A Short History Of The Methodists... - Media Sabda Org

In the close of the annual minutes for this year, we have the following note; "Mark well! Our
brethren and friends, are desired to be more cautious how they receive strange preachers, especially
to preach; unless their names are on the minutes, or they can show a parchment or a certificate from
the presiding elder, or some elder in the district they may say they came from."
This note was introduced at a seasonable time. Our connection was growing large, and some
preachers were fond of going to and fro where they pleased, without any recommendation; and some
of them without any qualification for the work of the ministry. Some impostors had also been
traveling through the country, who belonged to no denomination; and were not so much as moral
men in their conduct.
We had a pleasing revival of religion in many places during this year; and a door was opened for
the spreading of Methodism in the New England states; where many people were inviting us, and
sending for us to come and preach among them. Some of them also cast in their lots with us, and
joined our society. Notwithstanding there was great opposition to the Methodists in that part of the
world, they continued to increase, and were more respected than they had formerly been.
The people had always been used to hear two sermons preached every Sabbath day, so that it was
hard for them to be reconciled to our preaching in some places only on a week day. The common cry
was, "If you would take a parish and settle among us, we should be glad to have you, and we would
then hear you, and pay you well." However, we formed societies in several places, and they increased
and prospered, and souls were converted to God.
On the second day of March, this year (1791,) Mr. John Wesley died in London, at his own house
in City Road. As he had been the founder, and the father of the Methodists in Europe and America,
his death was felt by the Methodists in the United States. In him we lost one of the greatest ministers
in the world. He was not quite eighty-eight years old when he died. The writers of his life say, "When
he was upwards of fourscore years old, he persevered in his daily labors. He rose at 4 o'clock in the
morning, traveled from thirty to sixty or seventy miles a day; and preached daily two, three, or four,
yea, sometimes five sermons, besides reading, writing, visiting the sick, conversing with his friends,
and superintending the societies wherever he went; and in all this labor and care, he was a stranger
to weariness either of body or mind."
On his birth day, June 28th, 1788, he observes, "I this day enter on my eighty-sixth year. And what
cause have I to praise God, as well for a thousand spiritual blessings, as for bodily blessings also!
How little have I suffered yet, by 'the rush of numerous years !' It is true, I am not so agile as I was
in times past; I do not run or walk so fast as I did. My sight is a little decayed. My left eye is grown
dim, and hardly serves me to read. I have daily some pain in the ball of my right eye, as also in my
right temple (occasioned by a blow received some months since) and in my right shoulder and arm,
which I impute partly to a sprain, and partly to the rheumatism. I find likewise some decay in my
memory, with regard to names, and things lately past; but not at all with regard to what I have read
or heard, twenty, forty, or sixty years ago. Neither do I find any decay in my hearing, smell, taste,
or appetite, (though I want but a third part of the food I did once), nor do I feel any such thing as
weariness, either in traveling or preaching. And I am not conscious of any decay in writing sermons,
which I do as readily, and I believe, as correctly as ever.