LIFE OF ELDER C. B. HASSELL. (Sylvester Hassell)

At one o'clock Sunday morning, April 11, 1880, my dear father, Elder Cushing Biggs Hassell, at his house in Williamston, N. C, after an illness of forty-two days, and in the seventy-first year of his age, gently fell asleep in Jesus. For forty years, he had been a minister, and for about twenty-five years, perhaps, the leading minister of the Primitive Baptist Church in North Carolina.

He was born near Williamston, N. C, October 14, 1808. His father, Joshua N. Hassell, was an honest and hospitable man, but made no profession of religion, and died in 1824, leaving his family penniless. His mother, whose maiden name was Martha Biggs, was a woman of remarkable sagacity, energy, and decision of character. She was a zealous member of the Primitive Baptist Church. For some thirty years previous to her death, in 1860, she was generally confined to her bed with rheumatism, and was wonderfully resigned and cheerful. Father was sent to school at irregular intervals from his third to his fifteenth year, and while in business, studied the classical languages under different teachers. At fifteen, his father having died, he stopped school to labor for the support of his mother and her family. While at school, he was noted above his schoolmates for aptness at learning, steady, moral habits, and serious disposition. He even then esteemed his reputation and good name as better than riches. When he attained his eighteenth year, he entered into five excellent resolutions, to which he steadfastly adhered the remainder of his life: To abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors, tobacco, gaming, and profanity, and to be strictly honest, truthful, and upright in all his dealings. He at an early period entered upon a mercantile career, which he followed through life. His business was large and generally prosperous, though he suffered many heavy losses from his debtors not fulfilling their promises to him; and in this manner, as he used to say, he helped materially to support at least five hundred different families. He preferred to suffer loss rather than grind the faces of the poor. At his death, he had enough solvent credits to pay all his debts and leave his entire real estate to his family. He was twice married. First, in 1832, to Mary Davis, who bore him, died in 1846, and in 1849 he married, in Warwick, N. Y., Martha Maria Jewett, the widow of Elder Daniel E. Jewett, the founder and conductor of the " Christian Doctrinal Advocate and Monitor." 

Of their four children, a daughter and two sons survive, all grown and married. To illustrate Ms usefulness to the world, it may be stated that he energetically and successfully filled the following positions for many years: Trustee of the Williamston Academy; Founder, Secretary, Treasurer and Librarian of the Williamston Library Association; Trustee and member of the Board of Examiners of the University of North Carolina; Agent of the Chairman of the Board of Superintendents of Common Schools of Martin County, transacting all the laborious and difficult work of that office; Clerk and Master in Equity for Martin County; President of the Roanoke Steam Navigation Company; Treasurer of the County of Martin, only four votes in the county being cast against him; was chosen delegate to the State Convention, February, 1861; and he served as delegate to the important Constitutional State Convention of 1875. In the Winter of 1827-8, he felt himself arrested by some supernatural power, and exceedingly distressed on account of the original depravity of his heart, and the consequent impure streams constantly flowing from this corrupt fountain. He was at first a religious skeptic, and read the Bible simply to demonstrate its inconsistencies and absurdities; but the words of Divine truth proved as barbed arrows to his heart, and convinced him of the utter insufficiency of his own righteousness, and his awful condition in the sight of a holy God. It was at a time of religious excitement in the community, and he tried to hide his heart-troubles from the world. He fled to the law for refuge and safety; he resolved and reresolved to live a still more moral life, but he found that all his fine resolutions and deeds were but as filthy rags, dross, and abomination in the eyes of Infinite Holiness. 

While he was thus despairing of salvation by the deeds of the law, and saw no way of escape and deliverance from sin and its awful consequences, and while bowed in secret at the throne of grace, on the thirteenth of January, 1828, Christ Jesus was presented to the eye of his understanding as being the end of the law for righteousness to t he believer, so that the believer in Jesus is freely justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses; that thus the perfect obedience of Christ is imputed without money or price to every poor convicted soul that abandons all creature dependence, and trusts entirely in the mercy of Omnipotence. Then and there, he felt the burden of sin removed, and he experienced a sensation of joy unspeakable and full of glory. He was at this time living in Halifax, N. C, where there was no Baptist Church. He was deeply impressed with his duty to be baptized. Availing himself of the first opportunity, in March of that year, he went down to Williamston and was received into the fellowship of Skewarkey Church and baptized by Elder Joseph Biggs on the thirteenth of that month. The great evangelical doctrine of the election, total depravity, particular redemption, effectual calling, and final perseverance of the saints to glory was at this early period immovably settled in his mind. In 1833, he was chosen a Deacon of Skewarkey Church. In that year, General William Clark, an ex-member of Congress, a man of wealth and talents, and a minister of one of the churches in the Kehukee Association, withdrew from her communion and wrote a defamatory pamphlet against that Association. Father drew up a reply of sixty pages, which was adopted by the Association and extensively circulated. Clark was silenced and went southwest. 

Father took an active part in prayer meetings and church conferences, and in 1840, he was licensed to preach, and in 1843, he was ordained by a presbytery composed of Elders James Osbourn, Joseph Biggs, and William Whitaker. He was chosen pastor of Skewarkey and Spring Green Churches, which he visited every second and fourth Saturday and Sunday, going to other churches generally on the other two Sundays in each month. He rarely failed to attend the Skewarkey Union Meeting every fifth Sunday. In 1859, he was chosen Moderator of the Kehukee Association and was continually re-elected till his death. He was always present at the session of the Association. He often visited other Associations in this State and in the Middle States, and went twice on a preaching tour into Canada, and once for the same purpose through the Southern States to Arkansas. During his ministry, he assisted at twenty-five ordinations, baptized three hundred and thirty persons, and married ninety-six couples. For the first ten years of his ministry he would receive no donation from any one; but he then concluded that both for the donors and himself such a course was wrong, and daring the last thirty years of his life he received for marriage fees and preaching an average of $83.92 a year, an amount scarcely sufficient to pay his traveling expenses. 

Certainly, it was not for filthy lucre that he labored in the cause of his Master. His own donations to others amounted to large sums. As far back as I can remember, he was in the habit of assembling his family around the family altar every morning and evening, to read a portion of Scripture, sing a hymn of praise, and to pour forth in the most humble and reverent manner his thanksgivings and supplications at the throne of grace. I can truly say that these were the most affecting, happy, and blessed seasons of my life. They are evergreen spots in memory's waste, forming the nearest approach to Heaven that I have ever realized on earth. He sang well and taught his children to sing. On Sunday morning, after prayers, he took great delight in instructing his children in Scripture history and the plan of salvation, and continually, both by precept and example, he strove to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I have often felt and said that I would rather have such a father than all the riches, honors, and pleasures of the world. For some generations, the Primitive Baptists of Williamston held prayer meetings at each other's houses every Sunday night; since the war, my father has had all these meetings at his house. His spirit was singularly attuned to prayer and praise. I never knew a man who could more fully say, with David, " I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." Few excelled him in extemporaneous oratory. All his sermons were preached without a particle of written preparation, and frequently without opportunity for forethought; though he preferred, when he could, to search the Scriptures before preaching. In order and method, in neatness and cleanliness of person and attire, in self-control and evenness of temper, and in untiring industry, I have never seen his equal. He wrote his autobiography up to 1847, and kept a full diary of his life ever afterwards. He recorded in blank books, with interesting particulars, all his ordinations, baptisms, texts, marriages, and the donations made to him. In addition to his large and multifarious business, he had a most extensive and laborious correspondence. He rarely retired before eleven or twelve o'clock at night, and almost invariably rose at four or five in the morning. He frequently said that he would rather wear out than rust out, and that he wished to live so that he would be missed when he was gone. 

He literally worked himself to death. Appointed, in 1876, by the Kehukee Association, to write a history of that body and of the church of God from the creation to the present time, he devoted to this work about seven hundred hours, mostly in the year 1879. At the time of his death he had completed the history of the Kehukee Association, and of the churches composing it, a statistical table of all the Old School Baptist Associations in America, a series of articles on our distinctive tenets and practices, and a history of the church for 4,350 years, from the creation to A. D. 350. At father's advanced age, his close confinement in 1879 to the preparation of this history gave the finishing blow to his excellent constitution. He studied and wrote on it almost incessantly, feeling that his time was short. It was with him a labor of love, but it was too excessive. For at least six months before his death, he had been visibly failing. His mind dwelt almost entirely upon heavenly things. He earnestly exhorted his brethren to show their faith by their works; to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. The churches that he served were not composed of dead members. Spring Green Church, a year before his death, built a large new house of worship, and Skewarkey meeting-house was being thoroughly repainted during his last illness. The dear brethren and sisters in these churches, as well as his family, feel that they are irreparably bereaved. He preached at Skewarkey for the last time on February 8, 1880. His text, No. 2,096, used on that occasion, was Ephesians iv. 4-6, especially the words, " One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Ha spoke for an hour and a quarter. He preached at Spring Green for the last time on February 22. His text, No. 2,097, used then, was 2 Corinthians v. 1-4: " For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved," etc. He preached' fifty-five minutes. Though not able to travel, he went to the Skewarkey Union Meeting at Conoho, Martin County, February 27, and preached fifty minutes, the in troductory sermon, from Hebrews ii. 17, 18: "Wherefore, in all things, it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren," etc. Thus, his last public discourse was upon the most precious object of his affections— the Lord Jesus Christ. His favorite hymn was, 

"Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb, 

We love to hear of Thee." 

And throughout life, his favorite motto, often quoted, was "Jehovah Jireh: "The Lord will provide." In communion at the Union Meeting on Sunday afternoon, with eyes mostly directed towards Heaven, he dwelt, in strains that seemed almost inspired, upon the sufferings of Jesus for sinners, and upon the Divine and eternal glory of His church. That night (February 29), at brother S. W. Outterbridge's, he was taken with a severe pain in his right side, proceeding from an enlarged and indurated liver. Nothing could give him much relief. At his request, Hicks" Farewell (No. 623, Lloyd's Selection), beginning, 

"The time is swiftly rolling on 

When I must faint and die," 

was sung. The next morning, he got into his buggy, and his wife drove him home. He obtained temporary relief from the pain with a light dose of calomel. 

On the evening of Sunday, the twenty-first, he had himself taken down stairs into the prayer meeting room and addressed those assembled most tenderly and lovingly, as though he knew it was for the last time. On the evening of the twenty-eighth, he was also taken there, but seemed to have strength enough only to say, " Sing on."' He kept declining in flesh and strength. His whole nervous and digestive apparatus seemed utterly exhausted and gave way. On March 31, the same pain returned in his right side, and under the repetition of the mercurial treatment, it was one day and two nights before it left him. After that, he had no more pain, but kept weakening to the last. Six physicians visited him, but he was beyond human restoration; God was about to call His aged and faithful servant home. I was by his bedside almost constantly, day and night, for a week. In all his illness, he never manifested the least anxiety concerning his future state. Not a cloud dimmed his prospect of a blessed immortality. A little before the last, he said, " I am passing to a better world. 

I am going from the land of the dying to the land of the living. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. It is far better to depart and be with Christ than to stay in this sin-defiled world. It may be a disadvantage to those he leaves, but it is an advantage to the Christian to die. He exchanges this state of sin and sorrow for the perfect peace and happiness of the paradise of God. There are some things that we do not know, and that it is best for us not to know; but there are some blessed things that we do know. "We do know that when our earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we shall have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. We do know that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. We do know that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to His purpose. We do know that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil; for God will be with us, His rod and staff will comfort us even there. Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, what a good and faithful God! Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. 

No other one is worthy of our trust. Others will disappoint your expectations, but God cannot deny Himself — He will be perfectly faithful to all His blessed promises. Love one another. Walk in the way of His holy commandments. Trust in God. Be perfectly resigned to His holy will, which must be done, ought to be done, and is always best. Bury me in a plain wooden coffin, and without display, or ceremony, or preaching, in the simple manner of the apostolic age. I have never engaged in funeral preaching. Just let my friends gather in silence around, when my body is deposited in its last resting place. Bury me at Skewarkey, by the side of my children." For almost everyone who called to see him, he seemed to have a special message and some heavenly advice. His family and friends, brethren and sisters, crowded around him, and were loath to lose a single word. He seemed to me a Christian patriarch dispensing his dying blessing to his children. His last words to me were: " The Lord's blessing and a father's blessing go with you and yours, my dear son, through life, and bring you to a better world." His most frequent expression during his illness was, " Bless the Lord, 0 my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name." On the last day, when he was too weak to say scarcely anything, he often repeated, "All right! all right!" When quite restless and tossing about, towards 13 o'clock Saturday night, April 10, he was asked if he wanted anything, and he said, " Nothing in this world." He seemed conscious to almost the very last, and about 1 o'clock Sunday morning, without a struggle, a sigh, or a gasp, his spirit quit its mortal tenement and ascended to the bright mansions of rest. A placid and heavenly smile rested upon his countenance. In his last will, written in 1879, he had said, " I resign my body to the dust, from whence it came, and my spirit to God who gave it, confidently expecting a happy reunion beyond the grave." Death had no terrors for him. He is 

"Asleep in Jesus! peaceful rest! 

 Whose waking is supremely blest." 

Monday, April 13, was a bright, cold day number of sympathizing friends began soon to gather at my father's house. At half-past two p. m. the procession started for the cemetery at Skewarkey, a mile distant. Every store and shop in Williamston was closed. 

Almost the entire population of the town and surrounding country, of all parties and denominations, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, issued forth and respectfully accompanied the remains to the grave. In tearful and almost reverential silence, they gathered around the body of their father and friend, and looked for the last time in this world upon the loved features. The coffin was gently lowered into its receptacle by the hands of dear brethren and noiselessly covered with earth. On the morning of the last day, the body thus sown in weakness and dishonor will be raised in power and glory, and rejoin its companion spirit; and the devoted servant of Christ will be welcomed to a blissful and everlasting association with his God. May Divine grace prepare us to follow him to that sinless and tearless state.

Sylvester Hassell.