It was after this that he went out one day to stake off a lot on which he proposed to build a house of worship.  It was near the Roman Catholic Church.  A zealous Irishman, who was a little more than half drunk, was standing by.  Evidently he did not like any such heretical movements, and, after Sanders had placed the stake in the earth, the Hibernian stepped forward and pulled it up.

“I put the stake back in its place.  He pulled it up again.  I put it back.  He pulled it up again.  I put it back once more.  He got fiery mad by this time, and started at me with an ax in his hand.  I had an ax in my hand, and as its handle was longer than his, I cut him down.”

The poor fellow had waked up the fighting preacher, and fell before the sweep of Sanders’s ax.  He dodged as the weapon descended, and saved his life by doing so.  He got an ugly wound on the shoulder, and kept his bed for many weeks.  When he rose from his bed he had a profound regard for Sanders, whose grit excited his admiration.  There was not a particle of resentment in his generous Irish heart.  He became a sober man, and it was afterward a current pleasantry among the “boys” that he was converted by the use of the carnal weapon wielded by that spunky parson.  Nobody blamed Sanders for his part in the matter.  It was a fair fight, and he had the right on his side.  Had he shown the white feather, that would have damaged him with a community in whose estimation courage as the cardinal virtue.  Sanders was popular with all classes, and Placerville remembers him to this day.  He was no rose-water divine, but thundered the terrors of the law into the ears of those wild fellows with the boldness of a John the Baptist.  Many a sinner quaked under his stern logic and fiery appeals, and some repented.

I shall never forget a sermon he preached at San Jose.  He was in bad health, and his mind was morbid and gloomy.  His text was, Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? (Job ix. 4.) The thought that ran through the discourse was the certainty that retribution would overtake the guilty.  God’s law will be upheld.  It protects the righteous, but must crush the disobedient.  He swept away the sophisms by which men persuade themselves that they can escape the penalty of violated law; and it seemed as if we could almost hear the crash of the tumbling wrecks of hopes built on false foundations.  God Almighty was visible on the throne of his power, armed with the even thunders of his wrath.

“Who hath defied God and escaped?” he demanded, with flashing eyes and trumpet voice.  And then he recited the histories of nations and men that had made the fatal experiment, and the doom that had whelmed them in utter ruin.

“And yet you hope to escape!” he thundered to the silent and awestruck men and women before him.  “You expect that God will abrogate his law to please you; that he will tear down the pillars of his moral government that you may be saved in your sins!  O fools, fools, fools! there is no place but hell for such a folly as this!”