VOLUME 4 — BOOK VI — CHAPTER VII
ASBURY AND LEE IN THE EAST

Asbury in the East — His Views of New England — At Buxton Conference, Maine — Great Religions Excitement — At Lynn, Mass. — Characters of Preachers — Great Revival — At Canaan, N. H — Travels and Labors — At Boston — The First Conference there — at New London, Conn. — Increasing Prosperity — Newport, R. I. — Captain Beale — At Boston — Conference at Monmouth, Me. — At Pittsfield, Mass. — At Winchester, N. H. — Lee Revisits the East — Scenes on his Route — Final Views of New England Methodism — Deaths of Preachers — Statistical Progress

Asbury traversed New England each of these years down to the last before that of his death. He always approached it with peculiar feelings; with mingled repugnance and hopefulness. He seemed there as in a foreign land, while all the rest of the nation was his familiar domain. Everywhere else he was welcomed by enthusiastic throngs; there he was repelled, and pursued his solitary journeys comparatively a stranger, finding refuge in families which were proscribed as heretical by public opinion, and in "meetings" which were impeached as fanatical "conventicles." Yet he believed that Methodism would "radiate" over these elder communities. "I feel," he writes, "as if God will work in these states and give us a great harvest; a glorious work of God will be wrought here. Surely we shall rise in New England in the next generation." He lived to see the verification of his prediction. To him the religious life of New England presented an example of the rigid Hebrew legalism, strangely combined with the speculative dogmatism of the early Greek Church but unrelieved by the spiritual mysticism of the latter, and nearly destitute of the vital charity and joyousness primitive faith. Its distinctive theology he detested; it seemed to him to bind, as in iron bands, the souls of the people; depressing, by its tenets of election and reprobation with uncomplaining but profound distress, scrupulous, timid, and therefore often the best consciences; inflating the confidence and Pharisaism of the self-reliant or self-conceited, who assumed their predestination to heaven; enforcing the morality without the gracious consolation of religion; and giving to the recklessly immoral an apology for their lives in their very demoralization, their lack of "effectual grace," of "an effectual call." Devout Augustinian theologians would not indeed admit his logic; such was nevertheless his honest estimate of the New England Church, and he continually returned to the East, directing the best energies of Methodism against its traditional beliefs and ecclesiastical stagnancy.

There, more than anywhere else, we have to regret the scantiness of his journals, for there, in his hardest field, his reflections as well as his facts would be most interesting to us. He re-entered it in the spring of 1804, and on the fourteenth of July opened the New England Conference at Buxton, Me. The ordination was held in a wood, where the bishop preached from a heavy heart. He describes the occasion as "an open time." "The work of God broke forth," he says, "on the right and on the left." A great sensation spread among the multitude, and before the session closed it was estimated that fifty persons were converted. Snelling says, "There was a greater display of divine power at this Conference than any I ever attended. Many of the people were wrought upon in a very powerful manner; but, as is generally the case, there was some opposition. At one meeting a man, appearing to be in a violent passion, came in, and called for his wife, bidding her leave immediately. She urged him to stay a little longer. 'No,' said he; 'let us go.' He then started to go, but paused a few moments, then turned back, fell upon his knees, and prayed for mercy as earnestly as any. The preachers were placed in different directions in the grove, praying and exhorting. The people would gather around them in companies, similar to what are called praying circles at camp-meetings. In the circle which I was in there were eleven persons who professed to be brought from darkness to light, besides many others who were inquiring what they must do to be saved." [1] "It was," wrote Joshua Taylor, "the greatest time that we have seem in New England."

Eighty-one preachers were appointed to six districts and fifty-two circuits. They had gained in the last year one district and four circuits. The ensuing year was prosperous, and gave, at the next Conference, an aggregate of eight thousand five hundred and forty, an increase of seven hundred and sixteen. If we add the returns of New England circuits which belonged to the New York Conference, the total membership of the Easter" states amounted to ten thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, with a gain of four circuits and seven preachers.

Asbury was back again, at the Conference of July 12, 1805, in Lynn, Mass. Nearly fifty preachers were present. The records of this session afford abundant evidence of the vigilance of the Conference over its members. The notices appended to the names which passed under review are remarkable for their brevity, but also for their frankness. One candidate is pronounced "useful, firm, perhaps obstinate, contentious, well meaning." Another is said to be "useful, but unguarded in some expressions;" he seems to have been somewhat in advance of his times, for there was "some objection on his denial of visions and spiritual influences by dreams," though he "averred his firm belief of the Scriptures in these respects." Another is said to be "unexceptionable, useful, and devout;" another, "pious, unimproved, impatient of reproof, not acceptable," and is ordered to "desist from traveling." One is recorded to be "sick, near to death, happy." Another is charged gravely for marrying indiscreetly, and "suspended one year from performing the functions of a deacon;" another is pronounced "weak in doctrine and discipline, but as a preacher useful, sincere, pious." Bates is said to be "plain, good, useful;" Lyon, "pious, faithful, but of small improvement;" Young, "pious, capable, rough, improving;" Willard, "faithful diligent." One is said to be "acceptable, useful, zealous perhaps indiscreetly so — sincere, ingenious;" another "pious, useful, weak."

Asbury says: "We had a full Conference; preaching at five, at eleven, and at eight o'clock; sitting of Conference from half past eight o'clock until eleven in the forenoon, and from two until six in the afternoon. We had great order and harmony, and strict discipline withal. Sixteen deacons and eight elders were ordained."

The Sabbath, as usual at the early Conferences, was a day of extraordinary interest. A great multitude assembled from the surrounding regions. The public exercises were held in a grove belonging to Benjamin Johnson, the first Methodist of Lynn; "a beautiful sequestered spot," says Asbury, "though near the meeting-house." The bishop preached, with much effect, from 1 Thess. ii, 6-9, a passage which appositely described the Methodist ministry: "Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have became burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children; so, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us," etc. A remarkable impression was produced by these services. "There were," says Asbury, "many exhortations and much prayer. From this day forth the work of God will prosper in Lynn and its neighborhood." Old Methodists in the vicinity long recalled that interesting day. It is said that the multitudes bowed under the force of the word like the forest before the tempest. Scores were awakened; many fell to the earth overpowered by their emotions, and the preachers were summoned late at night from their sleep to console and counsel those who, with broken and contrite hearts, continued to call upon God at their homes. [2] On Monday "the labors of Conference and public religious exercises were continued," writes the bishop; "on Tuesday evening Conference rose in great peace. On Wednesday I gave them a sermon, and immediately set out for Waltham, twenty miles; wind, heat, dust." He passed on rapidly to New Rochelle, where he "lodged under the hospitable roof of the Widow Sherwood," one of his most favorite homes. He had traveled two hundred and thirty miles in six days. "I am still," he writes, "bent on great designs for God, for Christ, for souls." Pursuing, with unslacking energies, these "great designs," he again passes from our view, on his route westward as far as Tennessee, and southward as far as Georgia.

But in May of 1806 he is proclaiming the word again in New Haven. With daily preaching he reaches Boston, and rejoices to see its second Methodist church (on Bromfield Street) nearly built, "sixty-four by eighty-four feet;" "the upper window frames put in." By the fifth of June he is at a camp-meeting at Buxton, Me. "At two o'clock we came on the ground," he writes; "there were twenty preachers, traveling and local. Saturday, 6, I preached, and on Sunday also. Some judged there were about five thousand people on the ground. There were displays of divine power, and some conversions. Our journey into Maine has been through dust and heat, in toil of body, and in extraordinary temptation of soul; but I felt that our way was of God." On Wednesday, 11, he arrived at Canaan, N. H., where the New England Conference commenced its session the next day. About forty-four members were present, besides probationers and visitors. The Conference comprised more than half a hundred preachers, and presented an aspect not only of numerical, but of no little moral and intellectual strength. It included several men of force and talent, among whom were Hedding, Soule, Pickering, Ostrander, Brodhead, Jayne, Webb, Sabin and Ruter. Asbury says: "We went through our business with haste and peace, sitting seven hours a day." Their financial accounts, at all these early sessions, show that most of them received but a small proportion of their meager "allowance." The "deficiencies" were reported, and they were fearful. A small dividend from the Book Concern, and a smaller one from the "Chartered Fund," gave them slight relief. Year after year "a donation" from the Baltimore Conference, usually its entire dividend from the Book Concern, is recorded as sent on in the hands of Asbury. That generous Conference had given the first itinerants to the East, had continued to reinforce them from its best men, and now shared with them, from year to year, its scanty financial resources.

"On Sunday, 15, I ordained," says Asbury, "eleven elders in the woods. At three o'clock I preached in the meeting-house; it was a season of power." The next day he was on his route westward. He was at Burlington, Vt., on Saturday, after a ride, during the day, of forty miles. "I am resolved," he there wrote, "to be in every part of the work while I live, to preside. I feel as if I was fully taught the necessity of being made perfect through sufferings and labors. I pass over in silence cases of pain and grief of body and mind. On the Sabbath I preached in an upper room at Fuller's, to about four hundred people. My subject was Luke iv, 18, 19, and God bore witness to his own word. Why did I not visit this country sooner? Ah, what is the toil of beating over rocks, hills, mountains, and deserts, five thousand miles a year? Nothing, when we reflect it is done for God, for Christ, for the Church of God, the souls of poor sinners, the preachers of the gospel in the seven Conferences, one hundred and thirty thousand members, and one or two millions, who congregate with us in the solemn worship of God; O it is nothing!"

On Monday he was again away. He preached at Vergennes and Bridgeport during the day, and at Hampton the day following. Sabbath, the 28th, be spent at camp-meeting in Sharon, Conn., the results of which he speaks of as important. "We had," he writes, "abundant spiritual harvests. Glory to God !" On July 1, he reached New York city. He had been accompanied through New England by Joseph Crawford, "who now," he says, "came over the ferry with me. When about to part he turned away his face and wept. Ah, I am not made for such scenes! I felt exquisite pain." This strong man, armed, carried under his cuirass [Oxford Dict. cuirass n. a piece of armour consisting of breastplate and back-plate fastened together. — DVM] of strength the sensitive affections of a child.

New England now had eight districts and part of a ninth, sixty-four circuits and stations, and ninety-seven preachers. It had gained in a year two districts, eight circuits, and nine preachers.

In May, 1807, Asbury entered the East again by way of Vermont, accompanied now by Daniel Hitt as his traveling companion. They pressed forward into Maine, and thence southward to Boston, where, on the first of June, he met the Conference. It sat through the whole week, and was the first session in the New England metropolis; a bold attitude for the struggling cause in its combined ministerial strength. It had now two Churches in the city, and more than a hundred preachers and about thirteen thousand members in the eastern states. It had gained one thousand two hundred members the last year. The Conference had preaching five times a day, and fifty-nine candidates were ordained at the two humble Boston altars. It was a prophetic week for New England. Baltimore again sends three hundred dollars, her Book Concern dividend, for the suffering itinerants, for, though growing vigorously every year, they are still poor in money. After all collected funds and donations are handed in, the Conference is nearly three thousand dollars insolvent.

On Saturday Asbury refreshed them by reading letters from Delaware and Virginia, giving accounts of remarkable revivals in those sections of the Church. The business of the session was then concluded, and "an hour or two was spent in conversing on the state of the Lord's work among the people under our charge, and our own souls," says the secretary. Asbury read the appointments, and the itinerants were the same day pursuing their way on horseback, some in groups, some alone, to their scattered posts of labor. The bishop immediately departed for "the pleasant town of Lynn," where he preached on the Sabbath. On Monday he shook hands with his Waltham friends at the home of Bemis, but was away the same day. On Tuesday he reached Wilbraham, "in spite of heat and lameness." "I am in peace, he writes; "I dare not murmur, though in pain." On Tuesday, 12, he was on Pittsfield Circuit. "Methodism," he writes, "prevails in this quarter. In two societies two hundred members have been added." On Saturday, by "a great ride of forty miles," he entered the state of New York "faint, sick, and lame," his "feet much swelled," and he can walk only "on crutches." Thus he pressed on in his course over the continent, aged and debilitated, but advancing daily.

Early in the spring of 1808 he returned to New York, after a fatiguing tour in the South, and more than five thousand miles travel within the preceding twelve months. "O my soul, rest in God!" he exclaims as he journeys onward. "I hear and see and feel many serious things; but I must take care of my own soul. My care is to love, to suffer, and to please God." He arrived, by forced rides, on Friday, 15th of April, ut New London, Conn. "My last two days' rides," he remarks the next day, "were severe. My flesh is not brass, nor my old bones iron; but I was in peace an communion with the Father and the Son." On Sunday he preached in the Baptist chapel; it was more capacious than the Methodist house, and the Church which occupied it very generously exchanged it for the, latter. The session began on Monday, the eighteenth, with forty preachers, besides the probationers. There is an account extant of the financial affairs of the Conference. A brief allusion in the records indicates that Asbury brought the usual donation from Baltimore. Doubtless the deficit was as great, if not greater, than heretofore, for Martin Ruter "drafted an address to the brethren requesting their charity for the distressed traveling preachers." Asbury says: "The Conference sat till Friday. We wrought in haste, in great order, and in peace, through a great deal of business. There were seventeen deacons, traveling and local, ordained, and nine elders ordained in the Congregational Church before fifteen hundred or two thousand witnesses. I know not where large congregations are so orderly as in the Eastern States. There was a work of God going on during the sitting of the Conference. The General Conference hastened our breaking up, the delegates thereto requesting leave to go. There were deficiencies in money matters, but no complaints." The bishop parted immediately after the adjournment. On Tuesday, 26, after a ride of thirty-eight miles in a rain-storm, he arrived in New York city. "I feel," he writes, "my shoulders eased a little now that I have met the seven Conferences. I have lived to minute five hundred and fifty-two preachers in this country. The increase this short year is seven thousand five hundred members in round numbers."

The ensuing year was one of great success, though of some local drawbacks. In Maine Joshua Soule and Oliver Beale guided, with much success, the labors of twenty-two itinerants, among whom were Hillman, Munger, Cobb, Martin, Steele, Kilburn, and Fogg. They added two circuits to their already extensive field, and more than four hundred members to their classes. The joint returns of the two districts of the province amounted to three thousand two hundred and twenty-four. Elijah Hedding concluded his labors this year on the New Hampshire District, where he had superintended the travels of William Hunt, Lewis Bates, Ebenezer Blake, and others. They passed through severe struggles and privations, and made no remarkable progress. The gains of the district fell short of fifty. An additional circuit had, however, been formed.

Elijah R. Sabin superintended the New London District with success. Bonney, Lambord, Washburn, Clark, and some seven others, traveled under his supervision. They reported a membership of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, and had increased more than three hundred during the year. The session of the Conference at New London left a deep impression upon that city. A "reformation" ensued, which lasted through most of the year, and spread over much of the district. John Brodhead had charge of nearly a score of laborers on Boston District, among whom were Pickering, (who traveled this year as a missionary,) Webb, Ruter, Merrill, Kibby, and Merwin. They enlarged their field on every hand, and returned two thousand and forty-five members, an increase during the year of four hundred and sixty-e. There were now three hundred and thirty-seven Methodists in the metropolis. On Ashgrove and Rhinebeek Districts there were also large additions. Almost every circuit reported gains. The membership of the New England Conference proper amounted, at the close of the year, to 10,096; it had advanced 1,21 since the previous returns. If we add the returns of the New England circuits pertaining to the New York Conference, the aggregate number of Methodists in the eastern states, exclusive of the preachers, amounted to 15,98, and the aggregate increase of the year to 1,968, the largest gain of any one year since the introduction of Methodism into New England.

Accompanied by Henry Boehm, Asbury was again in the East in May, 1809. On Monday, the 18th, he was at Norwalk, Conn., where he preached, and stirred up the young Church to build a chapel. They were "poor," it was alleged. "Poor may they ever be," was his reply. "I must needs preach in New London I gave them a discourse on 1 John ii, 6. The house was soon filled, an many went away who could not get in; surely the society, and preachers too, have been blind to their own interests, or they would have occupied every foot of ground; but we have never taken advantage of circumstances as they offered in this place, and have lost by our negligence. We crossed Narraganset Bay on Friday, and came into Newport. Grand house, steeple, pews, by lottery; the end is to sanctify the means. Ah, what pliability to evil!" He dreaded such innovations in Methodism. "I spoke," he adds, "with difficulty, and with little order in my discourses. From New York thus far we have had dust and rough roads, and I have been much tired and greatly blessed. We have rode two hundred miles in six days." The next day he visited Capt. Beale, at Fort Wolcott. The captain was a good Methodist, and one of the chief founders of the society in Newport. Asbury preached to his garrison; "baptized some children, visited the school, prayed with the sick in the hospital, exhorted the poor sinners to turn to God; but ah, I might have said and done more. Here I saw discipline, order, correctness; it was grand and pleasing. What changes I pass through! How hardly shall they who travel much keep a constant eye on duty, the cross, holiness, and God!" He pushed on, rejoicing at many indications of prosperity, but lamenting also, with perhaps unfounded apprehension, over what he deemed evidences of declension. "On Tuesday, 30," he writes, "we came to the pleasant town of Bristol. The Methodists here have a house with pews, and a preacher who has not half enough to do. Poor work! I gave them a discourse on 1 Cor. xv, 58. I have as much as I can bear in body and mind. I see what has been doing for nine years past to make Presbyterian Methodists."

On Saturday he reached Boston, and the next day, though too feeble to stand in the pulpit, he preached twice. "Had I not," he says, "spoken sitting, pain and weariness would have prevented my finishing. May the Lord water his own word! I hear of a considerable revival in several places." On Monday he reached the mansion of Bemis, at Waltham, "dripping wet." "I found," he writes, "the four generations in health, and I got (O how sweet!) a comfortable night's sleep, the first I have had for many nights." By Thursday, the 15th of June, he had arrived at Monmouth, Me., where, on that day, he opened the New England Conference. McKendree was present, but we have no notice of the share he took in the proceedings. On Monday, June 19th, the session closed: committees, which there were yet but two or three, reported, and the devoted band of itinerants, about again to scatter to all parts of their widely-extended field, "spent an hour and a half in relating their former experiences and present exercises." Martin Ruter, by request of the bishops, read the appointments, and, by night, many of them were on their way to the conflicts of another year. On Sunday, before the adjournment, Asbury preached to a great throng, estimated at three thousand, from Isaiah's exultant words: "Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it, etc., for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel." Isa. xliv, 23. "It was," he says, "an open season." "We have ordained," he remarks, "twenty-one deacons, and seven elders. We have located eleven elders, readmitted one, and added seventeen preachers upon trial. There is a small increase here, and there are fair prospects for the future. I am kept in peace."

The day following the adjournment he departed westward. On Saturday, 24th, he reached Danville, Vt., and, though quite exhausted with fatigue and feebleness, preached on the morrow in the court-house. He had to sit during the discourse. "From New York to Danville," he writes, "we compute our ride to have been seven hundred miles." On Tuesday he again preached, but at the village chapel this time. Two of his itinerant brethren were with him. Being too feeble to go into the pulpit, he took his position in a pew near it, and thence addressed the assembly from Heb. iii, 12-14. His congregations were large, and the court, which was in session, invited him to preach before it; but "I had no strength and no time for this," he remarks. He was on his route the same day. On Friday, 30th, he was on the shore of Lake Champlain. "I preached," he writes, "at Fuller's, from Titus iii, 8. Here I ordained Joseph Sampson, a native of Canada, and sent him a missionary to his countrymen." He adds, prophetically, "The day of small things will be great; but the time is not yet come; rather, it is still afar off. Patience, my soul!" He passed into New York, and thence westward and southward.

Again we find him (May 18, 1810) entering the East by way of Vermont, and on the 20th preaching in Pittsfield, Mass., where the New York Conference assembled the next day, for much of its territory was still within the New England states. "Bishop McKendree," he writes, "spoke in the afternoon; his subject was well chosen and well improved. There was also a prayer meeting, and in the Congregational house George Pickering preached. We sat in Conference until Saturday. Among the ordinations was that of Stephen Samford, recommended from Nova Scotia for elder's orders. We have stationed eighty-four preachers, sent two missionaries, one to Michigan, and one to Detroit. There was a considerable deficiency in our funds, which left the unmarried preachers a very small pittance." From Pittsfield he passed to Winchester, N. H., where the New England Conference was held in "the Presbyterian Church," the preachers meanwhile holding a camp-meeting within three miles. "There was," he says, "a work of God manifestly, and opposition rose powerfully. We regretted we could not stay two days more." He hastened to Boston, thence to Newport, and back through Rhode Island and Connecticut to New York, "sounding the alarm" all the way.

Such are glimpses of his visits to New England, down to the end of the first decade of the century, a monotonous record, but with a monotony of incredible labors. His whole life was a monotony of wonders. His records of his subsequent tours in the East are hardly more than allusions, except in one instance. He sees the possibility of a great future, but grieves over the encroachments of pews, steeples, musical instruments. In his last visit he can hardly attend the Conference. Pickering presides for him. He is old and worn out, and in a few months must die.

Lee once more passed over the scene. After An absence of eight years in the South he was anxious to revisit his early eastern battlefields, and see how the contest still went on. His passage was a humble but exultant religious ovation. Many changes had occurred. Since his departure. Methodism had enlarged its tents and strengthened its stakes on all hands, and most of its preachers had commenced their travels in this interval. He proposed now to greet his old friends, and take his final leave of them till they should meet again in the "building of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." He lingered on his route toward the North, visiting and preaching among the Churches, till the latter part of June, 1808, when, crossing the Sound, he landed at Norwalk, Conn., the village on whose highway he had preached his first sermon in New England. "He was much gratified," says his biographer, "in saluting, in the name of the Lord Jesus, some of his friends of former days. Almost twenty years had passed away since he first, as a stranger, entered this part of the world." On Saturday, July 2, he is at Stratfield, where he had formed his first New England class. The little flock assemble and receive his final counsels. After praying with them he hastens to New Haven, where he spends the Sunday, preaching three times to weeping congregations. By the next Saturday he reaches his old friend, General Lippett's home, Cranston, R. I., and on Sunday has "another precious time of the love and presence of God." Through Providence and Bristol he passes to Newport, where Merwin is stationed, and meets good Captain Beale, "who commands the fort, and is a steady Methodist." He preaches there repeatedly to crowded and sobbing assemblies. "I warned them," he writes, "and entreated them, as though I never more were to see them." With tears and benedictions and last farewells all along his route. He reaches Boston on Thursday, the 21st, and finds the same evening a congregation ready to hear him in the old church, and another, the next night, in the new. By Saturday he is with his first society, in Massachusetts, at Lynn. They call on him at the parsonage in the evening. The next day being the Sabbath he preaches to them in the morning, with much effect, from Isa. xxxiii, 13. "It was," he writes, "an affecting time. At three o'clock I preached again, and the house was much thronged. The Lord was with us. And also at six o'clock my soul was much comforted in speaking to the people, and many wept under the word. When I put the brethren in mind of my first coming among them, and the difficulties that I, as well as they, had to go through, they could not forbear weeping. I could but hope that a blessing would follow that meeting. I have not been so well pleased for a long time at meeting my old friends as I was at this place."

By Friday, the 30th, he is in Maine, the field of his hardest conflicts. The people flock to hear him on all his route, and have often to leave their chapels and turn into the woods for room. At Monmouth, where the first society was formed, they cannot get into the house; many, after the service, come to the altar to give him their hands in pledge of meeting him in heaven. "They wept," he says, "and I could not refrain from weeping." Soule and Fogg are with him there. The preachers generally gather about him as he passes along, saluting him as an old leader and conqueror, and, joining in the jubilatic gatherings of the people.

Similar scenes occurred at Winthrop. At Arrington "I had," he says, "a large company of people to hear me and I spoke with great freedom and faith; and the hearers felt the power of the word. Then, at half past two o'clock I preached to a crowded assembly. When I called upon them to remember former days, when I first visited them, about fifteen years before, which was the first time they ever heard a Methodist preacher, many of them were bathed in tears, for many, both parents and children, had been converted under the preaching of the Methodists. It was indeed a solemn time, and my soul was much quickened and blessed. In the afternoon I had a crowded house. The Spirit of the Lord God came upon me while I was speaking, and I wept, and the people wept greatly. When I dismissed them, I told them that I was about to leave them, and had but little expectation of ever preaching in that place again. Many came and gave me their hands, and, with streaming eyes, begged my prayers, and wished my welfare. Several came who had never been converted, and, crying aloud, said they would try to get to heaven if they could. I have no doubt but a lasting blessing will follow this meeting. Monday, 22d, I turned my course back toward my native country, being then about one thousand miles from home. I crossed Penobscot River to Hampden. Tuesday, 23d of August, I rode to the Twenty-five Mile Pond, which is now a thickly-settled country most part of the way through; but when I first traveled the road, about fifteen years ago, there was not a house to be seen for twenty miles." On Sunday, 28th, he preached to great crowds at Farmington, who "wept in every part of the house." "When I first came among them," he says, "they had never seen a Methodist;" but now, besides the communicants and thronged congregations, there were "nine local preachers" around him. "Surely," he adds, "the Lord hath done great things for us. The people were greatly wrought upon. I had a sorrowful parting with many of my old friends, whom I never expect to see again."

Passing through many other towns, with similar greetings, he entered New Hampshire, having spent forty-three days, and preached forty-seven times in Maine. He gave nearly a week and seven farewell sermons to the former, and by the 14th of September was again in Lynn, Mass., where he delivered to the Church his final exhortations, and "had a sorrowful parting from his old friends." Spending a few days in Boston, he passed into the interior, through Waltham, Ware, and Wilbraham, to Hartford, Conn., preaching as he went. After spending six days and delivering seven sermons in Connecticut, he reached Garrettson's "Traveler's Rest," at Rhinebeck, on Friday, the 30th. Thus ended Lee's personal connection with Methodism in New England. His historical connection with it will probably last till the consummation of all things. He survived this visit about eight years, during which he continued to labor indefatigably in the Middle and Southern states.

Through the remainder of this period the history of the Church in the Eastern states was a continuous repetition of such events and scenes as have been narrated: the holding of obscure Annual Conferences, where however, great things were devised; gradual additions of circuits, and reinforcements of the ministry by such men as have already been named; the building of churches, and frequent "revivals," sometimes extending over much of the country, especially now that camp-meetings were introduced; excessive travels, privations, and labors by the itinerants; not infrequent persecutions and mobs; but continual triumphs.

Seven Eastern evangelists fell in death, in these years. In 1806, in Boston, Peter Jayne, a native of Massachusetts, who traveled ten years in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, and was long remembered as a superior man. In 1808 Henry Martin, "thorough in both the theory and practice of religion," a laborer in Maine, where, in attempting to form a new circuit, he sank under his labors, and died "with songs of praise," say the Minutes, "on his quivering lips." In 1810 William Hunt, of Massachusetts, a close student, a powerful preacher in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. "I have fought a good fight," he said as he came to die, and requesting his attendants to take him from his bed and place him upon his knees, he expired kneeling, in "holy triumph." In 1812 Thomas Branch, of Connecticut, whose affecting death in the western wilderness has heretofore been noticed. In 1814 Abner Clark, of New Hampshire, who departed exclaiming, "I am going, I am going. Blessed be God for victory over sin, the world, and the devil! I have gained the victory!" In 1817 Gad Smith, of Connecticut, an effective preacher, "resigned and triumphant in death." In 1819 Jason Walker, of Massachusetts, who "passed the valley of the shadow of death in calmness, joy, and triumph."

The first decade of the century ended with Methodism established in all the New England states. It had one extensive Conference, and a large portion of a second. The four districts with which it began the century had increased to eight; [3] its thirty-two circuits to seventy-one; its fifty-eight preachers to one hundred and fourteen, and its five thousand eight hundred and thirty nine members to seventeen thousand five hundred and ninety-two. These statistics exhibit a remarkable progress, even if we take not into account the quite inauspicious circumstances of the denomination in the Eastern states. In ten years its districts had doubled, its circuits considerably more than doubled, its ministry lacked but two of being doubled, and its membership had more than trebled. It had gained in these ten years eleven thousand seven hundred and fifty-three members, an average increase of more than one thousand one hundred and seventy-five each year, or nearly one hundred per month. Its self-sacrificing preachers, who, in both their labors and sufferings, were indeed "a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men," might well have exclaimed, "Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place." There was no considerable section of New England which was not now penetrated or compassed by their circuits, and but few localities which heard not occasionally, if not regularly, the voice of their ministrations.

At the close of the second decade its membership numbered nearly twenty-five thousand, its ministry one hundred and twenty-five traveling, and some hundreds of local preachers. Such were the beginnings and early growths of that great harvest which, by the centenary of American Methodism (1866) was to yield, in New England, one hundred and three thousand four hundred and seventy-two members, and about a thousand traveling preachers, with nearly nine hundred chapels, more than a hundred thousand Sunday-school students, and thirteen educational institutions, including a university, a theological school, and boarding academies. The vitality of Methodism would be tested in New England, if anywhere; the result has been most satisfactory. The increase of members, from the beginning of the century, has been eighteen-fold. In 1800 there was one Methodist to two hundred and eleven inhabitants; in 1830, one to forty-four; in 1866, one to thirty-one. The greatest proportion is in Vermont, where there is one Methodist to twenty of the inhabitants; the least is in Rhode Island, where there is one to fifty-seven. Through every decade save one (1840-1850) the denomination has gained upon the growth of the population, notwithstanding the rapid ingress of foreign papists.

Methodism has become, in our day, in New England aggregately, the second denomination in numerical strength, and the first in progress. In the state of Maine it is the first numerically; in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut the second; in Massachusetts the third, in Rhode Island the fourth. In the metropolis itself it makes more rapid progress than any other Protestant denomination, [4] and its churches are among the best architectural monuments of the city. Not only to the frontier populations of the nation, West, South, and North, had it a special mission, as seen in its peculiar adaptations and signal success; it had a providential work in New England, and has achieved it with equal success. At its introduction there the reaction of the rigorous Puritan theology had set in, as has been seen, and was threatening the very foundations of "orthodoxy;" Methodism, by presenting an intermediate, benign, and vital theology, provided a safe resting-place for the public mind. It has stimulated the elder Churches to new life, and has fortified itself into a powerful communion throughout all the Eastern states, sending thence, meanwhile, into all other parts of the Republic, communicants, preachers, educators, and influences which have developed and strengthened the whole denomination. It has done great things for New England, and received great blessings from it.

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ENDNOTES

1 Memorials, etc., second series, p. 254.

2 Bishop Hedding to the author.

3 The Rhinebeck and Ashgrove Districts lay partly in New York, but mostly in New England.

4 Report of the New England Centenary Convention, p. 166; Boston, 1866. The report of the Committee on Statistics, p. 159, made by Rev. D. Dorchester, is exceedingly valuable.

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