Meth,odism in Kern,twky
177
Following this union of the forces of Stone and Campbell, there was a period of disputation, proselyting, debating, and denominational warfare, such as Christianity has not seen in any other part of the world. It could be said of the new organization as it was of Ishmael, their "hand was against every man, and every man's hand was against" them. For more than thirty years this continued. A history of this period has not yet been written. We shall have more to say about it later. 1833. When the Conference met at Harrodsburg in 1832, the dark shadow of a fearful epidemic of cholera was resting upon the State. When the weather grew warm in 1833, the scourge returned with great violence. In Lexington there were nearly five hundred victims. All the towns in the Blue Grass were visited, and those along the rivers were especial sufferers. Nor did the inland towns of western Kentucky escape. It was a dreadful visitation, and death and bitter weeping were the portion of many households. Davidson, in his History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, gives a vivid account of this epidemic in Lexington. In tne short space of nine days, fifteen hundred persons were prostrated, and dying at the rate of fifty a day. The horrors of that period no one can adequately conceive. The rain fell in unprecedented torrents, while the incessant glare of ligobtning and the roll of thunder made the night terrific. Amid thp uproar of the elements the watchers sat mournfully in the chamber of death; and all night, during the lull of the storm. might be heard the feet of the anxious messengers hurrying along the street, and besievinl!.' the doors of the apothecaries line! physieians. Within a fortnight it was computed that about five hundred persons fell victims. notwithstanding half of the populati<lTI had fled at an earlier period. The panic was terrible. . The !ltreets were deserted. The market-place was desolate. Tho:l Campbell himself says: "Every sort of doctrine has been proeIaimed by almost all sorts of men, under the broad banners, and with the supposed sanction of the begun reformation."-Mil. Harb. Vol. VI, Pg. 64.