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

it, saying, If you wish to do me good, treat the coming preachers better than you have treated me.
Now the eyes of many were enlightened to see a free salvation offered to all mankind. In Lennox the
society and people were much prejudiced at first, but the former were quickened afresh."
This eccentric man left the circuit in a state of universal prosperity; one hundred and eighty had
been added to the societies, and about five hundred more "were under conviction for sin." The
sensation was wonderful, and some, to our day, stood up in the Church as witnesses of his
usefulness. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of
God, and not of man."
Extensive reformations had prevailed in Maine. The aggregate of members in all the New England
states was four thousand nine hundred and fifty-four, and the increase of the year was about eight
hundred, more than two thirds of the increase of the entire denomination. The gains were chiefly in
Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Rhode Island still lingered tardily in the rear. It returned but
one hundred and ninety-six members, a gain of only thirty-four during the year, a declension of
twelve from the number reported four years before. About seven years had passed since the first
regular appointment was made in that state, and but three since Nicholas Snethen traveled the first
circuit in Vermont, yet the former scarcely reports two hundred members, while the latter returns six
hundred and four. New Hampshire, though now overspread with Methodists, also gave a reluctant
admission to its hardy itinerants. But one circuit had yet been formed in the state. Three years had
passed since Philip Wager entered it as the first Methodist preacher regularly sent thither. Elijah
Bachelor reported the present year but one hundred and thirty-one Methodists within its limits, a gain
of but nine since the last returns, and of but sixty-three in three years. Methodism had to struggle into
that state. Long rides, bad roads, hard fare, exposure to the weather by night in log-cabins, to perils
by day in fording creeks and rivers, were not the only trials to which the laborious preachers were
subjected. They were generally assailed by other sects, and sometimes by the mob.
Similar scenes were not uncommon in Vermont as well as New Hampshire. The hardy settlers of
these wilderness regions chose a more summary, but less vexatious method of suppressing the new
sect than their more staid and more obstinate neighbors of Connecticut and Massachusetts. The latter
imprisoned, seized property, anathematized from the pulpit, and did so with most patient pertinacity
for years, while the former shook their fists and swore terribly against the intruders on one day, and
on the next were weeping and falling as dead men under their preaching. New Hampshire has since
become a fruitful field of Methodism.
There was no Conference in New England in 1799; the New York Conference made the
appointments for the Eastern States. Elijah Hedding, though his name does not appear in the Minutes
till a later date, commenced traveling this year by the direction of the presiding elder. He was born
in Dutchess County, N. Y., June 7, 1780, but removed with his parents, at about his tenth year, to
Starksborough, Vt. The Methodist itinerants had not yet penetrated thither; but an aged Methodist
and his wife, a "mother in Israel," had removed to that town from Connecticut, and, though remote
from any members of their chosen communion, and several miles from any church whatever, they
let their light so shine that their neighbors saw their good works, and glorified their Father which is
in heaven. The Church is indebted for the services of this distinguished man to the instrumentality
of that elect lady. Meetings were opened in her humble dwelling two or three years before the arrival