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

or when done, had by no means been acceptable. I have written several letters to the westward to
supply my lack of service. I am mightily wrought upon for New Hampshire, Province of Maine,
Vermont, and Lower Canada."
Such was this greatest apostle of modern Christendom. Scarcely recognized by the civil or
ecclesiastical historians of the country, he was nevertheless unconsciously placing his name foremost
on the ecclesiastical annals of the new world; nor can we wonder, after such labors, that in our day
the followers of the evangelic banner which he thus bore forward, over mountains, wildernesses, and
floods, constitute one half the Protestant communicants of the New World.
On reaching Charlotte county, Va., in the latter part of April, he learns that "there is sad work with
those who had left" the denomination; yet matters were not desperate. "If the real cause of this
division were known, I think it would appear, that one wanted to be immovably fixed in a district;
another wanted money; a third wanted ordination; a fourth wanted liberty to do as he pleased about
slaves, and not to be called to an account," etc.
He found it necessary to recite in his congregations the history of these disputes, to vindicate his
episcopal administration, to encounter personal rebuffs from former Methodists. "O that I had in the
wilderness a lodging-place!" he writes; "a dreadful rumor followed me from last Sabbath. I felt
humble, and thankful that I could suffer; I think more of religion now than ever. O my God, I am
thine; glory to Christ forever!" He rejoiced, however, to find in Bedford county "thirteen societies
of Methodists, three or four of them large, and about ten local preachers, who labor for Christ and
souls." Reaching the western mountains, he held a conference and greeted some of the Kentucky
preachers, who had come across the Alleghenies to counsel with him. He found "a valuable chapel
at Newton, and three local preachers;" at Charleston, "a good house and one local preacher;" at
Winchester, "a good meeting-house." "Sick, wet, and weary," he journeyed on, still preaching,
though hardly able to make the people hear. " My mind," he says, "is in peace, but I feel the spiritual
death of the people. I am now on the head branches of Opecken. I stopped a while at J. H.'s, and then
came on to Shepherdstown. It was a very instructing time to me; I cannot pretend to preach, yet I talk
a little to the dear people, who flock to see and hear me by hundreds. I hope to be as much resigned
to a life of affliction as a life of health; and thus may I be perfect in love and wholly crucified with
Christ! I concluded, after my high fever, and my being forced to bed, that it was out of the question
for me to attempt to speak; but when I saw the people coming on every side, and thought 'this may
be the last time,' and considered I had not been there for nearly five years, I took my staff faintly
ascended the hill, and held forth on 1 John i, 6, 7, and felt strengthened, having a clear view of the
word of God. After meeting we administered the sacrament, and I then returned to my bed. I
preached at Fredericktown. Rode to Liberty: when I came there I was so faint, and my strength so
spent, that I felt as if I could by no means attempt to preach; but after Brother R. had sung a hymn
and prayed, I made a feeble attempt on Gal. i, 11,12."
On the 15th of June he once more found genial shelter in Baltimore, then the headquarters of all
his episcopal campaigns. He paused, however, but four or five days, and hastened on to the north and
the east, as far as Boston and Lynn. By the middle of October he was back again; a day of hospitable
shelter at Perry Hall, a week of labor in Baltimore, at the conference, and the southern campaign is
reopened. Its events are stirring, but too similar to those already recorded to need recital; it was