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

their children. In ten years, I think, the new state will be one of the most flourishing in the Union."
He says, in this visit, "Sure I am that nothing short of the welfare of immortal souls and my sense
of duty could be inducement enough for me to visit the West so often. O the road, the hills, the rocks,
the rivers, the want of water even to drink; the time for secret prayer hardly to be stolen, and the
place scarcely to be had! My mind, nevertheless, has been kept in peace."
He rejoiced at the introduction of the camp-meeting, as peculiarly suited to the wants of these new
regions. It gave him immense congregations, and added the people to the Church by thousands. In
1809 he says "it appears that the bishops will hold one in every district;" but the presiding elders held
many more. The same year there were seventeen on Miami District, as many on that of Indiana, and
almost every district had two or more. At one of them the bishop wrote, "I cannot say how I felt, nor
how near heaven. I must take the field!" Again he exclaims, "I pray God that there may be twenty
camp-meetings a week, and wonderful seasons of the Lord in all directions." "More of
camp-meeting!" he again writes; "I hear and see the great effects produced by them." In his last
western tour (1815) he says: "My soul is blessed with continual consolation and peace in all my great
weakness of body, labor, and crowds of company. I am a debtor to the whole continent, but more
especially to the northeast and southwest. It is there I usually gain health, and generally lose it in the
south and center. I have visited the South thirty times in thirty-one years. I wish to visit Mississippi,
but am resigned." He was too feeble in health to go thither, but would have gone had not the
preachers at the Conference, who knew the sickliness of the Southern Mississippi, had the kindness
and self-denial to remonstrate against his purpose. In September of this year, while at Cincinnati, he
had "a long and earnest talk" with McKendree "about the affairs of the Church" and his own
prospects. "I told him," he adds, "that the western part of the empire would be the glory of America
for the poor and pious; that it ought to be marked out for five Conferences, to wit: Ohio, Kentucky,
Holston, Mississippi, and Missouri; in doing which, as well as I was able, I traced out lines and
boundaries. I told him that having passed the first allotted period, (seventy years,) and being, as he
knew, out of health, it could not be expected I could visit the extremities every year, sitting in eight,
it might be twelve, Conferences, and traveling six thousand miles in eight months." He feels the
approaches of his "great change," but offers to travel and work on, as he might have ability. The
news of Coke's death reminds him impressively that he too must soon depart; and in the next month,
while attending the Conference, he perceives distinctly that his work is about done, and resigns
himself without sadness to his fate. "I ordained the deacons," he writes, "and preached a sermon, in
which Dr. Coke was remembered. My eyes fail. I will resign the stations to Bishop McKendree, I
will take away my feet." He reviews, but with a glance, the past, and turns his look still forward with
joy. "It is my fifty-fifth year of ministry, and forty-fifth year of labor in America. My mind enjoys
great peace and divine consolation. Whether health, life, or death, good is the will of the Lord. I will
trust him; yea, and will praise him: he is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.' Glory!
glory! glory!"
He journeyed on, still preaching almost daily, but failing fast, till at last, resolved to die in the
field of his long and glorious warfare, he had to be carried into the pulpit, and, in about five months
after this entry in his journal, was borne in the arms of his traveling companion from the last one he
occupied, when "unable either to walk or stand," and in seven days ceased at once to work and live."