Bro. Butler was ordained as a minister of the gospel of Christ, among
the. Disciples, at Sullivan, Ohio, some time in the year 1844, by A.
B. Green and J. H. Jones, at that time two of the most efficient
evangelists in Northern Ohio He had a good conscience, which passed
judgment upon his actions in accordance with the great law of love
inculcated by the Lord himself and his apostles, and he did not allow
the application of any "hot iron" so as to sear it. Although he did not
come in direct antagonism with the pro-slavery power while he labored in
the gospel ministry east of the Missouri River, yet it is evident that
the slavery question was a most important factor in making up his
decision to leave his field of labor in the Military Tract in Illinois,
where he gave up present usefulness and ministerial blessedness for a
prospective missionary field and a humble home for his family. He had
spent four years there in active ministerial labor; and in the second
number of his "Personal Recollections" he calls them "the golden days
of my life!"
That the hand of God directed the footsteps of Pardee Butler to Kansas
just at the time he went there, and to the place where he took a
homestead and improved it, and lived on it with his family for a third
of a century, no one who believes in an overruling providence can for
a moment doubt.
Pages:
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469