Circuit, which had been enlarged by the addition of
several appointments, which had been taken from the
Williamston Circuit and out of which the Greenville Circuit was
formed; this circuit was discontinued and the appontments were
put back on the Williamston Circuit, and I had twelve churches,
and my circuit was sixty miles long. This was in 1877, and the
greatest year for revivals I ever saw. We had thirteen great
revivals during the year. We began a meeting in Williamston on
the third Sunday in January that ran on for thirty-one days
through one of the coldest winters I ever saw. But the interest in
the meeting was so great that no kind of weather could keep the
people away from the church. There were over one hundred and
fifty people powerfully converted. Many of those who held to the
Primitive Baptist faith were converted; some of whom joined the
Methodist Church, and some joined the Primitive Baptist.
Dr. Closs came to my help, and preached every day for ten or
twelve days. He always believed that preaching the gospel and
saving men was his principal work. There were some notable conversions
in this meeting, among them Dr. Joshua Taylor, a
leading physician of Williamston, who was quite a skeptic. He