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The following item discusses how Ash came to write
his "Reminiscences." Reminded of RM origins in Canada by the
obituary of Naomi Pomeroy, Ash became "almost enthusiastically wild
with joy over the cause as it was then, and in tracing it till now."
The death of the other pioneers and the urging of friends led him to "reminisce"
about that history in the CHRISTIAN WORKER. The results were 21 installments.
A note on the reproduction. I supply in "[]"
a suggested reading where the text has a lacuna or cannot be read in the
microfiche edition because it is defaced or too tightly bound. EDITOR
INTERESTING REMINISCENCES.
When reading the obituary notice of the late Sister Pomeroy, of Cobourg,
in the last Worker an incident was brought back to my memory that took
place some time before Sister Hale became the wife of the late esteemed
brother Charles Pomeroy. She was the daughter of a brother and sister Hale,
long since deceased. Bro. Hale and family were very dear to me, for I had
been the humble instrument in the hands of God of showing them the way
of the Lord more perfectly, and had buried them in baptism. Also they were
from the same place in England where my grand parent Ash came from, to
wit the town of Leek, Staffordshire, and they were intimately acquainted
with many of my distant relatives.
On the occasion of their daughter being immersed into Jesus Christ they
(bro. and sister Hale) made special request that their daughter's name
should be changed from Louise to Naomi. I told them they had [a] right
to change their daughter's name as they pleased, that there was no law
then in Canada for the registration of births, marriages and deaths as
in his country, and that I left the matter open for them to change their
daughter's name at pleasure. But they having been instructed from infancy
that names must be given in baptism, could not entirely overcome that early
teaching. I knew it was a matter of no real consequence so I yielded to
their request, and when I led their daughter into the beautiful clear waters
of the Ontario, I said dear sister Naomi by the authority of Jesus Christ
our Lord I now baptize you into the name of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit. That perfectly satisfied the parents and all [her] connections,
and from that day [on] she was no more called Louisa but Naomi. Perhaps
this may be [read] to her surviving children. Sister Pomeroy has gone to
her eternal rest and her children need not mourn her departure. She has
played her part well, and oh, when I think back to the time of her baptism
and the founding of that little church, now about 48 years ago, of which
she and her father and mother were charter members, I become almost enthusiastically
wild with joy over the cause as it was then, and in tracing it till now.
The writer of the obituary of Sister Pomeroy (her son I recon) repeats
what she says about our early struggles to plant primitive christianity.
"When Joseph Ash came in we had a meeting." In saying this I
presume she meant when I came into the place of meeting. But oh the meeting.
Think of it one so young and so timid as I was that when I stood up I trembled
in every limb to ma[n] a big meeting. But really she was correct, for though
small in numbers and weak we were truly big in comparison to all the meetings
of sect[s] about us.
I am strongly urged to write a series of articles for the coming volume
(2) of the Worker giving the history of the rise and progress of the ancient
gospel in Canada. I have consented "the Lord will" to this. There
is no living person but myself who knows it from the beginning.
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