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

appeared to be as plain to me as if I were awake. I replied, Lord, I am willing to go in thy name; but
I am afraid a people of different nations and languages will not understand me. The answer to this
was -- 'Fear not, for I am with thee.' I awoke awfully impressed with the presence of God, and full
of divine love, and a relish of it remained upon my spirit for many days. When I came to Peel and
saw the ship and wharf, I said to Brother Rankin, 'This is the ship, the place, and the wharf which
I saw in my dream six years ago.' This confirmed me that my way was of God." On Good Friday he
left his native land; and as he crossed the Atlantic often sung --
And after he landed in America, he could sing --
"The watery deep I pass,
With Jesus in my view."
"And through the howling wilderness
My way pursue."
Having met a hospitable and loving people in Philadelphia, on his landing, he next went to
Trenton and spent a month in the Jerseys -- adding thirty-five to the societies -- a good beginning,
and an earnest of his success in the future. He is the first Methodist preacher that mentions Mount
Holly, and seems to have been the first that preached in it. While in Jersey, a friend took him one day
to see a hermit in the woods.
"After some difficulty we found his hermitage, which was a little place like a hog-sty, built of
several pieces of wood, covered with bark; his bed consisted of dry leaves. There was a narrow
beaten path, some thirty yards in length, by the side of it, where he walked to meditate. If any one
offered him food, he would take it; but if money was offered him, he would be very angry. When
anything was said to him which he did not like, he would break out in a great passion. He had lived
in this cell seven cold winters; and after all his prayers, counting his beads (which indicates the
church that he adhered to), and separating himself from mankind, still corrupt nature was alive, and
strong in him." [5]
In 1773, Mr. Benjamin Abbott commenced his eventful ministry, being, as he tells us, "Fully
convinced from the very hour that he found peace with God, that a dispensation of the gospel was
committed to him." He was, without doubt, a preacher of the Lord's making -- man had little, if
anything, to do with it. It does not appear that any preacher wrote a license for him; but, being moved
by the Holy Ghost, he began to warn his fellow creatures of their danger, and the fruit that followed
in the "Epistles written with the Spirit of the living God, known and read of all men," was his
certificate that the Lord of the vineyard had called him to work in it, and he was recognized by his
fellow laborers. In the beginning of Methodism, there were many preachers made in this summary
way.
Among those who are called to preach the gospel, there are few who unite the ornate and the
powerfully impressive style. Mr. Whitefield belonged to this class. There is another class who speak
with much eloquence, but are not very impressive. A third class have no claim to the ornate style,
but are, nevertheless, very powerfully impressive; to this class Mr. Abbott belonged, if he did not