VOLUME 2 — BOOK II — CHAPTER VIII
CONFERENCES AND PROGRESS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH -CONTINUED

Conference of 1781 — Union confirmed — Proceedings -Progress — Sketches of Preachers — Jeremiah Lambert — Joseph Wyatt — Philip Bruce — His last Words to his Conference — Joseph Everett — Character of the Ministry — Sessions of 1782— Asbury and Jarratt — Prosperity of the Year — Sketch of Peter Moriarty — Woolman Hickson — He introduces Methodism into Brooklyn — Ira Ellis — John Easter — Illustrations of his Ministry — Sessions of 1783 — Continued Success -Proceedings — Small Number of Married Preachers — William Phoebus — Thomas Ware — Characteristic Interview with Asbury— Isaac Rollins' Death — Asbury's Letters to Shadford and Wesley

In 1781 a preparatory Conference was held by Asbury, and about twenty preachers, at Judge White's, in Delaware, on the 16th of April; but the regular session began in Baltimore on the 24th. The restoration of harmony seemed now nearly complete. Asbury wrote at the Baltimore session: "All but one agreed to return to the old plan and give up the administration of the ordinances. Our troubles now seem over from that quarter, and there appears to be a considerable change in the preachers from North to South. All was conducted in peace and love." Watters, pre-eminently the "peacemaker" in these times, was broken down by labors and illness, but hastened to Baltimore to see what would be the result of the measures of the year ... "Faint," he says, "and exceedingly debilitated, yet able to sit on my horse, and being anxious to meet with my brethren once more before I go hence, I set out; about twelve o'clock, took my seat in Conference, and was not a little comforted in finding all so united in the bonds of the peaceable Gospel of Jesus Christ. We rejoiced together that the Lord had broken the snare of the devil, and our disputes were all at an end."

Their restored harmony was confirmed by the evident blessing of God upon the labors of the past year. No less than 10,539 members were reported, showing an increase of 2,035. Lee records that "the Lord had wonderfully favored the traveling preachers, so that we spread our borders, and our numbers increased abundantly." There were twenty-five circuits, a gain of five; and fifty-five preachers, including Asbury, a gain of twelve. Deducting the "locations," the ministerial additions were no less than seventeen. [1]

Thirty-nine preachers, probably all who were present save one, subscribed a declaration of their determination "to discountenance a separation among either preachers or people," and "to preach the old Methodist doctrine and strictly enforce the Discipline, as contained in the Notes, Sermons, and Minutes published by Wesley." They resolved again to receive no ministerial candidate into "full connection" till after a probation of two years, excepting special cases, having "a general approbation." Probationers for Church membership were required to remain on trial three months. A rule was provided to prevent litigation among members in their secular business; the preacher was instructed to "consult with the circuit steward in appointing proper persons" as arbiters, and the parties were required to "abide by their decision, or be excluded from the Society." It was also determined that the preachers should "read often," before the Societies, the "General Rules," and Wesley's "Character of a Methodist," and his "Plain Account of Christian Perfection;" that they should call out no Local Preacher, to travel on a circuit, without Asbury's consent as general assistant, or the consent of other "assistants;" and that each preacher, having charge of a circuit, should give to his successor "a circumstantial account, in writing, of his circuit, both of Societies and Local Preachers, with a plan," and should promote the improvement of the circuit finances. Four general fasts were appointed for the ensuing year. [2]

Of the more than 10,500 Methodists now reported in the country, there were but 873 north of the southern boundary of Pennsylvania; 9,666 were below it. [3]

Again it must be recorded that most of the new itinerants soon retreated from the severities of the field; some made deplorable shipwreck of the faith; some three or four entered the ministry of other denominations, especially of the Protestant Episcopal Church — a much more frequent change, in these early years, than is generally supposed; but some were faithful to the end, and worthy of grateful commemoration.

Jeremiah Lambert was one of the earliest and best preachers contributed to the itinerancy by New Jersey. At the organization of the Church he was ordained an elder for the West India Islands. In recording his death, in 1786, the Conference pronounces him "an elder six years in the work; a man of sound judgment, clear understanding, good gifts, genuine piety, and very useful, humble, and holy; diligent in life, and resigned in death; much esteemed in the connection, and justly lamented in his death. We do not sorrow as men without hope, but expect shortly to join him and all those who rest from their labors." Ware, of New Jersey, knew him well, and says "he had in four years, (when the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized,) without the parade of Classical learning, or any theological training, literally attained to an eminence in the pulpit which no ordinary man could reach by the aid of any human means whatever. He was most emphatically a primitive Methodist preacher, preaching out of the pulpit as well as in it. The graces with which he was eminently adorned were intelligence, innocence, and love. These imparted a glow of eloquence to all he said and did." He has the honor, as we shall hereafter see, of being the first Methodist preacher designated, in he Minutes, to an appointment beyond the Alleghenies.

Joseph Wyatt, from Kent Co., Del., was sent out to preach by Asbury in 1780. He was feeble in health, and broke down, and located in 1788, but could not abide out of the ranks of his itinerant brethren; he rejoined them in 1790, and did good service for about seven years more, when he was compelled finally to retire. In the latter part of his life he was chaplain to the Maryland Legislature. Ware says "Wyatt was among those worn down by labor. Except his want of physical strength, he was little inferior to any among us, and in purity, perhaps to none. his sermons were short, but composed of the best materials, and delivered in the most pleasing manner."

Philip Bruce, of North Carolina, was of Huguenotic descent, a soldier of the Revolution, and one of the most laborious founders of the Church in the South. For thirty-six years he bore faithfully the standard of the Gospel as an itinerant; "traveling," say his brethren, "extensively on circuits and districts, and filling the most important stations, with honor to himself; in those days that tried men's souls." [4] "Worn down by labors and years," he reluctantly took a "superannuated relation" to the Virginia Conference in 1817; and, against the "affectionate solicitations" of his brethren of that body, "many of whom had been raised by his fostering hand," he retired to his kindred in Tennessee, where he labored, as he had strength, till his death in 1826. Not long before his decease he wrote to his old fellow-laborers in Virginia: "It is very probable that I shall never see you again. Though in my zeal I sometimes try to preach, my preaching is like old Priam's dart, thrown by an arm enfeebled with age. My work is well high done; I am waiting in glorious expectation for my change; I have not labored and suffered for naught, nor followed a cunningly-devised fable." He closed his useful life the oldest traveling preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, except Freeborn Garrettson. He was a man of high and firm character and intellect. There was a strong disposition in the General Conference of 1816 to elect him Asbury's successor in the Episcopate, and "probably nothing but his age prevented it." The Virginia Conference voted him a monument. One of his contemporaries says: "He was rather tall, and his face expressed heroic determination and perseverance. He was a man of decidedly vigorous intellect. He saw things clearly. He acted conscientiously, and with great firmness of purpose. His preaching was bold and earnest. As a member of Conference he was always listened to with profound attention and respect. He impressed you as a man who was well fitted to be at the helm in times of darkness and difficulty. He possessed a truly magnanimous spirit; for of this I happen to have had personal experience. When the subject of the ordination of Local Elders was before the Conference, I offered a resolution not in accordance with his views, and he felt himself called upon to oppose it. In doing so he spoke with a little more warmth than he thought, upon mature reflection, was justified by the circumstances of the case; and, after the discussion was over, he came to me, and in the most manly spirit apologized for what he considered his unreasonable warmth." [6]

Joseph Everett, a native of Maryland, was long known in the Middle States as one of the veterans of Methodism; a man of unique character, of exhaustless energy, profoundest piety, and extraordinary success. He has been called "the roughest-spoken preacher that ever stood in the itinerant ranks;" and the style of an autobiographic sketch of his life has been cited as an example of his rude but direct and strenuous language in the pulpit. He describes himself as having been one of Bunyan's "biggest Jerusalem sinners." "As to religion," [7] he says, speaking of his early life, "we had none, but called ourselves of the Church of England. We went to church, and heard dead morality, delivered by a blind, avaricious minister. My nature was a fit soil for the devil's seed to take root and grow in. I learned to swear, to tell lies, and vent my angry passions. I was often uneasy, afraid to die, and felt a weight of guilt that caused me to resolve to do better. I never heard one Gospel sermon until I was grown up. In this state of wickedness I lived till I was married. I chose a companion that was as willing to go to the devil as I was; it would have puzzled a philosopher to determine which of us loved sin most. Thus I went on until the Whitefieldites came about. I went to hear them, and saw myself in the way to hell; and was taught that I must be born again, and know my sins forgiven. I began to fall out with my sins, to read the Bible, to pray in secret, and likewise in my family; thus I went on for nearly two years. The minister that I heard taught that Christ died for a certain number, and not one of them would be lost; that all the rest of mankind would be damned and sent to hell; that the elect must persevere and go to heaven. The Lord knows what I suffered by it. I was no stranger to persecution, as I reproved sin. By this time I was thought to be a great Christian; but, as yet, was a stranger to the knowledge of sins forgiven. In 1763 I went into a chamber to seek that blessing; I was on my knees but a few moments before the Lord shed his love abroad in my heart, and I felt I had redemption in his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. I was so simple that I thought there was no sin in my heart. But in a short time the enemy of my soul began to work upon the unrenewed part of my nature, and I felt pride, self-will, and anger. Our minister told us that though we might know our sins forgiven, it was impossible to live without sin. Thus the devil found out a scheme that answered his purpose; he baited his hook, and I swallowed it. I still went to hear preaching, and prayed in my family, but my conscience told me that I was a hypocrite. My principle was, 'that there was no falling from justifying grace;' and indeed it was impossible for me to fall, for I had shamefully fallen already. The brethren began to look very coldly at me, and as I grew worse they disowned me, saying I had never been converted; and for months I never went to meeting. Thus I went on to please my master, the devil. My conscience giving me no rest, I took the method that Cain took to stifle his: he by the noises of axes and hammers in building cities; I by the hurry of business and the clash of wicked company, and often by drinking."

Being a hearty patriot, he became a soldier of the Revolution, and endeavored to stifle his restless conscience in the camp, but unsuccessfully, for there was, deep in his hardy nature, an inextinguishable moral sensibility, the chief element of his subsequent devout and decided character. He went to the home of his friend, Dr. White, near that of Judge White, to hear a Methodist. Asbury preached, "and," writes Everett, "my prejudice subsided, and a way was opened for conviction. The human soul is like a castle, that we cannot get into without a key. Let the key be lost, and the door continues shut. I once had the key, but the devil had got it from me. I began to feel the returns of God's grace to revisit my soul. The eyes of the people began to be upon me. My old companions looked very coolly at me; and the Methodists had their eyes on me, no doubt for good; especially my friend Edward White frequently asked me home with him, and conversed with me on Methodism; knowing I was Calvinistic, he furnished me with the writings of Mr. Wesley and Fletcher. I once heard him say, 'If Christ died for all, all are salvable; and they that are lost are lost by their own fault;' which gave me more insight into the scheme of redemption than ever I got before by all the reading and hearing I had practiced. I was more and more engaged to save my soul. In retiring to pray, it seemed that I could hear the friend say, 'What! are you praying again? you had better quit; after a while you will tire, and leave off as you did before.' I went forward in the way of duty, and on the 5th day of April, 1778, the Lord set my soul once more at liberty. I read Mr. Wesley on Perfection, but the mist of Calvinism was not wiped from my mind; it had taught me that temptations are sins. I could not distinguish between sins and infirmities. I began to feel the necessity of joining the Society, which I did, in order to grow in grace. I began to speak to my acquaintance about their souls, and sometimes to preach, and found that some were wrought upon. In family prayer, sometimes, the power of the Lord would descend in such a manner as to cause the people to mourn and cry. Nor would they be able to rise from the floor for half a night. My exercises about preaching were so great that I have awaked from sheep and found myself preaching. While I was in the way to hell I lived, for the most part of my time, without labor; now I earned my bread by the labor of my hands, and studied divinity at the plow, ax, or hoe. At last I disclosed my mind (on the subject of preaching) to my friend Edward White. At this time that man of God, Pedicord, was riding the circuit. He sent for me to meet him, at an appointment near Mr. White's, and asked me to give an exhortation, and then gave me a certificate to exhort. The 1st of October, 1780, I went to Dorset Circuit, and had seals to my ministry. I stayed four weeks, and returned to secure my crop. By this time the devil, by his emissaries, had put it into the heart of my wife to prevent my traveling. She made a great noise, which gave me much trouble. I might as well have undertaken to reason with a stone. Till now she had some faint desire to save her soul; but this banished all from her heart. I returned to Dorset, and stayed till February, 1781, when I was sent to Somerset Circuit to labor in Annamessex. My labors were abundantly blessed; many found peace with God, and some large Societies were formed."

In the autumn of 1781 he was sent to West Jersey, where his labors were greatly blessed. At the Conference of 1782 he says, "I was appointed to East Jersey, with that man of God, John Tunnell, whom I loved as another self." While preaching here his hard blows had stirred the ire of the people about Germantown, and the mob was after him with clubs; but, finding that he was legally qualified to preach, they retreated.

In 1783 he says: "At the Conference I was appointed, with John Coleman and Michael Ellis, to travel Baltimore Circuit, where the Lord still blessed his word. By this time I got to see into the Bible in a deeper manner than ever; so that it seemed like another, a new book to me. By this time the Lord had heard and answered my prayers, in the conversion of my wife, which lightened my burden. She saw that she had been fighting against God, in treating me wrongly, which wounded her very sensibly; and this was sweet revenge to me. She no more objected to my traveling."

At the Conference of 1784 he was appointed to Virginia, where he traveled and preached with tireless zeal, and "many souls were awakened and converted." Down to 1809 did this "strong man armed," though wielding the most unpolished weapons, fight "the good fight," almost everywhere with victory; and he fell at his post at last with shouts of triumph. An historian of Methodism who knew him, and who pronounces him "a remarkable man," [8] says, "He was indeed anointed of God to preach the Gospel. He was eminently distinguished for the boldness, the pointedness, and energy with which he rebuked sin, and warned the sinner of his danger. And these searching appeals to the consciences of his hearers made them tremble under the fearful apprehension of the wrath of God, and their high responsibility to him for their conduct. Great was the success which attended his faithful admonitions; for wherever he went he was like a flame of fire. He joined the ranks of Methodism in its infancy in this country, and contributed largely to fix it on that broad basis on which it has since stood unshaken and the storms and billows with which it had to contend. It would indeed seem that the Methodist preachers of those days were so imbued with the spirit of their Master, and so entirely absorbed in their peculiar work, that they thought of little else but saving souls from death. And so deeply penetrated were they with a sense of the 'exceeding sinfulness of sin,' that their rebukes to the sinner were sometimes tremendously awful, and fearfully pointed and solemn. This was peculiarly so with Everett. His whole soul seemed to be thrown into his subject whenever he preached, and his warnings and entreaties were enough to melt the stoutest heart, while he wound the cord of truth so tightly around the sinner's conscience as to make him writhe and tremble under the wounds it inflicted. The rich promises of the Gospel to penitent sinners dropped from his lips like honey from the honeycomb; and when believingly received by such, he rejoiced over them as a father rejoices over a returning prodigal, while with the happy believer he participated in all the fullness of perfect love."

For about thirty years it may be said that he thundered the truth through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The Conference, in recording his death, said that wherever he traveled he "proclaimed the thunders of Sinai against the wicked, and the terrors of the Lord against the ungodly. Few men in the ministry were ever more zealous and laborious; he was bold, undaunted, and persevering, and the Lord prospered him and gave him seals to his ministry; he was abundant in labors as long as his strength endured; his manner and usefulness are well known to thousands. He feared the face of no man. He spent his time, his talents; his all, in the service of the connection." The closing scene of his life is recorded as "very remarkable." He died in 1809, in his seventy-eighth year, under the roof of his friend Dr. White, where he had often found an asylum. About midnight he awoke from a tranquil slumber, and "immediately his devout and pious soul entered into an uncommon ecstasy of joy; with exclamations of adoration, in raptures, he shouted for twenty-five minutes, 'Glory! glory! glory!' and then ceased to shout and ceased to breathe at once." "It is worthy of notice that he started as a traveling preacher from the house of Dr. White, and at Dr. White's house he died. He set out to travel in the month of October, and in the month of October he died. The first circuit he traveled was Dorchester, and in Dorchester he died." "Thus," say his brethren, "ended the warfare and sufferings of our venerable father and brother in Christ, Joseph Everett; who, like an old soldier worn out in the service, had borne the burden and heat of the day with firmness and perseverance. He endured the trials, hardships, and sufferings of many perilous and fatiguing campaigns; but now the warfare is past, the victory is gained, and the scene is closed in triumphant shouts."

Such were some of the itinerants who entered the ranks this year. The ministry, now more than half a hundred strong, was fast becoming a great power in the land. It already included men of gigantic moral and intellectual stature, and they kept most of the middle and southern colonies astir with their ceaseless proclamations of the truth amid the distractions of the war. No thoughtful observer could fail to perceive that the energies and materials of a mighty ecclesiastical structure, probably to be coextensive with the continent, were being gathered and consolidated, and must, if overtaken by no early disaster, assume, before long, firm foundations and impregnable strength. Happily the war was now ending; the British forces surrendered in the autumn, at Yorktown, and with the return of peace the whole land was to open as the arena of the heroic evangelists. The Conference of 1782 held two sessions; the first on the 17th of April, at Ellis' Chapel, Sussex County, Va., the second on the 21st of May, at Baltimore. [9] They are recorded in the Minutes as one Conference. It was, in fine, now understood that two sessions should be held annually for the accommodation of the widely dispersed preachers; but the legislative power of the body was limited to the oldest or more northern portion of the ministry. "Accordingly," says Lee, "when anything was agreed to in the Virginia Conference, and afterward disapproved of in the Baltimore Conference, it was dropped. But if any rule was fixed and determined on at the Baltimore Conference, the preachers in the south were under the necessity of abiding by it. The Southern Conference was considered, at this time, as a convenience, and designed to accommodate the preachers in that part of the work, and to do all the business of a regular Conference, except that of making or altering particular rules." When, however, the Conferences became more numerous the legislative function became common to them all, no measure being considered as enacted till it had been presented at all the sessions of the year, and received general approval.

We have already had a passing but refreshing glimpse of the Virginia session of this year, in the sketch of Jesse Lee, who there witnessed, for the first time, an assemblage of Methodist itinerants, and declared that it "exceeded" in "union and brotherly love" everything he had ever seen before." Asbury wended his way toward it from North Carolina with some anxiety to ascertain how far the pacificatory measures of the last year had been successful. He arrived at Jarratt's house, and on Sunday, 14th of April, says: "I preached at the chapel, and we then went to church. I read the lessons of Mr. Jarratt, who preached a great sermon on union and love, from the 123d Psalm; we received the sacrament, and afterward went home with him, that we might accompany him to our Conference. I have been much tried, inwardly and outwardly. I have been deeply and solemnly engaged in public, in families, and more especially in private, for a blessing on the people, and for union and strength among the preachers at our approaching Conference."

On the following Tuesday he set out for the Conference, accompanied by Jarratt, who, as a clergyman of the English Church, had taken a deep interest in the "sacramental contest." They arrived the next day and found the people flocking together for preaching. Jarratt opened the occasion with a sermon on the fourteenth chapter of Hosea. It afforded him topics of warning respecting the late controversy, but also prophetical and sublime encouragements for the peacemakers. "I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon." Jarratt preached every day of the session, and administered the Lord's supper to the preachers and people.

Asbury gives us a few further notices of this Conference. He says: "As there had been much distress felt by those of Virginia, relative to the administration of the ordinances, I proposed, to such as were so disposed, to enter into a written agreement to cleave to the old plan in which we had been so greatly blessed, that we might have the greater confidence in each other, and know on whom to depend. This instrument was signed by the greater part of the preachers without hesitation. Next morning I preached on Phil. ii, 1-5. I had liberty, and it pleased God to set it home. One of the preachers, James Haw, who had his difficulties, was delivered from them all; and with the exception of one, all the signatures of the preachers present were obtained. We received seven into connection, and four remained on trial. At noon Mr. Jarratt spoke on the union of the attributes."

The Conference closed on Friday, its business "being amicably settled." Jarratt preached at its adjournment, on "A man shall be a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest," etc. A love-feast followed; "the power of God," says Asbury, "was manifested in a most extraordinary manner; preachers and people wept, believed, loved, and obeyed." On the next Sunday Asbury was preaching in Jarratt's barn. Jarratt, he says, "seemed all life, and determined to spend himself in the work of God and visit what circuits he could." The Conference inserted in its Minutes the declaration that they "acknowledge their obligations to the Rev. Mr. Jarratt, for his kind and friendly services to the preachers and people, from our first entrance into Virginia, and more particularly for attending our Conference in Sussex, and advise the preachers, in the South, to consult him, and take his advice in the absence of Brother Asbury." Asbury adds: "I am persuaded the separation of some, from our original plan about the ordinances, will, upon the whole, have a tendency to unite the body together, and to make preachers and people abide wherein they are called. I see abundant cause to praise God for what he has done." His Journal affords us but few intimations of the Baltimore session. On Monday, the 20th of May, he says: "A few of us began Conference in Baltimore; next day we had a full meeting. The preachers all signed the agreement, proposed at the Virginia Conference, and there was a unanimous resolve to adhere to the old Methodist plan. We spent most of the day in examining the preachers. We had regular daily preaching. Wednesday, 22, we had many things before us. Our printing plan was suspended for the present for want of funds. Friday, 24, was set apart for fasting and prayer. We had a love-feast the Lord was present, and all was well. The preachers in general were satisfied. I found myself burdened with labors and cares. We have now fifty-nine traveling preachers, and eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty-five in Society. Our young men are serious, and their gifts are enlarged."

The statistics of the year show continued prosperity. The membership, amounting to 11,785, showed an increase of 1,246. There were sixty preachers, including Asbury, a gain of five; thirteen candidates were received on trial, [10] and twenty-six circuits were recorded on the roll of appointments.

The Conference unanimously recognized Asbury as "General Assistant," according to Mr. Wesley's original appointment "before the arrival of Rankin. It was ordained, for the first time, that a certificate of membership should be required of laymen removing from one Society to another. The times and places of the sessions of the ensuing year also occur, for the first time, in the Minutes.

A large proportion of the preachers, who appeared for the first time in the appointments this year, traveled but a few years. Some new heroes, however, now entered the field, whose names the Church should not willingly let die.

Peter Moriarty has left a fragrant memory in the denomination. He is another example of that powerful influence which Methodism exerted, in its early days, over the popular mind, subduing the prejudices of education, and smiting, with irresistible religious convictions, all classes of men who came within the reach of its ministrations. He left a brief manuscript narrative of his early Christian experience, in which he says he was born in Maryland, Baltimore County, April 27, 1758. His parents were Roman Catholics, and his early education was in the Catholic faith. At eleven years of age he was taken to the priest (by his parents) to confess his sins, according to the custom of the Catholics, as also to the sacrament of the Lord's supper, which he was taught to believe was the real body and blood of Christ. "I went on," he writes, "in this blind way till I was about sixteen years of age, when it pleased God to send the Methodists into the neighborhood where I was born. They soon made a great stir among the people. At length a way providentially opened for me to hear them. They seemed more like angels than men; yet I concluded they could not be right, because they preached that men must know their sins forgiven, in this life, in order to be happy hereafter, which I thought to be impossible. I continued to hear them till it pleased the Lord to open my eyes; I then saw that all my confessions to the priest were only delusions of Satan; I was yet in the road to destruction, with all my sins upon my head. It was then said, by priest and people, 'that the Methodists had made me mad,' and, 'that I ought to be restrained from hearing them.' My distress was inconceivably great; I was afraid of God and man; I could neither eat, drink, nor sleep for some time, I felt such a pressing load of guilt. My father looked upon me as a graceless child, and said that by my weeping and wailing for my sins I was bringing disgrace on the family; and threatened, if I did not desist, he would turn me away from his house. I applied myself to reading the Scriptures, and sought the Lord according to the light I had, until he looked upon me in my distress, and spoke peace to my troubled soul. I felt that God was reconciled. After this I joined the Society, and for several years remained a private member. When about twenty years of age I began to feel much impressed to call sinners to repentance. Upon this subject my trials were severe; they so affected me that, by reasonings and temptations of Satan, I almost lost my senses. My inability to so great a work was constantly before me. After a long struggle, and a variety of exercises, I gave myself up to the work of the ministry in the year 1781." He appears to have begun to travel in the interim of the Conference, as his name does not appear in the Minutes till 1782, when he is recorded as remaining on trial.

Down to 1785 his appointments were within the old Virginia Conference. In 1786, following the example of many of the preachers of the Middle States, he started northward, and was stationed in Philadelphia; in 1787 he advanced still further, and was appointed to Long Island Circuit. We shall hereafter find him in the far West. In the year 1801 he entered New England, and traveled the Litchfield Circuit. In 1811-13 he had charge of Ashgrove District, which brought him again into New England. In the latter year, while on his way from the Conference to his field of labor, he was attacked by fever, and remained at a friend's on the route, unable to proceed. When he had partially recovered, he resumed his journey; but, on arriving at his home, in Hillsdale, May 25th, he was unfit to prosecute his ministerial duties. The "ruling passion" was with him, however, "strong in death;" He had been sounding the alarm through the land for more than thirty-two years, and this delay for death seemed too long and too indolent. Believing himself better, he retired to bed on the night of the 23d of June, directing his little son to have his horse ready early the next morning, that he might again take the field, and attend a Quarterly Conference which was to be held that day a few miles distant. In the morning, when called, he was silent; a higher summons had come to him. A physician who was called pronounced him dead, and to have been so several hours. Thus did this faithful soldier of the cross lay down in his tent at night to rest from his conflicts, and in the morning was not, for God had taken him. "On the day he was interred he was to have held a Quarterly Meeting about three miles from his house. But who can tell the consternation of the people, collecting from a large circuit, who on the spot met their presiding elder in his coffin! A funeral sermon was delivered to an attentive, weeping congregation, collected from every direction." [11] The obituary record of his Conference says: "He was among the oldest of our traveling ministers, and held a rank that entitled him to the confidence and the affections of the connection; and no doubt but his Lord will pronounce him worthy to wear a crown in his kingdom, in which there will be many stars. Although he might not have been classed among the greatest speakers, certainly he was among the most useful. Plain in his dress, plain in his manners, and plain and pointed in his preaching; upright in all his deportment: in short, his life was a constant comment upon the Gospel he preached. He delighted in good order and discipline; in the latter he was thought by some to be rather rigorous. He has gone out and in before the flock of God, respected by ministers and people. Even the careless and profane, who knew him in life, are ready to pour upon his tomb the honors his upright life deserved."

Woolman Hickson's "name is very precious to the lovers of early Methodism," says one of our best authorities. [12] He was "a man of splendid talents and brilliant genius," which shone the brighter by contrast with the shattered casket that inclosed them, for his whole public life was oppressed by physical suffering and feebleness. He labored in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. He was John Dickens' colleague, in the latter, in 1787, as substitute for Henry Willis, who, though designated to the city, in the Minutes, did not arrive there. [13] "Though feeble, his soul burned with holy ardor to do what he could for his Master, and he preached and toiled till he 'his body with his charge laid down,' and went up to receive his reward."

Notwithstanding he was fast hastening to the grave by consumption, he applied to Asbury to be sent to Nova Scotia, as a missionary, but the latter forbade him. While in New York he had the distinguishing honor of introducing Methodism into Brooklyn, L. I., which is now "the City of Churches." Captain Webb had preached there many years before, but he formed no class. Hickson's first sermon in Brooklyn was delivered in the open air, from a table, in what is called Sands Street, directly in front of where the Methodist Episcopal Church now stands. At the chose of his discourse he said that if any person present would open his house for preaching he would visit them again. A gentleman, by the name of Peter Cannon, accepted the offer, and promised to prepare a place for the reception of the congregation. This place was no other than a cooper's [cooper n. a maker or repairer of casks, barrels, etc. — Oxford Dict.— DVM] shop. In a short time Hickson formed a class of several members. This was the first one formed in Brooklyn. He appointed Nicholas Snethen, afterward so famous as a preacher, its first leader.

This brilliant but transient light went out in the latter part of 1788. He lingered some time in New York, supported by the Society, and died without leaving money enough to defray the expenses of his burial. Church buried him. The Minutes commemorate him, in a few sentences, as of "promising genius, upright life, snatched away by consumption; seven years in the work."

Ira Ellis, a Virginian, began his ministerial labors in 1781, and pursued them, some thirteen years, with commanding ability, from Philadelphia to Charleston, S. C. Asbury has recorded an extraordinary estimate of his talents and character. "A man of quick and solid parts," he says "I have thought, had fortune given him the same advantages of education, he would have displayed abilities not inferior to Jefferson or Madison. But he had, what is better than learning; he had undisembled sincerity, great modesty, deep fidelity, great ingenuity, and uncommon power of reasoning; he was a good man, of even temper." Like most of his fellow itinerants of that day, he located in 1795 through domestic necessities.

John Easter is another remarkable name of these early days. "He was one of the most zealous, powerful, and successful preachers the Methodists ever had: he was the Benjamin Abbott of the South; an uncommonly faithful and holy man; and when crowns are bestowed, his will have uncommon luster, on account of its many brilliant gems. Wherever he labored, and he labored in earnest, the Lord gave him success; and in some places the work was wonderful, surpassing anything that had been previously witnessed. He was instrumental in one of the greatest revivals of religion that ever was in Virginia. This great work commenced in 1787. On Brunswick Circuit, where he was laboring, there were from fifteen hundred to two thousand converted to God, and on the adjoining circuit almost as many. The work in 1787 and in 1788 was both north and south of James River. In this revival William McKendree was awakened and converted under John Easter's preaching. About the same time, as this son of thunder was moving on, fulfilling his high commission, and the astonished multitudes trembled, and hundreds were falling down and crying, 'What must we do to be saved,' Enoch George was awakened and brought to Christ under this awful messenger of truth." [14] He was thus instrumental in raising up two of the most devoted and useful bishops of the Church. We shall hereafter meet him in one of the most extraordinary triumphs of Methodism in the further South. He traveled for ten years, "a flaming herald of the cross," and after his location, in 1792, "continued to be the same faithful, holy Christian, serving the cause of Christ as a local preacher." He was noted for the power of his prayers as well as of his preaching. Under both, his hearers often fell insensible to the earth.

In 1783 the Conference held its two sessions again at Ellis' Preaching-house, Sussex County, Va., and Baltimore, Md. the former on the 7th, [15] the latter on the 27th of May. Asbury says of the former, "Some young laborers were taken in to assist in spreading the Gospel, which greatly prospers in the North. We all agreed in the spirit of African liberty, and strong testimonies were borne in its favor in our love-feast; our affairs were conducted in love." Of the Baltimore session he merely remarks that on Tuesday "we began our Conference with what preachers were present. On Wednesday we had a full assembly, which lasted until Friday. We had a love-feast, and parted in peace." Garrettson says there "were about sixty preachers" at Baltimore, "all of whom appeared to be in the spirit of the Gospel."

The year had been prosperous; 13,740 members were reported, showing an increase of 1,955. There were now but 1,623 Methodists north of Mason and Dixon's line, 12,117 south of it. There were thirty-nine circuits; [16] New York and Norfolk reappear in the list. The corps of itinerants had increased from sixty to eighty-two, including Asbury.

The most important measures of this Conference were, like those of the preceding year, initiated at the Virginia session, though dependent for their validity on that of Maryland. [17] It took high "temperance" ground. We have seen that in 1780 the distillation of ardent spirits was denounced, and all Methodists who would not "renounce the practice" were to be "disowned." This year the Conference declared the manufacture, or sale, or use of them "as drams," to be "wrong in its nature and consequences," and ordered its preachers "to teach the people to put away this evil." It took another bold position, strikingly significant for the time and the place. Asbury's allusion to the Virginia session shows that there was no little popular ardor for "African liberty," among both preachers and people, in that region. At the session of 1780 slavery was denounced, and "traveling preachers," owning slaves, were required to emancipate them. At Ellis' Preaching-house it was now required that "Local Preachers" should follow this example, wherever the civil laws would allow them. The Revolutionary struggle of the country had produced a general sentiment in favor of the liberty of all men. Methodism was now imbued with this sentiment, and gave at this time, and for some years, a more articulate expression of it than any other religious community of the land, not excepting the Society of Friends; but it at last fatally compromised its primitive convictions, and thereby entailed lamentable disasters upon itself; if not upon the whole nation.

It was determined at this Conference that all the "assistants," and preachers "to be received into full connection," should attend the annual sessions, the first intimation of the composition of the body.

There were some married preachers in the itinerant ranks, and it became necessary to provide better support for their families. It was proposed to raise two hundred and sixty pounds for the purpose; two hundred of them in "the north circuits." Each circuit was to contribute a public collection, whether its preachers were married or single. Eleven "preachers' wives" are named "to be provided for." They probably were most, if not; all, who pertained to the ministry, a fact which indicates that about seventy-one, out of the eighty itinerants, were yet practically bound to celibacy, the necessity of their hard lot. We learn from the brief list that Dickens, Pigman, Haggerty, Watters, Everett, and Mair were among the married men. Two days of general thanksgiving for the public peace and for "the glorious work of God" were appointed, and two general fasts. It was resolved that no European Methodist should be received into the Societies "without a letter of recommendation."

Twenty preachers are recorded, for the first time, in the appointments of this year. Most of them traveled but few years. Jesse Lee, the first historian of American Methodism, and its founder in New England, was received at this Conference. His labors throughout our present period have already been reviewed.

Dr. William Phoebus was born in Somerset County, Md., in 1754, and was one of the earliest Methodists of that part of the state. After traveling about fifteen years he located, and studied and practiced medicine, in the city of New York, till 1806, when he re-entered the Conference. He occupied important positions till 1821, when he became a "supernumerary" member. He died in New York in 1831, aged seventy-seven years. He was at the Christmas Conference where the Church was organized. He was characterized by a philosophic cast of mind; was an able but not a popular preacher, and possessed literary abilities much superior to the average attainments of his fellow-laborers. He edited a Magazine, for some time, in behalf of his denomination. His brethren pronounce him, in the Minute obituary, as a man of great integrity of character, uniformly pious, deeply read in the Scriptures, a sound, experimental, and practical preacher;" and say, "he sweetly fell asleep in Jesus." [18]

The itinerancy made one of its most important acquisitions, this year, in Thomas Ware, of New Jersey, a man of admirable character, an able and faithful laborer, who lived far into our own century, and has left us the best written autobiography, yet produced, by the American Methodist ministry. Not a few of our noblest evangelists, of the last century, whose names were fast passing into oblivion, through the paucity of our early records, have been rescued, for all time, to the history of the Church, by his affectionate and skillful delineations.

He was born in Greenwich, Gloucester County, N. J., in 1758. He had the inestimable advantage of a pious parentage. His father, especially, he says, was a Methodist before the Methodists were known in that part of the country; the only person there "who professed to know that his sins were forgiven." "His whole deportment tended," He adds, "to fix in me a habit of serious reflection on the subject of religion, and his triumphant death made an impression on my mind that time could not obliterate." His mother educated him strictly in the faith of Calvinism. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War he responded to the call of his country, and entered the army. Though he had not yet made profession of a religious life, he began his new career with manly and even devout sentiments. "Some of my reflections," he says, after he had entered the field, "I can never forget while memory lasts. The cause I held to be just. On this point I had no misgivings. But whether we should be able to sustain our ground appeared to me a much more doubtful question. There must be, I was sure, much hard fighting and many valuable lives sacrificed to gain the boon of our independence, if we should succeed at last. And what will they gain, thought I, who shall fall in the struggle? The thanks of their country? No; they will be forgotten. But then the principles for which we were contending appeared to me worth risking life for. With the views I entertained of the justness of our cause in the sight of heaven I could not doubt, and resolved for one on liberty or death. 'But there is a hereafter,' was suggested to my mind. True, thought I, but I will do the best I can, and trust in God. And so it was, that as a soldier in the army, I was more devout than when at home; and I prayed until a confidence sprang up within me that I should return to my home and friends in safety, or not be cut off without time to make my peace with God." He was resolutely temperate in the camp, pouring upon the ground the strong drink given with his rations. He continued in the service till dismissed, as an invalid, suffering from "camp fever," which "cost him several years of the prime of his life."

He had leisure now for deeper reflections. "My physical powers," he says, "were paralyzed by protracted affliction, and my conscience, though greatly darkened, had yet some influence to restrain me from licentious freedom in wickedness. But how easily is man blinded by the deceitfulness of sin? When reason, always proud, silences conscience by a too hasty decision against its dictates, what is man? A steed broken loose, bounding over hill and dale, gamboling in the wilderness, and on the barren waste. Thus was it with me, fool that I was. But the horrifying profaneness of scoffing infidels, with whom I came in contact, so shocked my feelings that I sped my way back, or rather turned aside, and sought an asylum from my woes in gloomy solitude. I was now for several months little better than a maniac. I delighted in nothing so much as being alone. To wander in retired places, and indulge in the reveries of my own mind, or among the works of God, with which I was surrounded, sometimes cherishing the delightful thought that I had an interest in the great Parent of all, and was an object of his pity, accorded most with my state of feeling. And on such occasions I was sometimes melted to tears."

It was while in this state of mind that he observed Pedicord riding into Mount Holly, as we have seen, singing a hymn which singularly accorded with his anxious feelings. He followed the itinerant a "great distance," fascinated by the pathos of his voice, and that night heard him preach. "Soon," He writes, "was I convinced that all men were redeemed and might be saved, and saved now, from the guilt, practice, and love of sin. With this I was greatly affected, and could hardly refrain from exclaiming aloud, 'This is the best intelligence I ever heard.' When the meeting closed I hastened to my lodgings, retired to my room, fell upon my knees before God, and spent much of the night in penitential tears. Pedicord returned again to our village. I hastened to see him, and tell him all that was in my heart. He shed tears over me, and prayed. I was dissolved in tears. He prayed again. My soul was filled with unutterable delight. He now rejoiced over me as a son, 'an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ.' I felt and knew that I was made free. And, as I had been firm in my attachment to the cause of civil freedom, I hoped that I should be enabled to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made me free."

He joined the Methodists, and fearlessly defended them among his associates. "It was strange," he says, to see with what amazement many listened while told them what the Lord had done for me. Some wept bitterly, confessed their ignorance of such a state, and pronounced me happy, while others thought me mad; and on the Methodists, not on me, laid all the blame of what they conceived to be my derangement." He was made a Class Leader, and, not long after, an Exhorter. He possessed lively faculties, readiness of speech, and a pathos which gave him "the eloquence of tears." His brethren admonished him that it was his duty to preach, but he shrunk from the thought. About this time Asbury arrived at Pemberton, four miles from Mount Holly, and sent for him. The interview was so strikingly characteristic, of both the interlocutors, that it deserves to be cited. "I had not been introduced to him," writes Ware, "nor did he know me. On entering his room he fixed his discriminating eye upon me, and seemed to be examining me from head to foot as I approached him. He reached me his hand, and said, 'This, I suppose, is Brother Ware; or, shall I say, Pedicord the younger.' I replied, 'My name is Ware, sir, and I claim some affinity to the Wesleyan family, and Mr. Pedicord as my spiritual father.' 'You then revere the father of the Methodists?' said he. 'I do,' I replied, 'greatly; the first time I heard his name mentioned it was said of him, by way of reproach, that he had brought shame upon the Christian world by preaching up free will. Free will, said I, and what would you have him preach? bound will? He might as well go with the Roman saint and preach to the fish, as preach to men without a will. From that time I resolved to hear the Methodists, against whom I had been so much prejudiced.' 'Sit down,' said Mr. Asbury, 'I have somewhat to say unto thee. Have all men since the fall been possessed of free will?' I replied that I considered they had since the promise made to Adam, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. 'Can man then turn himself and live?' said he. 'So thought Ezekiel,' I replied, 'when he said, "Turn yourselves and live;" ' remarking, as I understood it, that he can receive the testimony which God has given of his Son; and thus, through grace, receive power to become a child of God. 'Are all men accountable to God?' he still further inquired. I replied, 'The almighty Jesus says, "Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his works shall be." ' 'On what do you found the doctrine of universal accountability?' he added. 'On the doctrine of universal grace: "The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men," ' etc., was my reply. He then looked at me very sternly, and said: 'What is this I hear of you? It is said you have disturbed the peaceful inhabitants of Holly, by rudely entering into a house where a large number of young people were assembled for innocent amusement, and when welcomed by the company and politely invited to be seated, you refused, and proceeded to address them in such a way that some became alarmed and withdrew, and the rest soon followed.' To this I answered: 'My zeal in this affair may have carried me too far. But I knew them to be generally my friends and well-wishers, and felt to do as the man out of whom Christ cast a legion of devils was directed, namely, to go and show my friends how great things God had done for me. It is true, when I entered the room, some appeared delighted to see me, and heartily welcomed me; but those who knew me best appeared sad. And when invited to take a glass and be seated, I told them I must be excused, for I had not come to spend the evening with them, but to invite them to spend it with me. "You know me," I said, "and how delighted I have often been in your company, and with the amusements in which you have met to indulge. But I cannot now go with you. My conscience will not permit me to do so. But as none of your consciences, I am persuaded, forbid your going with me, I have come to invite you to go with me and hear the excellent Mr. Pedicord preach his farewell sermon. Pardon me, my friends, I am constrained to tell you, the Lord has done great things for me through the instrumentality of this good man." The circle was not very large. Not a word of, reply was made to what I said. Some were affected, and soon left after I withdrew. But I never knew that any one of the party was offended.' Asbury listened to this simple explanation of the matter attentively, but without relaxing the sternness of his look, or making any reply to it. He then branched off to another subject. 'Was it not bold and adventurous,' said he, 'for so young a Methodist to fill, for a whole week, without license or consultation, the appointments of such a preacher as George Mair?' I replied that Mr. Mair was suddenly called from the circuit by sickness in his family, and I saw that he was deeply afflicted, not only on account of the distress his family were suffering, but especially because of the disappointments it must occasion, on a part of the circuit, where there was a good work going on; that some of these appointments were new, and there was no one to hold, any meeting with the people whatever; that I was therefore induced, soon after he was gone, to resolve on going to some of these places and telling those, who might come out, the cause of the preacher's absence; and that if I was sometimes constrained to exhort these people, without a formal license, it was with fear and trembling, and generally very short, unless when the tears of the people caused me to forget that I was on unauthorized ground. He still said nothing, either by way of reproof or commendation, more than the manner of his introducing the subjects might seem to imply. And being under an impression that his remarks were designed to mortify me, for my course in the matter of the ball, and in taking the circuit in the absence of Mr. Mair, I said, 'Mr. Asbury, if the person who informed you against me had told me of my errors I would have acknowledged them.' Here he stopped me by clasping me in his arms, and saying in an affectionate tone: 'You are altogether mistaken, my son; it was your friend Pedicord who told me of your pious deeds, and advised that you should be sent to Dover Circuit, saying that he would be responsible that no harm, but good, would result from it.' He then told me that I must go down to the peninsula, and take the Dover Circuit, which had but one preacher on it; that I could tell the people, if I pleased, that I did not come in the capacity of a preacher, but only to assist in keeping up the appointments until another could be sent; and that he would give me a testimonial to introduce me; but if they did not cordially receive me, he said I might return, and he would see me compensated for my time and expenses. Here I was caught, and how could I decline? If, when my zeal prompted me to take a circuit, in the absence of a preacher, for one week, I had found favor in the sight of the people, so as to occasion my being recommended to Asbury in this way, how could I refuse when he requested me to go and assist in keeping up the appointments on a circuit which needed aid, being now regularly licensed to exhort, until a preacher could be sent to it? So I told him, if he insisted on it, I would go and do the best I could; but I feared I should do more harm than good, and be unhappy in consequence of not being in my place."

Thus was Thomas Ware sent forth, in 1783, to begin his long and successful career. His reception on Dover Circuit was so cordial and hospitable, that he always recalled it with grateful interest. "I was made," he says, "to forget that I was among strangers. The simplicity, urbanity, and fervent piety of the Methodists were such that, after visiting a Society once, it seemed long before I was to return to it again. Some of the members were wealthy, and in the higher circles of life; but they were not ashamed to bear the cross. Among these there were some, particularly a number of females, distinguished for piety and zeal, such as I had never before witnessed. The lady of Counselor Bassett, and her two sisters, Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Ward, possessed an uncommon degree of the true missionary spirit, and greatly aided the young preachers, by whom, principally, the Lord was carrying on his work on that favored shore. To these might be added others, and especially the wife of Judge White, who was a mother in Israel. I had the happiness of receiving many young people into society. In Class-meetings I felt much at home, and frequently our rejoicing in the Lord was great. In my public exercises I was sometimes greatly embarrassed, when tears came to my relief, which was often the case; and there are few who can resist the eloquence of tears. In the mean time I prayed and read and wrote much. My Bible was my chief book. After having been blessed in attempting to preach, I ventured, formally, to take a text; but not until advised, by some whom I considered competent judges, that my gift was rather to preach than to exhort."

His amenity and talents procured him general respect but he sometimes encountered the trials which were then common to the itinerancy. He was invited to preach in a Protestant Episcopal Church on his circuit. "I had gone through a part of the morning service," he writes, "and was still in the desk, where I gave out my text; but, before I had finished my introductory remarks, three men came marching into the church, in Indian file, and halted just before the desk. The foremost one announced himself as a vestryman, and ordered me out of the desk and the church, or, he said, he would compel me to go out. Finding I did not comply, he seized me by the collar and dragged me from the desk. On seeing this, a giant of a man, near by, seized him, in like manner, and, raising his huge fist, told him if he did not let me go he would knock him down." Ware's assailant took the warning, and retreated with his companions.

Thomas Ware made a good beginning on Dover Circuit, and his long ministerial life verified the promise of his first year. We shall often meet him in the ensuing half century, and never part from him without reluctance.

It is sad to throw a shade on the picture of these times of primitive ministry, illustrated by such examples of ministerial devotion and heroism. Soon after the present Conference occurred an instance of supposed apostasy, which startled the Methodist community, and was long recalled with awe. In about two months after the session, Asbury, entertained at the house of his friend, the aged Boehm, preached, in allusion to this deplorable event, on the text, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Recording the occasion, he adds, that "having lately heard of the death of Isaac Rollins, [19] and having had an intimate acquaintance with him for some years, I will here notice some of the circumstances of his life. He was born and brought up in Patapsco Neck, and when grown up was uncommonly wicked. The Methodists, about this time, coming into those parts, he professed conviction and conversion through their instrumentality. Some time after this, he began to speak in public; roughly, but I believed in sincerity. I took notice of him, and appointed him to travel on the Eastern Shore; there he did some good and some harm. I then sent him to Pennsylvania; it was the same thing there. Eight years ago he was sent to Virginia. The first year he did much good, refusing, however, to take his appointment from the Conference; he stayed about Brunswick, causing disaffection among the people, whence sprung disorder. Thence we removed him to Pittsylvania, where he was also useful; here he would not long remain, but went on to James City. After a considerable time we received him again, although contrary to the advice of some who knew him better. About two years since he was appointed to Pennsylvania; this appears to have placed him where he wished to be, and he presently set about making a party, enjoining secrecy upon his followers. After one quarter he left us and set up for himself, and he and his few adherents took from us the Forest Chapel. He began how to be forsaken, and being too lazy to ride a circuit, took to baptizing, and begging by way of subscription. There were many reports about him which were probably true. From these scandalous imputations on his character he felt, it seems, the necessity of defending himself; and being at the Yellow Springs, he was for some hours employed in having his defense written. He did at times drink freely, but whether he was in liquor while there I know not; so it was, that setting off on a mettlesome horse, he had not ridden many yards before he was thrown to the ground, and died on the spot. I had said, 'I think he cannot stay long,' because he did pervert the right ways of the Lord. To the Lord I leave him, desiring that his sad example may be a warning to me and all preachers of the Gospel."

A good Methodist authority endeavors to find some justification of hope in the death of this unfortunate man. [20] Asbury's judgment was always severe in such cases. His own iron conscientiousness, and his rigorous habits of "discipline," led him to condemn deviations from "order" as dangerous, if not disastrous sins; and many of his allusions to men, whose opinions disagreed with his own, or whose infirmities clouded their last days, require no little qualification from the charity that "hopeth all things." Dempster, Poythress, Pigman, and Strawbridge, are examples. A high historical authority [21] has eulogized the legislative skill of Wesley as providing a ministerial regimen, under which, as under the policy of the Papal Church, enthusiasm, fanaticism, if not insanity itself, could not only be restrained from doing serious mischief, but could expend their superabundant energy or excitability in useful labors. The "itinerant system," with its strict methods and its exhaustive work, left little time or force for mischief, and afforded sufficient but regulated variety even to the most eccentric minds; and the annals of American Methodism present not a few instances in which men, who otherwise would have been uncontrollably erratic, were transformed into unbending disciplinarians, powerful workers, and heroic characters. But there were occasional and inevitable exceptions: Glendenning, O'Kelly, Rollins, and others. Rollins was, from his outset, given to irregularities. His intellect was evidently infirm; a fact that to charitable minds will qualify every charge against him. His use of' spirituous liquors, though exceptional among Methodist preachers, was the general custom of the times; so general that, as we have seen, the Conference began to be alarmed by its prevalence. Asbury's allusion to his indulgence in this respect, does not amount to a charge of drunkenness; it is at least ambiguous. His secession may have been the result of his honest though erring opinions; his "begging by way of subscription," was probably but a plan of supporting his independent charge at Forest Chapel, and not a novelty in those or later times. The scandalous reports against him may have been the natural incidents of his new party position and his eccentric character; his "vindication," if published, might have presented him in a very different light; his sudden death was a fate or providence which may befall the best of men, and has befallen one of the most eminent of Asbury's successors in the episcopal office. The facts of this case, as recorded, were indeed deplorable; but the record is sufficiently vague and uncertain to allow charity to dictate the judgment of history upon it.

About three months after the Conference of this year, Asbury, rejoicing over the increasing prosperity of the denomination, wrote to his old fellow-laborer, George Shadford, then in England, a letter which affords us some historical intimations of the times. "Long has been thy absence," he says; "many, many have been the thoughts I have had about thee, and my trials and consolations in losing and gaining friends. We have about 14,000 members, between 70 and 80 traveling preachers, between 30 and 40 circuits. Four clergymen have behaved themselves friendly in attending Quarterly Meetings, and recommending us by word and letter. They are, Mr. Jarratt, in Virginia, as you know; Mr. Pettigrew, North Carolina; Dr. McGaw, Philadelphia; and Mogden, in East Jersey. You have heard of the divisions about that improper question proposed at Deer Creek Conference: 'What shall be done about the ordinances?' You know we stood foot by foot to oppose it. I cannot tell you what I suffered in this affair. However, God has brought good out of evil, and it has so cured them, that I think there will never be anything formidable in that way again. I hope if any preachers are to come over here at any future day you will be one. I admire the simplicity of our preachers. I do not think there has appeared another such a company of young devoted men. The Gospel has taken a universal spread. You have heard what great things God has done in the Peninsula, since about these eighteen months that I thought it most prudent to stay at Delaware. And an exceeding great work we have had there, and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. So that my labors were not in vain. Since I have been ranging through Virginia, toward the Allegheny, and Maryland, Pennsylvania and East and West Jerseys, and the Peninsula, I enjoy more health than I have for twenty years back. I travel 4,000 miles in a year, all weathers, among rich and poor, Dutch and English. O my dear Shadford, it would take a month to write out and speak what I want you to know. The most momentous is my constant communion with God as 'my' God; my glorious victory over the world and the devil. I am continually with God. I preach frequently, and with more enlargement of heart than ever. O America! America! it certainly will be the glory of the world for religion! I have loved, and do love America. I think it became necessary after the fall that Government should lose it. Your old national pride, as a people, has got a blow. You must abate a little. O let us haste in peace and holiness to the kingdom of peace and love, where we shall know, love, and enjoy God and each other, and all the differences in Church and State, and among private Christians, will be done away." [22]

As the next Conference approached he wrote to Wesley that he had been on Brunswick Circuit, "the oldest and best in Virginia." "Many faithful people," he adds, "joined us at our first coming here, having been convinced by the faithful preaching of our worthy friend Mr. Jarratt. I found the labors of those two men of God, James O'Kelly and Joseph Cromwell, had been blessed to the awakening an conversion of souls." Of North Carolina he says: "Here we have had some revival of religion and an ingathering of souls. The present preachers suffer much, being often obliged to dwell in dirty cabins, to sleep in poor beds, and, for retirement, to go into the woods; but we must suffer 'with' if we labor 'for' the poor. As to myself, I can say the Lord gives and wonderfully preserves my natural and spiritual health. My soul is daily fed, and I find abundant sweetness in God. Sometimes I am ready to say, 'He hath purified my heart,' but then again I fear. Upon the whole, I hope that I am more spiritual than ever I have been. I see the necessity of preaching a full and present salvation from all sin. You know, sir, it is not easy to rule, nor am I pleased with it. I bear it as my cross; yet it seems that a necessity is laid upon me. O pray for me, that I may be filled with light and power, with zeal and prudence, and, above all, with humility." [23]

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ENDNOTES

1 Lee says twenty; Lednum, nineteen. Lednum is remarkable for his accuracy. When I have not been able to confirm him I have been equally unable to refute him. The defects of the old Minutes are Superabundant. Some preachers on the list of appointments are not found in the list of candidates, and vice versa.

2 Bangs, i, p. 141. errs in attributing to this session the "first" record of locations. It occurred in 1779.

3 Lednum. p. 313.

4 Minutes, 182[7 — last number not legible — DVMl

5 Lednum, p. 328

6 Dr. Laban Clark, in Sprague's Annals, p. 75.

7 Lednum, p. 328.

8 Bangs, ii. p. 285.

9 Asbury says the latter began on the 20th.

10 Lee's History, p. 79.

11 Minutes, 1814.

12 Wakeley's "Lost Chapters," p. 300.

13 Wakeley, p. 310.

14 Lednum, p. 354.

15 The Minutes say the 6th of May; Asbury's Journals show it was the 7th.

16 Minutes and Lednum. Lee says there were thirty-five.

17 See Dr. Lee's Life of Lee, p. 100. This fact is determined by a manuscript of the proceedings, in the possession of Dr. Lee.

18 Minutes of 1832.

19 His name is often given as Rawlins. I conform, in the text, to Lednum, our best authority in such cases.

20 Lednum, p. 389.

21 Macaulay.

22 This letter was sent to America by Rev. Joseph Entwisle, of the Wesleyan Conference, and published in a periodical, the name of which has escaped my memory.

23 March 20, 1784. Arm. Mag., vol. ix, p. 681.

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