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

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Martin Ruter, who was born in Sutton, Mass., in 1785, but sleeps in a missionary grave on the banks of the Brazos, in Texas, entered the eastern itinerant ranks in 1801, called into them by Brodhead. He was one of the noblest sons of New England, a good debater and writer, an able preacher, a leader of the educational interests of the denomination in the East and in the West, one of its best representative characters for many years, and at last a pioneer evangelist on its farthest frontier. We shall meet him often hereafter. Laban Clark also appears on the Conference roll, for the first time, in 1801. Born in Haverhill, N. H., in 1778, and early removing to Vermont, he heard some of the first evangelists who penetrated the latter state, and became a Methodist in 1799. In 1800 he was preaching about his neighborhood with John Langdon, a local preacher, and one of the principal founders of the Church in Vermont. Brodhead who, the same year, had pressed Ruter into the itinerant service, now summoned out Clark, and thus presented to the Church two of its most important public men. Clark still lives, after more than sixty years of invaluable services, which will bring him often before us; his life, like that of Ruter, has been so extensively identified with the general history of the Church as not to admit of its individualization here. A man of vigorous physical health, of strong and genial mind, of great practical capacity, of never-wavering enthusiasm for his Church and all its important enterprises, a living history of it for more than threescore years, and an able preacher, notwithstanding a marked vocal defect, he has been prominent among its most exponent characters. These remaining four years were eventful to the Church all over the Eastern States. They began with the first session of the New England Conference, as a distinct organized body, at Lynn, Mass., July 8, 1800. Revivals prevailed generally, greatly increasing the congregations and societies, The itinerancy was not only largely recruited, but in a few places tested by severe persecutions. Elijah R. Sabin was mobbed on Needham Circuit, where he preached in the open air. Some of his brethren, at the Conference, would moderate his zeal; but Asbury approved him, affirming that "this is the way Methodist preachers began, and we need warm hearts to carry the work forward." The Boston Methodists suffered much from the rabble, who besieged their humble temple, begun on Hanover Avenue (then known as Methodist Alley) in 1795, but not completed till 1800, after which time, say its old records, "the troubled and persecuted society found, in some degree; rest to their souls;" it was yet only, however, in "some degree." They had still many a sore conflict before cultivated Boston properly recognized them. Hibbard fought his way through intolerable trials on Granville Circuit. He speaks of twenty-six sermons a month as "moderate labor," and only complains when he had twelve appointments a week, and "no rest week in which to go home and visit his family." "Some days," he says, "when riding to my appointments, I was almost all the way in tears, often inquiring of the Lord, in ejaculatory prayers, 'What can I do to save these souls from delusion?' Some threw stones at me, and some set their dogs on me as I rode along; but the Lord defended me. I never had a stone to hit me, nor a dog to bite me. Some threatened to whip me; but I escaped all. I heard of many threats, but none laid hands on me." In Lancaster, Vt., Langdon, Clark, and Crawford were assailed by the mob. The ruffians cowered before the courage of Langdon, who was a gigantic and brave man; but they carried off Crawford, and ducked him in the river, with huzzas. In this same state, now so tolerant and so Methodistic, Washburn had similar trials, though better escapes. "I have had," he says, "stones and snowballs cast at me in volleys. I have had great dogs sent after me, to frighten my horse, as I was peacefully
passing through small villages; but I was never harmed by any of them. I have been saluted with the sound of 'glory, hosanna, amen, halleluiah!' mixed with oaths and profanity. If I turned my horse to ride toward them, they would show their want of confidence, both in their master, and in themselves, by scattering and fleeing like base cowards." Even in Middletown, Conn., (now the seat of their university,) the Methodists suffered such persecutions. Stocking, of Glastenbury, long a venerated local preacher, writes: "I have been stoned, and my life put in jeopardy, by the mass mob. Open persecution continued there until put down by the strong arm of the law. Thanks to God, Middletown is renovated!" Ostrander, reporting a great revival there in 1802, says: "The spirit of persecution is much awake. The houses where we assemble are frequently stoned, and the windows broken to pieces; but all this does not move the young converts, who are as bold as lions." [17] Kibby was threatened with violence in Marblehead, and advised to leave the town, but stood his ground successfully. The Methodists of those days were in many places persecuted even to fines, the seizure of their goods, and, sometimes, imprisonment, by the dominant Church. They were denounced from the pulpits, maltreated in the courts, interrupted in the course of their sermons with charges of heresy, and assailed in the streets by the rabble. Washburn, as we have seen, was hooted through the villages; Hedding cursed with outcries on the highway; Dow's nose was publicly wrung; Sabin was knocked down, and struck on the head, to the peril of his life, with the butt of a gun; Wood was horsewhipped; Christie, summoned out of bed to answer to a charge of violating the laws, by marrying a couple of his people; Willard, wounded in the eye by a blow, the effect of which was seen through his life; Mudge, denied the rights of a clergyman, and arranged before the magistrate for assuming them; Kibby, stoned while preaching, and Taylor drummed out of town. It requires more determination to endure such grievances than to meet graver trials; but the early Methodist itinerants were proof against both. With all its poverty and persecutions the Church prevailed surprisingly during this period. There [18] were, at its close, more than ten thousand Methodists in New England. It had about fifty circuits, and more than eighty itinerants. It had gained since 1796 more than seven thousand five hundred members, twenty-nine circuits, and fifty-seven preachers. ---------------------------------------------
Page 1 and 2: WESLEYAN HERITAGE Library HISTORY O
Page 3 and 4: HISTORY of the METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 5 and 6: BOOK VI CHAPTER I = PART 58 METHODI
Page 7 and 8: CHAPTER IX = PART 66 METHODISM IN T
Page 9 and 10: CHAPTER XV = PART 72 REVIEW OF THE
Page 11 and 12: disappearance of Coke, Asbury, What
Page 13 and 14: convened, a second time, in Wilbrah
Page 15 and 16: yet I did not go out that year; but
Page 17 and 18: He returned again to New Jersey in
Page 19 and 20: Asbury pressed on westward with his
Page 21 and 22: congregation, and meanwhile advanci
Page 23 and 24: direction of the presiding elder, G
Page 25 and 26: traveled in Massachusetts, Rhode Is
Page 27 and 28: knowledge. His judgment was always
Page 29 and 30: He did great services and endured g
Page 31 and 32: of the itinerants. There was no one
Page 33 and 34: found adequate to the singular exig
Page 35 and 36: as a sail in a leaking canoe, and p
Page 37: [16] of his decease, sent home for
Page 41 and 42: HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 43 and 44: God. The Scotchman could endure it
Page 45 and 46: [7] Conference till the next year.
Page 47 and 48: y his own hands, and his furniture
Page 49 and 50: there were three circuits, with thr
Page 51 and 52: performed incredible labors and tra
Page 53 and 54: Before he reached the last stanza h
Page 55 and 56: "in the wilds of Virginia, where he
Page 57 and 58: ed, and trembling with agitation. E
Page 59 and 60: this melancholy record. I never rea
Page 61 and 62: at Cabbin Creek, Ky., twenty thousa
Page 63 and 64: in that vast wilderness, and had no
Page 65 and 66: poles. This was their bedstead. Som
Page 67 and 68: Benjamin Lakin, Samuel Doughty John
Page 69 and 70: Gibson. "Here," say his brethren, "
Page 71 and 72: of the Little Miami River. On Thurs
Page 73 and 74: Circuit) for this year began at Moo
Page 75 and 76: Sale, J. Oglesby; Guyandotte, Asa S
Page 77 and 78: worst for stealing, fighting, and l
Page 79 and 80: twentieth they reached the scene of
Page 81 and 82: the toil and sufferings, of another
Page 83 and 84: ENDNOTES 1 See Extracts by Bishop M
Page 85 and 86: 37 Rev. Dr. Trimble's Address at Oh
Page 87 and 88: my father's neighborhood. The Confe
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attempted also to make local preach
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tireless apostle completed by the n
Page 93 and 94:
to prepare forms of petition to the
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HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
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a change which it has always since
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Methodism was now entrenched in eve
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ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, (II, p. 171,) fol
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Methodists in other places, and wis
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are reported from Flint Circuit. Th
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Russell, fallen as he was from the
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ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, ii, 194. Dunwody'
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intensely bright by the grateful jo
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eached the furthest end of the piaz
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his humble shed and the chancel whe
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class-meetings, and to no small ext
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1 Minutes, 1858. ENDNOTES 2 Rev. Dr
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grandchildren were gay and playful;
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in a swamp on the Waccamaw Lake, a
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ENDNOTE 1 A few months ago, accompa
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Asbury, in the summer of 180, wrote
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means by which this necessary objec
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I should have to preach, but determ
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themselves, it was resolved that th
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ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, though his narrat
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directions, preaching as far as Buf
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and in the States, from the Ulster
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Conference sent over three missiona
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1814 Michael Coate, of New Jersey,
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1 Peck's "Early Methodism," p. 158.
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limits, when it will devolve upon t
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That very significant and convenien
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Channing, the elder Beecher, Wainwr
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in the eyes of the people, and grea
Page 155 and 156:
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own souls, because ye were dear unt
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Early in the spring of 1808 he retu
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seventeen preachers upon trial. The
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this meeting. Monday, 22d, I turned
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strengthened the whole denomination
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savage men, and venomous serpents."
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indescribable. At one time I saw at
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extraordinary learning, of tireless
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oom; but, finding there no means of
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By the end of our present period th
Page 179 and 180:
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some sixty or seventy souls. They a
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stacked away at the end of the cour
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olled over the whole Conference." H
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ashamed of yourselves?' which only
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living; I have outlived every membe
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iographer of the itinerant. Born in
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
gentleman. While the circles of fas
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His itinerant ministry in the West
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took a prominent part in the great
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to the people, and to go back to Na
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country. These were about to return
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of preachers had increased thirty-f
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1 Rev. F. C. Holliday, in Sprague,
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Astonishing, superhuman almost, as
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of "through the interior of Louisia
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their children. In ten years, I thi
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hates the nefarious practice. In th
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These extraordinary facts excited n
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15 I must remind the reader that I
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[3] and threatened to return home.
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he prepared for South Carolina, wit
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the expediency of increasing the nu
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1 General Conference Journal,, vol.
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itinerants he said, "See that every
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In our day (1866) the Methodist Boo
Page 233 and 234:
edifice was soon after provided in
Page 235 and 236:
in both hemispheres, and which prop
Page 237 and 238:
even romantic record, but our limit
Page 239 and 240:
He organized the Liberia Mission. H
Page 241 and 242:
and the moral prospects of the worl
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
ut we may well hesitate to admit th
Page 247 and 248:
They preached and suffered in Engla
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ENDNOTES 1 An error in the Minutes
Page 251 and 252:
and great labors; his charity, his
Page 253 and 254:
directing the advancing Church with
Page 255 and 256:
history, and presents, in full vita
show all

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

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