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

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Master. From these blessed worthies I learned that saving of souls is the true work of a missionary, and felt somewhat ashamed that I so little resembled men who appeared as much dead to the world as though they had been the inhabitants of another planet. The bishops, Asbury and Whatcoat, were plain, simple, venerable persons, both in dress and manners. Their costume was that of former times, the color drab, the waistcoat with large laps, and both coat and waistcoat without any collar; their plain stocks and low-crowned, broad-brimmed hats bespoke their deadness to the trifling ornaments of dress. In a word, their appearance was simplicity itself. They spoke but little, and appeared utterly averse to the frivolous compliments of the world. They were perfect antipodes to 'the thing that mounts the rostrum with a skip,' and had something truly apostolic in their general demeanor. I felt impressed with awe in their presence, and soon perceived that they had established themselves in the esteem and veneration of their brethren; not by the trappings of office, or the pomp and splendor of episcopal parade, but by their vast labors, self-denying simplicity, and disinterested love. These obtained for them the homage of the heart; they were the first in office, because they were first in zeal. Most of the preachers appeared to be young men, yet ministerial labor had impressed its withering seal upon their countenances. I cannot contemplate, without astonishment, the great work God has performed in the United States by means, humanly speaking, so utterly unlikely. Methodism has spread throughout the whole extent of this vast country. Along its mighty lakes and sylvan solitudes, where the population is but thinly scattered, circuits have been formed, chapels built, and the remote settlements, out of the reach of regular pastoral help, have greatly benefited by the visits and labors of the preachers. It is in America we see Methodism in its grandest form. All is here upon a scale of magnitude equal to the grandeur of the lakes, rivers, forests, and mountains of the country. In England Methodism is like a river calmly gliding on; here it is a torrent rushing along, and sweeping all away in its course. Methodism in England is the Methodism of Wesley, methodical, intelligent, and neat; in America it resembles Asbury, it has more roughness and less polish. The good they have done to the blacks is beyond calculation, and the new settlements in different parts of the interior, without such a ministry, might have degenerated into heathens. Methodism has been a peculiar blessing to this new world, which, having no religious establishment, is in many of its remote parts more dependent on such a ministry than can well be conceived by those who never visited the country. Many thousands of the settlers would have been left to precarious and contingent religious instruction, had not the Methodist preachers, with an alacrity and zeal worthy the apostolic age, spread themselves abroad in every direction, and become every man's servant for Christ's sake." [2] Of the twenty-four itinerants who died in the field, in this period, we have already noticed Hezekiah C. Wooster, the Canadian pioneer, Tobias Gibson, the Southwestern founder and martyr, and William Ormond, the Southern "abolitionist," who fell by the yellow fever. That pestilence prevailed along the Atlantic coast from the South even as far north as Portsmouth, Me., spreading terror everywhere. It desolated Philadelphia in 1793, and reappeared in the North in 1798. Asbury, returning from New England, wrote, in September of the latter year: "The fever is breaking out again in Portsmouth, and it is awful in Philadelphia. It seemeth as if the Lord would humble or destroy that city, by stroke after stroke, until they acknowledge God. Very serious appearances of this fever are now in New York." Later he wrote: "Most awful times in Philadelphia and New York, citizens flying before the fever as if it were the sword. I now wait the providence of God to know which way to go." The General Conference had hitherto been held in winter or autumn, but in 1800 it met, for the first time, in May, through fear of a return of the plague, though it had been appointed for the autumn,
a change which it has always since followed; but the preachers braved it at their ministerial posts, and several of them heroically perished. Among its victims was John Ragan, an Irishman, who, after traveling in Maryland, Nova Scotia, and New Jersey, took the disease in Philadelphia, and died in 1797; a very "conscientious man," of "great solitude of mind," "remarkably fond of books," and a successful preacher. James King died of the epidemic at Charleston, S. C., the same year; a "friend of liberty," as well as religion, who had traveled "extensively and preached faithfully" in Georgia and South Carolina, and "gave his life, his labors, and his fortune" to the Church. William Early perished by it, a "zealous and a powerful preacher;" "it was supposed," says Lee, "that he took the yellow fever in Newbern, N. C.; but he continued to travel till the fever came on him so severely that he was forced to lie down by the side of the road, where one of the neighbors found him, and asked him to his house,' where he went, took to his bed, and, after a few days, died;" in the hour of death "he gave tokens of victory." Benton Higgin was another victim, who fell, in 1799, at Baltimore, the eighth who had thus suffered down to this date, say the Minutes. "This man of God," they add, "might have probably saved his life by flight; but he stayed, to live or die, in his station, and charge of souls." In 1800 James Tollison was another martyr, at Portsmouth, Va., a "man of excellent understanding," who had preached from Georgia to New York. He made his will, says Lee, and left all he possessed to his fellow-itinerants; even his clothes were brought to the next Conference and given to them. But the most distinguished victim was John Dickins, who has often appeared in these pages as one of the chieftains of early Methodism, and who died at his post, as Book Agent and preacher, at Philadelphia, in 1798. He was a man of classical learning, a sound divine, a rare counselor, and a powerful preacher. "According to his time and opportunity," say the Minutes, "he was one of the greatest characters that ever graced the pulpit, or adorned the society of Methodists. After standing the shock of two seasons, 1793 and 1797, of the prevailing fever, he fell in the third and awful visitation of 1798." A short time before his death he wrote to Asbury: "I sit down to write as in the jaws of death. Whether Providence may permit me to see your face again in the flesh I know not. Perhaps I might have left the city, as most of my friends and brethren have done. I commit myself and family into the hands of God for life or death.' " Dying, he said to his wife, "Glory be to God, I can rejoice in his will, whether for life or death! I know all is well. Glory be to Jesus! I hang upon thee. Glory be to thee, O my God! I have made it my constant business, in my feeble manner, to please thee, and now, O God, thou dost comfort me!" Clasping his hands, with tears running down his cheeks, he cried, "Glory be to God! Glory, glory be to God! My soul now enjoys such sweet communion with him, that I would not give it for all the world. Glory be to Jesus! O glory be to my God! I have not felt so much for seven years. Love him, trust him, praise him." Besides these victims of the pestilence, the obituary list of the Minutes during these years records Albert Van Nostrand in 1797, at White Plains, N. Y., "circumspect and approved;" Michael H. R. Wilson, in 1798, at Strasburgh, Pa., "more than conqueror" in death; John N. Jones, at Charleston, S. C., 1798, "with unshaken confidence and joy in God;" William Wilkerson, in Gloucester County, Va., in 1798, "owned and honored as a witness for Jesus;" Thomas Haymond, in Ohio, in 1799, a man of "great goodness of heart, often laboring beyond his strength," a pioneer in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio; Robert Bonham, 1800, in Baltimore, a young man of "gracious heart, upright walk, and lively ministry;" Abraham Andrews, an old English Methodist, of "great strictness of life;" Salathiel Weeks, in Virginia, who "labored faithfully," and "wasted away with consumption;" in the same year, Charles Burgoon, who was of "a dejected spirit," "worn out with pain," but "died in
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WESLEYAN HERITAGE Library HISTORY O
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HISTORY of the METHODIST EPISCOPAL
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BOOK VI CHAPTER I = PART 58 METHODI
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CHAPTER IX = PART 66 METHODISM IN T
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CHAPTER XV = PART 72 REVIEW OF THE
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disappearance of Coke, Asbury, What
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convened, a second time, in Wilbrah
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yet I did not go out that year; but
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He returned again to New Jersey in
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Asbury pressed on westward with his
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congregation, and meanwhile advanci
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direction of the presiding elder, G
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traveled in Massachusetts, Rhode Is
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knowledge. His judgment was always
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He did great services and endured g
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of the itinerants. There was no one
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found adequate to the singular exig
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as a sail in a leaking canoe, and p
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[16] of his decease, sent home for
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passing through small villages; but
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HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
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God. The Scotchman could endure it
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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
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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
Page 89 and 90: attempted also to make local preach
Page 91 and 92: tireless apostle completed by the n
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Page 95: HISTORY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL
Page 99 and 100: Methodism was now entrenched in eve
Page 101 and 102: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, (II, p. 171,) fol
Page 103 and 104: Methodists in other places, and wis
Page 105 and 106: are reported from Flint Circuit. Th
Page 107 and 108: Russell, fallen as he was from the
Page 109 and 110: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, ii, 194. Dunwody'
Page 111 and 112: intensely bright by the grateful jo
Page 113 and 114: eached the furthest end of the piaz
Page 115 and 116: his humble shed and the chancel whe
Page 117 and 118: class-meetings, and to no small ext
Page 119 and 120: 1 Minutes, 1858. ENDNOTES 2 Rev. Dr
Page 121 and 122: grandchildren were gay and playful;
Page 123 and 124: in a swamp on the Waccamaw Lake, a
Page 125 and 126: ENDNOTE 1 A few months ago, accompa
Page 127 and 128: Asbury, in the summer of 180, wrote
Page 129 and 130: means by which this necessary objec
Page 131 and 132: I should have to preach, but determ
Page 133 and 134: themselves, it was resolved that th
Page 135 and 136: ENDNOTES 1 Bangs, though his narrat
Page 137 and 138: directions, preaching as far as Buf
Page 139 and 140: and in the States, from the Ulster
Page 141 and 142: Conference sent over three missiona
Page 143 and 144: 1814 Michael Coate, of New Jersey,
Page 145 and 146: 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
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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
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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
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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
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edifice was soon after provided in
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in both hemispheres, and which prop
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even romantic record, but our limit
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He organized the Liberia Mission. H
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and the moral prospects of the worl
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ut we may well hesitate to admit th
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They preached and suffered in Engla
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ENDNOTES 1 An error in the Minutes
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and great labors; his charity, his
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directing the advancing Church with
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history, and presents, in full vita
show all

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