The night the angels sang

On a sultry Monday night in August in the summer of 1895, over 5,000 people were attending the Wabash Camp Meeting on its final night when suddenly Pastor Kelly shouted “Don’t you hear it? The angels are singing”!

Then Pastor Wagner yelled out “Listen! Listen! The redeemed hosts of heaven are singing! I hear the voice of my mother”! People, “their faces radiant with an almost supernatural light “excitedly began to look up to the ceiling and point to where the sound of the voices was coming from. Something wondrous was happening and the presence of the Holy Spirit touched everyone. With a shriek, Mrs. Stafford screamed out that she too was hearing the voice of her beloved mother! People standing outside the shelter had heard it first and alerted others who began running outside the open shed. It had been a wonderful service that final night of the week-long camp meeting and with spirits soaring the congregation was belting out the closing hymn, Jesus, Lover of My Soul. When they got to the second verse, something extraordinary happened, all of a sudden, a host of angels joined in the singing!

Pastor Bailey described the voices of the heavenly chorus as “softer than human voices but clearly distinguishable through the remainder of the stanza.” Another witness said the voices “were much clearer and higher than human voices. A thrill came over the audience and people pressed towards the front of the building”. Many people stopped singing but the angels continued on, their voices now more distinct. When the hymn ended the voices from Heaven vanished. Afterwards there was so much excitement and rejoicing that

most everyone stayed up all night that night, too excited to sleep. (Carr 405,406)

No fewer than seven pastors witnessed this miraculous event and later wrote or testified about it. They were Rev. J. W. Perry, Pastor Abingdon Methodist Church, Pastors J.T. Frazier and W.N. Wagner, Rev. Dr. P. L. Cobb, Pastor, Ridgedale Methodist Church, Chattanooga, Tn., Rev. R.L. Kelly, Rev. C.W. Kelly, and Rev. W. E. Bailey, Pastor of the local Staffordsville Circuit.

Camp meetings like these were common in 19th century America. Long before cars and other forms of transportation, people would travel by horse or by wagon or buggy, often times for hours or even days to attend a regional camp meeting. The events described above took place at the Wabash Camp Meeting near the community of Trigg in Giles County, Virginia. Thousands of people would come and camp for a week, sometimes two. In rural America it was as if a city had suddenly sprung up. People came to worship but camps also served as major social events. Some families came every year so they built small cabins on site. Young folks gladly came for there were lots of opportunities for friendship as well as romance.

It was a time of serious worship. With thousands in attendance, there were many pastors there to lead services. Usually there was a morning service and an evening service each day as well as Bible studies and classes in the afternoon after lunch. Pastors took advantage of the time and the close proximity of their congregations to minister to and get to know their congregants.

One of the most famous figures of the camp meeting era was the Rev. Robert S. Sheffey, commonly known as Brother Sheffey (1820-1902). Due to an injury sustained while mounting his horse he missed the 1895 Wabash Camp meeting but otherwise he was synonymous with camp meetings across SW Virginia, East Tennessee, and southern West Virginia. Never officially ordained by any denomination, he was a lay pastor mostly associated with the Methodist Church. Born in Ivanhoe, Virginia but raised in Abingdon, Virginia, he attended Emory and Henry College in the late 1830s for one year. Although he had two brothers who were lawyers and one brother who was a doctor, Robert didn’t find college very appealing. He had been converted at a revival in Abingdon and was anxious to go out and spread the Gospel.  He had fallen in love with a life dedicated to living like Jesus and waiting for years to finish his education was just too long for an impatient Robert.

After taking a teaching job in Wythe County, he married and settled down in the Cripple Creek community. He immediately began to visit local churches and became a gifted exhorter which is someone who is filled with the spirit and who excels at encouraging others to follow Christ, whom he always referred to as “ My sweet Jesus”.  Later he resigned from his teaching job and became a full-time lay minister and circuit rider. But Sheffey never followed the normal route of ministry and was never your typical circuit rider. He traveled the region on horseback, riding his trusty horse named Gideon, but instead of riding from church to church he traveled from family to family in small rural hamlets across the region. Arriving at a farm house he would say “Would you have a bed or a bite to eat for a servant of the Lord?” Then while visiting with the family he would pray with them, teach them about the Bible and/or have them invite neighbors over for a service. Afterwards he would move on the next farm family, his trips often lasting a month or more.

As his reputation grew, he was invited by local pastors to preach, pray or exhort in their churches. After years of this kind of ministry he became a beloved figure among families across this part of Appalachia and so too became a valued colleague of other local ministers. Sheffey never had an assigned church and never drew a regular salary. His livelihood was sustained by love offerings from various individuals, families, and churches. His ministry was built on the close relationships he developed with families, communities, and other pastors across the region. He had an abiding faith that the Lord would always provide for his needs and the Lord was always faithful to do so.

Sheffey was renowned for his power of prayer. He was known for his long prayers, spoken in a very conversational way with the Lord, always on his knees and with great faith that his prayers would be heard and his requests granted. People had tremendous faith that whatever Sheffey prayed for would come to pass. Local pastors documented more than 25 times that Sheffey’s prayers were answered. He was strongly against alcohol and very much in favor of the Temperance Movement. Once he prayed that a moonshine still would be destroyed and shortly thereafter it was destroyed by a flash flood. Moonshiners feared him and hated to see him arrive in their community.

Sheffey was also renowned for his kindness. Once he met a family in a wagon with all their belongings as they were on their way to NC to find work. Their horse had died and stranded them beside the road. Sheffey gave his beloved horse to them as a gift. He then packed up his saddle and belongings and walked the rest of the way to Rocky Gap in Bland County where a friend gave him another horse. On other occasions he met people in his travels that didn’t have warm clothing so he took off his own socks or other garments and gave them to needy people right on the spot. Once while leading a funeral procession down a dirt road, he called it to a halt in order to save some tadpoles stranded in a mud puddle, gently capturing them into his handkerchief and placing them into a nearby creek.

Nearly all that has been written about the life of Robert Sheffey has been written by fellow pastors. That fact, in and of itself, speaks volumes about the high regard in which they held their colleague. Sheffey spent his last years living in Giles County and died in 1902. Five thousand people came for his funeral. He is buried in the cemetery of Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church. At the bottom of his tombstone is the following inscription:

“The poor were sorry when he died.” (Carr, 443)

The Robert Sheffey Memorial Camp Meeting is held nearby in July every year beginning the Friday after July the Fourth and lasting until the following Wednesday. Come and get a glimpse of a historic camp meeting near where the Angels came to sing on that holy night so many years ago.

This year’s event is set to begin this Friday, July 11 and last through July 16 and is located at 315 Sheffey Memorial Road, Pearisburg. More information can be found on Facebook:  Robert Sheffey Memorial Camp Meeting.

Written by Joe Hester of Radford

First United Methodist Church