A History Of The Rise Of Methodism In America - Media Sabda Org

meeting, and lasted six hours -- ending at two o'clock in the morning. Five souls -- Dr. White, his
two sisters, and two other young ladies -- were set at liberty. Some time after this, Dr. White
removed from Kent county, Delaware, to Dorchester, in Maryland. He was settled in Cambridge in
1799, where he continued to reside until his death. He was a pillar among the Methodists, both in
Delaware and in Maryland. We spent a night with the doctor in 1823. When we arrived at his house
we found him apparently under the hypochondria [abnormal anxiety about one's health], and wished
ourselves away; but during he night he slept it off, and in the morning he could shake his fat sides
with a laugh, and we never conversed with a pleasanter Christian, or a finer old gentleman. He lived
to a good old age.
Dr. White had a brother, whose name was John, who had been a great persecutor of the
Methodists while in health. In the fall of 1778 he sickened, and became very penitent, begging the
prayers of the Methodists whom he had despised. Mr. Garrettson visited him, and frequently prayed
with him in his illness. Before he died the Lord set his soul at liberty during prayer in his family,
when he testified that the love of God was shed abroad in his soul, and that he was ready and willing
to die. Mr. Garrettson preached his funeral to a large and much affected audience.
Another brother of Dr. White, was called Samuel. At one time he lived in Dover; he also was a
Methodist. Some of his descendants are in Philadelphia.
While Mr. Garrettson was planting Methodism in Somerset, Sussex, and Kent counties, and Mr.
Asbury and others were watering it, Mr. Turner, a local preacher, came from New Jersey in 1778 into
New Castle county, and was the first Methodist preacher in Appoquinimink above Duck Creek.
Among others that were awakened under him, was Lewis Alfree, who, from a great sinner, came out
a useful Methodist preacher. At his house, near Field's Corner, there was preaching and a society was
formed; from here Methodism spread to Blackiston's, Thoroughfare Neck, Duck Creek Crossroads,
Severson's, and Dickinson's or Union.
After this, Turner returned to Jersey to his family to settle his business, intending after a while to
become a traveling preacher. As there was a pressing necessity for his services in the work
immediately, Brother Ruff, who was preaching in Jersey at this time, urged him to go at once into
the regular work on the circuit; using this argument, "Suppose you knew that you had but two weeks
to live, would you not attend them in preaching on the circuit -- laboring daily to bring sinners to
Christ?" Turner replied, "Yes." By the time Brother Ruff came round to his neighborhood, two
weeks after this conversation, Brother Turner was dead of the smallpox.