VOLUME 2 — BOOK IV — CHAPTER VIII
LEE AND ASBURY IN NEW ENGLAND, 1791-92

Plan of Labors — Obscurity of the Early Laborers — Lee Returns to the East — Excursion into New Hampshire — Preaches in Needham — Excursion to Rhode Island — Excursion to Western New England — View of his Labors — Asbury enters New England — His Incessant Preaching — Scenes at Stepney — Stratford — New Haven — Middletown — Newport — Providence — Boston — Lynn — His Return Westward — Results of the Year — Session of the First New England Conference — Asbury — Lee — Services at the Conference — Appointments — Membership — Lee Itinerating — Methodism Prevails — Results of the Year — First New England Conference: Note

We have followed Lee and his fellow-laborers down to the end of the ecclesiastical year 1790-91. On the 26th of May, [1] 1791, the Conference assembled in New York city. The Minutes report the plan of appointments in New England for the year: Jesse Lee, elder; Litchfield, Matthias Swaim, James Covel; Fairfield, Nathaniel B. Mills, Aaron Hunt; Middlefields, John Allen, George Roberts; Hartford, Lemuel Smith, Menzies Rainor; Stockbridge, Robert Green; Lynn, John Bloodgood, Daniel Smith. One district and six circuits, four in Connecticut and two in Massachusetts, with eleven circuit preachers and one presiding elder, now constituted the ministerial corps and field of Methodism in the Eastern States. Stockbridge is the name of a new circuit in Massachusetts, reported now for the first time. Middlefields, [2] Conn., appears also for the first time; a new name, probably, for one of the circuits reported the preceding year. Boston Circuit of the last year changes its name to Lynn in the present Minutes.

As we recast our eye over this list of the pioneer laborers of Methodism in the East, we cannot repress the repeated expression of our regret that from the deficiency of the contemporary records of the Church, names which should be so precious in its memory must remain in its annals like those fixed stars of our firmament, the remoteness of which occasions alike our ignorance of their conditions, and their steadfastness of position and brilliance. We have already given what slight information we could glean respecting a few of them. The extent our knowledge of the remainder is still more limited. Of many we can ascertain nothing except the designation of their places of labor, and the statistical proof of their success, in the Minutes. Some of them will come under our notice hereafter.

Lee was appointed, as we have seen, presiding elder, with a district which comprehended the whole Methodist interest in New England, and the recently formed circuit of Kingston, in Upper Canada. He devoted his attention, however, chiefly to the region of the Atlantic coast, visiting but once the Societies in Connecticut. By the latter part of July he was again at Lynn, and labored for a month among the neighboring towns. He then departed for New Hampshire, but has left no important record of his journey. "I think," he wrote on his way back, "the time is near when the work of the Lord will begin to revive in this part of the world, and if the Lord work by us, our good mistaken brethren will be brought to say, 'Send, Lord, by whom thou wilt send.' "

On the 6th of the next month he preached the first Methodist sermon in Needham, Mass., with much interest, which was shared fully by the people. They entreated him to tarry longer, and revisit them often. He was on another errand, however, and could not delay. We have already recorded his flying tour through Rhode Island the preceding year. He was now on his way thither again, to ascertain the effects of those labors, and the practicability of forming a circuit in that state by the ensuing Conference. Leaving Needham the next day, he arrived in Providence by the same night, and preached the following evening. The ensuing day he rode to General Lippet's, at Cranston, and "was very kindly received," and on Friday, the 11th, he preached at the general's "with more than usual comfort." "My heart," he says, "was drawn out in love and pity toward my hearers. In this place the people know but little of the life and power of religion, and it is very seldom that they can get to any place of public worship. Seeing how destitute they are of the preaching of the Gospel, I was brought again to pray earnestly that the Lord would send forth more laborers into the vineyard." General Lippet became a leading friend of the Church in his State, and will hereafter claim our grateful attention.

Lee's visits and consultations in Rhode Island led him to project a circuit in that State, which was recognized by the next Conference, and included most of those beautiful villages, on the shores of Providence River and Narraganset Bay, that now sustain vigorous Methodist, Churches.

Again he returned to Lynn, but on his arrival found Robert Bonsal, "just come from New York to preach the Gospel in those parts." Lee could now he spared from the circuit; leaving it, therefore, in the of Smith and Bonsal, he immediately departed, proclaiming the word through the interior of Massachusetts and Connecticut. He found a prosperous society formed at Enfield, and a visible improvement in the various appointments which he had established while laboring in Connecticut. "I see," he says' "that the Lord has prospered his work among the Methodists since I visited this part of the vineyard." In this excursion for a little more than one month (thirty-three days) he traveled five hundred and seventeen miles, and preached forty sermons. "I have reason," he says, on his return to Lynn, "to hope that the Lord has given me fresh strength and courage to go forward in his ways." During the last fourteen months he had preached three hundred and twenty-one sermons, besides delivering twenty-four public exhortations, and making almost continual journeys into New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and still he exclaims, "Forward! with fresh strength and courage."

A great man, both in word and deed, was this apostle of Methodism in the East, but a greater than he passed through these same regions during the period under review. Asbury entered Connecticut on the 4th of June, 1791. Though most repulsive vexations attended his visit, his notices of the country are expressive of that hopefulness which usually characterizes great minds — minds conscious of the energy that secures great results. On arriving at Reading, where Lee had formed his second class in Connecticut, he exclaims: "I feel faith to believe that this visit to New England will be blessed to my own soul, and the souls of others. We are now in Connecticut, and never out of sight of a house, and sometimes we have a view of many churches and steeples, built very neatly of wood. I do feel as if there had been religion in this country once, and I apprehend there is a little in form and theory left; but I fear they are now spiritually dead, and am persuaded that family and private prayer is very little practiced. Could these people be brought to constant, fervent prayer, the Lord would come down and work wonderfully among them. I find my mind fixed on God, and the work of God." He preached at Reading, on the Sabbath, with much satisfaction, and rode the same day to Newton, where, though "sick and weary," he again ascended the pulpit. He moved on without cessation, preaching, as was his wont, wherever an opportunity offered — in churches, when allowed; where these were denied, in town-houses; and where these were closed, in private houses. The next day after his labors at Reading and Newton he passed to Stepney, and delivered in a private house an awakening and melting exhortation. Thence he went, the same day, to Chestnut Hill, where, though he was not expected, word was sent round among the neighbors, and he addressed the hastily gathered assembly; but finding, by the time he had closed with prayer, that many others had arrived, he resumed the exercises, and "exhorted again for about forty minutes." Thence he drove on some miles further, and in the evening "had a small family meeting," at which he preached. Such is but a specimen of the daily course of this truly wonderful man, not only in New England, but through the length and breadth of the nation, and through nearly half a century.

The next day, 7th, he arrived at Stratford, the town near which Lee formed his first New England Society. The time of trials had not yet passed. "Good news" he exclaims, in a manner characteristic of himself; "they he voted that the town-house shall be shut. Well, where shall we preach? Some of the selectmen, one at least, granted access. I felt unwilling to go, as it is always my way not to push myself into any public house We had close work on Isaiah lv, 6, 7. Some smiled, some laughed, some swore, some talked, some prayed, some wept. Had it been a house of our own, I should not have been surprised had the windows been broken. I refused to preach there any more, and it was well I did — two of the esquires were quite displeased at our admittance. We met the class, and found some gracious souls. The Methodists have a Society, consisting of about twenty members, some of them converted; but they have no house of worship. They may now make a benefit or a calamity; being denied the use or other houses, they will the more earnestly labor to get one of their own." Notwithstanding these repulses, he tarried the next day, and preached in a private house. "It was a time of comfort to the few seekers and believers present." The day following he reached New haven, and addressed an audience which included some of the collegians, President Styles, and other clergymen. "When I had done," he writes, "no one spoke to me. I thought today of dear Mr. Whitefield's words to Mr. Boardman and Mr. Pilmoor, at their first coming over to America. 'Ah,' said he, 'if ye were Calvinists ye would take the country before ye.' We visited the college chapel, at the hour of prayer. I wished to go through the whole to inspect the interior arrangement, but no one invited me. The divines were grave, and the students were attentive; they treated me like a fellow-Christian in coming to hear me preach, and like a stranger in other respects. Should Cokesbury or Baltimore ever furnish the opportunity, I, in my turn, will requite their behavior by treating them as friends, brethren, and gentlemen." But what were such trials to this indomitable man? Trifles, which he brushed aside, as he "pressed on to the mark of the prize of his high calling." We still trace him onward, "crying aloud and sparing not," the next day at Wallingford, the following one at Wallingford Farms, to a "tender" and "alarmed" assembly; the day after, (Sabbath) twice at Middlefields, and at night, the same day, in the Congregational church at Middletown, where he proclaimed, "This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son and love one another." And when, after this weary day of labor, he had to ride "a mile out of town to get a lodging," he comforted himself with the reflection that "it was to the poorer classes of people that this preaching was anciently blessed." Could he now revisit that beautiful city he would be welcomed to scores of homes, where his name is revered as a beloved household word; and he might there also make the promised requital to the learned divines of New Haven, in an institution which has been distinguished by the presidency of men who would have dignified the chief chair of Yale.

He still pressed onward, passing through Haddam, New London, "where," he says, "my church was the court-house, my text 2 Peter iii, 15," Stonington, Westerly, R. I., Charlestown, and Newport, where, he writes, "I lectured the second night from Isaiah lxiv, 1-7; there was some life among the people, although it was late, and the congregation like our Lord's disciples before his passion. There is also a Jews' synagogue, and a Moravian chapel. I expect before many years the Methodists will also have a house of worship here." On Saturday, 18th, he started on his way to Providence, remarking: "On this journey I feel much humbled. I am unknown, and have small congregations, to which I may add, a jar in sentiment; but I do not dispute. My soul is brought into close communion. I should not have felt for these people and for the preachers as I now do, had I not visited them; perhaps I may do something for them in a future day. We came to Bristol, and should have gone further, but Captain G. saw us and took us to his house. At the request of a few persons I preached in the court-house to about a hundred and enforced, 'The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,' and found a degree of liberty. Some time ago there was the beginning of a work here, but the few souls who began are now discouraged from meeting together. I fear religion is extinguished by confining it too much to church and Sunday service, and reading of sermons. I feel that I am not among my own people, although I believe there are some who fear God." The next day he was declaring, in Providence the "acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God," from Isaiah lxi 1-3. The day following he visited some serious families, and preached in the evening. He left the city, believing "that even we shall have something to do in this town." He spent a day at Easton, where he preached once, but called it a day of "rest," a "solemn, happy, and solitary retreat," where his "soul entered into renewed life."

On the 23d he reached Boston. The prospects of Methodism had scarcely improved there. He records, with emphasis, his inhospitable reception: "I felt much pressed in spirit, as if the door was not open. As it was court time, we were put to some difficulty in getting entertainment. It was appointed for me to preach at Murray's Church — not at all pleasing to me, and that which made it worse for me was, that I had only about twenty or thirty people to preach to in a large house. It appeared to me that those who professed friendship for us were ashamed to publish us. On Friday evening I preached again; my congregation was somewhat larger. Owing, perhaps, to the loudness of my voice, the sinners were noisy in the streets. My subject was Rev. iii 17, 18. I was disturbed, and not at liberty, although I sought it. I have done with Boston until we can obtain a lodging, a house to preach in, and some to join us. Some things here are to be admired in the place and among the people; their bridges are great works, and none are ashamed of labor. Of their hospitality I cannot boast. In Charleston, S. C., wicked Charleston, six years ago, a stranger, I was kindly invited to eat and drink by many — here by none."

He had faith in the future, however, and the future has justified it. "The Methodists," he says, "have no house, but their time may come." In our day, some ten churches, some of them among the best ornaments of the city, are occupied by his sons in the ministry, and are more numerous than its Puritan churches at that time. He tarried in Boston two days, and left it on the third for Lynn, where he was "agreeably surprised" to find a "Methodist chapel raised." After his discouraging reception in the Metropolis he speaks with enthusiasm of Lynn, calling it the "perfection of beauty." He says, "It is seated on a plain, under a range of craggy hills, and open to the sea; there is a promising Society, an exceedingly well-behaved congregation; these things, doubtless, made all pleasing to me. My first subject was Romans viii, 33; in the afternoon, Acts iv, 12." He adds, with prophetic foresight, "Here we shall make a firm stand; and from this central point, from Lynn, shall the light of Methodism and truth radiate through the state."

On the 28th he rode to Marblehead. "When I entered this place," he writes, "my heart was more toward its inhabitants than to any in these parts, with the exception of Lynn. After consultation, and some altercation among themselves, the committee invited me to preach in Mr. Story's Meeting-house, which I did accordingly, at four o'clock, on Acts xxiv, 17, 18. I was led to speak alarmingly, while I pointed out the Gospel as descriptive of their misery and need of mercy. Brother Lee preached in the evening to a great number of people in and about Mr. Martin's house. Next morning, weak as I was, I could not forbear speaking to them on 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God.' " He went, next day, to Salem, but was denied the use of any of the churches. He delivered his message, however, in the court-house, from Rom. v, 6, 7. At Manchester he met a more courteous reception, and was admitted by the selectmen to the parish church. He returned to Lynn, where he tarried ten days, preaching, meeting classes, baptizings ad ministering the Lord's supper, and visiting from house, to house. On the Sabbath he preached three times. "The congregations were attentive, and my mind enjoyed sweet peace; although, outwardly, we were uncomfortable, the Meeting-house being open, and the weather very cool for the season. I feel as if God would work in these states, and give us a great harvest." And again he predicts "that a glorious work of God will be wrought here," and adds, "several people are under awakenings at this time; my staying so long may be of the Lord."

Ten days in one place was a long delay for Asbury. On the 13th of July he set his face toward the West, and again we trace him through a rapid passage, from Lynn to Springfield, where, on the 15th, he lifted up his voice, declaring, "It is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you;" the people were "moved," and one individual was "under deep conviction." He entered Connecticut, and, after preaching on the way, arrived at Hartford on the 19th, where he addressed an assembly from "Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." He passed to East Hartford, where he preached with more than usual freedom, to a "feeling congregation." The next day he was at West Farmington, and had a "gracious shower at the Quarterly Meeting." At Litchfield, where he delivered a discourse the ensuing day, in the "Episcopal Church," he characterizes the times by remarking, "I think Morse's account of his countrymen is near the truth; never have I seen any people who would talk so long, so correctly, and so seriously about trifles." He continued his route through Cornwall, New Britain, to Albany, preaching by night and by day. Such was the rapid tour through New England of this great apostle of American Methodism. It occupied less than eight weeks, but he had proclaimed his message in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts; had counseled with and directed the few laborers in the field, and had surveyed it sufficiently to guide him in his subsequent plans respecting it. He left New England with this reflection: "I am led to think the eastern Church will find this saying hold true in the Methodists, namely, 'I will provoke you to jealousy by a people that were no people, and by a foolish nation will I anger you.' "

Thus much have we been able to ascertain respecting the laborers and labors of the ecclesiastical year, from May, 179l, to August, 1792. What were the results? We have but obscure intimation in the slight record of the times, but enough to show that it was the most prosperous of the three years which had passed since the introduction of Methodism into New England. Extensive revivals had occurred in several sections of the country. Lee informs us "that there a considerable awakening among the people in different places, far from Lynn;" [3] that a door was opened for the outspread of Methodism through the Eastern States; that invitations for preachers multiplied in various directions; and, notwithstanding the general prejudice against the new Church, its members increased both in numbers and respectability. The circuits in Connecticut had been blessed with much prosperity. Of Reading, Asbury remarks: "God has wrought wonders in this town; the spirit of prayer is among the people, and several souls have been brought to God." On the Hartford Circuit an extensive reformation had prevailed. Demonstrations of the divine Spirit, like those witnessed in the days of Edwards and Whitefield, were again common among the towns on the banks of the Connecticut. At Tolland and the neighboring villages the interest was especially profound. Asbury estimates that one hundred and fifty souls were converted there, and that twice the number were under awakenings in the Societies around. "I felt," he says, "very solemn among them. Brothers Smith and Rainor have been owned of the Lord in these parts." He also speaks of a "melting among the people," at Pittsfield, where the "Lord was at work." About two hundred had been converted since the last Conference on the Albany District, which extended over this part of Massachusetts.

Three additional circuits, wholly or partly in New England, were reported this year, and the number of members returned from circuits bearing New England names was one thousand three hundred and fifty-eight, showing a gain of nearly nine hundred for the year. The few and scattered itinerants had made full proof of their ministry. Though still subjected to severe privations and annoying vexations, a goodly multitude of renewed souls now greeted and befriended them in their travels, and welcomed them, after the fatigues of the day, to humble but comfortable and consecrated homes. A Methodist people had been raised up; few, indeed, and feeble, but never to cease, we may trust, till the heavens and the earth are no more.

Lee arrived in Lynn, from his excursion to Connecticut, in the early part of May, 1792. He continued his labors in that town and its vicinity till the first week in August — a period memorable in the history of the denomination as the date of the first Conference held in the State of Massachusetts, and the first in New England. [4] The preceding ecclesiastical year had included more than fourteen months. After so long a separation, and untold privations, labors, and suffering, it was, indeed, a "holy convocation," a high festival, for the little company of itinerants, to meet in their first Conference. They assembled, as was befitting, in the first, and still unfinished, Methodist Chapel of Massachusetts. Asbury, who had now returned, speaks of it as a matter of congratulation, that "in Lynn we have the out side of a house completed." Had we here the necessary data, it would be a grateful task to paint the picture of that first and memorable convention of New England Methodist preachers. We are able, however, to catch but a glimpse of it. We know the number, but hardly the names, of those who were present. "Our Conference," says Asbury, "met, consisting of eight persons, much united, besides myself." Asbury is himself the most imposing figure in the group. He was yet short of fifty years of age, and in the maturity of his physical and intellectual strength; his person was slight, but vigorous and erect; his eye stern, but bright; his brow began to show those wrinkles, the effects of ordinary cares and fatigues, which afterward formed so marked a feature of his strongly characteristic one; his countenance was expressive of decision, sagacity, benignity, and was shaded, at times, by an aspect of deep anxiety, if not dejection; his attitude was dignified, if not graceful; his voice sonorous and commanding.

By his side sat Lee, second only in the ranks of the ministry, for labors and travels, to its great header. We have sketched, and are yet further to illustrate his character, by the narrative of his labors. He was about the period of middle age, stout, athletic, full of vigor of muscle and feeling. His face was strongly marked by shrewdness, tenderness, and cheerfulness, if not humor; his manners, by unpretending dignity, remarkable temperance in debate, and fervid piety, mixed frequently, however, with vivid sallies of wit, and startling repartees. This trait of bonhomie was not without its advantages; it gave him access to the popular mind, and relieved the peculiar trials of his ministry. No man of less cheerful temperament could have brooked the chilling treatment he encountered while traveling the New England States without colleague and without sympathy. This solitariness in a strange land, often without the stimulus of even persecution, but rendered doubly chilling by universal indifference or frigid politeness, was one of the strongest tests of his character. Those only can appreciate it who have endured it. He sat in the little band of his fellow-laborers with a cheerful aspect, for though he had gone forth weeping, bearing precious seed, it was now springing up, and whitening for the harvest, over the land. If it had been but as "a handful of corn in the earth, upon the top of the mountains," it now promised that "the fruit thereof would yet shake like Lebanon." In the group sat also the young and eloquent Hope Hull, the Summerfield of the time, attractive with the beauty of talent and of holiness, "that extraordinary young man," as Thomas Ware called him, "under whose discourses the people were as clay in the hands of the potter." Asbury brought him, on his tour to this Conference, from the South, where he had been persecuted out of Savannah. There were, also, the youthful and talented Rainor, fresh from the revivals on Hartford Circuit, and undiverted yet from the labors of the itinerancy by the love of ease or domestic comfort, which was afterward too strong for him, and Allen, the "Boanerges," as his brethren called him. Besides these, it is probable that Lemuel Smith and Jeremiah Cosden were present.

Asbury introduced the occasion by a discourse on 1 John iv, 1-6. On Saturday he preached an ordination sermon, to a "very solemn congregation," from the text, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God." There was preaching every night during the session. The Sabbath "was the last day, that great day of the feast." A love-feast was held in the morning, after which Asbury preached on 1 Corinthians vi, 19, 20. In the afternoon John Allen preached, and the bishop gave a "farewell exhortation" to the people, who were deeply affected at his parting counsels. The next day he was away again, "making a hasty flight," as usual, and in four days he had passed over one hundred and seventy miles from Lynn, on his way to other Conferences.

The Minutes of this year record the following ministerial arrangements for New England: Jesse Lee, Elder; Lynn, Menzies Rainor; Boston, Jeremiah Cosden; Needham, John Allen; Providence, Lemuel Smith. Jacob Brush, Elder; Fairfield, Joshua Taylor and Smith Weeks; Litchfield, Philip Wager and James Coleman; Middletown, Richard Swain and Aaron Hunt; Hartford, Hope Hull, George Roberts, and F. Aldridge; Pittsfield, D. Kendall, R. Dillon, and J. Rexford. This last circuit was on the Albany District, and under the presiding eldership of Garrettson. The district of Jacob Brush extended over a large portion of the State of New York, though a majority of the places named, as comprised within its limits, were in Connecticut. It has already been stated that there were four new circuits reported, but one of those reported the last year was merged in a new arrangement of the Connecticut circuits. Boston, Needham, Providence, and Pittsfield Circuits appear, for the first time, in the Minutes of this year. The first was detached from Lynn, and the second and third were surveyed by Lee during the preceding year. The last was formed by preachers on the Albany District. The membership on the eastern circuits was still very limited. Boston returned but fifteen; Lynn one hundred and eighteen, (a gain of sixty since the preceding Conference, Needham thirty-four. As we advance westward it largely increases; Middletown returned one hundred and twenty-four, and Hartford nearly two hundred. The latter circuit had gained one hundred and sixty-seven during the past year — the result, doubtless, of the extensive "reformation" which had prevailed among its appointments. The circuits still more westward had yet larger returns, but what proportion of them pertained to New England cannot be ascertained.

Lee was appointed this year presiding elder over a district that included eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and the principal points of which were Lynn, Boston, Needham, and Providence. The General Conference was to convene on the first of the ensuing November, in Baltimore. But a brief interval of time remained, therefore, before it would be necessary for him to depart on his journey thither. He projected, however, a tour to Rhode Island, to attend to the further organization of the new Providence Circuit, which he had surveyed in his previous visit, and to which a preacher was assigned at the Conference of this year. In a few days after the adjournment of that body he was on his way thither. He visited Providence, Pawtuxet, Warren, and Bristol, preaching continually, putting in train the labors of the circuit for the newly arrived laborer, and re-entering Massachusetts after about one week's absence. On his return he preached at Taunton and Easton. At the latter place it appears that a Society had been already formed. On Saturday, August 18, he writes: "I rode to Easton, and met the class at five o'clock. When I consider the goodness of God to me in this journey, I am constrained to call upon my soul to bless his holy name. I have found delight in the service of God, and comfort among the people. I have had an opportunity of preaching to many who never heard a Methodist before."

On the 20th he was in Boston, and, at night, met the little class, "which," he writes, "has been lately formed." In his history he records with exactness the date of its organization. "We had preached," he says, "a long time in Boston before we formed a society, but on the 13th day of July, 1792, we joined a few in Society, and after a short time they began to increase in numbers. W met with uncommon difficulties here from the beginning, for the want of a convenient house to preach in. We began in private houses, and could seldom keep possession of them long. At last we obtained liberty to hold meetings in a school-house; but that too was soon denied us. We then rented a chamber in the north end of the town, where we continued to meet a considerable time regularly. The Society then undertook to get them a meeting-house, but being poor, and but few in number, they could do but little." Three years were yet to pass before the cornerstone of their first chapel could be laid. The next month he spent mostly in Lynn. He says: "Monday, 1st of October, I visited several friends in Lynn, and at night I preached my farewell sermon, on Phil. i, 27: 'Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ: that whether I come to see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, and that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind.' The Lord was with us of a truth; there was great weeping among the people, both men and women. I felt very sorry to leave them, and they seemed to be sorry to part with me, as I expected to go home, and be absent from them for the space of four months. But the will of the Lord be done. Tuesday, 2d, I left Lynn, with a good deal of sorrow, and set out on my journey."

With the leave-taking of Lee we must also take leave, for the present, of New England; but in thus reaching the limit of our present period, we perceive that his mission has been decisively successful. The tenacity of his purpose, the persistence of his zeal, have at last triumphed. Methodism has effectively taken its place in the ecclesiastical history of the Puritan states, and the name of its resolute pioneer must forever live in the records which commemorate those of the Mathers, Williams, Edwards, Channing, Ballou. The returns in the Minutes at the end of the Conference year exhibit an advance in the membership of more than one fourth on the number of the preceding report. Four years had not yet elapsed since the formation of the first Society at Stratfield; the numerical gain of the infant Church thus far had been at the average rate of at least 435 per year, no small growth under the inauspicious circumstances of the times. All the circuits report an increase, except Litchfield, which descends from 428 (the number of the preceding year) to 184. This circuit, it must be remembered, extended into New York, and the apparent diminution may be owing to the incorporation of its Western appointments into new circuits. Lynn returned 166, a gain of nearly 50; Needham 50, a gain of 16; Middletown 172, a gain of nearly 50; Hartford 331, a gain of 146; Pittsfield 330, a gain of more than 100; reluctant Boston returns 41, a gain of 26. Four circuits bearing New England names make returns for the first time this year: they are New London, which reports 50 members; Warren, R. I., 58; Greenwich, R. I., 16; and Granville, Mass., 90. The returns from Rhode Island were the first reported from that state; they amounted to but 74. There had been an extensive outspread of Methodism through Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. In the latter, even the stronghold of the metropolis had yielded to the invincible zeal of Lee, and its little band of two-score members were already projecting the erection of a chapel. A considerable revival had prevailed during the year at Lynn, resulting, as we have seen, in an addition of nearly fifty to the Society. The Hartford and Middletown Circuits had lately gathered into their humble communion nearly two hundred souls; the purifying fires, kindled along the banks of the Connecticut the previous year by the instrumentality of Lemuel Smith and Menzies Rainor, had extended and heightened, during the present one, under the faithful labors of the eloquent Hope Hull and his colleagues, Roberts and Aldridge. Asbury supposed that more than three hundred souls had been awakened, and more than two hundred converted on the Hartford Circuit since the last Conference. Meanwhile the western circuits, on the Albany District, shared this success; the untiring evangelists who traveled them were cheered by the triumphs of the truth, and displays of the divine power in the conviction and conversion of scores of their hearers; on the Pittsfield Circuit alone more than a hundred were enrolled among the struggling new "sect everywhere spoken against." A consciousness of the security and prospective success of their cause had spread through all their ranks, and while the violent and prejudiced began to deem it time for hostilities, the disinterested and devout began to open their hearts and their houses to welcome the itinerant evangelists as the "blessed" who "came in the name of the Lord," the men who "showed the way of salvation." Not only had their numbers augmented, but the field of travel and labor had extended in every direction. The number of circuits and stations had increased from nine to fourteen, and Lee began to east his eye abroad for a new and more distant arena. He went to the Conference, determined to offer himself as a missionary to the "province of Maine," then a remote wilderness. Thither we shall hereafter follow him, to witness continued exhibitions of the moral heroism of his character while braving the inclemencies and perils of a new country, and achieving the sublime task of founding a religious organization which was to scatter, in our day, more than four hundred traveling and local preachers among its villages and cities, and enroll in them nearly twenty-five thousand members. [5]

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ENDNOTES

1 Not the 26th of June, as Ffirth's Memoir of Lee states.

2 We do not find the name of this circuit in either Lee's or Bangs's history for the year 1791; but it is in the Minutes, both among the appointments and in the census of members. In the letter sixty-two are assigned to it, a larger number than on Lynn, Stockbridge, or Hartford Circuits. I suppose, therefore, that it is a previous circuit newly named. The name of New Haven disappears this year.

3 History of Methodism, anno 1791.

4 The time appointed for this Conference, in the Minutes of the preceding year, was the first of August; but it appears, from Asbury's Journal, that it began on the third.

5 At the New York Conference of 1790 it was proposed to hold a session in Connecticut in July, 1791, but I have reason to doubt that it was held. Asbury passed through that state in the month of July; on the day appointed for the Conference (23d) he traveled by a rocky, mountainous way to Cornwall, and preached to "about one hundred and fifty hearers," but makes no allusion to the presence of the preachers, or to any Conference business. He left the next day. Lee's Journal indicates that he himself was pursuing his labors at Lynn the next week after the appointed time for this Conference, and, therefore, renders it probable that it was not held. It is evident, also, from his biographer's notice of the constitution of his New England district, that the appointments for 1791 were made at the New York Conference of May 25, and not at the proposed Connecticut Conference two months subsequent. No material business, therefore, could have been transacted at the latter if it was held. The biographer of Lee affirms, also, that "no Conference prior to 1792 had been held further north than New York or Albany." (Chap. xiii.) I suppose the affirmation is made on the authority of Lee's private papers. Dr. Bangs has included this appointed Conference among the actual sessions of that year, but informed me that be did so solely on the authority of the appointment in the Minutes. He was able to find no other intimation of it. Enoch Mudge, a personal friend of Lee, and a resident of Lynn at the time, assured me that Lee was in Lynn not only the week after the date of the Conference, but during the week in which it was appointed to be held, and that no such Conference was ever held. Aaron Hunt had his appointment this very year in Connecticut, and assured me that the first Conference in Connecticut was that of Tolland, in 1793. Lee does mention this Connecticut Conference in his History of Methodism, and this fact would, at first view, seem conclusive of the question. It did so seem to the author, till a thorough investigation clearly demonstrated the contrary. I found, on examining his "History," that his statements of the sessions of Conferences were simply copies from the Minutes, with an introductory phrase stating how many "we had," and their numerical order prefixed. It is probable that these statements were cut out of the printed Minutes and sent thus to the printer.