Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/271

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 211 tients, contaius excellent advice to all frontier people: 'Keep your feet warm, your back straight, and your head cool, and bid defiance to the doctors.' "—("Life of Peck," pp. 103 to 105.) In .spite of these and many other difficulties, of which we can have no proper appreciation at this time, the work progressed. There were men in the early days whose hearts were filled with enthusiasm for the work. They were not daunted by difficulties nor stopped by hard- ships. They labored unceasingly in season and out of season. The journals and diaries of these early men reveal to us a remarkable story of energy and of self-sacrificing devo- tion to the work which they had in hand; that their labors were abimdantly blessed and that they exercised a great influence over the course of early history is amply evidenced. Under their ministrations hundreds, and even thousands, of men and women were changed in their lives ; received something of inspira- tion and uplift; schools were fomided by them and the beginning of culture, as well as of religion, were made imder their direction. Many of these early ministers were educated men. They brought with them a knowledge of the world and they brought, also, the first libraries within the state. The example of their devotion and earnestness of purpose was contagions. The great religious denomina- tions now within the state owe to the memory of these early pioneer preachers a debt which it is impossible for them to pay. It should not be forgotten, either, that not only do the churches owe to them a debt ; the state as a state is equally under obligations to them. If intelligence and morality are the twin pillars on which popular government rests, then these men who so largely contrib- uted, not only to morality but also to the spread of education and the increase of intel- ligence, certainly deserve well at the hands of all the people in the state.