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

Mr. Richard Ivy was a native of Sussex county, Virginia. In 1782, he was preaching in West
Jersey, where, as the Rev. Thomas Ware informs us, a company of American soldiers with their
officers came to one of his appointments to arrest him. The officers crossed their swords on the table
upon which he rested his hymn book and Bible, behind which he stood to preach, and before it they
were seated to learn whether he was a friend to his country or not. Before he ended his discourse, he
opened his bosom with his hands and addressed them thus: "Sirs, I would fain show you my heart.
If it beats not high for legitimate liberty, may it ever cease to beat." Such was the power of his appeal
that the officers hung their heads and trembled -- the Methodists sobbed and cried amen -- and the
soldiers in the yard swung their hats and huzzaed for the Methodist parson. The victory was on the
Lord's side. When the Church was organized, he was one of the original elders. As a Methodist
preacher he was known from Jersey to Georgia. He possessed quick and solid parts -- was a holy,
self-denying Christian that lived to be useful. Much of the eighteen years that he was in the work,
he acted as an elder at the head of a district. He located in 1794, to take care of his aged mother, and
died in peace in 1795.
Mr. John Major was a Virginian -- a Christian full of faith and the Holy Ghost. As a preacher he
was armed with the force of feeling and the power of tears, and his hearers were constrained to
acknowledge that, "The melted is the melting heart." He often wept from the beginning to the ending
of his discourses, and was known in his day as the "Weeping Prophet;" and, although his abilities
as an expounder of the Word were not great, yet such was the power of his soul over his hearers, that
his usefulness was seldom equaled: by speaking for a few minutes he often produced a happier effect
than others by their most intellectual, lengthy, and labored efforts. His voice was frequently lost in
the cries of his deeply affected hearers. Those who made no pretensions to religion loved this good
man almost as much as the Methodists themselves. He was among the first missionaries that the
Methodists sent to Georgia. After ten years of usefulness in the itinerancy he died a witness of
perfect love in 1788; and was interred at Brother Herbert's, above Augusta. After he was buried, a
poor sinner was standing at his grave, looking on and reflecting, and thought that he heard the voice
of God calling him through the medium of Brother Major to repentance -- he was awakened and
obtained religion. "He being dead yet speaketh."
Mr. Henry Willis was born in Brunswick county, Va. His natural and acquired abilities were of
a high order. Well satisfied that the Lord Jesus Christ had called him to the work of the ministry, he
felt it incumbent on him to continue in it, as his health and strength permitted, until death. He was
the first preacher that Mr. Asbury ordained deacon and elder, after he was set apart to the Episcopal
office; he was ordained in Virginia, soon after the Christmas Conference, as Mr. Asbury was
journeying to the South -- having been elected to these offices at the Conference, at which he was
not present. In confirming these orders, the bishop had a choice subject on which to commence the
laying on of hands; no preacher stood higher in Mr. Asbury's estimation than Henry Willis.
He accompanied Mr. Asbury to Charleston, S. C., and assisted in introducing Methodism into that
wicked place. Mr. Asbury left him in charge of a division of the work. He was regarded by the heads
of the Church as a great man of God, who was known and honored throughout the Methodist
connection. In 1790, his health having failed so far as to unfit him for the duties of a traveling
preacher, he came to Philadelphia, to go into business; but he did not remain many years in this city.
In 1791 he stands in the Minutes as stationed in charge of Philadelphia. The same in 1792. In 1798