VOLUME 2 — BOOK IV — CHAPTER IV
INTRODUCTION OF METHODISM INTO THE NORTH AMERICAN BRITISH PROVINCES

The Christmas Conference and Missions — Garrettson and Cromwell go to Nova Scotia — Garrettson in Halifax — His Letter to Coke — Introduction of Methodism in the Eastern Provinces — True Epoch of Methodism in the Western Hemisphere: Note — John Coughlan and John McGeary in Newfoundland — William Black in Nova Scotia — John Mann — Garrettson's Travels and Sufferings — African Methodists — Refugees — They Originate the Wesleyan Missions in Africa — Extraordinary Results — Garrettson Itinerating — He Writes to Wesley and Asbury — His Perils — Methodism Enters Upper Canada — William Losee Crosses the St. Lawrence — Self-propagating Power of Methodism — Local Preachers in Canada — Barbara Heck — Commissary Tuppey Preaches in Quebec — Major Neal Preaches in Upper Canada — Lyons and McCarty — A Methodist Martyr — Christian Warner, the First Canadian Class-leader — Losee in Canada — His Character — John Roblin, the First Local Preacher — Early Classes — First Circuit — First Chapel — Results

We have already noticed how the West India Missions of Methodism sprung from the Christmas Conference at Baltimore; how, indeed, the whole Wesleyan missionary enterprise, as a scheme of foreign evangelization, is a result of the influence of that great occasion on the mind of Coke. The presence of William Black there, with his appeal for preachers for Nova Scotia, inspired the enthusiastic soul of the bishop. He not only set apart Garrettson and Cromwell for the distant field, and begged and gave funds for their support, but returned to England to procure additional men and money for it. The storms of the ocean, driving him with his ministerial recruits from near the shores of Nova Scotia to the British Antilles, not only providentially led to the founding of the missions of the latter, but did not defeat his plans for the former. Garrettson and Cromwell embarked for Halifax about the middle of February, 1785. They had a boisterous passage of nearly two weeks. "I never," wrote Garrettson, "saw so dismal a time before; but through the amazing goodness of God we were brought safely to Halifax, and were very kindly received by a Mr. Marchington, a true friend to the Gospel."

Marchington hired a house for public worship and Garrettson immediately began his labors. In a few days he formed the first Methodist Society of Halifax, comprising seven or eight members. Cromwell set out for Shelburn, and Garrettson projected "a tour through the country." Before departing he wrote to Coke, "I am well assured we shall have hard work this year, but who would not labor and suffer in so good a cause. I bless God for health, and as great a desire as ever to do his blessed will, and spend and be spent in the best of causes. I am fully persuaded that our voyage to this part of the world was of God; the very time when preachers of our order ought to have come."

Garrettson was the founder of Methodism in Halifax, but not in the eastern British provinces. It is a noteworthy fact that it dates there from the year 1765, one year earlier than its epoch in the United States. [1] In that year John Coughlan, a Wesleyan preacher, was, at the instance of Wesley and the Countess of Huntingdon, sent to Newfoundland by the Society for the propagation of Christian Knowledge. [2] During seven years he pursued his solitary labors, suffering much of the time severe persecutions. He was prosecuted in the highest court of the island, but was acquitted; abusive letters were written to England against him; a physician was engaged to poison him, but, becoming converted, exposed the diabolical design. Meanwhile the success of the missionary increased; he added many converts to his Society; but the fury of his enemies became still more violent. They had him summoned before the governor, a discerning and resolute officer, who not only acquitted him, but made him a justice of the peace. His opposers were now reduced to quiet, and the persecuted preacher pursued his labors with increased effect. His health at last failed, and he returned to England. John McGeary was subsequently sent by Wesley to occupy the vacant post. He found that the good work begun by Coughlan had dwindled after his departure, and was nearly extinct. Some of the converts had gone to their eternal rest, others had backslidden, and only about fifteen females remained in the Society. [3] He labored in Carbonear, but with such slight results that he was about to abandon the field in despair, when, in 1791, William Black arrived from Nova Scotia. Black has already on several occasions come under our notice. As the chief, though not the original, founder of Methodism in the eastern British provinces, his memory will forever be precious to the Church in those Borean regions. He was born in Huddersfield, England, in 1760. In 1774 he emigrated with his family to Nova Scotia. They found a few Methodist settlers at Amherst, who, without a pastor, maintained meetings for exhortation and prayer. It was at these meetings that the young emigrant received his first effectual impressions of the truth in 1779. After nearly five weeks of religious anguish, an old Methodist, who was praying with him, said, "I think you will get the blessing before morning." "About two hours after," says Black, "while we were singing a hymn, it pleased God to reveal his Son in my heart." He now introduced domestic worship into his father's house, and soon most if not all its members were converted. In 1780 he began to exhort in public at Fort Lawrence, and with such success that two hundred persons were gathered into classes, one hundred and thirty of whom professed to have "passed from death unto life." He had, in fine, become a preacher, and before long was "itinerating," proclaiming the faith at Amherst, Fort Lawrence, Cornwallis, Horton, Falmouth, Windsor, and Halifax. Methodism was thus permanently founded in Nova Scotia. In 1784 his Societies were too numerous for him to supply them alone. He went to the United States to consult Coke, as we have seen, and procured the appointment of Garrettson and Cromwell. In 1786 his name occurs for the first time in Wesley's Minutes, though he had devoted himself exclusively to ministerial labors for five years, and his circuit embraced the whole province, extended to Newfoundland, and at last took in New Brunswick. On the arrival of the missionaries from the United States he did not relax his labors, but extended them further and further, till he reached McGeary, who was desponding at Carbonear, and about to leave the field. "I have been weeping before the Lord," exclaimed McGeary to him, "over my lonely situation and the darkness of the people, and your coming is like life from the dead." Black immediately began to preach in the town; an extraordinary revival ensued, and the mission was retrieved. His visit to the island is pronounced "the most useful and interesting portion of his missionary life." [4] Two hundred souls were converted during his stay at Conception Bay. He organized Methodism in the province, secured its church property, encouraged and fortified its classes, and obtained new laborers from Wesley. The people of Newfoundland had received him as a messenger from God, and dismissed him, at his return to Nova Scotia, with benedictions and tears. "I think," he says, "I never had so affecting a parting with any people before. It was hard work to tear away from them. I was nearly an hour shaking hands with them, some twice and thrice over, and even then we hardly knew how to part; but I at last rushed from among them, and left them weeping as for an only son." This apostle of Methodism in the eastern British provinces lived to see it generally and firmly established in those regions. He died in 1834, at the advanced ago of seventy-four years, exclaiming, "God bless you! all is well!" and leaving in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland three Methodist districts, forty-four circuits, about fifty Itinerant and many local preachers, with more than six thousand members.

John Mann, one of the earliest converts of Boardman in New York, and for some time during the Revolutionary War the pastor of the John Street Church, had gone to Nova Scotia, and was now an energetic co-laborer there with Black and Garrettson. [5] He resided at Shelburne, where he preached regularly every Sunday. With him many refugees went from New York to the province, and were the germs of its Methodist Societies. The disloyalty of these people to the American government, or rather their loyalty to the British king, became thus providentially a means of the promotion of Methodism in the extreme northeast. Mann visited the United States for ordination, and was consecrated by Coke to the offices of deacon and elder. Returning to Nova Scotia, he labored faithfully and successfully, founding the Church in many places. His name appears in the Minutes of 1786 as one of the little band of three preachers for the province, Garrettson being the Elder, Black and Mann his itinerants. Mann deservedly ranks as one of the founders of Methodism in Nova Scotia. He labored diligently, and died triumphantly in the faith at the age of seventy-three, in 1816, at Newport, N. S.

Garrettson sent Cromwell immediately to Shelburne, but continued some time in Halifax, preaching daily, and three times on Sunday. He had some opposition. "One night," he says, "the stones flew, and one stone of nearly a pound weight was leveled at me, but missed its aim, and struck out two panes of glass near my head. This is but trifling if I can win souls to Jesus." He set out to travel at large through the province. In later years, referring to these early times, he says, "I have traveled, though the snow was deep, about three hundred miles in two weeks, and preached twenty sermons to many attentive hearers." He found many Methodists from the United States and from England scattered through the country, like sheep without a shepherd, and formed them into classes. He met with a Society of colored Methodists, refugee slaves from the United States, who, without white pastors, had organized themselves into a Church, "with whom," says his biographer, "he was much comforted; whom he endeavored to bring into Gospel order by forming sixty of them into a class, administering baptism to nineteen, and the Lord's Supper to about forty, most of whom he trusted loved God and one another." How are we struck, at every turn of our narrative of these primitive times, with the evidences of a special Providence! These African Methodists, discovered in the itinerant wanderings of Garrettson, were to be the founders of Methodism in Sierra Leone, and of the whole scheme of Methodistic evangelization in Africa. In 1792 about twelve hundred of the refugees were transported to Sierra Leone; the Methodists among them formed classes; two white local preachers, by the names of Brown and Gordon, conducted their religious services; a chapel was erected, and after some time Mingo Jordan, a colored man, began to labor among them. In 1806 Brown wrote to Coke imploring ministerial assistance. We can further trace their obscure history in a letter addressed to Adam Clarke, in 1808, by Mingo Jordan, sketching his labors among the Maroons from 1805 to 1808. He reports that the converts and the members of the Society in and about Sierra Leone amounted to one hundred. He had baptized twenty Maroons on one day, and they had "begun to subscribe two cents each per week for the further promotion of the Gospel of Christ." [6] When George Warren, the first Wesleyan missionary, arrived, in 1811, he found two Methodist chapels, three local preachers, six class-leaders, and one hundred and ten members. The colony at this early day was a scene of enormous depravity. Its climate is fatal to Europeans, but Wesleyan missionaries have always been ready to be sacrificed for its Churches. Warren died the next year after his arrival, and during about forty years one hundred and twenty-three missionaries and their wives have been sent to it, nearly one half of whom have died by the climate, while many others have had to return with broken constitutions. William Davies and Samuel Brown followed Warren. The mission quickly extended eastward, from Freetown, to Wellington, Hastings, Waterloo, and Murraytown; and southward to York and Plantains Island; and some of the most extraordinary instances of religious awakenings with which the Wesleyan Missions have been blessed have taken place within its limits. Schools have been erected, in which three thousand six hundred children are receiving Christian education. An "institute," for the training of a native ministry, has been begun, promising to save hereafter the great sacrifice of European laborers in the mission.

Thus was Garrettson's colored Society in Nova Scotia the beginning of those English and American Methodist missionary efforts for Africa which have interspersed its Western, southern, and southeastern coasts with posts of successful evangelical labor. Their marvelous results justify this brief digression. In fine, Methodist evangelization in Africa forms one of the most heroic chapters of modern Christian history. Its success is astonishing if we consider its peculiar disadvantages from the climate, the extreme degradation of the population, and the ravages of almost continual wars. The introduction of the elementary arts of civilization, printing-presses, schools, chapels; a considerable native ministry, and institutions for their training; about three hundred and twenty local preachers, nearly one hundred missionaries, at nearly one hundred stations, besides scores of other paid, and hundreds of unpaid agents, and more than sixteen thousand communicants, give promise that the great work begun will go on till it shall shake down this formidable stronghold of paganism, and spread Christian civilization over the continent. The African Missions have at least served, above all other foreign stations of Methodism, to prolong the heroic period of its history; it has received, in this field, more of the honors of martyrdom, from the climate, than in all the rest of the earth, and it has never retreated before the inexorable peril. [7]

But let us return to Garrettson. He went to Granville, to Digby, where he formed a small Society; to Liverpool, where he spent four weeks, and founded a Society of sixteen members; to Shelburne, where his congregations were crowded. He preached in all the neighboring settlements. "He remained," says his biographer, "about six weeks in this place, during which time he received one hundred and fifty members into the Society. It was not all fair weather, however, while he was here. He says he was stoned, had rotten eggs thrown at him, and when he embarked for Liverpool, the captain of a man-of-war cried out, 'Hail for the Methodist preacher!' and soon a gun was fired, which obliged them to lower sail, and he had to submit to have his trunk examined, but was dismissed with no other annoyance than the sound of some blasphemous oaths from the sailors. 'Blessed be God,' he says, 'they had not power to hurt me.' After a stormy passage he arrived at Liverpool. Here he remained two weeks, preaching the word with much assurance and comfort. From thence he embarked for Halifax, and found the Society he had left in peace. He remained in this place until the first day of February, during which time he had the happiness of receiving into society, as a brokenhearted penitent, a person who before had been famous for pouring contempt upon religion. He also visited the towns of Horton and Cornwallis, and preached with great freedom, evenings, as well as in the day-time. To be idle, while he beheld so many precious souls in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity, he could not. We therefore find him braving the storms and tempests, from one place to another, traveling on foot through snow and mud, where the roads were too bad to admit his traveling on horseback, that he might, as widely as possible, extend the empire of his divine Lord and Master." In his semi-centennial sermon he says that he traversed the mountains and valleys, frequently on foot, with his knapsack on his back, guided by Indian paths in the wilderness, when it was not expedient to take a horse; that he had often to wade through morasses half leg deep in mud and water; frequently satisfying his hunger with a piece of bread and pork from his knapsack, quenching his thirst from a brook, and resting his weary limbs on the leaves of the trees. But "thanks be to God!" he exclaims, "he compensated me for all my toil, for many precious souls were awakened and converted."

In April, 1786, Garrettson wrote to Wesley an account of his prospects. He says: "Some weeks ago I left Halifax and went to Liverpool, where the Lord is carrying on a blessed work; many precious souls of late have been set at liberty to praise a sin-pardoning God. There is a lively Society. The greater part of the town attend our ministry, and the first people have joined our Society. A few days ago I came to this town, where I met dear afflicted Cromwell, and was glad to find him able to set out for Liverpool and Halifax. Our chapel in Shelburne is not able to contain the congregation, and a present our friends are not able to build a larger. The people in Halifax have had very little preaching of late, at which they are much tried. It is impossible for us to supply half the places where they want us. I have written to Mr. Asbury for help, but with no certainty of obtaining it, as the work seems to be spreading among them. I meet with many difficulties, but a moment's contemplation of the eternal world weighs down all. A man who labors for God in this country needs a greater degree of grace, fortitude, and wisdom than I possess. We have bought two horses, which will do for the present. In some places the people will be able to support the Gospel. In general they are poor; but in my opinion this country wants nothing but pure religion and industry to make it desirable. I want to die to the world, and live wholly to God. This is the constant prayer and desire of your unworthy servant." In March of the same year he wrote again to Wesley: "By a storm Dr. Coke was driven to Antigua, and it is not certain when he will be here. We are much disappointed, but hope it will all work together for good." We have already seen the verification of this hope. "My time this winter," he continues, "has been spent mostly in Horton, Windsor, and Cornwallis. In the former there has been a divine display; many convinced and converted to God. A few months ago the place was famous for the work of the devil — now for singing, praying, and hearing the Word. If the work continue much longer as it has done, the greater part of the people will be brought in. I have had a blessed winter among them. The work greatly revives to the West. John Mann (a young man God has lately given us, whose praise is in the Churches) writes: 'God is carrying on his work in a glorious manner in Barrington; the people flock from every quarter to hear the Word; many have been convinced, and about fourteen have been set at liberty, some of whom were famous for all manner of wickedness. The fields here seem white for harvest.' Cromwell has had his station in Shelburne, but is very poorly. He writes: 'There seem to be very dull times in this town; hundreds have the small-pox, etc. The Lord enabled me to go on as far as Cape Negro. I could only stay to preach a few sermons, etc. It would do you good to see the dear people, some rejoicing, and others mourning; depend upon it, there is a blessed revival here. I returned to Shelburne very poorly, and expect, if God spares my life, to go home early in the spring.' John Mann, at Liverpool, writes: 'I am greatly comforted under an expectation of an ingathering here; the Society is very lively; several added, and several lately converted,' etc. Black is very steady and zealous in our cause, and has gone for a few weeks to the country. I can say this for Halifax, they are very kind in supporting Black's family; I think they give a guinea a week, and they have got a famous chapel nearly ready to preach in; it will contain a thousand people. Religion, I fear, is not very deep as yet. Since I wrote this letter I received one from Mann at Liverpool, saying: 'The Lord has broken in, in a wonderful manner, among the people, especially among the young. Within a few days twenty have been set at liberty; nine were converted one night.' Surely the Lord will do great things for us." To Asbury he wrote: "I have seen neither Cromwell, Black, nor Mann since last fall, though I have frequently conversed with them by letter. My time this winter has been spent in Halifax, and in the different towns between that and Annapolis. In Cornwallis, the last time I was there I put a chapel on foot; there were nearly five hundred dollars subscribed. On my return I put one on foot in Windsor. In this town God has given us a loving Society. A few friends are willing to build one at Annapolis, though they have had very little preaching for six months. This day they began to draw stone for building a church in this town also. Halifax, where there are forty members, will employ one preacher; Horton Circuit will employ another, where I left sixty members; Annapolis Circuit will employ another, where I left nearly one hundred members last fall; but how they are now I know not. In these three districts I expect Cromwell, Black, and Grandine will be stationed. Grandine is a young man we have taken on trial; I think he will be a preacher. Mann must take his station at Liverpool, where there are about forty members. There is Cumberland, which would employ two preachers: however, one at present would do; there are about fifty members. In and around Shelburne there are between two and three hundred members, white and black. Then there is the city of St. John, and the country all around; I suppose there are twenty thousand souls. A few of our friends are scattered in that part; but in all that space there is only one clergyman, an old church parson. I was informed by a respectable man from the east that there are hundreds of souls entirely destitute of the Gospel. I have heard very little from Newfoundland. So you may see we are in want of three preachers. There are several thousand colored people in this province, and the greater part of them are willing to be instructed. What do you think of sending Harry here this spring? [8] I think he would be very useful. I have no doubt but the people will support their preachers in this country."

Thus Garrettson traversed the province, and kept it astir with religious interest. In his latter years his adventures, in this remote section, afforded many a thrilling reminiscence for the entertainment of his friends, gathered about him in his retreat at Rhinebeck. "I well remember," writes his daughter, "the delight with which I used to climb his knee, and the importunity with which I used to beg for a story about Nova Scotia; and in riper years — but those halcyon days are forever flown; tears will not recall them. At one time, in order to a tend his appointment, he rode through an unfrequented country, the hail driving in his face until, nearly benumbed, he was obliged to lay the reins on the neck of his horse, and leave the animal by his own instinct to keep the road. There was no visible track, and turning out of the road in that country exposed the traveler to the greatest fatigue, as his horse sunk in the mass of unbeaten snow. At length he arrived at the only house he had seen; his horse stopped at the door, and he had only life enough left to walk in and throw himself on the bed. None but children were within, who covered him with plenty of bedclothes, while he lay almost insensible for nine hours, and had nearly forfeited his valuable life by too great eagerness in his Master's cause. He had often to cross the St. John, whose tide recedes, leaving its bed nearly empty, and again comes roaring up with great velocity and force, sweeping everything before it, and elevating on its waves the vessels and ships which it had left dry. During its recession its bed is fordable; but in winter the crossing is dangerous, on account of the large masses of ice it leaves behind. On one occasion his guide, instead of leading him up the river, went down, and they were not apprised of their danger until they saw the tide fast rolling toward them. The guide shrieked out, 'Put spurs to your horse, and make for the nearest land!' he did so, although uncertain whether it would be accessible when attained, for the shores thereabout were very bold and rugged. His horse was fleet; the shore was accessible; he outrode the wave, which swept over the back of his horse just as he had set foot upon the land. I have often heard my father say that if he had only been half the length of his horse's body behind, he should have been swept off like a feather on the tide."

He continued in Nova Scotia till the spring of 1787, when he returned to the United States, leaving about seven hundred Methodists in the classes of that province and Newfoundland. [9] The Methodism of "Eastern British America" has, by our day, grown to mature strength; it ranks, in the Wesleyan Minutes, as a Conference with eight districts, nearly one hundred circuits, more than a hundred and twenty preachers, numerous chapels, many of them costly edifices, academies, and periodical organ, Book Concern, missions, and thousands of communicants. [10]

Before the present term of our narrative closes, Methodism had penetrated the British North American possessions at another point in what was then the remote Western frontier. We have seen that in Garrettson's great pioneer scheme for the Upper Hudson he projected, as his northernmost outpost, in 1788, the Lake Champlain Circuit, with Samuel Wigton as its solitary itinerant. The next year, William Losee, With David Kendall as his colleague, traveled this frontier territory. Their journeys brought them within sight of Canada. The circuit seems not, however, to have been successful, for in 1790 it was abandoned. It is supposed that Losee received permission from Garrettson (in the winter of 1789-90) to range at large, seeking a more eligible field. He had kindred in Upper Canada, and went among them preaching the Gospel; he thus became, so far as the regular ministry is concerned, the apostle of Methodism in that province, and 1790 is usually recognized as its epoch. In January of this year Losee crossed the St. Lawrence."

We have often been reminded, in the course of this narrative, of the adaptation of Methodism, by some of its providential peculiarities, for its self-propagation. Its class and prayer-meetings trained most, if not all, its laity to practical missionary labor, and three or four of them, meeting in any distant part of the earth, by the emigrations of these times, were prepared immediately to become the nucleus of a Church. The lay or local ministry, borne on by the tide of population, were almost everywhere found, prior to the arrival of regular preachers, ready to sustain religious services the pioneers of the Church in nearly every new field. The year 1790 was not the real epoch of Methodism in Canada. The sainted Barbara Heck, foundress of the Church in the United States, went with her children, it is probable, into the province as early as 1774. The wife and children of Embury also went thither, and the names of these memorable families recur often, in the primitive annals of the denomination, from Augusta to Quebec. Mrs. Heck and her three sons were members of a class at Augusta, under the leadership of Samuel, son of Philip Embury. [12]

In 1780 a local preacher, by the name of Tuppey, was a commissary of a British regiment at Quebec. A devout and zealous man, and grieved at the general demoralization around him, he began earnestly to preach among emigrants and his fellow-soldiers. His regiment was disbanded after the peace; but he had labored about three years, and some of his hearers and converts were left scattered through the settlements of the province. "We may regard this British soldier," says the Canadian historian, "as the first Methodist preacher in Canada." [13]

The second was George Neal, an Irish local preacher, and major of a cavalry regiment of the British army. He crossed the Niagara River, at Queenstown, on the 7th of October, 1786, anticipating Losee by some four years. Bangs, who early traveled the circuits of that region, says, "He was a holy man of God, and an able minister of the New Testament. His word was blessed to the awakening and conversion of many souls, and he was always spoken of by the people with great affection and veneration as the pioneer of Methodism in that country. Among those who first joined the Society may be mentioned Christian Warner, who lived near what is now called St. Davids, and became a class-leader; his house was a home for the preachers and for preaching for many years. He was considered a father in Israel by all who knew him. The first Methodist meeting-house erected in that part of the country was in his neighborhood. Neal lived to see large and flourishing Societies established through all that country, and at length was gathered to his fathers in a good old age." [14] For some time this military evangelist held up the Methodistic banner, alone, in all the province, but in 1788 two other pioneers entered the field. An exhorter by the name of Lyons came from the United States and opened a school at Adolphustown, in the Bay of Quinte country. "Having a zeal for the Lord," says the local historian, "and seeing ignorance and sin abounding, he collected the people together on Sabbath days, in different neighborhoods, and sung and prayed, and exhorted the people to flee from the wrath to come. He would also pray in the families which he visited. These labors were blessed of the Lord, and some were turned from their sins to God." [15]

In the same year James McCarty, an Irishman, from the United States, and a convert of Whitefield's ministry, reached Kingston, and passed on to Ernestown, where he found out Robert Perry and other lay Methodists, and began immediately to hold religious meetings in their log-cabins. He is described as a man of attractive manners and speech, and large numbers attended his preaching: probably the first the settlers had heard since they came into Canada. A great effect was apparent. Many were brought to a knowledge of the truth and the enjoyment of religion. His success provoked the hostility of leading churchmen. A sheriff; a captain of militia, and an engineer combined to rid the country of his zealous labors, and McCarty was destined to be honored as the protomartyr of Methodism in Canada. Under a statute against vagabonds, he was seized while preaching, on Sunday, at his friend Perry's house, by four armed men. The indignant congregation opposed them, and as Perry offered to give bail for his appearance, the next day, at the magistrate's office in Kingston, the assailants retired. They had designed to carry the preacher to the Kingston prison. On the next day Perry took him to the sheriff in that town, but the officer refused to have anything to do with them. The conspirators, however, were at hand, and before night had him in prison under some frivolous pretext. Perry again bailed him, but on his return for trial his enemies were resolved that he should never preach again. He was suddenly seized, thrust into a boat, and conveyed by four Frenchmen, hired for the purpose, down the St. Lawrence to the rapids near Cornwall. He was landed on one of the numerous solitary islands of that part of the stream, and may have perished by starvation, or have been drowned in attempting to reach the main shore; but his fate has never been disclosed. The sad mystery has consecrated his name in the history of the Canadian Church. "Undoubtedly," says its historian, "McCarty was a martyr for the Gospel, and so he was regarded by the early inhabitants." [16]

Such hostility never fails to promote a good cause. The labors and sufferings of Neal, Lyons, and McCarty led to a demand for regular Methodist preaching among the well-disposed settlers of the Niagara townships and the settlements of the Bay of Quinte. They sent, in 1790, petitions to the New York Conference for missionaries, offering to pay their expenses. In this year also Christian Warner, one of the most important Methodist laymen of Canada, was converted under the preaching of Neal. Some of his neighbors followed his example, and Neal organized them into a class, supposed to be the first ever formed in Canada. [17] Christian Warner was appointed its leader, and has, therefore, the honor of being the first Methodist class-leader of the province. He was a native of Albany County, N.Y., and went to Canada in 1777, settling in the township of Stamford, where his house was, for many years, the home of his itinerant brethren and the sanctuary of the first Methodist class. He was a saintly man, a leader all his remaining life, and died in the peace of the Gospel in 1833, the patriarch of Canadian Methodism. His name will often recur in our future references to his adopted country.

In entering Canada, (in 1790,) Losee probably crossed the St. Lawrence at St. Regis, for it seems that he preached in Matilda, Augusta, and Elizabethtown, and then passed on to Kingston, and thence to Adolphustown, where his kindred resided. "One of the first houses he preached in," says our authority, "was John Carscallen's, in Fredericksburgh, on the Bay Shore, near the upper gap; another was at the tavern of Conrad Vandusen, in Adolphustown, near the old court-house; and another at Paul Huff's, on the Hay Bay. In journeying about as a pioneer in the Bay of Quinte townships he found occasionally a person who had heard the Methodist preachers in England, Ireland, or in the United States, by whom he was welcomed, and sometimes permitted to preach in their log-houses, or shanties; for all that fine country, now so well furnished with large and handsome dwellings, had then houses of the humblest description. A Methodist preacher was a curiosity in those days, and all were anxious to see the phenomenon. Some would even ask how he looked, or what he was like. A peculiarity in Losee, too, was, that he had but one arm; and yet with one hand to use, he could readily mount and dismount his horse, and guide him over the roughest roads and most dangerous crossways. He was a bold horseman, and usually rode his journeys on the gallop. Yet he was a man of very solemn aspect, with straight hair, a long countenance, and grave voice. His talents were not so much for sermonizing as for exhortation. He, and the preachers generally of that day, were of the revival class; laboring, looking, praying for immediate results. His private rebukes were often of a very solemn character. It was the custom of the preachers then to use the word 'smite' in their prayers and sermons. So Losee would often cry, 'Lord, smite them!' and sinners would often be smitten by the Spirit of God, with conviction of sin and terror of the last judgment. The man, his manner, and his style of preaching, caught the attention of the settlers, and young and old filled the houses where he preached. Having preached a few times, he spoke of leaving. The people were now anxious for a missionary to reside among them. The petition already mentioned was circulated and extensively signed in the midland district, praying the New York Conference for a missionary to labor in these new townships. Losee received it, and returned to the United States the same winter. He carried it to the Conference, which assembled in New York, on the 4th of October, and of course spoke of his visit and of the favorable prospects for the Gospel in Canada, and offered to be the first preacher in these northern climes. Bishop Asbury and the preachers were willing that an entrance should be made at this new door. William Losee, therefore, was allowed to return, with instructions to form a circuit. As the Conference sat so late in the year, he had not time to prepare and return to Canada before the winter."

In 1791, however, Losee was on his way, as soon as the ice of the St. Lawrence was firm enough to allow him to cross with his horse. He traversed the wilds of New York, enduring severe hardships, and passed over the river below Lake Ontario, to Kingston, and in February was rejoicing again among his friends at Adolphustown, the first regular or itinerant Methodist preacher who entered the country. He was yet young, being but about twenty-seven years of age. He flamed with zeal for his new and great work, and he had no cares but those of his office, being unmarried. Giving himself wholly to his mission, he immediately formed a circuit, making "appointments" at every opening. "During the summer his field embraced settlements in the townships of Kingston, Ernestown, Fredericksburgh, and Adolphustown; then he crossed the Bay of Quinte, and extended his circuit into Marysburgh, if not into Sophiasburgh. The good impression made by Losee on his first coming was strengthened by his second. The people received the word with a ready mind, and a number were soon enjoying the salvation of the Gospel. One of his appointments was in the third concession of Adolphustown, in the house of Paul Huff; on the Hay Bay Shore, and on the farm on which the chapel now stands. Here he formed a class, the first regularly organized in Canada, on Sunday, February 20, [19] and about the month of May or June a great revival of religion commenced. Two miles west of Paul Huff's, where the meetings on the Hay Bay were held, lived a widow with her four sons and four daughters. Philip Roblin, her husband, died in 1788. The house larger than ordinary, being two log-houses joined together. Well inclined to the new preacher, the Roblins lodged him and took care of his clothes. A reproof given to John Roblin, accompanied by solemn reflections, led to his seeking the salvation of his soul. On the next Sabbath he attended the meeting burdened with sin and repenting; but he went home a converted man. He went to his room, and, returning to his mother, in the presence of the family, said, "O, mother, the Lord has converted my soul this morning. Let us all kneel down and pray." He now, for the first time, prayed with his mother and brothers and sisters. Then he went to William Moore's, a mile distant, and exhorted and prayed with the family, leaving a deep impression, which soon resulted in a great change of life. William Moore afterward became the class-leader, and bore the character of a very good man. Young Roblin visited other families, warning and praying with them; and thus he spent the first Sabbath of his new life. Dancing was the fashionable frivolity of those times, and the youth met weekly in each other's houses for the dance. John Roblin was the leader in this amusement, and his turning from it induced others to pause, to reflect on, their ways, to attend the meetings of the pious, and to seek the salvation of their souls. He held prayer-meetings among the people, and the preacher encouraged him in the new work. A great awakening took place, and numbers sought and found the Lord as their Saviour. He afterward became a local preacher, and was a useful man in his day. The people elected him to one or two of the early Parliaments of Upper Canada; but political life was not his desire, and he rather served by constraint than willingly." John Roblin appears, then, to have been the first native local preacher of Canada. The second class was organized on Sabbath, February 2th, in the first concession of Ernestown, and four miles below the village of Bath. The third was formed in Fredericksburgh, on Wednesday, March 2d, in the house of Samuel Detlor, about three miles from the village of Napanee. Thus the three first Societies were organized in ten days, but of the number in each there is no record, nor of other classes which he may have formed before the Conference.

Losee did not return to his Conference in 1791; he was too far away, and too busily employed; but his ministerial brethren remembered him, and elected him to deacon's orders, though his ordination must be indefinitely postponed. His new circuit is recorded in the Minutes as "Kingston," and, oddly enough, is placed under the presiding eldership of Jesse Lee, who, as we shall hereafter see, had now entered New England. Kingston, in Upper Canada, therefore appears on the record in juxtaposition with Lynn, on the sea-coast of Massachusetts. Distance was a small affair in the itinerant schemes of these times. Lee, however, never reached his solitary preacher in the woods of the northwestern frontier.

The Methodist itinerancy was thus initiated in Canada. Its first Methodist chapel was erected at Adolphustown, in 1792. The subscription paper for this edifice is still extant. [20] It bears the names of Embury, Bininger, Roblin, Huff, Vandusen, Steele, Rutton, Ketcheson, and others, memorable in the early history of the denomination. In the same month the second chapel was begun in Ernestown, for the accommodation of the eastern part of the circuit, the first being at its western end. Both structures were of the same size, thirty six feet by thirty, two stories high, with galleries. Losee returned to the Conference of 1792 bearing cheering reports of his great field. The Minutes record a 'hundred and sixty-five members in his Societies; his circuit divided into two, and he hastened back with Darius Dunham as his colleague. Vast results are to follow; gigantic laborers to appear in the opening wilderness; circuits and Societies to keep pace with the advancing frontier, and to reach eastward to Quebec; Indian missions to arise; Methodist chapels, many of them elegant edifices, to dot the country; a book concern, periodical organs, a university and academies to be provided, and Methodism to become numerically the predominant faith of the people. But these developments belong to later dates of our narrative.

Methodism in the British Provinces, especially in Canada, remained for many years under the jurisdiction of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It is, therefore, relevantly included in the early history of the denomination, and, as we shall hereafter see, is one of its most important results.

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ENDNOTES

1 The true epoch of Methodism in the western hemisphere is 1760, when Gilbert formed the first Society at Antigua. Had its centenary been observed all Methodists of the new world could have shared in its celebration, an advantage which the epoch of the Church, in neither the North American British provinces nor in the United States, admits. Should its next return be celebrated, what trophies may the denomination exhibit if it maintains till then its integrity!

2 History of the Religious Movement, etc., ii, pp. 329, 352.

3 Richey's Memoir of Black, chap. ii.

4 Rev. Richard Knight, in Wesleyan Magazine, 1837, p. 487.

5 Memoir of Mann, Arminian Magazine, 1818.

6 Meth. Mag., 1805, p. 572.

7 History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, etc., iii, 352.

8 "Black Harry," who has heretofore been noticed.

9 Wesleyan Minutes, 1787, vol.1, p. 198.

10 Ibid., 1860.

11 "Playter's History of Methodism in Canada, p. 21. Toronto. 1862. Bangs erroneously says (i, 323) that Losee went into Canada in 1791. Not only Playter, but Rev. Anson Green (Letter, March 2, 1860, in Canada Christian Guardian) corrects him.

12 "Her three sons came with her to Canada. John, the eldest, returned to some other part of the United States, and died early. Jacob and Samuel continued to reside in Canada, and lived to an advanced age. Samuel died in 1841, and Jacob in 1843. The writer knew Jacob and Samuel personally, and has conversed with the former about the facts referred to. He is the brother-in-law of Samuel's youngest son; and he writes this letter in the township of Augusta, in Samuel's late residence, within sight of Jacob's late residence, and within three quarters of a mile of the churchyard where the mortal remains of Paul and Barbara Heck, with those of their sons Jacob and Samuel, their wives, and some of their children, repose. He has stood by their graves this very day." Letter to the author from Rev. John Carroll, of the Wesleyan University, Canada West. See also vol. i, p. 69, and "Christian Guardian," Canada, May 25, 1859.

13 Playter, p. 10.

14 Bangs's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, ii, 122. This was not, however, the first Methodist chapel of the province.

15 Playter, p. 17.

16 Playter, p. 18, and Meacham's "History of Methodism." Meacham says that he obtained his facts from Perry, the friend of McCarty.

17 Rev. Edmund Stanley in the Christian Guardian, (Canada), April 24, 1833.

[18] Playter, p. 22.

19 Not the first organized, but "the first regularly organized;" that is, by a regular preacher. Warner's class, in Stamford, was the first.

20 "The original in the possession of Rev. Dr. Anson Green, of Canada. See his letter, March 9, 1860, in the Christian Guardian.