From 1700-1850 in Americai, …”Riding on horseback between distant churches, these preachers were popularly called "circuit riders" or "saddlebag preachers" although their official role was "traveling clergy" (a term still used in Methodist denominations). Carrying only what could fit in their saddlebags, they traveled through wilderness and villages, preaching every day at any place available (peoples' cabins, courthouses, fields, meeting houses, even basements and street corners). Unlike clergy in urban areas, Methodist circuit riders were always on the move, needing five to six weeks to cover the longest routes. Their ministerial activity boosted Methodism into the largest Protestant denomination at the time, with 14,986 members and 83 traveling preachers in 1784 and by 1839, 749,216 members served by 3,557 traveling preachers and 5,856 local preachers.

The early frontier ministry was often lonely and dangerous. Samuel Wakefield's hymn describes a circuit rider's family anxiously waiting for the preacher's return; the final stanza reads

Yet still they look with glistening eye,

Till lo! a herald hastens nigh;

He comes the tale of woe to tell,

How he, their prop and glory fell;

How died he in a stranger’s room,

How strangers laid him in the tomb,

How spoke he with his latest breath,

And loved and blessed them all in death. WIKIPEDIA

The “Parables of John” is a series written as historical fiction, where a group of fortuitously introduced college students meet and form a bible study group that changes their lives forever, and many who join them. Much of the storyline draws upon their research of The Circuit Riders in America in the period leading up to the American Revolution, including the Great Awakenings and revivals that changed the course of American history. Many resources, videos and writings about The Circuit Riders are presented at the BibleStudyNH website at the link provided.