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

Christ, and firmly planted Methodism for thousands of miles on our frontier border. In 1834 he asked
for and obtained a superannuated relation, in which he lived till the fifth of October, 1835, and then
left the world in holy triumph. He was the first minister who, by the authority of the Methodist
Church, gave me my first permit to exhort. We have fought side by side for many years, we have
suffered hunger and want together, we have often wept and prayed and preached together; I hope we
shall sing and shout together in heaven." [9]
He died, "in confident hope of a blessed immortality," in 1835. He was five feet seven inches
high, of slender but vigorous frame, sallow complexion, light hair, prominent cheeks, small blue
eyes, a generous and cheerful expression; and dressed always in drab-colored clothes, of the plainest
Quaker fashion, with a light-colored beaver hat, "nearly as large as a ladies' parasol." He had
extraordinary aptness to win the confidence and sympathy of "backwoodsmen;" his friendships were
most hearty, his courage equal to any test, his piety thorough, his talents as a preacher moderate. His
great talent was his great character.
Methodism became mighty in Missouri Conference, numbering nearly twenty-four thousand
members before the southern secession of 1844; but that event rent the Church to pieces; the war of
the rebellion still further devastated the great field. Peace has restored the denomination, and the
Missouri Conference still exists, with reorganized plans of usefulness.
During these years men of genuine greatness of character and talents were continually rising up
in the western itinerancy. Samuel Parker, born in New Jersey in 1774, and converted in his
fourteenth year, was a man of genius, and was called the Cicero of the western ministry. After
laboring four years as a local preacher, he was received into the Western Conference in 1805. For
three years he traveled in Kentucky, and in 1808 was sent to Miami Circuit, Ohio, which included
Cincinnati. Here his natural eloquence attained its climax. The people thronged from great distances
to hear him; his word was irresistible, and "wherever he went," says one of his contemporaries,
[10]
"wondering and weeping audiences crowded about him." He possessed an exceedingly musical
voice, a clear, keen mind, an imagination which, though never extravagant, afforded frequent and
brilliant illustrations of his subject, while his ardent piety imparted wonderful tenderness and power
to his appeals. Withal, his personal appearance was striking before he became attenuated with
disease, he was nearly six feet high, had a remarkably intellectual countenance, with a full forehead,
and a black, piercing eye.
In 1809 he became presiding elder on a district which included Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.
"From the White River, in Indiana, to the farthest settler in Missouri," says Finley, "did this herald
of the cross proclaim the glad tidings of salvation" through four years, and "so 'mightily grew the
word of God, and prevailed,' " that the district had to be divided. Its three hundred and eighty-two
members, at his beginning, had increased to more than two thousand when he left it. He continued
north and west of the Ohio, with increasing influence and success, till 1815, when he was made
presiding elder in Kentucky, where his great eloquence commanded general interest. In 1819 he was
appointed to lead the itinerants who were extending the Church in the far southwest, on the
memorable Mississippi District. They needed such a man; but his health was broken, and it seemed
but an appointment to martyrdom. He was ready for it, nevertheless, and when it was announced, at
the close of the Conference, in Cincinnati, " it seemed," says a spectator, "that a wave of sympathy