History of the M.E. Church, Vol. IV - Media Sabda Org

that resulted in the division of the Church in 1844, and the organization of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South; shared in its convention at Louisville, Ky., in 1845; was the president pro tempore
of its first General Conference at Petersburgh, Va.; and was there elected its first Book Agent. In
1854 he was made one of its bishops at Columbus, Georgia.
John Early still lives, after one of the most laborious careers in the history of the American
Methodist itinerancy. One who has well known him says that "he has probably received more
persons into the Methodist Church than any man in it. The accounts he can give of scenes in
Conferences, in churches, on the road, in social circles, or around the sick bed, are 'telling beyond
description' As a presiding officer we seldom see his equal for precision, dispatch, and business. His
preaching is always dignified, simple, and impressive, and often perfectly irresistible; thousands of
souls, on earth and in heaven, are the seals of his ministry. He still retains this power; his large blue
eye yet flashes with a tranquil and holy zeal; his powerful voice, though affected by age, yet, like the
blast of a trumpet, peals forth the invincible truth, and his erect and vigorous form is yet capable of
much labor. His knowledge of character is intuitive, his friendship inviolable, his firmness inflexible,
his house the home of hospitality and social happiness; and if there be in his well-balanced character
one feature more prominent than the rest, it is, that in the functions of the episcopal office, he never
sacrifices the interests of the Church to his prejudices or his friendships; if one must suffer, it is
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always his friend or himself." At the Southern General Conference in New Orleans, 1866, he
obtained a release from his episcopal duties on account of his advanced age; but he still sojourns
among the Conferences and Churches, a welcome guest, venerated for his long services, and laboring
according to his strength. The next year after Early's admission to the itinerancy another young man,
who was to attain episcopal dignity and national reputation, entered the ministry in the South
Carolina Conference. Major William Capers was of Huguenotic ancestry, and a brave officer of the
Revolution, fighting in the battles of Fort Moultrie and Eutaw, suffering in the siege of Charleston,
and famous in the band of Marion's men. After the war he became a devoted Methodist, under the
ministry of Henry Willis, in Charleston. At his winter residence, a plantation in St. Thomas' Parish,
S. C., was born, in 1790, his son, William Capers, one of the most representative men of American
Methodism for nearly half a century. He was early sent to a boarding-school, was entered as a
sophomore in the South Carolina College in his sixteenth year, and subsequently studied law in
Charleston. The fairest prospect of professional success and political distinction appealed to his
youthful ambition. His temperament was vivid, brilliant, and generous. He loved society, and was
gayest of the gay; but his Methodistic domestic training had touched the deeper susceptibilities of
his soul. It had preserved him from youthful vices, and, in 1806, at a camp-meeting on the estate of
Rembert, of Rembert Hall, (so historical in early Methodism,) his conscience was thoroughly
awakened. After a short period of healthful religious progress he became the victim of a morbid
delusion, (sanctioned by the current Calvinistic theology, but denied by Methodism,) under which
he suffered for about two years, and which deterred him from an open profession of his faith.
Meanwhile his father had also been led astray by the schism of Hammett in Charleston, and had lost
the life, if not the form, of his piety. In 1808 his sister was converted at a camp-meeting in the
Rembert neighborhood, and returned home exemplifying the power and peace of the gospel. An
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affecting scene soon followed, which he describes: "It grew night; supper was over; it was warm,
and we were sitting in a piazza open to the southwest breeze which fans our summer evenings. My
sister was singing with a soft, clear voice some of the songs of the camp-meeting, and as she paused,
my father touched my shoulder with his hand, and slowly walked away. I followed him till he had