VOLUME 3 — BOOK V — CHAPTER VIII
METHODISM IN THE EASTERN STATES, CONTINUED: 1792—1796

Another Conference at Lynn — Asbury Itinerating — The Wilbraham Conference — Interesting Scenes there — New Preachers — Wilson Lee — Scenes in his Ministry — Nicholas Snethen — The Protestant Methodist Controversy — Lee Itinerating — First Preacher Stationed in Maine — Its first Class — First Chapel — First Methodist Administration of the Eucharist — Scenes in Lee's Itinerancy there — Asbury again returns — Results — Conference at New London — Scenes there — Location of Preachers — Lee and Asbury Itinerating — Statistics — Outspread of Methodism — The Thompson Conference — Lorenzo Dow — Results

The Conference commenced in Lynn, July 25, 1794. Another session had been appointed for the accommodation of the preachers in the western portion of New England, who, therefore, were not present at the one in Lynn. We have scarcely any information respecting the latter. Asbury has recorded but about half a dozen lines concerning it, with no intimation whatever of its business, except that difficulties had arisen which grieved him deeply, and rendered its termination grateful to his wounded feelings. He preached before the Conference and the Society of Lynn twice on the Sabbath, and departed for the Wilbraham session the next morning, passing, with his usual rapidity, a distance of forty miles the same day.

On Tuesday, 29, he rode through Attleborough to Providence. "I had," he says, "no freedom to eat bread or drink water in that place. I found a calm retreat in General Lippett's, where we can rest ourselves. The Lord is in this family. I am content to stay a day, and give them a sermon." His unfavorable allusion to Providence refers to the conduct of a local preacher from Ireland, who had compromised (as the bishop supposed) his Methodistic principles in an arrangement with some Congregational citizens, by which the few friends of Methodism in the town were absorbed into a new Congregational Society, still known there as the "Beneficent Congregational Church."

On the first of August he left his comfortable retreat at General Lippett's, and, after traveling and preaching daily, reached Tolland, Conn., by the tenth. He was now in the region of the "Association," which had arrayed itself against Methodism, under the leadership of Williams and Huntington. "Ah!" he exclaims, "here are the iron walls of prejudice; but God can break them down. Out of fifteen United States, thirteen are free; but two are fettered with ecclesiastical chains, taxed to support ministers who are chosen by a small committee, and settled for life. My simple prophecy is, that this must come to an end with the present century." He was too sanguine; the ecclesiastical oppressions of Connecticut were not abolished till 1816, and his own sons in the ministry had no unimportant agency in their removal.

By Sunday, 17, he was in Wilbraham, Mass., where he found a Methodist chapel, "forty by thirty-four feet, neatly designed." He was sick and weary throughout this trip, but, being accompanied by Roberts, they were able jointly to hold meetings continually. They made preaching excursions during a fortnight, and on September 2d returned to Wilbraham, lodged with Abel Bliss, a name still familiar to Massachusetts Methodists, and, on Thursday, the 4th, opened the "Wilbraham Conference." As the itinerants arrived with their horses and saddlebags, from all directions, dusty and wearied by long journeys, but joyful with cheering reports of success, they were welcomed in the name of the Lord into the new temple, and to hospitable hearths and bountiful tables. The brethren in Wilbraham needed the inspiriting influence of such an assembly. They had struggled for every inch of their progress thus far; they had erected their chapel amid determined hostility, and several of their principal members had been carried away and thrust into prison for refusing to support a creed which their consciences rejected.

The Wilbraham Conference was one of the most interesting in our early history. Great men were there: Asbury, way worn, but "mighty through God;" Lee, eloquent, tireless, and ambitious, like Coke, for "the wings of an eagle, and the voice of a trumpet, that he might proclaim the Gospel through the East and the West, the North and the South;" Roberts, as robust and noble in spirit as in person; Wilson Lee, "a flame of fire;" Ostrander, firm and unwavering as a pillar of brass; Pickering, clear and pure as a beam of the morning; young Mudge, the beloved firstborn of the New England itinerancy; the two Joshuas of Maine, Taylor and Hall, who, like their ancient namesake, led the triumphs of Israel in the land of the East; and others whose record is on high. The proceedings were what might have been expected from such evangelists: dispatch of business, incessant public devotions, and daily preaching. "Friday, 5," says Asbury, "we had a full house, and hastened through much business." The same day Lee, on his route from the Lynn Conference to New Hampshire, arrived, "sat with them, and attended preaching at night." Saturday was a great day; Lee, Roberts, and Asbury preached; the three principal men of the occasion. The bishop's discourse was on Mal. iii 1-4: "Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts," etc. He treated on "the coming and work of John the Baptist; the coming, work, and doctrine of Christ, and his changing the ordinances and priesthood with the ministry and discipline of the Church." It was a sermon for the times. At eleven o'clock Lee ascended the pulpit, and closed the morning session by a powerful discourse, full of encouragement to preachers and people, from 2 Cor. xii, 9: "My grace is sufficient for thee." "The power of the Lord," writes the great evangelist, "was among us." He was profoundly affected himself; few men indeed had better tasted the promise by experience. He wept, and the sympathetic emotion spread through the assembly, till there was sobbing and ejaculations in all parts of the house. "I felt," he says, "the grace of God sufficient for me at the time, and I was willing to trust him all the days of my life. O what a precious sense of the love of Jesus my soul enjoyed at that time!" Sunday was a high festival. The services commenced at eight o'clock A. M. The first hour was spent in prevailing prayer, and in singing the rapturous melodies of the poet of Methodism, the doggerels of later days having not yet come into vogue. Asbury then mounted the pulpit, and addressed the throng, appealing to the ministry like a veteran general to his hosts on the eve of battle, calling on them to "put on the whole armor of God," and "endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." Conflicts were before them, but their weapons were "mighty through God," and their brethren were moving on to victory through the land. Many might fall, but it would be amid the slain of the Lord, and with the shout of triumph.

After the stirring discourse, he descended to the altar and consecrated four young men to the ministry of the itinerancy, three as elders, one as deacon. Preachers and people then crowded around the altar, and with solemnity and tears partook of the Lord's Supper. Lee's ardent spirit was moved within him, for to him it was a "solemn time," "quickening" and refreshing.

The assembly was dismissed, but the people withdrew only for a few minutes. They again thronged the house, and were addressed in a series of exhortations by Lee, Thompson, and Ketchum. The exhortation of Lee was long spoken of as an example of overwhelming eloquence. "The crowd," says one who heard it, "moved under it like the forest under a tempest." "It was a time of God's power," says Lee. Stout hearts broke under the word, the fountain of tears was opened, and there was weeping in all parts of the house; the emotion at last became insupportable, and the overwhelmed assembly gave vent to their uncontrollable feelings in loud exclamations. The eloquent pioneer addressed all classes, "1, sinners; 2, mourners in Zion; 3, Christians; 4, backsliders; 5, young people; 6, the aged; and lastly, ministers." The services finally closed after continuing seven hours and a half. "It was," exclaims Lee, "a blessed day to my soul."

The Conference was publicly concluded amid this deep interest; the preachers immediately mounted their horses, and were away for their new fields, without tarrying for meals. Ten or twelve of them, with Asbury in their midst, passed on rapidly to Enfield. Lee's soul was yet on fire, and though he had taken neither dinner nor tea that day, except a crust of bread which he had begged at a door on the route, and ate on horseback, yet, after "eating a little," he went with Roberts to the meeting-house in Enfield, where the people were waiting, and admonished them to reckon themselves "to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. vi, 11. "It was a profitable time," he says, "to my soul." He "felt the power of the Lord," and had "freedom in preaching." Roberts followed with an exhortation, and thus closed "the last day, that great day of the feast."

Asbury hastened away to attend the New York Conference. At one place on his route calls came to him to send preachers into New Hampshire and Maine, and at another he met Dunham, from Canada, beseeching him to send additional laborers into that opening region. Thus the field was enlarging in all directions, and whitening unto the harvest.

The new ecclesiastical year began with two districts and part of a third, eighteen circuits and stations, and thirty preachers; four circuits and five preachers more than in the preceding year. The names of New Hampshire and Vermont, appear, for the first time, in the Minutes.

Of the itinerants who now, for the first time, appear in New England, twelve in number, more than half were recruits from Maryland or Virginia. Among them were conspicuous men, like Christopher Spry, long known in the "Old Baltimore Conference;" George Cannon, who founded Methodism at Provincetown and Nantucket; John Chalmers, who originated the first Methodist chapel of Rhode Island, (on Warren Circuit,) and fell in his work, as late as 1833, in Maryland, "full of faith and the Holy Ghost," say his brethren; David Abbott, son of the New Jersey "Boanerges," and Wilson Lee.

Wilson Lee we have already repeatedly met in the middle and Southern states, and west of the Alleghenies. If we remind ourselves of the rapid transitions of the early itinerary, we are hardly surprised to find him again rising up before us in this new and far-off field. He labored briefly, but with great success, in the East. An old Methodist local preacher, of long and honorable service in the New England Church, writes that "the first Methodist I had any knowledge of was Wilson Lee. He preached at Middle Haddam, on the Connecticut. His first prayer was novel in its brevity and fervency, for the people had been habituated to formal prayers of about forty minutes in length. After prayer the preacher took from his pocket a little Bible, read his text, and closed the book. The people saw no notebook, and seeing the preacher fix his eyes on the congregation, instead of a book, their curiosity was raised to the highest pitch. The preaching was with the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power. The people trembled and wept; some fell to the floor and cried aloud for mercy, and some fled from the house and ran home, declaring that the devil was among the people in the stone house. When Wilson Lee saw the effect he stood and cried, 'Glory to God!' " This meeting was the beginning of a profound religious interest in Middle Haddam, in which many souls were converted, under the ministry of Lee, who formed a class, and made it a Sabbath appointment for New London Circuit. It is now a station, with a convenient chapel. During his labors in Middle Haddam he was sick with fever, which brought him to the gate of death. "It proved a great blessing to the class," continues our authority "by exhibiting his faith on the verge of the grave, and his ardent prayers for his spiritual children. If it should be said that Wilson Lee was not one of the mighty men, I think none will deny him a place among the thirty, for he was deeply pious, of ardent zeal for his Master, of unwavering faith, which rendered him a successful minister of the gospel, and a useful agent in planting the standard of Methodism in the land of the Puritans. Very few now remain of those who knew him. When I look back to more than half a century, and times and things as they then were, and compare those times with the present, I am constrained to say, 'What hath the Lord wrought?' Then our circuit was more than two hundred miles in circumference, with two preachers, and perhaps one small meeting-house; there are now more than twenty preachers, and as many large and convenient chapels, dedicated to the worship of Almighty God." [2] We have already seen Wilson Lee founding the Church at Southhold, Long Island, on his passage southward from New England, and have traced him through most of his remarkable career.

Nicholas Snethen is a name of considerable note in the history of Methodism. He was born on Long Island, N. Y., 1769. His education was limited to the scanty instruction of the country-school of the day, a considerable portion of his early life being spent on the sea, in charge of his father's vessels, in the flour trade. His subsequent application to books supplied, however, to some extent, the deficiency of his early studies. He acquired a competent knowledge of his own language, and was able to use the Greek and Hebrew in biblical exegesis. He was converted to God in his twentieth year, and preached his first sermon at the age of twenty-one. [3]

He commenced his itinerant labors in New England, in 1794, in the twenty-fifth year of his age. His first appointment was to Fairfield Circuit. In 1795 he labored on Tolland Circuit with Christopher Spry. The year following he traveled the Vershire Circuit, the first projected in the state of Vermont. He has the honor of appearing in the Minutes as the first Methodist preacher formally appointed to that state. In 1797 he was sent to the Portland Circuit, with John Finnegan. The next year we miss him from the Minutes, owing, probably, to his removal southward. In 1799 he was appointed to Charleston, S. C. The following year he was in Baltimore, with Thomas Morrell, George Roberts, Philip Bruce, etc., a band of mighty men. In 1801-2 he traveled at large with Asbury. In 1803 he was again in Baltimore, and the next two years in New York city, with Michael Coate, Samuel Merwin, Ezekiel Cooper, Freeborn Garrettson, and Aaron Hunt. During the three ensuing years he was in the local ranks, but re-entered the itinerancy in 1809, and spent two years in Baltimore, as colleague of Asa Shinn and Robert Burch. The three following years he labored successively at Georgetown, Alexandria, and Frederick. In 1814 he again located, and retired to his estate in Frederick County, Maryland. Amiable, talented, and devoted, Nicholas Snethen was, nevertheless, versatile and restless. He twice retired from the itinerancy to the local ranks, besides passing through transferences from north to south, remarkable in number and extent, even in that day of frequent and long transitions. Two years he traveled with Asbury, and his regular appointments ranged from Portland in Maine to Charleston, South Carolina. At one time he was the champion defender of Methodism; at another, the most strenuous leader of schism. During the revolt of O'Kelly he published, as has been shown, an "Answer to Mr. O'Kelly's Vindication," in which he defended the Church and Asbury in language the most emphatic; in 1828 he presided at the Convention of Seceders which assembled at Baltimore to organize the "Associated Methodist Churches," now known as the "Protestant Methodist Church;" and during eight previous years he had been writing with great severity (but, doubtless, with equal sincerity) anonymous attacks on the Church, for whose prosperity he had so arduously labored.

The movement which resulted in the secession of 1828, commenced by the publication of the "Wesleyan Repository" in Trenton, N. J., in 1820, and was continued by the violent assaults of the "Mutual Rights" in Baltimore. Snethen was a frequent contributor to these periodicals. He subsequently published his articles in a volume, as also another work in defense of his seceding brethren. He attended the Maryland Convention, in 1827, and prepared the memorial to the next General Conference, which called forth the celebrated Report of the Conference on Lay Representation. He was leader of the Convention which formed the Articles of Association for the new Church, and was afterward elected President of the Maryland Annual Conference District. In 1829 he emigrated to the banks of the Wabash, near Merom, Sullivan County, Indiana. Domestic bereavements induced him, subsequently, to remove to Louisville, Kentucky. He finally settled in Cincinnati, where he labored assiduously in the ministry. In May, 1838, he presided over the General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, assembled at Alexandria, D. C. He also took a prominent part in the deliberations of the same body at Pittsburgh, in 1838, and at Baltimore, in 1842. "The last year or two of his life was spent," says his son, "in building up a new school in Iowa City, in the territory of Iowa. They called it the Snethen Seminary. He opened it in person, and returned to Cincinnati to prepare for it one hundred lectures, which he intended to have delivered with his own lips the ensuing summer. He was on his way to Iowa City when he was taken ill at the residence of his son-in-law, Dr. Pennington, in Princeton, Indiana, where, after two months of great sufferings, he died on the 30th of May, 1845, magnifying and praising the Lord to the last moment of his life." [4]

He was no ordinary man; his literary acquirements were highly respectable; in the pulpit he was eloquent, and at times overpowering; in private life he was cheerful, sociable, and sympathetic; an unwavering friend, and a complete Christian gentleman. There was a peculiarity in his mental constitution to which must be referred his unfortunate course in the Church. "His philosophic mind," says one who knew him well, "delighted in theory. He theorized on every subject that came under his investigation; and most of his theories were ingenious, plausible, and captivating, and bespoke a mind of vast compass, great originality, and intense application." [5] With such a characteristic propensity, it is no matter of surprise that he finally stumbled at the ecclesiastical system of Methodism. The polity of no other Church, if, indeed, of any other community of men whatever, is more thoroughly practical or less theoretical; it presents an episcopacy which is Presbyterian, a pastorate without settlement, a creed almost dangerously liberal, and yet the most rigorously applied in the pulpit; a system, in fine, made up of the most energetic peculiarities and most marked contrasts, its contrasts being, however, but salutary counterparts. No system confers higher powers on its ministry, and yet none places its ministry in more utter subjection to popular control. No ecclesiastical officers, out of the papal hierarchy, have stronger executive functions than its bishops, and yet none have more stringent checks and restrictions. It pretends to no theoretical foundation and no divine right, but is a result of providential circumstances, and having operated more successfully than any other, and with as few, if not fewer, abuses than any other, the good sense of its people, while accepting improvements, has always repelled hasty changes. Snethen and his associates attempted a revolution, with what success I need not here say. The very changes he too impetuously attempted, the Church has, by formal vote, declared itself ready to concede whenever its laity shall generally demand them. Asbury himself predicted their concession in due time. But neither the ministry nor the people were willing to concede them to agitation and strife. Snethen, however sincere his purpose, presents the sad and affecting spectacle of a veteran evangelist — the associate of Lee in New England, the friend and traveling companion of Asbury, the able defender of the Church against schism, the itinerant who had suffered and labored through most of the land to lay the foundations and rear the walls of the Church — turning from it, and from the thinned ranks of his old fellow-laborers, to head a revolt which was to spread discord and rancor through the goodly brotherhood! Sad, indeed, to see a man so good and great, after a useful ministry of thirty years or more, spend the remainder of his weary and declining life amid the anxieties and reactions of an impracticable experiment, and in conflict with the sympathies and endeared memories of his earlier and better years! He mingles again, we doubt not, with his old itinerant associates, in that world where good men no longer "see through a glass darkly," but "know even as also they are known," and where the best of them will discern errors enough in their past existence to call for mutual sympathy and forgiveness.

We left Lee in the pulpit at Enfield on the evening of the day which closed the Wilbraham Conference. His appointment for the ensuing year was to the office of presiding elder; his district comprehended, nominally, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, but virtually, the whole Methodist interests in New England. A year of extraordinary travels and labors was before him; but, sustained by a zeal as steady as it was ardent, he went forth upon it like a giant to run a race. He passed in a rapid flight through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Eastern Massachusetts, and far into the interior of Maine, amid snow-drifts and wintry storms; back again through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and again through Massachusetts and Maine into the British provinces, and back yet again to the interior of Connecticut.

We have already followed him so closely in his first fields that we have space now only to retrace rapidly his course in the new one of Maine. The winter had set in, and the province was yet "a howling wilderness;" he set out for it on the 3d of November. He preached in Portland, and found a home in the house of a hospitable Quaker, "friend Cobb," who, he says, "was quite reconciled to prayers morning and evening." He left the city, not doubting "but what the Lord would yet favor this people." At Monmouth he saw signs of a revival of religion, and wrote, "Surely the Lord is saying to the North, 'Give up.' Amen, even so: come Lord Jesus."

Philip Wager had been sent this year to Maine — the first Methodist preacher stationed in that section of New England. Lee's delight at the good indications in Monmouth was enhanced by the arrival of Wager, who brought him the cheering news of similar signs in other parts of the province. After conversing and rejoicing over their prospects they went forth to a neighboring tavern, where Lee preached and Wager exhorted, "with freedom," to a company of hearers who expected them; "the Lord," says the former, "moved upon the hearts of many." His joy was increased in meeting, after the sermon, the first Methodist Class formed in Maine, and hearing, "from the people's own mouths, what the Lord had done for their souls." This little band comprised fifteen members. It was organized "about the first of November, 1794." [6] The first lay Methodist in Maine was Daniel Smith, afterward a local preacher. He died in peace, October 10, 1846. Lee left the new society, praying that it might be as the "little cloud, which at first was like a man's hand, but soon covered the heavens." His prayer has prevailed, and in our day his denomination has become the strongest, numerically, in the state.

On Saturday, 15th, he reached Readfield, whither he was attracted by the recollections of his former cordial reception. Good news awaited him in that remote region; he found there the second Methodist society of Maine, recently formed — a people hungering for the word of life, and hanging on his ministrations with sobs and ejaculations — and the shell of the first Methodist chapel of Maine already reared. The class consisted of seventeen members. "Surely," he exclaims, "the Lord is about to do great things for the people. Even so; amen, and amen." Early on Wednesday, 26th, he was again pressing forward, on his way to Sandy River, over a lonely road, and through intense cold. In a part of his route he passed through seven or eight miles without seeing a single habitation. "It appeared," he says, "as if my feet would freeze; but I drew one of my mittens over the toe of my shoe, and made out to keep it from freezing."

December, with its borean storms, had come upon the evangelist in what was then the heart of the wilderness province, but he still went forward.

By Wednesday, 3d, he reached, through the woods, the junction of Sandy River and the Kennebec. On a part of the way there were no traces of a path; his guide had to follow the "chops" on the trees; the snow was nearly a foot deep, and the traveling most difficult. The next day he "rode up the Kennebec, to Mr. James Burn's, at titcombtown, a little below Seven Miles Brook," where he proclaimed at night that "God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him." 1 John iv, 9. "They were all attention," he says, "and some of them much wrought upon, so that they could not forbear weeping. They importuned me to come among them again, or try and send one to preach to them, for they seldom hear a sermon of any kind. My heart was moved with compassion for the people. There never was a Methodist preacher in these parts before. Lord, send forth more laborers into thy vineyard, and into this part of the world!" There were sparse settlements scattered about thirty miles higher up the river, but his time was limited; the next day he turned his face toward the south, preached on his way, and recrossed Sandy River on the ice. By the 12th he was again in Readfield. It was a fast day in the infant society, in preparation for what was to be a great occasion among them on the approaching Sabbath — the first consecration of the Lord's Supper by the Methodists of Maine. He preached to them; "there was a considerable move among the people," he says. "I met the class, and consulted about administering the Lord's Supper. One of our friends gave us an agreeable account of a gracious work of God among the people at Sandy River. Lord, increase it abundantly! Sunday, 14th, I preached in Readfield, and administered the Lord's Supper to about eight persons. This was the first time that this ordinance had ever been administered in this town by the Methodists, or in any part of this province. We had a happy time together."

On Tuesday, the 23d, he was preaching in Littleborough, to a crowded congregation, which melted under his word. "Many of the people," he remarks, "could hardly refrain from weeping aloud." Remarkable scenes occurred here. After he had dismissed the assembly and retired into another room, "a man," he says, "came in to speak to me, and burst into tears. Another came in with tears in his eyes, and begged that I would preach again at night. I could not refuse. Some of the people then went home, but soon returned. One man, being in deep distress, began to cry aloud to God to have mercy upon his poor soul; and thus he continued to cry with all his might, until some of the people were much frightened. I talked, prayed, and sung, and while I was singing a visible alteration took place in his countenance, and I was inclined to think his soul was set at liberty. He afterward spoke as though he believed it was so." But scarcely had this penitent found comfort, when another "was seized with trembling, and began to pray the Lord to have mercy upon his poor soul, and cried aloud for some time." These strange scenes excited much interest among the spectators. Lee immediately opened his Bible and began to address them from 1 Peter v, 7, "Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you;" but soon another man was seized with a violent trembling, and cried aloud. There was weeping through the whole assembly. The preacher's voice was drowned, and he was compelled to stop. He knelt down and prayed for the awakened man, and when quiet was restored resumed his discourse, amid the sobbings of the congregation. "It appeared," he remarks, "as if the whole neighborhood was about to turn to God. I hope the fruit of this meeting will be seen after many days, and that the work of the Lord will revive from this time." He hastened on, witnessing similar scenes, and, early in January, 1795, was again at Lynn.

He had spent about two months in Maine, during which, undaunted by the driving storms of the north, he had penetrated on horseback to the frontier settlements, preaching the word, and encouraging the incipient societies, which could yet claim but one sanctuary in the province, and that scarcely more substantial than a barn, but have since multiplied themselves throughout the state, and studded its surface with temples. After laboring two or three weeks in Lynn and its vicinity, he sallied forth again, though amid the blasts of midwinter, on an excursion to Rhode Island, and the southeastern parts of Massachusetts.

Again he sought temporary shelter at his headquarters in Lynn; but though it was now the most inclement period of the year, and especially unfavorable for travel, he longed to plunge again into the wintry wilderness of Maine, and to bear the cross onward far beyond his former tours. He was soon away, and penetrated through the province to the Bay of Fundy. By the 21st of June he was back at Readfield dedicating the first Methodist chapel of Maine.

Such is but a glance at the labors of this wonderful man during the ten months which had elapsed since his departure from the Wilbraham Conference. Similar journeys and labors, performed with our present conveniences for travel, would be considered extraordinary; how much more so were they at that day! How soon would the earth be evangelized were the whole Christian ministry of like spirit! He has recorded, for the satisfaction of later Methodists, the dates of the first sermons by Methodist preachers in several parts of Maine. The first in the province was at Saco, September 10, 1793; in Portland, 12; Hallowell, October 13; Farmington, 15; Readfield, 16; Winthrop, 21; Monmouth, 22; Livermore, January 12, 1794; Chesterville, 21; Vassalborough, March 5; Winslow, 9; Norridgwock, 11; Fairfield, 13.

While Lee was approaching the seat of the next Conference from the north, Asbury was wending his course toward it from the south, where, as we have seen, he had performed unparalleled journeys and labors. He left New York city on the sixth of July, and, entering Connecticut, preached at Stamford in a private house. The next day he rode thirty-three miles to Stratford, where, though weak and depressed, he addressed a multitude which crowded the house inside and out. On Friday, 10, he reached New Haven. His former visit had left a favorable impression. "Nothing would he remarks, "but I must preach in Dr. Edwards' meeting-house, which I did from these words: 'Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord.' " The next day he was at Middletown, and spent a portion of the day in visiting from house to house, and in conducting a prayer-meeting. No labor seemed too great nor too small for his tireless spirit. The following day was the Sabbath. He preached three sermons, two at "The Farms," and one at the Court-house. On Monday, 13, he preached with "some life" at Middle Haddam, and reached New London the next day. The itinerants had been arriving, wayworn and dusty, during the day; but in the evening they gathered around their great champion, who, ever ready, addressed them and the multitude.

The year had been a calamitous one for the Church generally; the Minutes reported an aggregate decrease of six thousand three hundred and seventeen members. "Such a loss," says Lee, "we had never known since we were a people." [7] But while the desolating measures of O'Kelly were blighting the former rich growth of the South, the New England field was extending on every hand, and yielding an abundant increase. Its returns of members amounted to two thousand five hundred and seventy-five, an advance on the preceding year of five hundred and thirty-six, or more than one fourth. There was apparently a gain of but one circuit or station, eighteen being reported the preceding year, and nineteen the present. One, however, of the former (Vermont) was merely nominal; Joshua Hall, who was appointed to it, being detained in Massachusetts. [8] The gain was at least five; actually larger than in any former year. The remodeling of several western circuits diminished their number, but their real extent and importance were proportionally augmented by the change. Pomfret, in Connecticut; Provincetown and Marblehead, in Massachusetts; Portland and Penobscot, in Maine, were the new names reported among the appointments for the ensuing year. The gains in the membership were chiefly in Maine. A solitary preacher had been appointed, at the preceding Conference, to that vast field, but no society had then been organized. In the present year Lee, as we have seen, had repeatedly traveled to its farthest boundary. Hundreds were awakened and converted under his faithful labor and those of his coadjutor. Several societies were organized; the first Methodist chapel erected; the first returns of members made. Readfield Circuit reported 282; Portland, 136; and Passamaquoddy, (on the eastern boundary,) 50; an aggregate of 318. Methodism had unfurled its banners in Maine, with the hope never to strike them till the heavens are no more.

The Conference at New London, Conn., commenced its session on Wednesday, the 15th of July, 1795. Nineteen preachers were present. [9] A small number of Methodists had been formed into a society in the city about two years, but they were yet without a chapel in which to accommodate the Conference. It met in the house of Daniel Burrows. Though assembled without ostentation, and without a temple, sublime visions of the future rose before the contemplation of the me who composed the unnoticed body. Asbury looked forth from the private room in which they met, with the hope that their deliberations would be "for the good of thousands." Some of them were yet to see their little company grow into a host nearly a thousand strong, leading an evangelical army of nearly a hundred thousand souls. Asbury, Lee, Roberts, Pickering, Mudge, Taylor, Snethen, Smith, Ostrander, and McCoombs were among the rare men who composed the unpretending synod.

The session continued until Saturday. McCall, from the British Provinces, and Kingston and Harper, Wesleyan missionaries from the West Indies, were present. Some polemical discussions occurred, "especially," says Asbury, "in reference to the ancient contest about baptism, these people being originally connected with those who are of that line." "O what wisdom, meekness, patience, and prudence are necessary," he adds; "great peace," however, prevailed throughout the deliberations. The brethren from the West Indies had arrived with prostrate health and exhausted purses. Asbury expresses his pleasure at seeing "our preachers ready to give their strange brethren a little of the little they had," a liberality almost universal among Methodist preachers in those days of suffering and self-sacrifice. They reviewed the successes and trials of the past year, planned new and more extended projects of labor for the future, united in frequent prayer that the word might run and be glorified, and preached it daily to each other and the gathered multitude in the courthouse. Evan Rogers, who had been educated a Quaker, and combined much of the gravity of his first with the warm energy of his new faith, addressed the preachers particularly, and, it is said, very pertinently, on defects in their pulpit delivery; which were not uncommon at that date. His text, at least, was significant. It was 1 Cor. xiv, 19: "Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." [10]

Chalmers brought them glad tidings from Rhode Island, and reported the erection of the first Methodist chapel of that state. [11] Ostrander brought good news from the Connecticut River; the cause was advancing slowly, but surely, along its banks, prejudice was yielding, the hostility of the established Churches had been defeated in several instances, and though the cry was that they were "turning the world upside down," yet numerous places in all directions were uttering to them the "Macedonian cry" to come over and help them, and hundreds were waking from their spiritual slumbers to a devouter life. Hill was there from New Hampshire, to report that innumerable doors were opening in that sparsely settled state for the new evangelists; but the laborers were few, and none could yet be spared. Lee, wayworn with his great travels, cheered them with surprising encouragements from Maine: the formation of two new circuits, the organization of the first Methodist Society, and the erection of the first Methodist chapel in the province, together with the report of more than three hundred members received there since the last session of the Conference. Encouraged by their mutual communications they sung a hymn, and bowed together in a concluding prayer, at noon, on Saturday. They tarried, however, through the Sabbath, the great day of the feast. Early on Monday morning, before the community were fairly astir, Asbury was away on his horse, and by eight o'clock A. M. was sounding the alarm in Norwich, while the preachers were urging their steeds in all directions to the conflicts of another year.

The programme of labor for the year, from July, 1795, to September, 1796, included one district and part of a second, nineteen circuits, and thirty preachers. Add to these about two thousand six hundred members, with some half dozen chapels, and we have a general outline of Methodism in New England at this date.

Hitherto I have given abundant notices of the itinerant preachers in these Eastern States. They now become too numerous for such detail. Nearly one third on the list of appointments this year were new laborers in New England. They were nine; and, of all this number, two withdrew from the ministry; and the remainder sooner or later located without again resuming effective service, so far a I can ascertain. It was a sad necessity of the times which compelled so many, at the maturest period of their energies, to seek bread for their families in secular pursuits. But it was a necessity, nor was the Church culpable for it. Recently organized, existing yet in feeble and scattered bands, composed mostly of the poor, without chapels, and without resources, and almost without friends or sympathy, it was impossible for it to maintain a married ministry. Hence most of the itinerants of that day retired in early manhood. But young men, vigorous in faith and talent, were perpetually rising up to fill the vacated ranks, while, through the admirable economy of the Church, the retiring champions continued their Sabbath labors undiminished, and became the veteran garrisons of local positions throughout the land. Hundreds, too, of the latter, after providing for their families, re-entered the active service with unabated heroism, and fell, at last, with their armor on. The ministry of no Church, since the apostolic age, has presented severer tests of character, and no tests have brought out nobler developments of energy and devotion.

Lee returned to Boston that he might assist in the ceremonies with which the founding of the Methodist chapel on Hanover Avenue was solemnized. Five years had he been laying siege to the almost inaccessible community of the metropolis, returning to the attack, ever and anon, from his distant excursions; his perseverance had conquered at last, and he now erected a battery in its midst. On the 28th of August he consecrated the cornerstone of the new temple, amid the rejoicings and thanksgivings of the humble worshipers, who had struggled to the utmost for its erection. It was located on a narrow lane in the poorest suburb of the city, but was for years a moral pharos [Oxford Dict. pharos n. a lighthouse or a beacon to guide sailors. — DVM], throwing an evangelical radiance over the population around it. Many of the greatest men of the Methodist ministry proclaimed the truth from its rude pulpit, and its humble communion has been adorned by some of the best samples of Christian character which have distinguished the denomination. Lee was three weeks in the city; during this time he took his stand, three successive Sabbaths, on the Common, where thousands heard the word of life from his lips, who would have gone no where else to hear it.

Leaving the work in Boston in charge of Harper, he went forth again on his travels, passing with rapid transitions in every direction. The unfortunate loss of his manuscripts [12] has deprived us of the details of these tours. We know, however, that he passed over the whole length of Cape Cod, made two tours in Maine, and seemed almost omnipresent in his older eastern fields.

In September, 1796, Asbury again entered New England. On reaching Old Haddam he wrote, "My body is full of infirmities, and my soul of the love of God. I think that God is returning to this place, and that great days will yet come on in New England." He read aright the signs of the times. He passed on to Thompson, Conn., where the Conference assembled on the 19th. The aggregate of the returns of Church members was now 2,519, showing a decrease of 56. On the other hand there had been a gain of 105 in Maine and New Hampshire, and numerous conversions in Vermont, which were not reported. The real loss was, therefore, probably smaller than it appears to be in the census. But if there was a slight numerical declension, there was an actual growth of the cause in the invigoration of its organized plans, and the extension of its scope of operations. Its laborers had formed two new circuits in Maine. They had penetrated into New Hampshire and Vermont, and had projected a long circuit in each. Lee had formerly preached the doctrines of Methodism in all the New England states, but before the present year its standards had been planted permanently only in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine; now they were reared, to be furled no more, in all the Eastern states. A network of systematic labors extended into them all, from Norwalk in Connecticut to the Penobscot in Maine, and from Provincetown in Massachusetts to Montpelier in Vermont; and hereafter the progress of the new communion is to advance, as we shall witness, with accelerated rapidity in every direction.

The number of circuits at the beginning of the year was 19; those reported at its conclusion amounted to 21. Two of the former were now merged, however, in neighboring appointments; there was, therefore, an actual gain of four.

At the Thompson, as at the New London Conference, the year before, the itinerants had not the convenience of a chapel for their deliberations, but were entertained with hearty hospitality by the young Church, and assembled in an unfinished chamber in the house of Captain Jonathan Nichols. [13] In this humble apartment did these men of great souls devise plans which comprehended all these states, and contemplated all coming time. About thirty were present, "some of whom," remarks Asbury, "were from the province of Maine, three hundred miles distant, who gave us a pleasing relation of the work of God in those parts." He preached to them in the chamber, enjoining upon them their ministerial duties to the people, from Act. xxvi, 18, 19: "To open their eyes, and to turn them from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are justified [last word should be "sanctified" — DVM]." The sermon was heard with deep emotion by a crowded assembly, among whom sat the parish pastor, rapt in the interest of the occasion. To a late day its effect was often mentioned among the reminiscences of the olden times in the conversations of veteran Methodists. "We talked together, and rejoiced in the Lord," says Asbury. Enoch Mudge and Joshua Hall brought them refreshing reports from Maine. The former had witnessed the rapid spread of the gospel along the banks of the Kennebec, where an additional circuit had been formed; the latter had been proclaiming it on both sides of the Penobscot, and had seen "the arm of the Lord made bare." They could both tell of hard fare, terrible winters, long journeys amid driving storms, and comfortless lodgings in log-cabins, through which the snow beat upon their beds; but also of divine consolations which had sanctified every suffering, and victories of the truth multiplying through the land. Lemuel Smith relieved the reports of declension from Massachusetts and Connecticut by news of an extensive revival on Granville Circuit, where nearly one hundred souls had been gathered into the Church since their last session. Lawrence McCoombs reported severe combats and serious losses on New London Circuit, but was undaunted in his characteristic courage and sanguine hopes. Cyrus Stebbins brought the mournful intelligence that one of their number had fallen in the field since they last met, the youthful and devoted Zadok Priest. Asbury ordained seven deacons and five elders; three itinerants, compelled, probably, by sickness or want, took leave of their itinerant brethren and retired to the local ranks; but others, mightier men — Timothy Merritt, John Broadhead, Elijah Woolsey, etc. — stepped into their places, and the New England Methodist ministry presented a more imposing aspect of strength than had yet distinguished it. A man, subsequently noted throughout the nation, presented himself for admission among them, the eccentric Lorenzo Dow; but the discerning eye of Asbury perceived the peculiarity of his character, and his application was declined. He lingered about the place during the session, weeping sincere tears. "I took no food," he says, "for thirty-six hours afterward." On Wednesday the little band again dispersed, to sound the alarm through the length and breadth of the Eastern states.

Twenty-one circuits, one district, and a large portion of a second, together with thirty-one itinerant laborers and 2,519 members, constituted the force of New England Methodism for the year 1796-7.

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ENDNOTES

1 Enoch Mudge to the author.

2 Letter of Rev. J. Stocking to the writer.

3 Methodist Protestant, Baltimore, July 12, 1845.

4 Methodist Protestant, July 12, 1845.

5 Rev. J. R. Williams, in Meth. Prot., Baltimore, July 12, 1845.

6 Lee's Hist. of Meth., anno 1794.

7 Lee's Hist. of Meth., anno 1795.

8 Dr. Bangs's statement respecting Hall's labors in Vermont (Hist of M. E. Church, anno 1794) is inaccurate.

9 MS. Sermon of Rev. R. W. Allen. Asbury says "about twenty," Journals, anno 1795.

10 Letter of Enoch Mudge to the writer.

11 It was usual, at this period, for the preachers to "give a free and full account of themselves and their circuits at the Conference." Asbury's Journals, Sep 22, 1795.

12 They were consumed in the burning of the Methodist Book Concern, New York, in 1836.

13 Letter of Rev. H. S. Ramsdel to the writer.

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