VOLUME 2 — BOOK IV — CHAPTER VI
INTRODUCTION OF METHODISM INTO NEW ENGLAND — CONTINUED

Lee Enters New England — Preaches on the Highway at Norwalk — Cornelius Cook — Scenes at Fairfield — New Haven — Reading Stratfield — Stratford — Vexatious Trials — Visit to Rhode Island Cheering Reception — Preaches in the Court-House at New London — Returns to his Connecticut Circuit — The First Class in New England — Singular Treatment — Second Society Formed — Reflections — Third Class — Dr. Bangs — New Heralds Enter the Field — The First New England Methodist Ministry — Jacob Brush — His Labors — his Death — Daniel Smith — His Character — Description of his Preaching — Dr. George Roberts — Anecdotes — His Character — Triumphant Death

Lee had been commissioned by the New York Conference of 1789 to introduce Methodism into New England. Its history, in the Eastern States, is, for the first two or three years, but his personal biography. He jotted down, in his journal, the incidents of his travels in hasty, unpolished sentences, most of them meager and dry, but time has rendered them profoundly significant. During the first year he was alone in the new field, and when others came to his help he left them to occupy the posts he had already established, while he himself went to and fro in all directions, penetrating to the remotest northeastern frontier, preaching in private houses, in barns, on the highways, forming new circuits, and identifying himself with every advancement of the Church. On the 17th of June, 1789, he preached his first sermon in New England at Norwalk, Conn. The difficulties he encountered in the outset were characteristic of the community, and were met with his characteristic persistence.

"Wednesday, June 17, I set off;" he says, "to take a tour further in Connecticut than ever any of our preachers have been. I am the first that has been appointed to this State by the Conference. I set out with prayer to God for a blessing on my endeavors, and with an expectation of many oppositions." At four o'clock he arrived in Norwalk, and applied for a private house to preach in, but it was refused. He then asked for the use of an old deserted building in sight, but was again refused. He proposed to preach in a neighboring orchard, but was still repulsed. He took his stand at last under an apple-tree on the public road, surrounded by twenty hearers. "After singing and praying," he says, "I preached on John iii, 7, 'Ye must be born again.' I felt happy that we were favored with so comfortable a place. After preaching, I told the people that I intended to be with them again in two weeks, and if any of them would open their houses to receive me I should be glad; but if they were not willing, we would meet at the same place. Who knows but I shall yet have a place in this town where I may lay my head!"

It has generally been supposed that this was the first Methodist sermon preached in the town of Norwalk, or even the State of Connecticut, but Lee himself mentions the prior labors of Black, of Nova Scotia; and Cornelius Cook had preached in Norwalk about two years before Lee's arrival. Cook entered the itinerant ministry in 1787, and died of the yellow fever in New York in 1789. His career, though brief, was useful. His death was sudden, and he was buried with all his clothes on, and his money and watch in his pockets. He was not forgotten, however; his remains were disinterred, and one of his fellow-laborers, long a patriarch of the ministry, [1] took his watch and carried it till the day of his death, as a memorial of his faithful friend. [2]

"Thursday, 8th," continues Lee, "I rode about sixteen miles, to Fairfield, and put up at Penfield's tavern, near the court-house, and soon told them who I was, and what my errand. I got a man to go with me to see two of the principal men of the town, in order to get permission to preach in the court-house. Then I went to the court-house, and desired the schoolmaster to send word, by his scholars, that I was to preach at six o'clock. He said he would, but he did not think many would attend. I waited till after the time, and no one came; at last I went and opened the door, and sat down." Chilling prospects, certainly, for a flaming mind like his, burning with the magnificent idea of founding in the Eastern States a new religious organization, which, in half a century, was to deck their surface with its chapels. Most men, placed in Lee's circumstances, as he sat solitary in the town-house, would have perceived in his project an absurdity as ludicrous as the grandeur of the design was sublime. But even here a ray of hope, at least, falls on him. "At length," he says, "the schoolmaster and three or four women came. I began to sing, and in a little time thirty or forty collected. Then I preached on Rom. vi, 23, 'For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' I felt a good deal of satisfaction in speaking. My soul was happy in the Lord. The people were very solemn toward the end of the sermon, and several of them afterward expressed, their great satisfaction in hearing the discourse. After Mrs. Penfield came back to the tavern she pressed me much to call the next day and preach at her sister's, who, she said, was much engaged in religion, and would be much pleased with my manner of preaching. This appeared to be an opening of the Lord, so I told her I would. I stayed all night, and prayed with the family who were very kind, and would not charge me anything, but asked me to call again."

The prospect brightens the next day. God had prepared for him a little band of congenial spirits, who had been praying and waiting for the arrival of such a message as he now bore to the East. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." Black, in his passage to Baltimore four years before, made an excursion into the interior, and penetrated as far as this part of Connecticut. He probably had no thought that in this transient visit he was preparing the way for the founder of Methodism in the East. The seed he casually scattered had, however, sprung up, and Lee was now welcomed by a few inquiring spirits who had been led, by the instrumentality of Black, to seek for a higher religious life than prevailed around them. Referring to the request of the lady just mentioned, he says: "Friday, 19th, I rode to Timothy Wheeler's, about four miles, and after delivering a letter to the woman of the house from her sister, Mrs. Penfield, she read it, and seemed much rejoiced that I had come. She then began to tell me how it had been with them, and said there were a few of them that met once a week to sing and pray together, but that they were much discouraged by their elder friends, and had been wishing and praying for someone to come and instruct them, and seemed to believe that God had sent me. At length she said she was so rejoiced that her strength had almost left her, and sitting down, she began to weep. Mr. Black, one of our preachers, had been there a few years before, and some had been wishing for the Methodists ever since. They spread the news as much as they could, and at seven o'clock the people met, and I preached to an attentive congregation. After meeting, some of them stayed to talk to me about religion, and wished to be instructed in the ways of the Lord. I think five or six of them are truly awakened; one, I think, has experienced a change of heart; but those under distress would be often saying they were afraid they had never been awakened. I told them, if they saw that they were in danger of hell, and felt a desire to be born again, they might know that they were truly awakened."

On Sunday, 21st, we find him at New Haven, the Athens of the state. It was a stormy day, but he preached in the court-house, at five o'clock, to a considerable congregation, on Amos v, 6: "Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall Live." Among his auditors were the president of the college, many of the students, and a Congregational clergyman of the town. "I spoke," he says, "as if I had no doubt but God would reach the hearts of the hearers by the discourse. The people paid great attention to what I said, and several expressed their satisfaction. Wednesday, 24th, I traveled a stony road to Reading, where there was a school-house that I could preach in, so I made the appointment for the people at six o'clock. Having met at that hour, I preached on Isa. lv, 6: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found,' etc. I bless God that I had some liberty in speaking. The old minister, at whose house I lodged is a great advocate for dancing, although he does not practice it himself."

It was at Reading that the second class formed by Lee in New England was organized before the end of the present year. Thence he rode to Danbury, and obtained permission to preach in the court-house twice on the same day. From Danbury he went to Ridgefield, where he was permitted to preach in the town-house. He also visited Rockwell, Canaan, Middlesex, Norwalk, Fairfield, and had some hope that an impression was made at each of these places.

On Friday, July 3d, he reached Stratfield, and found another little company of congenial and devout minds, whose sympathy cheered him in his solitary course. He says: "I preached at Stratfield, at the house of Deacon Hawley. It was filled with hearers. I had great satisfaction in speaking, and some of the people were melted into tears. I felt my soul transported with joy, and it appeared to me that God was about to do great things for the neighborhood. There are about a dozen that meet every week for the purpose of conversing on the subject of religion, and of spending some time in prayer. They desired me to meet with them in the evening, to which I consented. I spoke to them just as I would at one of our class-meetings, and it was a very comfortable time. The greater part of them kneeled down when we prayed; a thing that I suppose some of them never did before in public. They all seemed exceedingly pleased with the manner of the meeting; several thanked me for my advice, and desired me to remember them in my prayers."

The next day he was on his way to Stratford, the principal village of the town in which was formed, in less than a year; the first Methodist Society of his new circuit. Yet we find him approaching it with extreme misgivings: "Saturday, 4th, I set off about the middle of the day, and was much exercised about calling to preach at Stratford. Sometimes I seemed to have no faith; but at other times had a little hope that good might be done. At last I determined to take up my cross and make the trial. So I went, put up at a tavern, and calling on the man that kept the key of the town-house, obtained his consent to preach there. I let a man have my horse to ride through town and give the people notice of the meeting. At sunset they rung the church bell, and the people collected. The Congregationalists insisted on my going into the meeting-house, but I begged off for that time. I had a large company in the town-house. I preached on Ephesians v, 1 'Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.' I was much assisted in speaking; I felt happy in the Lord, and comforted to see the people so attentive. When I was done Solomon Curtis came to me, asked me to lodge with him, and wished me to make his house my home. Another said he would conduct me to the house, and taking me by the hand, he walked all the way by my side. I don't know that I have had so mach kindness showed me in a new place since I came to the state."

On the following day he was again at New Haven. The State-house bell was rung, and the people assembled there to hear him; but some influential citizens, having procured for him a Congregational chapel, induced him and his hearers to go into it. He proclaimed his message from the text, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace." "In a little time," he says, "I felt the fire from above; my heart was warmed, and drawn out in love to my hearers. I felt great liberty toward the last, and some of the people dropped silent tears, and the countenances of many showed that the word reached their hearts. I had two of the Congregational ministers to hear me: Mr. Austin, the minister of the house, and Dr. Edwards, son of the former President of Princeton College. After meeting I came out, and some told me they were much pleased with the discourse; but no man asked me home with him. I went back to the tavern, retired into a room, went to prayer, and felt the Lord precious to my soul. I believed the Lord had sent me there. If so, I was sure to find favor in the eyes of some of the people. In a little time David Beacher came, asked me to go home with him, and said he would be willing to entertain me when I came to town again. I went with him, and his wife was very kind." On Wednesday, the 8th, he was once more in Reading, and met there Rev. Mr. Bartlett, a pugnacious Congregationalist, who, with the spirit then, and still, to some extent, characteristic of New England, insisted upon vexatious questions of doctrine. "The minister," he writes, "and a few other people, came in, and wanted to enter into a conversation about principles, and inquired what kind of doctrines we held; but I said little to them. He asked me if I would be willing to take a text and preach my principles fully, for the people wanted to know them. I told him I was not willing to do it at that time, and intimated to him that if I preached I would wish to preach on a subject that I thought would be most for the glory of God and the good of the hearers; and that I did not believe a sermon on 'principles' would be for the glory of God at that time. The room was now quite full of people, and he asked me again, before them all, if I would preach upon my principles. I looked upon it, that he asked me before so many, that he might have it to say that I refused to let my principles be known, as too bad to be heard; so I told him if I found freedom, I would on a future day appoint a time for the purpose, and preach fully on the subject. He observed that some of the people would come to hear me out of curiosity. Here some were offended because I preached the possibility of being suddenly changed from a state of sin to a state of grace."

On Wednesday, 29th July, he preached in Fairfield again. The next day he visited Dr. Dwight at his seminary in Greenfield. The doctor treated him with cool politeness, evidently doubting the expediency of his mission. August 5 he preached at Newfield, in the house of a liberal-hearted deacon, with much effect. He writes: "There has been a great deal said against us since I was here last week. One of their ministers told the people in public that the Methodists held damnable principles, etc. Thursday, 6th, I went to Mr. Well's, and a Calvinist came to converse with me for a while; after talking over our different sentiments we joined in prayer, and parted. Then I rode to Reading, about sixteen or seventeen miles. I have seldom traveled so bad a road on dry ground as that was. The day was uncommonly warm; sometimes I could hardly bear the steam that arose from my horse; and, poor creature, he sweated till my great coat, four double, and my saddlebags, were wet through. When I got to Mr. Sanford's I felt very weary, but had only a little time to rest. In a few minutes I walked to Mr. Rogers', and preached to a large number of people within and without doors. The people in this place can bear to hear any vice spoken against except dancing. Thursday, 13th, we rode to Fairfield, at an hour by sun. I preached on Proverbs xxiii, 13: 'He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them, shall have mercy.' I had some satisfaction in speaking to the people, and they were attentive to the word. But some of the inhabitants seemed to be afraid to hear, because the minister did not like my coming among them. Even the tavern-keeper and his wife, where I always put up, made an excuse to leave home before I came; and the reason, I understood, was that the minister complained of them for entertaining me."

Such instances of sectarian shyness, so characteristic of the period, were of almost continual occurrence, but he braved them with stout determination. He met with a repetition of them the next day, at Stratfield. "At four o'clock," he writes, "I preached on 1 Peter iii, 12. I felt an humbling sense of the goodness of God while speaking. Some heard with watery eyes. I hope God will soon revive his work in this place. After meeting I observed that some of the people who always spoke to me went away and took no notice of me; and no person gave me an invitation to his house, which was an uncommon thing, for formerly I had various invitations. But I understood that they had been buffeted by the ministers from the pulpit, and by their acquaintance in private, till they hardly knew what to do. One minister had been trying for two or three times, in his sermons, to prove that a man could not fall from grace; and another turned loose upon us and said from the pulpit there were six hundred of us going about the country, preaching damnable doctrines, and picking men's pockets. One of the deacons of the meeting did not like it; he advertised the minister in the public paper, and informed the public how he persecuted us. This noise is not without a cause. I hardly ever knew much persecution where the people were at ease in Zion. Sunday, 16th, we rode to Milford, and preached in the town-house, and endeavored to show the necessity of a preparation to meet God. The house was crowded with people, and some of them appeared to be persons of note. They were very attentive to what was spoken, and tears stole down from several eyes, while solemnity sat upon their countenances. I felt great liberty in telling the people what it was to be prepared to meet God, and the comfortable consequence of such a preparation. I hope my labors will not be in vain in the Lord at this place. When I was done I came through the crowd, mounted my horse, and set off; without having any invitation to call at any man's house. This is the third time I have preached at this place, and have not yet become acquainted with any person. If I can but be useful I am willing to remain unknown among men. We then rode to Mr. Gilbert's, in New Haven. He and his wife appear to be God-fearing people."

This last example was certainly less offensive than the preceding cases, but could scarcely have occurred among any other Christian people than the excellent but frigid New England Calvinists of that day. Such treatment, chilling as it was, could not, however, damp the ardor of the evangelist. The next day he exclaims, "I bless God that he keeps my spirits up under all my discouragements. If The Lord did not comfort me in hoping against hope, or believing against appearances, I should depart from the work in this part of the world; but I still wait to see the salvation of the Lord."

Having spent about three months in Connecticut, and surveyed the ground for an extensive circuit, [3] to be occupied by assistants whom he hoped would come from the South to his aid, he departed on another exploring tour, which was attended with more agreeable auspices. "Monday, 31st of August," he writes, "I set out on a tour for Rhode Island State, and it was my fervent prayer to God, that if my undertaking was not according to his will, the houses of the people night be shut against me; but if my journey was right, that God would open the houses and hearts of the people to receive me at my coming." Both the hearts and the houses of the people were opened for him. He left New Haven after dinner, and had got but a little way from town before he fell in with a gentleman who was riding nine or ten miles on his route. He appeared to be a religious man, and encouraged Lee to go on to Guilford, and call on Lieutenant Hopson. He did so. Mr. Hopson met him at the gate, and as soon as he dismounted said to him, " I hope you are a brother in Christ." "I told him," writes Lee, "who I was, what I was, and whither I was going. It was then about sunset; but he sent word to his neighbors, and soon collected a room full of people, to whom I preached. I felt my soul alive to God among these strangers, and some of them wept freely. I found some lively Christians in Guilford of the Baptist persuasion, and could bless God that I came among them."

He passed on rapidly, preaching and making appointments at Killingworth, Saybrook, and Lyme, and on the third day of his tour entered New London, and "put up," at the house of Jonathan Brooks. "I told him," says Lee, "who I was, and that I had a desire to preach in the city at night. He immediately sent word among the people, and at night they collected at the State-house. My heart was much drawn out to God while I was declaring the necessity of the new birth. Deep solemnity rested upon the audience, and some of the dear hearers wept greatly. I felt as if I was among the faithful followers of the Lord Jesus. My cry was, Surely God is in this place! I had a large company of people of different ranks and professions. Everything seems to prove that my journey is of God. O Lord, never let me blush to own thy name!" After he had spent about a week in sounding the alarm in Rhode Island, and opening the way for future laborers, he returned to the first scene of his travels in Connecticut. He thus records his feelings on concluding his excursion in Rhode Island: "I have found great assistance from the Lord of late. Sometimes I have had no doubt but that the word was owned and blessed of him. Today I have preached four times, and felt better at the conclusion of my labor I did when I first arose in the morning. I have found a great many Baptists in this part of the country who are lively in religion. They are mostly different from those I have formerly been acquainted with; for they will let men of all persuasions commune with them if they believe they are in favor with the Lord. I think the way is now open for our preachers to visit this part of the land. It is the wish of many that I should stay, and they beg that I would return again as soon as possible, although they never saw a Methodist before. I am the first preacher of our way that has ever visited this part of the country."

On Friday, the 25th, he preached at Stratfield. After the sermon he conducted "a kind of class-meeting," composed of about twenty persons. It was the first class-meeting held on the circuit, and led to the formation, the next day, of the first class, composed of three women, who, he says, "appeared willing to bear the cross, and have their names cast out as evil, for the Lord's sake." [4]

The women who ministered to Christ were "last at the cross and first at the sepulcher." Let it ever be remembered that the first organic form of Methodism in New England, under the labors of Lee, consisted exclusively of devoted women. Their sex have ever since worthily sustained in the Church this first and peculiar honor. Among the Romans, senators and emperors were often the supreme pontiffs; but consecrated women, the vestal virgins, kept alive the undying fire.

Since his arrival in New England, three months of incessant labors and vexatious rebuffs had passed, and but three women were organized into the new Church, which was "to spread scriptural holiness over the land." But Lee had the faith which is the evidence of things not seen, and before its hopeful vision all the eastern hills and valleys stood forth white unto the harvest. He gave thanks, mounted his horse, the only companion of his laborious travels, and went forth to new trials and greater achievements.

The influence of the clergy and deacons in the several parishes which composed his circuit was used most strenuously to disaffect the people against him. At his next appointment, Greenwich, the prejudice thus excited was so general that he deemed it expedient to desist from further visits to it. There were about forty-five clergymen within the range of his circuit, most of whom seem to have been thoroughly alarmed at the solitary stranger. "They seem like frightened sheep," he writes, "when I come near them, and the general cry is, 'the Societies will be broken up.' " Accustomed as they had been to consider themselves the legalized Church of the land, they were astonished at his bold intrusion, and the standard of experimental religion was too low to admit of an appreciation of his message. The next insertion in his journal refers to the same obstacle, attended, however, by a different result. "Friday, 23d October. At David Old's, in Weston, I preached to a large congregation. The house was much crowded, though it was very large. I suppose the reason why I had so many to hear me was owing to their ministers preaching against me two Sabbaths in succession. The people heard me with great attention, and many tears were shed. I had reason to praise God that I felt my soul happy in his love. I generally find, in this State, that when I am most opposed, I have the most hearers. The Lord seems to bring good out of evil. If my sufferings will tend to the furtherance of the Gospel, I think I feel willing to suffer; but if I had no confidence in God, and as many as at present to oppose me, I believe I should soon leave these parts. But once in a while I meet with something to encourage me, and by means of the grace of God I stand."

The persistent patience with which he almost daily brooked these peculiar and chilling rebuffs may well excite our admiration; but, in contrast with this hardihood of purpose, his journals abound in affecting expressions of thankfulness for the occasional indications of kindness he met, however humble they might be. After preaching at Fairfield on a cold wintry night, December 24, he exclaimed, "Tonight, thanks be to God! I was invited by a widow woman to put up at her house. This is the first invitation I have had since I first came to the place, which is between six and seven months. O my Lord, send more laborers into this part of thy vineyard. I love to break up new ground, and hunt the lost souls in New England, though it is hard work; but when Christ is with me, hard things are made easy, and rough ways made smooth."

Monday, the 28th of December, though in these prosperous times it may appear a "day of small things," was another signal period in the history of his mission — the date of the second Society formed by him in the State. "I preached," he writes, "in Reading, and found great assistance from the Lord in speaking. I felt that God was among the people. One or two kneeled down with me when we prayed. The lion begins to roar very loud in this place, a sure sign that he is about to lose some of his subjects. I joined two in Society for a beginning. A man who has lately received the witness of his being in favor with the Lord led the way, and a woman, who, I hope, was lately converted, followed." the former was Aaron Sandford, who afterward became a local preacher, and lived to see his children and many of his grandchildren members of the Church, with a large and influential Society gathered around him. His name has been represented by a son and a grandson in the Methodist ministry.

About seven months of indefatigable toil had passed, and but two classes, with an aggregate of five members, were formed. Reasoning from sight, and not by faith, the persistent preacher might well have despaired; but, "Glory be to God!" he writes, on forming his class of two members, "Glory be to God, that I now begin to see some fruit of my labor in this barren part of the world." And he departed on his way to other toils, exclaiming again, "Glory be to God that he ever called me to work in his vineyard, and sent me to seek and to feed the sheep of his fold in New England. Sometimes I feel my heart so much drawn out in warm desires for the people that I forget my dear friends and relations; and if it were not for the duty I owe my parents, and the great desire they have to see me, I think I could live and die in this part of the world. The Lord only knows the difficulties I have had to wade through, yet his grace is sufficient for me. When I pass through the fire and water, he is with me; and rough ways are smooth when Jesus bears me in his arms." Fanaticism could never have sustained him amid such peculiar trials. It would have chilled and expired for lack of inspiration. He was supported by the consciousness that Methodism was needed in New England, and would, therefore, sooner or later, be divinely prospered; and by remarkable communications of grace and consolation from on high, such as he records, amid the inclemencies of a bleak wintry day, about this time, "I set out," he writes, "and my soul was transported with joy; the snow falling, the wind blowing, prayer ascending, faith increasing, grace descending, heaven smiling, and love abounding." On the 28th of January, 1790, he formed the third class of his circuit. "I preached," he says, "at Jacob Wheeler's, in Limestone, and after meeting formed a class, two men and two women. Perhaps these may be like the leaven hid in three measures of meal, that may leaven the whole neighborhood, and many be brought to say, I will go with this people, because we have heard that God is with them."

By this time the whole state was rife with rumors of him as a strange man who had come from the South, and was traveling through its villages on horseback, and in a costume of Quaker-like simplicity; a very "remarkable man," who preached every day and several times a day, and went everywhere, without knowing any person; exceedingly good-humored, witty even; of a most unusual voice, making his hearers smile or weep as he pleased, but mostly weep; "holding forth" in the court-houses, the school-houses, sometimes in the more liberal village church, but oftener under the trees of the highway; that he frequently lighted the court-house himself, and then rung the bell to call out the people; that the pastors and deacons valiantly resisted him as a heretic, for he was an Arminian; that they turned his discourses into interlocutions by their questions and disputations, but that he confounded them by his tact, if not by his logic; that he scattered the village wits or wags by his irresistible repartees; and that many drunkards an other reprobates were reformed, and many a good man, despondent under the old theology, was comforted by his refreshing doctrines. Many who liked his theology could not approve his preaching, because he acknowledged that he was not an "educated minister." The pastor, and sometimes the village lawyer or doctor, tested him with Latin and Greek phrases; he responded in Dutch, a knowledge of which he had picked up in his childhood; they supposed this to be Hebrew, and retreated, or took side with him as competent to preach. But above all, they saw that he was evidently an earnest and devout man. He prayed mightily, and preached overwhelmingly.

In one of the villages of Connecticut lived at this time an honest and intelligent blacksmith, who, when Lee appeared there, kept his family closely at home, lest they should become infected with the itinerant's supposed heterodoxy. One of his sons, about twelve years old, heard of the arrival of the stranger. He was not allowed to hear him preach, but never forgot him nor the marvelous rumors of his ministry. He was destined to become Lee's greatest successor in this very field, and to do more important services for American Methodism than any other man recorded in its history, save Asbury. Such was Dr. Nathan Bangs's first knowledge of Methodism. [5]

He continued his untiring labors, journeying and preaching, without the aid or sympathy of a single colleague, until the 27th of February, 1790, when he received, at Dantown, the unexpected and joyful intelligence that three preachers were on their way to join him. After the preceding review of his solitary labors and struggles, we can appreciate the simple but touching description of their arrival, which he recorded at the time: "Just before the time of meeting a friend informed me that there were three preachers coming from a distance to labor with me in New England. I was greatly pleased at the report, and my heart seemed to reply, 'blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' When I saw them riding up I stood and looked at them, and could say from my heart, 'thou hast well done, that thou art come.' Jacob Brush, an elder, and George Roberts and Daniel Smith, two young preachers, came from Maryland, to assist me in this part of the world. No one knows, but God and myself, what comfort and joy I felt at their arrival. Surely the Lord has had respect unto my prayers, and granted my request." He was holding a Quarterly Meeting, in a partly finished church, the second Methodist one begun in New England, at the time of the arrival of these brethren at Dantown. Mutually comforted and enlivened by the interviews, they entered with renewed zeal upon their labors, and during the services the next day (Sabbath) "the power of the Lord," says a historian of Methodism, "was so manifested that many cried aloud for mercy; a thing so unusual in that part of the country that some were very much alarmed, and fled from the house in consternation; and others, who were in the gallery, jumped out on the ground. In the midst, however, of the confusion occasioned by these movements, those who had an experience of divine things rejoiced with exceeding great joy." [6]

Jesse Lee, Jacob Brush, George Roberts, and Daniel Smith, memorable names in the records of the Church, were then, in the spring of 1790, the Methodist ministry of the Eastern States. There were more preachers than classes, and scarcely more than two members to each preacher; but they looked and labored for the future, and tens of thousands of New England Methodists now testify to the wisdom of their hopes.

Jacob Brush was an elder when he came to New England — the only one among the little band. Smith and Roberts were yet young men, and Lee, from diffidence of himself, had hitherto refused ordination. Brush was a native of Long Island. He entered the itinerancy in 1783, and was appointed to the Trenton (N. J.) Circuit. The ensuing four years he labored extensively in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Leaving the Dover and Duck Creek Circuit, (Del.,) in the spring of 1790, to assist Lee, he continued in Connecticut till the New York Conference of October, 1790, when he was appointed to the New Rochelle Circuit, where he traveled also the following year, till about the middle of July. He then took charge of a district which included Long Island, other portions of New York, and the State of Connecticut as far east as the Connecticut River, and as far north as the city of Hartford, sharing with Lee who was presiding elder, the same year, of Boston District) the entire presiding eldership of New England. His labors in the East, while presiding elder, were limited to one year's superintendence of this large district. His district the following year was wholly in the state of New York. He was subsequently a supernumerary in New York city, till his death, in 1795. He was "an active man of God," say the old Minutes, "a great friend to order and union." Notwithstanding a chronic inflammation of the throat, which interfered with his usefulness, he exerted himself much in his labors. His illness was very severe, and his last hours attended by stupor and loss of speech. A ministerial brother, taking him by the hand, inquired if he still enjoyed the peace of God; he affectionately pressed the hand of his friend, with an expression on his countenance of calm resignation. "We entertain no doubt," say his fellow-laborers, "that he rests in Abraham's bosom." [8]

Daniel Smith was born in Philadelphia, February 4th, 1769, and entered the ministry when he was about nineteen years of age. [9] We find him laboring, with a short interval, at Charleston, S. C., and at Lynn, Mass., thus making a transition of more than a thousand miles. In one of his passages he suffered shipwreck and came near losing his life on the Ocracock bar, off the coast of North Carolina. In 1791 he was admitted into fall connection by the conference, and sent back to New England. In 1792 he was ordained an elder, and returned to the South, where he continued to labor until I 1794, when he is reported, in the Minutes, among those "who are under a location, through weakness of body or family concerns." We trace him no further in the annual records of the Minutes. He was signally useful while in New England. An excellent judge, who was accustomed to hear him, places him, with Jesse and John Lee, "in the first rank" of the early Methodist ministry. [10] Thomas Ware, himself a pioneer of Methodism in Western New England, records a remark of Asbury, that "Daniel Smith had a faster hold on the affections of the eastern people than any other itinerant who had ever been sent among them." Ware classes him among the "eminent men" "whose memory was precious to many, and who were spoken of in terms of great respect and tenderness." Placing him by the side of the eloquent Hope Hull, who came to the East the next year, he says that "scarcely could two other men have been found so well suited to second the efforts of Lee in the Eastern States." "He was," says Enoch Mudge, "a man of an humble, sweet spirit, and a very good and useful preacher. No one of his time was more beloved. The people of Lynn, Boston, and vicinity, who knew him, were ardently attached to him. It was a day of weeping with us when he left Lynn. The general tenor of his preaching was experimental, winning, and affecting. He often was deeply affected with his own subjects, and with tears entreated sinners to be reconciled to God. His name is found among the most useful of the local preachers in New York for years. [11] On returning from the East, he was stationed, by Bishop Asbury, in the city of New York, where he applied himself to the study of the Hebrew tongue, under the late Dr. Kunze. He located in the city, and continued to minister with great acceptance to large congregations till the end of his life. He died on the 23d of October, 1815. His last sermon was preached in John Street, about a fortnight before his death. Ware, after speaking of Lee and Hope Hull in strong terms, remarks of Smith and his co-laborer, Roberts, that "it was said of the most learned men in these parts that none could extemporize with either of these unassuming Methodist itinerants. When these people, who had seldom heard a sermon delivered without notes, found a man who could readily preach without a book, he became an object of their admiration. Smith and Roberts could command the attention and respect of any intelligent and sober audience, and frequently their admiration and love. The hearts and doors of many were open to them, and having through their instrumentality been made to know the blessedness of believing, they were received as the accredited messengers of heaven, and for them was felt a tie of affection stronger than the ties of blood." [12]

Dr. George Roberts' name was "like ointment poured forth" in the early Church; yet few records remain of his long and devoted life. He left among his papers not six lines respecting himself. After laboring for some time, with extensive usefulness, as an exhorter and local preacher in Talbot, Md., and adjacent counties, he joined the traveling ministry in 1790. His first appointment was on Annamessex Circuit, Md., but he left it the same year to accompany Daniel Smith to New England, where he continued until the autumn of 1796, laboring indefatigably four years, at least, on extensive districts, as a presiding elder. His first district 1793-94) was the only one at the time in Connecticut, if we except a comparatively small tangent, reaching to one or two appointments from a district which lay chiefly in the state of New York and was traveled that year by Thomas Ware. His next scene of labor 1794-95) was a vast district, comprising nearly the whole state of Connecticut, and extending into Rhode Island on the east, and to Vermont on the north. His district in 1795-96 lay mostly in the state of New York, but reached into Connecticut, and included the Reading Circuit. This year terminated his labors in New England. His subsequent appointments were respectively in the city of New York, (which he continued three years,) Annapolis, Md., Baltimore, (two years,) Philadelphia, (two years,) Baltimore again, after which time located (1806) in the latter city, where he continued till his death in the practice of medicine, an eminently devoted, influential, and useful citizen and local preacher. He was especially useful in New England by his diligence in organizing and disciplining societies. While his labors were thus onerous, he also shared fully with Lee and his other coadjutors in the privations and sufferings incident to their new field. "I once heard him say," writes his son, "that during the whole period of his labors in New England he never received over forty dollars per annum from any source, circuits and conference dividends together. He never had more than one suit of clothes at once. I still have in my possession the thread and needle-case which he used in mending his garments, with his own hands, in the woods, or behind a rock. On one occasion Bishop Asbury punched his saddlebags with his cane, and said, 'Brother Roberts, where are your clothes?' His reply was, 'On my back, sir. I am ready to go whenever and wherever you please to direct, without returning to any appointment to gather up my garments.' He accompanied the bishop, piloting him through New England, in his first visit to that portion of our country. Often has he entertained me with relations of the many feats and numerous obstacles of his New England mission." [13]

The person of Dr. Roberts was large and athletic, his manners exceedingly dignified, and, in social life, relieved by a subdued cheerfulness. To his dignity, which well befitted his noble person, was added, in the pulpit, a most impressive power of persuasion. His sermons were systematic and digested and in their application often overwhelming. Wherever he went, his presence at once commanded respect. The infidel and the scorner grew serious, or shrunk from before him, in either the public congregation or the conversational circle. A reckless skeptic once attempted, with the air of a champion, to engage him in a difficult discussion, in presence of a company of friends. Roberts heard him for several minutes without uttering a word, but as he advanced in his scornful criticisms the listening preacher's countenance and whole bearing assumed an expression of solemn scrutiny, which struck the bystanders with awe and made the skeptic quail. When he had concluded, Roberts placed his hand on the infidel's breast, and with a look of irresistible power exclaimed, "Sir, the conscience which God has placed within you refutes and confounds you." The rebuked scoffer trembled and fled from his presence. The fact illustrates, better than could pages of remark, the character of this mighty man of God. He was not destitute of wit on befitting occasions, and when used satirically, it had redoubled pungency from its contrast with his generally serious character. "He was a powerful and very successful preacher," writes one of his ministerial contemporaries. [14] While he traveled in Connecticut, the Rev. Dr. Williams, of Tolland, and Rev. Mr. Huntington, of Coventry, unitedly published a work against the new sect, in which they charged Asbury with duplicity, and many other equally unchristian traits. Roberts replied to them in a pamphlet of peculiar force. "I still recollect," says the last mentioned authority, "some of his severe sallies. He was a man of much native wit and of a ready tact at satire, when he had occasion for it." He wrote, also, while in New England, a pamphlet on the Calvinistic controversy, which produced an impression on the opinions of the period.

His location was rendered necessary by the magnitude of his family, and was a matter of profound regret to him. He continued, however, to labor zealously in the local ministry till his death. His end was sublime, a scene of extreme physical anguish, of mental vigor coming forth with renovated power from successive shocks of dissolution, and of spiritual triumph never, perhaps, surpassed in the history of man. "For twenty-four hours prior to his death, he had,'' writes his son, ''a most violent convulsion every ten minutes by the watch and for twenty-four hours preceding the last day, he had them every half hour. Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that he came out of each with his intellect apparently more vigorous than when it seized him. During the intervals he shouted aloud, almost every moment, the praises of redeeming grace. This fact was the more striking, from the consideration of his not having been known to exult much during his previous life. He was distinguished by the evenness and quiet of his temperament. A night or two previous to his dissolution I urged him to spare himself, and offered as a reason for it the possibility of his disturbing the neighbors. He immediately replied, "Be quiet, my son? be quiet, my son? No, no! If I had the voice of an angel, I would rouse the inhabitants of Baltimore for the purpose of telling the joys of redeeming love. Victory! Victory! Victory though the blood of the Lamb!' 'Victory through the blood of the Lamb!' was the last sentence that trembled on his dying lips."

Such were Jesse Lee's colleagues in the spring of 1790. We have seen his joy as he "saw them riding up at Dantown, and welcomed them with the benediction, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!" Scarcely had they arrived when he commenced new journeys and labors.

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ENDNOTES

1 Rev. Elijah Woolsey.

2 Letter of Rev. W. C. Hoyt to the writer. Charles Wesley preached in Boston, on his way from Georgia to England, in 1736; Boardman, preached in New England in 1772; and some of Garrettson's young preachers, on the Hudson, had ventured across the boundary line before Lee.

3 This first Methodist circuit in New England included Norwalk, Fairfield, Stratford, Milford, Reading, Danbury, Canaan, with some intermediate villages.

4 This has been supposed to be the first Methodist class formed in Connecticut, (see Bangs' History of Methodism, anno 1789.) there were, however, before Lee's visit to New England, small classes at Stamford and Sharon, (letter of Rev. Aaron Hunt to the writer.) They were connected with circuits in New York. "But it should be understood," writes our informant, "that those classes, or parts of classes, though in the borders of Connecticut, were by no means considered New England Societies. They were parts of Societies which existed within New York. It might be said that because Black and Garrettson passed through parts of New England, and preached in them, therefore Lee was not the pioneer of Methodism in this Country; but the fact is, that not till the day of Lee did we enter that field to cultivate it.'' Lee really laid the foundations of Methodism in New England, and the classes in Stratfield and Reading were the first in the series of Societies which sprung up from labors.

5 Life of Bangs, p. 21.

6 Bangs, anno 1790.

7 Minutes, 1785.

8 Minutes, 1796.

9 Richmond Christian Advocate, January, 1847.

10 Letter of Rev. Enoch Mudge to the author.

11 Letter to the author.

12 Letter in the Richmond Christian Advocate, January, 1847.

13 Letter to the author.

14 Rev. Asa Kent to the author.