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

Having received an invitation to preach in the Protestant Episcopal Church, which stood between
the present town of Smyrna and Duck Creek Village, as he was officiating having gone through with
a part of the morning service, still standing in the desk, he gave out his text; but before he finished
his introduction, three men marched into the church, in Indian file, and stood before the desk. The
foremost one said he was a vestryman, and ordered him out of the desk, and out of the church, or
would compel him to go out. As Mr. Ware did not obey his mandate, he seized him by the collar,
and dragged him from the desk. A doughty friend seized the persecutor in like manner, raising his
fist, ordered him to let the preacher go, or he would knock him down. Justice Raymond called out,
"Don't strike him, Mr. Skillington; and if he does not let the preacher alone, and cease disturbing the
congregation, I will commit him." By this time, he had loosened his hold of Mr. Ware, and he and
his companions retiring from the church, the preacher finished his discourse. This was an unpleasant
scene for a church. Mr. Raymond, who interposed his authority, if he was not a Methodist at this
time, became one soon after, and lived and died a worthy and useful member.
Soon as Mr. Pedicord heard that Mr. Ware had become a traveling preacher, he addressed the
following letter to him: --
"Dear Tommy, -- Brother Asbury made me glad, when he informed me you had consented to
come down to the Peninsula, in the character of a licentiate, to spend some time on Dover Circuit,
and then come to me. You have kept in faithful memory my earnest advice, to study deeply the
sacred pages, therein to learn the sum of good Heaven kindly, though conditionally, wills to man.
This you have done, and it has eventuated as I hoped; you have learned that He who claims all souls
as His, and wills them to be saved, does sometimes, from the common walks of life, choose men
who have learned of Him to be lowly in heart, and bids them go and invite the world to the great
supper. The Lord is, at this time, carrying on a great and glorious work, chiefly by young men like
yourself. O, come and share in the happy toil, and in the great reward! Mark me! though seven
winters have now passed over me, and much of the way dreary enough, yet God has been with me,
and kept me in the way I went, and often whispered, Thou art mine, and all I have is thine. He has,
moreover, given me sons, and daughters, too, born not of the flesh, but of God; and who can estimate
the joy I have in one destined, I hope, to fill my place in the itinerant ranks when I am gone! Who,
then, will say, that mine was not a happy lot? 'Tis well you have made haste; much more than I can
express, have I wished you in the ranks before mine eyes have closed in death, and on all below.
"It is true, in becoming an itinerant, you will have to sacrifice all means of acquiring property, all
domestic ease and happiness, and must be content with food and raiment. Nor are the hardships and
perils less appalling than those you have witnessed in our war for independence; for it is a fact
known to you already, in part, that the professing world, with the clergy at their head, are arrayed
against us. But thanks be to God, we know that Jesus died, and rose, and revived, that he might be
the Lord of the dead and living, and in receiving Christ by faith, we felt a courage commensurate
with that which animated the disciples, when Jesus spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth; go ye,' &c.
"It was to the whole bench of the apostles that the charge was given, so they understood it; hence,
they all became itinerants; why, then, is not the whole world evangelized? Are the clergy blameless
in this matter? So thought not Wesley; so thinks not Asbury, his coadjutor. The clergy have long