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RECOLLECTIONS

ITINERANT LIFE: ,

INCLUDING EARLY REMINISCENCES.

REV. GEORGE BROWN, D. D.,

OF THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH.

"not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of totje joy:

FOR BY faith YE STAND."— 2 Corinthians, i: 21.

FOURTH EDITION.

CINCINNATI:
R. W. CARROLL & CO., PUBLISHERS,

No. 117 West Fourth StbBBT.
SPRINGFIELD: MKTH. PROT. PUBLISHING HOUSE.

1868.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S66, by

Rev. GEORGE BROWN, D. D.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Cuurf of the United States for the Southern

District of Ohio.

DEDICATION.

TO THE

Ministers anb iflemtars of % £ftctbobist |)rotcst<ntt Cbnrtfj,

AND TIIK FRIENDS OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY IN ALL DENOMINATIONS,

THIS WORK, ENTITLED "RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT

LIFE, INCLUDING EARLY REMINISCENCES,"

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY

DEDICATED,

The Author.

Bpbisgfield, Ohio, February 5, 1S66.

INTRODUCTION

BY REV. JOHN SCOTT, D.D.,

Editor Western Methodist Protestant.

"Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach
•wisdom." The experience of the past, when duly considered,
is well calculated to cast light on the present and direct us in
the future. Abstract principles are intangible, and it is only
o when they receive a practical exemplification that their nature
and importance are clearly demonstrated. While we look to
m the future as a theater of action, we must look to the past
for an illustration of the power and influence of those princi-
ples which direct and control action. These principles may
be considered in the light of our own experience, and also as
M illustrated in the experience of others; and the more extensive
m and varied the experience, the more complete and important is
™ the illustration it affords. It is this that gives value to his-
tory, and particularly to biography, which is the history of
individual life and character. This species of history is valu-
. able in proportion as it presents correctly and fully the princi-
O pies and motives which, under certain circumstances, influenced
P) and controlled individual action. But while the biographer
may be able to trace clearly the actions of an individual, he
j i- often unable to determine with certainty the motives by
which those actions were prompted; and actions, considered
without reference to the motives from which they spring, may
very easily produce an entire misapprehension of an individual's
character. In autobiography, however, this difficulty does not

(v)

VI INTRODUCTION.

exist. The motive and the action are alike known to the
author, and both may be clearly presented in their mutual re-
lation to each other. This enables us to form a correct theory
of an individual's life and character, and to derive instruction
from his example. The present volume is of the latter class,
and we shall detain the reader but a short time from its perusal
by a brief notice of the Author and his Work.

Doctor Brown, the recollections of whose itinerant life are
contained in this volume, belongs to a past generation, and
lingers among us for a short time as a worthy representative
of a noble class of men whose memories will be ever green,
and the recollection of whose Christian virtues and faithful
labors shall be imperishable in the Church. As a man, he is
eminent for his strength of intellect, his great social power,
his earnestness of purpose, and his unswerving adherence to
principle. Quick in perception and clear in judgment, he
readily grasps whatever subject he investigates. Although
possessing a strong relish for abstract metaphysical questions,
he has the peculiar talent of presenting, in a clear and simple
form, the results of his most profound investigations. His
social qualities are also of a high order. With a heart over-
flowing with kindness, and a memory well stored with inter-
esting and varied reminiscences of the past, his social inter-
course possesses a peculiar charm, rendering his society both
attractive and instructive. In the performance of the labors
of life, he has always manifested great earnestness of purpose.
Impressed with the true nature of his duties, he has bent all
his energies faithfully to discharge them. Regarding life as a
reality, he has never trifled with his life-work, but, with the
earnestness produced by an abiding conviction of its impor-
tance, has devoted himself with energy to its performance.
Integrity and adherence to principle have always been promi-
nent traits in his character, and, sooner than renounce these,
he has manifested a willingness, in the privations and sacrifices
of personal comfort which he has endured, to sacrifice every
thing else. Rather than abandon his convictions for the sake
of prominence and place, he has often exposed himself to op-

INTRODUCTION. VU

position and reproach. Preeminently a man of peace, sooner
than renounce his principles, he has engaged in discussions,
•which, for a time at least, resulted in the alienation and sac-
rifice of cherished friends. Principle and duty with him,
throughout life, have always been paramount to every other
consideration. — His strength of intellect, his warmth of sym-
pathy, his earnestness of purpose, and his integrity of prin-
ciple, united with ardent piety, constitute a character, partially
exhibited in the present volume, alike worthy of our study and
imitation.

Eminence in any department of life, whatever a man's nat-
ural abilities and moral excellencies may be, depends, to a
great extent, upon his own industry and application. These
are necessary to develop and strengthen his powers, discipline
his thoughts, and enable him to use with facility the knowl-
edge he acquires. Doctor Brown has been a life-long student,
patient and diligent in the acquirement of knowledge. Preem-
inently a student of the Bible, he has not been indifferent to
other branches of learning, but has acquired an extensive
knowledge of books, and is familiar, especially, with the older
authors, in almost every department of philosophical thought.
Not satisfied w T ith superficial inquiries, his investigations have
been deep 'and thorough, enabling him to master the subjects
which have engaged his attention. Although now in the seventy-
fifth year of his age, his former habits of study have not been
abandoned, but most, of his time is devoted to his books, and
he still delights in the investigation of the most profound sub
jects connected with Christian theology. In this he presents,
especially to yoting men in the ministry, an example every way
worthy of imitation.

With such natural endowments, and such habits of studious
application, it is not surprising that Doctor Brown should
occupy a prominent position as a Christian minister. As a
preacher, in his day he had not many equals, and few if any
Superiors. Deeply skilled in the word of God, he brought out
of his treasury things "both new and old." Although always
chaste, he preferred strength to beauty of style, and sought to

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

enlighten the judgment and arouse the conscience rather than
please the fancy. Clear in exposition, forcible in argument,
apt in illustration, and powerful in appeal, his preaching was
often accompanied by a* divine energy to the hearts of the
people. We have seen vast assemblies spell-bound by his
thrilling utterances, or swaying, like the forest in the breeze,
beneath the power of truth as it fell, with burning fervor, from
his lips. In the days of his prime, he towered in the pulpit
like a giant in his strength, and wielded the sword of the Spirit
with a dexterity and power seldom surpassed. Hundreds are
now living, many of whom are ministers of the Gospel, who
were converted through his instrumentality, and thousands no
doubt have gone to their final rest who were saved through
his faithful labors, and who will "shine as stars in the crown
of his rejoicing forever."

As an executive, whether as the Superintendent of a circuit
or the President of a conference or a college, Doctor Brown was
always gentle, but firm. Possessing a kind and merciful spirit,
he sought to reclaim the erring by Christian counsel, admoni-
tion, and reproof; and not until he had exhausted, without suc-
cess, every effort in the spirit of kindness and love to reclaim
them was he willing to resort to the exercise of discipline
and punish the guilty. But when all other means failed, and
it became necessary, he shrunk not from the performance of
his duty, but, with a firm and impartial hand, administered
justice to the transgressor. Under such circumstances punish-
ment was rendered doubly severe, because it was felt to be not
the result of personal enmity, but of necessity; for no man ever
felt that in Doctor Brown he had an enemy.

Like all noble and generous minds, he always sympathized
with the weak and oppressed. Although often straightened in
his own circumstances, he never turned a deaf ear to the voice
of the needy, but often, beyond his ability, contributed to the
supply of their "wants. His benevolent heart, in its yearnings
of sympathy, went out after the poor, whom the Saviour declares
we shall always have with us.

His sun is now fast declining, and will soon set in beauty.

INTRODUCTION. IX

His graces, like the ripened fruit trembling on the bough ready
to be gathered, have attained a mellow richness, giving to his
character more than an earthly charm. Cheerful and happy,
with resignation and hope he waits the coming of the Master
to call him to -his reward.

The present volume, containing the recollections of such a
man, dating back to the commencement of this century, and
coming down to the present time, connected, as they are, with
great social and religious changes and important ecclesiastical
reforms, in which the Author bore a prominent part, can not
fail, we think, to interest and instruct the reader. Many thrill-
ing incidents connected with pioneer life and early itinerant
labor are here recorded. Human nature is presented in many
of its phases, and numerous anecdotes illustrative of peculiar
manners and traits of individual character are related. The
important principles of 'Mutual Rights and Ecclesiastical Liberty,
which the author has labored so zealously for years to promote,
are with propriety considered, and the causes which led to
the organization of the Methodist Protestant Church, of
which he was one of the founders, and with which he has been
so long identified, are presented, and the reasons justifying such
an organization are clearly set forth. The volume will also be
found to contain much that is calculated to edify the Church,
and especially to instruct her young and rising ministry.

In order to preserve the truth of history, and also to vindi-
cate his own character, the Author, in a few instances, has been
under the necessity of presenting others in an unenviable light;
but having stated the facts and vindicated himself, in the true
spirit of Christian charity, he becomes their apologist, and in-
id of referring their conduct to moral obliquity of purpose,
ascribes it rather to the weakness of human nature.

The volume, as its title imports, is composed principally of
recollections, aided in part l>y written and printed documents.
It may appear singular to some how the Author, after the lapse
of so many years, could relate with such precision so many im-
portanl incidents, giving names, dates, and localities, and even
the particulars of Dumerous conversations. This serves to ex-

X INTRODUCTION.

hibit some of the peculiar traits of his character. Endowed
with a memory of uncommon tenacity, which, like all his other
mental faculties, retains its vigor unimpaired, he has treasured
up all the important facts and incidents of his life, and has the
ability to call them forth at pleasure. This faculty has been
cultivated and strengthened by the habit, in which he has in-
dulged for many years, of enlivening the hours of social inter-
course with intimate friends by the relation of important facts
connected with his former history. By this means they have
not been permitted to fade from his memory, but, according to
a law of our mental constitution, by frequent repetitions have
been indelibly impressed upon his mind. During the last thirty
years, it has been our privilege to hear him relate, at different
times, most of the facts and incidents contained in this volume.
It is a source of real satisfaction to his numerous friends, that
these recollections are now given to the public in such a form
that all may enjoy the pleasure which has heretofore been re-
stricted to a few, and possess a valuable memento of one on
whom the Church has bestowed its highest honors.

We shall not further detain the reader from the perusal of
the work itself, which we know can not fail to amuse and in-
struct him. Rich in facts, abounding in wise counsels, and en-
livened by incidents of special interest, it requires only to be
read to be appreciated.

Springfield, 0., January 31, 1866.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Writing from Memory and Recollection — Diary Lost — Why I have
Written— Place of Birth— The Mad-Dog and Cow— Whisky In-
surrection — Narrow Escape from Drowning — Crossing the Ohio
River at the Tail of an Ox — The Brown Family— From 1797 to 1800
go to School — The Site of Steubenville — Western Civilization —
Fighting — Rev. R. Dobbins 17

CHAPTER II.

Removal to Ohio, then a Territory — Captain John Henlick and his Two
Wives — The Game and the Snakes — Difficulties Connected with Bor-
der Life — Methodist Preachers make their Appearance — The Wolf-
hunt — A Large Farm Cleared Out in Five Years — Border Settlers
make their own Clothing from the Raw Material — No Schools for
Ten Years — Early Religious Impressions — Cowardice in Religious
Matters — Evil Effects of Wicked Associations 24

CHAPTER III.

Learn the Fulling Trade — Trip to Canton — Go to School in Virginia
Death of My Father by Drowning — Commence Teaching School—
r the Army in 1812— The Wild Horse— Johnson's Island— Gen-
eral Harrison — Winchester's Defeat — Volunteer to help away the
Wounded — The Retreat — Camp Inundated — Fort Meigs — Honorably
ha rged — Start for Home — Difficulties of Travel — Failure of Pro-
visions — My Religious Condition ... 43

CHAPTER IV.

Tritp imon — Had to Decide Between my Two Brothers — T

tp-Meeting and the Giants of Methodism — My Conversion and

Happiness — Robert Fisher— The Prayer-Meeting and the Cross —

burcb — Gilbert Middl ton, Class-Leader — His Faithful-

— Members of his Class — The Class of Young Men who held

Prayer-Meetings — Commenced Preaching while on Probation — My

(xi)

XU CONTEXTS.

PAGB

Studies — The Baltimore Local Preachers — An Effort to Repair an
Injury to my Brother — Studies Continued in my Brother's Tan-
Yard — A Soldier Again, in Defense of Baltimore against the Brit-
ish — A Soldier Condemned to be Shot — Reflections on that Thrilling
Scene — First Love-Feast I attended in Baltimore — Licensed to
Preach in 1814 , 59

CHAPTER V.

y first Itinerant Sermon — The Negroes Sleeping in Meeting — My De-
sign in going on Anne Arundel Circuit — Jackson's Victory — Peace
Restored — The General Joy — Not being Recommended to Confer-
ence, I Return to "Work and Study — Was Immediately Called to
Prince George's Circuit — The Horse— The Money — My Colleagues —
The Circuit — The Bilious Fever and its Cause — Kind Friends who
Cared for me in my Afflictions — Chambersburg Circuit — My Col-
leagues — My Presiding Elder — Carlisle Circuit — My Colleague —
Much Opposition — Success in Gettysburg — The Infidel Converted —
A Marriage Extraordinary — Stafford Circuit — My Assistant — The
Various Sects — The Camp-Meeting — How Methodists at that day
Regarded Slavery '. 75

CHAPTER VI.

Washington Station — Difficulty about the Choir — Revival of Religion —
Study of Greek and Hebrew — Rev. Matthew Brown, D. D. — Wheel-
ing and Short Creek — Noah Zane — Methodism and Calvinism — Lay
Delegation — Dr. David Stanton — Washington Station Again — My
Marriage — Ohio Circuit — Old Bachelors — Insufficient Support 95

CHAPTER VII.

Conference in Baltimore — Appointed Presiding Elder of Monongahela
District — Effort to Change the Manner of Appointing Presiding
Elders — Bishop McKendree's Vindication of his Course in the Pre-
ceding General Conference — Removal to Washington — My First
Quarterly Conference — Trip to Ohio with Bishop McKendree — The
Bishop's Views on Church Polity — My Views — Conference in Win-
chester, Virginia — Conference in Baltimore — Formation of Pitts-
burgh Conference — Failure in Health — Recovery — The New Lights
— The Baptists — Camp-Meetings — My First Public Connection with
the Reform Movement — The Mutual Rights — Bishop George 112

CHAPTER VIII.

Conference in Washington, Pennsylvania — Reform Movement — Bishop
Hedding's Address against Reform — Reasons for Replying — D. W.

CONTENTS. X1U

PAGE

Clark, D. D. — Friendly Relations Existing between Bishop Hedding
and Myself — Timothy's Address to the Junior Bishop — Convention
of Bishops in Baltimore — Bishop Hedding's Note to the Chairman
of the Editorial Committee Demanding Timothy's Real Name — My
Reply, Surrendering my Name — Rev. H. B. Bascom's Testimony a3
to the Truthfulness of Timothy's Address — Similar Testimony from
Rev. John Waterman, Rev. Asa Shinn, Thomas Morgan, Esq., Rev.
Joshua Monroe, Rev. T. M. Hudson — Reasons for Present Self-
Defense 129

CHAPTER IX.

Letter from Bishop George — His Conciliatory Efforts — Concessions to
the Pittsburgh Conference — Passage of my Character — Private In-
terview between Bishop George, H. B. Bascom, A. Shinn, and My-
self — Letter Published in the Mutual Rights, signed " Plain Deal-
ing " — The General Conference of 1828 — Mr. Shinn's Eloquent
Speech in Favor of the Restoration of D. B. Dorsey and W. C. Pool —
Bishop Hedding and Myself before the Committee on Episcopacy —
Decision of the Committee — My Defense 158

CHAPTER X.

A Church Trial in Steubenville in 1827 — A Lady Preacher — Conference
in Mercer County — New Lisbon Circuit — Determination to leave the
Church — Reasons for so Doing — Invitation to go to Pittsburgh — Ac-
ceptance — Letter to my Presiding Elder 180

CHAPTER XI.

Church Property — Plan to Crush Reform in Pittsburgh — Effort to Ob-
tain Possession of Smithfield Street Church — Decision of Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania in favor of Reformers — Effort to bring Fe-
male Influence to bear Against Reform — First Reform Conference —
Amusing Objection to Moral Character — Convention in Baltimore —
True Piety of Ministers and Members of Methodist Episcopal
Church — Contemptuous Treatment from Old Friends 203

CHAPTER XII.

Church Failures in Wheeling — My First Year in the Presidency — Re-
elected President — '1 ; rm Methodists — Discussion on Church
Government — A Forgetful Preacher — I.e.-tures on Church Govern-
ment — Elected President the Third Time — First General Confer-
ence — Presidential Tour through the West 228

XIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIII.

PAGH

Removal to Cincinnati — An Opinion on Ecclesiastical Law — Second
Year in Cincinnati — General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church — Anecdote of Rev. N. Snethen and Rev. W. Burke — Elec-
tion of Bishop Morris — Transfer to the Pittsburgh Conference 255

CHAPTER XIV.

Transferred to the Pittsburgh Conference — Removal to Alleghany —
Remarkable Dream — Lorenzo Dow and General Jackson — An Arbi-
trary Sexton — Second General Conference — Debate on Slavery — Lib-
erty of the Press — Meeting of Pittsburgh Conference — Removal to
Holliday's Cove, Virginia 267

CHAPTER XV.

Conference in New Lisbon, Ohio — Elected President — Removal to
Steubenville — Conference in Pittsburgh — Appointed to Pittsburgh —
The Use of Tobacco — Conference in Alleghany — Reappointed to
Pittsburgh, with Rev. J. Cowl as Assistant — Annual Conference Ac-
tion on the Slavery Question 2S1

CHAPTER XVI.

Division of Pittsburgh Conference — Elected President — Exercise of
Church Discipline — Removal to Steubenville — Tour in Western Vir-
ginia^ — Conference in Pittsburgh — Re-elected President — Discussion
on Phrenology — Lumbermen at Goose Creek — Adventures in the
Mountains — Conference at Fairmont — Third Year in the Presidency. 291

CHAPTER XVII.

Appointed Conference Missionary — General Conference in Cincinnati —
A Quarterly Meeting among the Colored People — Pittsburgh Con-
ference held in Alleghany — Elected President — Public Discussions
on Church Government with Methodist Episcopal Ministers — Con-
ference at Waynesburgh, Pennsylvania — Re-elected President —
A Sketch of Border Life in "Western Virginia 316

CHAPTER XVIII.

Removal to Connellsville, Pennsylvania — A Revival of Religion —
Modes of Baptism — Camp-Meeting — General Conference — Madison
College — Family Afflictions 333

CHAPTER XIX.

Conference in Uniontown, Pennsylvania — Removal to Manchester Cir-
cuit, in Virginia — Elected President — Elected President of the Board

CONTENTS. XV

PAGH

of Trustees of Madison College — Tour through West Virginia — Re-
elected President of Pittsburgh Conference — Removal to Uniontown,
Pennsylvania — Funeral of Rev. Asa Shinn — Resignation of the
President of Madison College — Elected President pro tern, of Col-
lege — Return to the Labors of the District 346

CHAPTER XX.

Rev. Francis "Waters, D. D., President of Madison College — His Resig-
nation — Rev. S. K. Cox, President — Pecuniary Embarrassments in
College Affairs — General Conference of 1854 — The Entering-wedge
of Church Division — Cholera during the Session of the Pittsburgh
Annual Conference in Alleghany — Visit as Fraternal Messenger to
the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at
Blairsville, Pennsylvania — Serious Trouble at the College — Expul-
sion of a Student — Reconsideration of the Sentence Urged — Threat
of the Faculty to Resign unless Sustained by Board of Trustees —
Faculty Sustained — Visit to Cincinnati — Military Discipline — Pro-
phetic Opinion on Political Matters Expressed by Ex-Governor
Branch, of North Carolina — Secession of Faculty and Founding of
an Institution at Lynchburg — Election to the Presidency of Madi-
son College 361

CHAPTER XXI.

A New Faculty — Pecuniary Condition of the College — Traveling on
College Business — Tour through Old Virginia — Visit to Lynchburg —
A Southerner's View of Slave-trading — College Commencement —
Change in the Faculty — College Closes 388

CHAPTER XXII.

Delegates Elected by Pittsburgh Conference to the Convention at
Springfield, Ohio — Missionary Work and Farming Operations —
Meeting of Committees on the Union of the Wcsleyan and Methodist
Protestant Churches — Compilation of a Hymn-book — Visit of Fra-
ternal Messengers from the Methodist Episcopal Church to the
Pittsburgh Conference — Visit as Fraternal Messenger to the Pitts-
burgh Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Blairsville,
Pennsylvania — Removal to Vicinity of McKeesport, Pennsylvania —
Elected Editor of Western Methodist Protestant — Removal to
Springfield, Mho— Death of both My Sons— Views and Wishes on
Ecclesiastical Matters 399

An Address to the Ministers and Members of the Methodist Frot-
ksta.vt Church 415

getollcttfrms of Itinerant Safe.

CHAPTER I.

Writing from Memory and Recollection— Diary Lost— Wht I have Written— Re-
form Controversy— Place of Birth— The Mad-Dog and Cow— Whisky Insurrec-
tion—Narrow Escape from Drowning— Crossing the Ohio River at the Tail of
an Ox— The Brown Family— From 1797 to 1S0O go to School— The Site of Steu-
benville— Western Civilization— Fighting — Bet. R. Dobbins.

It is now proposed to commit to writing some recollections
of past life, and of the times which God hath permitted, or
caused, to pass over me. In doing this, I must depend mainly
on memory and recollection. Memory has retained many things
with a tenacious grasp; others come up to view hy mental effort
and the laws of association: these are properly recollections.
The events which have so far faded away from my mind, as to be
beyond all my efforts to fully regain by recollection, will be re-
garded as irrecoverably gone; of them nothing will be written.
In 1848, my diary, with all that I had written, including many
letters, documents on the Reform Controversy, and some ser-
mons, was entirely lost in Steubenville, Ohio. At the time of
a removal, when I w.i- from home, the box containing them
whs, by mistake, thrown into the cellar and there they lay until
the exuding glue attached all my papers together in one insepa-
rable mass — all were lost. After that I wrote but little more,
bcin^r discouraged by the loss F had sustained.

Why shall I not write v, li.it I remember and can recollect of

p ' Life? It will do me g 1 in many ways; it will give me

employment in my old age, and thereby pr imote mj happiness.
2 (25)

26 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

A careful and honest review of past life, I am confident, will
deeply humble my soul, under a sense of my numerous imper-
fections and short-comings before the Lord. At the same time
it will call up to my mind and heart the goodness and mercies
of God, which have followed me all the days of my life, and
thereby increase my gratitude to the Griver of all good. My
children claim it of me to give them some account of what I
have been doing these many years past. Many in the Church
make the same claim, and all have a right to be gratified.

Having stood connected, as an active laborer, with the con-
troversy in the Methodist Episcopal Church, which resulted in
the expulsion of many of the leading friends of reform, the
withdrawal of others, and the ultimate organization of the
Methodist Protestant Church, I shall deem it my duty, as I
pass along, to notice and correct certain historical and bio-
graphical errors into which some writers have fallen, who were
opposed to lay delegation in those days. These friends of min-
isterial supremacy have nearly all passed away ; for this reason
I shall strive to deal in all possible candor with their charac-
ters, opinions, and statements. Yet the truth will have to be
told, on the living and on the dead; and when this is done
without bitterness, with fairness and Christian candor, no man
on earth will have a right to complain.

If right had taken place, I should have been born in Brooke
County, Virginia, on the bank of the Ohio River, about oppo-
site the middle of Brown's Island. But all the border settle-
ments were then involved in the horrors of Indian warfare, and
our family, with other border families, had fled before an irrup-
tion made by the savages on the frontier settlements, to a place
of safety, just over the line, in Washington County, Pennsyl-
vania. In that place I was born, on the 29th of January, 1792.
I recollect nothing of that fort, place of safety, or whatever it
was called. In a short time my father and mother, Hugh and
Ruth Brown, with their family, returned to their homes on the
bank of the river; and among the beauties and grandeurs of
nature in that romantic place are located my first recollections
of things in this transitory life. Behind our log-cabin home
rose the wood-covered and far-stretching hills, overlooking our

THE MAD-DOG AND COW. 27

humble habitation. In front of us ran the beautiful Ohio, on
whose shores I delighted to play; and a little further in front
the eye rested on Brown's Island, three miles long, covered
with heavy timber, mostly sugar-trees. In the river there was
fish, and in the forest game in abundance. A part of the island
was cleared and under cultivation. My father and my uncle,
Colonel Richard Brown, raised their bread there ; and on that
island, and about our rural home on the bank of the river,
memory still loves to cling. Many things in that place made
too deep an impression on my mind ever to be forgotten. I
will name a few of them.

Memory goes back still with abiding gratitude to God, for
preserving me, when quite a child, from destruction by a mad-
dog. My father and brothers rose early one morning, let the
cow into the yard to the calf, and then went to the island to
work. I was out, looking at the calf, when a mad-dog, re-

nliling in size and color our own trusty dug. sprang past me
and seized the cow. She fought furiously for her calf. I was
either knocked down in the fight, or fell down, and the cow
stood .right over me, as though she fought for me as well as
her calf. My mother came running, with a long pole, to beat
off" the dog and get me away, but failed, until our dog came
running from the hill and seized the mad-dog. The cow, being
relieved, left her position over me, and my mother took me into
the house, all covered with slaver from the cow or the dog,

baps from both; and my hack showed many a scratch from
the nails of the dog. Immediately, my brothers, and all the
young men of the neighborhood, were out with their guns, in
pursuit iif the rabid animal, but did not find him. But toward
noon In returned; my father ami my uncle, each with a band-
Bpike, standing one mi each Bide of the mad along which he
came, smote bim down and killed him. lie bad destroyed

much property; Our cow. calf, and dog all went mad. ami had
t" !>!■ killed. I remember well seeing my brother Arthur shoot
our cow; she fell mi the Blope of the hank, ami rolled over and
r into the river, which was then very bigh, ami awaj she
went. In thi- dreadful hazard of lili\ bow mercifully did <!<.d
preserve me! At that time I was aboifl two years and a half

28 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

old; but, young as I was, the hazard of ray life by the mad-
dog made too deep au impression upon my mind ever to be
forgotten.

I remember, too, the closing up of the Whisky Insurrec-
tion in Western Pennsylvania. One day an insurgent, by the
name of Sutherland, came running through our yard, with all
his might, and to the river he went, stole our canoe, and started
down stream to avoid his pursuers. A sbort time afterward,
while I was at play in the yard, a man rode up in military
garb, hitched his horse at the gate, and, as he entered the
yard, my mother screamed out, and running to him, threw her
arms around his neck and kissed him. I felt scared, and won-
dered what big ugly man that was kissing my mother. It
turned out to be my brother Edward, from Maryland, who had
remained behind when my parents moved to the West, and
whom I had never seen before. He was a soldier in the Whisky
Boy expedition to Western Pennsylvania, and had now come
to pay us a visit, before his return home to Maryland.

When about five years of age, I came very near being
drowned in the Ohio River. I was a venturesome boy. I
went to the river alone, got into the canoe, and went to the
stern, which lay square off from the shore, over deep water,
which at that time was both clear and still. I got up near
the stern, with one foot on each side, and commenced rocking
the craft, to see the waves roll, as I had seen others do. For
some time I got on with my fun pretty well, but a slip of one
foot threw me into the river, and I went to the bottom. That
moment I realized my perilous condition, and, opening my eyes,
I found I could see the shadow of the canoe on the bottom ;
so, instantly, on hands and feet, along the black mark, with all
my might I made for the shore. When I had to take breath,
I rose to my feet, and found that my head was out of the water.
This narrow escape never was known to my parents, who often
warned me about the dangers..pf the river.

When about six years of age, being on the island one very
warm day in the month of June, toward the middle of the aft-
ernoon I felt a strong desire to cross the river and go home to
my mother. So, I went down to the canoe and Waited awhile ;

THE BROWN FAMILY. 29

but no one came to go over, nor did any one come to my Uncle
Richard's canoe. After awhile, the cattle came down to drink. I
had often seen them swim across that stream ; so a new thought
came into my mind, and I drove them into the river, which was
full from bank to bank, it being the time of the June rise, and,
as they went in, I took old Bright, our off-side ox, by the tail,
and he, being a little wild, felt somewhat frightened, went in with
a plunge, and over we went, I holding on to the tail. When we
got over I let go the tail, and Bright ran up the bank ; then,
turning round, he looked at me and blowed, like an animal terri-
bly scared. What next was to be done? To go home all wet
would not do. My mother would find out how I had crossed the
river, and deal with me as I deserved, for my adventurous and
rash conduct. To escape punishment, and meet the case as well
! could, my clothes were taken oil* and wrung; then hung on
the fence in the hot afternoon sun to dry. Meantime I, being
naked, hid in the bushes. About sundown they all came over,
and as they came, my clothes were put on, and I waited among
tli. bushes until all had gone past, then followed in the rear to
the house, no one appearing to notice but what I had been
with them .ill the time. To the day of their death my parents
never knew any thing of this rash adventure.

I will here give some account of the Brown family. My
ndfather, George Brown, was from England. He was about
five lift and one inch in height, strongly built, and of great.
Btrength. My grandmother was a Stevenson. They settled at
Pipe Creek. Maryland, and had fourteen children, eight sons
and six daughters. My father, Eugh Brown, was the young-
bu1 one of the fourteen. Nearly all of them raised large
families, thus connecting me with an extensive relationship,
now vastly multiplied throughout the land. My mother was a,
Barney, daughter of A.bsalom Barney, of Maryland, and. I
think, her progenitors were Prom Wales. On both sides of the
house, all the Church proclivities of my ancestors were toward
tin- English E tablishment. Bui when the Revolutionary War
sundered ("he American Colonies from the mother country,
Church of England attachments gave way. and my relations
arc now found among all Christian denominations in our coun-

80 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

try, the largest portion being among the Methodists. The
Browns, Stevensons, and Barneys entered largely into the Rev-
olutionary struggle; hut among them all, Joshua Barney, first
cousin to my mother, then quite young, was most distinguished.
He was afterward known in history as Commodore Barney,
and fought bravely in the war of 1812. My father and mother
belonged to the first class of Methodists ever formed in the
state of Maryland. It was organized by Robert Strowbridge, an
Irish local preacher. And when they came to the West, about
1789, they, so soon as practicable, connected themselves with the
Methodists, then few in number, and both remained in that com-
munion until God called them from labor to reward in heaven.
My parents had ten children, eight sons and two daughters,
nine of whom they raised. The tenth one perished in the
flames, when my father's house was burned, just before the fam-
ily came to the West. My father had sold his land and other
property; the money was all in the house, and was all destroyed.
Worst of all, my brother Barney, five years old, was burned
with the house, while my parents were paying a visit among
the neighbors, before their removal. So, then, they came to
the West very poor, which, upon the whole, may have been
for the best, as it led the whole family to laborious diligence
and economy to make a living; all of which is friendly to re-
ligion. Idleness and wealth generally corrupt the heart.
^ From 1797 to 1800 I went to school, and, it was said, made
good progress in such branches as were taught; but, in com-
parison with the present day, schools were then less than nothing
and vanity. About the year 1796, my mother took me over
the river, and, in my bare feet, I ran all over the ground where
Steubenville now stands, mostly then in heavy timber, a little
only being cleared near the fort, which stood, according to my
recollection, about where Dr. Beatty's female seminary now
stands. I heard the first sermon ever preached in Steuben-
ville; it was called the Christening Sermon, and was delivered
by Br. Joseph Doddridge, in the old log court-house, up
stairs. We went up rough stairs on the outside to the place
where the meeting was held. At that time there were but
three or four houses in the town, besides tbe aforesaid court-

REV. ROBERT DOBBINS. 31

house. In those days, there was not much done in court-
houses. The border settlers decided controversies, in many
instances, as in all new countries, by a trial of manhood. He
who could "lick" his neighbor with whom he had a dispute,
generally carried his cause. Civilization and religion have
measurably changed all this. Blessed be God for civilization
and religion! What wonders they have wrought! They can
yet do more, if human passion will allow them. But in that
half-civilized state there was a great deal of fighting. Men
fought for mere trifles; so did boys; and in many companies
could be heard more talk about fighting, and who was the
stoutest man in that community, and what boy, in a short
time, would be able to "lick" all the boys in the neighbor-
hood, than could be heard about the crops, the government of
the country, or the Christian religion. Still there were thought-
ful men and women, who read the Scriptures, prayed to God,
attended Divine worship whenever practicable, and strove to
bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord. Among these were my beloved parents, Hugh and Ruth
Brown, whose memory has always been dear to me. Thou-
sands of times have I reproached myself for slighting their
counsel in the days of my youth. They would have led me to
Christ, but from Christ I ran away. Such is youthful folly!

In my boyhood it was considered a great matter to be a good

swimmer. I could swim the Ohio River equal to any Indian,

before I was eight years of age. This was great sport; so

were shooting, hunting, fishing, and all kinds of athletic exer-

. by which the human constitution is invigorated.

While we yet lived at the river, in Virginia, Rev. Robert
Dobbins established prc-irdi in^ at the house of my uncle, Col-
onel Richard Brown. He was called the great Methodist
preacher. The border settlers generally turned out to hear
him. Much religious interest was waked up, and he certainly
would have done good, had he continued his labors. Alter a
long and useful career in the Methodisl Episcopal Church,
and then in the Methodist Protestant Church, he died, a lew
years ago, in greal peace, a member of the Ohio Conference of
the latter denomination.

32 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTER II.

Removal to Ohio, then a Territory— Captain John Henltck and his Two Wives—
The Game and the Snakes— Difficulties Connected with Border IiIfe— Meth-
odist Preachers make their Appearance — The Wolf-hunt — A Large Farm
Cleared Out in Five Years— Border Settlers make their own Clothing from
the Raw Material— No Schools for Ten Years— Early Religious Impressions-
Cowardice in Religious Matters— Evil Effects of Wicked Associations.

In 1800, my father, with his family, moved to Ohio, then a
territory, and built his cabin on a branch of Cross Creek called
Cedar-Lick Run, in JerFerson County, on Congress land, intending
to enter it when the land was surveyed and brought into market.
But here there was a failure, for another man came in before
him, entered the land, and got all the improvements made in
two or three years. It may be we lost nothing by it, as my
father bought better land higher up Cross Creek, where we
again settled in the woods, opened out a large farm, and lived
in the midst of plenty — at least at that time we thought so.
But the plenty of that day would not do the people now.

In my boyhood I had an instinctive horror of Indians. Their
barbarities to - the whites, as related by every body, had been
very great. To utter the word Indian would always frighten
children; and it so happened that our first cabin was included
in their hunting-grounds. Our cabin had but one door; oppo-
site to this was a window, and then another window near the
fireplace. One day, as I was employed under the window op-
posite the door, and my father sat mending his shoes by the
other window, I heard a footstep, and turned to look. 0, hor-
rible ! there stood within the door a very large Indian, and two
squaws just behind him ! Every nerve in me quaked ; my very
blood thrilled at the sight. He had his rifle, tomahawk, and
scalping-knife, and was just raising his hand, and opening his
mouth to give his whoop ; and he did give it, in about the fol-

THE GAME AND THE SNAKES. 83

lowing style: "Whoo! Great big man me, Captain John Hen-
lick! have two wife!'' and turned his hand back as if he meant
to introduce them. My father rose up ; knowing we had peace
with these red children of the forest, he came forward and
kindly shook each of them by the hand; my mother coming in,
did the same. Seeing all this, my fears were measurably re-
moved, but in me, after all, there was an instinctive dread. I
had heard too much about savage cruelties to believe we were
altogether safe with Indians in our cabin. They asked for
"milk and bread," and my mother supplied their wants. Afte^,
eating, the big Indian rose up and said, "Now me got enough;
how far down to Make-whisky?" — meaning a distillery, an
abominable sink of vice, away down Cross Creek, where, as he
Baid, ••Indian could make drunk come." Even savage barbarity
has been made more savage and furious by these distilleries,
that '-make drunk come." I then began to see Indians so fre-
quently that my fears wore away. Often did they lodge in our
cabin of nights, occupying the whole floor. Their little boys be-
came my playmates, and very interesting little fellows they were.
We used to swim, and fish, and play ball, and run races to-
gether; and I really came at last to love those little boys of
the woods, notwithstanding their fathers had been our terrible
enemies.

There was game all around us : deer, bear, turkeys, wolves,
wild-cats, and panthers, often coming in sight of our cabin, and
once in awhile an elk might be seen, with his high, branching
horn-. I heard an estimate made by John Hammond, an hon-
i -i Quaker, and a capital hunter, that, taking our cabin for a
center, within a circle of six miles around us, six hundred deer
had been killed in one hunting season, including autumn and
winter. As for snake- of all kinds, they were met with every-
where. In those days my two brothers, Nioodemus and Rich-
ard, helped my father in his farming operations; I was the
herdsman, and, morning and evening, brought home the cattle
from the woods. Often did T, in my excursions over the liills
and along the valleys, come in contact with snakes, and to be

ready I",- them I always carried a clubi One morning, in the
mouth of October, on a limestone knob, where they had come

84 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

out from under the shelving rocks to sun themselves, I killed
thirteen large rattlesnakes at one time. At another time I
found a den of them of several sorts — blacksnakes, rattlesnakes,
and copperheads — and killed nineteen. Many other encounters
had I, in my boyhood, with snakes. Once I was bitten by a
copperhead, a mean, sly, venomous serpent, and it nearly cost
me my life. Never, since that time, have I owed any good-
will to copperheads — especially just now, (August 14, 1863,)
as a copperhead is made the symbol of a Northern sympathizer
with the great slaveholding rebellion in the South, as full of
the horrible poison of treason to our beloved country as the
old serpent, the devil, was to the government of God. All the
copperheads, North and South, must be put down ; both the
symbol and the meaner thing symbolized must be forever
crushed.

While I was suffering almost unto death from the bite of the
copperhead above referred to, the neighbors came in to see me.
Every one had his cure, and every cure was tried, but nothing
did me any good; the thing run its course, spent its rage, and
ultimately health returned. During my illness I thought much
upon the Indian's cure — namely, to apply the lips immediately
after the bite, and suck out the poison before it went into the
circulation. But to this I had some objections: the poison
might get into defective teeth, or some of it find its way into
the stomach. It occurred to me that to squeeze it out with
the thumbs and fingers would be equally effectual, and moi'e
safe ; so I resolved to try this method of cure, if I ever had a
chance. A few years afterward, in a harvest-field, where there
were eight reapers, I, being a half-hand, was behind ; William
Grutshall, a German, was next before me; and as we went on, I
saw a terrible rattlesnake bite William just under the ankle-
bone. He leaped, screamed like a panther, and jerked the snake
after him. I called to the reapers to kill it, and got William
instantly to throw himself on his back, and hold up his foot to
me. I applied my thumbs and fingers strongly to the wound,
and forced out the poison mixed with blood, green and hor-
rible. It was then one hour until dinner; we all waited during
that hour to see the result. The swelling was not larger than

REMEDY FOR SNAKE-BITES. 35

would have been made by the sting of a wasp. We then went
to dinner, and William came out with us in the afternoon, and
labored on as if nothing had happened. This gave me great
confidence in this new remedy for snake-bites — a remedy which
proud science never thought of, but which I know to be of
sovereign efficacy.

About two years after this, my brother Richard and I went
into the woods to gather service-berries, which were at that
time very plenty. A small tree, richly laden with fruit, was cut
down ; the berries, being very ripe, were all shaken off by the
jar of the fall, and covered the ground. While Richard was
in among the branches and weeds, gathering up the fruit, a
snake bit him on the hand ; he withdrew it, saying, " What is
that?'' He then put back his hand to about the same place,
and was bitten again : that time we both saw the snake ; it was
B i •"],], erhead, and it ran. I told him to let it run, we had no
time to lose in killing it, and to hold his hand to me. The
w<>unds were within an inch of each other, on the back of his
band; and, by the vigorous application of my thumbs and
fingers, the poison, from both the orifices, was forced out,
bloody and green, and did him no harm; no swelling followed
larger than would have been made by the sting of a bee. A
short time after this — I think the same summer — Richard went
to the stubble-field, to bring in the horses to plow, and was
bitten by a rattlesnake, a very large one, on the foot. With-
out waiting to kill the snake, he instantly applied his thumbs
and fingers and forced out the poison; the swelling was not
much more than perceptible, and did not hinder him from
plowing tli.it day. Here, I think, is proof positive that a bite
from the most venomous serpent may be cured, if taken in time,
I . a proper application of thumbs and fingers. I leave this
upon record for the benefit of all who may come after me. In-
deed, I published it many years ago, and now publish it again
in a more permanent form, to keep it from being forgotten by
my fellow-citiz<ns.

In this new country of snakes ami game, we, at that early
time, labored under many inconveniences and disadvantages.
There was little money to be seen; neighbors were few and far

36 RECOLLECTIONS OE ITINERANT LIFE.

between ; no schools for several years ; it was a considerable dis-
tance to a blacksmith-shop, a store, or a mill ; each made his
own shoes; the women spun the yarn, wove the cloth, linen or
linsey, and made all the clothing worn by their families. But,
in addition to the game in the woods, we had plenty of meat
of home growth, stock in abundance, and the earth yielded
enough and to spare, for man and beast. Among the many
mercies of God was this : the Gospel was preached to the poor.
The Methodist preachers kept pace with the new settlements.
Within two miles of us, at the house of Thomas Bolin, Rev.
John Cullison, the first regular circuit preacher I ever saw,
held forth the Word of Life to the people every four weeks.
He was a good man, a plain, scriptural preacher, full of faith
and the Holy Ghost, and wherever he went there was a revival
of religion; many. were added to the Church through his in-
strumentality. People went then a great distance to hear the
Gospel, meet in class, and attend prayer-meetings. To the Bolin
class my father and mother attached themselves ; and with
them, my two brothers and I, with my sister Mary, three years
younger than myself, in early life, generally went to hear the
Gospel every four weeks. It was a week-day appointment, yet
crowds attended. At last an excellent young preacher, by the
name of John Meek, came to help Mr. Cullison ; then we had
preaching every two weeks, and the whole country seemed to
be moved by the power of the Lord. About this time, too, the
Baptists and Presbyterians commenced operations among the
new settlers, and both denominations assailed the Methodists
on points of doctrine. The Methodists allowed of sprinkling,
pouring, or immersion, in baptism. The Baptists held to im-
mersion alone, and were close communionists. The Methodists
taught the doctrine of general redemption, holiness of heart
and life, the witness of the v Spirit, etc., and that there was a
possibility of falling from grace. Here both Baptists anc 1 Pres-
byterians met them in conflict, and the struggle between the
parties was long and arduous. Thus, in the days of my boy-
hood, was I made to see and understand the bitterness of heated
controversy on the subject of religion. Yet, after all, good was
the result, for the whole community went to searching the

THE WOLF-HUXT. 37

Scriptures daily, to see who was right. From parental teaching
and reading the Bible, I deemed the Methodists to be right,
and had my controversial sword wbetted up, and ready for a
passage at arms with any boy of my age in the neighborhood.
From that day to this, I have always been fond of doctrinal
discussions.

When we had moved to our new home, higher up Cross
Creek, in 1804 — I being about twelve years of age — new set-
tlers having come in, I began to have other playmates besides
Indian boys. One day in the month of May, while my parents
were absent at meeting, there came a boy, John Adrian by
name, to pay me a visit. We were of the same age; but he
was rather under my size. He was just out from Maryland,
and, knowing nothing of backwoods life, was rather fearful of
Bnakes, wolves, bears, panthers, and Indians. I told him I had
heard the old hunters Bay, that where the wolves howled in
the morning, between daylight and sunrise, in the month of
May, there they had their young; and that for some time past,
every morning, about due east from our house, I had heard
them howling. We talked the matter over until we became
excited — a wolf-hunt we must have. Not having the fear of
G id before our eyes, Sunday as it was, we took the gun and
dog, in the evening, and away we went, about two miles, and
camped out on the top of the Piuey Fork Pudge; thus choos-

an elevated position, that we might hear what was going on
all around us. That night we slept but little, fearing snakes
rather than wolves, though of wolves we had .some fears, as we
Bupposed ourselves to be near the den. Our lodging was in an
old hunters' camp, covered with bark. At the peep of day we
were up and on the alert, moving down the south side of a
deep ravine. No wolves yet had howled. In about ten niin-
utefi from the time we started from our camp, we Baw the old

wolf, on the 0ppO8lte side of the ravine, start from the
mouth of her den in full chase alter our dog. He came run-
ning to ri.s with all his might, terribly scared, with the hair on

his back all turned the other way. The wolf saw as, and
passed clear round us like a streak. 1 found it impossible to
ihoot with any hope of hitting her, in her flight, so my fire

38 , RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

was reserved. In a few moments she and her mate came to-
gether, just over the ridge beyond the den, and set up a terri-
ble howling. Immediately, John and I crossed the ravine, and
up we went to the mouth of the den, and could hear the young
cubs playing. If we had possessed the skill of experienced
hunters, we would have stopped the den, retired behind a blind,
and shot one or both of the old wolves when they came; but
we never thought of this. Our plan was immediately laid to
take the cubs. John was stationed at the mouth of the den,
with an emphatic charge to fight hard if the wolves came; to
shoot one and kill the other with the butt of the gun — not
doubting but that he could do it. After listening a moment
at the howling, just over the hill, in I went, about twelve
feet, and there were the cubs, playing about. The den was
about eight feet in diameter, and, as to height, there was room
enough to admit of my standing on my knees. It was bedded
with leaves and moss, and, for wolves, it must have been quite
comfort-able. I took two of the cubs by the hind legs and
backed myself out. I gave a hind leg of each cub to John, in
his left hand, and told him to hold the gun in his right, and
urged him to. defend me manfully if the old wolves came.
Then I went in again, and brought out two more, and gave
John a hind leg of each in his right hand. So, squatting
down on his "hunkers," he took the gun between his knees,
and gave some signs of fear, as the old wolves over the ridge
were howling furiously. I noticed his fears, and renewed my
charge to be brave, and, if they did come, to let them all go,
and fight like a hero, and not let them into the den after me.
I then went in again, and brought out two more; so then he
had to take three hind le<rs of cubs in each hand, six in all.
Again I renewed my charge to John, and, for the last time,
crawled in, searched the den thoroughly, and finding no more
young wolves, came out, and away we went in triumph, leav-
ing the old wolves howling. We were at home by eight
o'clock in the morning, with our six cubs. We took them
alive to 'Squire Leech, before whom I made oath that the
wolves were captured in Wayne Township, Jefferson County,
Ohio, and got from him an order for the township bounty j

CLEARING OUT A FARM. 39

likewise an order on the county treasurer for the state bounty;
then, cutting off the heads of the cubs in the presence of the

jiiire. we went home. The next day we went to Steuben-
ville, and from the county treasurer drew the state bounty.
Neither Juhn nor I. ever had so mueh money before. John
Ward, the county treasurer, said that, for two such boys, our
wolf-hunt was an exploit indeed, rather ahead of General Put-
nam's. So, hearing all this from him and others, we began to
think we had done something a little above par, and that, after
awhile, we might be of some consequence among mankind. Our
vanity set us to stepping largely along the streets of Steu-
benville. Any one interested, by searching the record, might
find that in May, 1804, John Ward, Treasurer, paid George
Brown a certain sum of money (amount now forgotten) for
six wolf-scalps; and there are persons now living in Jefferson
County, Ohio, who know all about the success of our wolf-hunt,
and the noise it made.

It is a little remarkable that my father, a very strict Meth-
odist, did not bring me to a rigorous account for a breach of
the Sabbath, in this wolf-hunt. As every body spoke favora-
bly of the adventure — of its daring and success — may be the
old gentleman thought it best not to throw a cloud over the
general joy by giving me the chastisement I deserved.

In our new home we were again in the woods; had our
cabin to erect, land to clear and cultivate, and our bread to
rai.-e. I was still the herdsman, and, morning and evening,

from the w Is, had to bring home the cattle. Here, too, as

at the other place, we were in the midsl of the wild grandeurs
of nature, and there were snakes and game in abundance. My
rather was a man of very industrious habits; my brothers and
myself were brought up to hard labor. Hero 1 began to be a
working boy. We all worked. In about five years we cleared,
fenced, and brought under cultivation, about one hundred and

thirty acres of wild land. So we began to live at home, iii the
midst of what were then called the necessaries of life, lint,
a- before intimated, the necessaries of life then were different
from the necessaries of life now. 1 was rail fifteen years old

before I ever saw a carpet. We, and all our neighbors, went

40 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

up into the second stories of our cabins by step-ladders. "We all
grew our own flax and wool. The women had spinning-wheels
and looms. They spun and wove, and made nearly all the
clothing worn by the families in those early times; and, of all
such things as we could make ourselves, we had an abundance.
Once in awhile, at meetings and other public gatherings, we
saw people in better clothing than our own, made of goods
bought at the stores then being established here and there in
the country. Then, again, we saw the Indians, then beginning
to recede from our vicinity, and many of the whites around us,
in much worse garb than our own. So, if our clothing was
not the best, it was not the worst. We made it ourselves, and
were not in debt for it, and to wear it we were not ashamed, in
the best society then to be found.

At that time it was with us as with all new and sparsely
populated settlements; we had no schools for about ten years,
in our neighborhood, after we moved to Ohio. A school, in-
deed, was started, to which I went three days; then the house
was burned, and there the matter ended, to the great grief of
the neighborhood. My sorrow was great, as I then saw no
chance for an education. I had been three years to school be-
fore I left Virginia, and had done what I could to retain the
rudiments of an education then laid in, -and to improve, in
every way in my power, the little stock of learning I had
gained. Now the school-house was burned, and the neighbors
divided about a site for a new one — each man wanted it near
his habitation. So nothing was done, and I was greatly dis-
couraged; yet the matter was not by any means given up. I
had a confidence that, somehow or other, I would, at least, get
a good business education.

In early life, conviction for sin often took a powerful hold
of my mind. My father's house was a house of prayer, and
there the Grospel was occasionally preached. It was a place of
resort for religious people. Besides, with my father and
mother, I, with my brothers and sisters, generally attended
the stated preaching in the neighborhood. So, here I was con-
stantly within the reach of religious truth, surrounded at all
times by Christian influences; and, in my heart, often felt my-

EARLY RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 41

self to be a lost sinner. From a very early age, " I knew my
duty, but I did it not." Bold in sin, indeed, I was; but on
the subject of my soul's eternal salvation I was a coward.
All my religious impressions and convictions were carefully
kept to myself; neither father nor mother, nor any friend I
had upon earth, knew any thing about them. And, it may be
added, that it was my settled determination, if the Lord, in
mercy, converted my soul, to keep that a secret too. With
such views and feelings, I prayed for mercy night and day, in
secret places, mostly in the barn and in the woods, often tempted
by the devil to give the matter over ; and, if I did not, he
would appear and claim me as his lawful prey. But, with all
his threats, however terrifying, the devil never did succeed in
driving me from the mercy-seat in time of secret prayer. My
faith was weak ; my views and determinations were wrong in
relation to secrecy in matters of religion. The Lord did not
intend to light a candle in my soul to be put under a bushel.
So I spent my strength for naught, became more and more
wretched in my soul, until I nearly reached the borders of de-
spair. At last, becoming completely discouraged, I gave over
the straggle, and plunged mure deeply than ever into sin.
Often, between my twelfth and sixteenth years, was my soul
deeply awakened to a sense of my sins; often did the pains of
hell well-nigh get hold upon me; then, day and night, as be-
fore, I resorted to secret prayer, keeping all my sorrows to my-
:-f]f. determining, if the Lord did bless me with the knowledge
of salvation by the remission of my sins, I would keep that
also a secret; and I always failed, because my ignorant, proud
heart was not willing to come out openly and above-board on
the Lord's side. I wanted a secret religion, and wanted to
keep it a secret Prom all my young associates, most of whom
were very wicked ; but the Lord did not intend to have it so.
Hi- meant to bring me out openly before the world. The truth
is, it is a great calamity on any youth to have wicked asso-
ciates, who sneer at religion. Sucli associates kept me hack from
Christ for several years. My cowardly heart was hound hy
their influence, as by a fetter of iron, which I had no power to
break. Gospel sermons, parental instruction, example, and pray-

42 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

ers, all seemed unavailing and powerless over me for good,
while in the midst of wicked associates ;. and. alas for me ! I
had no others, and from them, at that time of life, I had not
the moral courage to break away. Had it not been for the re-
straining grace of God', my ruin for time and eternity would
have been complete.

LEARN THE FULLING TRADE. 43

CHAPTER III.

Learn the Fulling Trade— Trip to Canton— Go to School in Virginia— Death of my
Father by Drowning— Commence Teaching School— Enter the Army in 1812— The
Wild Horse— Johnson's Island— General Harrison— Winchester's Defeat— Vol-
txteer to help away the wounded— the retreat— camp inundated— fort
Meigs— Honorably Discharged— Start for Home— Difficulties of Travel— Fail-
ure of Provisions— My Eeligious Condition.

Near the close of my fifteenth year, hy the advice of my
parents, I undertook to learn the fulling trade with Robert
Smith. Before being bound as an apprentice, it was deemed
advisable by the parties concerned, that I should be considered
on trial for nine months, to see how I would like the business
and the man to whom I was to be bound, and how he would like
me. This happened to be a good arrangement, for, at the end
of that time, we mutually agreed to part. Finding myself put
t" running a saw-mill, to farming, to being a general lackey
for the family, and every thing else that I did not go there to
Learn, I became uneasy, and indicated my di.-satisfaction, be-
cause I had but little chance to obtain a knowledge of my
trade; whereupon I was told I had the usual ehance given to
boys, and, if I did not like the course of treatment, I might go
home. I did not exactly like this, for I greatly desired to
learn the trade. Withal, I had no objections to Smith or his
family; but I could not consent to be employed in time to
come as I had been up to that date, so I declined being
Smith's Indented apprentice, and went home to work on the
farm. Here were nine months of my life as good as thrown
away, for I had learned but little of Smith, save to make full-
er's soap — a capital thing, by the by; but I have long since

44 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

forgotten how to do it. This I have often regretted, as there
can be neither civilization nor religion without soap.

When the fall work was pretty well done up on the farm at
home, feeling desirous of making a little money for myself, I
went to Canton, in Stark County, Ohio, then quite a new place,
about sixty miles off, and, for about three months, made good
wages at hard work — cutting, splitting, and hauling wood into
town. -Returning home about the last of January, 1809, in
fine health, I felt pretty well, indeed, at being able to clothe
myself with the proceeds of my own labor, and to extend a
little help to the family. When I left home on this youthful
enterprise, my mother gave me a quarter of a dollar, and a
little provision in my sack, and away I went on foot. When
night came on, I slept in a barn, warm enough, in the soft
hay. The second day, in the afternoon, I reached Canton; had
my quarter of a dollar yet; got employment immediately; and
the next morning, on my way to the woods, I found a new half-
dollar in the road. This I took as a good indication, and felt
quite encouraged by the occurrence; nor did I spend one cent,
while I remained in Canton, in any useless way. Now, indeed,
I was free from the influence of wicked associates, nor had I
any good ones. There were at that time no meetings in the
place; no Christians that I could hear of. I kept no com-
pany, either good or evil, further than business required. Yet
experience taught me that I could be a sinner without sinners
to entice me, and, I suppose, even without a devil to tempt
me, for in my poor fallen nature there was a constant gravita-
tion to the wrong, a proneness to forget Grod, and live accord-
ing to the dictates of my own carnal heart. Nothing now
engrossed my attention like the making of money. Even a
beardless boy, as well as an old miser, can be carried away by
the love of money. Still, I scorned to make it in any dishon-
est way.

In the spring of 1809, a most crushing injury received on
my head, breast, and back, cut me loose from all further labor
on the farm, and toward winter, having somewhat recovered, I
went from home to school in Western Virginia. It was the

DEATH OF MY FATHER BY DROWNING. 45

overturning, on a hillside, of a sled, upon which was a large
los of rail timber, that inflicted the injury, and from it I have
suffered between the shoulders, more or less, to the present
day. In Holliday's Cove, Brooke County, Virginia, I found
comfortable boarding with my cousin, Richard Brown, Esq.,
a real, practical philosopher, and a man of great benevolence
of heart, who took pleasure in rendering me all the assistance
in his power, in the prosecution of my studies. Hugh Laird
was my preceptor — a man of extensive attainments, a compe-
tent and successful teacher; but, alas! he loved liquor too well
for his own good and the good of his school. However, dur-
ing the two years I was with him, he took a deep interest in
me, and gave me a pretty fair chance for what, in those da
was considered a good business education. But this only
waked up in my soul a desire for a higher education; a thor-
ough course in college was what I wanted, but was never able
to obtain. Like all others who have had to be self-taught, I
found my way strewed with difficulties in the acquisition of
knowledge, yet I have done what I could in a course of men-
tal improvement.

In the month of February, 1811, my uncle, Colonel Richard
Brown, died. He was a real Western pioneer; a man of great
jiliv-ical and mental energy, universally respected for his use-
fulness as a citizen, and for his genuine benevolence of heart.
That same year, July 11, Itloet my father. He was drowned
in the Ohio River, on the Ohio Bide of Brown's Island. In
the time of harvest vacation, I went home to assist in harvest
labor. When all the -rain was in the shock, word came, by a
swift messenger, that my Aunt Honor, the widow of my On
Richard, was sick, ami BUpposed to be neir unto death. Im-
mediately my father and I went to Bee her — he on horseback
and I 0D foot. The; distance WOB fifteen mile-, and all the
way, as we went, my excellent father was most engaging in

religious conversation. Neither of us knew that that was hi
last day on earth; but, had he known it. he could not have
been more faithful and affectionate in the counsels he gave me.
When we came to the river it was very low, and we both

46 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

crossed it on the same horse, and found my aunt, as was
supposed, quite out of danger. The next morning, my father,
on his return homeward, was seen, by myself and others, to
cross from the Virginia shore to the island in safety. But, on
the Ohio side of the island, instead of inclining a little up
stream, to the out-coming place, he kept too straight over, and
got into very deep water, where he and his horse were both
drowned, for neither of them could swim. The horse was found
on a bar near the lower end of Brown's Island, but my father
lodged against a rock on the Ohio side, about one mile and a
half above Steubenville. He was drowned on Wednesday,
found on Friday, so swollen that no one knew him, and, after
an inquest was held over the body, he was buried below high-
water mark that same day. A sea-shell, found in his pocket
at the time of interment, by some one present, who supposed it
to have come from my Cousin Richard Brown's, where I
boarded, led to the identification of his body. The shell was
brought on Saturday morning, inquiry was made, and it was
found that my father had got the shell. Thus the dreadful
secret was revealed, that my beloved and venerated father was
the drowned man. In the water all alone, no wife, son, daugh-
ter, or friend near to witness the death-struggle, he yielded up
his soul to God. My father was a good man, and, from the
days of Robert Strowbridge to the day of his death, had been
a consistent member of the Methodist Church. He left his
children a bright example of every Christian virtue. I gave
the family notice of the sorrowful occurrence on Saturday after-
noon, and on Sunday he was disinterred and buried again, in
the Presbyterian Cemetery in Steubenville. His funeral was
preached, to a very large audience, by Rev. William Lambdin,
from the fourth verse of the Twenty-third Psalm. That day I
began to feel myself an orphan, and settled it in my heart that
the God of my father should be my God. As if a voice from
heaven had spoken to me, I felt called to abandon sin and sin-
ners, and betake myself to a life of religion.

In the autumn of 1811, I left school and returned home,
and in a short time was called into service, in the neighbor-

ENTER THE ARMY IN 1812. 47

hood, as a school-teacher. This gave me a fine opportunity to
review past studies, aud to fasten more firmly on my mind what
I had learned at school. But in 1S12 the war came on. My
two brothers were drafted; my school was given up, and I
went home to take care of the farm. My brother Nicodemus
had not loag been married, and his wife brought on herself a
sore spell of sickness, through grief at his going into the
army. Nothing seemed likely to comfort or cure her but the
return of her husband. I thought I could more readily stand
the hardships of war and the bullets of the British, than the
wailings of my brother's wife. So, away to the army I went,
and was accepted as orderly sergeant in my brother's place, and
let him go home to take care of his wife and the farm, two
important duties which I was not fully able to perform.

On the 21st day of September, 1812, the regiment marched
from Steubenville, Ohio, to join General Harrison In the North-
west. John Andrews was our colonel ; Thomas Latta was cap-
tain of our company — both soldierly-looking men; and the
whole regiment looked like rendering good service to our coun-
try, if called into action. Being orderly sergeant, I was taken
into the captain's mess, ate at his table, lodged in his tent, was
exempt from many hardships to which others were exposed, and
did public writing during my whole term of service. Not many
men in the army, at that day, could make out a pay-roll or a
subsistence account. By permission of the captain, I did a great
deal of this kind of work for the officers of our regiment, and
all without charge. Some of them, however, rendered me a
compensation for my labor; others did not, as they lacked the
generosity to offer pay where no formal charge was made. But
I had my compensation at last; such business was an improving
school to me, while it saved me from the harder duties of the
camp, and gave me favor with most of the officers of our regi-
ment — a matter of no small importance to me, at that time.

From Steubenville tbe regiment marched by Canton to Hu-
ron, then, after considerable delay, moved on to Lower San-
dusky. While at Huron, Captains Latta and Stidger, with
their companies, were detailed to take six large open boats,

48 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

loaded with provision, from the mouth of Huron River, round
by the lake, to Lower Sandusky. Stidger's company went as
guard along the lake shore; Latta's company took the boats.
On the 4th day of December, the wind from the north being
very high, the cold most intense, and the fearful breakers roll-
ing in against the southern shore, out we went into the lake.
Each of the four boats that went out of the mouth of the river
before the one I was in, as it passed over the breaker into the
trough between the waves, was for a time lost from sight, but
presently it rose on the next wave, and away it went. The
wind being against us, our small sails did us no good ; so, we
had to row the boats — it was row or perish, so terrible was the
wind, so fearful was the cold. About midnight, being driven
by the wind in near against the shore, all our boats ran hard
aground on a bar, at the mouth of Sandusky Bay. We left
the boats, and waded about sixty yards to the shore ; I had the
good fortune to be carried out on the back of a soldier. How
clever was this man ! How thankful I felt for so great a kind-
ness when so thoroughly overcome by cold ! Both the compa-
nies there came together and built fires behind a large sand-
bank that sheltered them from the wind, to dry their clothes
and warm themselves. In a little time all were cheerful and
merry, and long before daylight all but the guards, and a few
to keep up the fires, were sound asleep. When I awoke in the
morning, I went right to the boats. The wind had fallen ; the
lake had receded to its proper level and left them high and dry,
full fifty yards from the water; and there stood a large iron-
gray horse, eating corn out of one of the boats. He was a beau-
tiful animal, and as wild as a deer. Immediately I ran back
and made report, and the two companies, with guns in hand,
formed a semicircle from the water to the water, closing him
in. He tried at every point to break the ranks, but the fearful
array of bristling bayonets alarmed him, and he plunged into
the water, and away he went three miles across the mouth of
the bay. About midway he struck a bar, where the water came
only up to his sides; he turned, lifted up his head and tail,
gave us a look of scornful defiance, and snorted ! — then, turning,

GENERAL HARRISON. 49

he went in a gallop for several rods, and plunging into deep
water, he swam away to the point above the bay. When he got
out, he gave us another scornful look, turned, and galloped up
the point as far as we could see him. I was told by a gentle-
man from Sandusky City, about five years ago, that that horse
was the sire of the best breed of horses in all that region of
country. He was a noble animal.

In a short time, the wind came again from the north, and
brought the water, swelling high, to the southern shore of the
lake. Then we got our boats off, and started up the bay for
Lower Sandusky ; but being obstructed by the ice, we landed
on what is now called Johnson's Island, where we found corn,'
turnips, potatoes, and about two hundred fat hogs. The owner
of the island had left all, and fled to Canada. Being, as we
learned, a Frenchman, in sympathy with our enemies, we took
possession of every thing that would be of service to the army.
The hogs were killed, cleaned, and salted ; and after waiting in
vain about ten days, in hope of a thaw, so that we could reach
our destination, we gave the matter up, and returned down the
lake to Huron, bringing all we had gathered up on the French-
man's island along with us. While on that island I came near
losing my life, by eating a frozen turnip; a heavy cold settled
on my lungs, fearfully indicating an approaching consumption,
but in about six weeks my health returned. This was the only
sickness I had while in the army. From Huron, our wing of
the army, now amounting to a brigade, under command of Gen-
eral Simon Perkins, moved on by land to Lower Sandusky,
where we remained several days under constant drill. No army,
until thoroughly drilled, is in a condition to meet the enemy in
the day of battle. About the 17th of January, 1813, I saw
General Harrison for the first time. I \va- greatly disappointed
in his appearance. I had formed the idea that our command-
ing General, the hero of Tippecanoe, must be a man of vast
proportions, a real gianl in his whole frame-work; but how I
was surprised and disappointed when I saw him, a mere hoop-
pole in military costume! But he looked as tough as a hickory-
withe, and his dark, keen, intelligent eye, and his care-worn and

50 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

thoughtful look, immediately impressed us all with the belief
that we had an able, trustworthy commander — the right man in
the right place.

About three o'clock that same day, while General Har-
rison was reviewing the troops, an express from General Win-
chester arrived, containing information that he had defeated
the British and Indians at the River Raisin, and was holding
that position, with a considerable amount of military stores
taken from the enemy. He called upon Harrison to bring on
the forces, and make that the point of concentration for the
whole North-western Army, instead of the Rapids of the Mau-
mee, the place designated by General Harrison. This was a
rash act of disobedience to orders ; and, in a council of war
immediately called, Harrison predicted, among his officers, dis-
astrous results to Winchester, unless our wing of the army
could, by forced marches across the Rlack Swamp, reach him
in three days. This was about the 18th of January, 1813.
That night we received orders to prepare three days' rations,
and to be ready to enter, at four o'clock the next morning,
upon a forced march to relieve Winchester. We were off at
the time appointed ; but, as our train of wagons often broke
through the ice in the Black Swamp, our progress was greatly
retarded, for it would not do to leave our artillery and baggage-
wagons behind — a loss to ourselves, and a prey to the enemy.
On the third day, in the afternoon, our advance-guard reported
that all that morning they had heard the roar of artillery
ahead. This put new life into us all ; though faint with march-
ing, late and early, we nearly doubled our speed. But, on
reaching the Mauniee Bay, we began to meet the refugees flying
from the field of battle — some without hats or shoes, others
without coats, others were wounded, and all reported that Win-
chester was defeated! 0, how sad this news was to all our
hearts! But we went on down the bay on the ice, still meet-
ing more and more of our defeated soldiers, all in a sad plight.
At last we came to a final halt, and General Harrison, after a
most thrilling speech — which he wound up with a flood of tears
for the brave sons of Kentucky who had, with British allow-

Winchester's defeat. 51

ance, after they became prisoners, been slaughtered by tbe mer-
ciless savages — called for volunteers to go to the battle-field,
or as near as they could get, to help away the wounded. Three
hundred and sixty men responded to the call. I was one of
that number. We were gone, on this trying expedition, from
about three o'clock P. M. until about daylight the next morn
ing. when we rejoined the army, on "Wayne's old camp-ground,
very much exhausted. During the afternoon and night, as we
moved on toward the field of disastrous conflict, we built many
fires to warm the sufferers, and helped many a poor soldier in
distress. One major had five wounds — both his arms were dis-
abled — still he kept in his saddle, and, by some means, man-
aged his horse with his feet. On approaching near the scene
of strife, we learned from several wounded soldiers that the
British commander, with his Canadian forces, had retired to
Fort Maiden, leaving about fifteen hundred drunken Indians
on the field, who were burning up Brownstown, with all the
wounded who had been left in the houses. These horrid atroc-
ities greatly exasperated us all, and we felt that blood called
for blood; but our force was inferior, and our orders restrained
as from making an attack upon these furious savages.

When we reached camp in the morning, the scouts came
in with the intelligence (which afterward proved to be false,)
that the British and Indians were advancing upon us in full
force. After a council with his officers, General Harrison or-
dered a retreat. So, after a hasty breakfast, we retreated all
that day through a heavy rain, and in the evening crossed a
BiDall river on the ice, (name not now remembered,) and en-
oamped Minn- with the Pennsylvania troops, threw up breast-
works of heavy timber as a defense against the enemy, got
Bupper, and prepared as best we could, amid slush of snow
about knee-deep, to get some sleep. [ndeed, we all needed
■ ■p. The forced march, the night spent in helping away
♦ lie wounded and stragglers from Winchester's battle-field, the
day's retreat, without halting to eat or rest, made Bleep acces-
sary for me, and I suppose for nil the others, especially my
companions in toil, who volunteered to help away the wounded.

52 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

That night was the first time, in a long while, that we were

able to pitch our tents ; the ground had been frozen so hard we ,

could not drive in our stakes. The snow was removed with a

shovel, the tent was put up, and with a little brush under us,

instead of feathers, we lay down, and were immediately asleep,

with a great log fire just in front of our tent. All this seemed

very fine ; but, about four o'clock in the morning, the whole

camp was inundated. As if a dam above us had broken, and

let loose the water upon us, here it came, about knee-deep, all

over the low bottom where we had pitched our tents, and there

was no escape. When about half buried in water, I awoke.

Supposing the snow had melted under me, I took up a pan and

commenced throwing out the water; but hearing it fall in the

water on the outside of the tent, I went out, and found that

the river had overflown its banks, and that the whole army was

in commotion — all were on the lookout to see what next was

to be done. To meet the difficulties of our situation in the

best manner our circumstances would permit, we raised log

platforms above the water, and stretched our tents over them,

and built large log-heaps higher than the water, and set them

on fire. Here we dried our clothes, cooked our rations, talked

over our troubles, and waited in patient hope of a better time

to come; and, in some respects, a better time did speedily come.

That morning the wind changed, and came furiously from the

north ; the cold became intense, and against night the soldiers

were running about on the ice, and by the next night the ice

would bear our heaviest ox-teams. So, all had solid ice to walk

and skate upon, and there was much sport among the boys in

the camp. But, alas for us ! these sports were soon interrupted

by disease ; exposure and hardships brought on the bloody-flux,

and during the eight days we remained in that place, we buried

many of our comrades.

About the 1st of February, we returned to the Rapids of the
Maumee, and built Fort Meigs. While engaged in that work,
I went out on many a scout, but never came into conflict with
the enemy. About the 10th of March, as our term of service
was known to expire on the 21st of that month, our company

START FOR HOME. 53

was sent, by General Harrison, to finish some block-houses at
Lower, Sandusky, and then and there to be discharged. To turn
our faces homeward was a joyful event to us all; so we crowed
the Black Swamp, on the ice, in very high glee, accomplished
the work assigned us, and gained a few days of our time, and
were, all of us, honorably discharged. Honorably discharged,
having fought no battles ! Other portions of the army fought
battles, and we would have done so too, if a chance had been
given us : our regiment often sought battle, but it always fled
from us, and, to our mortification, we came home without a fight.

On the evening before we set out for home, we drew two days'
rations, which were supposed to be enough to last us through
to Mansfield. The night before we started, there fell a snow
about two feet deep. In the morning, at eight o'clock, without
dreaming of the trouble ahead, we were off for home. We
crossed the Sandusky River in canoes ; there were thirty-two
of* us. We gave three cheers on the home side of the river,
and were answered by our more sensible and cautious comrades,
who, on account of the snow, declined to accompany us. AVe
had to pass through an unbroken wilderness all the way to
Mansfield. Our only guides were the blazes on the trees. The

mtry was level and swampy. About eleven o'clock a rain set
in. which continued several days; that great body of snow was
and the whole country was pretty much covered with
water, which, level on the surface, revealed not the unevenm ■>>
of the ground underneath. Often we plunged, without any
warning of our danger, into holes, over head and ears. We
could tell when we came to a stream, by B gentle movement
Of the water. We had two axes in company, some powder in

fi.it flasks, which the boys carried in their hats, tightly drawn
on their heads, ami several rifles. Over creeks we felled trees,

lodging them on their nun Stumps, ami againsl trees on the
Other side. On these, instead of* bridges, we always gOl safely
over. When we came to pond-. W6 always knew I hem by the
ice rising to the top of tin- water. Sometimes, when t<> any

Would gel Upon the ice at once, it WOUld break, ami down we
would all go. These ponds and the creeks were numerous,

54 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and gave us a great deal of trouble ; often we suffered injury
by bruising ourselves against the ice. All tbis made traveling
very slow. In two days our rations were gone, and it took us
five days to get tbrougb ; so we were tbree days and nigbts
witbout any thing to eat, save two squirrels. After wading and
plunging in ice and water for four days, about four P. M., on
the fourth day, we came to a little elevation, and found two
squirrels. The guns were put in order, and the squirrels were
killed, broiled, and divided among thirty-two of us. I got a
fore-leg for my share. Indeed, it was a sweet morsel to me ; to
this day I remember how pleasant it tasted. On this little piece
of rising ground we encamped for the night, built large fires,
and dried our clothes. We supposed ourselves about to. get into
a more elevated and rolling district of country, and our joy was
very great. . I

The fifth morning came. For a little time we hunted sweet
hickory roots, to appease the hunger from which we were suf-
fering. We all had money ; but how very contemptible was
money, when we could buy nothing with it to keep off starva-
tion ! Finally, in Indian file, we proceeded, directing our
course by the moss always found upon the north side of the
trees, and iu a short time came right up against another pond,
covered with ice, over which we could not see. Twenty-four
of the boys went in; eight of us held back, to see how they
would get on. When they were nearly out of sight, among the
bushes that grew in the swamp, often breaking through the ice
as they went, and when at last we could get no further intelli-
gence from them, we turned up to the north, hoping to find a
better way. We had not gone far before we came upon the
track of a bear, and, for some time, our hunger prompted us
powerfully to try to overtake and kill him ; but at last we gave
up the pursuit, and in a little time crossed a stream about four
rods wide, and up to our arms in depth, which, in our opinion,
supplied that large pond with water. When safely over the
stream, we fired a gun, to let our companions know where we
were. The parties came together in about one hour afterward,
and they informed us that the report of the gun was heard,

FAILURE OF PROVISIONS. 55

and that, at that time, the foremost of them had just got out
of the pond, and one man, a poor swimmer, was very near being
drowned. He was the largest man in the company, and the
smallest man among the thirty-two, by great exertions, drew
him along through deep water, where all had to swim, and saved
his life. About eleven o'clock A. M., being far behind, weary
and faint with hunger, I heard the boys ahead of me cheering
lustily. This inspired me with new energy, and on I went, to
find out the cause of the cheering. There they were, all in a
circle, looking at some object in the center, which proved to be
nothing more nor less than a grain of corn ! By this we were
led to suppose ourselves near the settlement, and it filled us all
with joy. By unanimous consent, John Potts, who found the
grain of corn, was allowed the high privilege of eating it ; and
off we started in Indian file again. In about half an hour an-
other shout was heard ; it was prolonged and vehement, min-
gled with much laughter and joy. "When we who were behind
came up, there were the boys on the ground, like so many tur-
keys, scratching out of the dirt, and eating to appease their
hunger, the grains of corn left where the Pennsylvania troops
had encamped and fed their horses and oxen. "Weil, that corn
tasted sweet to me, and to us all; we ate it with gladness of
heart. But one occurrence there greatly marred our pleasure,
and provoked general indignation. Off to one side, on a log,
there sat the large man, who that day had been saved from
drowning by the small man, as before stated — eating bread!
and he boasted that he had half a loaf left, and invited us,
then, to help him eat it; hut no one would do it; every man
rned him, and from that hour lie lu<t caste amon»' us. Often,
to help him along, had this man's heavy knapsack been carried
by his comrades. And often, during our three days of starva-
tion, while he carried it himself, did he fall hack to eat, as we
now supposed, his morsel alone. Now, all agreed that he might
finish his loaf by himself, for we could not afford to eat a mean
mnn's bread. That afternoon, about four o'clock, we came to
Mansfield, where we were amply supplied with all we needed;
and in about four days more I reached home, and felt glad that

56 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

the toils of the campaign were over, and that God had spared
my life to see my -relations and friends once more.

On a review of the campaign of 1812-13, though our wing
of the army had no battles, yet they had a great deal of toil
and suffering to endure. Our north-western frontier was then
an unbroken wilderness, full of streams to bridge, and swamps
to cross by bridging, or otherwise; sometimes the ice was our
bridge. As we had no railroads at that time, to carry armies
or military stores, wagons and pack-horses had to be used, and
the army marched on foot. Each night, before we slept, as a
protection against the enemy, breastworks were thrown up all
around the encampment. The winter was very hard; the
ground was frozen, and the snow was deep. During the hard-
est of the winter we could not pitch our tents, it being impos-
sible to drive the tent-stakes into the ground ; so we built large
fires to keep ourselves warm. Before these fires, with our tent-
cloth thrown over some brush, which we used instead of feath-
ers, wrapped in our blankets, with our knapsacks for pillows,
we laid ourselves down under the open heavens, exposed to
frost, or snow, or rain, or whatever came. Sometimes our heads
were white with frost in the morning ; often we were covered
several inches deep with snow, or drenched with rain. To en-
dure all this, and not be sick, required a very firm constitution.
Harrison's soldiers became nearly as hardy as wild beasts. By
the good providence of God, I returned home in perfect health,
even better than I had before I entered the army.

Of my religious condition while in the army, it may be
proper, in closing this chapter, to say a little. From the time
of the death of my father, I had religious impressions, and fer-
vently prayed to God, in secret places, to show me the way of
salvation. On the subject of being born again, I was a perfect
Nicodemus — my gross mind could not comprehend that spiritual
change required by our Lord. In this condition I went into
the army, where I found very pious officers and soldiers, who,
on all convenient occasions, held prayer-meetings. These meet-
ings I attended, and took part in the singing, but never ven-
tured to lead in prayer ; yet I constantly prayed in secret, until

MY RELIGIOUS CONDITION. 57

near the close of my term of service, when I became discour-
aged and gave the matter up. One night* while doing public
writing in the captain's tent, some officers in a neighboring tent
commenced singing a vain, carnal sung, with which I had for-
merly been familiar, and, before I was aware of what I Avas do-
ing, I found myself quite carried away with it, and was singing
with them lustily. "When it was over, on mature reflection
upon what I had done, my spirit was wounded, my soul was
discouraged, all my power over sin had departed, and I did not
dare to pray any more until I returned home. I now see that
all this was utterly wrong. He who goes on an errand, and
stumbles and falls by the way, should not lie in the mud, cry-
ing, but should spring to his feet, and run the faster, and with
greater care. But so did not I. My soul was in deep distress ;
the devil now had me down in the mud, and he kept me there
for several months. What a blessing it would have been to
me, at that time, to have had the counsel of some faithful
Christian friend, to help me to recover from my fall 1 But tins
I could not have, because I had foolishly resolved to let no
one know my spiritual condition. It is truly wonderful to me
now, that, for so many years, I should have allowed the enemy
of my soul to lock up my mouth, and lender me completely
dumb on the subject of my Boul's eternal welfare. Whal Chris-
tian on earth could render me any service by his counsel, un-
less fe knew my spiritual necessities? Evil associations and a
disposition to conceal all my religious impressions from Chris-
tian friends, whose help I so much needed, proved a very great
hindrance to me. in seeking the salvation of my soul.

During the summer of L813, 1 attended a camp-meeting at
Q6 distance from home. There I did hope to be out of
reach of the influence of my former associates, and that I
mid have an unobstrui ted opportunity t" seek the Lord.
There the Spirit of the Lord deeply moved my heart. But,
being an utter stranger, no one sipoke t" mi' about my soul;
often did I wish that Borne one would. I had doI tic courage

to venture forward to the altar of prayer. SO the D ting

ended, ami I returned home without finding the Saviour. For

58 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

a short time, I then indulged in all the pleasures of sin, as they
are called, and ran madly away from Christ. But I soon found
that to sin against the clearest light and knowledge that God
had given me, was an evil and a bitter thing; so I determined
on two things : first, to come out entirely from all wicked com-
pany ; and, secondly, that I would no longer conceal my spir-
itual condition from those who were both able and willing to
instruct me in the things of God.

TRIP TO BALTIMORE. 59

CHAPTER IV.

Trip to Baltimore— Had to Decide Between my Two Brothers— The Camp-Meeting,
asdiIhe Giants of Methodism— JIi Conversion and Happiness— Robert Fisher—
The Prayer-Meeting and the Cross— Joined the Church— Gilbert Middleton,
Class-Leader— His Faithfulness— Members of his Class— The Class of Young
Men who held Prayer-Meetings— Commenced Preaching while on Probation—
My Studies— The Baltimore Local Preachers— An Effort to Repair an Injury
to my Brother— Studies Continued in my Brother's Tan-Yard— A Soldier Again,
in Defense 01 Baltimore against the British— A Soldier Condemned to be Shot-
Reflections on that Thrilling Scene— First Love-Feast I attended in Balti-
more—Licensed to Preach in 1814.

My two brothers, Edward and John, who resided in Balti-
more, on learning that I had returned in safety from the North-
western Army, both wrote me letters, urging me to visit them,
and promising to aid me in getting into a clerkship, or some
other suitable business, in Baltimore. So, in compliance with
their wishes, I left my beloved mother in care of my brother
Richard, wbo managed the farm and all the home concerns, and
about the last of August I set out for that city. Nothing of spe-
cial interest occurred during Ibe journey until T reached Pipe
Creek, .Maryland, the old bonie of my parents — the place where
they espoused the cause of Christ, and became members of the
first class of Methodists ever organized in that state. There,
among my relations whom I had never seen before, 1 spent
aboul one week, and found many of them devoted Christians,
in fellowship with the Methodisl Episcopal Church. With
them I attended Beveral meetings, and was deeply impressed by
their conversation, prayers, the preaching, and other religious
rcises, with the absolute necessity of the conversion of my
loul. To me it was as clear as Holy Writ could make it, that
I was utterly unfit for, and unworthy of, Buch society us I
was then in; so I determined upon a new course of life.

60 KECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

While in the stage, passing on from Westminster to Balti-
more, some young Baltimoreans, whose exterior would have
passed them off for gentlemen, were exceedingly profane; such
vulgar swearing I had never heard before. To myself, in my
heart, I said: "Are these Baltimoreans? Am I going to that
city? and are such men as these to he my associates? No,
indeed, this thing shall never be!" Then and there, in the
midst of those vulgar blasphemers, I entered into covenant
with the Lord, and sealed that covenant with many tears and
fervent prayers, that I never would, of choice, have another
wicked companion, and that the people of God should be my
people, to the end of life. That evening I reached Baltimore,
and found a hearty welcome at the house of my brother Ed-
ward. He and his family and my brother John were all in
good health, and expressed great gratification at my arrival,
and John immediately gave me an invitation to accompany him
to the theater, for he was a real man of the world, and made
no pretensions to religion. My brother Edward, a good man,
and a very zealous Methodist, asked me to accompany him to
the prayer-meeting in Old Town. That night I had to decide
between my two brothers. I loved them both, and did not
like to offend either of them ; but, remembering my covenant
made that day with the Lord, in the stage, I determined to go
with Edward to the prayer-meeting; and I found that, in so
doing, all the religious purposes of my heart were invigorated,
and that Glod had given me more than ever to feel my need of
the Saviour. My heart was melted into tenderness, and my
choking grief, on account of the sad condition of my soul, al-
most forbade utterance. A few days after this, my brothei
Edward took me with him to a camp-meeting, about fifteen
miles out from Baltimore. All the way to that meeting I was
utterly unable to converse with any one; but wept and prayed
in deep distress, until we reached the encampment. There, for
the first time, I saw and heard the great giants of Method-
ism — Revs. Asa Shinn, Nicholas Snethen, William Ryland, and
Alexander McCain. The whole scene was new to me, and for
a short time I indulged in an agreeable survey of the encamp-

THE CAMP-MEETING. 61

men t — so large, regular, and military in its appearance. In a
little time preaching came on. The preacher was a colored
man, whose name I have forgotten. He stood behind the stand,
and, with uncommon power, delivered a discourse to a large con-
gregation of colored people. This was the first son of Ham I
had ever heard preach the Gospel, and this sermon revealed
two things to me: first, that he was a capital preacher;
and, secondly, that I was a poor, miserable sinner, in great
danger of losing my soul. The sermon being over, I went to
the woods, and sought a secluded place for prayer, for my dis-
tress was so great that it wonderfully exhausted all my phys-
ical energies. To this private place in the woods I resorted
for prayer at the close of every sermon, from Thursday until
Tuesday, eating but little, and sleep had well-nigh departed
from me. When the trumpet was sounded for preaching, then
my bower of prayer was vacated, and a seat taken in the con-
gregation, at the root of a venerable oak, near the corner of
the altar, where I sat, as a criminal before his judge, to hear
the Word of the Lord. To myself I could appropriate the ter-
rors of the law in all their dreadful severity, but had no power
yet to claim the great and precious promises of the Gospel.

On Sabbath morning, .Mr. Shinn preached. The congrega-
tion was uncommonly large. r#is text was taken from John
xviii, 23: "Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, beas
witness of the, evil: hut if well, why smitcst thou me?" This
was a sermon directed againsl infidelity. His argumentative
eloquence was overwhelming; but from it I received nothing
but a deeper condemnation, for I, too, had smitten Jesus in ten
thousand way-, and deserved the sorest punishment. So I la-
bored on, between the bower of prayer in the woods and the
root of the oak in the congregation, until Tuesday afternoon,
when .Mr. Snethen preached from John xiii, 13-17: "Ye call
me Ma Iter ami Lord, ami ye say well, for so I am," etc. That
sermon did reveal to me my whole condition — the stubborn
pride and self-will of my soul. As ;i young forest bends before
a heavy wind, so did that immense congregation bend before
the power of the Lord, on that camp-ground. Not for a thou-

62 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

sand dollars a man, would those young men of Baltimore, who
treated the order of the meeting with contempt, have lain on
their backs in the aisle, in the dust, if they could have helped
it. There was a power there that managed every body. No
one went to the altar that day : the whole encampment was the
altar, and all over it the people were down, crying for mercy;
and in all directions, from professing Christians, the shout of
praise went up to God. To my bower of prayer my heart in-
clined me to go ; but, on making trial to accomplish my pur-
pose, I found that all my physical energy was gone, and there
I lay at the root of the oak, helpless as a child, calling on
"God to be merciful to me a sinner." When I could run no
longer, then I felt willing to be ranked among the penitents,
and that my spiritual condition should be known. My brother
Edward came, looking here and there, among the slain of the
Lord, and at last he found me, in deep distress, at the foot of
the oak. "0, brother George!" said he, "is this you?" His
warm tears fell on my face as he knelt by my side, and spoke
the words of scriptural encouragement to my heart. He then
prayed most fervently for my salvation, and, while he did so,
my strength came again, and he helped me up ; and, as he was
taking me to Owen Dorsey's tent, in the upper part of the
encampment, I leaning on life arm for support as we went,
Rev. William Ryland met us. He was an aged minister, and
very much in earnest in his Master's work. Looking me fully
in the face, and stretching out toward me his long arms and
pale, withered hands, trembling at once with eagerness and
age, he said: "I am commissioned, by the Lord Jesus Christ,
to tell such broken-hearted, penitent sinners as you are, that
Christ died to save you. Yes," said he, "he died for you as
really as if there had been nobody else in the world for him
to die for but you ; and you have a right to believe it. All
men have a right to believe the truth ; and, if you do n't be-
lieve it, I '11 go and offer him to some one else." That man's
earnest manner, and the truth he declared, accompanied by the
Spirit of God, overcame my unbelief; and, as he turned away
from me, I did receive the Saviour, and felt in my soul a peace

MY CONVERSION AND HAPPINESS. 63

hitherto unknown. The Master had spoken, the storm had
ceased, and there was a great calm!

We remained in that place a little time, and I begun to rea-
son on the state of my heart, in about the following manner:
"Can this be conversion? Is it the blessing of justification?
I have heard no voice from above ; no angel hath touched my
lips with a live coal, taken with the tongs from off the altar;
I have no rapturous joy such as many speak of as attending
conversion. It will not do to be deceived in this matter. I
would rather be a sincere seeker than a deceived professor."
So on we moved to Owen Dorsey's tent, where many penitents
from Baltimore were collected. After an address to earnest
penitents, by Rev. Asa Shinn, all the seekers of salvation were
invited to kneel at the mourner's bench. I went down among
the rest, but could not pray; the spirit of rejoicing had come
upon me — I had all joy, as well as peace, in believing. This
joyous state of my heart was soon found out by the brethren,
who lifted me up, and, in the midst of them all, I stood and
made an open declaration of what the Lord had done for my
soul. Thus I entered the service of Christ, on the 21st day of
September, 1813, just one year after I entered the service of
my country, under General Harrison. Before my conversion,
the distressed feelings of my heart cast a gloom over every
thing; but now all was changed — my soul was unspeakably
happy, and the whole creation smiled. I felt a delight in the
company of the children of God, that no tongue could express,
and with them entered at once most heartily into the exercises
of the meeting, at least so far as singing was concerned. The
next morning the meeting closed, and we all returned home.

Alter our return to Baltimore, Robert Eisher, a venerable
Methodist of about forty years' standing, came to the house of
my brother, and took me into the front parlor, to a private in-
terview. There he gave me much fatherly counsel, in a truly
Christian spirit. Before we parted, he gained from me a proni-
ise that I would never evade or run round the cross. " Young
Christians," he affirmed, "would absolutely backslide, if they
did not bear the cross. If called on to pray, even in the street,

64 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

by your elder brethren, the cross must be borne, or your soul
will suffer loss." So, having me fully pledged in this matter,
he left me.

The next Monday night, at Adam Riley's, just in our neigh-
borhood, there was a prayer-meeting for the camp-meeting con-
verts and the penitents. Two rooms in the house were crowded
when I went. I could scarcely get in at the first door; and
there stood the venerable Fisher at the middle door, conduct-
ing the meeting. When the first prayer was over, he called on
me, by name, to come forward, take the book, and sing and pray.
This alarmed me; every nerve quaked, and I looked round the
room to see if some other George Brown was not there, sup-
posing it hardly possible he could mean me, for I had been
only five days converted, and had not yet joined the Church.
Again he called my name, beckoned me forward, and I had to
go, or violate my promise to bear the cross ; but I found it to be
heavy indeed, and could scarcely find courage to go forward in
the duty assigned me. Taking up the hymn-book, I read the
first two lines of the first hymn :

"0 for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer's praise;"

and while they were being sung, my eyes were closed tight, to
avoid seeing the people, for I was perfectly terror-stricken.
When I came to read again, in my confusion I read the first
two lines of the second verse, and closed my eyes again. The
tune was changed to suit, and on the singing went, in fine style ;
but my mistake greatly increased my confusion. When the
book was opened to read again, my eyes could see nothing
clearly ; the words and lines were all mixed up, and so tangled
together that I could go no further. After a momentary pause,
I said, " Let us pray." Thus, with a cross on my soul more
weighty than I can describe, did I, for the first time in my life,
in a public assembly, undertake to lead in prayer to G-od. I
had given my pledge to Robert Fisher, that I would never
flinch from the cross, and he held me to my word ; and it af-
forded me satisfaction afterward that I had at least made the

GILBERT MIDDLETON, CLASS-LEADER. 65

effort to keep the promise which he had induced me to make.
The old gentleman afterward met me, and gave me much good
counsel and encouragement. From and after that time I had
the cross to bear wherever the brethren could get an opportu-
nity to lay it on me. It never did me any harm. No, indeed ;
it always did me good. It led to increased effort to obtain a
holy heart and life ; and in all after days, I have most consci-
entiously believed that the way of the cross is the way to the
crown. It is the settled conviction of my mind, that it is im-
possible for the Lord Jesus Christ to save any of the depraved
children of Adam, without, in a diversity of ways, laying the
cross upon them. If poor, fallen human nature, with all its
stubborn and rebellious inclinations, be left to take its own
course, without ever being crossed, or obstructed in its mad
career, it will certainly find its way to perdition. Christ saves
our souls by the blood of his cross, and by calling us to deny
ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.

Immediately after this memorable prayer-meeting at Adam
Riley's, without waiting for a public opportunity to join the
Church, I went to the parsonage and gave my name to the
preacher in charge of the Baltimore stations, (llev. William
Ryland,) as a probationer in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The class to which he assigned me was led by Gilbert Middle-
ton, an old Revolutionary soldier, a man of advanced age, and
of great experience in the things of God. I was the only
young man in the class; all the rest were men rather advanced
in life, and well matured in Christian experience. This was a
<! 'li- for me to be in. My leader was wise, tender, and

rching in his exercises ; and sometimes his pithy sayings
were a little amusing. One Sabbath morning it rained; only
a few were present, and, after waiting a short time, one of the
members said to the leader, "I suppose you will not meet class
this wet morning— there are so few of as." The old veteran
lifted up his head, set baci bis spectacles, and said, " Brother
Wood, it is tine there are but lew of as present, but there are
entirely too many of u- to go to bell : I believe we'll meet class;"
and he proceeded with his work faithfully.

C6 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

The well-matured and far-advanced experience of the aged
Christian men belonging to our class left my infantile experi-
ence so far in the rear as to create doubts in my mind as to
the reality of my own justification and adoption into the family
of God. I was simply a young convert, a sinner recently saved
by grace ; but my classmates were hoary-headed saints, far ad-
vanced in the Divine life. My religious experience fell so far
short of theirs, that I was often, in class-meeting, led to fear
that I had deceived myself in my profession of the Saviour's re-
ligion, and that I had neither part nor lot in the matter. On
such occasions, my doubts and fears were faithfully reported,
and to me the kind sympathy of those aged Christians was ex-
tended. They had traveled over the same road, and had once
felt the same doubts and fears, and were, therefore, prepared to
give me counsel in the day of trial, and to assure me that, if I
continued faithful, what I knew not now, God would make
known to me hereafter. As is the difference between a prat-
tling infant and a full-grown, intelligent man, so was that which
existed between those aged Christians and myself. Among
them I was a babe in the family. They all loved me, prayed
for me, and watched over my soul with fatherly solicitude.

In the Old Town Church in Baltimore, to which I belonged,
there was a very zealous class of pious young men, who had
engaged to hold prayer-meetings in various parts of the city,
of evenings, during the week. They took me into their num-
ber, and often put me forward to lead the meetings, and to
deliver a few words of exhortation. However great the cross,
I did not dare to refuse, for, as I have said, I had brought
myself under a promise to Robert Fisher that I never would
evade it. These religious exercises were to me a means of
spiritual improvement and consolation. They were a bless-
ing to us all, and they did good in the community, for at our
prayer-meetings many sinners were converted to God, and by
them the Church gained an increase of members.

In a short time, the local preachers — in that day a very
zealous and laborious class of men — began to take me with
them, on Sundays, to their appointments in the country. On

STUDIES CONTINUED UN MY BROTHER'S TAN-YARD. 67

bugIi occasions I was directed to give an exhortation after the
sermon, and to close the meeting with singing and prayer, and
it was not long before they laid on the cross more heavily, for
they called upon me to preach. This was a work which I
felt wholly unable to perform; besides, I was only a proba-
tionary member of the Church. This, it was said by those
preachers, made no difference ; Paul preached in a few days
after his conversion, and the Lord had a work for me to do,
and I must do it. Having surrendered myself to the guidance
of my elder brethren, and being under promise always to bear
the cross, I at last consented to make a trial. Thus led on,
step after step, by means of the Baltimore local preachers, and
the providence of God, I became — before I was a full member
of the Church, and without any Church authority at all — act-
ively engaged in the great work of calling sinners to repent-
ance.

Shortly after my conversion, I entered into my brother Ed-
ward's tan-yard and went to work. I loved my brother, and
wanted to be with him, believing he would be of great service
to me in a religious point of view; withal, I deemed the tan-
ning trade a good one. Yet, after all, I did not believe I
should ever follow that trade, for my heart was now fully set
on the Christian ministry, and I was induced to believe I could
carry on a course of reading, and preparation for the ministry,
along with regular labor. In this tan-yard, therefore, I con-
tinued until the close of the year 1814. During that time, I
■i bard student, and read many Valuable books. Of long
winter evenings, I went to school to acquaint myself with Eng-
lish Grammar. But the Holy Scriptures, Wesley's Sermons,
a ml Clark's Commentary — then coming out in numbers — en-
grossed my chief attention. While thus laboring in the tan-
yard, and carrying on my preparatory studies as best I could,
I -till continued to preach in the country, as opportunity of-
fered; nor did the Lord let me labor in vain. The local
preachers who drew me forth, put me forward, and helped me
on, in my early efforts as a Christian preacher, were all men
of sterling moral worth, and very zealous in the cause of

68 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Christ. All the Methodist Churches in Baltimore, at that
time, were working, pious, and prosperous Churches, and they
were generally under the pastoral care of the leading ministers
of the connection. All the influences then surrounding me,
in my Church relations, were of the right kind to aid me in a
growth in grace, and help me on in the work whereunto I felt
myself called. Methodism in Baltimore, at that time, stood
very high in my estimation.

Here it may he proper to go hack a little. While drinking
the bitter cup of penitential sorrow, and feeling a load of sin
and guilt too intolerable to be borne, I promised the Lord, if he
would grant me the knowledge of salvation, by the remission
of my sins, that I would not only live according to the Gos-
pel — his grace assisting me — in time to come, but would, to
the utmost of my ability, undo all the evil of my past life.
In this state of heart I found forgiveness, and was adopted into
the Divine family, and, for a short time, my cup of joy was
full. But, upon a careful review of the past, I found nothing
to give me joy. My whole career had been one of sin, and all
was past remedy, so far as I was concerned, except one thing,
and that, too, was beyond my power to rectify, unless the Lord
would help me. My brother Richard, about two years older
than myself, had been converted to God, and I, a thoughtless,
perverse youth, about thirteen years of age, by diverting my-
self with his religious exercises, had, in my own opinion of the
matter, caused him to backslide from the Saviour. During the
whole of after life I deeply regretted this awfully wicked act,
and now, since my conversion, as I thought more and more on
the subject, my concern was greatly increased. At last I left
Baltimore, with the consent of my brother Edward, and went
to Ohio, to see Bichard. We talked the matter over, and I got
him to attend all the meetings which I held in his vicinity,
and at the house of my mother, during my stay of about two
weeks. The Lord gave me success; my brother returned to
Christ, and I went home to Baltimore, greatly comforted in my
own soul. In my judgment, God will forgive a penitent
who promises reparation of injuries done to others, so far as

A SOLDIER AGAIN. 69

may be in his power; but if there is a willful failure t6 fulfill
the promise, forgiveness will thereby be forfeited, happiness
destroyed, and the soul be in danger of being lost. In all
cases where reparation to another for injuries done is at all
possible, it must be made; God requires it, and no man, with
safety to his soul, can evade his requirements. Mine was a
case of unusual concern to me. I had injured my own dear
brother, in his soul, by unjustifiable mimicry. He became angry,
fell into sin, and gave up religion. The teaching of Christ, in
such a case, is very alarming. Matthew xviii, 6: "But whoso
shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me. it were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,
and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." To keep
my promise, retain my own justification, if possible, recover
my backslidden brother, and escape the condemnation indicated
by Christ in the foregoing terrible text, were all matters of

, importance to me. My success in winning my brother
back again to Christ was wholly of the Lord. That brother
became a faithful disciple, and, I trust, is now among the
spirits ot'ju-t men made perfect, in heaven.

On returning to Baltimore, and to the labors of the tan-yard,
I resolved on renewed efforts to improve my mind; so I pro-
cured Buch looks as were recommended by my elder brethren.
Bhinn on the Plan of Salvation, Dr. Reed's Essays on the Active

! [ntellectual Powers of .Man, Drew on the Immateriality and
Immortality of the Soul, together with English Grammar, the
Bible, ami the Commentaries, were my constant companions.
: of these wen' very profound works, and to understand
and profit by them required very close application. My ad-
vancement in theological and menial science was bul slow; still,
E mi' progress was made, and my mind became gradually inured
t i bard study. To acquire every kind of knowledge which

Would be serviceable to me ID the Christian ministry, and to

enjoy and practice vital godliness, wire, at this time, tHe great
of my life, and nave been, in the main, ever since.
During the Bummer of 1814, the British took Washington,
and burn«d the National Capitol and all the public Imildings. A

70 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

little after, they took Alexandria, and on the 12th of September
commenced an attack on Baltimore. This was a trying emer-
gency ; martial law was proclaimed, and all the citizens put un-
der arms to defend the city. I was called out of the tan-yard,
and away from my books, again to be a soldier. Both of my
brothers went into service at the same time. Our army was
large, and well protected by breastworks, extending from the
bay about three miles round, on the east of the city. Our
regiment occupied a commanding position on Federal Hill.
From that point we could see Fort McHenry and the British
ships of war, and every shot from each side during the conflict,
which lasted about forty hours. And there, too, were the land
forces of the enemy in full view, across the valley, on a hill
about two miles off. They did not dare to attack us, because
of our superior numbers. On the second night, it being very
dark and raining, they sent six barges stealthily round to the
rear of the city, to set it on fire ; but, as they were landing, a
little fort hastily erected, of which their guide knew nothing,
opened on them a destructive fire, and it is not certain that any
of them escaped to tell the tale. Then, from that little Spring-
Garden Fort, and from the army on Federal Hill, and from Fort
McHenry there was prolonged cheering. This was the final
stroke, and ended the conflict. I had labored hard five days
in the construction of that little fort, and felt much gratified,
indeed, in its efficiency in turning the tide of battle. Immedi-
ately after the failure of this effort to burn the city, and thus
confuse the army on the hill, all hope for the land forces of the
enemy to get into the city being cut off, a rocket from one of
the ships of war, of a peculiar color, sent up very high and
sloping off down the bay, indicated a retreat. In the morning
the land forces were all gone, and the ships of war retired a
little after daylight. General Samuel Smith was our Com-
mander-in-chief during this struggle ; but in a short time, Gen-
eral Scott took command, and enjoyed the entire confidence of
the army and the community.

In closing this little sketch of war matters about Baltimore,
it may be interesting to give a brief account of a soldier who

A SOLDIER CONDEMNED TO BE SHOT. 71

was condemned to be shot. The crime, as I was informed, was
an attempt upon the life of an officer ; some said that officer
was General Scott himself. But the pistol, deliberately aimed,
missed fire; the man was arrested, tried by a court-martial, and
condemned to die. The day of execution arrived. The place was
on the east slope of Federal Hill, in the head of a hollow. As
we marched out, I was near the prisoner, who was already in a
white shroud, and rode in a cart. A stake was driveu into the
ground, and to it this doomed son of the Emerald Isle was
firmly tied, with a white cap drawn over his face. Nearest to the
culprit were the soldiers, all around the head of the hollow, in
amphitheatrical form. Next to them were the people from the
city and country — an immense multitude. A lane was then
made, along which to fire. Eight soldiers took distance twen-
ty-five paces above the criminal. The officer in command or-
dered them to '-halt! to the right about — face." Then there
was a pause, as if waiting for something; and there stood the
poor condemned soldier in a perfect shiver — every nerve in him
quaked. Then came the order, ' : Make ready, take aim" — and
as each of the eight soldiers looked along his piece, I felt in
my heart an unutterable emotion; and a glance at the multi-
tude revealed the fact that all were deeply moved. Like the
gentle clouds melting into showers, so fell the tears from the
eyes of that great assembly — if ever it rained tears, then was
the time — all expecting the word " Fire ! " Just at that painful
moment a voice was heard, and all eyes were turned to the right.
An officer in full uniform, on a white horse, came at the top of
hie speed, with an open paper in his hand, crying, as he came,
•A reprieve] a reprieve!" The soldiers on duty were coin-
manded to "order arms.'' and the tension of feeling became
somewhat relaxed; a more pleasant emotion followed. Poor
Pal was to have his lite for a prey, and all hearts were glad.
The officer was not long in making his way through the crowd.
Bome "tie informed the condemned man that a reprieve had
eome; hut the news was too good; he could not believe it.
There he stood, trembling as badly as ever. Finally, the officer
with the reprieve dismounted by his side, took oil' the cap. un-

72 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

tied him, and read his reprieve. Then he fell down on the
ground, rolled over and over again, blessed the Lord and Gen-
eral Scott and the Virgin Mary, (for he was a Catholic,) and
seemed almost as if he would die of joy. On this case, a re-
flection or two will be in place: First, if General Scott's par-
don securing natural life, when made known by proper author-
ity, did produce such overwhelming joy, will not God's pardon
to a sinner, who repents and believes in Christ, and is thereby
saved from eternal death, when it is made known to the heart
by the Holy Spirit, be productive of more abundant joy? Sec-
ondly, as that condemned soldier was in a safe state from and
after the time that his reprieve was signed, yet as he knew noth-
ing of it, was very uncomfortable, and needed to have the fact
of his reprieve made known by proper authority, in order to
his happiness ; so, in my opinion, a truly penitent sinner, whose
faith in Christ is very weak, may be in a safe state, and yet have
little or no comfort. The fact of forgiveness must be witnessed
to the heart by the Spirit of God, before there is "all joy and
peace in believing." Thirdly, as that soldier's pardon spread
joy through the immense multitude, then and there assembled,
so will the pardon of a truly penitent sinner, who hangs his all
for time and eternity on Christ, by faith, give joy to the Church
upon earth, and spread an exulting tide of joy all through
heaven. "Likewise I say unto you, that joy shall be in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine
just persons which need no repentance."

In the first love-feast which I ever attended in Baltimore — a
most spiritual and interesting meeting — I found much to en-
courage and strengthen me. It occurred shortly after the great
camp-meeting, at which I found the Saviour. Not only was I
profited by what I heard from advanced Christians, male and
female, and from young converts, but at times I was very much
amused. Many allusions were made, during- the meeting, to the
great sermon preached by brother Shinn, on the Suuday morn-
ing of the camp-meeting, all going to show the high apprecia-
tion of the spirituality of that great and good man's Gospel
labors. One elderly lady, of very fine appearance, a German by

FIRST LOVE-FEAST IN BALTIMORE. 73

descent, in broken English, said many fine things of this remark-
able sermon. Then, in something of an ecstasy, she concluded
by adding, that " it was as easy to tell the difference between a
preacher vat preached over the spirit, from one vat preached
over the letter, as it was to tell the difference between pone-
bread and pound-cake." Aly own heart had to say that this
witness is true. Even the poor and uneducated in human learn-
ing, if they have been taught in the school of Christ, can
easily distinguish a sermon full of the marrow and fatness of
the Gospel from one filled with literary quibbles and philosoph-
ical speculations; for what is the chaff to the wheat?

I sat far back in the church, and just in front of me there
was a large Irishman, a member of the Church, who, at times,
was' very much excited. Several times he rose to speak ; but,
others having the floor, he had to sit down again. At last he
got a chance, and spoke in about the following manner : " The
brethren, in their wisdom, have ordained that I should come
here to-night and make a confession." At such a time and
place, "the Lord converted my soul, and for awhile I was ex-
ceedingly happy ;. but occasionally had some trials. If I but
took a glass of bitters in the morning, my conscience was ill at

'■ about it all the day. But I grew in grace until I thought
the Lord had sanctified my soul. I got so far on that I could
take; lour or five glasses of hitters in the morning, before break-

t, and go on my way rejoicing. And what do you think,
brethren? The other day a man hauled me home, on his dray,
from the wharf, dead drvitlkl 0, my brethren, the devil had
deceived me until I mistook the hardening of my conscience by
crime for a growth in grace. Will the brethren bear with me,
and pray for me? and, by the help of God, I '11 not let the devil
deceive me again." This man's confession was made in a droll
way; it amused me very much. Is it not possible that many
Church members have, like this Irish brother, been deceived by
the devil until they have mistaken a hardened conscience for
entire sanctification ? To (be damning sin the professor holds
fast until conscience becomes hardened, and chides no more;
then on he goes, as he supposes, to heaven, when/ in fact, ho
5

74 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

is really going to hell. It takes afflictions and calamities, along
with the Spirit and truth of God, to wake such professors from
their criminal slumbers, and bring them back to Christ.

In the early part of the year 1814, I was received into full
membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. This act led
to a new consecration of myself to Christ and his cause. Al-
most immediately after this, in the old Conference-room, in the
rear of the Light Street Church, the Quarterly Conference
granted me license to preach. This led to new eiforts to pro-
pare myself for the work before me, in the vineyard of the
Lord. My having preached for some time without license was
not brought before the Quarterly Conference as an objection
against me, but was rather urged as an argument in my favor,
for it indicated a disposition to work, and they wanted men who
would work. From this time to the end of the year I labored
with the rest of the Baltimore local preachers. We kept up
appointments to the distance of twenty miles in the country,
all around Baltimore, often preaching two and three times a
day on Sunday, and returning home at night to hear preaching
in the city. These local preachers, who labored so extensively
in the country, had never been itinerants. They worked for
nothing ; they paid at livery stables the hire of the horses they
rode ; they paid the city preachers. They were a noble-hearted
set of men. Never shall I forget James Armstrong, James R.
Williams, Joseph Shane, and several others, my fellow-laborers,
whose names are in the Book of Life. All these dear brethren
have died in the faith ; all my old classmates have passed away
to the heavenly country; my dear brother Edward, who was a
counselor, helper, and friend to me, in the days of my spiritual
childhood, is now among the saved in heaven. Old age has at
last overtaken me, and I hope soon to join my friends. ^

1IT FIRST ITINERANT SERMON. 75

CHAPTER V.

My First Itinerant Sermon— The Negroes Sleeping in Meeting— My Design in going
ob A\m Abundbl Gibcum— Jackson's Victory— Peace Restored— The General
Joy— Not being Recommi ndbd io Confebence, I Return to Work and Study— Was
Immediately Called to Prince George's Circuit— The Horse— The Money— My
Colleagues— The Circuit— The Bilious Fever and its Cause— Kind Friends who
Cased fob me in my Afflictions— Chambersbubg Circuit— My Colleagues— My
[ding Bldkb— Carlisle Circuit— My Colleague— Much Opposition— Success in
Gettysburg— The Infidel Converted— A Marriage Extraordinary— Stafford Cib-
mii My Assistant— The Various Sects— The Camp-Meeting— How Methodists
al that day regarded slavery.

On the 1st of January, 1815, my itinerant life commenced,
OD Anne Arundel Circuit, in the state of Maryland. At the
call of Rev. Daniel Stansbury, and being prompted by my
brother Edward, I left the tan-yard, my home, and Baltimore
friends, to meet brother Stansbury, at eleven o'clock A. M.,
on New- Years day, to travel this circuit with him, until the
approaching Conference in March. But, alas for me! Stans-
bury did not meet me, according to our appointment. So, I
had to preach myself, and found the cross most uncomfortably
heavy. The meeting was held in a farm-house, (name forgot-
ten ) in a large room, with a corner chimney; and there was a.
very large lire, made of hickory wood aboul half seasoned. There
was an excellent turnout of the young people of the neigh-
borhood that day, for the Bleighing was good, and the house
crowded. 1 Btood with my back against the front dour,

and, over to my right, the colored ] pi'' b1 1 with their backs

linst the wall, all the Beats being occupied by the white ladies
ami gentlemen, With much fear and trembling, the Ben i
were opened, and, after singing and prayer, the text was read
and the sermon commenced. En a little time, I discovered that
the young people of that assembly were all very much amused,

76 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and inclined to elbow one another, and to titter, in a suppressed
way, all over the house. This produced great confusion and
embarrassment in my mind, for I supposed they were laugh-
ing at my awkwardness. But, a glancing of their eyes toward
the colored people revealed the secret : they were all asleep
as they stood on their feet! Coming out of the cold into that
warm room, the heat of the young hickory fire had wilted them
down. With heads hanging over their breasts, a little 4o one
side, eyes about half closed, mouths somewhat open, tongues a
little protruded, knees going apart, and backs scraping against
the wall, down they were going, lower and lower, when I saw
them. In a moment, these sleepers, as if by concert, all started
up at once, and blew, as if a little scared. Having found out
the cause of the mirth among the young people, my embarrass-
ment left me, and I proceeded with my discourse, but had not
e-one far before all looks gave indications of rising mirth again.
That time all the colored people kept awake but one. He was
a tall, slender, well-dressed mulatto — a waiting man — standing
against the door that opened into the kitchen. As he sunk
down, with knees parting, "eyes half closed, tongue a little out,
his hard breathing amounting almost to a snore, all eyes were
upon him, and the mirth of the colored people was at least
equal to that of the whites. He went down so low that I
thought he certainly would come to the floor. Again he
straightened up and blew, and, looking wildly around the room,
he seemed to brace himself for a more determined resistance
against sleep. Then the smothered titter of the assembly al-
most reached the point of open laughter. So far, I had main-
tained my gravity, but felt afraid to reprove, as I was a young
man; so I went on, with my sermon as soon as quiet was restored.
But the hot hickory fire wilted down the yellow waiter a third
time. With all the evidences of sleep on him that he had be-
fore, he sunk down quite to his "hunkers," and the snore was
heavy. We all looked for him to fall right out on the floor;
but he caught himself going, and sprang until his head went
nearly to the ceiling, and, coming down, he whistled like an
old buck. Finding what he had done, he opened the door into

jackson's victory. 77

the kitchen, and away he went, leaving the whole assembly con-
vulsed with laughter. This time I lost my gravity, and joined
in the laughter with the rest. This ludicrous occurrence took
place during the preaching of my first itinerant sermon. I
have never seen the like since, and hope I shall never see the
like again. Why did I not restrain myself? Why did I not
admonish the people? Alas for me! at that time I had not the
nerve to do either. After a little time to collect my thoughts,
this much-disturbed congregation gave me a patient and re-
spectful hearing to the end of my discourse, which I deemed
prudent to close with all convenient dispatch.

Revs. James Reed and Daniel Stansbury were colleagues on
Anne Arundel Circuit. Stansbury came that night; and until
the 1st of March I traveled with him, in view of gaining all
the in formation I could in relation to itinerant life, its sacrifices
and duties. Perhaps I did more than my share of the preach-
ing and meeting of classes, but did not complain, as I was un-
der pledge, from the outset, always to bear the cross whenever
my elder brethren laid it upon me. Above all other things, I
felt at that time a most intense desire to be useful to the souls
of my fellow-creatures, to build up the Church, and to glorify
Christ. I felt that this was my calling, and that to walk worthy
of such a high calling did require the utmost circumspection
and prayer. Brother Stansbury was neither methodical nor
powerful in his pulpit efforts; but he was a man of great zeal
in all his exercises, and had considerable success in his minis-
try. He had great faith — was powerful in prayer. The longer
I was with him, the more rioved him, for he was of an excel-
lent spirit. In him I learned to understand how it is that weak
preachers often do the most good. Being more faithful and
holy than men of stronger talents, and more diligent in attend-
ing t<> nil parts of the work assigned them, God gives them
more abundant success than he will to the man of great talents,
who preaches his great sermons and then neglects all the other
duties of his charge.

While on Aunc Arundel Circuit, the news came of General
Jackson's victory over the British at New Orleans. Then, too,

78 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

came the news of peace between the United States and Great
Britain. These two important events filled our entire country
with great joy, and were, every-where among the Churches, cel-
ebrated with appropriate thanksgivings to God. At last, Con-
ference came. Not being recommended to that body for em-
ployment, I went home to Baltimore, intending, if spared, to
work and study another year in the tan-yard. But, on the rise
of the Conference, Rev. Enoch George, Presiding Elder, sent
Rev. Joshua Wells after me, to supply a vacancy on Prince
George's Circuit. After consulting my brother and a few other
friends, I determined to respond favorably to this call. The
first thing was to secure a good horse. One was immediately
purchased by my brother Edward, and presented to me. "Now,"
said he, " you will need a little mon^y in the outset, until you
can get to your circuit, and be entitled to pay. This horse can
earn you all the money you need, in about two weeks. So, a
cart was hired of one of the neighbors, at twenty-five cents per
day, and a young man to drive it, at fifty cents per day ; and for
about two weeks, while my other preparations were being made,
that young man, with the horse and cart, finding constant em-
ployment on the wharf, earned me from two to four dollars per
day, clear of all expenses. Finally, the day arrived for me to
be off to my circuit. To leave Baltimore, where I had so many
kind Christian friends, and go out among strangers, was, to me,
a trial of considerable magnitude. On the morning before I
left home, I paid short visits to such friends as were near at
hand, to bid them farewell. To me it was a tender time ; I could
not restrain my tears. The last one I visited was sister Mitch-
ell, a real mother in Israel. She had often said to me, that, un-
less I changed my vehement and vociferous manner, my life
would be the forfeit. That morning, she took my haud, at part-
-iug, and holding it firmly, she said: "Brother George, before
you go, I want to give you a bit of advice. Will you take it?"
"Well, sister Mitchell," said I, "what is it? I'll take it if I
can." Holding my hand with a still firmer grasp, she said :
" But you must take it, and I want you to promise me now,
before we part, that you will take it." "Well," said I, "do

CALLED TO PRINCE GEORGE'S CIRCUIT. 79

tell me. if you please, what it is, and I *11 take it if I can. - '
"Now," said she, "'mind what I say: when you get out to
preaching on a circuit, meeting the classes, and 1 laboring in the
prayer-meetings, take very good care of yourself, and do n't
hurst your gall." At this droll advice I felt a little amused,
but promised compliance, and took my leave of this plain-
spoken Christian lady. The advice had much meaning in it.
Solid sense, sound piety, and a less vehement and vociferous
manner would save the "gall," and the life too, of many a poor
Methodist preacher.

That morning I left the house of my beloved brother Ed-
ward, for the itinerant field^ He and his excellent wife and all
the children, with warm hearts, wished me prosperity and hap-
piness in my new and important undertaking ; so did many of
my Christian friends, and others, as I passed up Baltimore
Street. It was a time of many tears with me — parting with
those I loved so well, and' with whom my earliest religious asso-
ciations were formed. That day, in attempting to ride a branch
of* the Patuxent River, finding it rather deep, I halted to let
my horse drink, and while I was looking across, and up and
down the river, to see if there was a ferry-boat, my horse, be-
ing warm witli travel, laid down in the water, and the current
swept clear over him, wetting me up to my waist. I got him
up, and crossed in a boat; and, disagreeably wet as I was, held
my way until I reached Bladensburg, in the evening. By
that time my clothes had dried on me, and being called into
service by some warm-hearted Metbodists, I preached that night
witli more than usual liberty. The next day I found myself
within the bounds of Prince George's Circuit, ami at the quar-
terly-meeting on Saturday was introduced to my two colleagues,
Revs. Thomas C. Thornton, preacher in charge, ami John

Child- bant, and, by their joint request, I tried to j>!'e;ich

the opening sermon. The cross was exceedingly heavy as I ap-
proached it; but when the first prayer was over, I found the
r "f man, that always bringeth a Bnare, had letfl me. 1 could
oof believe thai where there was so much fervenl prayer, there
could be much captious criticism ; so, with the Master's help, I

80 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE

had great liberty in preaching, and there was a heavenly state
of religious feeling among the people.

Prince George's Circuit lay between the Chesapeake and the
Potomac Rivers, and extended from Washington City and Bla-
densburg to Point Lookout. We had preaching in a farm-
house on the Point, in full view of the junction of the two
rivers; I suppose near the place where the United States Hos-
pital now stands. Ours was a six-weeks' circuit, and we three
followed each other at the distance of two weeks, going down
on the Potomac side, and coming up on the Chesapeake side ;
and it was said by my colleagues tbat our traveling would be
so zigzag in its character, that each of us, to complete one
round, would have to travel six hundred miles, or about one
hundred miles a week. We had several small towns in our cir-
cuit, such as Upper Marlboro, Port Tobacco, Leonardstown,
etc., but at that time we had not planted Methodism in them.
The Roman Catholic and Protestant Episcopalian were the lead-
ing denominations ; and it would have been hard to tell which
was the greater, their bigoted attachment to their own respective
parties, or their determined opposition to the Methodists. Com-
mon sinners and open infidels drank in the spirit of these
Churches; so, Methodism had the honor to be persecuted on
all sides. Under these, and all other kinds of disadvantages,
evangelical piety, as maintained by the Methodists, gained con-
siderable growth that year. In general, our people were poor,
and a great portion of the country was poor, sandy, and worn-
out, producing but little for the subsistence of man or beast.
As for myself, I always fared very well, for they had plenty of
fish, oysters, and fowls, brought from the rivers and creeks, to
supply my wants. These, with a little corn-bread and a cup of
tea, which they generally had, did well enough for me while
among the humble poor; indeed, they seemed to be real luxu-
ries, because they came with such a good-will. But I often
pitied my horse, for he could not live on what they were ac-
customed to give their little sandy-ground ponies. I have often
been asked by the servant, when I arrived at my appointment,
which I would have for my horse — " two bundles of blades now,

THE BILIOUS FEVER AND ITS CAUSE. 81

and six ears of corn at night; or sis ears of corn now, and two
bundles of blades at night?" "Well," I would say, "you see
my horse is large; let him cool a little, and then give him the
two bundles of blades and six ears of corn all now, and then,
when night comes, we'll see if he wants any more." When
night came, to the astonishment of the servant, my horse always
wanted at least as much more ! But there were parts of the
circuit where the land was better, and produced an abundance.
There we had a compensation for what we suffered in poorer
districts ; but the rich members could not possibly be more free
with what they had than were the poor, nor were they more
pious. Taken altogether, these persecuted Methodists on Prince
George's Circuit were an exemplary community of Christians.
They lived like lambs among wolves, were wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves.

On this circuit I had a sore spell of bilious fever. As I
came up on my first round, T. C. Thornton met me, and pro-
posed a change : he would fill my appointments up toward Wash-
ington City, and thai would give him a chance to get mar-
ried, the following week, in the city, and T must turn back and
fill his appointments down the country. Well, to oblige my
superior, I agreed to the change. But in this change there was
a double wrong — one to me, and the other to the circuit. I
was thrown back, and kept too long in the lowlands, where I
took the bilious fever, which held me about two weeks, and
then tapered off with eleven weeks of ague and fever — a sad
injury to me. Meantime, Thornton utterly failed to fill my
appointments according to agreement. So, the circuit was in-
jured. The circuit, or rather the upper end of it, did not
recover from this injury to the end of the year; and my con-
stitution was 80 shaken and predisposed to disease, that the aguo

and (ever returned on me for three summers in succession. I
11 always have can e to remember brother Thornton's mar-
riage, ami the injury resulting to myself and the circuit.

It will be proper, in this place, to record my gratitude to
several kind friends, At the bouse of Miss [Jetty Cant, during
the first two week- of illness, I received all necessary attention

82 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and care from that excellent Christian lady and those of her
household. Being much concerned about the work assigned
me, I went out to my field of labor too soon, and took a re-
lapse. I was then taken to the house of brother James Friend,
where he and his amiable wife had me well cared for during
several weeks. They lived at the Navy-yard in Washington
City, and I regarded them as true disciples of our Lord. But
my recovery was slow at that place, and Bev. William McKin-
ney, by consent of brother and sister Friend, took me to his res-
idence in Georgetown. There I was on higher ground, had
purer air, and my recovery was more rapid. Never shall I for-
get the kind attentions of brother McKinney and his good wife.
But not until late in the fall was I able to resume my labors
on the circuit. In all my sickness I had good doctors, good
nurses, kind friends, and a merciful God to help me, in every
time of need. That long affliction did me a real spiritual good.
God meant all that I suffered in body, for the good of my soul.
How often does our Heavenly Father find it necessary to teach
poor, frail mortals a lesson of humility and resignation on a bed
of affliction, which they were utterly unwilling to learn any-
»where else ! How often has it been good for me that I have
been afflicted! During the year, Enoch George, my Presiding
Elder, acted the part of a father to me, and both my colleagues
were kind. I loved them, and easily forgave the wrong done
me by brother Thornton, in keeping me too long in the sickly
region, where I took the fever.

Conference met in March, 1816, in Georgetown, D. C, at
which time I was received into the traveling connection, and ap-
pointed to Chambersburg Circuit. Bev. Bobert Wilson was
preacher in charge. He was an able minister, a pious Christian
gentleman, a real friend to me, and very useful in his laborious
efforts to build up the Church. At the end of six months he
was released, in consequence of feeble health, and Bev. John
W. Bond, who had been the traveling companion of Bishop As-
bury, was appointed in his place. Bond was a man of fine tal-
ents, ardent piety, and was untiring in his labors. To me he
was very kind, and we often took sweet counsel together. Our

MY PRESIDING ELDER. 83

circuit extended from near Harper's Ferry, up the valley, on
the Maryland side of the Potomac, into Pennsylvania, a little
beyond Chambersburg, and included a number of towns, such as
Sharpsburg, Williamsport, Chambersburg, Hagerstown, Green-

-tle, Mercersburg, etc. Among the denominations of Chris-
tians in tbat region, the Methodists were, at that time, just
beginning to gain a prominent standing. The Lutherans and
Presbyterians looked upon them with a jealous eye, and would
have kept them down if they could. Those who joined the
Methodists from among those bodies generally had to suffer
persecution. That year we had a most fruitful camp-meeting,
and the revival which commenced at that meeting extended to
nearly all the appointments on the circuit. There were large
accessions to the Church in Chambersburg, Hagerstown, Wil-
liamsport, and several ether places, and the work went on to
the end of the Conference year. Rev. Jacob Gruber was our
Presiding Elder. He was a man of great physical energy, good
mental powers, pretty well cultivated, and a most ready and
powerful preacher of the Gospel. Never did I know a greater
wit. a more eccentric minister, or one more laborious in his ef-
forts to get sinners converted and to build up the Church of
Christ. At camp-meetings he was a real general, ably marshal -

; all his forces. Sometimes he remained in the altar, super-

intending the work, the entire night, always requiring the pres-

e and help of his preachers. It was a rule with him never

t i permit a gun to be fired from the stand, at the great con-

ion, that would not go off in the altar, among the mourn-

Revivals followed Gruber wherever he went, lie had

many warm friends and some bitter enemies. My Colleague,

brother Bond, had not the eccentric genius of Gruber; nor had
he hi- ability to manage the multitude on great occasions; hut
hi- equal in zeal and perseverance in the greal work of
ing souls. These men had great influence with me in mold-
ing my character and habits as a preacher. Who could look

Upon the untiring diligence ;nid faithfulness of G ruber and
Bond, and not feel in his soul that a ministerial drone w.i.- a
real nuisance in the Church of the Lord'.'' My year closed

84 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

pleasantly and profitably on Chambersburg Circuit. I had many
friends, and if I bad any enemies, I did not know it. That
year was a season of mercy and peace to me, and to the
Churches on that circuit.

In March, 1817, I received an appointment in Baltimore to
Carlisle Circuit, in Pennsylvania. Rev. Richard Tydings was
the preacher in charge, and Gruber the Presiding Elder. The
circuit lay in the Cumberland Valley mainly. It included
Carlisle, Shippinsburg, Gettysburg, York, and sundry other
towns of smaller note. It extended over to the Susquehanna
River at Harrisburg, and was quite a large and laborious cir-
cuit to travel. In the bounds of this circuit we found all the
various denominations of Christians, and none of them, save the
United Brethren, seemed to have any friendship for the Meth-
odists. At that day, Methodist preachers were held up to pub-
lic scorn, by many of the clergy, as the deceivers that should
come in the latter days ; as preaching false doctrine, to lead
astray, if it were possible, even the very elect. He who joined
the Methodists from any of the older denominations in that
region, had to make up his mind to bear a heavy cross and
sufi'er much persecution.

Nothing daunted by the opposition and bigotry to be met
with in that district of country, Tydings and I entered upon
the labors of the year on Carlisle Circuit. We both preached
the full and free salvation of the Gospel, and tried to live as
we preached. God, in mercy, opened our way, and gave us
access to the hearts of the people, and in almost all parts of
the circuit there was a revival of religion that year. Many
sinners were converted to God, the Churches were edified, and
the borders of Zion considerably enlarged. That year we es-
tablished a Church in Gettysburg, under rather trying circum-
stances. The previous year a trial had been made, but failed.
The man who entertained the preachers, being poor, would do
it no longer. So, Tydings and I, after consultation, determined
upon trying Gettysburg another year, and that we would pay
our own way at Gilbert's tavern. Our preaching was in the
court-house, on Sunday evenings. We had to preach twice in

THE IXFIDEL CONVERTED. 85

the daytime, and ride eighteen miles; then our third sermon
was in Gettysburg, at night. God at last gave us favor among
the people. , The court-house was crowded to its utmost ca-
pacity, and a glorious revival of religion followed. Ever since
that year there have been plenty of comfortable houses for
.itinerant preachers in that place, recently made so fxmous by
what will be known in history as the great battle of Gettysburg,
where the rebel army, under General Lee, was defeated by the
loyal army, under General Meade.

While this interesting revival was in progress, a Jewess — ■
whose husband, a merchant, was a confirmed infidel, and had not

in at any place of public worship for thirteeen years — became
a convert to Christianity and joined the Church. Her whole
heart was deeply enlisted in the cause of Christ, and she had
also a very tender concern for the salvation of her husband,
and expressed to me a desire that I would pay them a visit,
and converse with him, and try to win him over to Chris-
tianity. At the same time, she cautioned me not to be offended
at any treatment I might receive from him, for she could not
exactly tell how he might act toward me, for he was not very
well pleased with her joining the Church. I was just about •
leaving town, but concluded to visit him before I would go.
When I went into his store, and was introduced to him by his
wife, he immediately entered upon a tirade against Christianity,
alleging that the whole system was a congeries of absurdities,
■rly incapable of proof, and unworthy of belief by men of
reason. He then produced one of his infidel books, written by
a man whose name was Monday, and pronounced it unanswer-
able. Having never seen the book before, and not paving time
then to enter into argument, I proposed to him that I would
take his book and read it carefully, and prepare myself to an-
swer all Monday's strong points when I came back, in four
provided he would take a book — Simpson's Plea — which
I had with me, and prepare himself, against my return, to an-

■ t David Simpson's Plea for the Christian Religion. To
this he agreed, with an air of confidence that he would be aide

■

to answer Simpson, or any other hook written in defense of

86 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Christianity. So we parted for that time. In four weeks I re-
turned, having done my best to be ready to answer all the slip-
pery, serpentine sophism of Monday. When I entered the
store, I found the infidel store-keeper lying on the counter,
reading Simpson. On seeing me, he said, with tears in his eyes:
"You need not trouble yourself to answer Monday; Simpson
has answered me and Monday, too. I give the matter up.
Christianity is true, and I have myself been deceived nearly
all my life." Whether this man, whose name I have forgotten,
ever joined the Church or not, I can not say, for I was then
leaving the circuit. This was a victory gained for the Lord by
means of a book. how important it is for Methodist preach-
ers, wherever they go, to have on hand a good supply of the
right kind of books! What could I, a mere stripling, have
done with such a man as that without the aid of Simpson's
Plea ? I think I could have answered Monday ; but, perhaps,
not to the satisfaction of the infidel. It was the Lord who
made use of Simpson's Plea to convert that sagacious unbeliever
to the Christian faith.

During the year spent with my excellent colleague, Richard
Tydings, on Carlisle Circuit, many cases of the conversion of
very hardened sinners occurred. We were called to preach at
a new place, about six miles west of Gettysburg. A wealthy
sinner, an oppressor of the poor, a noted money-shaver, one
whose lust had done much mischief in the community, was pow-
erfully awakened under the preaching of my colleague. His
distress was great and of long continuance. He had a large
family, and most of the members of it were under concern tor
their souls. This Zaccheus had restitution to make, and he
could not be saved until he came under a pledge to the Lord to
make it. He invited preaching to his house ; and after brother
Tydings had delivered a faithful discourse, he stood up in the
congregation and declared his determination to lead a new life,
and to undo, to the utmost of his ability, all the evils of his
past life. "I have raised a large family of children," he said;
"but the mother of these children is not my wife — we have
never been married." This piece of information was astound-

STAFFORD CIRCUIT. 87

ing to all present; even the children knew nothing of the fact.
He then and there proposed being married to the mother of his
children, for he felt that the first reparation of wrong must be
made at home. The father and mother then stood up before
their children, and, in the presence of all the assembly, were
duly married by my colleague. This being done, the whole
family were baptized and received into the Church as probation-
ary members. Such cases as the above clearly demonstrate the
power of the Gospel to save the chief of sinners. Richard
Tydings is still a sojourner among men. He resides in Ken-
tucky, and should he ever see this notice, would, undoubtedly,

e corroborating testimony to the material facts in this and
all the other cases referred to in relation to our joint labors on
Carlisle Circuit.

At the Conference in March, 1818. I was appointed to Staf-
ford Circuit, in Eastern Virginia. This year, having been or-
dained a deacon, I was placed in charge, and Richard McAllis-
ter, my assistant. He was a Pennsylvanian by birth — a very
interesting young man, of good natural talents, considerable
mental cultivation, ardent piety, and fine preaching abilities.
In the outset of his religious career, he had suffered banishment
from his father's house, on account of having joined the Meth-
odists. This act of his life, in the estimation of his father —
who was a man of great wealth, pride, and bigoted attachment
to a different creed — had degraded him so low that one house
could no longer hold them both. Richard in"! to go into ban-
ishment. Thus Bternly driven from home, he went to Baltimore,
and there I became acquainted with him. lie seemed to have
in him the spirit of a martyr, and to be ready to sufrender his
liti' rather than abandon his Methodistical views of Christianity.
li- was, however, in a short time recalled, and became the
mean-, under God. of the. conversion of both his parents, and
entered the itinerant field with the full consent of both father
ami mother, who, on being converted to God, did then
join the MethodiBl Kpiscopal Church, and gloried in having a
Bon in the mini-try among that once-despised people.

Our circuit lay between the IV md the Rappahannock

88 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Rivers, and included the counties of Fauquier, Prince William,
Stafford, and parts of King George and Culpepper, where, of
late, the mustering hosts of loyalty and rebellion have often
met in deadly conflict. In this district of country, the Meth-
odists, though equal in standing and numbers to any single
denomination of Christians, were, nevertheless, still " the sect
every-where spoken against." Infidels despised them because
they were witnesses against infidelity ; that it loved darkness
rather than light, because its works were evil. Proud, High-
Church Episcopalians, who rested in the outward form of godli-
ness, and denied the power thereof, despised them ; because, in
addition to the form, they taught mankind a powerful spiritual
religion, coming home to the heart and saving the soul. The
Baptists, in that day real Antinomians, despised them, because
they insisted on good works as evidence of saving faith — held to
infant baptism — that sprinkling and pouring, in baptism, were
equally as good as immersion — that the whole world stood re-
deemed unto God by the death of Christ — and that as certainly
as angels and our first parents fell from the Divine favor, so
certainly might true believers fall from grace. The Roman
Catholics, drunkards, profane swearers, Sabbath-breakers, and
all classes of sinners, all seemed to have their reasons, such as
they were, for despising the Methodists. In that day, there was
no such thina; as fraternal intercourse between ministers of other
denominations and Methodist preachers, as there is now. To
have helped us at our meetings would have been, in their view
of the matter, to have made themselves common or unclean.
But Richard and I, both of us young men, each having much
to learn, had a good, sturdy-souled membership in the Church
to shout us on. "We studied the questions at issue between the
Methodists and all other parties well. We deemed self-defense
always in order ; and taking on us the whole armor of the Lord,
as fully as such young men could, we went forth to the conflict,
in the name of Him who came into the world to destroy the
works of the devil; and the Lord working with us and confirm-
ing the word of His grace, we had a good degree of success.
Many sinners were born again unto the Lord, and the borders

HOW METHODISTS REGARDED SLAVERY. 89

of Zion were considerably enlarged. It was a year of revival
pretty much throughout the circuit. No man ever had a more
agreeable or trustworthy colleague than I had that year. Rich-
ard and I were like David and Jonathan — of one heart and
mind in the work of the Lord. But my dear Richard now rests
from his labors.

In the summer of 1818, we held a camp-meeting within the
bounds of our circuit, on the land of old brother Fortune. It
was an exceedingly large meeting, very fruitful in converts, and
was made a great blessing to our circuit and other neighboring
charges. At that meeting I saw Rev. John Emory, D. D., for
the first time, who afterward became one of the bishops of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. There, too, I saw that eccentric
genius, Rev. William Cravens, a local preacher in the Church.
Rev. Joseph Fry, Presiding Elder, gave Emory the Sunday
morning appointment. With a voice entirely too weak for such
an immense audience, he preached a most valuable sermon; but
I heard him with pain, because of an impression upon my mind
that not more than one-half of the multitude could hear him.
At tbree o'clock Cravens took the stand. He was a very large
man, with but one eye. His weight was three hundred and
thirty-three pounds ! his voice round, full, and strong. While
preaching, he drank a great deal of water, and handled the

reholders with uncommon severity. They felt the lash as
terribly on their soul- as ever a prior negro did on his back;
and, like the Blaves, they had to take it in comparative silence,
for. at that day, public sentiment still favored the freedom of
the pulpit.

There was at th.it time, in Eastern Virginia, a great abhor-
rence both of the internal and foreign slave-trade. .Men who
bought op and drove slaves to the cotton and rice plantations
in the South, to Bell them there in interminable bondage, were
called "soul-drivers," and v nerally looked upon with in-

effable contempt. For a Methodisl to buy or sell a aegro, ex-
cept to better his condition. v..i- deemed a crime demanding
immediate expulsion from the Church. An instance in point
mi', be given. A colored woman, belonging to Colonel Richard

90 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Beall, of Fauquier County, Virginia, robbed my saddle-bags,
while cleaning up the room in which I slept. This enraged
her master, and he sold her to a slave-driver, to go South. A
slaveholding member of the Church brought charges, and I
had«to conduct a judicial investigation of Beall's case. Every
member of the committee that sat on the trial was a slave-
holder. The Colonel acknowledged the fact charged against
him, but pleaded the aggravating nature of the case. This plea
was not deemed sufficient, and the decision of the slavehold-
ing committee was, that Beall must buy back that woman, or
stand expelled from the Church. To this decision the Colonel
submitted, and did all he could to buy back the woman, but
failed. He spent both time and money in the effort, but could
not buy her back at any price. I then brought the case before
the ensuing Quarterly Conference for advice, as there was much
feeling in the community in relation to the matter. That body
ordered that Beall should make a confession of his crime be-
fore the Church, in the love-feast the next morning, and be
admonished by the preacher in charge, or stand expelled from
the Church. Colonel Beall confessed, with much humility and
many tears, the anger and rashness of the wicked act charged
against him. He was then admonished, according to the decis-
ion of the Quarterly Conference, and so the matter ended, and
Beall, as it were, by the skin of his teeth, retained his member-
ship. This action of the Church on the slave question is here
introduced to show the sentiment and temper of the Methodists
in Eastern Virginia at that day.

The case of Aaron Griggsby will give a further illustration
of the opinions and feelings of the Methodists in Old Virginia
on the subject of slavery at that time. The case now to be
narrated occurred before my arrival on Stafford Circuit, but I
have it from reliable authority, and, in its main points, it was
confirmed to me by Griggsby himself. He was a slaveholder,
a man of the world, and a persecutor of the Methodists before
God converted his soul. After his conversion he became a very
zealous Methodist, and had great concern of mind on the sub-
ject of holding slaves. It was his custom to have his negroes

HOW METHODISTS REGARDED SLAVERY. 91

present at morning and evening worship. One evening, family
prayer being over, he requested them to remain a little while;
he wanled to talk to them. He then referred to his manner of
life before his conversion, and to the fact that he had been very
much opposed to the Methodists, and that in an attempt to take
his own wife out of the altar, at a camp-meeting, he was arrested
by the power of God, and, instead of getting her out. he got into
it himself, and that he and his wife, after a long struggle, were,
within a few' minutes of each other, both converted to God in
that altar which he had once so much despised. He then said,
that ever since his conversion it had been his aim in all things
to be a Christian, according to the best light God had given
him ; and according to his present light, he could not innocently
be a slaveholder any longer. He could not do unto others as
he would have them do unto him, and hold slaves; he must let
the oppressed go free, and break every yoke ; and then, with
great kindness, he said, " From and after this date y,ou are all
free. To remain in Virginia longer than one }-ear and a day,
and enjoy freedom, is out of the question. You would be liable
to be taken up by the sheriff and sold, to go down to the South-
ern plantations, and the money put into the poor fund of the
C ranty. Your only chance lor freedom is, to go either to Mary-
land or Pennsylvania. Make your choice and go, all of you. in
a body." Be then promised to assist them in their removal,
and di> all he could in the way of helping them to begin life
for themselves. All of this was as unexpected to these slaves
a- a clap of thunder from a clear sky. and they all declined the
proffered freedom, ami wished to remain where they were.
<ii .Mid wil'i- never had any children, and since their con-

version had treated their slaves with great humanity — more like
children than slaves — and they did doI want to leave them. En-
id of rejoicing that tie' day id' freedom had come, they
op :i bitter, howling cry in every direction, Baying they "did
' know that the;,- had done any thing to massa, that },<• should
want them tn go away." ■in- thai these poor creatures could
not be induced to aceept of freedom, G-riggsby determined he
would not use compulsion in the matter. BO he let them remain

92 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE."

as they were, under the bond of the law, and treated them after-
ward more like hirelings than slaves. From and after that date
he would not admit that he was, in the moral sens^e of the word,
a slaveholder, as his negroes remained with him not because he
wished them to do so, but because they wished to do so them-
selves.

Poor, foolish negroes ! They did not know the value of lib-
erty to themselves and their children. Slavery had degraded
them. They did not reflect that, at the death of their master,
they might fall into cruel hands, or be sold at any time during
his life, by the officers of the law, to pay his debts. Griggsby
ought not to have yielded to their ignorant wailings; but, un-
der a sense of moral justice, he should have carried out his first
determination, and, whether they liked it or not, should have set
them all free. He who suffers himself to be overcome by the
wail of ignorance, will not, in all cases, be able to carry into
practical effect the principles of moral justice. Yet, after all,
Griggsby might have done better if he had had more light. The
full blaze of light does not come all at once: we gain it grad-
ually, as we are able to bear it. He who acts up to the clearest
light that God gives him, as fast as he gets it, acts nobly. "Who
anion"; the sons of men can do anv better?

Griggsby was a man of great strength of character, of warm
and generous sympathies, and ready at all times to defend the
cause of Christ. Woe be to the person who assailed the Meth-
odists in his presence ! If such an one had any defects in his
character, then was the time to receive information on that sub-
ject. I give the following anecdote as an illustration. A very
pragmatic lady once said to him: "Mr. Griggsby, what do you
think? Them poor, miserable Methodists over at the quarterly
meeting wanted me to join their Church!" "Did they, in-
deed?" said Griggsby. "I wonder what in the world they could
have wanted with you! It could not have been your respecta-
bility they were after, for you have none. It could not have
been your wealth they were after, for you have been living on
the charity of your poor friends ever since I became acquainted
with you.' It must have been your poor soul they icere after!"

HOW METHODISTS REGARDED SLAVERY. 93

Such a retort was richly deserved, but it was, probably, a little
too severe, coming from a gentleman to a lady. Such a case
shows the mau, always ready to make persecuting meanness
quail in his presence.

Edward Diggs, another prominent member of the Church,
always held himself ready to emancipate his slaves, provided it
could be done in the state. But, as the law of Virginia would
not allow this, he held the law to be the sinner, and not him-
self, for his heart was not in unison with the law.

But John Gaston, still another prominent member of the same
Church, thought both the law and the master sinful, and was in
great distress of mind on the question of slavery. One day he
invited me to take a walk with him, and as we walked, he
turned to me and said: "I am afraid I shall be lost. In my
judgment, no slaveholder can be saved. The law will not allow
me to free my negroes in the state. I would free them and
send them out of the state, but can not." "Why can you not
free them and send them out of the state?" said I. "To do
so," he replied, "would part husbands and wives. Their mar-
riages, though informal, I regard as being as sacred and bind-
ing as my own; and they are interlocked by marriage with the
slaves of other people all around me. Nor would it mend the
matter to sell my real estate in Virginia, and move with my
slaves to a free state, to emancipate them there; for that, too,
would pari husbands and wives-. Nor am 1 aide; to buy the hus-
bands and wives owned by others, even if they were willing to
sell them, so as to free all of them together. Now, what am I
to do? The laws of the ,-tate, and the eireuin.-tanees in which
I am placed, embarrass me very much. Can you tell me what
I am to do?" Gaston I regarded as a very honesl man. fully
bent on doing right; bul I was utterly incapable of advising
him in the i ubmitted to my consideration. During our in-
view. he wi pi bitterly over the sad condition in which slavery
had placed him, and expressed, again and again, his fears that
his connection with thai unrighteous institution would eventu-
ate in the 1" Is of his bouI.

I have been very particular in Btating my besl recollections

94 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

of the foregoing cases, in order that it may he clearly seen
that in Eastern Virginia, since 1818, there has been a fearful
apostasy from the principles of human freedom. At that time,
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in some other Churches,
and among statesmen, too, there appeared to he a settled con-
viction that slavery was a great moral wrong, and ought to be
done away. But, by degrees, throughout the entire South, this
apostasy from human liberty and moral justice has proceeded
from bad to worse, until slavery, with all its evils, is fathered
upon the living God as its author ! and the Christian Scriptures
are brought to defend it! And, being rampant and furious,'^
has brought on our beloved country the most gigantic war that
ever afflicted the world. Our country, and the Churches, too
long in complicity with slavery, and other evils, have deserved
this scourge, or God would not have permitted it to come.
From the slaveholding and slave-trading South, God; after long
delay, took off all restraint, and left them at will to act out the
character that slavery had given them. So, despising all the
authority of the best government in the world, they brought on
that war to extend slavery. But now, according to the signs
of the times, God, contrary to the first intention of our rulers,
is about to make use of this war to abolish its very existence
from our entire country. Hail to the President's Proclama-
tion ! Hail to Abraham Lincoln ! Henceforth, all the sons of
Ham will call him blessed. While there is such a thing as
civil history in existence, the name of Abraham Lincoln will be
ranked on the scroll of fame along with the name of George
Washington, as an American benefactor; and all the lovers of
freedom throughout the world will have his name in everlast-
ing remembrance. God gave us, in the person of President
Lincoln, a ruler to suit the times in which we live. May his
wisdom and strength be according to his day, and through his
agency may freedom come to all the slaves, and salvation to the
country ! ,

DIFFICULTY ABOUT THE CHOIR. 95

CHAPTER VI.

Washington Station— Difficulty about the Choir— Revival of Religion— Study or
Greek and Hebrew— Rev. Matthew Brown, D. D.— Wheeling and Short Creek-
Noah Zane— Methodism and Calvinism— Lay Delegation— Dr. David Stanton-
Washington Station Again— My Marriage— Ohio Circuit— Old Bachelors— Insuf-
ficient Support.

In March, 1819, tlie Conference was in Baltimore, and Bishop
Roberts, in view of giving me an opportunity to visit my be-
loved mother occasionally, appointed me to Washington Station.
This was a new station, set off from the Ohio Circuit by Revs.
Asa Shinn, Presiding Elder, and Thornton Flennuing, preacher
in charge, at the close of the preceding year; and they h;'d
placed a choir of singers in the gallery. From the seat of the
Conference, in traveling to the West, I had the very agreeable
company of my Presiding Elder as far as Unioutovfri. Never
BhaU I forget the wholesome lessons of Christian instruction
given me by that pious and able minister of Jesus Christ, dur-
ing the journey through the mountains. When I arrived at
nay destination, brother James Shannon, with whom I was to
board, immediately informed mo that the Church, consisting of
all'. ut on<'. hundred white members and twenty-five colored, was
unhappily divided about the singing — one half for choir sing-
ing in the gallery, and the other half against it. The next
at a large party to which I was invited. I found my-
Belf among the enemies of choir singing, who all Btrove, most
tly, to gain me to their Bide, and secure the overthrow of
the singing. And when they tailed in their effort, they very

gravely informed me that, unless I put the singing down, about

fifty of them would leave the Clntreh. 1 entreated them to
give me a little time for reflection, to do nothing in tin: matter

96 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

hastily, for it might look like presumption, in so young a man
as I, to put down what Asa Shinn and Thornton Flemming, two
venerable apostles of Methodism, had put up. The next even-
ing I was invited out to another party. There I found myself
among the friends of the choir. It was their wish to gain me
to their side, and to have me indicate my approbation of gal-
lery singing, by a public statement from the pulpit. This I
declined doing, and said I should take things as I found them,
and not connect myself with either party in this Church quar-
rel. I was then informed that about fifty of them would with-
draw from the Church, unless I sustained the singing in the
gallery, established by brothers Shinn and Flemming. The
singing party, by their heated and fiery manner, impressed me
with an opinion that, though they were very fond of music,
and could sing very well, they did not pray enough, and were
not as pious as they should be, to lead the singing of a Chris-
tian congregation.

It has always been my opinion that, as the singers in the
gallery lead one part of the devotions of a congregation of
Christians, and the preacher in the pulpit the other, common
sense requires decent propriety among the former, as really as
it requires talent, piety, and good behavior in the latter. Fear-
ing that the choir, in this case, had. somehow or other, misbe-
haved, and thereby given cause of offense to the other party, I
did not even let them know that I had any friendship at all
for choir singing, however well the singers might conduct them-
selves. To let them alone where my elder brethren had placed
them, and keep myself clear of party strife, in view of being
useful to the whole Church, was my object. I had to adopt
my own course, for neither of these parties could be safe ad-
visers.

My plan was simply this: to carry up the case to the living
God for help. So, I determined to visit the entire Church im-
mediately, hear what they had to say, and then have a season
of prayer. When I came to a family who opposed the choir, I
would hear, with the utmost patience, all they had to say;
then inquire, "Is that all?" "Yes." "Well, now let us

REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 97

pray." When I came to a family in favor of the choir, and
very bitter against its opposers, I would hear them, too, with
all due patience, and say, as before, "Is that all?" "Yes."
"Well, now let us pray." After this manner I went through
the whole Church, listening patiently to all parties, until they
were done, and making no other reply than this: "Now let us
pray." All parties, in a short time, began to regard me as a
queer kind of a man, for they would get nothing out of me,
in relation to their troubles, but, "Now let us pray." And in
the pulpit nothing was said by which any one could learn that
we had trouble in the Church, about singing or any thing else.
In that sacred place the pure religion of the Saviour was ex-
plained and enforced; the members were urged to higher at-
tainments in the Divine life, and sinners to seek the salvation
of their souls, for my faith was, that nothing but a revival of
religion would end this bitter strife and save the Church. In
about three months, sinners began to be awakened and con-
verted to God, and, through these conversions, God reached
the Church. All parties became ashamed of their strife, con-

id their folly to one another, and came to the altar as la-
borers in the revival. That year, a camp-meeting at Pike Run,
and another at Castleman's Run, largely attended by our peo-
ple, were made a great blessing to Washington Station. The
work went on all the fall and winter. It got into the gallery
among the singers, all of whom were converted but one. It
led to the country round about Washington, and

bed many who were Calvinistically educated, and whose
connections belonged to other Churches. On various occasions
I ha bigh a- Beventy-five at the altar of prayer at

our time; and about two hundred and .-r\ cnty-five members
added to the Church thai year in my charge. Q-od gave
the Church a better work to do than to contend with one an-
other about choir singing in the gallery. A more harmonious
and loving Church I never saw, and I felt in my beart an in-
expressible love for the spiritual children whom God bad given
me. aiel fur the whole Church. Yet I wafl afraid to return to
them the ensuing year, as, in my opinion, siuh a work, in -iieh

98 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

a community, did require a preacher of more extensive knowl-
edge and experience than I knew myself to possess.

It was my fixed purpose, during the early part of my min-
istry, to go carefully through Murray's English Grammar once
a year, in view of establishing myself in all the rules of correct
speaking and writing. The progress made in this direction was
never satisfactory to myself, and, I suppose, not to others who
possessed much refinement in grammatical knowledge. While
in Washington I commenced the study of the Greek language,
availing myself of the help of a student, Hugh Koontz, who
was in his junior year in the college at that place. My prog-
ress was slow, as I was overburdened with duties; and, not-
withstanding I continued the effort for several years, my knowl-
edge of the Greek — though it saved me from being imposed
upon by those who pretended to more knowledge of that lan-
guage than they really had — never amounted to any thing like
critical accuracy. About the same time, I undertook the He-
brew, being very desirous of understanding the sacred originals
of both the Old and New Testaments. But, as the study of
both languages at once, in connection with my duties as a Chris-
tian minister, in the midst of a glorious revival, proved a little
too heavy for my health, I dropped the Hebrew, and confined
myself exclusively to the Greek. What labor throughout life
is given to the man who enters the ministry with a defective
education! Yet, to meet the demands.of the age in which we
live, this labor must be performed ; and many have performed
it, and have become the giants of the land.

While in Washington, I received much encouragement from
Rev. Matthew Brown, D. B\, pastor of the Presbyterian Church.
He was a liberal-minded Christian geutleman % He often at-
tended our meetings during the revival, and advised one or
two ladies, who were in good standing in his Church, to
join the Methodist Episcopal Church along with their hus-
bands, who had been very intemperate, but had been converted
and joined the Church during the revival. In the midst of so
much surrounding and overshadowing bigotry and intolerance
as then prevailed, such an act of genuine liberality deserves to

WHEELING AXD SHORT CREEK. 99

be recorded by me, to the credit of Dr. Brown. Indeed, such
was the influence of that revival upon the community, that
intolerance in every direction had to lower its sails, and abate
something of the harshness of its tone and manner toward the
Methodists. Still, there were some who were strong, and even
fierce, in the faith that all this revival was of the devil, and
that his Satanic Majesty was my main support in all my labors.
To help on the work in town, I occasionally preached in the
country. One evening, about dark, as I was coming in on the
Wheeling pike from one of my country appointments, I found
myself riding in company with a very jolly Irish woman. As
we entered a little way into the town, she pointed with her
hand off to the right, and said: "What matin'-house is that
down there?" "Methodist meeting-house, ma'am," said I.
■• Is that where that Brown praiches?" said she. "Yes, ma'am,"
said I. "Sure," said she, "if all that the paple tell me be
corrict, the divil must help that man." "Why so?" I asked.
•Why," said she, "they tell me that he can praich, and ex-
hort, and pray, and sing, day and night, wake in an' wake out,
and that the paple can hear him a mile oft', and, sure, no man
upon earth could do that unless the divil did help him." I
tried to get a little more of the same sort, but could not, for
she turned into another street, and so this amusing dialogue
ended.

This poor, ignorant woman was wrong in attributing to the
devil my strength to labor J it came from the Lord. And there
UO protracted meeting, --week in and week mit;" the re-
vival at Washington was carried on at the ordinary meeting-;,
and we oughl to have revivals at our ordinary meetings now.

In March, L820, the Conference was al Alexandria, and I
was appointed to Wheeling and Shorl Creek, in Western Vir-
ginia. These two appointments wire nine miles apart. The
Shorl Creek congregation was strong, while the one in Wheel-
ing was weak, and had lately been in a good deal of trouble
on the Blavery question, llev. John Waterman, my prede-
or, had preached a Bermon againsl the institution of slavery,
whi<h roused the wrath of some of the leading men of the

100 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

place, and Waterman was driven ont of Wheeling by a mob,
beaded by Noah Zane, a wealthy citizen, and James Sprigg, a
lawyer. So, for several months, in that place, the Methodists
bad no preaching. The year before, on going to Washington,
I found trouble, and now, in Wheeling, it did seem that I was
to have trouble again, for I had no way to interpret the Bible
in favor of slavery, and if I came out against it, another mob
might banish me, too, as well as Waterman.

On my first Sunday in Wheeling, after preaching morning
and evening, I announced preaching for Thursday night; and
there was a large congregation for a week night. Among the
rest came Noah Zane, and, wrapped in a large blue cloak, he
took his seat among the ladies, and paid very strict attention,
while I discussed the great question pf moral justice, and
brought it home to the conscience as closely as I could. When
the meeting was dismissed, Zane, whom I bad never seen be-
fore, went out and waited at the door for me. At last he sent
a man to tell me he wished me to go home with him. I
went to the door and declined, saying I had engaged myself
another way. But he would take no denial ; said he had busi-
ness with me, and I must go to his house that night. I felt
some reluctance, knowing how he had used Waterman ; but got
myself released from my other engagement, and went with him,
wondering, as we walked arm in arm together, what business
he could have with me. Finally, he introduced Waterman's
case ; said he was a man of splendid talents, and that he and
Sprigg had greatly misused him, and that he had been ashamed
of his part in the transaction ever since. " But," said he,
" Brown, while you discussed that question of moral justice to-
night, I resolved that I would free two negroes before I would
sleep,, and my business with you is to have you sign tbeir free
papers as a witness. On last Thursday, I sold two colored
women for fourteen hundred dollars, to go to the South, and
next Monday morning they were to have been delivered to the
purchaser. I know I am a wicked man; but still I have a
conscience. I can never put tbat money into my pocket. I
must cancel the transaction, and I will do it tbis night before I

NOAH ZANE. 101

sleep. Your sermon led me to change my mind, and I want
you to witness their emancipation." This is the substance of
what he said, and. as nearly as I can recollect, the very words.
After introducing me to his wife, we went into the library-
room to look at his books. His library was large, and Mr.
Zaue took apparent delight in showing his books and in dis-
cussing the merits of the various authors. At last, he said :
"It is growing late; the family have all retired, and we can't
have prayers to-night, as is our custom when preachers are
with us. We will have prayers in the morning, and in the
morning, too, I will have the emancipation papers ready for
you to sign as witness." So saying, he took a light and con-
ducted me to my sleeping-room. When he left me, I began
to fear that, as he had not freed the slaves before he slept, he
might cool off against morning, and not free them at all.

But, in the morning early, I found Mr. Zaue in the library,
with the papers all ready, and I put my name to them both, as
witness. He then called in the two emancipated women, and told
them that, "for disobedience to their mistress, he had. on last
Thursday, sold them to a Southern trader, to be delivered to him
Monday morning." There he paused, and the women gave
Bigne of alarm. "But," said he, pointing to me, "this is Mr.
Brown, and I want. you to remember him. On hearing him
preach, last night, I changed my mind, and determined to set
you both free, and I want you to remember him as long as you
live, and that you owe your liberty to him." He then gave
h of them a paper of freedom and twenty-five dollars in sil-
ver, and advised them to go immediately to Ohio, and never to
ne within fifty miles of him, as tiny could not retain their
freedom in Virginia. The family were then called in. and we
had morning worship, at which time the Divine blessing was
invoked on .Mr. Zane and bis family, Lot especially on the col-
ored women just now emancipated, and ordered to go forth into
the world and do fur themselves. These freed women were
young, healthy, ami handsome, and I hope freedom proved a
blessing to them. Zane then said to me: "This act of mi
will probably be considered as a political maneuver, to gain the

102 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

votes of the Methodists, as I am now before the public as a
candidate for Congress. But I have freed these slaves in obe-
dience to the dictates of my own conscience, and, that my mo-
tives may not be misunderstood, I will go this day and with-
draw my name from before the public, and be no longer a
candidate." And he did so, for I saw the withdrawal in the
Wheeling papers. Many wicked men have some good things
about them, as tbe foregoing case will show. Sinner as he
was, Noah Zane had a conscience.

The country part of my charge was very prosperous that
year. We gained many converts to the Lord and additions to
the Church, by means of another camp-meeting at Castleman's
Run. We had a loving, faithful, harmonious membership in
the country — a real working Church. Who ever saw a working
Church fail of a revival? Who ever saw a lazy, do-nothing-
Church have a revival? In Wheeling, we had a faithful, work-
ing membership, and a considerable increase by conversions ; but
there was some trouble in the Church, after all. As I only
occupied the pulpit half the time in town, the Presbyterians,
who, at that time, had no house of worship of their own, with-
out fee or reward, occupied our house the other half of the
time. In those days, the controversy between the Calvinistic
Churches and the Methodists, on what was called "the five
points," was rather bitter than otherwise. So, it happened that
in our own pulpit the doctrines of Metbodism were assailed,
and grossly misrepresented, by Rev. James Harvey, and it be-
came necessary to give them the best defense in my power.
In doing this I ventured over a little into the regions of Cal-
vinism, with the Confession of Faith in my hand, to let the
people see how the doctrines of that book would stand in meas-
urement with the Holy Scriptures. In all, I preached six care-
fully prepared sermons on the points of difference between
Methodism and Calvinism. This ended our troubles with our
Calvinistic brethren, for they drew off to another place, and we
pursued our own course in new efforts to evangelize this wicked
world. How glad I am that those days of controversial strife
have measurably passed away, and that a greater harmony now

LAY DELEGATION. 103

prevails among the Churches than in former years. The con-
verts gained to the Church on either side, in the time of a heated
controversy, are more apt to be sectarian bigots than thorough
evangelical Christians. Yet, the risk of all this is incurred,
when the fundamental doctrines of Christianity are assailed,
either by infidels or heretics or mistaken Christians. Every
minister is set for the defense of the Gospel.

In Wheeling, and in the country part of my charge, the ad-
ditions to the Church during the year were about one hundred
and sixty members, many of whom still remain, but others have
fallen asleep. Some of the best Christian friends I ever hatl
in all my life were to be found in the Wheeling and Short
Creek charge. While preaching, on Christmas day, at the Short
Creek Meeting-house, my horse died. This fact was reported
me as soon as I came out of the pulpit, and I felt sad, for he
was a noble animal. But the brethren and outside friends
bade me be of good cheer, for I should soon have another
horse ; and before I left the place they then and there bought
and paid for a horse every way equal to the one 1 had lost, and
uted him to me. Such acts of kindness deserve to be re-
numbered.

On returning to Wheeling, I found in the post-office a circu-
lar, signed Adynacius, addressed to all the itinerant preachers
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in favor of lay delegation
in -:iid Church, and strongly urging this measure upon public
attention. The light contained in this circular was rather
Strong for my eyes; it produced pain. In Methodistical econ-
omy, to which I had been familiarized from childhood, I had
supposed every thing to be exactly right; but now, here was a
circular, powerfully written, going to show that in the govern-
• ii' the Methodist Episcopal Church many things were ex-
actly wrong. After rending the above circular, I felt indig-
nant, and threw it away, hoping never to have another such
production Bent to my address. I wanted Methodism to roll on

a- it was, down to the end of the world. That week I wont to
Bteubenville to attend ;< quarterly meeting, to be held at New-
Year. In the Quarterly Conference, on Saturday, the preacher

104 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

in charge, Rev. Curtis Godard, was charged with maladminis-
tration. A large class, of about forty members, had been ex-
pelled for continuing, contrary to his orders, to hold a class
prayer-meeting on a night that did not conflict with the regular
weekly prayer-meeting of the Church. Their class paper was
burned by his Reverence, and they were all publicly declared to
be no more members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The
Presiding Elder, Rev. William Swazie, gave his opinion in the
case, against the. doings of Godard, and ordered all the expelled
to be publicly restored to membership again. They were ac-
cirdingly restored, as directed by the Elder ; but the case left
in my mind ample materials for reflection on the legal powers
of Methodist preachers, as being so great that sometimes a dom-
ineering spirit is thereby induced, which goes away beyond the
law, into maladministration and tyranny.

I reported the above case to Rev. Daniel Hett, and he laughed
heartily, and said such cases were quite common among Meth-
odist preachers ; and then told me how he had himself once
dismembered a large class, by burning the class' paper and pro-
nouncing all the members out of the Church. They had a
member's case under judicial investigation before the class, and
the whole of the members became unmanageable, and he took
this method to settle the difficulty. He afterward made a new
class paper, and proposed to take all in again who would agree
to behave themselves ; but I think he told me that, only a few
of them came. The rest were all affronted, and well they might
be. To hold one's membership in the Church of Christ at the
mere will of the preacher in charge, liable to be burned out at
any time, to avoid a little trouble, is enough to affront any man
of sense.

But to return from this digression. On Monday evening, all
the preachers were invited to take tea at the house of Dr.
David Stanton, father of Hon. E. M. Stanton, now Secretary of
War. He was a profound thinker — a real practical philosopher.
While at the table, the Presiding Elder, who was always angling
for big fish, said: "Dr. Stanton, are you going to love-feast to-
night?" "Yes," said the Doctor, "it is my design to go."

LAY DELEGATION. 105

"Well," said the Elder, "I wish you would join our Church;
your lady belongs, and we would like to have you, too." For
a moment all were silent. Dr. Stanton then replied, in his own
calm, slow manner: "Friend Swazie, I never shall join your
Church. I like the doctrines and I like the meetings ; but I
never will submit my moral standing to the operations of a
Church government which is wholly in the hands of the clergy."
The Elder then threw himself forward into a rapid illustration
of the principles of the Methodist Episcopal Church govern-
ment, by comparing them to the wheels of a great double-geared
mill. " There is," said he, "one great, all-moving wheel, rolling
on with tremendous energy" — at the same time making a circu-
lar motion with his hand — " which keeps the whole machinery
in motion, and it is the episcopal wheel. Within this wheel
there are sundry other lesser wheels, subordinate in character,
moving on with great efficiency, accomplishing much good for
the Church, and they are the presiding elder wheels. Within
these there are many other wheels, acting with great power,
and accomplishing an immense amount of good, and they are
the circuit and stationed preacher wheels. And within these
are many other smaller wheels, each in its own place, in due
subordination to all the rest, performing its part most benefi-
cially for the Church, and they are the local preacher, ex-
horter, and class-leader wheels. So the whole system moves on
like Ezekiel's vision — wheel within wheel. It is the most per-
fect government that ever was instituted ; and you could not
touch a cog or pin in any of its machinery without doing it
an injury." After this manner, as nearly as I can recollect,
spake the Elder, during which time eating was suspended, or
nearly so, and all waited for the Doctor's reply. In a moment
he said, with a sarcastic; smile, " Aye, and all these wheels to
grind these people." This retort was withering on us all. It
came like a clap of thunder from a clear sky. When no reply
was made by the Elder, the Doctor proceeded: "Gentlemen,"
said he, " your Church government is more arbitrary than the
British government, which our fathers threw off at the expense
of so much blood and treasure, and which was finally banished

106 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

from our land by the sword of our valiant Washington. That
government had three principles in it : the monarchical, the
aristocratical, and the republican. Yours has but two : the
monarchical and the aristocratical. Your episcopacy answers
to the British monarchy; your itinerants, holding power for
life, answer to their peerage, or House of Lords. But they have
a House of Commons, composed of delegates elected by the peo-
ple. What House of Commons have you? Yqu are a house
behind them. I never shall join your Church."

Here the conversation ended, and we all went to the love-
feast, which was, indeed, a queer meeting to me, though others
appeared to enjoy it well. There was much speaking of the
right kind, and the singing was very fine. But my mind was
busy another way. In my imagination I could see all the
wheels, spoken of by the Elder at the tea-table, rolling, and hear
the Doctor's sarcastic retort, "Aye, and all these wheels to grind
the people," ringing in my ears. From and. after that time I
was a convert to lay delegation, and did believe in my heart
that the Methodist Episcopal Church had as much right to a
free representative government as the state ; and that to be a
republican in the state and a monarchist in the Church involved
a contradiction, from which I thought the Church ought to be
delivered as soon as practicable.

The widow of Br. Stanton is still living in Steubenville. She
is a most excellent Christian lady, and a member of the Meth-
odist Protestant Church. About three years ago, she and I com-
pared our recollections of the conversation in her presence at
the tea-table, between Dr. Stanton and the Presiding Elder,
above referred to, and found a perfect agreement between us as
to the facts as I have stated them. And I have no doubt but
lawyer Dunham, of Beaver, if living, would bear testimony to
the accuracy of my statement, for he was present, and, being a
zealous Methodist, must have as deeply felt the mortification of
defeat as any of the rest of us. Indeed, he told me in my own
house, in Pittsburg, in presence of Rev. Z. Ragan, that he did,
and that his recollection of the matter was about like mine.

When I adopted the lay delegation principle, it was not my

WASHINGTON STATION AGAIN. 107

intention to become immediately active in advocating its adop-
tion by the Church. I wanted the question discussed by our
most aged and able ministers, that the Methodist community
might be informed on that subject; and it never entered into
my mind that there would be any objection on the part of the
preachers to such a discussion. Indeed, I thought that the
preachers only needed to see that they had too much power in
the government, and the laity too little, to induce them to adopt
lay delegation. But in this thing I was under a mistake, as I ,
have many times been in other matters; for it was found, upon
fair trial, that the preachers were not willing to have their pow-
ers in the government of the Church publicly discussed, much;
less were they willing to divide their powers by granting the
people lay delegation. I learned all this by slow degrees, as act-
ual experience brought the matter to light. What I knew not
at first I was made to know afterward, very much to my sorrow.
At the Conference, in March, 1821, I was appointed to Wash-
ington again. After an absence of one year — during which
time Rev. John Bear was their pastor — it was pleasant to re-
turn to my warm-hearted and faithful friends in Washington.
In that station God had given me many spiritual children, and
it was very gratifying, indeed, to find thai brother Bear, my
successor, had taken good care of them, and that most of them
e prospering in the Divine life. I could fully appreciate the
language of the Apostle .John, when lie said, " I have no greater
joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth." But
during thai year, SO m;iny of them removed to various parts of
the West, that I was made to Peel sad al parting with them.
Vet. [ should not have felt sad. il' I could have -ecu the hand
Of the Lord IS their removal, as 1 saw it in after years; for I

found them here and there in all the West, doing more service
to th( cause of Chrisl than they would probably ever have done
had they remained in Washington. A few of them became
preachers of the Q-ospel; other-, who were mechanics, settled
in towns, and became prominent members of the Church. Some
1 gh.1 farms in new districts, opened their houses for preach-
ing, and contributed largely to the raising up of new Churches.

108 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

God may have wise designs in the removal of Church members
from one place to another. In one place, well supplied with
active laboring members, there may be no room for a young
class capable of equal activity in the cause of Christ. Now
this young class must either bury their talents where they are,
or remove to another place to find an opening for labor. Such
removals are of Providence, and are meant for the good of the
Church, the glory of Christ, and the welfare of the individuals
who Temove.

This was a prosperous year in "Washington Station, yet not
equally so with my first year in that place. We had preaching
in Claysville, Canonsburg. and at Dr. Moore's, John Scott's, and
other places round about, all opening the way for the forma-
tion of new circuits in after years. I went that year and
labored some time, doing missionary service in the formation of
the Chartiers Circuit, between Pittsburgh and Canonsburg. This
outside work — enough for one man — all came on me, and was
attended to through the week, without materially interfering
with my duties in the station assigned me. Along with all this,
my efforts to acquire a knowledge of the Greek language, under
the instruction of Hugh Koontz, were still continued. In fact,
I felt an ambition — and there is nothing sinful in this word — ■
to improve myself all I could in the knowledge of ecclesiastical
and civil history, in mental and moral philosophy, as well as in
natural and biblical theology. My prompting adage was, "He
who will not learn, can not teach." As I felt myself called of
God to be a Christian teacher, I felt myself equally called to be
a learner in every branch of knowledge that would contribute
to my success in the Gospel ministry. He who addresses mind,
should understand the laws of mind, and all the emotive prin-
ciples of human nature. And the history of the Church and
of the nations will furnish many an illustration in pressing
home theological truth upon the souls of men. Yet, after all,
and above all, the pious, humble preacher, who pants for suc-
cess in building up the Church of Christ, must mainly study
three books : the Bible, for there he learns the will of God ;
the congregation, for there he learns the wants of his people ',

MY MARRIAGE. 109

his own heart, for there he learns the motives hy which he is
actuated, and he should never allow those motives to be sinister
in their character.

In the summer of that year, two very successful camp-meet-
ings contributed largely to the increase of membership in my
charge ; and there were a goodly number added, as the result
of home labor. Nearly one hundred in all, if I remember
rightly, were received into the Church that year. And yet,
after so many removals, the increase was but small.

In the seventh year of my ministry, on the 6th day of De-
cember, 1821, I was married to Miss Eliza Jackson, of Wash-
ington, Pennsylvania. I am now writing, January 12, 1864,
and my beloved wife still lives to be a blessing to me. I re-
gard such a wife as one of the best gifts of God to man. Often
had the thought of marriage entered into my mind before, and
once I felt inclined to indulge that thought, but, for several rea-
sons, I did not. Why should a young preacher make haste to
take a wife, and thus double his claim on the Church for sup-
port, when he is not fully certain yet that he is worth his own
rapport? There are principles of justice involved here, and
young preachers should study them well. He who marries too
;i. and claims from the Church support for a wife, as well as
for himself, when, even in a judgment of charity, his kind of
(nullifications for ministerial service will not entitle him to more
than a single man's salary, makes an unjust claim; and for so
doing, both he and his wife may, under a just Providence, have
to suffer, until farther improvement will enable him to earn his
wife's Bupport as well as bis own. There are giving and taking
in this thing. A preacher should be able to render service to
tin' Church equal in value to the salary claimed, before it will
be ju-t. in tin- sighl of G '1 and man, fur him to take that sal-
ary. Why should not young preachers think of moral prin-
ui-11 ae love, v. hen they are about to gel married?
Marri ige they s< em to think, i- a matter of love, and who <-ares
for moral principle when love is under consideration?

At tii.' Conference; in .March. 1822, I was appointed to Ohio
Circuit, as an assistant to Rev. David Stevens, an old bachelor,

110 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

about sixty years of age. This I understood to be a punish-
ment inflicted upon me by an old bachelor Presiding Elder,
because I had forsaken the ranks of old bachelors, and had en-
tered into matrimonial life, contrary to his wishes. There were
quite a number of old bachelors in the Baltimore Conference,
to which I then belonged, and all of them were, more or less,
celebrated for severity of temper. It takes the family relation
to call out the tender sympathies and social qualities of the
human heart. My colleague was not an exception to the gen-
eral rule. He had lived locked up within himself, as old bach-
elors generally do, and was testy, crabbed, and sour to me and
my wife. Even his very godliness had in it a tartness that was
noticed in the families where he lodged, and in the pulpits
where he preached. This infirmity, drawn on this aged man
by bachelor life, did not hinder him from being a most faithful
laborer in the vineyard of the Lord ; but, to some considerable
extent, it did hinder his usefulness in building up the Church
of Christ. The Lord's truth was never indebted to any man's
rasp for its success in winning souls to the Saviour of sinners.
To me this was a year of some suffering. My home was in
West Middletown, among a kind-hearted people. The circuit
was large and wealthy, yet my salary (only two hundred dol-
lars) was but little more than half paid. I felt this very much
in the outset of married life ; so did my wife ; but we kept the
matter to ourselves, and pondered it in our hearts. To keep
the cow from starving, in the winter, I tried to raise money
to buy provender, by the sale of books out of my own scanty
library ; and it would not do to be much at home, for the cir-
cuit had made no provision for the subsistence of my horse.
When the year closed, I had no clothes fit to go to Conference
in, and no money with which to buy any. So passed away the
first year of married life. It was a year of considerable suc-
cess; many sinners were converted and joined the Church. It
was a year of great mental conflict. When 1 saw the members
of the Church at preaching, or heard them speak in class-meet-
ing or love-feast, or talk about religion at home, I felt inclined
to admit their piety. But when I thought of their wealth, and

INSUFFICIENT SUPPORT. Ill

of my poor, meager, starvation salary not being much more than
half paid, I was constrained to have my doubts about it. But
in after years my mind was changed in relation to the piety of
these people. I now charge all this apparent parsimony, as it
regards ministerial support, to their anti-Gospel education on
that subject. The high ordination of the Lord Jesus Christ,
"that they which preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel,"
had not, at the time of my ministry among them, been properly
brought home to their consciences, as it was in after years.

My Presiding Elder, Rev. James Painter — another old'bach-
elor — and my colleague, both found out that I was friendly to
a change in the Church government, so as to admit lay delega-
tion, and from and after that date they were neither of them
very friendly to me. But this made little difference, for it was
a settled point in my creed that lay delegation ought to be in-
troduced into the Methodist Episcopal Church, and I knew that
all the friends of that measure would have to meet with oppo-
sition, so my mind was made up calmly to endure whatever
came upon me on account of my principles. As the year was
closing, many little tokens of friendship were given me as I
went my last round on the circuit, and I was kindly asked to
return the next year. The Quarterly Conference, also, asked
the Elder to have me reappointed. But, as I was going away
in rags and in debt, without my full pay, I made no pledges
that I would return. In Washington I was furnished with
clothes, to be paid for when I got able. So, leaving my wife
at her father's, I went on with the Western preachers to the
Conference, and we had a very pleasanl time together, as we
passed over the mountains. I have always loved to attend Con-
ference. To meet the bretheren is refreshing.

112 RECOLLECTIONS OE ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTEK VII.

Conference in Baltimore— Appointed Presiding Elder of Monongahela District —
Effort to Change the Manner of Appointing Presiding Elders— Bishop McKen-
dree's Vindication of his Course in the Preceding General Conference— Re-
moval to Washington— My First Quarterly Conference— Trip to Ohio with
Bishop McKendree— The Bishop's Views on Church Polity— My Views— Confer-
ence in Winchester, Virginia— Conference in Baltimore— Formation of Pitts-
burgh Conference— Failure in Health— Recovery— The New Lights— The Bap-
tists—Camp-Meetings—My First Public Connection with the Reform Movement—
The Mutual Rights— Bishop George.

At the Conference in Baltimore, in March, 1823, I was ap-
pointed, by Bishop McKendree, Presiding Elder of the Mo-
nongahela District. This appointment was made, as I have
reason to believe, with the full knowledge of my principles.
Daniel Hett. and James Painter, two aged ministers, both Pre-
siding Elders and members of the Bishop's cabinet, and op-
posed to my views as to changes in Church government, did
certainly inform the Bishop that I took rank among the re-
formers. Indeed, Mr. McKendree's whole course with me aft-
erward made me fully understand that my principles were
known to him when he gave me that office. Whether he
meant this appointment as compensation for hard usage the
preceding year, or whether he meant to win me back again to
the anti-reform party, or whether, rising above all such con-
siderations, he made this appointment simply and alone for the
good of the cause of Christ, I know not, and it is useless to
speculate on the subject. At any rate, I was, entirely contrary
to my expectations, made Presiding Elder, and, without regard
to the motives leading to my appointment, I determined to do
all I could for the cause of Christ, and th.e extension of liberal
ecclesiastical principles in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
throughout the Monongahela District.

BISHOP m'kENDREE's VINDICATION. 113

At that Conference, we had a very protracted and exciting
debate on Bishop McKendree's vindication of his course at the
General Conference of 1820. For about twenty years, efforts
had been made at each General Conference, by the liberal
party, so to change the economy of Methodism as to authorize
the Annual Conference to elect the Presiding Elders, instead
of having them appointed by the Bishops, as the law now or-
dained. At that General Conference the debate ran very high,
and brought out all the talent in that body. Finally, a com-
mittee was appointed, consisting of six .members — three from
each party — who were to meet the three Bishops in council
and draft a report that would suit the views of all parties.
A report was drawn up and presented to the Conference, signed
by the six committeemen and two of the Bishops, George and
Roberts — McKendree dissented — and it received a two-thirds
vote of the General Conference, and so became the law of the
Cburch. The substance of that report was as follows: When-
ever, in future, a Presiding Elder is needed for any district,
the Bishop, or Bishops, shall nominate three members of the
Conference, out of which number so nominated the Conference
shall elect the Presiding Elder wanted. If more than one is
wanted, the same routine shall be observed in a second and
third instance, and so on until the required number of Pre-
siding Elders is obtained. In case of a vacancy by death, or
any other cause, during the year, the Bishop shall appoint a
Presiding Elder, whose term of office shall expire at the ensu-
ing Conference. These Presiding Elders, so elected by the
( 'inference, shall be the advisory council of the Bishops in
the stationing of the preachers. Wo only give the substance
of the law.

I pon the passage of the foregoing law — which secured a little
liberty for the preachers, but none for the people — there was, it
i- said, much joy in the General Conference. But it did not
lasl long: the brethren were ao1 quite out of the wilderness into
the promised land yet. That bright, day was destined to bo
overcast with very dark clouds, highly charged with ecclesias-
tical electricity and episcopal thunder. Kcv. Joshua Soule, then

114 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

elected to the episcopal office, but not yet ordained, immediately
after the foregoing action, addressed a note to Bishop McKen-
dree, in which the following strong language is 'held: "If they
should ordain me, under existing circumstances, I could not,
conscientiously, carry the above-named resolutions into effect, in-
asmuch as I conceive them to be an unconstitutional transfer of
executive powers from the episcopacy to the Annual Confer-
ence."* This note was immediately laid before the General
Conference by Mr. McKendree, accompanied by his own protest
against the action of that body, as being an unconstitutional
transfer of episcopal powers to the Annual Conferences. This
high-handed measure of the Bishop and the Bishop-elect led to
a reconsideration of the whole matter, and, finally, to the suspen-
sion of the Presiding Elder law for four years. After the Gen-
eral Conference, Bishop McKendree prepared a vindication of
his course to lay before the Annual Conferences, to get them
to indorse what he had done. This document was now before
the Baltimore Conference for its approval, and, after having
been very distinctly read by the secretary, the debate was com-
menced by the brethren in real earnest, and the excitement was
very high.

Bishop McKendree occupied the chair during the debate,
and from the scathing manner in which his vindication was
handled by Ryland, Griffith, and Emory, I was constrained to
feel a good deal of sympathy for him, notwithstanding my op-
position to his course. S. G. Roezel and a few others under-
took to defend his document, but, in my judgment, they utterly
failed. Asa Shinn at last moved an indefinite postponement of
the resolution to approve of the Bishop's vindication, which
motion was carried by a very strong majority of the Conference,
and so the matter ended, very much to the mortification of
Bishop McKendree.

On returning from the Baltimore Conference to the West, I
removed from West Middletown to Washington, so as to situate
my wife among her relations and other valued friends, for I was

*See Kev. J. Smith's letter, Wesleyan Repository, 2d vol., p. 129.

MY FIRST QUARTERLY CONFERENCE. 115

now in the performance of official duties, destined to be a great
deal from home. The first quarterly meeting I ever held, as
Presiding Elder, was in Washington. On Friday evening-
Bishop McKendree arrived in town. On Saturday morning I
waited upon him, to tender my respects, and know of him at
what hours it would suit h-irn to preach. Without giving me an
answer, he waived the conversation, and began to talk about
something else. In a short time, I told him it would give me
a great deal of pleasure to have him name the hours at which
it would suit him to preach, as I desired now to make an ar-
rangement for preaching throughout the meeting. The Bishop
then turned his eye keenly upon me, and said, in a harsh, stern
manner I shall never forget, "I do not like to see young men
too presuming." I arose, took up my hat, and said "it had
been my sincere desire to be respectful, and show him that
courteous regard which I held to be due to age and office; but
if he thought me presumptuous, I would retire." So I bade
him good morning and left the room, determined to trouble
him no more. At eleven o'clock, on Saturday, he sat in the
altar, while I strove, under many embarrassments, to preach.
After preaching was over we had no conversation at all. At
three o'clock he returned, and presided in the Quarterly Con-
ference. When it was over, he returned to his lodgings and I
to my home, without any conversation, for I was afraid to in-
troduce conversation with him, lest I should be considered pre-
sumptuous, lie did not come to meeting at night. On Sunday,
eleven o'clock, I found him in the pulpit, when I entered
the church, hunting his hymn. So, thai morning he preached
and took the lead in the communion services. All that time
he Baid nothing to me; but, aa we were going home, he called
after me, and, when 1 turned back to him, he said he was go-
ing to hive for Ohio on Wednesday, and wished me to go with

him ; and, if it would be agreeahle, he would like to dine at my
house on Tuesday. I assured him that it would give me a
deal of pleasure to have him dine with me at the time
named After this, we had a very considerable amount of pleas-
ant conversation together, and I excused the Bishop's hehavior

116 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

at our first interview, under an impression that he had been
worn out traveling, and was yet smarting under the defeat of his
measure at the Baltimore Conference. On Tuesday, according
to appointment, the Bishop came to dinner, and a very pleas-
ant time we had, bating one circumstance, which was very mor-
tifying to Mrs. Brown and myself: there was a toughness in
our chicken which no amount of cooking could remedy. On
that account we regarded our dinner as being rather a failure.
We ought to have had better chicken for the occasion, for it
was intended as a feast of reconciliation, a confirmation of
friendship. The Bishop spent the afternoon with us, was very
cheerful, and gave me much fatherly counsel as to the duties
of my office, and the interview was closed with prayer.

In our trip to Ohio, I was with Mr. McKendree about ten
days, and observed his manner of life strictly. He read much,
prayed much, and was apt to teach, wherever he went, both in
public and in private. At first, I was afraid that his temper
was irritable, but I found nothing of the kind in him, save that
little snap he gave me in Washington, and that may have grown
out of causes referred to above. One thing I found to lie very
near his heart; namely, the maintenance of the present order
of things in the Church, as they were handed down to him from
Bishop Asbury. The itinerant general superintendency and
the present powers of the itinerant preachers must not undergo
any modification, by the election of Presiding Elders or the
admission of lay delegation. How could a Bishop oversee
("overrule") this great work without agents; i. e., Presiding
Elders ? And if theAnnual Conferences elected them, then they
would be the agents of the conferences, and not of the Bishops ;
so the Annual Conferences would oversee the work through
agents of their own, and the Bishops, who are elected to super-
intend, by the General Conference, would be powerless nullities.
As to lay delegation, that would be destructive to the itiner-
ancy; and, besides this, the itinerant preachers were instru-
mental in the conversion of the membership, and had, therefore,
a right to rule them. Children ought not to rule their fathers ;
but fathers ought to rule their children. The right of our

MY VIEWS. 117

preachers to all the power and authority they hare, grows out
of the nature and fitness of things. So taught the venerable
Bishop McKendree, in 1823. He seemed to think I needed in-
struction, and, on all convenient occasions, he repeated these les-
sons with fatherly kindness. I never argued against his views,
during our sojourn together ; but, still, I had in my own mind
the answer ready. When we parted, I was strongly impressed
with a conviction of his honesty, piety, and intelligence, but not
with his arguments.

The General Conference elects the Bishops to superintend the
whole work. Why should not that Bishop-creating body pass
a law to create Presiding Elders through the joint agency of
the Bishops and the Annual Conferences, as proposed by the
General Conference of 1820, to aid them in their work? This
joint authority in the creation of Presiding Elders would im-
ply a responsibility of the Elders to the Annual Conferences
and Bishops who created them, and not to the Bishops alone,
as in former years, and as it is to this day.

As to lay delegation destroying the itinerancy, I held this to
be an indefensible assumption. Besides, I held then, and do
now, that if itinerancy can only live on the destruction of hu-
man liberty, it ought not to live at all. Christianity can be
maintained in the world consistently with human liberty. And
to say that instrumentality in conversion gives a right to rule,
looks like the old doctrine of kings ruling by the right of con-
quest. Moreover, it implies too much, for the purposes of those
who bring it forward. According to this, all the local preachers
in the Methodist episcopal Church who are instrumental in the
conversion of sinners have a right to rule them. This is not
allowed. Any pious old lady, who, by her exhortations, pray-
ers, and tears, might he instrumental in the conversion of a
philosopher, would have the right to rule him as long as he
lived, for the good of his soul. After this manner, in my own
mind, all the Bishop's ecclesiastical lessons were disposed of;
and I felt, on my return to my own field of labor, more than
ever, a disposition to promote the lay delegation cause.

In March, 1821, the Conference was in Winchester Virginia,

11.8 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and I was again appointed Presiding Elder. In March, 1825,
the Conference was in Baltimore, and I still was continued in
the same office. That year, in September, the Pittsburgh Con-
ference, having been set off by the General Conference of 1824,
held its first session in the city of Pittsburgh, and again I was
appointed Presiding Elder, making, in all, three years and a
half that I served in that office. A full account of all that
transpired while in that office can not now be written. Only
such things as memory has retained, or recollection can call up,
and are deemed of interest, will be introduced to notice.

The hard service rendered in Washington, Wheeling, and
Short Creek charges made great inroads on my health. During
nearly the whole time of my presidency on the Monongahela
District, that most tormenting of all complaints, the dyspepsia,
afflicted me sorely. Every thing I ate in a few minutes became
acid on my stomach, and led to vomiting; perspiration was ut-
terly obstructed ; my skin was nearly as sallow as a seed cucum-
ber, dry and mealy; my head was hot, my feet were cold,
showing an unbalanced circulation of the blood. I was perpet-
ually harassed with a dyspeptic colic ; there was a giddiness
in my head, a ringing in my ears, floating phantoms before my
eyes — in fact, I was a sick man. Still, I hung to my horse and
filled my appointments on the district, trying, as I went, all
the remedies prescribed by the physicians, and growing worse
and worse. Finally, every doctor in my district, save one, pro-
nounced sentence of death upon me, and advised me to go home
and set my house in order, for I could not live. But Dr.
Charles McClean, of Morgantown, Virginia, was of a different
opinion. He said life was sweet and worth preserving, and that
I must not be discouraged by the nonsense of the doctors.
"Come," said he, " I will make you a box of blue pills, on the
plan of those prepared by Dr. Phillips, which you are to take
at the rate of three grains a day, for six weeks, then go to Bed-
ford Springs a couple of weeks, and you will get well again."
I followed the Doctor's advice, and though I could not (because
of those who were with me) remain at the Springs but eight
days, I came away measurably restored to health, and took no

THE NEW LIGHTS. 119

more medicine for twelve years, save once, and that was for an
attack of fever. To Dr. McLean, then, under God, I certainly
owe my life ; and I make this record of the fact, with gratitude
to him and to the Lord. In the ecclesiastical controversy
which resulted in the organization of the Methodist Protestant
Church, the Doctor, who was a local preacher in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, did all he could against me and against the
cause I advocated; but still, I always admired his talents, and
felt gratitude for past favors, especially medical services.

A great portion of the Monongahela District, which was very
large, was a real battle-ground between the Methodists and
other denominations, especially the New Lights, who denied the
doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. They held
that the atonement made by Christ was a reality, and that it
derived its value entirely from the appointment of the Father,
and not from the dignity and glory of the Godhead that dwelt
in his humanity ; that Christ, being the Son of God, could not
be eternal, as no son could be as old as his father; and that no
man would ever believe in the Godhead of Christ, unless he
were misled to do so by a creed. Against creeds and disci-
plines, and all forms of Church government, they had much to
say; and made sport of the Methodist preachers going about
with their saddle-bags full of disciplines to sell. I deemed it
my duty to rid my district, if I could, of New-Light heresy.
Accordingly, on all convenient occasions, in all parts of the
country where I traveled, I gave the doctrines of the Meth-
odists the fullest vindication, upon scriptural grounds, that I
could. Were the Methodists Trinitarians? I showed this doc-
trine was found in all parts of the Bible; and though above
reason, it did not contradict reason; for reason must be able to
comprehend every possible mode of Divine existence, before it
could pronounce, infallibly, that God could not exist a trinity
in unity. Were they believers in the divinity of Christ? I
showed from the plain Word of God that this doctrine was true,
and affirmed that no sane reader of the Scriptures would ever
deny the divinity of Christ, unless he were misled by some bard-
skulled leader, whose teachings operated upon his mind with all

120 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

the force of a creed. As to the atonement being made by a
mere creature, divinely appointed to do that work, and all the
value of the atonement resulting from the Father's appointment,
and none of it from the dignity of the person who suffered, the
Methodists held this to be monstrous. According to this doc-
trine, the Father, contrary to His own Word, had given His
glory to another— j-a mere creature — and ordained that the na-
tions of the earth should trust in a creature, and the doings of
a creature, for the salvation of their souls. If the Godhead
of Christ gave no value to the atonement, then why was his
divinity made so prominent a part of revelation? My doctrine
throughout the district was, that the atonement derived its value
from both the divinity of the Sufferer and the appointment of
the Father. To separate divinity from what Christ did to save
the world, would leave the world to be saved by the doings of a
creature ; and to call the Gentile nations off from idolatry to
trust in a creature, would be idolatry still. The preachers of
the district over which I presided were, generally, vigorous,
talented young men, well suited to the region of country where
they labored; and as we had to win every inch of the ground
we occupied by the sword of the Spirit — which, of necessity,
in many instances, had to be a controversial sword — they came
manfully up to the battle of the Lord, and the enemy had to
yield or retreat. There are very few New Lights in that dis-
trict now.

The Baptists also met us at every point, and resolutely op-
posed the doctrines of the Methodists. They were Calvinists in
doctrine, as well as immersionists in practice, and went, with
all their might, against the Methodist view of Christian perfec-
tion, and the possibility of falling from grace. On all these
points we gave them battle. Happily for us, they did not oc-
cupy a great deal of territory; but where they did exist, they
were generally pretty strong as to numbers. In Pruntytown,
they and the Methodists had each a comfortable house of wor-
ship, and their preaching was on alternate Sundays. In those
days there were "go-betweens" to report to each preacher what

THE, BAPTISTS. 121

the other would say of his doctrines. On one Sunday the
Methodist preacher, in his sermon, had handled the Baptist
doctrine of the final, unconditional perseverance of the saints
with some severity. This was reported, by the "go-between,"
to Dr. Waldo, the minister in charge of the 'Baptist congrega-
tion, who, on the next Sunday, at considerable length, defended
his doctrine in his usual lengthened tone, amounting, when
;itly in earnest, to something like a whine. In the course of
his sermon, as the "go-between" reported, he illustrated the
impossibility of falling from grace, in the following manner :

My dear brethren, if you only have a desire to have a desire to
be saved, you are as sure of getting to heaven as if you were
already there. Religion is just like my old raccoon-skin. The
other day I brought an old raccoon-skin with me to town and
tried to sell it, but I could not sell it ; I tried to barter it, but
I could not barter it; I tried to give it away, but I could not
■ it away. I then rolled it up in a piece of newspaper and
tucked it under my arm, walked out into the street, lifted up
my arm and tried to lose it, but I could not lose it, for there
was a man just behind me, who picked it up and said, 'Holloa,
Waldo I here is your raccoon-skin.' Just so, my dear brethren,
it is with religion: you can't sell it; you can't barter it; you
can't give it away; you can't lose it. If you only have a de-
sire to have a desire to be saved, you are as sure of getting to
heaven as if you were already there."

What Methodist eonld stand before the logic of such an
illustration as this? The citizens of Pruntytown amuse them-
selves to this day by telling this 'coon-skin anecdote. Dr.
"VN aldo was an eccentric wit, had a good standing in the
community, and. from the anecdotal character of his preaching,
always drew a full house. From my own personal knowledge
of the man, I have no doubt of his being now anion- the saved
in that better land; but his witty 'coon-skin illustration amounts

t" nothing. Then- is no analogy between tie free mind of man
holding on to or letting go religions truth and the Doctor's in-
ability to sell, barter, give away, or lose his raccoon-skin, If he
8

122 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

had done as much to get clear of his religion as he did to dis-
pose of his 'coon-skin, and had failed, then his illustration would
he of some force ; not otherwise.

The religious state of the district was good throughout my
entire term of service. In all the circuits and stations, each
year, there were revivals and large additions to the Church.
My district was famous for its camp-meetings. The lowest
number we held in one camp-meeting season was eight ; the
highest, eleven. These meetings, as a general thing, were
largely attended, and were real working meetings ; not meet-
ings of feasting, parade, and show. Glod owned them by the
advancement of his children in scriptural holiness, and in the
conversion of sinners, in great numbers, from the error of their
way. Rev. William Barns, of the Wheeling Station, got leave
of absence from his charge, and accompanied me (my health
being feeble) as a fellow-laborer to the eleven camp-meetings
held in one season, and rendered very important service. He
is still a sojourner among men, and can bear witness to the
success of the Gospel in the conversion of sinners at the camp-
meetings among the hills of Western Virginia and Western
Pennsylvania. The day of judgment alone can disclose the
whole amount of good that was done, and how much labor and
care devolved upon me at these meetings. To see that order
was maintained, so as to prevent the outside world from doing
harm to the assembled worshipers, to give a right direction to
all the ministerial talent on hand, both local and itinerant, so
as to keep down the little, petty jealousies too often found
among the preachers on such occasions, and to employ the
whole force at command, both ministerial and lay, in the labors
of the altar, so as to bring as many souls as possible to Christ,
and to- continue this kind of effort day and night, throughout
eleven consecutive weeks, was indeed labor and care such as
few Presiding Elders at this day know any thing about. The
state of my health gave indications that my career upon earth
would be short. To be ready to go into eternity at the call of
the Lord, and to get as many sinners as possible converted to
Christ before my departure, were then the all-engrossing objects

THE MUTUAL RIGHTS. 12 o

of my life. Paul said, " To live is Christ, to die is gain." So
I felt at that time, and, in the midst of my toils, enjoyed much
religious happiness.

The preachers who labored -with me on the Monongahela
District have nearly all passed away, and, so far as I have been
able to learn, they died in the faith, hope, and charity of
Christianity. Revs. T. M. Hudson, C. Cook, W. Barns, H.
Furlong, and S. Chaney, I believe, yet remain, and, like my-
self, are far advanced in life. They are excellent men, and
have been worth more than thousands of gold to the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Nearly all the local preachers and promi-
nent lay members who labored with me, and at whose habita-
tions I was always made welcome and comfortable, are now on
the other side of Jordan — saved and crowned, heirs of God,
and joint heirs with Christ.

The institution of the Mutual Eights, in 1824, in the room
of the Wesleyan Repository; the action of the General Confer-
ence in Baltimore, preceded by the doings of the Baltimore
Annual Conference in "Winchester, Virginia, all had a tendency
to rouse the spirit of inquiry in the Church, on the subject of
itinerant supremacy and lay delegation. At the Conference in
Winchester, Beverly Waugh, with some difficulty, obtained leave
t" read X. Snethen's letter in favor of lay delegation. It was
heard by that body with mingled indications of favor and dis-
plea8ure. Joshua Soule read a paper inflicting some heavy
oensure on John Emory, for certain statements made (if mem-
ory me) by Emory and others, in a pamphlet, involving
Soule's course at the General Conference of 1820. Emory, in
the course of his reply, admitted the righl of the Methodist
pie to a lay delegation, and Baid they ought to have it, if
they bo desired. Soule 1 presided in a caucus held by the anti-
reform party to nominate delegates to the General Conference,
and, in his remark- before taking the chair, went against nom-
inating any reformer, as the ancient order of things must :
strictly maintained. Accordingly, Emory, Waugh, Shinn, Ry-
land, Davis, Griffith, Morgan, and others, known to favor re-
form — at least the election of Presiding Elders — were all left

124 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

out of the nomination. That afternoon, the way being thus
prepared, R. Birch, in a very honeyed speech, tried to bring on
the election, but failed. After Conference adjourned, Emory
and Waueh took me with them to a self-defense caucus-meet-
ing of the friends of ecclesiastical liberty. This was the first
time I ever took an open, public part with the reformers.
The reform caucus, of course, nominated none but reform can-
didates for election to the General Conference. When the elec-
tion came on, so well had the other party managed, in adopting
their measures, that we were defeated by a small majority.
This defeat, in connection with that of the local preacher claim
to a share in the government of the Church, led Emory and
Waugh, and most of the others, it is supposed, to abandon the
cause of reform. Emory became a Bishop in 1832, and Waugh
in 1836. Thus these two men, who had been my leaders,
turned against me and the cause of Christian freedom, and
grasped the episcopal power which they had so long and so
ably opposed; "the march of which," they say, in their pam-
phlet, " is ever onward, and its tremendous tendency is to ac-
cumulation."

But nothing within my knowledge spread the reform con-
troversy like Bishop McKendree's address in vindication of his
action in arresting the Presiding Elder law of 1820. This ad-
dress was carried round to all the Annual Conferences, in view
of getting those bodies to justify his course, and every-where
it elicited debate among the preachers in the Conferences. Here
were high powers claimed by the Bishops. Here were preach-
ers, claiming the right, as American freemen, to elect the Pre-
siding Elders who were to rule over them. This ministerial
struggle for power waked up inquiry among the people after
their rights; and, to meet the wants of the times', the periodical
called " The Mutual Rights of the Ministers and Members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church" was instituted in Baltimore,
"edited by a committee of ministers and laymen."

On my return from the Conference in Winchester to the
Monongahela District, I took time for reflection on the state of
affairs in the Church, and to determine what was my duty in the

THE MUTUAL RIGHTS. 125

premises. The conclusions at which I arrived were, that I owed
very high obligations to the Church, and to those in authority
over me ; but that my highest obligations were to the truth,
and to the God of truth, and that I ought to obey God rather
than man. When the Mutual Rights appeared, I ordered it to
be sent to nearly all the leading men of my district, and paid
for it, in advance, out of my own scanty funds. So that paper
was read in all parts of the district, privately ; for a time, even
the preachers were not permitted to know any thing about it,
nor did any one suspect my agency in the matter. On the
subject of Church government, in public and in private, I
maintained the most profound silence; and, from the office I
held, it was generally supposed that I was unfriendly to the
changes contended for, and the periodical was kept very care-
fully out of my sight wherever I went. When dismounting
from my horse at the house of Thomas Maple, a valuable local
preacher, to whom I had sent the paper, I heard sister Maple
call out to one of the girls: "Run, Sal, run! take them Mutual
Rights off the table; there comes the Elder." And "Sal"
must have taken and concealed them in some by-corner, for
they were not to be seen during my .stay. So it was in all
j. laces, no one being disposed to let me know that he read so
obnoxious a paper as the Mutual Rights. All this was very
amusing to me.

Ultimately the readers of that work became more bold, and
ventured to tell me of its coming to them; but by what agency
it came, or how the editorial committee ever found them out,
so as to -end it to them, they could not tell. I found, in every
in-tance but one, that the work was approved of; that lay del-

ttion would, in their judgment, he of immense value to the

Church. As they knew that I had dealings in Baltimore, they

desired me to receive and transmit the pay for the .Mutual
■hi- to the publishers. I took the money and retained it,
having already paid for the work in advance. So L lost nothing
my old friends, nor did they find out, during my time as
Presiding Elder among them, thai it was through my agency
the paper was sent to them. Toward the laiieV pari of my

126 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

term of service on the district, in private conversation, I let
my friends know that the lay delegation cause had my appro-
bation; but in public I still remained silent, not wishing to
create an excitement, or call off public attention from the higher
interests of the Cbristian religion. But information went
abroad by loaning the paper; the district understood the lay
delegation question well.

It became known to Bishop George that I not only read but
circulated the Mutual Rights, and it grieved him very much.
He was a very effective preacher, of good natural powers and
sterling piety, but without much literary culture, and had, for
many years, been favorable to reform, so far as the election of
Presiding Elders went. But now, as the Mutual Rights had
given the controversy a wider range, and had taken in lay del-
egation, the Bishop held back, and all his influence was thrown
against the reformers. Having brought me out into the min-
istry, and taken great pains to shape my course for usefulness
in the itinerant ranks, watching over me as a father would over
a son, he took it very hard that I should be found among the
reformers, engaged, as he said, "in the disorganizing work of
striving to introduce lay delegation." This was no more dis-
organizing than his efforts, in preceding years, to introduce the
election of Presiding Elders.

On one occasion, while resting himself from the toils of
travel, in Washington, the Bishop invited Rev. C. Cook, the sta-
tioned preacher of that place, and myself, to take a walk with
him. When we were a little out of town, he turned to us, and
said he had it on reliable authority that we were both readers
of the Mutual Rights, and that we circulated that paper among
our people. Cook admitted that he was a constant reader of the
periodical in question, but denied any agency in its circulation.
I informed him that I had been a regular reader of that paper
from the commencement of its publication, and favored its doc-
trines, and, for that reason, had ordered it to be sent to a
number of my friends on the district. The Bishop then ex-
pressed great surprise that I should do such a thing, and won-
dered how I, as minister and Presiding Elder, could reconcile

BISHOP GEORGE. 127

it with my obligations to the Church, to be found circulating a
periodical among our people which would only agitate them to
their injury. It did seem to me as if he deemed my ministe-
rial relation to the Church to be an utter foreclosure of my
way, so that I could not now, with such obligations as an or-
dained minister and Presiding Elder had assumed resting upon
me, do any thing, in any way, to reform the government of the
.Methodist Episcopal Church. With this view of the matter I
did not agree; but I did not attempt to argue the case with
my old friend. I felt then, as I do now, that my highest ob-
ligation was to God and his truth, and that reformation in
Church government never came from without, but, in the na-
ture of things, must come from within, and that I was now in
my proper place to do all I could for the introduction of lay
delegation. So, in mildness, I replied in about the following
manner : The controversy is now up, the inquiry is now abroad
in relation to introducing lay delegation into the Church. The
day is coming that will try men's souls. In that day I must
either act as some hard-headed leader may direct me, or take
pains to be informed, by reading all that is written on both
sides of this question, so as to be able to act on my own best
judgment in the matter. Taking this view of the subject, I
have been a reader of the Mutual Rights, and have put that
work into circulation among my people. "Bishop G-eorge,"
d I, "did you ever read the Mutual Rights?" "Why, no,"
s.i id he; "but brother Roszel lias, and he lias told me all about
it, and he thinks it will do a greal injury to the Church." I
then advised him not to make any further opposition to that
work until he would read it for himself. The good Bishop
was affected unto tears at what he considered my obstinacy,
and ao the conversation closed, and we returned to town. The
next morning, at the Bishop's invitation, I accompanied him
on hie journey for several miles, during which time nothing
wae said on the lay delegation question. The whole conversa-
tion tuned on meta physical preaching, againsl which he strove
to guard me, and requested me to guard the preachers of the
distri- 1, as being "mere moonshine to the people." He ex-

128 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

pressed his fears that Rev. Asa Shinn's essay on the Plan of
Salvation, being so metaphysically written, would turn all the
preachers into hair-splitting metaphysicians, and lead them off
from the simplicity of the Gospel. Here, too, my opinion dif-
fered from his. He who addresses mind ought to understand
the laws of mind.

CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA. 129

CHAPTER VIII.

Confluence in Washington, Pennsylvania— Reform Movement— Bishop Hedding's
Address against Reform— Reasons for Replying— D. W. Clark, D. D.— Friendly
Relations Existing between Bishop Hedding and Myself— Timothy's Address
to the Junior Bishop— Contention of Bishops in Baltimore— Bishop Hedding's
Note to the Chairman of the Editorial Committee Demanding Timothy's Read
Name— My Reply, Surrendering my Name— Rev. H. B. Bascom's Testimony as
to the Truthfulness of Timothy's Address— Similar Testimony from Rev. John
Waterman, Rev. Asa Bhinn, Thomas Morgan, Esq., Rev. Joshua Monroe, Rev.
T. M. Hudson— Reasons for Present Self-Defense.

The Pittsburgh. Conference held its session in Washington,
Pennsylvania, in September, 1826, Bishop Hedding presiding,
and I was appointed to Steubenville Station. At that Confer-
ence Bishop Soule was in attendance, and Rev. J. B. Finley,
with his two Indian chiefs, Mononque and Between-the-logs.
These chiefs lodged at my house, prayed in my family, asked
the blessing at my table, prayed in the Church, and deported
themselves, during their stay, in all respects like Christian gen
tlemen. I saw nothing light or trifling about them. To me
they appeared to be men of great moral worth and real sub
Btantiality of character. All their exercises wfcre in the Indian
language, and we had no interpreter, a matter much regretted
by us all. Finley said they wen' men of great mental vigor
and fine native eloquence. They had laid aside the Indian
garb and assumed the costume of the whites, and, for plainness,
appeared like two Methodist preachers.

At this Conference the reformers were a little in the minority
as to numbers, bul a little in the majority as to talent. I>r.
Bond's boob had come to hand, entitled "An A.ppeal to the
Methodists." Her. A. Shinn induced Rev. T. Fleming— who
had Bond's book for distribution among the preachers to hold
it back until his review of it should arrive, so as to let both

130 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

book.3 be distributed together. This would give each party an
equal chance; for among the members of the Conference there
was, at that time, a disposition to deal fairly with each other
on the question of reform.

As to myself, I did not like to see Bishop Soule there. I
remembered his efforts against the reformers, in the caucus,
during the Conference in Winchester, Virginia, by which their
election to the Geueral Conference of 1824 was defeated. I
remembered, too, his opposition, in connection with Bishop
McKendree, to the Presiding Elder law passed by the General
Conference in 1820, which has already been noticed. At that
time he was only a Bishop-elect, not yet ordained ; and to avoid
a protest against his ordination, which his arbitrary measures
had led ministers of sterling worth to prepare, he deemed it
wise and proper to resign his position. But he was elected
and ordained Bishop in 1824; and now, being clothed with full
episcopal authority, however much I admired his talents and
trustworthiness in all other matters, I felt confident that reform
had nothing to hope from his presence at that Conference. All
the reformers disrelished his arbitrary principles ; and it is my
belief to this day, that, had he not been there to counsel and ad-
vise Bishop Hedding, that functionary would never have taken
the high ground he did against the lay delegation question, as
discussed in the Mutual Bights. In this belief I was not alone.

The business of the Conference passed on smoothly, and
greater harmony could not have been expected in a body so
divided in sentiment, on a subject so all-engrossing as the one
now demanding attention. Mr. Shinn and I, being yet in the
Bishop's cabinet as Presiding Elders, were called to a private
interview in my front room, up stairs, by Bishops Hedding and
Soule. The two Bishops and Mr. Shinn had dined with me
that day, and the conversation had been remarkably pleasant.
In that interview, the presiding Bishop, Mr. Hedding, took the
lead as chief speaker, and Mr. Soule took his position up in a
corner, and sat silent all the time. So we poor subordinates had
to take, as patiently as we could, a pretty long lecture on the
impropriety of our efforts to introduce lay delegation. " The

BISHOP HEDDIXG AGAINST REFORM. 181

injurious tendency of the effort" — "The people did not -want
what we were trying to crowd upon them" — "Lay delegation
would be of no value to them if they had it" — formed the
ground of his lecture. All this time the Bishop never called
in question our right to discuss the points at issue between the
parties, in the Mutual Rights, but only argued from supposed
evils that might result from the investigation.

At last he put the question to Mr. Shinn direct: "Is it your
•intention to leave the Methodist Episcopal Church? It is my
duty to have an answer to this question before I make out the
appointments." Mr. Shinn replied that he had never thought
of such a thing, nor had he ever said to any person that he
would leave the Church; and then, straightening himself up
and pointing with his finger at the Bishop, he said, in his own
peculiar, emphatic way, "I now demand of you, sir, to point
out to me, in any thing I have ever written, a single sentence
or word that would be a just foundation for the question which
you have now propounded to me." .Mr. Hedding said it might
not be expressed in so many words, but he thought it was
:rly implied, in one or two of Mr. Shinn's articles in the
Mutual Rights. Mr. Shinn then said it was neither expressed
nor implied, and that no just construction of any thing he had
written would afford an inference of that kind. "Well," said
Mr. Bedding, " I am satisfied with your present declaration,
and can go on with my work and make out the appointments.
" i;,it." .-aid Mr. Shinn. '• I want you Bishops to understand
veil, thai if you ever give the administration of the govern-
ment of the Church such a direction as to abridge or take from
me my right of free discussion of the reform question, in the
Mutual Rights, or wherever else 1 please, 1 will then feel my-
self bound to leave the Methodist Episcopal Church. I never
will belong to a Church that will deny me the rights of an
American freeman." "(), well, well, well." replied Mr. Hed-
ding, -v.e have .-aid enough on the Bubject; let us talk of some-
thing else." Just at that juncture, the Pre iding Elders were
ird coming up stairs, and the business next on band was the
Btationing of the preachers. I have stated the substance, ao>

132 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

cording to my best recollection, of what was said by the parties
at the foregoing interview, and, on the main points, I think I
have given their own words.

The next afternoon the Conference adjourned, and just before
the appointments were read, Bishop Hedding made his cele-
brated address against reform. So soon as he was done, the
appointments were read; then came the closing prayer, immedi-
ately after which, the preachers all dispersed, leaving no oppor-
tunity for any one to reply to what many of them did most
highly disapprove of in that address. I then and there de-
termined that I would wait two months for Shinn or Bascom to
reply, and if neither of them did, I would do it myself; for I
did consider its doctrines inconsistent with the liberties of an
American Christian.

It may be proper in this place to record the fact that be-
tween Bishop Hedding and myself there was entire friendship.
I had been his confidential secretary. I had, therefore, no
wrongs to avenge, when I resolved on a reply to his addre-s.
While I respected him highly for his piety, his talents as a
preacher, and his fine executive abilities as a presiding officer
in the Conference, I could not respect his opposition to the free
discussion going on in the Mutual Rights in favor of lay dele-
gation. It was, then, nothing but a feeling in my heart that
an aggression on our inalienable rights ought to be resisted
with all the manhood in me, that moved me to resolve upon a
reply. For, to my mind, it did appear that Church government
was as open to free discussion as any other question under
heaven. For the Bishops, Presiding Elders, and itinerant
preachers in the Methodist Episcopal Church to have all the
power in the government, and the local preachers and lay mem-
bers none at all, was bad enough ; but for Bishops, in Confer-
ence addresses, to deny the right of free discussion, as to this
order of things, made the matter worse — it looked like slavery.

After I had removed to Steubenville and become comfort; bly
situated among the people of my charge, I soon found myself
among reformers. In a short time a union society was formed,
and leading members of said society informed me thai Rev.

D. W. CLARK, D. D. 133

Joshua Monroe advised this measure. Being pastor of the
flock, and wishing to do religious good to all parties, 1 never
joined the union society in Steubenville, nor attended one of
its meetings, nor did its members wish me to do so, lest I might
give offense to those in the opposition. Time rolled on: the
two months were out, and neither Shinn nor Bascom had replied
to Mr. Hedding's address ; so I made my preparations to per-
form that task. Already had I compared my recollections of
objectionable points in the address with those of other brethren
who had faithful memories, and had fixed, with all possible
care, upon the ground to be occupied. Then Timothy's Ad-
dres to the Junior Bishop was written. No one in Steubenville
ever saw that piece in manuscript, save A. Sutherland, Esq.
Knowing him to be a sound, practical philosopher, and a fine
critic on such compositions, I submitted the paper to him,
for his judgment. He made no changes in any part of it, but
said. •• Publish it as it is, or not at all; but mind, if you do
publish it, all the Bishops will be on you." So, determining
to incur the risk of whatever might come, I sent the document
to the editorial committee for publication.

As in my judgment, Rev. D. W. Clark, D. D., in his Life and
Times of Bishop Hedding, has done me great injustice, in his
representation of what occurred before the Committee on Epis-
copacy, at the General Conference in Pittsburgh, in 1828, in
relation to Timothy's Address to the Junior Bishop; and as it
has pleased God to spare my life to be my own vindicator
; n.-t the injustice done mo in thai work, I shall now proceed
to a careful and candid examination of the whole matter, from
first to la-t.

I , a letter published in the Mutual Rights, immediately after
(!:■■ -t n t . ir i<- u t s of the Committee on Episcopacy had appeared in
the V'\v York Advocate -which statements were. I suppose, re-
lied on by Dr. Clark —and then again in a paper published in
Dr. Jennings's Exposition in 1831, but written at an earlier date,
1 did aim, briefly, in each paper, to shield myself from the in-
jury intended me by the publication in the Advocate. Hut I

Suppose the Doctor never saw what 1 had written; or, if ho

134 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

did, it might not, in his judgment, have suited his purposes in
exalting the Bishop's character, and in giving him a triumph
over all his opposers. Bishop Hedding saw what I had written
in my own defense, for he told me so himself, when he was at-
tending the General Conference in Cincinnati, in 1836; nor did
he mention any thing wrong in those articles. Our conversation
was free and full on the old controversy; and, in conclusion, we
both agreed that peace was best. So we renewed our friendship,
and he and a few of his New England friends dined with me,
at my own house, on the Sabbath day, he having fixed the time
himself; saying, when he did it, " The better day, the better
deed;" and he introduced me to his friends as his son Timothy,
and they all indulged in much pleasantry on that occasion.
When dinner was over, the Bishop read a chapter and prayed
with us and for us, and for the Methodist Protestant Church,
that it might be useful and prosperous in all the land. And
we then parted in peace and friendship, expressing our hopes of
meeting in heaven. Bishop Hedding is now no more seen
among men; and I am sorry, indeed, that Dr. Clark has made it
necessary for me to vindicate myself against any statements
made by him in relation to the old controversy with a man be-
tween whom and myself the hatchet was, as I supposed, buried
forever.

The following is "Timothy's Address to the Junior Bishop:"

"I humbly trust you will not be offended, if an obscure
brother, a minister of that branch of the Christian Church of
which you are a superintendent, shall venture to address you ou
a subject in which he, at least, feels deeply interested. I al-
lude, sir, to the address in opposition to reform, which you de-
livered to the members of the Pittsburgh Annual Conference, in
Washington, Pennsylvania, in September last.

" When you came to our Conference, every eye that saw you
was pleased; your appearance prepossessed the people in your
favor; your public ministrations were gratefully received by the
citizens ; and your manner of conducting the business of the
Conference gave general satisfaction to the preachers. So far, ,

timothy's address to the junior bishop. 135

all went well ; and it is a matter of deep and sorrowful regret
that ;iny thing should have occurred by which your popularity
should suffer the least diminution. But so it was, and you
ought to know it. Many of our most distinguished preachers
did feel most serious objections to the address which you, very
unexpectedly, took occasion to deliver, just before the appoint-
ments were read. It did seem to the reformers as if you had
taken advantage of the Conference to broach a subject, on that
occasion, which the preachers, for peace' sake, had, in their Con-
ference capacity, never thought proper to meddle with; and you
gave no opportunity for any one to reply.

"Public men and public measures, in a country like ours,
will, most undoubtedly, be scrutinized by a thousand eyes; and,
under an entire conviction that you believe your measures to be
correct, and are therefore willing to submit them to public scru-
tiny. I take the liberty of addressing you in this public way.
With your person I have no quarrel. L admit your piety; I
allow your talents to be respectable 5 it is your address alone
with which I am now concerned.

•■ Vnu opposed our preachers t:ikiii'_ r any part in the discussions
of the 'Mutual Rights;' you opposed our members in Church
fellowship having any thing to do with thai work. You supported
your opposition by two arguments; viz., that the 'Mutual Rights'
would agitate the Church; that the change called for by the re-
formers would never be brought about, because it, was not de-
sired by one in twenty of our people. ' You then gave us an
advice to be still, and Bay nothing until we got upon the floor
of the General Conference, for there, and there alone, was the
proper place to discuss such subjects. Such was your opposition,
b your arguments, and such the advice which you gave on
thai occasion, to all of which I shall take the liberty, iii a plain,
I bope, respectful way, to make my objections.

"I. You opposed our traveling preachers taking any pari in
the discussions of the Mutual Rights. This was to have been
expected. Eon, perhaps, too easily arrived at the conclusion
that the preachers would favor the view- of the Bishops; would
support their enormous power and prerogatives; that they would,

136 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

of course, be unfriendly to a liberal diffusion of light on the
subject of Church government among our people ; that they,
consequently, would take no part in the discussion of such mat-
ters in any way. But when you found your mistake ; when mat- '
ters of fact demonstrated to you that many of our best preachers
thought that our Bishops had too much power . and the people
too little, and that the Bishops and preachers would do well to
divide their power and prerogatives with the laity and local
preachers ; when you saw that our preachers would write and
publish their sentiments to the world on these subjects, then, I
say, it was to have been expected that you would exert all your
power and influence against them. You were pleased to inform
the Conference that ' it never had been your practice to enter
upon public discussions of such matters anywhere, save on the
floor of the General Conference.' You most undoubtedly had a
right to observe this kind of secrecy, even on the floor of the
General Conference, if you chose; but does this go to prove
that it will be wrong for your brethren in the ministry to act
differently?

"Whatever your practice hitherto may have been, whatever
your opinions now may be, it matters not. When delegates are
to be chosen to represent their brethren and the interests of our
Zion in the General Conference, to make laws that may be binding
on us and on our children, free men will speak and write — they
will communicate their ideas to one another. All, in fact, whose
persons, property, or character are to be in the least affected
by those laws when made, should claim it as their inalienable
right to discuss such subjects privately — aye, and in public,
too — -long before the sitting of the General Conference ; for
then it might be, in many instances, entirely too late to arrange
business prudently and discuss important questions with suc-
cess.

" Is there any thing sinful in the investigations carried on in
the Mutual Rights? I, for one, am not convinced that there
is. Surely, it is not sinful to call the attention of our brethren
to a subject of vital importance to the future interests of our
Zion. It is not sinful for any man to search after truth. It is

TIMOTHY'S ADDRESS TO THE JUNIOR BISHOP. 137

not sinful to spread the truth abroad by every fair means. It
is not sinful'to take every justifiable step to obtain a well bal-
anced form of Church government. And if Bishops and travel-
ing preachers should have to resign a little of their power in
favor of our members and local preachers, even this would not
be sinful. Nor is it sinful for our traveling preachers to labor
to bring this thing about.

"Is there any thing dishonorable in those investigations, that
our traveling preachers should abstain from them? Make this
appear, and I contend no longer. But this you can never do.
All the measures pursued by the editors of the Mutual Rights
are honorable; nothing hidden, nothing dark. They spread what
they have to say before the whole Church, on the pages of their
n.i-cellany ; and they give their brethren of the old side a con-
tinued invitation to state their arguments in favor of the present
order of things. In short, it is holy, it is honorable, to seek
our rights. It is equally so to give our people theirs. 'As ye
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for
tin- is the law and the prophets.'

"Is the great law of love violated by our traveling preachers
taking part in those discussions? If you think so, show us
wherein, and I will abandon the Mutual Bights at once. He
who sins against the law of love, wrongs his own soul; and to
bring about a change in our Church government, by injuring our
-. would be infinitely foolish. But you certainly will not
mpt to say that the law of love was consulted when our
Church government was formed, or that it is by that law that
you Bishops and we traveling preachers have all the power
and the people none! I incline to the opinion that, wore the
law of love consulted, and Buffered to have unobstructed sway
over all our hearts, tin- point would be gained, the government
would be duly balanced, and all parties then on-lit to ho satis-
fied. 'I'') conclude this poinl : if it be allowable to all to inves-
tigate the principles of our Church government, it musl ho the
privilege and duty of the preachers to take part in the investi-
gation as Boon a- any others; and if it !"• not our privilege nor
our duty, let us go back to Mother Church ag lin, thai die may

138 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

feed us with a Latin mass and a wafer god, until we die, without
a question asked or an answer given.

" II. You opposed our members in Church fellowship having
any thing to do with the Mutual Rights. Were you afraid
that, by reading that work, they would understand their rights,
and take measures to obtain tliem? According to the New
Testament, the ministry and the membership were together in
deciding the great question at Jerusalem respecting circum-
cision ; in electing a successor to Judas ; in furnishing the Apos-
tolic Church with deacons. According to Mosheim's Church
History, the people were the source of ecclesiastical power dur-
ing the first century; and for the first three centuries the minis-
try and the membersbip were together in making and executing
the laws of the Church. The ministry soon found means to
lessen the power of the membership in ecclesiastical matters, but
a thousand years had rolled away before a single Pope ever sat
in St. Peter's Church at Rome without the concurrence of the
people.* The die was then cast; the liberties of the people
were gone ; princes held the Pope's stirrup, suffered him to set
his foot on their necks, and even kissed his great toe. No
wonder our people should, with this march of power before
them, start from their slumbers and inquire for their rights.
Human nature is still the same, and,' if not well watched, will
do now as it did in former years.

" I think it is pretty clear, from Moor's Life of "Wesley, that
Dr. Coke exceeded his authority in the affair of a third ordi-
nation, and in taking to himself and Mr. Asbury the name of
Bishop. The forming a Church government which gives all
ecclesiastical power to the ministry was a bold step. But
Bishops stop not here; the creation of Presiding Elders, who
are the special agents of Bishops, has given them a degree of
power over the whole Church which really looks alarming. And
now four of our Bishops divide the whole work, in these United
States, between them, and our Senior Bishop is arched over the
whole. What does this look like? In fifty years power has

* See Wesley's Notes on Revelations.

timothy's address to the junior bishop. 139

marched further in the Methodist Episcopal Church than it did
in the first three centuries of the primitive Church; and yet,
■with all these facts before you, the people are admonished to
abstain from reading the Mutual Rights, and to let such inves-
tigations alone! GOD FORBID.

"Reverend sir, I want you carefully to examine whether it be
not the privilege of all people, under whatever form of govern-
ment they may live, whether civil or ecclesiastical, to examine
into and understand the principles of those governments as fully
as possible; and whether such an examination is not essential to
our being good members of any community; and whether our
pronouncing our government to be good, before we have ex-
amine;! its principles, is not altogether premature; and whether
a mutual interchange of ideas between the members of such a
eminent might not be necessary; and whether to think,
speak, write, print.- and read be not the birthright of every
freeman; ami whether our nation does not appear to under-
stand it so. in the arguments for and against the alteration of
the constitution; and whether any but despotic rulers have
an- lit to fear from such investigations.

•• We should be more inexcusable than the members of the
Christian Church in the rise of Popery, if we were to suffer our
spiritual rulers to enslave us. We have many advantages un-
known to them, particularly the printing-press. What a bl(
in_ this has been to the world! what a Bcourge to wild and
lawless ambition !

"To me it dor- appear to be a duty which we owe to the
rioue Author of our holy religion, to our fellow -citizens, and
to posterity, to discuss this subject before the whole Church,
thai the sluml -ons of our Zion may be roused .and kept

awake, with an attentive eye fixed on the stealing march of
cal power. We have seen whai the Christian Church
was in it- origin. We have seen what it gre\i to in process of
time. The people trusted too much to the goodness and infal-
libility of the mini-try: and the preach Lng this, took ad-
vanl ige of it. and went on increasing their own power, until
the Church was ruined. Let the Methodist Episcopal Church

140 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

take warning. The wreck of one fallen Church now covers the
world, and what has happened to the Church of Rome may
happen to us, if we are not careful, vigilant, prayerful, and res-
olute.

" I think it particularly my duty, since no one else has done
it, to hold up the attempt which you made against the rights
of a whole Conference, and, through them, against the rights
of a whole people — any one of whom would look as well med-
dling with your undoubted rights, as you did with theirs. I do,
sir, think it my duty to hold your conduct up to public view,
that all men may know what a genuine friend to the rights of
man you are, and how entirely republicanism governs all your
movements. The fame of this transaction shall float on the
winds of heaven, and the generations yet unborn shall hear the
wondrous deed. Verily, I say unto you, wheresoever our his-
tory is known, there shall this thing be mentioned, for a mem-
orial of Methodist Episcopal dictation !

" But we return to your arguments. You oppose the Mutual
Eights, and you give as a reason for so doing that its discus-
sions will agitate the Church. If by agitating the Church you
mean that by reading the Mutual Rights a state of confusion,
of tumult and clamor will be produced, I think this may be
guarded against. Let those who write be temperate and ra-
tional, and so will those be who read ; for the feelings of the
reader are not apt, in general, to rise higher than those of the
writer. We do not wish to enlist the boisterous passions of our
people. We make our appeal to sober sense; we stand before
the bar of human reason to have our claim tried. We have as
much to fear from angry passions as our old-side brethren.
What blind, impetuous passion would never do for us, we think
enlightened reason will ; so that to agitate our people to their
injury is not our aim. If by agitating our people you mean
that the Mutual Rights will make them think for themselves;
will rouse them to inquire into the nature of our Church gov-
ernment; will excite them to ask of the General Conference
their long-neglected rights, I own that the Mutual Rights will
have such a tendency. And does this tendency of that work,

TIMOTHY'S ADDRESS TO THE JUNIOR BISHOP. 141

this kind of agitation in our Church, alarm you? Is even sober
inquiry, on the part of our people, so terrifying to our Junior
Lishop? 0, my dear sir, let your present palpitations teach
you, if nothing else will, that all is not right in our Church
government; and that to assuage your fears, you must lessen
your power. Nothing is more alarming to men in your situa-
tion than even a just reaction of public feeling. Still, you
oppose the Mutual Rights, for fear of agitating the people.
Did Luther, and Calvin, and Zuingle, and their coadjutors, feel
the force of this argument? Did they abandon their holy en-
terprise for fear of disturbing His Holiness in St. Peter's chair,
for fear of agitating the Church of Rome? No, verily, they did
not; nor will we.

"I am inclined to think that no branch of the Christian
Church has, for several centuries, been in such a dilemma as
ours. We are in a strait between two — between 'agitating'
the Church, on the one hand, (if calm discussion will agitate,)
and the bold march of ecclesiastical power on the other. If
we let power march on, the Church is ruined. If we attempt,
by our investigations, to arrest it in its course, the Church, it
Beems, will be 'agitated.' Under a conviction that there is
Borne analogy between the natural and the moral world; tha{,
as the ebbing and flowing of the tide has a tendency to purify
the ocean, and that, as thunder-storms tend to purify the at-
mosphere which surrounds our earth, so, also, docs the aj
tating of the greal political, ecclesiastical, philosophical, and re-
ligious Questions, by which the attention of the community has,
now and then, been arrested, tend, more or less, to political,
eccli -i.i bical, philosophical, and moral purity. Under a convic-
tion of these things, I have been led to adopt my present
with a fixed determination to be troublesome to lovers
of, power and prerogative bo long as I live,

■■ Sour efforts, sir, .-it the close of the Conference, to silence
our inve tigations, and to tie us down to the present order of
things, were of no ordinary character. Your office gave you
influence, and yon pul forth all your Btrength. STour effort
(-poke volumes. It seemed to say, 'Let our power and prerog-

142 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

atives alone; let the people get to their burdens; what have
they to do with making laws? To obey is enough for them —
aye, and more than they are willing to perform. We will not
let this people have their liberty ; if we do, they will only abuse
it. We rule them by a divine right, which ought not to be
examined or called in question. What do we care for Mos-
heim's account of the ancient order of things? The ministry
have all the power in the whole heaven and earth of Methodism,
and they ought to keep it unimpaired, and hand it down to their
successors. The preachers ought to say nothing before our peo-
ple, for they share our power with us; let the people alone — do
not " agitate" them. Political liberty is desirable; but, in eccle-
siastical affairs the preachers are always supposed to be before
the people, and, therefore, have a right to rule them, by laws of
their own making.' What a lover of republican principle you
must be ! Surely no man in his senses would agitate the Church
for the purpose of changing this very agreeable order of
things ! ! ! <

"You told the Conference that not one in twenty of our
brethren desired a change; therefore no change would be given.
Granted. Let us have no alterations in our government until they
are desired by the people, provided, our people shall have hud
proper opportunities to be suitably informed on the subject.
The reformers do not pretend that we are yet ripe for a change,
but they do insist upon it that we are ripe for examining the
subject in the light of open day ; and if light can be cast upon
the subject, so that our people may see their rights, and ask for
them in a respectful way, we hope you will have the goodness
to yield them. You say the people shall not have their rights,
because they do not want them. This seems to say they shall
have their rights when they clo want them. Thank you, sir,
for this concession in the people's favor.

" Time was when not more than one in twenty wanted Ju-
daism; wanted Christianity; wanted the reformation; wanted
Methodism. The odds against all these was fearful ; but the
work went on, because it was of G-od. And so, I hope, will the
glorious enterprise in which we are engaged. So soon as our

timothy's address to the juxior bishop. 143

Church shall become sufficiently enlightened in her ministry and
membership as properly to appreciate and understand her rights,
an overruling Providence will make our Zion free, and not before.

" But, my dear Bishop, you will pardon me if I can not
agree with you when you say not more than one in twenty
desire reform. You may sincerely think so, because you have
not the means of knowing any better; you do not read the Mu-
tual Rights. Wherever you go, old-side men surround you.
They flatter you into the belief that reformers are very scarce
indeed. On the contrary, reformers, knowing they have very
little to expect from men in power, silently pass along, and you
know them not; they have no desire to provoke your opposi-
tion by declaring themselves reformers. If all such were known,
I am inclined to think you would change your opinion, and
mention another number — say one-fourth — and they on the ir>-
crease from day to day.

" As to your advice to ' be still and say nothing until we stand
on the floor of the General Conference,' I can only §ay that the
delegates for that body are yet unknown, and perhaps arrange-
ments may be made, by caucusing or otherwise, to leave reform-
era all at home. The like has been heard of.* In such an
event, are we to be kept out of General Conference by strat-
ii, and forced into silence, too? This will be very hard
indeed. A few such attempts have been made;. They succeeded,
and a few more will make a new Church. Brethren ought to
be above stratagem when they Belecl their delegates. Surely,
we are far gone after the mother of harlots when we can practice
pious frauds! Every hones! man should abandon the Church as
he would abandon a sinking Bhip, so soon as she determines on
rying her measures by trick, Btratagem, or pious fraud. It
is to be boned thai the Episcopacy will have nothing to do with
these things. If they <h>. I here advertise them, thai they, and
not the reformers, musl bear the blame, if commotions .-hall
ensue.

■■ Perhaps yon will say, 'Cease to write for the Mutual Rights;

♦ Witness the Baltimore Conference at Winchester, 1824.

144 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

cease to circulate and read that work, and then we will abandon
our stratagems,' etc. And are old-side men serious in asking
us to abandon our undoubted rights before they will refrain
from a systematic course of trick and stratagem? I hope not.
It is our right to read the Mutual Rights, and to write for its
pages, if we choose. It is not the right of old-side brethren to
deal unfairly, to use trick and management, so as to defeat our
election to the General Conference.

"I shall conclude by making two observations more on your
bold invasion of our rights. And, first, this opposition of yours
looked bad, as coming from a Bishop. Many advocates for the
high-handed measures of men in power no doubt thought ex-
tremely well of the course which you adopted on that occasion.
Perhaps you had consulted with them, and were influenced by
them in all you did. If so, it would have been well for you if
your friends in council had been a little less impetuous, and a
little more under the influence of sober sense. You can not fail
to know that the power of the Bishops is one principal bone of
contention between reformers and old-side men, and that, so far
from producing any effect favorable to your views, you would
exhibit yourself to all present as a man pertinaciously cleaving
to power, authority, and prerogative. Every reformer, at least,
and perhaps old-side brethren, too, must have felt the following
sentiments spontaneously rising in their minds; viz.: the Bishop
has some fears for his power, or why all this exertion against
reform? Bishops and traveling preachers have all the power in
the government of our Zion, and this address plainly says that,
by the grace of God, or otherwise, they mean to keep it. A
love of power always marches onward, crying ' Give ! give !' And
men of great prerogatives are rarely known to yield them in
order to secure the general welfare. In short, sir, your hand
seemed to be against every man whose hand might be against
the episcopal and ministerial power of the Church. You took
your stand against all who would ask you for Christ's sake, for
the Church's sake, for peace sake, to let some of your eccle-
siastical power fall into other hands.

" I observe, in the last place, that your policy was unsound :

timothy's address to the junior bishop. 145

you injured your own cause; you helped ours. Yes, reverend
sir, though you thought of no such thing, neither came it into
your heart; yet, in delivering your address, you certainly did a
very important service to the cause of reform. The mind of
man is naturally free; it can not be forced to surrender even
its errors, much less its undoubted rights. You only made
reformers more determined than they were before in pursuing
their glorious enterprise. You made others first sympathize with
them, then go over to the reformers. I could give their names.
According to the unalterable laws of human nature, the sym-
pathies of mankind will always be on the side of the injured
and oppressed, when such are contending amid many difficulties
for their native rights. Permit me, then, to inform you, sir,
that the reform will go on, it will succeed. Its germinating prin-
ciple can not be destroyed: the attempt has been made again
and again, in various places which we could name, and, instead
of injuring, such attempts have uniformly advanced our cause.
I have no advice to give you, except it he (hat you urge all the
other Bishops to enter upon a course of Conference address
opposition against reformers — aye, and all the Presiding Elders,
tuo — and if you can get all the old-side preachers who have
charge of circuits and stations to join with you, so much the
better for us. The wrath of man shall praise the Lord, shall
defeat your own designs, shall work for our good. Opposition
will keep alive debate, and will wake up slumbering thousands
to habits of sober inquiry after truth. They again will, as
freemen always should, communicate it, as they learn it, until
in reference to our Church government we shall all know the
truth, and the truth shall make u< free.

I conclude as I began, without any quarrel against your
jut mi. talents or piety; ami if I have been severe, I hope you
will pardon me, and so will the public, when they remember

that I write on no ordinary occasion. Our liberties hail been

ton. bed, and manly resistance was deemed to be indispensably
necessary. Very respectfully, yours, etc.,

"Timothy.
".November, 1820."

146 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE. '

The question may well be asked, why did Bishop Hedding
deliver the address to which the foregoing is a reply? He
acted in that case either as a Christian minister or as an execu-
tive officer of the Church. If he acted as a Christian minister,
then where in the Holy Scriptures can a single text be found
to justify a Christian Bishop in an effort to obstruct the right
of free discussion, by the ministers and members of the Church
over which he presides, of the propriety and importance of a
change in the government so as to introduce lay delegation? No
such text can be found; Scriptural authority is wanting. If he
acted, in delivering that address to the Conference, as an execu-
tive officer of the Church, then what law of the Church was he
executing? No law of the Methodist, Episcopal Church can be
found binding it on Bishops to deliver addresses to the Annual
Conferences in opposition to a free discussion of ecclesiastical
questions. "Timothy's Address to the Junior Bishop" was
written because, in his heart, the writer did believe that no law
of Church or State, human or divine, did justify the Bishop's
address in opposition to the free discussion of the lay repre-
sentation question. To "oversee," according to Bishop McKen-
dree's doctrine, meant to "overrule;" yet this "overseeing" and
"overruling" should be according to the Scriptures and the
laws of the Church ; otherwise, episcopal action is neither more
nor less than despotism.

When the address to the Junior Bishop appeared in the Mu-
tual Bights, Bev. Timothy Merrit rode fifteen miles (as Bishop
G-eorge informed me, in 1827,) to show it to Mr. Hedding.
After reading it carefully through, he laid it down, and said,
with tears in his eyes, " Now, Timothy, I am done. G-od knows
I never did want to be a Bishop." I had drawn legitimate in-
ferences from Mr. Hedding's points of opposition to reform,
which gave him great pain, and afforded me no pleasure, but a
just defense of a righteous cause demanded that these infer-
ences should be drawn. No monarchical aristocracy was ever
yet reformed without giving pain to men in power ; and reform-
ers have always been made to suffer by those in authority.

Not long after this there was a convention of the Bishops in

CONVENTION OF BISHOPS IN BALTIMORE. 147

Baltimore. What the object of the convention was I can not
say, as its designs and doings were never made public. But
certain things followed which may have been devised and ar-
ranged in that convention. The case of Kev. D. B. Dorsey — ■
who, for recommending the Mutual Rights to a friend, had
fallen under the displeasure of the authorities — was to be man-
aged. A plan was to be laid to crush the Mutual Bights or
expel its editors. The real name of the author of Timothy's
Address to the Junior Bishop was to be demanded. No doubt
as fixed a determination at that time existed among the Bishops
to crush the lay delegation movement in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, as did exist among the Jewish high-priests to crush
Christianity in its origin, by the crucifixion of its Author. The
high-priests failed of their object, and Christianity was spread
through the nations. So, the Bishops failed to effect their ob-
ject, and lay delegation, after severe persecution, has found a
home in the Methodist Protestant Church, where its practical
utility is fully demonstrated. The principle is from God, who
made all men for freedom in the Church as well as in the State.
This principle now acts in the inside of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church as a powerful leaven, not easily removed; and on
the outside by a very strong pressure, derived in part from the
Methodist Protestant Church, but mainly from American re-
publican feeling. That Church, to save herself from ruinous
convulsions cmd divisions, will yet have to adopt lay delegation.

A.8 God intends out of the Jews and the Gentiles to make
one Church, when the Jews embrace Christianity, so I think he
will out of the Episcopal and Protestant Methodists make one
free and powerful Church, when our Methodist Episcopal breth-
ren embrace lay delegation. But before that event occurs, the
old warriors on both si<l<-.~ will all be gathered to their fathers;
none but a new race will be found worthy to enter into the land
of promise, and enjoy all the immunities of a free ecclesiastical
government. Here and there a Caleb and a Joshua may be
found "ii each side of this controversy — men of great virtue and
Ion who will, at the end of about forty year.-, go up and

ihe land.

148 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

The following is the note of Bishop Hedding to the chairman
of the Editorial Committee, demanding the proper name of the
author of Timothy's Address, etc.

" Baltimore, April 6, 1827.
" Reverend and Dear Sir :

"There is a piece in the 'Mutual Rights,' vol. iii, page
108, entitled, ' Timothy's Address to the Junior Bishop,' etc.,
which I consider unjust, a misrepresentation throughout of an
address I made to the Pittsburgh Conference, and a vile slander
on my character. My object in addressing you as one of the
Editorial Committee of that work is to request of said com-
mittee, through you, the proper name of the author of said ad-
dress, whose signature is ' Timothy.' You will oblige me by
giving me the names of the committee. Please send your an-
swer to Mr. John T. Kepler's as early as convenient, at furthest

in this week.

"Respectfully, yours, etc.,

" Elijah Hedding.
"Rev. Dr. S. K. Jennings."

It may be justly doubted whether, in the excitement of the
times, Mr. Hedding fully weighed the meaning of his note de-
manding my name. It affirms of my "piece" three things:
First, the "piece," in all its parts, is "unjust." Secondly,
throughout every line and every sentence of my "piece," it is a
"misrepresentation" of his "address." Thirdly, the whole of
my "piece," taken together, is "a vile slander" on the Bishop's
"character."

I had represented Mr. Hedding as opposing the lay delega-
tion reform, as discussed in the Mutual Rights. But in his
note he affirms that my entire "piece" is "unjust, a misrepre-
sentation throughout, and a vile slander on his character."'
Now, if this be so, it will clearly and logically follow that he
did not oppose reform, as advocated in the Mutual Rights, at
all, and that it is "injustice, misrepresentation, and vile slan-
der" to say he did. Of course, too, it would follow, from his
note, that the Bishop was a very great friend to the lay dele-

REPLY TO BISHOP HEDDING'S NOTE. 149

gation movement of that day, and by no means opposed to the
discussion of that question in the Mutual Rights.

The Bishop did not mean all this, yet his very strange note
very fairly affords these inferences. His note sounds like the
clarion of war. My name is demanded — if we judge from the
tone of the note — not for argument, but for punishment. The
spirit of his epistle is quite belligerent, and seems to lack the
meekness and gentleness of Jesus, together with exact truth, as
we shall see hereafter.

The Editorial Committee declined surrendering the name of
the author of Timothy's Address until they had time to for-
ward Mr. Hedding's note to me, and receive my answer. On
the receipt of that note, I felt profoundly amazed that a Chris-
tian Bishop, now that the dark ages had passed away, should
write in such a harsh and warlike manner. My calculation
was, that I should immediately be arrested and tried in an
lesiastical court for my Address to the Junior Bishop. So,
resolving to meet the case squarely, and in a Christian spirit, I
surrendered my name. The following letter was written, on
that occasion, to the chairman of the Editorial Committee :

<: Steubenvillj:, April 15, 1827.
" Dear Brother:

" Your communication of the 6th inst. now lies before me.
Y"U are at perfect liberty to make known to Bishop Hedding
the proper name of the author of Timothy's Address. I have
no time for consultation with any of the reformers in this re-

ii. but my judgment is in accordance with yours, as to the
propriety of giving the name. Timothy's Address is all my
own. in matter, form, language, etc. As to its being unjust, a
.-1, null ion- misrepresentation of the Bishop's address to the
Pittsburgh Conference, thai remains to be made out hereafter.

I have a letter from brother , who heard the Bishop's

add my paper his unqualified approbation; another
from brother , to the same effect, only he thinks Timo-
thy's remarks, in some places, a little too satirical ; another

m brother . agreeing precisely with the others — all

150 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

members of trie Conference. In short, no brother of either
side who heard the Bishop's address, and has read Timothy,
has ventured to say (that I have heard of) that my piece con-
tains any thing unjust, slanderous, or in the form of misrejjre-
sentation.

" My reliance is on God and the Pittsburgh Conference.
Surely you, my dear brother, will not easily believe that I
slandered the Bishop, when I was aware that seventy-five
preachers could with one voice contradict me if I did; at least
I could not, without having lost my senses first, and I think I
was sane when that address was written. I shall need support-
ing grace, that I may meet this trial in the spirit of a Chris-
tian and a reformer. I do not intend to go back from what I
have written, unless the Conference shall clearly convince me
that I misunderstood the Bishop. I know not what is before
me, but am of the opinion that even the sufferings of those
who labor in liberty's holy cause will be glorious in the eyes
of the American people. If I fall, do you stand to your posts,
and God will be with you ; and let us all commit ourselves to
his keeping, as unto a faithful Creator.

" George Brown.
'Dr. S. K. Jennings."

The Editorial Committee at that time deemed it proper to
withhold the names of the brethren referred to in the forego-
ing letter. A. Shinn, H. B. Bascom, and T. M. Hudson are
the men — all good witnesses in such a case.

Here, then, was full liberty given to the Editorial Commit-
tee to surrender my name, and it was accordingly done, as the
following note will show :

"Baltimore, May 2, 1827.
"Reverend and Dear Sir:

" According to our promise, made 7th of April, we have cor-
responded with the brother who forwarded the ' piece ' published
in the Mutual Bights, entitled 'Timothy's Address to the Jun-
ior Bishop,' and have obtained for answer that we are at per-
fect liberty to make known to Bishop Hedding the proper

REV. H. B. BASCOM'S TESTIMONY. 151

name of the author of Timothy's Address. We therefore now,
with all cheerfulness, inform you that the Rev. George Brown,
of the Pittsburgh Conference, is the author.

"Respectfully yours, etc.,

"S. K. Jennings,

" Chairman Editorial Committee Mutual Rights.
" Rev. E. Hedding."

Here, then, over our own names, through the medium of the
Mutual Rights, Bishop Hedding and I were brought before the
public in open conflict: he charging me with injustice, mis-
representation, and vile slander, and demanding name; and 1
giving up my real name, in expectation of all the pains and
penalties of which he might be able to prove me worthy in an
ecclesiastical court. If such a court had been called by the
Bishop, or his proxy, I was always ready to answer to his
charges and meet my responsibilities. To call me out, in so
public a manner, and under so foul a charge, and then give me
no chance for a hearing before a legally constituted Church
court, so as to relieve myself from the infamy which his note
to the committee had heaped upon me, was neither kind, fair,
nor just. Why did the Bishop do this thing? Having pub-
licly charged me with doing him injustice, misrepresenting, and
slandering him, would not moral justice require him to make
that charge good before a proper tribunal, or else withdraw it
altogether? The charge, with all its blackness and darkness,
was left hanging upon me, and I was never brought to trial.
Why was this? I strongly suspect that the Bishop had his
doubts about being able to prove against me, by any witnesses
to be found within the bounds of the Pittsburgh Conference,
the charge of injustice, misrepresentation, and vile slander; so,
he cautiously avoided a legal investigation.

In this state of suspense, to shield my reputation, 1 reque ted
Revs. H. B. Bascom and John Waterman to say, through the
Mutual Rights, without consulting me, wh.it they thought of
the truthfulness of Timothy's Address. The following is the
testimony of Mr. Bascom. (See Mutual Rights, vol. iii, p. -74.)

152 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

"To the Editorial Committee:

" Gentlemen — I have been recently favored with a copy of
Bishop Hedding's letter, of the 6th inst., to the chairman of
the Editorial Committee of the Mutual Rights, demanding the
real name of the author of Timothy's Address to the Junior
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, together with a
request from the writer of Timothy that I would say to you,
without consulting him, what I think of the accuracy of his
address and the correctness of Bishop Hedding's letter. With-
out the least hesitancy, therefore, I sit in haste to report to
you what, at this distance of time, is my recollection of the
case. I heard the address of Bishop Hedding with great in-
terest, and not without some alarm, apprehensive that it might
lead, as the present state of things evinces, to unpleasant con-
sequences. Some time after, I saw Timothy's Address. I read
it with great care, and in view of the probable effect it would
have upon the public mind. My impression then was, and it
remains unchanged, that every thing material in the address
was correctly reported. I have conversed with many preach-
ers who were present when the address was delivered, and who
have read Timothy, and they all agree that, so far as matter
of fact is concerned, the writer will be sustained in his state-
ments. I have the opinion of several preachers decidedly op-
posed to reform — and among them Presiding Elders — who think
the charge of injustice, misrepresentation, and slander against
Timothy will result more to the disadvantage of the plaintiff
than the defendant in this affair. Bishop Hedding is respect-
able for worth and talent, and so is the writer of Timothy, and
I regret exceedingly the present misunderstanding between
them; but it would seem 'offenses must needs come.' In the
present instance, I confine myself to my recollection of the
facts, without deciding ' by whom the offense cometh.'

"One thing I am certain of: that any high-handed authori-
tative attempt to suppress or discourage free inquiry, on the
subject of Church government, in this Conference, will be re-
sisted with the great weight of its talent and a large number
of its members. Reformers, so far as I know them, are willing

REV. JOHN WATERMAN'S TESTIMONY. 153

to incur the usual tax laid on reformers in Church and State
(the displeasure and hard speeches of the reigning ministry) ;
but when this opposition extends to persecution and legal disa-
'hility, my impression is, they will assert their rights with be-
coming firmness. If they are put down, it must be by argument
and fair discussion, and I have heard the principal ones among
them repeatedly declare that they consider the use of any other
weapons of warfare cowardly and disgraceful, and in this opin-
ion it is likely the good sense of mankind will concur. Thus,
gentlemen, you have my statement, and when it becomes nec-
essary my name shall be forthcoming.

"A Member of the Pittsburgh Conference."

The following testimony of Rev. John Waterman, who was
not in Conference when Bishop Hedding delivered his address,
i- chiefly valuable as reporting faithfully what other members
of the Conference reported to him :

"To the Editorial Committee:

" Dear Brethren — I have just seen a copy of Bishop Hed-
ding's letter, addressed to you, demanding the name of the au-
thor of an address to him, signed Timothy. I am not a little
surprised that the Bishop should Bay that Timothy has mis-
represented him throughout, and that it is a vile slander. I
not in the Conference at the time when the Bishop ad-
dressed the brethren on the subject of reform; but this add n
was immediately reported to me by men of intelligence and
faithful memories, who gave me to understand that the Bishop
had recommended to the preachers not to agitate the subject
of Church government among the people, and not to support
the Mutual Rights. Ee said thai the General Conference v
the place to discuss these subjects; that he was friendly to re-
form bo far as the election of Pre iding Elders, and no further;
I the liberty called for by the reformers, in the Mutual
could QOl be granted, for many reasons, one only of
which he stated, and that was. the people did not want it.
Since Timothy appeared, I have frequently conversed with
10

154 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

preachers of different sentiments on Church politics, and have
never heard Timothy charged with misrepresenting the Bishop.
"I have lately heard two Presiding Elders, both old-side
men, say that they thought the Bishop's address improper, and
an infringement on the liberties of the brethren; and one of
them, a man of science, concluded by saying that he had in-
tended to have addressed the Bishop himself on the impropri-
ety of his Conference address, if Timothy had not done it." —
Mutual Rights, vol. iii, p. 274.

This "man of science" was Eev. Charles Elliott. So Mr.
Waterman informed this writer, at the Conference in Steuben-
ville, in 1827. Dr. Elliott, now the editor of the Central Chris-
tian Advocate, is the gentleman alluded to, and there is at least
one witness living who heard hint say the same thing. From
this I infer that the Bishop's address was a little too strong
for his own friends. No wonder, then, that the friends of re-
form had their objections to it. Had it been a political ad-
dress, delivered by some high officer of the civil government,
in the hearing of Bishop Hedding, no doubt he would have
stood in the front rank of objectors, and sounded the alarm
that our civil rights were in danger. But I infer from the do-
ings of the clergy in all past ages that the right of free discus-
sion is as valuable to the Church as it is to the State, and that it
is as much my duty to advocate free discussion in the Church
as it is in the State, for the Church of Christ, the "Jerusalem
which is above is [or should be] free."

How changed are things 'now from what they once were !
So far as I am informed, at the time of this writing, all the
Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church are in favor of
discussing, in all their Church papers, the propriety of intro-
ducing lay delegation. May be our sufferings have helped to
gain the people this liberty.

The following testimonials were sent to me in Steubenville,
and were afterward published in the Mutual Rights :

TESTIMONY OF REV. ASA SHINN. 155

rev. asa shinn's testimony.
"Dear Brethren:

"I am prepared to testify that, at the close of our last Pitts-
burgh Annual Conference, Bishop Hedding did deliver an ad-
dress in opposition to reform; that, in my judgment, he did
take advantage of reformers on that occasion, and gave no one
an opportunity to reply; that he did oppose our preachers
and people having any thing to do with the discussions of Mu-
tual Rights, and stated his opinion that the time of General
Conference was the only proper time to discuss such subjects;
that he did say lay delegation was inexpedient, inasmuch as
our members in general did not desire it; and that he did
advise us to be quiet, and let such subjects alone, until we
should get on the floor of the General Conference, where 'we
Bhould have a full right to express our sentiments and argu-
ments, either verbally or in writing."

This testimony is full and clear, and to the point in every
particular. Such a witness, so high in intellect, so unimpeach-
able in moral and religious character, would be deemed worthy
of credit in any court under heaven. The same may be said
of the preceding witnesses.

We will now introduce the testimony of a lawyer of Wash-
ington, Pennsylvania, who had heard Bishop Hedding's ad-
dress, and had read Timothy. Thomas Morgan is his name.

" Dear Sir :

'■■ While I feel extreme regret that any thing has tranBpired
which can, in however remote degree, require a statement from
me, under the circumstances to which I have referred, yet, when
reputation is at stake, it would, it appears to me, be a fastidious
and reprehensible delicacy and in violation of the golden rule,

'Do nnto other- as ye would they should do unto yon, to with-
hold the statement you require. In unequivocal terms, there-
fore, I do not for a single moment hesitate to attest that, in my

Opinion, Timothy has not treated Bishop Hedding unjustly,
misrepresented or slandered him in the statement of facta."

156 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Mr. Morgan, I believe, is still living, and is a gentleman of
high standing in the community — every way qualified, by intel-
ligence and moral character, to be a competent witness in such
a case.

rev. joshua monroe's testimony.

" I was present at the Conference in Washington when
Bishop Hedding addressed tbe preachers on the subject of re-
form. I have also read ' Timothy's Address to the Junior
Bishop,' and, after a calm deliberation, I think I am prepared
to say that, if I understand the meaning of terms, Timothy has
fairly represented, the Bishop's address, and has done him no
injustice, and is not guilty of slander, unless plain truth bears
that appellation."

Mr. Monroe is still living, and has been in the ministry over
fifty years. He now holds a superannuated relation to the Pitts-
burgh Conference, and has a first-rate moral and ministerial
standing among his brethren. His testimony would be taken
in any court.

testimony of rev. thomas m. hudson.

"Dear Brother:

" In reply to your inquiries, I have only to say that I was
present and heard Bishop Hedding's address in Washington.
I have read 'Timothy's Address to the Junior Bishop,' and am
of opinion that it is correct, as to the statement of facts ; and
there is nothing unjust, no misrepresentation, and nothing in
the form of slander, contained in the whole piece."

Mr. Hudson is still living, an active laborer in the Pitts-
burgh Conference. He is a man of high and holy standing
among his brethren — every way qualified to understand the
subject on which he gives testimony.

As all the testimonials (eighteen in number) agree in char-
acter with the foregoing, it is deemed unnecessary to introduce
them here. They were all obtained in view of a legal investi-
gation; and when it became probable no ecclesiastical court

'- REASONS FOR PRESENT SELF-DEFENSE. 157

would be called in the case, I published, in the Mutual Rights,
the testimonials now introduced, and a few others, in self-
defense against Bishop Hedding's charge of injustice, misrep-
resentation, and slander.

Dr. Clark,* in his "Life and Times of Bishop Hedding," has
made it necessary to reproduce them, and give this matter a
more thorough overhauling. My reputation is worth more than
money to me and to the Methodist Protrstant Church, and with
the help of facts, and the help of God, I mean to defend myself
before I go and stand before my Judge. An honest man's
character does not often need defense against the assaults of
private enemies. Such enemies generally do themselves more
harm than any body else. But where public official action
wrongs a man, and that wrong passes into history, then self-
defense becomes a duty which no friend of truth and righteous-
ness will allow himself to neglect. If my dcfense,^ball lead me
to bring out some of the things of darkness, which I had hoped
to have left in the shades forever, what will be said? What
can be said? Simply this: self-defense required me to bring
them out.

*This geDtleman is now ono of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

158 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTER IX.

^etter from Bishop George— His Conciliatory Efforts— Concessions to the Pitts-
burgh Conference— Passage of My Character— Private Interview between
Bishop George, H. B. Bascom, A. Shinn, and Myself— Letter Published in the
Mutual Rights, Signed "Plain Dealing"— The General Conference of 1S28— Mr.
Shinn's Eloquent Speech in Favor of the Restoration of D. B. Dorsey and
W. C Pool— Bishop Hedding and Myself before the Committee on Episcopacy-
Decision of the Committee— My Defense.

In the summer of 1827, while strong measures were being
taken in the Baltimore Conference against reformers, and prep-
arations for ecclesiastical action against the Editorial Committee
were likewise being made, Bishop George addressed a letter to
Revs. A. Shinn, H. B. Bascom, and myself, jointly, designating
us as being at the head of the reform movement in the Pitts-
burgh Conference. This letter was written in a friendly tone,
indicating, however, great solicitude of mind, and containing
entreaties, expostulations, and warnings of danger ahead, not
only to ourselves, but to the Pittsburgh Conference, if we per-
severed in our efforts to reform the government of the Church.
Mr. Shinn sent a copy of this letter to Mr. Bascom, and another
to me, with notes on all the leading points, and kept the orig-
inal himself. As to the "danger ahead," neither of us could
fully understand what it meant. We might either or all of us
be arrested and brought to trial according to the plan of doing
business in the Baltimore Conference; but how could the Pitts-
burgh Conference be in danger ? This was a mysterious inti-
mation of something we could not fully comprehend. As to
myself, I took occasion to look forward to an account which I
would, in all probability, have to give at our approaching Con-
ference, for Timothy's Address to the Junior Bishop. Yet the
letter did not single me out personally for punishment, and

CONCILIATORY EFFORTS OF BISHOP GEORGE. 159

gave no intimation of any thing of an unkind character toward
either of us. So matters stood until the Conference in Steu-
benville; and Shinn and Bascom and I kept all these things,
and pondered them in our hearts, wondering what the " danger
ahead" to ourselves and to the Pittsburgh Conference could
mean. ' ,

About ten days before Conference, Bishop George arrived in
Steubenville. He seemed to be in fine spirits, and was pleasant
and agreeable in conversation. After attending a camp-meeting
in Jefferson County, he returned to town and spent a day with
me in talking over the matters at issue between Bishop Hed-
ding and myself. He assumed, as I understood him, to act for
Mr. Hedding, who, as he said, could not be present. He wished
to have an understanding of the whole matter from first to last.
So, to be entirely private, we repaired to a beautiful shade on
the bank of the Ohio River, and there we overhauled Timothy's
Address, and spent the day (save the dinner hour) in very
friendly, earnest conversation. The address of Bishop Hed-
ding, my reply, the demand for. my name, the testimonials
given me by the preachers, the publication of some of them in
the Mutual Rights, and the propriety of an amicable adjustment
in terms honorable to the parties concerned, were all under
consideration.

The Bishop said, at last, if I "would only make suitable
concessions — when my character was under examination before
the Conference — to be forwarded by him to Mr. Hedding, the
matter could easily be adjusted." I then informed him that "I
could no* concede any of the Pacts; they were all susceptible of
proof, as lie had seen from my testimonials; but I was willing to
admit, the whole case taken into consideration, that in my
address there was an unnecessary severity of language, a kind
of familiar disrespect, which should have been avoided in an
address to an aged Bishop." " Come, now," said Bishop Q-eorge,
ii you not admit something more?' ? "That is all," said I ;
'•my facts are provable, and I shall never give them up." One
of us (] forget which) then proposed an amicable reference of
the matter to five of the preachers — he to choose two, and I two

160 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

others, and these four to choose a fifth — by whose advice I should
be governed in the concessions to be made. This arrangement
was agreed upon, and we then returned home. When the Con-
ference came on, Bishop George chose (if I remember right)
Revs. T. Fleming and C. Elliott, and I chose Revs. A. Shiun
and H. B. Bascom ; and these four chose Rev. J. Waterman.
Here, then, we had an advisory council elected from both sides
of the controversy. These brethren (save Waterman) had heard
the address of Bishop Hedding ; they had also read Timothy,
and were well qualified to give advice in such a case. They
all agreed, after mature deliberation, that it was not due to
Bishop Hedding for me to admit any " injustice," " misrepresent-
ation'" or " slander" in the statement of facts. But as to tho
severity of the language used in Timothy's Address, concessions
were due to Mr. Hedding. So, on this basis, Rev. A. Shrnn, at
my request, did then and there draw up a paper containing all
the concessions deemed by them to be due to Bishop Hedding.
To this paper I attached my name, and read it in open Confer-
ence when my character was under examination. The follow-
ing is the paper :

"Having understood that some of my brethren are dissatisfied
with me as the author of an address to the junior Bishop,
signed Timothy, I cheerfully avail myself of an opportunity to
offer a few remarks to the Conference on that subject. My
object in doing so is to assure my brethren that, for peace' sake,
I am willing to enter into measures of pacification. And that
I may not be misled by my feelings, and to prevent any future
misunderstanding on this subject, I have thought proper to place
my present views and sentiments on paper.

"Peace is my object. I concede, therefore, that in two par-
ticulars in relation to Bishop Hedding I have erred, and failed
to select the most excellent way. In the first place, considering
the age and standing of Bishop Hedding, and my own youth
and relation to the Church, I think it more proper for me to
have conversed with the Bishop, or written to him for the pur-
pose of explanation, before I published. This seems to have

PASSAGE OF MY CHARACTER. 1G1

been required by tbe law of brotberly love and Christian usage.
I admit and regret my error in this particular. Secondly, I
also concede that in some reflections and inferences in my
address I was unnecessarily severe, and that the asperity should
have been avoided, as tending to disagreeable results and unpleas-
ant excitements. This I also regret ; for, although I thought, at
the time, that my severity was justified by the circumstances,
yet I now believe a more mild and cautious manner would have
been preferable.

"I will further concede that I may have misconceived the
meaning of Bishop Hedding in some instances, and hence may
have made an application of his positions beyond what he
intended; but if this was the case, it was an inadvertency; no
unfairness of construction was intended by me, and no departure
from principle, truth, and justice. Nevertheless, I do not admit
the charge by Bishop Bedding of ' injttstice,' 'misrepresentation,'
and • slander.'

•After mature reflection, I offer these explanations to the
Conference as due to Bishop Hedding, to them, and to myself,
and as required by the ties of our common brotherhood, Chris-
tian courtesy, and the pacific principles of our holy religion.

" Geo. Brown."

The next day, when my name was called in Conference by
Bishop tleorge, I arose in my place and distinctly read the
foregoing paper. WTien done, I remained standing for a little
time, waiting for 'objections ; but, as none were made, the Bishop
instructed me to retire. While I was out, Bishop George, as I
informed, said many good things in my favor, having known
me from the commencement of my labors in the ministry. For
this kindness of the Bishop T fell thankful. Bishop G-eorge,
like the Saviour, came aol into the world to destroy men's lives,
bul to sav them. Having diligently inquired into this whole
matter, while at Conference, be appeared to agree with my
advisers, thai I bad conceded to Bishop Hedding enough in the
paper read in Conference. My character was then officially
passed by thai body, with a refusal on my part, to admit Bishop

162 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Hedding's charge of "injustice," "misrepresentation," and "vile
slander."

The members of the Pittsburgh Conference, at their session
in Washington the preceding year, had heard Bishop Hedding's
address; they had read Timothy, and had likewise seen the
note of Mr. Hedding demanding my name, and were not willing
officially to sustain his charge. How could they be willing to
do such a thing? To say officially, in the sight of God, that a
charge so broad, so all-comprising, and so foul, was true, could
not be done by that body of ministers. That Timothy's entire
"piece" was "unjust" to Mr. Hedding; that the whole "piece"
"throughout" was a "misrepresentation" of his address; that
the whole "piece," taken together, was a "vile slander" on his
"character," were distinct propositions which neither my ad-
visory council nor the Conference could in conscience sustain
against me. So there the matter rested, and I felt thankful to
God and the Conference for sustaining me in the dark hour of
trial. All through this trial I felt it to be a fearful matter to
be in conflict with a Bishop ; to have all his weight of character
and influence against me. I saw, also, among the brethren, a
great tenderness toward Bishop Hedding's character; yet that
tenderness, which I could not blame, did not sway their judg-
ment; they relieved me of the terrible weight of the Bishop's
charge, in obedience to their clearest views of justice in the

'to

case.

In relation to the paper read in Conference, it will be proper
to observe that, standing pledged to be governed, as to conces-
sions, by my advisers, I yielded a little more than I did to
Bishop George. I did it, not from conviction of moral obliga-
tion, but for "peace' sake." In this thing I allowed my breth-
ren to judge for me. Bishop Hedding did not consult the
Conference as to the propriety of his address against reform,
the time when it should be delivered, the manner how, or any
thing about it, but gave it to us at the close of the Conference,
leaving no opportunity for any one to reply. Under these cir-
cumstances, I did not feel myself bound, in moral justice, to
consult him by "conversing with him," or "writing to him," as

LETTER PUBLISHED IN THE MUTUAL RIGHTS. 163

to the time or place, or manner, of my reply. In all this I felt
entitled to equal rights with the Bishop. Especially did I feel
so, as he had stepped outside of all law, civil, ecclesiastical, and
divine, when he made that address against reform, as discussed
in the Mutual Rights.

In the progress of affairs at the Conference in Steubenville,
Bishop George invited A. Shinn, H. B. Bascom, and myself to
his room, and there, in great earnestness and yet with Christian
tenderness, he breathed out all that was in his soul against our
reform movements. To him lay delegation was ruin to the
Church. To me the good old man did appear to be most re-
ligiously sincere. At last he said there did exist a determina-
tion — but he did not say where — to dissolve the Pittsburgh
Conference, at the ensuing General Conference, if we, and the
other brethren in the Conference known as reformers, did not
cease to agitate the Church on the lay delegation question. The
Bishop thought lay delegation would be ruin to the Church.
We thought that to admit the laity to a just participation with
the preachers in every department of the government would
be a ground of general prosperity to our community. So, with-
out making hi in any promise to give up the cause of reform,
the interview was closed, and we now understood for the first
time what was meant in the Bishop's letter, previously received,
concerning "danger ahead to the Pittsburgh Conference."

The following communication, said to have been written by
Mr. Bascom, and published in the Mutual Bights, vol. iv, p. 91,
will indicate the kind of Peeling produced by this threat to dis-
solve the Pittsburgh Conference in the minds of reformers. It
is dated September, 1827, and signed " Plain Pealing."

K Messes. Editobs:

"There is a measure in contemplation which I think proper
to make known. It cainc ftroifl one of our Bishops, and the

witnesses are « - i — 1 1 1 or ten in number. It is a determination to
dissolve the Pittsburgh Annual Conference, at the next General
Conference, should its members persist in their attachment to

the principles of reform. Now, in my judgment, there is more

164 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

want of principle, more deliberate cruelty in this hard-hearted,
unjustifiable measure of oppression, than in all the petty deeds
of persecution with which our modern journals have been
stained. Merciful God ! are these the only weapons Christian
Bishops and their ministerial dependants can use to extermin-
ate error ! I heard it with regret, I write it with sorrow ; but
it is due to the Methodist public that it should be known.

"The territory embraced by the Pittsburgh Conference sup-
ports a population of several hundred thousand. There are
nearly ninety traveling preachers belonging to the Conference,
and some of them inferior to none in the United States. But
all this avails nothing ; reform must go down, right or wrong,
and hence the meditated blow at the very existence of the Con-
ference ! Other measures of a similar kind are in contempla-
tion, and as I have collected a large number of facts in relation
to these things, you may hear from me again. It may yet be
seen what share a Methodist Bishop can take in the persecu-
tions now going on in Baltimore. I have also had my eye on
the movements of a few individuals in that city who have been
forming alliances, that I may be compelled to expose, not much
to their credit, in order to affect injuriously the reputation of
reformers. If private character must be assailed in this con-
troversy, let the inquisition extend to a few of the blustering
dupes of the artful and designing in your city, and it will be
found that they are not quite so invulnerable as they have imag-
ined. Should justice and humanity compel me to engage in
this business, I shall undertake nothing but what I can prove
in courts of law, civil or ecclesiastical.'

Here, then, we have it clearly brought to light that, in the
high places of the Methodist Episcopal Church, " there did
exist a determination" to put down reform, by the abolishment
of the very existence of a Conference. Much has been said, in
times gone by, and in later times, too, of the rashness and vio-
lence of the reformers, but nothing equal to this can be laid to
their charge. To kill a Conference in order to prevent lay del-
egation was an exceedingly violent proposition. Yet, according

THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1828. 165

to the disclosures made by Bishop George, holy ministers of the
lowly Jesus were "determined" upon this thing. They must
have been ministers in high authority, and of great influence,
to hope to sway the General Conference in such a tragical trans-
action. The whole communication of "Plain Dealing," on the
proposed destruction of the Pittsburgh Conference, to defeat the
lay delegation reform, indicated a mind thoroughly roused and
indignant; his thoughts are all on fire, and his very words
burn.

Perhaps his scorching communication balked the purpose of
men in power, and hindered the dissolution of the Conference.

The ecclesiastical proceedings against reformers, in Baltimore
and other places, indicated trouble ahead to the friends of lay
rights at the approaching General Conference. Rev. C. Springer,
in a letter, informed me that "there was a rod in soak for me."
That the "directory of the Ohio Conference" had originated
a determination to bring up the Hedding case in General Con-
ference, and get it disposed of in such a way as would clear the
Bishop from all blame for his note to the Editorial Committee,
and seriously involve me. This I could hardly believe they
would do, as such a procedure would as deeply implicate the
Pittsburgh Conference as it would me ; for that body had offi-
cially passed my character, with an open declaration on my part,
at the time, that I did not admit the truth of Bishop Ileddiug's
charge made against nie of "injustice.'' '• misrepresentation,"
and "vile slander." When the General Conference of 1828
assembled in Pittsburgh, Bev. C. Springer and I attended. We
saw, when there a few days, unmistakable evidence of great
hostility to reform. The prejudice against us and our cause
seemed equal to that of dews against Christians, or of Catholics
against Protestant.-. There was in that prejudice no mercy to
the cause of lay delegation; yet I heard nothing among the
members of that Conference about dissolving the Pittsburgh
Conference to put down reform. No such earthquake occurred.
Pi rhaps the "determination" to do that violent deed had been
given up, in view of other measures equally efl'eelive and less
repulsive to the common sense of mankind. 1 saw and heard,

J 66 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

in a General Conference love-feast, on Sunday morning, enough
to satisfy me of the depth and force of misguided zeal and igno-
rant prejudice against the friends of ecclesiastical reform. Al-
most all who spoke praised the ancient order of things, and
placed their heaviest condemnation on those "restless spirits"
who were disturbing the peace of the Church by trying to in-
troduce lay rights. The Southern preachers, who were gen-
erally slaveholders, took the lead in this scandalous abuse
heaped upon the heads of reformers, in that love-feast meeting,
in the house of Grod, on the holy Sabbath-day. One could
hardly wonder that Southern slaveholding preachers, who deny
civil freedom to the colored race, should likewise deny ecclesi-
astical liberty to their white brethren ; for slaveholding is nat-
urally corrupting in its tendency. But how men in the free
states, educated to hate slavery, could, in a love-feast, reproach
reformers for seeking to enfranchise the Church of God with
ecclesiastical liberty, was to me incomprehensible. For Meth-
odists in the free North, always glorying in their civil freedom,
to be living from generation to generation under ecclesiastical
laws, in the making of which they had no more hand than
Southern slaves have had in the making of the laws under
which they are lashed and driven, from age to age, is to me
absolutely amazing. Does slavery, in many instances, stupefy
the faculties of the sons of Ham, and render them indifferent
to liberty? Does not ecclesiastical bondage, as seen in the
Roman Catholic and Methodist Episcopal Churches, have the
same tendency? To insure the perpetuation of American lib-
erty, all the Churches in this nation should, both by precept
and example, teach the doctrine of civil and ecclesiastical free-
dom.

But, to show still further that reformers had but little to
expect from the General Conference of 1828, I will now give,
according to my best recollection, a brief account of the trial
of the appeals of Rev. D. B. Dorsey and W. C. Pool, both of
whom had been expelled for reform movements by the Balti-
more Conference. Neither of these brethren could be present,
so they had committed the management of their appeals to

MR. BHUm's SPEECH. 167

Kev. A. Shinn; and, if I remember right, Rev. W. Fisk was
appointed by the Conference to assist him. The case came on
in the morning, and was opened by Mr. Shinn, who represented
the appellants, by reading the grounds of their appeal as set
forth by themselves in writing. Then the members of the Bal-
timore Conference, according to the forms of law governing in
such cases, responded, justifying the action of their Conference
iu the expulsions. This brought on the hour of adjournment
for dinner. Thkt day I dined with Mr. Shinn. He ate but
little, conversed none, but his great soul was full of thought
and prayer. At two o'clock the case was resumed, and there
was a full house to hear Mr. Shinn make the closing argument.
I sat back without the bar, to take down in writing the main
points of said argument.

When Mr. Shinn arose and stood in silence for a few mo-
ments, the whole assembly became very still. He was pale,
calm, self-possessed, and very dignified iu appearance. He com-
ii.' need his argument with a clear, full, round tone of voice,
evidently reaching every ear in the house. His exordium was
simple, modest, chaste — going to show that all he wished for
iu behalf of the appellants was, that the truth might shine and
that justice might be done. The facts of the case and the laws
of the Church were then most scarchingly examined, and it was
made distinctly to appear that the expulsions were without the
sanction of the laws of the Church. He then made it appear,
from all the evidence in that high court of appeals, that the
things charged against the appellants in the court below were
not, in themselves, criminal actions. He then took the written
appeal sent up by the expelled brethren, and argued the truth-
fulness and justice of thai paper in all its parts. He then
appealed to the justice, honor, and impartiality of that high
tribunal, and urged, with all the force of hie logical energy,
the restoration of the appellants to their places in the Church,
ami to the public confidence. In the peroration the speaker
became most overwhelmingly eloquent, and swept defiantly over
the enemies of mutual rights. The effect upon that great
assembly was thrilling. The Bishops, generally florid, now

168 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

looked pale. Ex-Governor Findley, of Pennsylvania, who sat
in the gallery, wept like a child. Many members of the Con-
ference felt like the Governor, so did many spectators; and I
found myself unable, some time before the speech was ended,
to take any more notes.

When Mr. Shinn resumed his seat there was a long pause —
a time to take breath. The Bishops, and other leading mem-
bers of the Conference, looked wisely at each other. Just then
a New England preacher, having seen me writing, came round
to me and said: "Why don't the Bishop put the vote? I hate
Shinn like fire, but I never heard such an argument before in
all my life. If they will put the vote now, the appellants will
be restored and the Baltimoreans defeated — and they ought
to be defeated." So thought I, and many more besides that
New England preacher. But the vote was not put, as the law
directed. Rev. John Early, and other Southern preachers,
without introducing any new question, were suffered to run a
tirade against Mr. Shinn, duriug most of the afternoon, for a
piece in the Mutual Rights, published by him, entitled " Sov-
ereignty of Methodism in the South." To this disorderly
ramble Mr. Shinn made no reply, as it had no relation to the
question before the Conference. Finally, the Chair announced
that the vote would be taken the next morning. From that
moment the reformers had their fears of foul play.

That evening, at supper, at the house of John McGill, much
was said of the argumentative eloquence of Mr. Shinn's speech
that afternoon. Bishop Roberts, who sat by my side, said,
"Yes, that was true eloquence of the highest order." He then
added that he " did not remember ever to have heard a speech
surpassing Mr. Shinn's for argumentative eloquence." At that
table, however, no opinion was expressed as to how the vote
would go the next morning.

That night, about eleven o'clock, I met Mr. Bascom on the
street, who said: "There has been a caucus meeting to-night,
and I have been eavesdropping them. They have secured a
majority of twenty, pledged on a paper, against the appellants."
I said I did hope, for the honor of the Christian religion, that

BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON EPISCOPACY. 169

he was mistaken ; but he affirmed it was so, and said, You
will see, to-morrow mornirfg." In the morning, when the vote
was taken, they had about the majority against the appellants
that Bascom had reported. This whole affair led me strongly
to suspect that reformers were to have no fair dealing in that
General Conference. In this case, would the end sanctify the
means? or the means sanctify the end? Were not both the end
and the means wron» ? The forms of law, in the main, had
been allowed during the trial ; but the ends of justice had been
defeated by caucus management.

Ou hearing that Bishop Hedding had thrown his case before
the Committee on Episcopacy, I sought an interview with him,
at the resilience of llev. C. Avery, to give him an opportunity,
in person, to convince me, if he could, of the ••injustice," "mis-
representation," and "vile slander" contained in "Timothy's
Address to the Junior Bishop." That interview lasted about
four hours, during which time we overhauled the whole matter
at issue between as, without any unkindness of feeling on either
side. He complained that I had not done him justice; first,
in the broad, undefined sense in which I had used the word
"reform." It might he inferred, he said, from Timothy's Ad-
dre-.-. that he was opposed to all reform, in the broadest sense.
This was not true, for in his address at Washington he had
med to he ;, reformer on the Presiding Elder question. Sec-
ondly, in the broad, undefined Bense in which I had used the
word " discussion." It might be inferred, be said, from Timo
thy'- Address, thai he was opposed to all manner of discussion.
This was not true, for in bis address at Washington he did
allow of preachers discussing matters of Church government
'• privatt Itj. between themselves." These were the main points on
which the Bishop founded his complaints against Timothy's
Address. The other complaints were of inferences which might
I it drawn, to hi- injury, from the aforesaid terms being used ia
too broad a sen e. Neither of as had Timothy's Address with
us, nor had I read it for eight or nine months; so I supposed

that the Bishop was correct as to my Using the two terms,
H reform" and "discussion," in too broad a sense, and concluded
11

170 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

at once on making reparation. When I came to this conclu-
sion, I did certainly know that conceding that the two terui3,
"reform" and "discussion," had been used in too broad a sense,
would not afford an honest logician any just grounds to infer
the truth of the Bishop's charge. It would not vitiate Timo-
thy's whole address so as to make the whole "piece" "unjust" —
the whole "piece" in all its parts a "misrepresentation" — the
whole "piece" a "vile slander" on the Bishop's "character."
I greatly desired to be an honest man, and felt entirely willing,
in this case, to make reparation so far as conscience might
require.

The next day, at the invitation of Bishop Hedding and two
of the members of the Conference, I went before the Commit-
tee on Episcopacy, for the purpose, as I was informed, of a
"friendly explanation" of the difficulty between Mr. Hedding
and myself. It never entered into my mind that the results of
that pacific, friendly explanation to which I was invited on that
occasion were to be published in the Advocate and Journal. I
believed then, and trust I always shall believe, that no good
cause can be benefited by avoiding the light, or injured by a
candid acknowledgment of our unintentional errors. Four rea-
sons induced me to seek an interview with the Bishop, and
made me willing to go before the Committee on Episcopacy:
First, I wanted the truth of the case in hand to be clearly
ascertained, that I might make reparation, if any were due.
Secondly, terms of pacification were talked of, and, as I under-
stood it, greatly desired by leading men on both sides of the
controversy. I did not, therefore, want my difficulty with Mr.
Hedding to be in the way of so desirable an object as an honor-
able pacification. Thirdly, but if pacification proved a failure,
as I feared it would, and the reformers should be pressed out
of the Church. I wanted all my matters settled before we went,
so as to leave it in the power of no one to injure me about this
affair after our separation. Fourthly, for the sake of my own
natural and spiritual health, I felt it a duty, as far as possible
on honorable principles, to be at peace with all men. Without

BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OX EPISCOPACY. 171

natural health, life is a misery; without spiritual health, our
eternal interest is ruined.

Rev. S. G. Roszel was the chairman of the committee, and I
knew him too well to have any hope of favors from him. He
was — to his honor be it recorded — no enemy in disguise. His
open hostility to the Wesley an Repository, the Mutual Rights,
the Presiding Elder reform, and the lay delegation reform is
well known. To see S. G. Roszel in the chair, with all his
unbending antipathies and prejudices against all manner of re-
form, did foretell to me nothing favorable. When the chairman
had stated the object of the meeting, the delegates of the Pitts-*
burgh Conference were called upon to state their recollections
of Bishop Hedding's address at the Conference in Washington.
They did so, one after another, in order. Shinn and Basconi,
the only reformers in the delegation, were not present. (Query:
Had they been invited?) These delegates, severally, then an-
swered such questions as were proposed by the Bishop and the
committee. Then the Bishop read a paper, containing his recol-
lections of his address to the Conference in Washington. He
then pointed out what be conceived to be the "injustice," "niis-
representation," and '-slander" in Timothy's Address. All this
time 1 had received no new light from cither the Bishop or the
Pittsburgh delegation on the subject before us. My impressions
remained the same as they had been the night before, at the pri-
vate interview with Mr. Hedding. Finally, I was requested to
make Buoh statements as I might deem proper on that occasion.
I arose, and stated frankly that "I was willing to concede to
Bishop Bedding that I had failed, in my address to him, to dis-
criminate with sufficient clearness and accuracy in the use of two
words, and had, therefore, used those words in too broad and un-
defined a sense. The words were 'reform' and 'discussion.' It
might be supposed hy some, from my undefined use of the word
'reform, 1 that the Bishop had opposed all manner id' reform.
This supposition would he untrue, lor he had said explicitly,
in his address, that he favored reform so far as the election of
Presiding Elders was concerned, and no further. It might be

172 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

concluded by some, from my use of the word ' discussion ' — not
having limited its meaning — that he had opposed all manner
of discussion. This, too, would be untrue, for he had allowed
of private discussion of matters of Church government among
the preachers. Any inferences injurious to Bishop Hedding,
drawn from these two terms used in too broad a sense, are
hereby given up. The premises being incorrect, all the infer-
ences may be erroneous." This is the substance, as near as I
can recollect — my notes being lost — of the concessions then
made; and they do not, as will be seen hereafter, affect the
general truthfulness of Timothy's Address, or afford a just and
adequate reason for sustaining the Bishop's charge.

Bishop Hedding, when I was done speaking, arose and said
frankly, in the presence of the committee, that " he admitted the
uprightness of my intentions, and that I did not design to do
him any injustice, in any thing I had written." When the
Bishop sat down, Rev. W. Capers, a Southern slaveholding
preacher, came stepping out of a corner and said: "In publish-
ing this matter, it would only be necessary to mention the name
of Timothy; brother Brown's name need not appear." On
learning that they had been getting something out of me for
publication, I informed them that " I intended myself to give
a correct explanation of this whole matter to the public."

After some time, I saw in the Advocate and Journal the re-
port of the Committee on Episcopacy, justifying Bishop Hed-
ding and involving me, which thing, Rev. C. Springer had in-
formed me, the "directory in the Ohio Conference" meant to
have accomplished by the General' Conference. I will now give
the closing part of the report of the Committee on Episcopacy,
above alluded to, and then make my own defense:

"The plan pursued to attain this object [the character of
Mr. Hedding's address] was, for the members of the (Pitts-
burgh) delegation, severally, first to state their recollections of
that address, and then to answer the questions proposed to them
on the subject. After all those delegates had thus communi-
cated to the committee their recollections, a paper was read con-

MY DEFENSE. 173

taining as accurate an outline of the address of the Bishop as he
had been able to make out from his own recollection. The rec-
ollections of the delegates from the Pittsburgh Conference and
of Bishop Hedding were not only substantially, but, in a re-
markable degree, circumstantially concurrent.

"The Bishop then pointed out the injustice, misrepresenta-
tion, and slander of his character, which he considered as per-
vading the address signed ' Timothy.' Alter which, the author
of that article, having been permitted to address the committee,
acknowledged that, in not properly distinguishing in two in-
stances, he had done injustice, giving the general character of
the Bishop's address ; that some of the inferences he had drawn
were unjust; that, as his premises were incorrect, all the infer-
ences drawn from them might be erroneous.

"Your committee beg leave, therefore, to declare, as the re-
sult of their investigation in this matter, that they consider the
view presented in the Bishop^ note to the editor of the Mutual
Bights, of the article signed 'Timothy,' to have been strictly
correct. The committee would further declare that, in their
opinion, the address of Bishop Bedding, as recollected by him-
self and the delegates of the Pittsburgh Annual ponference, not
only was not deserving of censure, but was such as the circum-
stances of the case rendered it hi.- official duty to deliver.

[Signed] '<S. <J. Boszel, Chairman.*

"Pitimu rgu, May I-", 1S28."

'I'll'- foregoing decision of the Committee on Episcopacy is
made to rei I "ii three sources of testimony:

I. On the "recollection" of Bi bop Bedding. Let it be
kept in mind that he is bearing testimony in his own be-
half. Here I claim equal rights all through the defense I now
make. Tin- reporl Bays, "A paper was read containing ;is ac-
curate an outline "I' tin- address of the iJi.-huji as be hail been
able to make out from his own recollection." Here I have the
advantage, for I wrote from memory^ ami memory i- more relia-
ble than recollection^ In his case, some months having elapsed

* See Life and Tlmi op Hedding, p,

174 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

before lie saw Timothy, it required a mental effort, called recol«
lection, to recover back to the mind what he did say in his ad-
dress in Washington. But on the spot, before the Bishop had
left town, I compared my views with those of my aggrieved
friends, as to the objectionable traits in his address, and stored
the whole away in my memory, and in a short time committed
all the points to writing. I think, therefore, that my remem-
brances, as contained in Timothy's Address, are entitled to a
higher degree of credit than the Bishop's "recollections," and
that Timothy's Address, as to matters of fact, is a reliable com-
munication. Is it not a little remarkable that so important a
paper as the Bishop's "recollections," etc., should have been
omitted by Dr. Clark in his Life and Times of Bishop Hedding?
It would have been very gratifying to me, indeed, to have seen
that paper in print. Then I should have been able to compare
it and Timothy together, and see whether his recollections were,
under the character of testimony, worth more than my remem-
brances.

II. The testimony of the Pittsburgh delegation. The report
of the committee says, " All those delegates had communicated
to the committee their recollections," etc. The recollections of
the delegates and of the Bishop are said to be " substantially
and circumstantially concurrent." Now let us examine this
boasted testimony, and, if possible, ascertain its worth. In the
first place, the report itself is wanting in truth. It introduces
all the Pittsburgh delegates as stating their recollections to the
committee. This is not the fact: Shinn and Bascom were not
there. Undoubtedly they would have been, had thcy'been noti-
fied. Perhaps, as they were reformers, their recollections were
not desired, lest they should be on the other side. In the sec-
ond place, Timothy's Address stood indorsed already by two
other Pittsburgh delegates, Monroe and Elliott, in a very formal
manner. The first had voluntarily given me a written testimo-
nial sustaining the facts of my address, and the other, as a
member of my advisory council, had joined with his colleagues,
in judgment, that I ought not to admit any "injustice," "mis-
representation," or "slander," when my character passed the

MY DEFENSE. . 175

Pittsburgh Conference in Steubenville. Besides, Mr. Elliott
had said to Mr. Waterman and others that "he had intended to
have addressed the Bishop himself, on the impropriety of his
address, if Timothy had not done it." I watched these two wit-
nesses closely, as they were both old-side men, and of course
had their leanings toward the Bishop's side of the question, yet
I could not see that they contradicted their former testimony as
to the facts in Timothy's Address.

As to the other members of the Pittsburgh delegation — sur-
rounded by the influences and antipathies then felt, at that
General Conference, where even Bishops anticipated the disso-
lution of the Pittsburgh Conference, to put clown reform — I
freely admit that, in their recollections of the Bishop's address,
they were unfavorable to Timothy; more so when answering
questions than in their first statements. Yet, why should their
testimony outweigh the testimony of all my witnesses, who,
against every consideration of self-interest, had indorsed, by writ-
tin certificates, the veracity of Timothy as to the statement of
facts? It may be said that all my witnesses were "radicals." Not
all of thcni. Monroe, and Holmes, and Hudson, and Calender,
were all old-side men. But if they had all been "radicals,"
would this liave destroyed the worth of their testimony? If
m. then the Pittsburgh delegates in question, all being old-side,
were not worthy of credit. Besides all this, these Pittsburgh
delegates 'lid not truly represent the act inn of their own Con-
ference in my case. That Conference, when I read a paper
containing Borne concessions to Bishop Eedding, but distinctly
refusing to admit his charge of "injustice," "misrepresenta-
tion," and "vile Blander," officially passed my character, and
these delegates took pari in that transaction. Bishop Iledding

did not bring thai conference action before the General Confer-
ence for correction, bo he thereby acknowledged its validity;
t, when be aii 1 a deadly Mow at me personally, al the Gen-
eral Conference, these delegates, disregarding the action of the
body to which they belonged, came forth to the help of the
Bishop againsl me. Certainly, when this whole matter is fully
understood, this double operation of these delegates will not

176 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

verv much increase the weight of their testimony. He who has
a case before an impartial jury should bring better witnesses
into court than these delegates, if he expects to carry his cause.

III. The decision of the committee is made to rest on the
concessions of the author of Timothy. The report of the com-
mittee says: " The author of that article, having been permitted
to address the committee, acknowledged that, in not properly
distinguishing, in two instances, he had done injustice, giving
the general character of the Bishop's address ; that some of the
inferences he had drawn were unjust, and that, as his premises
were incorrect, all the inferences drawn from them might be
erroneous/'

Now, on this quotation from the committee's report on my
concessions to Bishop Hedding, the following remarks will be
important. First: it will be seen that there was a willingness
on my part, amid all the hostile feeling against reform then
and there prevalent, to meet the case in a fair and honorable
manner, and do ample justice to the character of Bishop Hed-
ding. Secondly : to say " the author of that article having been
permitted to address the committee," does not convey the true
idea. He was there at the invitation of Bishop Hedding and
two of the members of the Conference, and was not seeking
" permission to address the committee," but was requested by
the Bishop and the committee to do so. All that was said by
me on that occasion was regarded in the light of a "friendly
explanation" of the difficulty between Mr. Hedding and myself,
in view of a contemplated pacification between the two contend-
ing parties ; hence, in matters of concession, I went as far as
I possibly could. Thirdly : the report of the committee says I
"acknowledged that, in not properly distinguishing, in two in-
stances, I had done injustice in giving the general character of
the Bishop's address." So I really did believe at that time,
being misled in this matter by a sincere confidence which I had
reposed in the accuracy of the Bishop's statement of the wrongs
I had done him. Fourthly: but why is the committee's report
so incomplete? Why did they not state as fully in their report,
as I did in their presence, what the two instances were in which

MY DEFENSE. 177

I had done the Bishop "injustice?" My guilt or innocence
was to be made out. If they had stated fully and fairly what
I conceded in their presence, they could not have reported that
the Bishop's charge against me was sustained. But if they left
the "two instances" unstated, then they could bring me in
guilty of every thing charged, and no one could gainsay their
decision. Fifthly: I can allow the committee and their friends
all I conceded as to the use of the two words, "reform" and
"discussion," in too large and comprehensive a sense; and that
it might hence be inferred that the Bishop was against the elec-
tion of Presiding Elders and private discussion of Church pol-
ity by the preachers ; and it will not logically follow, from all
this, that my entire address is a- mass of corruption, a great
conglomeration of "injustice," "misrepresentation," and "vile
slander." Sixthly: but after the foregoing concessions were
made, and I had carefully reexamined the whole matter, I
found that L had been in error in making them. Timothy's
Address does not represent Bishop Heddihg as opposing nil
manner <>f reform and "// manner of discussion, but only the
kind of "reform" and "discussion" advocated in the .Mutual
Rights. The Uishop's Presiding Elder reform had no place
in th.it periodical, nor had his private discussions between the
preachers themselves apart from the people. All cool-headed,
impartial men would understand me to represent the Bishop as
opposing the kind of "reform" contended for in the Mutual
Rights, and not all manner of "reform;" as opposing "discus-
Bion" as carried on in that periodical, and not private "discus-
sion.'' The word- used by me in my address, and the period-
ical in which my article was published, limited the meaning id'
the words reform and discussion, bo as to leave the Bishop on-
troubled aboul the little reform /"■ befriended and the privatt
discussion he allowed. Wh\ did not Bishop Sedding see this
matter in the li-ht now presented, and forbear making his nn-
ju-t charge againsi Timothy? Why did not I firsi examine
in. address to him carefully before I made any concessions?
We often find out a little too late what should have been

done.

178 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

I shall now bring this defense to a close, by introducing tes-
timony from Dr. Clark's Life and Times of Bishop Hedding,
pages 327-328. He says: "The three [Shinn, Bascom, and
Brown] had been favorably situated for the propagation of
their radical views." "It was claimed that the radicals had the
ascendency." "The radicals, too, had adroitly drawn in Bishop
Hedding," as favoring all their "radical measures." This whole
matter had been "laid open to the Bishop by one of the Presiding
Elders." " The wisest and best men in the Conference were
perplexed and alarmed." "The Bishop was sorely afflicted at
this state of affairs, and was indignant at the unwarrantable
statements that had been made concerning himself." This Pre-
siding Elder, aided by Dr. Bond's book, had succeeded in get-
ting up some excitement, and had roused the Bishop, who now,
we are told, (page 354), "was compelled to breast the storm of
radical innovation at the Pittsburgh Conference, in 1826." We
are then informed by Dr. Clark, that his "firmness, decision,
and ability were equal to the task before him. Then, in a most
masterly speech to the Conference, he exposed the unfounded
assumptions of the radicals, the evils that would inevitably
result to the Church, should they succeed, and especially the
wickedness and baseness of the report that had been fabricated
and circulated, that he in any measure countenanced the course
of those men, whose action would rend and destroy the Church.
It was a masterly vindication of the Church and of himself.
It carried consternation into the hearts of the radical leaders.
They ventured no reply, but in silence saw the downfall of their
hopes."

Now, from all the foregoing, taken frdni Dr. Clark's Life
and Times of Bishop Hedding, will it not follow, most inev-
itably, that Timothy's Address is a true representation of the
Bishop's opposition to reform, as contended for in the Mutual
Rights? Timothy has only reported what all candid men
would have expected from a Bishop wonderfully excited by a
mischief-making Presiding Elder. Dr. Clark, in what I have
quoted from his book, has furnished highly probable evidence

MY DEFENSE. 179

of the truth of all the material facts contained in " Timothy's
Address to the Junior Bishop." Such an address as Mr. Hed-
ding's, in opposition to ecclesiastical liberty, deserved such a
reply, in behalf of ecclesiastical freedom, as that given by
Timothy. These were exciting times, and from the party in
power reformers could hardly expect impartial justice.

180 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTER X.

A Church Trial in Steubenville in 1827— A Lady Preacher— Conference in Merceb
County— New Lismin Circuit— Determination to Leave the Church— Rbabons
for so Doing— Invitation to go to Pittsburgh— Acceptance— Letter to my Pre-
siding Elder.

At the Conference in Steubenville, in 1827, 1 was reappointed
to the charge of the Steubenville Station by Bishop George, at
the particular request of an informal delegation of leading mem-
bers, who waited upon him in behalf of the Church to secure
my return. In this instance the brethren did not deem it best
to leave my standing and usefulness among them to be repre-
sented to the Bishop by my Presiding Elder, Rev. W. Lambdin,
a man of prejudices against reform entirely too strong, in their
opinion, to be able to do me justice. This Presiding Elder had
invited me, in company with Bishop George, to attend the camp-
meeting already alluded to, which occurred just before the sit-
ting of Conference. When there, he did not think it advisable
to invite me to preach, nor did I preach until he was gone. On
Saturday night, in a crowd near the preachers' stand, I heard
loud talking, and went in among the people to learn what was
going on. Several friends from Steubenville were with me, and
there we heard the Elder laying grievous things to the charge
of the reformers, and against me personally, and, alas for his
statements ! there were none of them true. He there stated that
I had, by getting up the Union Society, done the Church a great
injury, and that it was in a bleeding, divided, and ruined con-
dition. Neither of these statements was true. Rev. J. Monroe
advised the formation of the Union Society. I did not belong
to it, nor did I ever attend it; and at that time the harmony
of the Church was unbroken.

A CHURCH TRIAL IN STEUBEXVILLE. 181

In view of this evil treatment of me personally, the brethren
left the Polder to one side, and went, by their own deputation, to
the Bishop, and urged my return a second year to their station.
This camp-meeting statement, made by the Elder, ultimately
led to a Church trial, in which the Elder was seriously involved.
John Armstrong, while at work in a meadow, was informed that
the Elder had, at the aforesaid camp-meeting, stated publicly
that I had formed the Union Society, and thereby divided and
ruined the Church. Ou hearing this, Armstrong replied that,
if the Elder did make that statement, it was a lie, and he could
prove it. In a short time the Elder got to hear what brother
Armstrong had said, and immediately laid in a complaint to me,
a- preacher in charge, against him. I advised a milder course —
"sinful words and tempers" required "admonition," etc. But
the Elder's pluck was up, and he would let me know that such
a foul charge against his character should not go unpunished.
"Well," said I, "you are the Presiding Elder, and if this trial
is allowed to go on, you will be in an awkward position: you
are the complainant, and will have to be the prosecutor; and,
in case of an appeal, you will be in the chair of the Quarterly
Conference, so the appeal will be to his accuser and prosecutor.
This will not look well." He then said lie did tibt care how it
looked; no member of the Church should cull him a liar and
tpe a Church trial. " Hut mind," said I, "Armstrong .-poke
conditionally; he Baid if you made a certain statement at the
camp-meeting it was a lie, and he could prove it. Now. you
know whether you made that statement or not. so I leave it
with you to determine whether this trial is to go on or not."
The Elder then, with a great deal of warmth, demanded a
Church trial.

A committee was duly selected to try the case, ami the lime

Was appointed. The trial was in the chureh, and there were

many spectators on that occasion. After prayer and other in-
troductory formalities, I read the charge. It was immorality.
Specification: calling Rev. \Vm. Lambdio a liar, in a certain
meadow, in the presence of certain vritne -■ - "John Ann-
strong," said I, "do you plead guilty or not guilty?" " L plead

182 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

guilty," said Armstrong. "It was said in my presence, in the
meadow, that our Presiding Elder had stated, in a crowd at the
camp-meeting, that our stationed preacher had got up the Union
Society in Steubenville, and, as a consequence, our Church was
in a bleeding, divided, and ruined condition. This statement
amazed me, and I said if the Elder did say that, it was a lie,
and I could prove it. I want now a direct answer from my
accuser, in the presence of this committee and these spectators :
did you, sir, make the statement in question?" The Elder
alleged that, as the accused had acknowledged himself guilty
of the charge, he had nothing further to do; and appealed to
me in the chair to know if he must answer Armstrong's ques-
tion. I decided that the question should be answered, as said
answer might materially affect the decision of the committee in
the case, and a just decision could not be reached unless the
whole truth were given in evidence. The Elder then found
himself hemmed in on all sides, and that he himself was the
man on trial rather than Armstrong. If he denied making the
statement at the camp-meeting, Armstrong had six witnesses
(of whom I was one) to prove that he did make it. If he
acknowledged that he did make it, then the accused had some
twenty witnesses to prove the statement false. So, after keep-
ing the Elder standing a long time before the committee, and
failing to get an answer to the question, I persuaded Armstrong
to forbear pressing the matter any further, and submitted the
case to the committee, and the spectators retired. The Elder
lost his cause. Armstrong was relieved of the charge of immo-
rality by the committee, but, on my own responsibility, I admin-
istered to him an admonition for the rashness of his language.
This Presiding Elder was not the first man who in his wrath
dug a pit for his neighbor and had the mortification to fall into
it himself. M. E. Lucas, M. M. Laughlin, and John Leech, of
Steubenville, who are still living, were all witnesses of the afore-
said Church trial, and can attest the correctness of my narrative.
This Church trial was in the early part of my second year in
Steubenville, and is here introduced as a part of my history;
and the whole case illustrates the futile efforts of short-sighted,

A LADY PREACHER. 183

narrow-minded men — who by some means had got into power —
against the friends of ecclesiastical freedom.

Another occurrence which belongs to my first year in Steu-
benville, and forms a part of my history, it may now be proper
to narrate. A lady preacher from one of the Northern States,
of fine literary attainments, ardent piety, and highly accom-
plished manners, visited Steubenville in the summer of 1827.
Misa Miller was her name. She came highly recommended to
me by a number of distinguished Methodist preachers. Among
the testimonials she brought was one from Rev. Charles Elliott,
and another from Rev. John Waterman, of the Pittsburgh station.
These brethren, having heard her preach often, spoke in the
highest terms of her preaching abilities; and they expressed a
hope that her way would be opened by me to be useful among
our people. This excellent lady was courteously entertained at
the house of Dr. David Stanton. An appointment for her to
preach, on the ensuing Sabbath, to the people of my charge,
was announced in all the schools and papers. When the Sab-
bath came the congregation was far too large for the house, and
the effect of her pious, tasty eloquence on that audience was
overwhelming. The fame of this Hady preacher soon reached
the neighboring towns, and she had invitations to preach in
every direction. The invitation to visit Wheeling, on the next
Sabbath, was very special and urgent, for that was the time of
their quarterly meeting. So appointments were sent to Smith-
field, Barrisville, .Mount Pleasant, and Wheeling; and, at the
request of Dr. Stanton and other friends, I took Miss Miller in
a carriage to till these appointments; and she had for a travel-
ing companion, during the tour. Miss Nancy Norman, sister-in-
law to Dr. Stanton. At the firsi three appointments the con-
gregations were exceedingly large, and the preaching of that
. 1 dj was rery impressive, and, no doubt, profitable to the people.
On Friday, in the afternoon, we arrived at the house of brother
Daniel Zane, on the island, intending to make thai place our
home while at Wheeling. On Saturday morning, immediately
after breakfast, Rev. Henry Furlong, the stationed preacher,
John List, a prominent member, and the Presiding Elder came

184 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

over to the island to make the acquaintance of Miss Miller,
and to know of her when, or at what hours, it would suit her
to preach. Miss Miller very frankly informed them that she
had understood, since her arrival on the island, that Bishop
Soule had written them a letter that he would be in Wheeling
on Saturday evening, and if, he came, it would not do for her to
attempt to preach.

On hearing this, these brethren said the Bishop was moving
to the West, with his family, and, as a weary traveler, might not
be in a condition to preach ; at any rate, he was not invited to
by them, but she was, and the citizens of Wheeling generally
would expect her to preach the next morning. To this Miss
Miller replied that Bishop Soule had always opposed her,
wherever he had crossed her path, and had spoken of her in a
disrespectful manner, as a strolling country girl, who had no
authority to preach, and she, therefore, greatly desired to be
excused from preaching, as she wished to have no collision with
the Bishop. The Elder, Furlong, and List then became more
importunate than ever, saying they represented the wishes of
the Church and of the entire community of Wheeling — all
wanted her to preach, and would be greatly disappointed if she
did not do |t. But Miss Miller still continued firm in her res-
olution, as the hazard of collision with so distinguished a func-
tionary as Bishop Soule was very painful to her mind. At
that stage of the matter, I interposed in behalf of the lady,
and entreated the brethren to forbear pressing the matter any
further, as I was unwilling, as her protector, to do any thing
myself, or allow any thing to be done by others, that, in her
opinion, would cause so much distress of mind. The three
brethren then drew off and consulted together. List went
home; the Elder and Furlong remained on the island for din-
ner. When dinner was over, the effort was renewed by the
Elder and Mr. Furlong to induce Miss Miller to preach.
They urged that the wishes of the entire Church and all the
citizens should not be set aside and disregarded for fear of
offending Bishop Soule, or any other man. What right had
the Bishop in this case? They could see none; so she must

A LADY PREACHER. 185

preach. Finally, about four o'clock in the afternoon, with tears
iu her eyes, Miss Miller gave her consent that it might be as
they desired ; that, if spared and blessed with health and strength
equal to the occasion, she would fill the morning appointment.
After an early supper, the Elder went to his room, in the city,
to prepare for preaching in the evening. Mr. Furlong went to
the hotel to await the arrival of Bishop Soule, and, in a short
time, the Zane family, with Miss Miller, Miss Norman, and my-
self, all repaired to the Church to hear the Presiding Elder
preach.

While the first hymn was being sung, in came Furlong, in
great haste, in very perceptible agitation of mind, and took me
from the altar with him into the pulpit. "Bishop Soule and
family," said he, "have come, and the Bishop is sorely dis-
pleased with the arrangement for to-morrow. Immediately on
his arrival, he made inquiry as to what our arrangements were
for the Sabbath. I informed him that brother Brown, at the
in-tance of our people, had broughl Mi>s Miller, a lady preacher,
with him to attend our quarterly meeting, and the arrangement
is for Mis Miller to preach in the morning, and you [Bishop
Soule] at three o'clock, and brother Brown at night. The
Bishop replied: 'I highly disapprove of your arrangement. I
will not hear that girl. She has no authority to preach.
Brother Brown had better have stayed at home, minding
his own work, than to be accompanying that strolling girl
aboui the country.' On hearing this, I immediately left the
Bishop, and have come to sec if tin' arrangement can not be
changed."

■ Now, Furlong," said I, "do not attempt to change the ar-
rangement. You can not change it and keep good faith with
that, young lady. You have invited her here to preach. You
knew thi- morning thai the Bishop was coming, yet, with this
knowledge, you and your colleagues, from early in the morning
until late iii the afternoon, have urged her to preach. She
frankly acknowledged her dread of the Bishop; I interposed in
her behalf, ami still you urged the matter. Your argument
was, that all the members of the Church and all the eitizcus

186 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

wanted to hear her. That argument is still good. You can not
now make a change without deeply wounding her heart and dis-
appointing public expectation. Come, now, be firm — do not vio-
late good faith with that young lady."

By this time the text was read and the sermon commenced,
so our conversation ceased ; but as I sat there, silent, in the
pulpit, and in my heart admitted the general goodness of the
stationed preacher and the Elder, I had my fears that they both
lacked firmness to meet the present emergency. The terrors of
the Bishop were upon them, and under their influence, to act
correctly would be no easy matter to men of their feeble nerve.
While I was closing service by singing and prayer, I heard the
two brethren change the whole programme for the coming Sab-
bath, which was immediately announced by the Elder, as fol-
lows : " Bishop Soule will preach here to-morrow at eleven
o'clock, and not Miss Miller. I will preach at three o'clock,
and brother Brown at night."

On hearing this announcement, I said, in' my heart, my part
of the work will not be done; so, taking my hat and cane, I
stepped down into the altar, to go immediately out, feeling pro-
foundly indignant at what had taken place. Bev. S. B. Brock-
unier, being a little excited, as well as the rest of us, said, "Hi!
hi ! hi ! what is the matter now ? Is not that lady to preach
at all?" Then spoke I unadvisedly with my lips, and said,
" A great bull has come 'to town, and given a roar, and scared
all the preachers! I'll take that lady right back to Steuben-
ville in the morning; she shall not be abused among ye." So
I joined my company and returned to the island. That night
I reconsidered the matter, and determined to remain over Sun-
day, and give the Wheeling community an opportunity to hear
Miss Miller in some other house. Neither the members of the
' Church nor the citizens had done her any wrong, nor would
Furlong or the Elder, if they had not been terror-stricken by
the Bishop. On Sunday morning early, several of the disap-
pointed and mortified brethren of the city came over to the
island to arrange for Miss Miller to preach in some other house
at the eleven-o'clock hour, and thus let Bishop Soule and her

A LADY PREACHER. 187

come into exact competition for public favor. None doubted
but the lady preacher would .carry off the multitude and leave
the Bishop with a very slender congregation, and that his harsh
treatment of that lady did merit for him such a public punish-
ment; but, for various reasons, another and I think a better
course was adopted. The brethren agreed to accept the offer
of the Protestant Episcopal Church for three o'clock P. M., and
John List was to have the appointment announced at the close
of service in the Methodist Episcopal Church ; so, having made
this arrangement, all went to hear the Bishop and be present
at communion, except myself. I felt too deeply wounded by
the Bishop's haughty and injurious language concerning "that
strolling girl," as he harshly called her, and my leaving my
work to "accompany her about the country," to see, or hear, or
commune with the Bishop that day ; and I sent word to that,
effect to the Presiding Elder, who, no doubt, informed that
Church dignitary all about the matter.

When the afternoon appointment came on, the Protestant
Episcopal Church was much too small for the audience. There
wire about as many people outside of the house as could crowd
inside. Miss .Miller, according to her custom, stood in the altar.
Neither in ber opening prayer nor in her sermon did she make
any allusion to any opposition from the Bishop or any body
else. Her discourse was truly evangelical, abounding with fino
thoughts, beautiful delineations, and tasty eloquence, all of a
heavenly character*. The doors and windows being open, and
Iht voice clear and strong, she was well beard, 1 was told, by
those on tin- outside of the bouse. God gave her help in time
of oeed. Her strength of body and soul was equal to the oc-
c -on. and the impression upon that great assembly was very
fine. At tlie request of the Methodist brethren, she preached
at ten o'clock A. M., on Monday, in their house. The congi
gation was large, and ber discourse, in my judgment, was every

[ual to tie one delivered on Sunday. On Tuesday, Mi
Mil!' r preachi d in Wellsburg, to a large assembly, in lei m ual

"•'•nly strain, with \«ry fine effect, and in the evening wc
returned to Steubenville, where she rested a lew days at my

188 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

house ; and. after preaching for my people the following Sun-
day, with great credit to herself and benefit to the Church, she
went on her way to the East, and ultimately became the wife
of Rev. William A. Smith, D. D., of the Virginia Conference of
the Methodist Episcopal Church.

When the Conference came on in Steubenville — where I had
to meet the Hedding case, already narrated — the Presiding
Elder who had figured in the foregoing transaction in Wheel-
ing took me out of Conference, before my character passed that
body, and gave me notice that he intended to bring a charge
against me, for misusing Bishop Soule in Wheeling. "Well,"
said I, " do so, in welcome, and I will at the same time hold you
responsible to the Conference for violating good faith with Miss
Miller. Had you kept good faith with that lady, there would
have been no occasion for my speaking in that rough manner
of the Bishop, as ' a great bull that had come to town and
given a roar, and scared all the preachers.' You were scared
into a most glaring violation of good faith, and I shall hold you
accountable. Come, now, go ahead; I am ready to meet the
case." The Elder then said: "I reckon we had better drop it;
there is no use in bringing such matters into Conference." So
there the matter ended. The Elder had not the nerve to keep
good faith even with a lady, when a Bishop frowned on his act
in so doing. Furlong was oveiTuled in this matter by the Elder,
and was, therefore, not deserving of blame ; hence, I have men-
tioned his name as a good minister of Jesus Christ. But the
Elder's name is not mentioned, because he violated faith with a
most amiable Christian lady, and outraged the feelings of the
entire Wheeling community, and all this for fear of the frowns
of a Bishop, who lacked courtesy to accommodate himself to
the state of the times. Yet, upon the whole, the Elder was a
good man, and was useful to the Church. His lack of nerve
ought to be forgiven.

My two years in Steubenville were among the most pleasant
years of my life in the ministry. That station included a con-
siderable number of noble-hearted, influential members. I had
some very valuable outside friends, and God gave me a good

• NEW LISBON CIRCUIT. ISO

degree of success in building up the Church. The increase of
members is not now recollected, but, by the Divine favor, I had
many seals to my ministry. Of these, some have gone to their
heavenly home; others have "made shipwreck of faith and a
good conscience;" and a few yet remain true to the cause of
Christ, and I trust will be faithful until death, and receive the
crown of life. But toward the close of my second year, as party
lines became more distinctly drawn on the reform question, I
did, on that account, suffer the loss of several old and highly
valued friends. This was mainly through the efforts of the
Presiding Elder, who seemed incapable of being the friend, of
any man who was active in the cause of lay delegation.

At the Conference of 1828, in Mercer County, Pennsylvania,
held at Leech's Meeting-house, in connection with a camp-
meeting, I was appointed to the charge of New Lisbon Circuit,
with Rev. Isaac Winans for my assistant. This was my last
('.inference, and my last year in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
At that Conference Bishop Roberts presided, and in a private
interview he gave me some needful encouragement, supposing
I had suffered much in mind on account of the report of the
Committee on Episcopacy being published in the New York Ad-
VOCate. Well, the Bishop was right; I had suffered on account
of that uncandid, illogical, and most unrighteous publication.
Hut most of all did I Buffer from the defeat of the appeals of
Dorsey and Pool, right over Shinn's overwhelming argument,
)>v the caucus management reported to me, as already stated,
by Bascom. When 1 found thai Methodist preachers, in whom
I had all through life placed bo much confidence, could allow
themselves to defeat justice, and cause the innocent to suffer by
the trickery of caucus pledges on paper, I losl confidence in my
brethren, and was powerfully tempted by the devil, for about
one whole year, to doubl the truth of the Christian religion.
According to a pamphlet published by Revs. A. Griffith, <i.
Morgan, B. Waugh, and John Emory, a caucus pledge on paper,
at the General Conference of L820, defeated the Pr< 3iding Elder
law. Now. if we judge of the truth of Christianity by the eon-
duet of ministers of the Gospel, who. when they fail to aooom-

190 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

plisli their purposes in a General Conference by fair argument,
resort to the underhanded management of a secret caucus pledge
on paper to carry their measures against reformers, we shall
certainly be led into doubts. Alas! for me, I had done this,
and my doubts had filled my soul with great distress; nor could
the fatherly kindness of Bishop Roberts relieve me. Always,
while preaching, I had full faith in Christianity; so I had, too,
in time of prayer, and in all other religious exercises. But
when alone, my doubts returned, and my soul was troubled.
But a thorough reexamination of the Evidences of the Truth
of Christianity, written by Paley and Chalmers, removed all my
doubts and restored my happiness. 0, what a blessed thing it
is to be firmly grounded in the faith of the Gospel !

Conference being over, I returned home and prepared for a
removal to New Lisbon. At no time of my itinerant life did
I feel so much reluctance to leave a people whom I had served
in the ministry, as I did at that time to be separated from
my kind-hearted brethren and friends in Steubenville. On the
morning we started for our new appointment, very much to my
surprise, some twenty-five or thirty members of the Church,
with a few outside friends, male and female, in carriages and
on horseback, accompanied us to Newburg, nine miles on our
way. There we all dined together and prayed together, after
which we had a very tender parting. They returned to Steu-
benville, and I, with my family, went on our journey to New
Lisbon.

My reception on New Lisbon Circuit was by no means cor-
dial. The members of the Church knew nothing of me, except
that I was a reformer; and the enemies of reform had prepared
their minds to give me rather a cool reception. My colleague
was a married man; this was his first year in the itinerancy,
and he was received and appointed with only the claim of a
single man as to salary. This he did not know until he came
to the circuit, as he had not been at Conference. He was,
therefore, much discouraged, and annouuced, at the first quar-
terly meeting, his determination to return to his home. In my
heart I disapproved of taking any promising young man, with

NEW LISBON CIRCUIT. 191

a wife, into the Conference on any such hard terms, and asked
the Quarterly Conference to make brother Winans and myself
equal as to pay. This act pleased my colleague and the breth-
ren, and at once gave me public favor. It was said, " If our
preacher in charge is a reformer, his reform principles have not
destroyed his generosity." So I retained my colleague, found
him a fast friend and a valuable fellow-laborer; nor did I, from
that day forward, lack friends or the necessaries of life while
T. remained on that circuit. I will here add that, throughout
a pretty long life, God never let me lose any thing by acts of
generosity to those in distress.

Throughout the whole time I remained on New Lisbon Cir-
cuit the Church had prosperity, but in the midst of it all I was
unhappy. 1. My doubts as to the truth of Christianity, already
mentioned, still returned upon me whenever I was alone. 2.
The action of the Church authorities in Baltimore, and other
places, especially in the General Conference in Pittsburgh, against
reformers, was, in my judgment, so unjust, so much like the
slippery, serpentine management of worldly politicians, as mate-
rially to weaken my confidence in my brethren in the ministry.
This gave me great pain of mind. 3. All the members I received
into the Church were placed under an ecclesiastical government
which ignored the rights of tin; laity. Tims I was strengthen-
ing an establishment which 1 believed to he contrary to the
self-evident laws of nature, the teachings of the New Testament,
tie- Lessons oFChurch history, and the besl interests of mankind.
Tli me much concern. 4. The structure of the Conven-
tional Articles, adopted for the government of the Associated
Methodist Churches by a convention of reformers, in Balti-
more, in IS2S, did not suit me. Thej 3eemed to give the local
] i. ichers an undue power in the government. Here, again, I
was in trouble. .">. During the lii-t half of the year my Pre-
siding Elder gave me trouble by trying to turn my \ pie

against me. because of my reform principles. He would leave
the quarterly meetings before they were half over, on the ground
of my being a reformer, and therefore, as he said, did nut like
Presiding Elders, and In' did not like to he where I was. On

192 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

two occasions, in his sermons, he attacked reformers and handled
them very roughly ; all of which was meant for me, as there wa3
no other avowed reformer present. But as the year wore away,
this weak brother changed his course, and came in on me upon
the other side. Finding that he could not bend me to his will
by harsh treatment, and supposing that I. might probably leave
the Church if it were continued, he, all at once, became very
mild, and treated me with unusual kindness, proposing to use
his influence in my behalf .at the next Conference, and open my
way to one of the best stations. I understood it all, and let
it all pass, believing that my days in the Methodist Episcopal
Church were fast drawing to a close.

Letters received from leading reformers, from all quarters, in
answer to letters of inquiry written by me, gave me full assur-
ance that the undue power given to the local preachers by the
Conventional Articles of 1828 was only a temporary arrange-
ment; that the Convention of 1830, in the formation of a regu-
lar Church Constitution, would, by instruction from the primary
assemblies, give us a well-balanced form of Church government,
securing equal rights to all parties concerned. So I hesitated
no more as to my future course.

To build up religion and religious liberty, both together, was
the great work to which I then prepared to devote my life.
Yet, while on New Lisbon Circuit, I did nothing to advance
the cause of reform. This forbearance on my part was not
owing to any pledge given by me to be silent, but mainly to
my distressing doubts as to the truth of Christianity itself.
Why perplex myself about Church government, if Christian-
ity itself be nothing but a cunningly-devised fable? But
now, having once more examined the arguments of Paley and
Chalmers in proof of the truth of the Christian religion, and
feeling myself fully confirmed in the faith of the Gospel, I
felt ready, as above stated, to do all within the compass of
my power to advance the cause of Christ upon liberal princi-
ples.

He who changes his Church relations should have very good
reasons for so doing. My reasons are found in the following

REASONS FOR LEAVING THE CHURCH. 193

statement, which I drew up about one year before I left the
Methodist Episcopal Church. I give the substance of the state-
ment, a little modified:

I. In 1784, in the city of Baltimore, at the organization of
the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr. Coke
and Francis Asbury, and a few itinerant preachers, did then and
there boldly march up to a principle of ecclesiastical polity and
take it into their safe-keeping, after which the Roman clergy
struggled, by trick, stratagem, and pious fraud, for 1160 years
before they laid their hands upon it, and took it into their safe-
keeping; and when they got it, the Church was ruined. The
principle is this, namely: that to the itinerant clergy alone does
pertain, of divine right, all legislative and, virtually, all judicial
and executive power over the whole Church, leaving nothing
to the local preachers and the lay members but absolute sub-
mission to their will, or expatriation from the Church. Their
will, officially expressed by a delegation of itinerant ministers
from the several Annual Conferences of preachers in the Gen-
eral Conference, is now the law of the Church, against which
there is no balance of power, no check or defense, in any way.
A single Pope never sat on. St. Peter's chair at Rome for
11G0 years without the elective voice of the people, as may
be seen by an appeal to Mosheim's and Gregory's Church His-
tories; bul when had the local preachers and lay members a
voice in the election of Bishops in the Methodist Episcopal
Church? Never!

II. In changing the title of Superintendent, in ITS", for that
of Bishop, without the consent of the American Conference, (see
i. e'e Bistory of the Methodists, p. 128,) and contrary to the
express instructions of Mr. Wesley, (see Moore's Life of Wes-
ley, p. 285,) and thus becoming a Methodist Episcopal Church,
independent of Mr. Wesley, Dr. Coke, Mr. A.sbury, and the itin-
■ bers, with the aid of the bigh-sounding til [q ■■ Bishop,"
did abundantly strengthen themselves in the possession of the
power which they assumed at the time of the organization of the
government. Titles draw courtiers, power, and prerogatives after
them.

194 KECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

III. According to Lee's History of the Methodists, (p. 183,)
the power to make Presiding Elders, which was first assumed
by the Bishops, and "used for several years" without law, was
finally established to said Bishops by the General Conference.
This gave them a power over the whole Church, which, indeed,
really looks alarming. This Presiding Elder system gives a
kind of ubiquity to a Bishop, for by it he is in all places
throughout the entire territory of Methodism, with eyes to see,
ears to hear, and hands to handle all ecclesiastical matters. It
renders the whole government, in its practical operations, ex-
ceedingly powerful.

IV. In 1796, according to Lee's History of Methodism, (p.
234,) a deed of settlement was got up, to be carried into execu-
tion throughout the whole connection, so far as the civil author-
ities and laws would allow. This deed makes Church property
a kind of common stock; or, at least, the use of it is made com-
mon to all the Methodists in every state and every Conference.
It is placed under the absolute legislative control of the General
Conference of ministers, for the people can only use it according
to their legislation. It is placed under the absolute appointing
power of the Bishops, who have power to put the occupants into
the pulpits and parsonages, without consulting any will but their
own. Thus the itinerant clergy, by taking this anti-Christian
hold of the temporalities of the people, have immense power
over them. By controlling the property they control the peo-
ple themselves, "for power over a man's substance really does,
in most instances, amount to a power over his will."

V. In 1808, the restrictive instrument, improperly called a
constitution, was formed, by which the Bishops became officers
for life. The General Conference became a delegated body, and
the whole government was so saddled upon the Methodist com-
munity, by the itinerant ministry alone, that no vital changes can
be effected or hoped for, without the consent of the Annual Con-
ferences and a vote of a majority of two-thirds of the subse-
quent General Conference. This the Bishops, if so disposed, can
easily hinder, as they hold all the appointing power, and, conse-
quently, all the Church livings, in their hands.

REASONS FOR LEAVING THE CHURCH. 195

VI. In 1820, if I mistake not, the Bishops became pensioned
upon the Book Concern at New York for all their table ex-
penses. Henceforth, they are not to know want like other itin-
erant preachers. Their support is as certain as that wealthy
establishment can make it. Numbers have given them power.
Wealth of membership has given them power : for what would a
king bo, with all his arbitrary principles of government, without
men and money in his dominions?

Thus we see that the principles assumed by the itinerant
clergy of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the time of the
organization of their ecclesiastical government, are without a
parallel in our country for their tyrannical character. In these
principles the itinerant clergy have become amazingly strength-
ened by their various additions, and by nothing have they been
more strengthened than by their firm grasp on Church property,
through the medium of the ''deed of settlement," and the con-
Btitution, as they call it, of 1808. These gird the government
fast upon the people, and leave them no hope but in ecelcsias-
tical expatriation.

V 1 1. This ecclesiastical power is professedly held by the itin-
erant ministers of the .Methodist Episcopal Church as a divine
right, granted to them by the greal Head of the Church. Only
hear the General Conference of 1828: "The great Head of the
Church himself bas imposed on us the duty of preaching the
Gospel, of administering it- ordinances, and of maintaining its
moral discipline anion- those over whom the Holy Ghost, in
these respects, has made as overseers. Of these, also, viz., of
Gospel doctrines, ordinances, and moral discipline, we do beli<
thai the divinely instituted ministry are the divinely authorized

pounders; and that the duty of maintaining them in their
purity, aod of not permitting our ministrations, in these respects,
to. be authoritatively controlled by others, [a lay delegation, for
instance,] does i I upon as with the force ofja moral obliga-
tion, in the discharge of which our consciences are involved.

A very learned and Bagacioue Catholic priesl saw in this mani-
festo of the General Conference a family likeness, and pub-
li led it iii the Catholic Telegraph, in Cincinnati, declaring that

196 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

the Church of Rome never made a higher claim to spiritual and
ecclesiastical power than this. Why, then, shall I not oppose
the popery of Methodism, as well as the popery of the Church
of Rome? I*hold both alike have departed from the teachings
of the Holy Scriptures in ecclesiastical matters, and both alike to
be unwilling to be reformed. St. Peter, in his first epistle, chap.
v, 3d verse, clea'rly forbids the Elders of the Church to exercise
a lordship over Cod's heritage; and Paul, in his second epistle
to the Corinthians, chap, i, 24th verse, places a veto on minis-
terial dominion over the faith of the saints ; and the Saviour,
in Matthew, chap, xx, 25th and 26th verses, in rebuking the
aspiring ambition of James and John, said: "Ye know that the
princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they
that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not
be so among you." In Mark, chap, x, 42d verse, this Gentile
dominion is called a " lordship." So it is in Luke, chap, xxii,
25th verse. Here, then, we have, in this Gentile government,
the words "lordship," "dominion," and "authority," all im-
plying an absolute power over the people, against which there
was no check, balance, or defense, in any legal way. Now, our
Lord forbids this kind of Gentile lordship, dominion, and au-
thority on the part of his ministers over his Church, and says,
" It shall not be so among you." I forbid that thing. There
shall be no such lordship, dominion, or authority, on the part
of my ministers over my members, as there is on the part of
the princes of the Gentiles over the Gentiles — "it shall not be
so among you" With doctrines, piety, and morals all so pure,
scriptural, and holy, why did the Methodist preachers, after the
example of the Romish clergy, institute a Church government
so contrary to Christ's teaching, and so Gentile in its charac-
ter? Could the voice of the people have been heard in 1784,
such a government never would have been formed. But now
that it exists, who can hope to change it for the better? The
following ecclesiastical law, found in the discipline, stands guard
against all reform. "If any member of our Church shall be
clearly convicted of endeavoring to sow dissension in any of our
societies by inveighing against either our doctrines or discipline,

INVITATION TO GO TO PITTSBURGH. 197

such person so offending shall he first reproved hy the senior
minister or preacher of his circuit, and if he persist in such
pernicious practices, he shall be expelled from the Church."

On this rule, very properly denominated " the gag-law," a
few remarks may be allowed. First: It puts the discipline
made by men on a level with the doctrines of Christ, and re-
gards inveighing against each as equally criminal, and awards
to each a similar punishment — first, reproof, then expulsion*.
Secondly : The government of the Methodist Episcopal Church
is of itinerant origin, and is wholly in itinerant hands, and is
so strictly and powerfully guarded by this odious "gag-law,"
that reformation becomes impossible. Thirdly: He who at-
tempts a reforming process must, necessarily, point out some-
thing wrong in the government, or in the administration, or in
both; and, if he does this, and perseveres in so doing, "the
divinely authorized expounders" of the law will deem him an
incurable inveigher against the government and those who ad-
minister it. and "expel him from the Church." This is about
the ground upon which all the expulsions in Baltimore and
elsewhere have been effected.

Now, in view of the arbitrary principles of the government
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as above stated; and in
view of the fact that the itinerant ministers in many localities,
ami finally in the General Conference of 1828, had brought
their whole power to bear upon reformers, to crush them and
their cause under the aforesaid "gag-law;" and in view of the
fact that my principles as well as my friends had been expelled
from the Church, and that my writings had been made a ground
of charge against the expelled; and in view of the fact, too,
that all hope of an honorable restoration of the expelled breth-
ren was now cut oil' hy the degrading terms offered to them by
tl: ■ (Jeneral ( 'mi 1'erence, I did deem myself, in principle and in
honor, bound to go with them into ecclesiastical banishment.

Near the close of .May, 1829, brother Thomas Freeman, a

enger from Pittsburgh, came to me in Wellsville, Ohio, with

a letter from the reformers in that city, inviting me to come ami

inize them into a Chureh, under the Conventional Articles.

198 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

To this letter I replied, that I would comply with their wishes
so soon as I could return home to my family, in New Lisbon,
and make my arrangements. But, being a little delayed by the
brethren, and by affliction in my family, I wrote them the fol-
lowing letter:

" New Lisbon, May 27, 1829.
"Dear Brethren:

' " Your second communication has been received, and I hasten
to inform you that on next Sabbath I close my labors forever
in the Methodist Episcopal Church. I had supposed myself
already done, and had fixed on this morning to be off for Pitts-
burgh; but, by an importunity that I could not resist, on the
part of my brethren and other friendly citizens, I have been
overcome. I love this people : they have evinced a friendship
for me and mine, during my residence among them, that has
made me greatly their debtor ; and, besides, they are nearly all
reformers, so far as they understand the subject, and they de-
sire me to state my reasons, on Sunday, for leaving the old
establishment. This, through Divine help, I design doing at
the close of my second sermon, in as clear and candid a manner
as possible.

" There is another consideration of some moment. Mrs.
Brown's health is still very feeble; but, thank God, it improves
a little, and against next week I can, in all probability, leave
home with more propriety than now. I shall be off on Mon-
day next, God willing, and shall probably be with you on Tues-
day next. I have just received a letter from brother Shinn,
inviting me , to Cincinnati, to form a circuit round that city.
He assures me, on good authority, that a good circuit could be
formed in a very little time. I have, also, received official in-
formation from Ohio Circuit, stating that they go at the end
of this Conference year, and will take no preachers from the
old side. They have asked me to come over and help them.

"I have just received another private communication from
***** Circuit, calling for help. The "divinely authorized"
have forbidden a very respectable local preacher, whom no
threats could terrify into silence, the occupancy of some of

LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 199

their pulpits, and the brethren think this is the proper time to
be off. The circuit is large — say one thousand strong — and it
is thought a majority of them are reformers. The letter stated
that the Conventional Articles, though somewhat objectionable,
would be adopted for the present. If we can only get a con-
stitution formed on purely republican principles, under the
blessing of our glorious Lord, we shall abundantly succeed
with a liberty-loving people. I think the day may yet' come
when we, who are only becoming a people, shall sit under our
own vine and fig-tree, eating the pleasant fruit of ecclesiastical
liberty, none daring to make us afraid. Our opposing- brethren,
from the Bishops down, have done all they could to crush the
Mutual Rights, but surely they have failed of success. Much
less will they be able to withstand us, when our preachers go
in person, preaching the same Gospel, carrying with them the
same moral rules of holy living, giving the people an itinerant
ministry, love-feasts, class-meetings, and distributing our prin-
ciples of government in pamphlets as they go. Ours is the

rioua cause of ecclesiastical emancipation, and has no cue- ■
mies in America, save on the old side; and I greatly miss my
guess if the very means which they have employed, and are
now employing, against us and our cause, do not ultimately
help us in many ways.

"Give my love to all the holy brethren of like precious faith
with ourselves, and tell them that 1 desire an interest in their
prayers. I am a frail child of the 'lust. I tremble much at
the fastness of our undertaking. Our help is in the strong (iod
of Zion. lie inhabits eternity, but his eye is on the truth, and
on him who loves it, however poor he may be. Him 1 love,
and most ardently long for tli.it perfect liberty from sin which
he alone can give; ami [ most cordially believe that we need
not remain in ecclesiastical bondage in order to enjoy this 'glo-
rious liberty of tin; sons of God.'

"Very affectionately, yours, etc.

«W. SravMSOH,") "Geo. Beown.

"S. BzMinQTOV, r Committee."

"C. Ceaio,

200 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

According to my promise, as intimated in the foregoing let-
ter, at the close of my second sermon on the following Sunday,
my reasons for leaving the Methodist Episcopal Church were
given in a calm and candid manner to a crowded audience. As
those reasons have heen already introduced, in consecutive or-
der, I need not here repeat them. It may be proper to observe,
however, that before that audience I enlarged on various points
to a considerable extent, so as to render every thing as satisfac-
tory as possible. When I returned home, nearly all the mem-
bers of the Church and many of the citizens came to me, filling
up the house and the yard, wishing to know more about reform.
They stayed until a late hour at night, pressing me hard to re-
main with them, and organize them into a Church under the
Conventional Articles. This I could not do, as I was pledged
to the brethren in Pittsburgh. Finding I must go the next
morning, they then got from me a few copies of the Conven-
tional Articles, held a meeting during the week, and adopted
the Articles themselves, without any preacher to help them.
These brethren remained firm in the reform cause all summer,
waiting and calling for ministerial help. At our first Confer-
ence, held in Cincinnati, October, 1829, Rev. C. Springer was
appointed to New Lisbon ; but, from some cause, never yet ex-
plained, he failed to go to that people until in the winter. By
that time they were discouraged, and the most of them, just
before his arrival, returned to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
This delay did an injury to the Methodist Protestant Church
in that place, which we have never been able to overcome.

On Monday morning I was off for Pittsburgh. On Tuesday
evening I reached my destination, and was very kindly received
and comfortably entertained at the house of Rev. Charles
Avery, in Alleghany. On Wednesday I wrote the following
letter to my Presiding Elder :

"Pittsburgh, Penn., June 3, 1829.
"My Dear Brother Eddt:

" The time has now arrived for me to follow my principles, as
a reformer, or abandon them. I have taken time and written

LETTER TO MY PRESIDING ELDER. 201

extensively to the reformers, and particularly to the members of
the convention in Baltimore, and am now satisfied as to the ob-
jectionable articles. They and all the rest were well meant,
and for the present may be useful; and, for my own part, I do
not entertain a single doubt that the Convention of 1830 will
construct an ecclesiastical government which will be, in all re-
spects', perfectly congenial with republican principles and feel-
ings.

My feeble services have been called for in four different direc-
tions. The brethren of three out of four desired me to be in
readiness against a certain time, but the fourth was a call that
would admit of no delay. Being unable to ascertain where a
communication would find you, on your district, and being
much pressed with other business about the time I left New
Lisbon, I have delayed until now to inform you, as my Pre-
siding Elder, that on last .Sabbath my labors in the Methodist
Episcopal Church were brought to a final close. I have many
valuable friends in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the
ministry and among the members. I now, as heretofore, testify
my affection for the doctrines, class-meetings, love-feasts, moral
discipline, sacraments, and itinerancy of the Church. But the
government I do most conscientiously disapprove; and since all
hope of change is now cut off, and since the brethren who were
expelled — in part on my account — can not honorably return,
and since a new Church had to be formed, I have deemed my-
Belf bound, by all the principles of Christian honor, to go with
the reformers. You will not understand me to have one unlov-
ing sentiment or feeling about my soul in reference to you. No,
my brother, nor have I in reference to a single individual, this
day, on earth. 1 love my G-od. 1 love his people of every
name. I desire the happiness of all the human race. I go with
the reformers because I love their principles; and my prayer to
the great and glorious Lord of the whole creation is, thai they

. universally prevail !

" With great respect, 1 am, etc.,

"Geo. Bboww.

"Rev. Ira Eddy, P. E., Ohio District."

202 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

To leave the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which my par-
ents had lived and died, and in which I had myself labored
and suffered nearly fifteen years in the itinerant ministry, and
in which, among the preachers and members, I had so many
warm-hearted friends, was indeed, to me, a trial of no ordinary
magnitude. But my principles lay in the reform ranks, and for
those principles and, in part, for my writings in defense of them,
my friends in Baltimore and elsewhere had been expelled from
the Church. I did, therefore, really feel myself under the
strongest moral obligation to leave a persecuting Church, and
help the reformers in their new organization. Self-respect,
Christian honor, and a due regard for truth, all required me to
adopt this course.

CHURCH PROPERTY. 203

CHAPTER XI.

Church Property— Plan to Crush Reform in Pittsburgh— Effort to Obtain Posses-
sion of Smithiield Street Church— Decision of Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
in Favor of Reformers— Effort to Bring Female Influence to Bear Against
Reform— First Reform Conference— Amusing Objection to Moral Character —
('•invention in Baltimore— True Piety of Ministers and Members of Methodist
Episcopal Church— Contemptuous Treatment from Old Friends.

I went to assist the reformers in Pittsburgh, in full view of
the facts that an attempt was being made by Rev. Wni. Lamb-
din to crush them, and that they intended to hold fast their
interest in the Church property, and resist his efforts to the last
degree. A charter had been obtained from the Legislature of
Pennsylvania. The corporate body was called the Methodist
Church of Pittsburgh. The word " Episcopal " was most signifi-
cantly left out of the charter, as indicating the reform sentiment
prevalent when tbc instrument was obtained. Nine trustees,
annually elected by the corporate body, held the property, and
had full charge of all the Church's temporalities. Seven out of
the nine trustees were reformers. These seven, at the instance
of the whole body of reformers, called for me through the me-
dium of a committee.

Having arrived among the brethren in Pittsburgh, and taken
up a temporary residence with brother Stephen Remington, I
met the reformers for the firsl time, June 3, 1829, in Kerr's
School-house. These brethren gave me, officially, a most cor-
dial welcome, and informed me of the state of affairs; to all
of which I responded in an address of considerable length, and
commended myself to their prayers and to the care and belp of
God, Cor I felt that a work too great for my strength was now
before me. Previous to my arrival, N. Holmes and J. Vomer,

204 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

the two anti-reform trustees, had served notices on the reform
portion of the board, threatening them with legal consequences
if they «kired to put me into the pulpit of the new meeting-
house. On the 5th of June, a similar notice was served on me
by the preacher in charge, and on the same day another by the
stewards. The sexton, too, R. White, a noble-hearted Irish
brother, was likewise forbidden by the stewards, on his peril,
to allow me to enter the Smithfield Meeting-house* All of
this looked threatening; but it was no more threatening than
the reformers, under legal advice, desired. They wanted to test,
in open court, the validity of the "Deed of Settlement" found
in the book of discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
So, when Sunday, the 7th of June, came, I appeared at the door
of the church at nine o'clock A. M. There I was met by Thos.
Robinson, President of the Board of Trustees, and Stephen
Remington, Secretary of said Board, and, with one of them on
each side of me, I was conducted up the aisle, and with much
formality ushered, by legal authority, into the pulpit. The
congregation was large and attentive. My text for the occasion
was taken from Isaiah, xl, 31: "But they that wait upon the
• Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they
shall walk, and not faint." That .day I opened my mission
among the reformers with a sermon on experimental religion.
Many of our opponents, who were present, were disappointed.
They came expecting to hear the old Church abused, and to get
something out of which to make capital against us; but God
led my heart another way, to the gratification and comfort of
all our maltreated people.

At three o'clock that same day we had service in a grove
on the Alleghany side; but, being interrupted by a storm, my
discourse was concluded in the Presbyterian church, which was
near at hand. The congregation was exceedingly large — a
mixed multitude, made up of all denominations and nothing-
arians of all sorts. So ended this first day's labor in the reform

*This church was on the corner of Smithfield and Seventh Streets, and was called
"Smithfield Meeting-house," and also "Brimstone Corner."

PLAN TO CRUSH REFORM IX PITTSBURGH 205

ranks. It was a good day to my soul, and I felt quite encour-
aged to hope that the Lord would be with me in my efforts to
spread religion and ecclesiastical liberty both together. From
that day until some time in November, the reformers occupied
the Smithfield Meeting-house at nine o'clock A. M. and at
three o'clock P. M. every Sabbath, and our old-side brethren
held service each Sabbath, in the same house, at eleven o'clock
and in the evening. The house was likewise occupied by each
party for preaching and prayer-meetings, on separate evenings
during the week. So matters stood at the beginning between
the parties.

It is not at all probable that the reformers would have called
me to Pittsburgh, in view of a new organization, at the time
they did, if they had received any thing like fair and honorable
treatment from Rev. W. Lambdin, the preacher in charge. That
gentleman bad been appointed to the charge of the Pittsburgh
Btation by Bishop Roberts, (who fully understood the state of
affairs in that city,) with a solemn pledge, on his part, to the
Bishop, that he would •• know no man after the flesh;" i. e., make
no difference in his administration between reformers and their
old-side brethren on account of their principles. When he
came to the pulpit in Pittsburgh, be, in accordance with his
pledge to the Bishop, declared himself in favor of equal justice
te all parties. This declaration put the reformers off their
guard, to Borne extent; so they fell themselves in no hurry to
i now Church. After some time, the preacher in
charge, in a meeting of old-side leaders and a few other eorifi-

• tial friends, submitted a plan for the overthrow of reform in
the city of Pittsburgh. The plan was something like the fol-
lowing: 1. To induce all the members he could to take transfers
from reform to old-side clase leaders. -. This process would
have the i eatly to weaken the classes of reform leadi

and -in ngthen those of the old side. .'!. This state of things
would justify the preacher in charge in removing the reform
leaders from office, because of the n on -prosperity of their clae
4. It would likewise justify him in dividing the classes of old-
Bide leaders, now grown too large, and appointing other leaders

206 RECOLLECTIONS OE ITINERANT LIFE.

in addition — men in all respects after his own heart, and
suited to his purposes. 5. Thus it was proposed to degrade the
reform leaders from office, and by this new accession of his own
creatures into the leadership, fill up the Quarterly Conference
with such men as would sustain him in all his efforts to expel
the friends of 'ecclesiastical liberty from the Church.

From this Jesuitical plan of Mr. Lambdin, so fully disclosed,
and so violative of his pledge to the Bishop and to the whole
congregation, two of his leaders — John McGill and Standish
Peppard — turned away in disgust, and went and communicated
the whole matter to brother Thos. Robinson, a leading reformer.
Upon the receipt of this information, a meeting of the friends
of reform was called, and measures were immediately taken for
a new organization. Mr. Lambdin, on the 14th of June, made
an effort, in the pulpit, to vindicate his course in relation to the
transfers in question. He admitted that the transfers had been
made from the classes of reform leaders, and said it was because
the members could not, with safety to their souls, remain with
those leaders any longer. But this statement was not according
to truth, for he transferred many against their will, and could
not, with all his efforts, induce them to leave the reform leaders
aud go to the old-side classes. The violation of his pledge to
Bishop Roberts, and to the whole Church in Pittsburgh, to
" know no man after the flesh," and make no difference on
account of ecclesiastical sentiment, could not be explained away
in the estimation of the community.

On the 18th of June, a committee of twenty-four members,
appointed by the reformers, met at the house of Stephen
Remington, to prepare the way for a new ecclesiastical organ-
ization. On the 22d of June, at an adjourned meeting of the
male members, the plan of organization prepared by the com-
mittee of twenty-four, aud recommended by the attorneys,
Walter Forward and Henry Baldwin, was taken under careful
consideration, and the vote to adopt it was unanimous. Then,
on Wednesday night, June 24, 1829, a thorough effort having
been made to have the whole body of reformers present, both
male and female, after calm and due consideration, the "Meth-

EFFORTS TO OBTAIN POSSESSION OF A CHURCH. 207

odist Church of Pittsburgh," by a solemn vote, entered into an
organization under the Conventional Articles, omitting the title
Associated Methodist Church for the present, on account of
their claim to a due share of all the Church property. At that
same meeting I was elected to the pastoral charge of this newly -
organized Christian community. This was the first time, in
all my ministerial life, that I ever received a pastoral charge
directly from the hands of the people, and I am sure I felt much
better than I would if it had come from the hands of a Bishop.
My soul felt toward this flock, thus committed to my care, in
a manner that words can not express. I felt that I belonged
to the Lord and to his Church, and that to glorifiy God, and
serve the best interests of his people, was now, more fully than
ever, to be the great aim of my life.

On Thursday, June 25, James Verner, anti-reform trustee,
preferred charges to Rev. W. Lambdin against all the reform
trustees, save Rev. C. Avery, to-wit: against Thomas Robin-
son, Stephen Remington, Charles Craig, John Phillips, An-
drew Applegate, and Edward Moore, for violating the charter,
and for contempt of authority. Specifications accompanied
the charges, and all were summoned to appear the next day,
in the new meeting-house on Smithfield Street, at two o'clock
J'. M.

Friday, June 2G. Our brethren declined Mr. Lambdin's
jurisdiction, as not extending over them, either spiritually or
temporally. Spiritually, they were now under another's pas-
toral charge; and temporally, as trustees, they were amenable to
the corporate body, under the charter. Of that corporate body
Lambdin was not a member; and to the charter his spiritual
authority was unknown. To attempt to correct pretended vio-
lation- of tin' charter in an ecclesiastical court was nothing hut
usurpation. As their committee meeting was not for public
worship, hut merelj an effori to get possession of the meeting
house, and to crndi reform, Sexton White did not let them in,
so they went to another place, proceeded with their trial, and
expelled all the reform trustees, save Mr. Avery, who was im
mediately notified to meet N. Holmes and J. Verner, and help

/
208 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

to fill the places made vacant in the hoard by the expulsions;
hut he did not obey the summons. This effort of the authori-
ties made no hair white or black. The reform trustees still
held the property under the charter, and both parties wor-
shiped in the house.

The Church property question gave the parties a long, ex-
pensive, and vexatious struggle. If my recollection is not at
fault, during the summer of 1829, the reformers, through their
lawyers, presented, at different times, four distinct propositions
to their old-side brethren for the settlement of the claims of
each party to the property. One proposition related to the
hours at which divine service on the Sabbath should be held;
for the reformers clearly saw that, on the approach of winter,
nine o'clock in the morning would be too early an hour to se-
cure a congregation. These propositions all failed of success,
and were treated with disdain. After the style of their own
Bishops, on another occasion, they "knew no such rights, and
comprehended no such privileges," as were claimed by the re-
formers. Our old-side friends had more female members than
we, but our male members were more numerous than theirs ;
and it was known to us, and might have been known to them,
that the reformers had by far the most money invested in the
Church property now in dispute. Our claim, founded on money
and on members, was half the property, or its worth in money,
and an equitable proportion of the time for its use, until a final
adjustment could take place. Their claim was all the property
and all the time, and that we should go forth without one cent,
and do for ourselves as best we could. In view of this state
of things, our brethren determined to hold on to the property,
under the charter, and give the other party the chance of cast-
ing us out by a writ of ejectment, if they could. If they must
have all, let the court so determine, and if it did so decree, we
knew full well, after all, that moral justice was on our side.

James Knox was the old-side sexton ; Robert White was
ours, under the charter, and performed all the duties belonging
to his office at the Smithfield Meeting-house; while Knox's op-
erations were confined exclusively to the old meeting-house on

EFFORTS TO OETAIX POSSESSION OF A CHURCH. 209

Front Street, which was not in the occupancy of the reform-
ers. Toward the close of the summer, at an old-side quarterly
meeting, Robert White prepared the bread and wine for the
sacrament, as was his custom on such occasions. When Rev.
David Sharp, the Presiding Elder, came in, he went to the
table, and said, "Who made these preparations for the sacra-
ment?" Some one answered, " Robert White." "Then," said
the Elder, "take them away; we want none of your radical broad
and wine. Let Knox prepare bread and wine for the communion."
This angry act, in the house of God, in the presence of a large
congregation, on the Sabbath-day, was not very creditable to a
Christian minister. It showed the spirit of the man and the
temper of the times, and was in perfect keeping with his con-
duct upon another occasion. At a camp-meeting, near Pitts-
burgh, while inviting all Christians of other denominations to
the communion, he lowered himself down from the dignity of a
Christian minister, and called our people "rads" and "schismatic
scamps," and said he "did not mean to invite them." When
Presiding Elders gave us such usage, what might we not expect
from men of lower rank and lesser growth?

On Monday, in the afternoon, our old-side brethren held their
Quarterly Conference in the Smithficld Meeting-house. As
they continued late, 11. White, our sexton, who had the care of
the house, left the door and went to Ids supper. When he re-
turned, the old locks bad been taken from the doors and new
ones put on, and the keys and the care of the house were
committed to the hands of Sexton Knox. Our sexton opened
hi- eyes very wide when the Presiding Elder told him that "he

had remained at supper a little too long, and that he must now
go and tell his masters that they could not use that house any

more." This matter showed craft, and was a good joke through-
ou1 the city. That night the house was strongly guarded bj its
captors, and the reformers left them undisturbed. The trustees
met in the evening, for consultation with our attorneys as to
what next was to be done. Tiny were the legal holders of the
property for the corporate body, under the charter, and were
advised to appoint a trustee meeting, in the new meeting house,

210 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

at ten o'clock the next morning, and see whether an illegal
party wonld obstruct them. When morning came, a whistling
hoy from the street reported to Stephen Remington that the
men on guard were all gone to their daily avocations, and that
the sexton and another old man were sitting in the meeting-
house door, talking — perhaps about the fall of man, or the de-
pravity of the radicals !

That morning, Thomas Freeman came into the alley, in the
rear of the Church, with a cart, to take away some sand which
lay within the meeting-house lot. While removing the boards
to get the sand, the sexton heard the noise, and went round
the house to see what Freeman was doing. On being informed
that he was after some sand, the sexton supposed all was right;
so he returned to the front of the house, and seated himself
again with his friend, in the door, to renew their conversation.
The two old men were not good watchmen. They were too
jubilant over their success in recovering possession of the
house, and the consequent defeat of the radicals, to attend to
the duties assigned them. Stephen Remington came, by an un-
observed route, to Freeman, in the alley, bringing our sexton,
R. White, with him, and they entered the lot at the place
where the sand was being taken out. With a suitable iron in-
strument, the shutters of a window were opened by Remington,
the sash quietly raised, and in went Remington, Freeman, and
White ; nor did the two men at the door see them until they
were half way down the aisle. Remington's eye caught sight
of the keys dangling in the door. To get them into his cus-
tody was now a prime object with him. The old-side sexton
came at him with his cane, aiming heavy blows at his head.
He fended off bravely with his uplifted arms, still working
round until he got his back toward the door — then toward it
he went, faster and faster, the sexton following up with blow
after blow, until, in the door, he snatched the bunch of keys.
"Here, White," said he, " take these keys and take care of them.
What a careless thing it was to leave them dangling in the
door!" This, for the present, ended the matter. The sexton
and his friend were put out, in a very quiet way; we again had

EFFORTS TO OBTAIN POSSESSION OF A CHURCH. 211

full possession of the house, and the trustees held their meet-
ing in it, according to appointment. About this time, in Pitts-
burgh, the excitement was very high, but it was mingled with a
great deal of mirth. The joke was fairly rolled back upon our
old-side brethren.

In the month of November, the nine-o'clock hour was deemed
too early to secure a good congregation. The reformers having
failed in all their efforts to get an adjustment of property mat-
ters with their old-side brethren, and finding that if they ever
got a better hour than the one they had, for morning worship
on the Sabbath-day, they would have to take it. In the hope,
therefore, of retaining the congregation, and of inducing the au-
thorities in the opposition to bring their often-threatened "writ
of ejectment," so as to settle the whole matter in court, the
trustees, instructed by the corporate body, and advised by their
attorneys, passed an order changing the time of public worship
from nine to half-past ten o'clock A. M., on Sabbath-day,
which order was to take effect on the following Sabbath morn-
ing. I now saw plainly that a very great trial was before me;
but to meet it was a necessity. We could see no other way to
save our congregation, or to bring the property question into
court for a legal decision of our claims. So, with much prayer
to God that strength might be given me according to my day, I
resolved, with calmness and firmness of soul, to be at my post at
the time appointed.

This change of time had become generally known. When I
entered the church, at precisely ten o'clock, there sat Stephen
Remington, wrapped in his blue cloak, with his back againsl the
pulpit door, keeping guard. He looked very formidable, for he
*ras ;ni unusually large man. And there sat llev. Z. Costcn, the
old-side preacher in charge, on the outside of the altar, with a
paper in bis band, ami in bis Pace there was a look indicating
firmness of purpose. A few young people were already in po-
,u iii fche gallery to witness the transactions of thai day.
When I went forward. Costcn arose and stood firmly againsl the
y of the altar, to present my entrance. He then gave me
the paper which I had seen in his baud. This paper I received,

212 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and, without reading it, put it in my pocket, crossed the railing
of the altar, and, Remington opening the door for me, I went
into the pulpit. This done, Remington resumed his seat as guard
at the door, and Costen returned to his, beside the altar. Imme-
diately the choir appeared in the gallery, the congregation as-
sembled for worship, and the services of the sanctuary were com-
menced. Remington then left the door of the pulpit, and took
his usual seat in the assembly. It was then about fifteen minutes
before the appointed time of beginning, as set forth in the order
by the Board of Trustees. Just at the close of the first hymn,
which was sung by the choir and the whole congregation in fine
style, in came the old-side brethren in full force, with their most
sturdy men in front, pressing on quite up to the altar. Seeing
this, our men of .might and courage, from all parts of the house,
came. crowding up and stood beside them. These strong men of
both sides, now standing together, seemed to be measuring each
other, with the eye, from head to foot/as if war was about to
commence. But, the hymn being ended, I called the whole
assembly to prayer, and in that prayer the Lord gave me
strength to help in that time of need. Costen, who had got
in and come up to the top of the pulpit steps, responded
"Amen" to many of my petitions. So far as the crowded
condition of the assembly would allow, all were on their knees.
Indeed, it seemed to be a praying time, and the usual "amen"
was heard in various parts of the house. When prayer was
over, Costen came forward and handed me another paper, which,
without reading, I put, as in the other instance, into my pocket,
still keeping my place close up in the pulpit, with my left hand
on the Bible. He then made a formal demand of me to sur-
render the pulpit to him. I replied that "the trustees, acting
under the charter granted by the Legislature of Pennsylvania,
had put me into that pulpit, and I did not intend to surrender
it to him or any other man." This was spoken in a calm, firm
tone, and was distinctly heard all over the house. Costen then
came forward to the front of the pulpit, and announced to the
assembly that all his claims in the house, at that hour, had been
rejected by the present occupant of the pulpit. He then called

WRIT OF EJECTMENT ISSUED. 213

upon all his friends to repair to the old meeting-house, where
Rev. Homer J. Clark would preach to them. So they all turned
for the door and quietly withdrew, and, as they went, the choir — ■
aye, and all the remaining portion of the congregation with
them — sung, in their best style, the following appropriate hymn,
by Rev. C. Wesley :

" Prisoners of hope, lift up your heads,
The day of liberty draws near," etc.

The music was fine, the hymn glorious; and against they
were done, I felt in good order for preaching. My text was
taken from James, chap, i, 25th verse: "But whoso looketh into
the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not
a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed." That morning God gave me help from
heaven. Men can feel better, who, with unflinching firmness,
contend for their undoubted rights, than others can who obsti-
nately refuse to yield the claims of justice to their neighbors.
It ia not pleasant to have such contests; but who ever got their
rights out of the hands of clerical power without a struggle?

Not long after this, a writ of ejectment was brought against

the trustees, myself, and Sexton White. While the property

tion was in the hands of the law, the parties had compar-

rest; and each party. 1 think, strove in real earnest to do
religious good in the Pittsburgh community. In September,
1;1. according to the judicial report in the case, the trial came
on. ,Judge Rogers recommended an amicable adjustment of the
matter between the parties, and our lawyers, Forward and Fet-

ii. said tliit was all uc wanted, and had made many efforts
t i gel the matter settled in that way. The case was then laid
over for nine days, to take its regular turn, and to give the
es time for an amicable accommodation. But do adjust-
ment with the other party could he had; so the trial came on.

Three ■! were pent in taking the testimony. The point our
old-side friends aimed to prove, and on which they seemed en-
tirely to rely. w;c. that the reformers had formed themselves into

a separate body. This was encoded hy our people, in tho

214 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

promptest maimer possible. If it could be proved that we were
seceders from the old body, they supposed it would follow, as
a matter of course, that we had no right to any portion of the
property. But the reformers maintained that money had given
them a right, and that the deed by which the property was
held was utterly worthless. However, a verdict pro forma, at
the instance of Mr. Forward, and by the instruction of the
Judge, was rendered by the jury (without leaving the box, or
a moment's consultation,) for the plaintiffs. This was done in
view of carrying up the case, without any argument in the court
below, to be argued as an appealed case before the Supreme
Court of the state of Pennsylvania. All parties desired the
highest legal authority in the State to decide the matter at issue
between the litigants. When the aforesaid verdict was rendered
for the plaintiffs, it caused great joy in the tents of Episcopal
Methodism ; but the reformers, the appellants, held their peace
and felt no fears, being confident of final success.

At the October term of the Supreme Court of the state of
Pennsylvania, for 1832, before Chief-Justice Gibson and Jus-
tices Rogers, Huston, and Ross, this appealed case was argued
by Forward and Fetterman for the appellants, and by Wilkins
for the other party. These gentlemen were all very able law-
yers, and put forth all their strength on that occasion. The
"Deed of Settlement" was found wanting; the reformers car-
ried their cause most triumphantly. Church property is always
local in its origin, and for a local people in some designated
place, among Episcopal Methodists; yet, when it comes to be
deeded, according to their form of deed, it becomes a general
property for the use of all the Methodists, in all the states, and
in all the Conferences. It is placed under the legislative con-
trol of the General Conference of ministers living in all the
states of the Union. It is placed under the appointing control
of the Bishops, who may not live in the state in which it is
situated. So many general ideas and so much foreign control
as were found in that Deed of Settlement would not allow it to
pass ; it was condemned by the Supreme Court of the state.
There were other principles contained in the deed, involved in

DECISION OF SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 215

this controversy and disastrous to the plaintiffs, which I have
not mentioned.

When the suit in court terminated in our favor, we told our
old-side friends that we had never claimed more than half of
that property; that if they would get up a committee of three,
we would appoint a committee of the same number, then let the
six meet and divide the property. This was done, and the par-
ties were satisfied. Nothing but a little ill-blood — of which the
old-side always charged us with having too much, and of which
we always knew they had a little more than enough — hindered
this kind of equitable settlement at the beginning. The re-
formers had often aimed to get such a settlement, and only got
it now because all other hope had been cut off from our oppo-
nents, by the highest legal authority in the state. That "Deed
of Settlement," got up by the itinerant clergy, had been a
mighty engine of power in their hands — a tremendous hoop,
binding the whole connection together, under their authority.
By controlling the property, they controlled the people them-
selves; as, in most instances, power over a man's substance
amounts to a power over his will. To break down this "Deed
of Settlement," by a decision of the Supreme Court of the state
of Pennsylvania, did, indeed, give great joy to the reformers,
not only in Pittsburgh, but in all the land. And we rejoiced
as much in giving the other party their full share of the prop-
erty, as we did in the legal victory we gained over them.

Prom the first Sabbath in June, 1829, until the autumn of
1830, I had no itinerant help in Pittsburgh, llev. A. Shins
is Cincinnati. Rev. 0. Springer is the vicinity of Zanes-
ville, Rev. W. B. Evans is the regios of Barriaville, and llev.
Josiah Poster os the Ohio Circuit. Nose of these brethren
Could render me any assistance in Pittsburgh. Having stood
eonsected so long with such a large body of ministers, and now
to find myself pretty much alone, in the origin of our cause,
was rather oppre sive to myfeelisgs. Often did a sense <»|" lone-
liness come over iii y ticart, with a most crushing weight; oftes
did I seek Bociety asd friendship with those itiserant reformers
whom L had left behind me in the old Church; but only a few

216 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

of them dared to look my way, and to preach for me was out
of the question for them all. In Pittsburgh I had some local
preachers who rendered me occasional assistance in the pulpit :
Charles Avery, James Muuden, W. Scholy, and James Small-
in,an. Avery was always ready, and did good service whenever
called on ; the others, though good men and true, did not often
preach. But I had a noble body of official members to help
me, and nearly all the members were active and efficient in re-
vivals. I generally preached three times every Sabbath — twice
in the Smithfield house, and at night in Alleghany, Birming-
ham, or Pipetown — constantly meeting a class in my house after
morning service. My pastoral labors were very great ; made so
by the peculiarities of the circumstances in which the people
of my charge were placed. It was supposed by our old-side
friends that the female portion of the reformers did not fully
understand the questions at issue between the parties, and that,
if they did, they might be induced to return to the old Church ;
that, by getting back the wives and daughters of the reformers,
they might, ultimately, through female influence, reach the men,
and bring them back. This was a crafty piece of policy: it was
once tried upon the father of the human race, by a very crafty
agent, and did succeed, and it might succeed again — who could
tell? At any rate, nothing would be lost by a trial, and much
might be gained. So it came to pass in those days that an effort
was made by the old-side class-leaders, and their more promi-
nent female members, to enlighten the sisterhood of the re-
formers on the subject of Church government. No doubt this
effort received its direction from head-quarters. It was a long-
continued eflbrt, and those who made it may have been sincere.
They may have thought, amid the excitement of the times —
being deceived in this matter — that clerical bondage was prefer-
able to ecclesiastical liberty; but, as a general thing, they failed
of their object: our ladies, as well as their fathers, husbands,
and brothers, had weighed the matter well, had counted the
cost, had taken their position among the reformers from prin-
ciple, and it was not easy to move them from the ground they
occupied.

REFORMERS' FIRST CONFERENCE IN CINCINNATI. 217

"Wherever these visitors went among our people, there I went.
All their arguments against Christian freedom I strove to an-
swer. Some of those arguments were very silly, if not wicked.
To ascribe the great good done by Methodism to the structure
of their Church government, instead of attributing it to the
power of the Gospel, did seem to me to be a perversion of the
truth. And to propagate the doctrine that a lay delegation
and an itinerant ministry could not live and prosper together,
was equal to telling me that an itinerant ministry was destruct-
ive of human freedom, and should, for that reason, be imme-

ly abolished. I did not send agents, but went myself, into
all places where the old-side visitors went among our people,
and, generally speaking, I found them firm in "the faith once
delivered to the saints." and in the doctrines of mutual rights
and Christian freedom. It was the fixed determination of my
heart not to be outdone by the other side in pastoral visit a-
tions, and to lose none of my members by a neglect of duty,
if I could help it. This state of things added greatly to the
ordinary labors of a pastor, and made my whole time in Pi
burgh a season of uncommon toil. But God gave me success;
my people stood firm, and I enjoyed unspeakable happii

2 them.
In the month of October, 1829, the reformers held their first
Ohio Conference, in the city of Cincinnati. It was held under
the Conventional Articles. The greater part of the mini I
11 atl 1 been local preachers in the Methodisl E

sopal Church, and most of them had been very roughly hand
for their reform principles ami actions in the old Church. Th ■
'11 came t., c nee balanced by lay delegates, duly ele<

by th" people. This was the fir I Conference 1 had ever seen,
n all my life, where th" ministers and members acted officially
together, and the action was as harmonious :>- could have been

■'■-I ; '-'l Prom I m The Conference made a very, tine im-

m upon the community. Some few of the preachers were

i to cin 'lit - and stations then ; n existence ; others were

ippointed to certain localities to make circuits, and we had no

>• mary funds to i them. Thii state of things looked]

218 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

gloomy — it seemed to require the faith of Abraham ; but the
brethren took God and their country for support, and went
forth to their work in very fine spirits, and many of them had
glorious success. In those days the cross of Christ and mutual
rights went together, and they ought to be together still. I
was appointed to Pittsburgh, without any assistant. This I re-
gretted, as in that region there was an ample opening for more
laborers — a large field, more ground than I could cultivate.

In the winter of 1829-30, at the call of the friends of reform
within the bounds of the Monongahela District, I went with
Rev. C. Springer into that region, to organize societies under
the Conventional Articles. The seed had been sown while I
served that people as Presiding Elder, and we found them ready
for action — ripe unto the harvest. A goodly number of socie-
ties were formed, and immediately on my return to Pittsburgh,
William H. Marshall, an interesting, pious, and talented young
brother, was sent to Springer's assistance, and the cause, under
their judicious and efficient labors, greatly prospered. In the
month of July following, at the call of the brethren in Youngs-
town, Ohio, I organized in that place a valuable society of
thirty-eight members. These brethren had been reformers from
the beginning of the controversy, and were prominent members
of the Church. They had done the main part in erecting a
very fine house of worship, and had suffered much from the
party in power for their principles; but, for peace' sake, they
quietly relinquished their just claim to a share in the Church
property, and took their stand among the reformers. The next
time I visited them, W. Fitch, their leader, went on Sunday
morning to a neighboring village, to obtain the consent of the
trustees for me to preach in the Methodist Church the follow-
ing Wednesday, at eleven o'clock A. M. He found them all
in class-meeting. When it was over, he asked the trustees for
the use of the house, at the time above named, for me to preach
in. With one consent they all agreed that the house should be

at my service at the time specified. Up rose brother M ,

who had got a hint of Fitch's intention, and had ridden fifteen
miles that morning, to try, if possible, to prevent the grant of

AMUSING OBJECTION TO MORAL CHARACTER. 219

the house, and said "he hoped they would reconsider the mat-
ter and not let me into the house, for I had left their Church."
The trustees answered, that, "if I had left their Church, I had
not forsaken the Lord, and they would like once more to hear

me preach." M then expressed great sorrow, and said "if

they did let me into that house, he knew it would be a great
grief to the hearts of the preachers of the circuit." The trust-
ees replied that "my preaching there would not pollute the
hou.^e ; that they expected to hear from me nothing contrary to
sound doctrine, and that they all wanted me to preach at the

appointed time." "Well, but," said M , "Mr. Brown don't

sustain a good moral character." Then my friend Fitch said,

"If brother M can prove any thing against Mr. Brown's

moral character, I will withdraw my request for the use of the

house." "Yes," said the trustees, "if brother M can

prove any thing against .Mr. Brown's moral character, we will
close the doors against him." All parties then united in de-
manding of brother M proof of something against my moral

character. "Well," said brother M , "I suppose I must

now state the facts: Mr. Brown, while on New Lisbon Circuit,
did say, in my hearing, that the Methodist Epi&ticle Church had
a horistocral government." There followed no little laughter

at brother M 's expense. " But," said the trustees, " is

that all?" "Yes," answered brother M ; "is not that

enough?" "Well, if that is all," said the trustees, "Mr.
Brown can have the house." So, at the appointed time, I did
preach in that house to a crowded congregation, at the close
of which meeting Fitch and the trustees related to me the
foregoing amusing interview between the parties in the elas

room. How matters change I Tliis brother M , by Church

authority, was made to f « - • I ; feeling set liiin to thinking and
reading; thinking and reading led to a change of Church rela-
tions. A l'«w after Ins unsuccessful effort to exclude me

from that village meeting bouse, I found loot her M and

hie family, -with a tent, at a camp-meeting near Bucyrus. a very
zealous member of the Methodist Protestant Church; at which

220 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

time lie confessed the ignorance and bigotry by which he had
been influenced in the case above related.

In this early period of the reform movement, I had many
pressing calls, from various parts of the country contiguous to
Pittsburgh, to visit the brethren, in view of organizing Churches.
A Church was organized in Steubenville, and another in Wash-
ington, about that time. Shortly after this, the brethren in
Beaver and Wellsville took their position in the reform ranks.
Connellsville Church came into being at a little later date. How
to supply the Churches with preachers was a matter of great
concern to me. Either a dread of persecution, a fear that they
would not be supported, or something else, prevented the itin-
erant preachers of the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, who, up to that time, had been known as
reformers, from identifying themselves with our work. If Bas-
com and Waterman, and several others, who had been promi-
nent as reformers, had been faithful to their avowed principles,
and had rendered us help in the new organization, the impres-
sion on the community would have been greater, and, in my
estimation at least, their standing would have been higher.
When men, from any cause, abandon their avowed principles, in
favor of which, for years, they have written, and preached, and
prayed, and throw all their influence against those principles,
and against those who risk their all to sustain them, mankind
will please to pardon me if I can not find it in my heart to
make psalms, or hymns, or spiritual songs, in honor of their
baekslidings, or take upon myself to sing their praises.

In October, 1830, the Ohio Conference held its second session,
in Cincinnati. It was a good Conference. God had greatly
opened our way, and the young Church had been favored, in
the midst of all sorts of trials, with a thrifty growth through-
out the West. I was reappointed to Pittsburgh, with Rev. Z.
Bagan for my assistant. In a short time his brother, Bev. Joab
W. Bagan, of the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, came to pay him a visit. He ultimately identified
himself with our young Church. So, the two brothers, both of
whom were vigorous and intelligent but persecuted young men,

PROSPERITY OP THE CHURCH IX PITTSBURGH. 221

of much promise, became my fellow-laborers in Pittsburgh and
vicinity. They were both companionable, social-hearted breth-
ren, and were capital preachers. With their help, the work
was considerably extended that year. Meanwhile, other minis-
terial brethren came to us, some of whom had been local
preachers in the old Church, and others grew up from our own
ranks. So great was the necessity for laborers in the opening
vineyard, and so imperfect was our knowledge of the workmen
whom we felt obliged to employ to meet the pressing wants of
our people, that we often found, to our sorrow, we had men in
the itinerancy who ought never to have been among us. They
did more harm than good, and soon passed away from us to
hunt a morsel of bread in some other denomination. Our best
laborers have generally been of home growth ; but we had to
use such as we could get, until better could be obtained from
ourselves. The sons of the Church are the men for the work.
From June, 1829, until October, 1831, the Church of which
I had charge in Pittsburgh was in a prosperous condition.
No opposition' of any description with which we met, proved
sufficient to arrest the regular progress of the work of the Lord.
Two camp-meetings held by the reformers — one in the summer
of 1830, the other in 1831 — were a great blessing to our peo-
ple, and added considerably to our numerical strength. As the
old-side brethren occupied the Smithfield house every Sunday
night, we were much al a loss for a place in which to hold
service on Sabbath evenings. Sometimes we went to the court-
house, at other times to a German church near at hand; but,
finally, it was agreed thai the Btate of the work could be best
promoted by a prayer meeting at my house, which was large,
and ne.n- the dun-ch on Smithfield Street. The folding-doors
of the rooms on the firs! floor were thrown open to accommo-
date the worshipers; but that was do< enough for the people
who came: the large room, eighteen feel by twenty-four, in the
third Btory, was occupied at the Bame time with the rooms
below; then the large hall, then the stairway, from the meeting
below to the meeting above — all were crowded; and often, on
pleasant evenings, Dearly as many people would be left out in

222 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

the street, in front of the door, as could get into the house.
The laborers were then divided ; part remained below, and part
went to the third story. It was a glorious revival time. Many
sons and daughters were born to glory there, and the Church
was greatly built up. Perhaps we lost nothing by not occupy-
ing the new meeting-house on Sunday evenings. Preaching
twice every Sabbath-day, and these glorious prayer-meetings
every Sabbath-night, brought the Church along in a growing,
prosperous condition during about the last half of my term of
service in Pittsburgh. To the original stock of reformers, who
entered into the organization June 24, 1829, were added, ac-
cording to my record, two hundred and ninety-one members.
These were seals to my ministry, given me by the Lord Jesus
in very troublous times.

In my house, every Sunday, there were two class-meetings,
and the above-named prayer-meetings at night. On Monday
night, the leaders' meeting was there ; on Tuesday, my own
class met there ; on Thursday night, the choir met there ; on
Friday, brother Avery's class met there ; and on Saturday
night, the Young Men's Association for mutual improvement
was there — making eight in all, every week. Several of these
meetings were held in the third story. It may well be sup-
posed that so many meetings gave a great deal of labor and
trouble to the female portion of my family ; but Mrs. Brown
and her sister, Miss Jackson, were one in spirit with me, and
we all went for the cause, cost what it might. He who prefers
his ease to success in a righteous undertaking, will never ac-
complish much for the Church or the State.

It ought to be mentioned in this little sketch, that, in No-
vember, 1830, Rev. C. Avery and I attended the convention in
Baltimore, as delegates from Pittsburgh, to aid in the formation
of the Constitution and Discipline of the Methodist Protestant
Church. That was a grave assembly — a venerable body. There
were many gray heads in that convention — men of reliable char-
acter, talents, experience, and wisdom; and in the work which
they accomplished, a monument was erected to their memory,
which will stand as long as ecclesiastical liberty has a name and

CONVENTION IN BALTIMORE. 223

a place in the world. But, after all — to mark the imperfection
of human wisdom — a great wrong was done to the colored race.
<>u the tears of the Baltimoreans — whose local preachers had
lost their standing by the votes of colored men — came floating
into the Constitution the word "white." "White" will do well
enough in the right place; but just there it never did any thing
but mischief, as it cut off all the colored people from voting
power in our community. Nor could we gain Southern co-
operation in conventional action, until their slaveholding laws
were as strongly guarded by our Church constitution against
the action of all our ecclesiastical bodies as the "morality of
the Holy Scriptures." It may be admitted, too, that the con-
stitutional rule adopted by the convention, regulating the sta-
tioning authority of the Annual Conferences, was entirely too
stringent for the well-being and diversified wants of the Meth-
odist Protestant Church. The constitution, as it now stands
amended by the convention of 1862, is entirely free from the
foregoing ill-working and embarrassing features, and, it is be-
lieved, will be found acceptable to the Churches in the free
state:-, and all other places where Christian liberty has found a
home. As to the parties in controversy in Pittsburgh, I did
believe that the great body of the members in the old estab-
li-hment were religiously in earnest to save their own souls and
the souls of others; and that they really thought they did God
service in yielding "passive obedience and non-resistance" to
the will of the itinerant clergy, and in holding on to all the
Church property. Their ministers, too, Rev. Z. Costen and
Rev. II -I. Clark, who succeeded Mr. Lambdin, I believed to
be faithful Christian laborers, who did all they could for their
cau^e. Nol having studied the question of lay delegation, and
having hern taught, by the General Conference of 1828, that
the itineranl ministry held all ecclesiastical power in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church by divine right, 1 could not blame them
for their opposition to me and t<> the cause I advocated, as, in a

judgment of charity. I supposed they knew QO better. Invin-
cible prejudice, in those days, hindered thousands from .-"•.•king
information' indeed, it was deemed, in high place-, an expella-

224 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

ble offense to read the Mutual Rights or to belong to a Union
Society.

When Costen and Clark had closed their term of service in
Pittsburgh, Rev. R. Hopkins came on. He was an old fellow-
laborer of good standing, yet he cited to trial and expelled a
considerable number of our male members. This was done
more than one year after we had become a separate religious
community! What did Hopkins mean by this transaction?
Did he intend to vex and worry the reformers? Perhaps not.
May be he thought that to expel the brethren would operate
against their claim to any portion of the Church property. If
frhis was his design, the expulsions amounted to nothing; he
failed in his purpose. The reformers held fast their claim to a
due share of the Church property under the charter, and sus-
tained their cause in the Supreme Court of the state of Penn-
sylvania.

As to the reformers, they were a pious body of Christians,
full of zeal for the cause of Christ and ecclesiastical liberty,
well informed on the subject of Church government, and, in
their judgment, the Church had as much right to a free repre-
sentative government as the State. In them dwelt the revival
spirit all the time. Never did I know a people more punctual
in attending all the means of grace. I wish from my heart
that the children were, in all respects, equal to their fathers.
A more devoted Christian community I never labored among
in all my life. These pious persons did not deem it necessary
to the salvation of their souls, that they should live under a
Church government where the voice of a layman could never
be heard; or that they should surrender rights which their
money had given them in the Church property, and quietly
walk away with empty pockets ; so they determined to try, in
the highest court of the state, the validity of the " Deed of
Settlement," which they regarded as a great hoop to hold the
membership together, under the rule of the itinerant clergy.
To break this "deed" would, in their opinion, lower the arbi-
trary tone of Episcopal Methodism, and open the way of thou-

CONTEMPTUOUS TREATMENT FROM OLD FRIENDS. 225

sands to Christian freedom ; and in this thing they were not
mistaken.

When I went to Pittsburgh to preach for the reformers, it
was my determination to meet all my friends who yet remained
in the old Church in the spirit of Christian kindness and lib-
erality. Thomas Cooper, who had once presided at a meeting
of reformers in Pittsburgh, but now had taken rank on the old
side, was a highly valued friend. His house had long been my
lmuie, when in that city. He was from England, and possessed
the usual characteristics of his countrymen; but grace had, in
my opinion, done much for him, and he stood very high in the
Church. I had been informed that brother Cooper did not
think any the better of me for joining the reformers, and that
I had nothing to hope from his friendship in future. I could
hardly believe this, yet I did not know how far sectarian ran-
cor might have the control of him, as he was brother-in-law to
Mr. Lambdin, the preacher in charge, whose Jesuitical double-
dealing with the reformers had driven them into a separate
organization. One day I met brother Cooper on Wood Street,
and, turning his hack, he went by me edgeways, refusing to
Bpeak or give me his hand. "Once," said I to myself. In a
Bhort time, in the same part of the city, a crowd of people
were about to throw ua together, but he leaped over the curb-
stone to avoid me. "Twice," said I. Not long after this, as
] went up Wood Street, and he came down Fourth, we met on
corner. When his eye glanced upon me, he went like a
dirt aero g the street, without the slightest friendly recogni-
tion. "Three times," said I. "When [ have given an old friend
three opportunities for Christian or even civil greetings, and
he has treated me with rude contempt every time, then I shall

tak- Q0 further notice of him until he returns to his senses;
yel I can ool afford to cherish wrath or harbor ill-will against
any man. especially an old friend."
The old-side preachers boarded with brother Cooper, and the

two Ragana with me; so brother C. and myself oftei >1 in

rkel to purchase the necessary supplies for our respective

226 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

tables. I determined that my preachers should live on as good
things as his. When he bought butter from a country-woman,
I would go and stand by his side, talk to the woman, and buy
butter out of the same basket, without offering to speak to him.
When he went to another place to buy eggs, I would be at his
elbow, buying eggs out of the same basket, talking to the
woman, but saying nothing to him. When he went to the
butcher's stall to buy meat, I would immediately be at his
side, to take the next cut, talking to the butcher as pleasantly
as I could, but uttering no word to Cooper. This course I
continued for several months, until brother C. was, I suppose,
of the opinion that I meant to tease him into some kind of an
utterance. Often he would give me a quizzical look, as if about
to speak or laugh, I could hardly tell which. But it was my
determination that he, having treated me with contempt three
times, as before stated, should now be the first to speak. One
day, on entering Hazleton's store, there sat brother Cooper, far
back by the stove. As soon as he saw me he left his seat, came
right forward, held out his hand, which I took with much cor-
diality, and the kindness of his greeting was equal to that of
former years. We then had much pleasant conversation, and
our former friendship was renewed. Several other old friends
in Pittsburgh, who, like Cooper, had treated me contemptu-
ously for my reform principles and actions, and against whom
I had put my three-times rule in force, ultimately broke silence,
when they found that their frowns were of no avail, and we re-
newed our former friendship. The fact is, in those days I had
a little too much spirit to admit of my crawling in the dust to
gain the friendship of any man who ignored the ecclesiastical
liberties of a Christian people.

To show still further the spirit of the times, and how good
men, through party zeal, can be influenced by sectarian rancor,
I will introduce another case. At three different times, while
living in Pittsburgh, I visited Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Each
time I made an effort to speak to my old friend Rev. Thornton
Fleming; but he treated my approaches with contempt; so I
brought my three-times rule to bear upon him. Near Zanes-

CONTEMPTUOUS TREATMENT PROM OLD FRIENDS. 227

ville, as I was going to Conference, in 1831, Mr. Avery and
T. Greenougli being with me in the carriage, we met brother
Fleming and lady, on the pike. He drew up as if he meant to
speak, but I drove on. Mr. Avery asked me why I did so.
•• Three times in his own town," said I, "did brother Fleming
contemptuously refuse to speak to me, and now he can't be per-
mitted to do it on the pike in Ohio. If we ever speak again, the
approach must be on his part, and it must be in his own town."
The brethren said I was " plucky," but about right— there was
no other way to bring such men to their senses. The next time
I visited Uniontown, brother Fleming came to me at my lodgings,
and we had a very pleasant interview. Our Christian friend-
ship was renewed, and I trust it will be eternal in the heavens.

228 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTER XII.

Church Failures in Wheeling— My Fikst Teak in the Presidency— Re-elected
President— The Reform Methodists— Discussion on Church Government— A For-
getful Preacher— Lectures on Church Government— Elected President the
Third Time— First General Conference— Presidential Tour through the West.

In the month of October, 1831, the Ohio Conference was
held in Zanesville, and I was elected President. This was, in
my judgment, a hard appointment, as all the territory west of
the Alleghany Mountains was then included in the bounds of
oue Conference, and if I met the requirements of the law and
the expectations of the people, I would have to be much from
home. We were now operating under a regular Church con-
stitution, which was well received by the people and the public
generally. The reports from the work were cheering. Our
cause had greatly advanced during the preceding year. All
we seemed to need, to insure success, by the blessing of God,
was the right kind of men in the ministry. But, alas for us!
in many instances, the men whom necessity compelled us to
employ were not suited to the work of the Christian ministry.
Some lacked talent; others, piety; others, prudence; others, all
these things together; and our young Church suffered greatly
in such hands.

On my way to Conference, brother Greenough, the delegate,
and myself spent a night in Wheeling, at Teeters's tavern. My
old friends in that city were not well pleased that I did not
stop with them, as formerly. On my return, I went again to
the same public house, not, as yet, knowing that it would be
agreeable to my old friends to have me stay with them, as I
was now identified with the reformers. In the morning, before
I started for Pittsburgh, John List, Daniel Zane, and Joseph

MY FIRST YEAR IN THE PRESIDENCY. 229

Woods, all prominent members of the Methodist . Episcopal
Church, called on me, and remonstrated against my stopping at
a public house when I came to Wheeling, and expressed a
wi-h that I should always, when I visited their city, take
lodgings among my old friends, as in former years. I said to
them that, having changed my Church relations, I felt a diffi-
dence in seeking entertainment among the members of the old
Church, lest the preachers should handle the matter to my dis-
advantage. They then claimed for themselves, and about three-
fourths of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in
"Wheeling, that they were as much in favor of reform as I was,
and that I need have no hesitancy about seeking quarters
among my former friends, whenever I visited Wheeling. Their
object in calling upon me that morning was then more fully
made known. They wished me, at that time, to leave an ap-
pointment, and preach for them at my earliest convenience.
As Rev. E. S. Woodward was stationed among our people in
Steubenville, they wished me to secure his assistance, and hold
the meeting at least one week, in the Methodist meeting-house,
which they pledged themselves to obtain for that purpose. I
named the Sabbath when I would, if spared, be with them.
Then they suggested the following plan: 1. I was to go by
Steubenville and secure Woodward's services, and tell no man,
besides him, of the contemplated meeting. 2. Let Woodward
come down on the morning boat, on Wednesday, and go, for
entertainment, to the house of llcv. A. Hawkins, who would
give them notice of his arrival. 3. They would immediately
sec the trustees, get the use of the house, send out the ap-
pointment, and let the meeting be continued night after night,
until I could get there on Saturday. 4. On Sunday, have sa-

en 'nt and love-feast, and continue until Wednesday. 5.

Nothing was to be Baid by Woodward or myself about reform,
or an organization, as they wanted to manage all thai matter
themselves, in their own way, as it was done in Pittsburgh and
Steubenville.

The foregoing arrangement being made, I went on to Steu-
benville and saw Woodward, who agreed to attend the meeting

230 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and help to carry out the plan suggested by the brethren in
Wheeling. Accordingly, when the time came, he went down
on the morning boat ; but he utterly ignored all the rest of the
plan. Instead of going to the house of brother Hawkins for
entertainment, he went to the Virginia Hotel. Instead of seek-
ing, through the trustees, to get the Methodist meeting-house,
he got a boy to ring the old court-house bell, and determined
to hold meeting in that house — a miserable, filthy place, where
there was but little chance for a respectable congregation.
About thirty persons assembled, and among them a few mem-
bers of the old Church, of questionable standing, and some
who had been subjected to disciplinary treatment for improper
conduct. To these people Woodward preached on Wednesday
night, and had rather a discouraging time. What better could
he expect, since he had violated the plan and determined to
take his own course? The next night he preached again in
the same place, to about the same congregation. At the close
of service in that old court-house, he beat up for volunteers to
form a Methodist Protestant Church, and got seven or eight
names on a piece of paper — all of inferior standing in the com-
munity. So, on Friday, being convinced that he had made a
failure, he published my appointment for Sunday, in that same
old court-house, and returned home, very much mortified at his
defeat.

On Friday evening, I reached Steubenville, on my way to
Wheeling, and, on learning from Woodward what he had done,
I felt disappointed and discouraged by the indiscretion and bad
faith of the man. In an injudicious effort to effect, in his own
way, an organization before my arrival, and without regard to
the wishes of the brethren who were expected to go into the
organization, I supposed that offense had been given, and that
nothing now could be done. However, as an appointment had
been published for me, in the Wheeling papers, I resolved to
go on, and, if possible, rally my friends. My appointment in
the court-house was filled on Sunday morning. None of the
reliable reformers were there; all were offended, as their plans
and wishes had been disregarded. They said if that was the

CHURCH FAILURES IN WHEELING. 231

way the new-side preachers treated the people, the old-side
preachers could do no worse, and they would remain where
they were. On Sunday evening we occupied the old Masonic
Hall. The congregation was larger, but our offended brethren
stood aloof from us. The meeting was continued until Wednes-
day night, with growing hopes of success. At the close of the
meeting, I denied that Woodward had effected any Church or-
ganization in Wheeling at all, as the constitution had neither
been read nor adopted, nor had any Church officers been elected.
I then promised them another meeting in one month, at which
time, if spared, an organization would be effected.

At the appointed time, I was at my post in Wheeling, in that
same hall. The meeting continued about one week, in a true re-
vival style. During the time we had a sacrament and a love-
feast. At the close, an explanatory lecture on Church govern-
ment was given, the constitution of the Methodist Protestant
Church was read, and a regular Church organization was ef-
fected. Forty-seven members entered into that organization —
twenty of them were from the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
twenty-seven were young converts — the immediate fruits of that
meeting. Thus, through the indiscretion of Woodward, who
was a good preacher but a bad manager, we lost the great body
of the reformers in the old Church — perhaps the meeting-house,
too — and had to begin with forty-seven members, and worship
i:i the Masonic Hall. I have been utterly unable to account
for it, tli.it some men have sense enough to be capital preach-
ers, while entirely destitute of all the requisite qualilications
for good management in Church affairs. Such was the case
with Woodward.

I might as well, right here, continue the history of Wheel-
ing's failures. In that city, notwithstanding the above-men-
tioned sad occurrence, we had a very pleasant, growing Meth-
odist Prntc-t.int Church. In the autumn of 1 SiJ^J. I situated
my family among that kind-hearted people. It was mure in the
center of my work, and I did hope to render them some assist-
ance during the year, when al home with my family. On the
first day of January, 1 S.'Jo, at the request of the Church, I

232 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

went to Noah Zane, Esq., the wealthy proprietor of a great
many town lots, to secure, as a donation, a suitable piece of
ground upon which to build a meeting-house. I found him in
a new bookstore, which was just being opened out. He was
in a very pleasant, conversational mood, and taking me, by the
arm, around the counter, he told me to select a book, for he
wanted to make me a New-Year's present. I selected a book;
he applauded my choice, and told me to look again. He kept
me looking, while he continued to applaud my selections, until
the worth of the whole lot amounted to nearly one hundred
dollars, for which he then and there gave the salesman a check
on the bank, and told him, when other books came on, to let
me have any thing I wanted, and charge it to him. Said I,
"Mr. Zane, you are very good, and I am very thankful for this
valuable New- Year's gift; but this is not the thing I am after
this morning. I am sent by the Methodist Protestant Church
of your city, to ask you to do for them as you have done for
all the other Churches in Wheeling; i. e., to give them a lot on
which to build a meeting-house." "No, Brown," said he, "I
can't do that; my word is out; I shall not give any more lots
to the Churches. What are Daniel Zane, John List, and the
other reformers about — who some time ago were all in favor of
your cause — that they can't help you?" I had to evade re-
porting to him the Woodward bungle, by which we had lost all
those men. After a little reflection, he said: "I must do some-
thing for your Church. I approve of your principles, and hope
you will succeed. Go back and tell your people to appoint a
committee to examine my lots and make a selection. When
this is done, I will go and place a fair valuation on the lot;
then let them get up a subscription paper and bring it to me,
and I will head it with the price of the lot." This was gen-
erous, and was like the liberality of the man ; it placed us on
a par with other Churches, and my report of the case was a
matter of great joy to our young Church in Wheeling.

But delays in the performance of immediate duty are always
dangerous. When the spring opened, I went forth to the
labors of the Ohio District, expecting to meet my family in

DEATH OF NOAH ZANE. 283

Cincinnati on the first of June. But I received a letter from
Dr. D. B. Dorsey, of Wheeling, containing the sad intelligence
that my mother-in-law then lay dead in my house ; that my
wife and her sister, Miss Jackson, were both prostrated by sick-
ness; and on that day twenty- one deaths had occurred from
cholera. So, leaving my horse in the care of a friend, I went
to the river, and was immediately off, on the steamer Boston,
for home. The gentlemanly captain, to whom I stated my
case, promised to put me in Wheeling with the least possible
delay. We averaged about nine miles per hour, against a very
heavy river all the way. When we landed, about midnight, at
the Wheeling wharf, in a very heavy rain, Captain Brickels
charged me nothing for the trip, and said, " God bless you, my
friend. I hope you will find your family better." After thank-
ing him for his kindness and good wishes, I made my way home.
We lived in Mills's Row of nine houses; ours was next to the
corner. When I knocked at my own door I got no answer;
all was silent and dark. I knocked again and again; still all
was silent, and I feared that all were in their graves. At last
Mrs. Mills, in the corner house, raised an upper window, and
Baid, "Is that Mr. Brown come home?" My emotion at the
time was too great for utterance. I could make no reply, being
fearful that I should hear, in her next words, that all were
dead. But this kind lady immediately relieved me — guessing
who I was — by informing me that niy family had been removed
to brother Woods's, at the other end of the row, and were recov-
ering. To me this good news brought great relief. It was
life from the 'lead, to see my family once more. On the day
before I reached home, Noah Zane, who had died of the cholera,
was buried; and, to my vn.it mortification and disappointment,
our membership had not secured the lot on which to build a
meeting boii-o. Was this attributable to negligence on the part
of Rev. Z. Ragan, the preacher, or the members, or both? At
any rate, our friends in Wheeling did not appear to know the
day of their visitation. A people in their condition should
have jumped at Buch a chance, and, on the terms suggested by
Zaue himself, secured that lot.
15

234 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Several years after this, our brethren in Wheeling lost an-
other opportunity to obtain a lot for a meeting-house, in a man-
ner somewhat similar to that above related. E. W. Stephens,
J. L. Sands, and J. Armstrong, with their families, had removed
from Pittsburgh to Wheeling. This gave strength and encour-
agement to the Church in that place. A lease of three years
on the new Masonic Hall, in which they worshiped, was soon to
expire. What next was to be done for a place of worship, was
a matter of very grave consideration. At the close of a meet-
ing in that city, while I was President of the Pittsburgh Dis-
trict, brother E. W. Stephens invited me to accompany him to
look at three lots, and see which of them I would choose as
most suitable to build a meeting-house on. The three lots
were, in my judgment, equally good, and equally central.
"Now," said Stephens, "if you will go to our preacher and get
him to call a meeting of the Church, and appoint a committee
to select one of these lots, I will buy it, pay for it, and give it
to the brethren. Besides, I will do my full share in erecting
the building. He further urged that this matter should receive
immediate attention, as lots, building materials, and mechanical
labor were then cheap, and we should have a house against the
time when the lease of the Masonic Hall would run out. When
I went to the preacher, Rev. N. Watson, and laid the whole
matter before him, and urged, by every argument I could com-
mand, an immediate action in this case on his part, he utterly
refused to have any thing to do with the matter. " Selecting
of lots and building of churches belonged to the membership,
and not to him ; let the members attend to their own business,
and he would attend to his." I was astonished at such a reply
from brother Watson, who was an excellent preacher and stood
high in the community, but labored under a mistake as to the
duties of a pastor. He was so much opposed to the firm hold
taken by the itinerants of the Methodist Episcopal Church upon
the temporalities of the people, that he would not even call a
Church meeting among our people, in view of securing a lot
on which to build a meeting-house. When the people of his
charge saw this, they should have acted themselves, without

TRIP TO WESTERN VIRGINIA. 235

their minister, but they never did. So, to this day, Methodist
Protestantism has no home in Wheeling. At one time, in the
history of this Church, Kev. F. A. Davis, who was a man of
some talent, abandoned his charge, to avoid his duty in the ex-
ercise of discipline in a difficult case, and they remained in a
disorganized state for several years. This same Davis succeeded
Watson, and by bad management broke down the Church again,
and left them to shift for themselves ; since which time we have
had no Methodist Protestant organization in Wheeling. Davis
went South, and, it is said, is now a chaplain in the rebel army.
I have deemed it right to state the foregoing facts, that the
future historian may be able to tell why we never succeeded in
Wheeling.

After this brief history of Wheeling's disasters, it will be
proper to return to the rest of the district. My first trip from
home was to Western Virginia; to the region where I had la-
bored as Presiding Elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church;
where I had sown the seeds of reform by a free circulation of
the Mutual Rights among the people, without their" knowing
who sent them that periodical; where brother C. Springer and
I, the preceding winter, had found them ripe for organization.
It was, indeed, a great gratification to see my old friends in
that Bection of country, and to find so many sturdy advocates
of ecclesiastical liberty among them. The work, in the hands
of Springer and Marshall, had greatly extended the preceding
year ; the parent circuit had been divided, other laborers had
been employed, and the spirit of revivals was to be found in all
p.irt- visited by our preachers. The cross of Christ and Chris-
tian freedom Btood firmly associated together in the heads and
hearts and lives of our ministers, and Cud gave them abundant
success in their labors. <>n the Monongahela Circuit, wo had
John Wilson and Israel Tlrrap; on Backer's Creek Circuit,
Daniel Gibbons; on Western Virginia Mission, John Mitchell.
Thrap and Gibbons were both young men, not yet trained to
war; bul Wilson and Mitchell were men of age, talent, and i
periencej every way prepared to plant and defend our cause,
and they did e,.od , • • r v i > ■ ■ . .Methodist Protestantism, from that

236 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

time to the present, has had a firm hold on the community in
Western Virginia.

I next directed my course to Western Pennsylvania, and at
Uniontown, in the Presbyterian Church, we held a very profit-
able meeting, and a number of sinners were brought to the
Saviour. Nine months before that time, Union Circuit had no
existence. The number of members was now three hundred
and fifty. The preachers, M. Scott and W. H. Marshall, were
greatly favored of the Lord among that people. Passing
through Connellsville, Mount Pleasant, and Blairsville, preach-
ing as I went, I came to Clearfield Circuit, and met my ap-
pointment at the residence of brother David Mitchell, among
the high pines of the Susquehanna. That year Clearfield Cir-
cuit had no preacher, but was blessed with a living member-
ship. In a large upper room, in brother Mitchell's house, we
had a crowded audience on Saturday, in the daytime and at
night, and a still larger one on Sunday. But word came from
the river that high water was sweeping off their lumber. These
men deemed it a duty, even on the Sabbath-day, to save their
lumber — the labor of a whole summer, and their only means of
living. So, this temporal interest caused many to vacate their
places at the meeting; then we had about room enough. It
was a glorious meeting. There were a goodly number of con-
versions and additions to the Church. There was a wild, rude
grandeur in their singing, suited to the splendors of nature
around them. Even the little boys prayed, when called on,
among the mourners; and with a great deal of gravity, when
the small folks came to the table, asked God's blessing on their
meals. Among those lofty Susquehanna pines — some of them
nearly two hundred feet high — I found a Christian people,
members of our Church, who, by their religious energy, greatly
captivated my heart. In that section of the country, I was
told of one venerable brother who, in order that nothing might
escape him, usually prayed for "all the world and elsewhere."
Some were desirous to know where this "elsewhere" could be;
finally, we fixed upon Clearfield Circuit, and to this day, by
many of our brethren, it is called by that name.

LABORS ALONG THE OHIO RIVER. 237

On returning to Pittsburgh, I obtained board for my family,
during the winter, with brother William Stevenson, where they
were well cared for. The winter months were spent iu visiting
the work in Western Pennsylvania and the north-eastern part
of Ohio. In all places where I went, I founchan open door for
Christian freedom, and there were, as in the days of Paul,
"many adversaries." To stand up stoutly for civil liberty, and
then put forth all their sti-ength iu support of ecclesiastical
bondage, did involve a great contradiction on the part of our
eld-side brethren. The more I found of this kind of opposi-
tion, the more lectures did I deliver on the subject of Church
government, to expose the absurdity of such opposition, and
to convince the people that liberty was as good in the Church
as it was in the State.

About the first of March, having found, by experience, that
brother Stevenson's house was not large enough for two fami-
lies, I took my family to a boarding-house, kept by Samson
Averal, a member of our Church, and thought they would be
comfortable; but it turned out otherwise. In a short time, to
get the worth of their money, and secure the comforts they
needed, a house was rented, and they went to themselves. From
and after that date, my wife never had the least idea of board-
ing, in preference to being mistress of her own house. Then
e my five-months' tour in the West.

A - much of my work on the district lay along the Ohio River,
I went by boal as far down as Louisville, Kentucky. Wherever
T bad work, I would stop at the Dearest point, get a horse or
other conveyance, and go out ; when my work was done, return
to the river, and go on by boat to the next field of labor.
Thus all thai portion of the district bordering on the river in
Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and [ndiana was attended to. In
all places, at the call of the people, I gave explanatory lectures
on the subject of Church government. This I did because it
was ;i maxim with me that the Methodist Protestant Church
only existed to be despised, unless very good reasons could be
shown for her existence. Every where I found the public
mind favorable to our principles, except in the old Church.

238 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Even among them we had many friends ; but the Church-prop-
erty question and a lack of competent ministers greatly re-
tarded our progress. If the ministers in the Methodist Epis-
copal Church favorable to reform had all come with us in the
beginning, and if the people could have brought their Church
property with them, our young brotherhood would have taken a
higher position than it did. But, after all, as an experiment
had to be made, to see whether an itinerant ministry and a lay
delegation could operate favorably together, it was, no doubt,
of Providence, that we opened out at first on a small scale.
Our principles, now tested, may be of service to others. The
old Church may profit by our example, if she will.

While in Indiana, I spent a few days in New Albany, with
my brother, Edward Brown, whom I had not seen for eleven
years. All his children were married, and resided in the same
city. He and his wife and children were all members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, but were all liberal in their feel-
ings toward the Methodist Protestant Church, to which a very
considerable proportion of my relations belong! It is gratify-
ing to me that so many of my kindred have taken the side of
ecclesiastical freedom, and that most of my race sustain Church
relations somewhere. Very few of the extensive family connec-
tion to which I belong were Roman Catholics or Calviuists:
free government and free grace suited them best.

On my return up the river, about the middle of* May, I
bought a horse, saddle, and bridle in Cincinnati, as my work
now lay in the interior of the state of Ohio, and I had out-
standing appointments until the last week in July. God had
given me a fine constitution, yet the labors cut out for me by
the preachers was rather beyond my strength. Each superin-
tendent would meet me with an appointment on the frontier of
his circuit, and preach me on from place to place, until I came
to some central point, where the principal meeting was held.
When that was over, and the usual lecture on Church govern-
ment delivered, I went out of the circuit as I came in, preach-
ing all the way. This was the course adopted on most of the
circuits, and it proved a great trial on my physical energies.

RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT OF OHIO CONFERENCE. 239

Having finished my "Western tour, I reached home, in Pitts-
burgh, in safety, much worn down with mj toils, and found
my family in comfortable health. After an absence of so many
months, all the time among strangers, I felt it pleasant to be
once more at home with my family and friends. After a little
time for rest and refreshment, I went with brothers Shiun and
Avery to a camp-meeting, near Connellsville, Pennsylvania. It
was a meeting of great religious interest; many sinners were
converted to God, and about one hundred were added to the
Cburch. that I could, before I die, enjoy such another
camp-meeting! Both preachers and people were baptized with
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and the glory of God
filled all the woods. Not only on the camp-ground, but all
through tbat splendid forest, the voice of prayer went up to the
Father of Mercies, and sinners were found seeking salvation.
Immediately after the above meeting. I attended, in company
with a few friends, an exceedingly valuable camp-meeting on the
Youngstown Circuit, and another on the Mount Pleasant Circuit,
of no less value to the Church. So ended my first year in the
presidency, and preparations were then made for the approach-
ing Conference.

On the 18th day of September. 1832. the Ohio Conference met
in Pittsburgh. We had fifty-one itinerant preachers, and seven
thousand, seven hundred and fourteen members. The increase
during the preceding year was two thousand, one hundred and
sixty-three. I was again elected President. This, to me, was a
great trial, for I now knew, by one year's experience, the priva-
tions and toils of presidential life. Yet, as it was the will of
the Conference, I submitted to the lot assigned me. To me it
was a matter of joy thai the people, through their delegates, as
well as the preachers, had a voice in my election, and I fell it a
pleasure, notwithstanding the trials, to serve in freedom's holy
cause. The Conference made a very favorable impression on the
citizens of Pittsburgh, and our own preachers, on receiving
their appointments, went forth full of hope to the labors of an-

Otl er year.

My family were left to move to Wheeling, without my assist-

240 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

ance, while I went, under instructions from the Conference, with
brother Sylvester Dunham as traveling companion, to the neigh-
borhood of Cleveland, to attend a Conference of the Reform
Methodists. These brethren had, in writing, expressed a wish
to be received into the fellowship of the Methodist Protestant
Church, and I was commissioned to attend their Conference —
which met a few days after the adjournment of ours — and if, in
my judgment, their views of Scripture doctrine, morality, and
ecclesiastical economy were in accordance with our own, to re-
ceive them into our branch of the Christian Church. The case
of these Reform Methodist brethren was carefully examined into
for about three days, during which time I conversed freely with
all their leading men, preached among them, and, by request,
delivered them a lecture on Church government, explaining our
principles as fully as possible, in view of giving them a perfect
understanding of what might be gained or lost if they came into
our fellowship. Finally, a resolution was passed by their Con-
ference, declaring themselves ready to adopt our constitution and
discipline. By this time, public attention was waked up to what
was about to transpire, the crowd was great, and, for the accom-
modation of the people, the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal
Church offered us the use of their house, very much -to the grief
of the preacher in charge, who happened to be absent when
the deed was done. Early in the evening, the house was
crowded. The members of the Conference were all up near the
altar, in a body, so as to act together. My first work was to
preach them a sermon on the constituent principles and advant-
ages of a Christian fellowship. This being done, the constitu-
tion and some of the more important portions of the discipline
were read and adopted by the Conference, with great unanimity.
It was then agreed that the appointments made by that body
should stand for one year ; that the action then taken should
be laid before their societies for ratification, and that all their
itinerant preachers, with their delegates, should attend our next
Annual Conference ; and so ended the chapter in relation to
these brethren. In this transaction we gained several useful

DISCUSSION OX CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 241

itinerant preachers and about three hundred members. There
were about twenty-two members of Conference, ministers and
lay delegates. Nearly all of them have since passed away to
another world.

During the foregoing exercises, Eev. Mr. Janes, the preacher
in charge, who had been sitting back in the congregation, came
into the pulpit. He asked if we were through with our busi-
ness. I replied that we were. He told us he had something
to say. He then called in question the truth of the statements
contained in the preface of our discipline, pronounced the fun-
damental principles of our Church government false; said we
slandered both the living and the dead, and gave us a most bit-
ter overhauling. Brother Dunham, being a very sagacious law-
yer, took up all his points, and replied at considerable length,
in a very respectful and courteous manner. This did not sat-
isfy the gentleman. He returned to the charge with increased
bitterness, called Dunham a "monkey," and sometimes referred
to him (he being a little bald) as the "man that had no hair
on his head." It was then growing late, but I asked to be
heard by the assembly a little while. All shouted for me to
"go on." So I told the people I should sustain all I had to
say by books published at the gentleman's own book-room, No.
14 Crosby Street. New York, which books I had with me, and
was, therefore, ready for all Buch eases as we had now on hand.
Then, with all my might, for about forty minutes, I carried the
war into the camp of the enemy, bringing up before that audi-
ence all the objectionable features in the ecclesiastical economy
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as contained in their dis-
cipline, proving them to be Winn- in the light of the New
Testament, in the light of Mosheim's Church History, and in
tli" light of the American Bill of* Rights, under which the bat-
of the Revolution were fought and won. When T sat
down, Mr. Janes arose to speak again; but the people started
from their seat and left the house, complaining, as they went.
th.it hi had mistreated the strangers, who had given him no
cause cf offense. Whether men :i re Christians or not, they

242 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

generally know how Christians ought to behave. A man of
rudeness of manner and language will always injure his cause
in public estimation, be it good, bad, or indifferent.

Leaving brother Dunham with our newly-adopted brethren,
to attend their principal ratification meetings, and to meet me
again at New Lisbon, to assist in holding a two-days' meeting,
I visited several points on the Western Reserve, to open the
way for our cause in that part of Ohio. It was my plan, in all
places, first to preach to the people a Gospel sermon, without
reference to the ecclesiastical controversy: and then, if they
desired it, a lecture was given on the subject of Church govern-
ment. These lectures were, generally speaking, well received.
I deemed it best not to organize societies where it was imprac-
ticable to supply them with preaching; yet, in several places, I
found it difficult to avoid allying the people to the Methodist
Protestant Church, whose ecclesiastical economy so fully met
their approbation. When I met brother Dunham, at New Lis-
bon, he reported the Reform Methodist societies all satisfied
with their new relation, and we then proceeded with our two-
days' meeting. It was well attended, and resulted in good to
our small Church in that place. After that meeting, brother
Dunham and I separated. He returned to his family in Beaver,
and I went to mine in Wheeling, where I found them in good
health, and comfortably situated in the midst of kind, Christian
friends, with brother Ragan for their pastor, who appeared to
be doing good service among his people.

After making the necessary preparation for the wants of my
family during the approaching winter, I again visited all parts
in Western Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, and found the
cause of Christ — or rather the Methodist Protestant department
of it — as a general thing, in a prosperous condition. Wherever
we had faithful, self-sacrificing, pious laborers in the viueyard,
there we had prosperity. Wherever we had, through any mis-
take, employed a ministerial drone, there we failed, and the work
went down. Faithful, intelligent ministers, full of the constrain-
ing love of Christ and of souls, I have always found enlarging
their work, getting into new fields, and unfurling the banner of

A FORGETFUL PREACHER. 243

the Cross wherever there was an opening. But an indolent,
ease-loving preacher will soon, if the Quarterly Conference will
allow him, narrow down his work to nothing. I returned to my
family about the last of December, and was employed during
the winter in visiting those parts of the work nearest to Wheel-
ing, and in rendering what assistance I could to brother Ragan,
in advancing the cause in that city.

Early in the spring, I sat out on a tour through the interior
of Ohio, with brother James McHeury, of Pittsburgh, for my
traveling companion. My plan of work was so arranged as to
keep me absent from home until after Conference in September,
but my family were to meet me in Cincinnati the first Sunday
in June. I found McHenry to be pious, intelligent, and a great
reader of books. Withal, he was very forgetful of his books and
articles of clothing. Once he forgot his saddle-bags, at a public
house where he dined, nor did he miss them until we had trav-
eled fifteen miles. We were then near the place of my nieet-
ing, and it took James all next day — Saturday — to go after his
saddle-bags and return. Edward Holmes tells a good joke
about James's bewildering abstractions. When on his way from
Pittsburgh to join me in Steubenville, to make the tour through
Ohio, he stopped at Briceland's Cross-roads, to rest a few mo-
ments. Hitching his horse to the sign-post, he went into the
public house, laid aside his cloak and hat, and lighted a cigar.
While he sat smoking, the thought of the twelve miles he had
vt to go came into his mind. He looked at his watch and
Pound it was late. "Bless me!" said he, "I shall be in the
Dight." Forgetting his hat, but throwing on his cloak, out he
wentj iii haste, to be off lor Steubenville. He forgot to unhitch
his horse, but mounted from the wrong side, with his face to
the tail, and giving the horse a cut with the whip, the fright-
ened animal bounded up againsl the Bign-post, amid the laugh-
ter of all the spectators. Now. If Holmes has reported cor-
rectly, who upon earth thai witnessed such a comical Bcene

COUld have avoided laughter? Vet, after all this, McHenry

could remember what he read. Bis mind was well stored with
historical knowledge, carefully laid up in chronological order,

244 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and, considering his youth, he ; was a capital preacher. After
traveling with ine for several weeks, I gave him an appointment
to assist brother W. H. Collins, on Paris Circuit, in Kentucky.
He served a short time in the itinerant ranks, hut having poor
health, he returned to his friends. He now resides in Pitts-
burgh, where, for a number of years, he has been a valuable
teacher in one of the public schools. I trust he will pardon
me for relating the foregoing anecdote, as I hardly know how
to leave it untold.

This was a great cholera year in various parts of our coun-
try. As already stated, when I reached Cincinnati, on the first
of June, instead of meeting my family, according to arrange-
ment, I received a letter calling me home to Wheeling, and
stating that twenty-one deaths by cholera had occurred the day
the letter was written, that Mrs. Brown's mother was one of the
victims, and that my wife and her sister were both very danger-
ously ill. I immediately returned home, spent about two weeks
among the sick, and then brought my family to Cincinnati, and
left them in the care of my highly-esteemed friends', Moses
Lyon and his good lady — both excellent members of our
Church — until I completed the labors of the year in Indiana
and Kentucky. In Illinois, some circuits at that time were
being formed, but, owing to the great extent of the work in
other regions, it was impossible for me to reach that distant
field.

During this year my lectures on Church government were
very frequent. I did not volunteer them, or force them on the
people. As our Church was in her infancy, the people every-
where seemed desirous of knowing our ecclesiastical principles,
what the difference was between our Church government and
that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and all the reasons of
our independent existence as a Christian community among the
Churches already established in our country. To my mind it
was as clear as the daylight of heaven could make it, that, as
sects were so numerous, the Methodist Protestant Church only
existed to be despised, unless very good reason could be shown
for her existence. Yet I deemed it safest to put the people

LECTURES OX CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 245

between me and harm, by refusing to lecture unless they called
for it. Must generally, where information was wanted on the
questions at issue between the old Church and ours, some one
would bring the matter before the public congregation at the
close of service on Sunday morning, and, by a rising vote, call
for a lecture. When this was done, the responsibility rested on
the people, and they could not apologize to our angry opponents
in the old Church, by saying the lecture was thrust on them
without their consent. I have always found .that lectures de-
cently and respectfully delivered, by request of the people, on
Church government, have been defended by the people.

At Zanesville. Rev. Joab W. Ragan got the Quarterly Con-
ference, on Saturday, to call for a lecture. But I declined giv-
2 it. unless the Sunday congregation would call for it. The
case came before the congregation, and a full house, by a rising

te, requested it to be delivered on the following Wednesday

-ht. On Monday, I found that the contemplated lecture was

causing considerable excitement among the members of the old

Church. To intimidate me, I was informed, by one who pro-

-ed to know, that three distinguished ministers of the Meth-

-t Episcopal Church, D. Young, L. Hamline, and J. Trim-
ble, intended a reply. I then and there expressed a wish to
1. iye them reply at the time of my lecture, or whenever it might
suit them. On Wednesday night, my lecture was delivered to

xowded assembly, and I was told that Hamline and Trimble
were present. It occupied two hours and ten minutes, covering
the whole ground of controversy between the parties. I then

ntioned the boast of the sheriff — an Episcopal Methodist —
which I had heard of fifty miles off. that he would sell the meet-
ise we were then in, for a debt that was on it of six huu-
dred dollars ; and returned thanks to the citizens for helping
our brethren to pay that debt the week before, so that the re-
i could not now get his rapacious hands on it.
The anecdote of the wheels was told, to the great amusement
of the assembly. In conclusion, I Informed the audience that
I had been very much gratified to learn that D. Young, I>.
Hamline, and J. Trimble stood pledged lor a reply. I iuteuded

246 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

to have their points of opposition taken, and sent to me: if
spared, I would return to Zanesville and review them.

The day following, I found that the contemplated reply was
to be made in the -Methodist Episcopal Church the next Mon-
day evening, and that there was no small stir in town about
my lecture. It had many friends and some very bitter enemies.
As it was not possible for me to be present to hear the reply,
I appointed two young gentlemen to attend and take notes sep-
arately, that from the two I might, with certainty, be able to
review the reply of my opponents with fairness and candor.
Monday evening came, and with it a crowded assembly at the
appointed place. My two young friends were there to take
notes. David Young was in the altar. The congregation, after
waiting long, began to d>e impatient. Hamline and Trimble,
who had been relied on for the reply, did not appear; and I
was informed that there was much mirth and many speculations
in the assembly as to the reasons of their absence. If these
gentlemen did not appear, and no reply was made, the inevita-
ble result would be, that Methodist Protestant stock would take
a rise in the Zanesville market. Finally, David Young arose,
went into the pulpit, and said, in his own peculiar way, with a
nasal twang to all his utterances, " I believe our brethren have
concluded to treat George Brown's lecture on Church govern-
ment with silent contempt;" so, lifting up his hands, he said,
"Let us look to God and be dismissed." When the benedic-
tion had been pronounced, the people went forth with laughter
to their homes. After all, was not this "silent contempt" the
better policy? To have attempted a reply and failed in argu-
ment, or to have supplied the place of argument with abuse,
would have injured them and helped us, in that community,
and these men had sense enough to know it; therefore, they
honored me with their "silent contempt." To overthrow a lec-
ture in favor of Christian liberty, founded on the Holy Scrip-
tures, the American Bill of Bights, Mosheim's Church History,
Lord King's Account of the Primitive Church, and other stand-
ard works, published at their own Book Concern in New York,
these men had not the heart to undertake; so they treated me

LECTURES ON CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 247

with "silent contempt," and the community laughed contemptu-
ously at their cowardice.

The foregoing is the account of this ludicrous affair from my
two young friends, whom I had appointed to take notes for me,
to use when I returned to Zanesville that same week. Indeed,
it was the general account. So, having nothing to review, I
went on my way, with renewed confidence in the correctness of
our principles.

I will here give another sample of ecclesiastical lecturing.
Brother Forsha, in Preble County, Ohio, published an appoint-
ment, on his own responsibility, for me to deliver a lecture on
Church government, in an orchard, and came fifteen miles after
me to perform that service. So I turned aside eight or nine
miles out of my regular course, to fill the appointment in the
orchard. When I arrived, I found in waiting a very large as-
semblage of people. Among them were thirteen preachers, one
of whom was Dr. Joseph Waterman, then in charge of the cir-
cuit in that vicinity. By request, I preached them a sermon.
My text was Bomans, chap, xiv, verse 12: "So then every one
of us shall give account of himself to God." Human responsi-
bility to God was the theme. On it I spent one hour and ten
minutes, without sparing my strength. Dr. Waterman, in clos-
ing the exercises, spoke very favorably of his old friend's dis-
course, pressing home its principles and duties upon the audi-
ence with a most emphatic exhortation. I then stated to the
people that I had come to lecture on Church government, but
had been drawn into preaching a sermon, contrary to my ex-
pectations, and must now dismiss (hem, get a little refreshment,
and go on my way. Against this there was a general backing
of ears — an indication of dissatisfaction. I told them that
through the heat I had traveled fifteen miles, had preached
with all my strength for more than an hour, and was hungry,
and not in a good physical condition to do justice to my cause.
But these people would take no denial— a lecture tin') must
have. A Methodist Episcopal local preacher moved that "Mr.
Brown proceed at once to deliver a lecture to that assembly
a Baptist minister seconded the motion, and brother \V. W.

248 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Paul, of our Church, put the question, calling for a rising vote.
Every soul in that assembly arose but Dr. Waterman. He
wanted the lecture, but pitied me in my fatigued condition, so
he remained on his seat, and laughed heartily at the enthusi-
astic zeal of those around him.

Being thus pressed into service, under circumstances so un-
favorable to success, I asked for a few moments' rest, that I
might cool off, get out my books, and make my arrangements.
Tbis being done, all my strength and freshness seemed to have
returned to me, and I had full command of all my powers.
Then, for about two hours and a quarter, with all my might,
I gave them that lecture on Church government. All the au-
thorities I used, save the Bible, were from the Methodist Epis-
copal Book-room in New York. I aimed to cover the whole
ground of the controversy, to give hard arguments in mild lan-
guage, knowing that harshness might offend, but would not
convince. Toward the close, I glanced at the millenial glory
of the Church in the light of prophesy, when the knowledge
of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the
sea ; when there shall be nothing left to hurt or harm in
all Cod's holy mountain; when the progressive reign of the
Son of God shall have put his enemies under his feet — shall
have put down all adverse "rule, authority, and power," in
Church and State, throughout the world. I then asked the
question, Can such an ecclesiastical government as that of the
Methodist Episcopal Church live in that glorious day ? In the
full blaze and glory of that millenial day, can a Church gov-
ernment exist in which the itinerant clergy have all the legis-
lative, judicial, and executive power, and the people none?
From all parts of the assembly the answer came, "No, no, no!"
Will not all civil, ecclesiastic, and domestic slavery be done
away? The answer was, "Yes, yes, yes!" Does it not seem
likely that in the millenial era, our doctrine of mutual rights,
under the light of heaven, will be very popular, and fill the
world? Again the answer was, "Yes, yes, yes!" So my lec-
ture closed in something like a camp-meeting excitement.

Dr. Waterman then arose and expressed his approbation of

LECTURES ON CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 249

the lecture. He said my quotations from the authorities I had
used were all undeniably fair, and that my lecture had been
mild and respectful. If at any time, in the hurry of speaking,
a harsh word had been used, I had always recalled it, and sub-
stituted a milder one in its place. "But," said he, "I think
I can fairly draw other conclusions from my old friend's his-
toric facts and premises." The Doctor then gave out for him-
self an appointment to lecture on Church government, at their
meeting-house, in three weeks from that time. He named the
four propositions he intended to sustain. (I have forgotten
them.) Then beginning at the first, he said: "This first prop-
osition I mean to sustain from the writings of the early Chris-
tum fathers." A lusty, shrill-voiced Baptist minister, piping
hot with enthusiastic zeal, called out to him, "You had better
sustain it from the Holy Scriptures." The Doctor was startled
at the loud, half-screaming demand, and threw up his hand as
if to fend off a blow. After a moment's pause, he said again,
"This first proposition I mean to sustain from the early Chris-
tian fathers.'' Then came the shrill scream of the Baptist
preacher, more piercing than before, "You had better sustain
it from the Holy Scripture The Doctor, being unable to

State how he would sustain his propositions without that kind
of Bcreaming interruption, gave the matter up in despair.

T then proposed to the Doctor to give us his lecture then; he
had heard me, and I wanted to hear him ; but he declined, say-
ing the day was Car Bpent, and the people were weary. I told
him 1 should, if -pared, be in Louisville, Kentucky, the Sun-
day after !i are, and then appointed two young lawyers to
he fire-. nt. take potes, and send them to me, and if there \. re
any material contradictions of my statements and arguments, I
would return and defend my lecture. When the day came,
there wis. as my two friends informed me, an immense gath< i
iog of the people, hut the Doctor did not appear. He had
thought better of the matter, lie -pent the latter part of I
life an active itinerant in the Ohio Annual Conference of the
Methodist. Protestant Church. He was a man of splendid in-
tellect, deep piety, and great moral worth.
Li

250 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

I give these cases as samples of my struggles in the origin of
our cause in the West. Others wrote more than I did, but I met
the opposition on the stump, throughout the West. I had to
perform this labor to save our cause. These lectures made the
public acquainted with the ecclesiastical principles of the two
Churches, and gave us sympathy and defense in all places where
they were delivered. All our preachers, even down to the pres-
ent day, and in all time to come, should be thoroughly acquainted
with the principles of our ecclesiastical economy. Wherever the
people need information, or our cause needs defense, lectures
should be given. Would the General Conference of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, in 1864, ever have hinted to their mem-
bers that they may have lay delegation if they want it, if the
Methodist Protestant Church, by her present existence and past
discussions, had not, like John the Baptist, gone before in this
matter, to prepare the way of the Lord? Many mountains have
been pulled down, valleys filled up, the crooked made straight,
and rough places even, by the founders of the Methodist Prot-
estant Church. Let no man stand on their shoulders and un-
dervalue their labors.

The fifth Annual Conference of the Ohio District was held
in Cincinnati, in September, 1833. We then had fifty-eight
itinerant ministers, one hundred and fifty unstationed ministers
and preachers, and ten thousand three hundred and forty-eight
members in the district. At that Conference the Pittsburgh
District was set off; Rev. A. Shinn was its President, and I was
continued in the presidency on the Ohio District. This third
year in the presidency involved a great struggle in my mind.
The two preceding years had been hard on my physical ener-
gies, and hard on my family. I had been thrown upon my own
scanty means for full half of my support. They desired my
services in Wheeling, and gave a pledge of an ample supply of
all my wants. To accept of the presidency necessitated a re»
moval from Wheeling, where I had my family comfortably sit-
uated, to Xenia, Ohio, and an additional exhaustion of my own
means, which I could not conveniently afford. But, upon re-
flection, for the sake of good example, and remembering that I

REMOVAL TO XENIA. 251

and all I had upon earth belonged to the Lord, I made up my
mind to take the appointment. I had no sooner done this than
an effort was made by William Disney, in Cincinnati, and all
the money raised to bear the expenses of my removal. Many
a time have our Cincinnati brethren helped the poor preachers,
and encouraged them onward in their itinerant toils. The Con-
ference was, as usual, well sustained in that city, and made a
fine impression on the public mind. The preachers all went
forth to their appointed work full of hope, and we all felt our
new Church relations to be very comfortable. To spread re-
ligion and all kinds of freedom proper to man is a glorious
work. Christianity in chains is a melancholy sight.

When Conference was over, my wife and I traveled in com-
pany with brothers A. Shinn, W. Garrard, and their wives, as
far as Wheeling. There we stopped to prepare for a removal,
and our agreeable companions went on to Pittsburgh. When
we parted, brother Garrard, who had paid our expenses all the
way, refused to have the money refunded, and generously gave
me twenty dollars in addition, saying, "You will, no doubt,
have need of it out in the West." Such instances of kindness
deserve to be recorded. Many a time God hath sent me help
in time of need, by the hands of his servants, and even wicked
men have sometimes been my benefactors. Such is the good-
ness of God.

In due time we effected our removal to Xenia, where all were
strangers; yet, we soon found friends, among whom no one
proved to be a better friend than Rev. James Towler, who care-
fully and constantly attended to the wants of my family, sup-
plying them, when I was out on the district, with all the neces-
saries of life. He who travels as extensively as I did, needs a
James Towler near bis family, to watch over their interests witli
fatherly kindness. This brother had induced me to locate my
family in Xenia, under certain promises, and he made all his
promises good. He was a noble-hearted, Christian gentleman.
Happy in his life, triumphant in his death, he now rests in
heaven.

This was to me a year of more than ordinary toil. The au-

252 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

tumn, the winter, and until the middle of April, were spent in
visiting the circuits and stations in Ohio, Indiana, and Ken-
tucky. Then came the General Conference in Georgetown, D. C.
In going to that Conference I took my family with me to Wheel
ing, and left them to visit among our friends, until my return.
Then, taking the venerable N. Snethen, who came by steam-
boat from Louisville, into my carriage, I proceeded across the
mountains, to the seat of the Conference. What man upon
earth ever had a more agreeable traveling companion ! He had
great hoards and stores of information on all subjects that could
come within the range of the conversation of travelers. His
temper was cast into the mold of heavenly mildness. His
logical and philosophical powers were of the highest order ; and
for richness of instructive and amusing anecdote, he could not
be surpassed. The General Conference elected Mr. Snethen its
President. A better choice for that office could not have
been made. However, one afternoon the members were greatly
amused to find their President fast asleep in the chair. Per-
haps this was owing to one of those good dinners for which
Georgetown was so famous. The business of that General Con-
ference was transacted in great harmony, and we all returned
to our homes, full of hope of final success in our ecclesiastical
enterprise. For a traveling companion, on my return to the
West, I had my good friend Rev. Saul Henkle, of Springfield,
Ohio, until I came to Washington, Pennsylvania, where I met
my family, with whom I made a brief visit to Pittsburgh and
Steubenville, and so returned to Xenia.

After spending June and July in the Ohio part of the work,
I took Daniel H. Home, jr., a youth of eighteen years of age,
into my carriage as a traveling companion, and set out on a
tour of about eight weeks and nearly eleven hundred miles of
travel through Indiana and Illinois. We attended two camp-
meetings in Indiana and three in Illinois — all very successful.
Beside these, I met all my other appointments in the West,
preaching the Gospel of Christ, and lecturing on Church gov
ernment wherever I went. Rev. W. H. Collins and wife fell
in with us in Indiana, and were with us in all our travels, and

PRESIDENTIAL TOUR THROUGH THE WEST. 253

at all our meetings, until Daniel and I turned for home. At
one of the camp-meetings in Indiana, held on a Presbyterian
camp-ground, an elder of that Church gave me a very curious
account of a way to comfort mourners. He said that the year
before, at their meeting on the same ground, they had power-
ful preaching. Many were awakened under the Word, and cried
to God for mercy. Others fell to the ground, and lay there in
deep distress, asking, in the language of the jailor, '.'What
must I do to be saved?" With them no conversation, singing,
or praying was allowed by the preachers, lest their cases should
be made worse. But from the well near at hand pitchers of
water were brought and poured on them, to relieve them of
their distress. Cold comfort this! Presbyterians now under-
stand the work of God better.

Besides the enjoyment I had in preaching the Gospel among
my brethren of the ministry and membership of the Church,
and in witnessing the conversion of sinners and the advance-
ment of our cause in the West, I was greatly delighted with
the splendor of the prairies in that region. Sometimes we were
quite out of sight of timber; the blue sky came down to the

en grass all around us. As there had been no rain for sev-
eral weeks, the boundless view, the dust, and the heat hurt my
eyes, and ever since that tour I have had to use spectacles. I
have often thought of moving to Illinois, but fiually concluded
that mine was an upland constitution, and that I had better
remain somewhere near the mountains, to drink the pure water
and breathe the free air of a higher region. The splendor and
glory of a country are nothing when weighed in the balance
with good health.

Daring my first two years in the presidency, my traveling
was nearly all on horseback, of which, at that time, I was very
fond, and I rode down three horBes each year. The third year
I wore oul two in the service. After my return from the Gen-
eral Conference I went my greal Western tour in a carriage.
By this mode of traveling, a horse would last Longer. None of
my horses died on my hands: when they could serve me no
longer, I exchanged them for others — generally at great sacri-

254 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

fice — and went on my way. My horses cost the Church noth-
ing; all this expense fell on myself. In the incipiency of our
Church operations, we had no regularly digested financial sys-
tem: as a consequence of this, I was very poorly paid. Each
year, according to financial reports now in my possession, my
income from the Church was about one hundred and sixty-two
dollars. But to establish and build up the Methodist Protest-
ant Church was my object, and if what I received, together
with my own scanty means, would keep me going, I determined
to go on in the service of the Church. I performed hard labor,
with poor pay, in a good cause, and have left it for all after-
grumblers to quit the itinerant field because they could not
grow rich by preaching the Gospel. I freely own that the
high constitutional principle of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ
is : " They who preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel ;"
but there have been times, and there may yet be times, when,
pay or no pay, the work of the Lord must be done, if a man's
own means, added to the salary afforded by the Church, will
enable him to do it. In such a day I have lived, and, to the
best of my ability, I have discharged my high obligations. Three
years of such constant absence from my family, together with
the incessant toils of travel, preaching, lecturing, writing let-
ters, and attending love-feasts, quarterly conferences, etc., made
a deep impression on my physical constitution, and a more local
sphere of action became desirable. To avoid a removal and
oblige kind friends, Xenia was the place in which I wished, if
the Conference would so appoint, to labor the ensuing year.

REMOVAL TO CINCINNATI. 255

CHAPTER XIII.

Bemoval to CnrcrnwATi— Ah Opinion on Ecclesiastical Law— Second Year in Cin-
cinnati— Gkxebal CONTERBNOB OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH— ANECDOTE OF

Kev. N. Snethen and Rev. W. Bubke— Election of Bishop Mobeis— Tkansfeb to

THE PlTTSBUEGH CONFERENCE.

The Ohio Annual Conference held its sixth session in Louis-
ville, Kentucky. On my return from the West, Daniel Home
and I rested a few days with my brother Edward in New Al-
bany, Indiana, and then went on to the Conference. I was ap-
pointed to the Cincinnati Station, with Rev. Josiah Denham,
late of the Baptist Church, for my assistant. He was from
England — a man of extensive learning, a capital preacher, and a
real Christian gentleman. Yet, after all, I would rather have
gone to Xenia, to avoid a removal of my family, to oblige be-
loved Christian friends, who had pledged themselves for my sup-
port, and to gain a little retirement from the great, busy world,
thai 1 might pursue my studies. I had been so long away from
my book- that I greatly desired to return to them.

This was, all things considered, a pleasant Conference, and
made; a good impression on the community. Yet, some parts
of the official action gave me pain; but I cast the mantle of
charity over them, and will not write them, as it sometin

happens that excited official bodies may do wrong, yet really
think themselves right. My wife met me at the Conferen
reported ill well at home, and when the session closed we
spent about a week in New Albany, at the house of my brother,
ami then returned home to prepare for a removal to Cincin-
nati. We sent our household goods to Dayton, to go by oanal,
but the family went hy carriage, with our two little children

256 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

singing all the way. Our first night in Cincinnati was spent
with my old friend Moses Lyon; but the next, our goods hav-
ing come, was spent in our own house. My first work in that
station, besides preaching and attending other meetings, was to
pay a pastoral visit to all the members of the Church. Mean-
time, occasional calls were made by the sisters to see my fam-
ily; but we were in Cincinnati two full months before a single
soul ever invited us out to eat dinner, or take tea, or any such
thing. At our house we had social hearts, but in that city we
seemed likely to have no social intercourse, and began to feel
that the change from Xenia to Cincinnati was an unhappy one
for us. This thing led to many speculations in our minds, all
of them resulting in our discomfort. One evening, at V(m.
Hart's shoe-store — a kind of head-quarters, where the brethren
met to talk over matters — I was asked, by Moses Lyon, how I
liked Cincinnati. I said, "That is a very plain question, and
I must give it a plain answer. I am not comfortable here ; we
are kept at arm's length, cut off from all social intercourse
with our people, save in the religious meetings, and have not
been invited to break bread with a single family since we have
been here, which is now about two full months." There was
then a brief pause. Some one said the thing was utterly and
shamefully wrong, and he wondered at it, for it did not look
much like Cincinnati. Another said he supposed each one
thought all the rest of the brethren were inviting us to their
houses for social entertainment, and it would soon come his
ttfrn ; but it appeared all had neglected it, to the great discom-
fort of the-pastor and his family, whose feelings all felt sa-
credly bound to respect. Moses Lyon then drew himself up
to his full height, and giving me rather a quizzical look, said:
"You and your family may now prepare yourselves; I'll go
bail that you will soon have as much good eating among our
people as you are able to do." Here the matter -ended ; we all
went to our homes, and I soon had invitations enough, and
more than enough. As it was once said of Henry Clay eating
his way through Virginia, so it might be said of me; I was
kept going until I had about eaten my way through our Church

FIRST YEAR IN CINCINNATI. 257

in Cincinnati. A more social-hearted, kind, benevolent, Chris-
tian people I have never served, since I have been in the Gos-
pel ministry, than I found in the Methodist Protestant Church
in Cincinnati. They proved their faith and Christian love by
their works, as my family still very affectionately remember.
Their liberality is known to all the Churches.

My conjectures, during the two months of probation before
we were fully admitted into society, were about the following:
Probation is a law that runs throughout all animal nature, from
the least to the greatest. If a duck, a goose, a chicken, a pig,
a cow, or horse happened to get among strangers of the same
species, he is looked upon with suspicion, as an intruder that
has no business there. In nine cases out of ten they make
war upon him, and he has to undergo something of a probation
before he is admitted into full fellowship, and can quietly go
to feeding in the pasture along with the rest. This is the law
among animals, and in many new cities it obtains among men,
where strangers do not bring introductory letters upon which
to claim recognition at once. Cincinnati was a new city, of
sudden growth, full of strangers, but few of whom knew their
next-door neighbors. As many of these persons were not, upon
trial, found to be of the right kind, the older inhabitants grew
cautious, put all strangers on probation, and only took them
into society when, after due trial, they were found worthy.
With this conjecture on my mind, I felt it painful to be re-
garded as a suspicious stranger, compelled to stand out a pro-
bation before I could have social intercourse with a people who
knew me to be an accredited minister of Jesus Christ, and had

ighl my services as a pastor. But there was no such idea
among them. Bach thought the others were inviting us to the

lialities of tle'ir families, and all intended to do it in due
time. The moral conclusion of the whole matter is this:
Preachers Bhould no* be hasty in judging their people for ap-
parent neglects; and the people, immediately On their pastor's
arrival among them, should make haste to show themselves
kind. This will promote the happiness of all parties, and secure
the greatesl amount of uscfulne

258 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Those of our members in Cincinnati who came out from the
Methodist Episcopal Church — some by expulsion for their prin-
ciples, others by withdrawal on the same grounds — were Chris-
tians of the highest order of intelligence, piety, and unflinching
firmness of character. The new additions were, in the main,
equally respectable. The wants of such a Church, scattered,
as it was, all through the city and out into the country, gave
my colleague and myself full employment. The leaders' meet-
ing and the Quarterly Conference were strong, intelligent official
bodies, and the whole Church at that time was in a growing,
healthy condition. To make my pulpit labors as valuable as
possible, the forenoon of each day in the week, so far as prac-
ticable, and the whole of Saturday, were sacredly devoted to
study, in the full faith that no man can teach such a people as
were committed to my care, who is not himself a constant
learner. Paul's advice to Timothy seemed especially applicable
to me : " Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth." The sermon that cost me neither mental labor nor
prayer I generally found to be of little or no advantage to the
people. Yet, after all, what God gave me, as if by immediate
inspiration while preaching, and which I had never thought of
in my study, often appeared to be most productive of good. To
study hard and pray much, in pulpit preparations, is certainly
right; then, if a man is not confined to a manuscript, as a mere
reader, God, by expanding the mind and firing the heart, will
often make glorious additions, speaking for Himself, through
an organ of clay, directly to the people. Men may call this
enthusiasm — I do not ; it must be as I have said, if Christ, ac-
cording to his promise, is with his ministers always, even unto
the end of the world. With the mere reader of sermons, who
strictly confines himself to the manuscript before him, written
out in his study, all after-thoughts and sudden promptings of
the heart by the Holy Spirit are cut off. Let preachers have
their well-digested plans, if they will. These, too, may be be-
fore them in the pulpit, if necessary, as mere landmarks ; but let
the inventive mind clothe this skeleton with flesh and blood

AN OPINION ON ECCLESIASTICAL LAW. 259

and skin, and glowing colors, as the impassioned mind marches
through the subject, gathering inspiration, as it goes, from the
nature of the theme, the state of the congregation, and the
Spirit of God.

All things considered, I had a happy year in Cincinnati. In
connection with the Cincinnati Circuit, we had a very profitable
camp-meeting, which brought our Church a considerable in-
crease of members. At home, in the city, there was quite a
revival. God owned our labors; much good was done in the
name of the Lord. I was, however, destined to have some
trouble, even among very kind friends. While in the chair of
the Quarterly Conference, I was appealed to for an opinion on
the proper course of bringing private, unofficial members of the
Church to trial. On that occasion I read to the brethren the
law of the Church on that subject. It is as follows: "It shall
be the duty of each leader in stations to report to the leaders'
meeting all cases of transgression and disobedience in the mem-
bers of his class which he believes may require the exercise
of discipline. The leaders' meeting shall then appoint a com-
mittee of three, to examine whether the case requires a judicial
process; and if they find it does, the chairman of said com-
mittee shall have it prosecuted according to the provisions
of the discipline." This law, I told the brethren of the Con-
ference, contained the only plan in our economy for the
origination of the trial of private, unofficial members of the
Methodisl Protestanl Church in stations. All complaints must
come by the leader to the leaders 1 meeting. The leaders'
meeting has in the case no discretionary power — "they shall
appoint a committee of three," having grand-jury powers, to
find a bill Of charges, if there be any, against the accused. If
no bill is found, the accused goes free, and there the matter
ril , Is. Bui if a hill is found, the chairman of the committei
held as pro i cutor in behalf of the Church, against the accused,
and all the angry pat tone of the accuser .-ire hereby shul out
from perplexing the trial. Official members, when accused, are
■ned lor trial to the proper authorities, by the Quarterly
Conference,

260 KECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

This opinion was well received by the body, and we acted on
it throughout the year. But when the President of the Con-
ference, a young, inexperienced man, came to the city, he held
the doctrine, I was told, that under our economy every man had
a right to bring his own charges, without reference to the leader
or leaders' meeting, or the grand-jury committee, and prosecute
the case himself — thus superseding the Church's prosecutor.
In this way a small party was formed against my administra-
tion. One zealous brother, signing himself "A Lumber Mer-
chant," wrote against my opinion, in the Church paper pub-
lished in Baltimore. An editorial, by brother Shinu, appeared,
favoring the views of this writer. I wrote a reply to "A Lum-
ber Merchant" and the editor, but deemed it best, after all, not
to publish it, lest I should stir up strife. Two of my oppo-
nents were elected delegates to the Annual Conference in Madi-
son, Indiana, with instructions to bring me back a second year
to the Cincinnati Station. They and I agreed to submit the
matter at issue between us to the Conference, for its judgment
in the case. After the parties were heard, the Conference, by
an overwhelming majority, confirmed my opinion as correct.
The two delegates, thus foiled, were not satisfied. Toward the
close of the session, when I was out on the stationing com-
mittee, they got the Conference to reconsider the matter, and
lay it on the table. But that was the last of it. During my
second year I heard no more of their objections to my opinion
on ecclesiastical law. When brother Shinn, the editor who had
favored their views, returned to Cincinnati, and read my un-
published reply to "A Lumber Merchant," and to his own
editorial, he gave it as his deliberate judgment that my opinion,
given in the Quarterly Conference, on ecclesiastical law, was
right; and expressed his astonishment that he and "A Lumber
Merchant," with the law of the Church in their -hands, should
ever have thought otherwise. He did not stop there, for, as
I have been credibly informed, he carried my opinion of the
law into practical effect, when superintendent of the Cincinnati
Station, the following year.

During my second year in that city, we had another glorious

REVIVAL IN CINCINNATI STATION. 261

camp-meeting, in connection with the Cincinnati Circuit. It
was held on the land of Mrs. Hargrave, whose mother was at
that time one hundred and six years of age! She was tall,
straight, slender, and active — walked, every day of the meet-
ing, from the house to the camp, a distance of at least a quar-
ter of a mile. Such cases of activity, at such an advanced
period of life, are very remarkable.- This old lady was, accord-
ing to information, a very exemplary Christian, and exceedingly
fond of class-meetings. In this connection, another case of
longevity, still more remarkable, may be given. Andrew Whit-
tier, near Cambridge, Ohio, was one hundred and twenty-five
years old when he died. He lived a bachelor one hundred
years, and then married a widow, who was a member of the
Methodist Protestant Church. In ten years she died, and then
the old gentleman lived a widower fifteen years. All through
life he had been temperate aud industrious, a man of fine health
and good moral character. Not long before his death, he went
out into the harvest-field and reaped, bound, and shocked one
dozen sheaves of wheat, then said his work on earth was done.
He returned to the house, took to his bed, and, after lingering
a short time, passed away to the eternal world. The disease
of which be died was old age; the clock- <>/ life hud simply run,
down. This account I had from Mr. Whittier's neighbors, and
have since seen it in the public papers.

The above-mentioned camp-meeting was followed by a grar
ciuus revival of religion in Cincinnati Station. A goodly num-
ber of sinners were converted and added to the Church. As
we protracted the inciting night after night, a case occurred
which gave me much pain. A young gentleman, apparently in
it earnest for the salvation of bis aoul, came to the altar of
prayer every night, fur about one week. The agony <A' his
mind was great; the crushing load upon his panting, praying
heart Beemed to be wearing down his health. The friends of
the Saviour took a deep interest in his case; hut all the prayers
ami counsels of the people of God Beemed to avail nothing in
his behalf. At last, lifting np his head, he beckoned me to
him, and said, in my ear, "There i- a difficulty between my

262 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

brother, who sits back by the door, and myself. We have not
spoken to each other for three years, and unless a reconcilia-
tion can be effected, I shall be lost. Will you please bring him
to me?" I went to the person designated, and said, "Your
brother at the altar has sent me to request you to come to
him." In an angry tone, and with a bitter oath, that hard-
hearted man repulsed me, and refused to go. Finding that no
entreaties would move him, I returned to the altar, and, in the
mildest way I could, reported to the penitent sinner that his
brother declined coming. Upon hearing this, he arose, left the
house, went to the river, and took a boat for Louisville. That
night the boat was burned, and the young man perished in the
flames. How sad my heart felt when I heard of his death !
His unnatural brother treated him harshly, yet he desired a
reconciliation. May it not be that he ultimately found mercy
with the Lord?

It was in the month of May of this year that the General
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was held in Cin-
cinnati. Rev. T. M. Hudson, my brother-in-law, and member
of the Conference, together with his family, made their home
at my house. At that time the ill-feelings which had grown
out of the old controversy began to abate. Our pulpit was
occupied by the preachers of the Conference. Many of my old
friends in the ministry, who were members of that body, visited
me in a very friendly, social manner, and partook with me, at
my table, of the bounties of God's providence. Bishops Rob-
erts, Hedding, and Waugh all honored me with a visit, ate at
my table, prayed in my family, and prayed for my Church. All
this kindness ■of former friends was like healing balm to a
wounded heart. Yet it made no change in principle. Minis-
terial rule in the Methodist Episcopal Church was to me still
as objectionable as ever, and the right of the people to a free
representation I still held to be as good in the Church as it
was in the State. But, in my heart, I felt bound to love my
old friends, while I believed them in error on the subject of
Church government.

I will not attempt to write all my recollections of that Gen-

ANECDOTE OF SNETHEN AND BURKE. 263

eral Conference. The following anecdote concerning Rev. N.
Snethen and Rev. W. Burke is too good to be lost. These
venerable brethren had once been pioneer laborers in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, but now neither of them belonged to
it. They were both large, fleshy men, of about the same size,
age,. and general appearance; each had on him a venerable gray
head, which was indeed to him a crown of glory, being found
in the way of righteousness. Though so much alike in per-
sonal appearance, there was a great dissimilarity in their voices.
The voice of Burke was coarse, harsh, broken, and husky. Sne-
then's voice was as clear, smooth, and oily in its tones as the
sound of a silver trumpet. These aged brethren were in daily
attendance on the doings of the General Conference. One
in >ming they had taken their seats together just outside of the
bar, to hear Rev. Orange Scott deliver his great abolition argu-
ment. Somehow, they forgot themselves, and entered into con-
versation about old times.

"Altered times," said Snethen to Burke, "since you and I
used to go to General Conference;" and in his clear, silvery
tones, he added, " These brethren all look like they were well
paid, well fed, and well clad; times have very much changed."
" Then," Burke replied, in his coarse, harsh, and husky tones,
" I recollect, in the early days of Methodism, that I went one
day into Nashville, with a blanket-coat on me, to preach in
the market-house. It was not a blanket-coat either: it was
a blanket with a hole cut through the middle of it, and my
head poked through the hole, and it was tied round my mid-
dle with a tow string. In that kind of garb I preached to the
people." Then Snethen'fl Bilvery tones rung out, louder far
than In; was awaro of: "I recollect," said he, "when I traveled
ii]! North, on the Kennebec River, that I was clad in a kind
of Btuff like the common Kentucky jeans. My clothes were all
threadbare, and pay breeches were broken at the knees. I had
not, a dollar in the world, and I was in a peck of trouble.
Where or how to get new clothes I could not tell. I went
home to my lodgings, took off my clothes, went to bed, aud
dreamed that I had no breeches "( all I"

264 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

All this time the two old men kept their heads down behind
the back of the seat in front of them. But this private con-
versation was generally heard ; it arrested debate. Orange Scott
paused, turned, looked, and smiled. The Bishop in the chair
looked and smiled. All eyes were turned to Snethen and
Burke, and, for a short time, the Conference was very much
amused. Yet the two venerable men were not aware, at the
time, that they had given amusement to any one. Mr. Sne-
then, who was stopping with me, laughed heartily when I told
the company at the dinner-table what had occurred in the Gen-
eral Conference that day. He said it was not the first time his
voice had betrayed him.

I was present in the General Conference when that body
elected their Bishops. Wilber Fisk and Beverly Waugh were
elected without much difficulty. But they wanted another.
John Davis, of the Baltimore Conference, Thomas A. Morris,
of the Ohio Conference, and William Capers, of the South Car-
olina Conference, were in nomination. After a number of bal-
lotings it became apparent that Capers, the Southern slave-
holder, was fast gaining ground, and that unless either Davis
or Morris were withdrawn, he would be elected. To elect a
slaveholder to Episcopal office did not exactly suit the tastes
and principles of most of the Northern members, so they laid
the matter over until the next day. That night they held a
meeting to consider what was to be done. Either Davis or Mor-
ris must be dropped, so as to concentrate the Northern vote
wholly on one man, or Capers would be elected. But the main
question was, which of the two should they drop? Each candi-
date had his warm friends, and those friends, on each side,
greatly desired the election of their candidate. These brethren
were very much puzzled; but, sooner than let a slaveholder be
elected, they mutually agreed to refer the matter to me. I had
served in the Baltimore Conference, of which Davis was a mem-
ber, and was well acquainted with him. I had lived about two
years in Cincinnati, the home of Morris, and had, by informa-
tion in relation to him, been very favorably impressed with his
character. All this was known to some who were present at

ELECTION OF BISHOP MORRIS. 265

the meeting, and will account for the desire of the parties to
have, my opinion.

Before breakfast the next morning, Rev. David Steele, of the
Baltimore delegation, an old friend of mine, with two other
members of the General Conference, came as a deputation from
the meeting, and desired a private interview with me. They
informed me of the election of Fisk and Waugh the preceding
day; that the Southern members were running Capers; that the
votes of the delegates from the Northern Conferences were di-
vided between Davis and Morris, and that unless they withdrew
one of their candidates* and concentrated their whole force on
the other, Capers, the slaveholder, would certainly be elected,
and this would be a calamity to the Church. They said to me,
"You are not now a minister in our Church; you are not, there-
fore, interested in this affair as we are; you are in a favorable
position to give us a candid opinion in this difficult matter, and
the parties have agreed that, as you know both the men, your
opinion shall rule the case. Our question to you is, upon which
of these two men shall we concentrate our votes for the Epis-
copal office?" After a little pleasantry with the brethren about
their calling on a radical to help them make a Bishop, and the
third ordination which they gave their Bishops, etc., I told
them, in all sober seriousness, that, as the matter was referred
to me, I must advise them to elect Morris in preference to
Davis; and I then gave the reasons on which my preference
was founded. This done, the brethren left me. After break-
fa t. I went over to the Conference in time to witness the elec-
tion. Davis was. in the main, dropped from the vote, and Mor-
ris was elected by a very hand-nine majority over Capers. After
this statement of facts, I leave mankind to judge whether 1 did

not, since my connection with the Methodist Protestant Church,
go a little beyond the Lines, to help make a Bishop in the
Methodist Episcopal Church.

Bishop Morris and 1 reside in the same city, and lie occa-
sionally preaches Por our people. 1 regard him as an amiable,

* If, as I have since learned, Dr, Kuter waa a candidate, i irai nol (0 Informed l>y tlio
brethren who waited on me,

266 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

liberal-minded Christian gentleman, and a good minister of
Jesus Christ. If my advice to the deputation sent to me did
turn the election in favor of Bishop Morris, then I think the
Methodist Episcopal Church owes me a debt of gratitude, for
he has been to them a very valuable presiding officer. In any
event, the whole case goes to show that my judgment was
deemed worthy of regard, in a difficult case, by men who once
presented the boldest front of opposition against me, on account
of my lay delegation principles and actions. Time brings its
changes.

My second year closed. The Conference was held in Cin-
cinnati, September, 1836. For many reasons, I considered it
my duty to take a transfer to the Pittsburgh Conference. My
main reason was founded in a conviction of duty to my mother,
now in the eighty-fifth year of her age. I was her youngest
son, and she wanted me near her in the decline of life; so I
went, but she had passed calmly away to her heavenly home
before I got to see her. Her death brought a sense of loneli-
ness over me that I had never experienced before. Now I had
neither father nor mother, and felt my orphanage to the full.
But they both lived the life and died the death of the right-
eous. If faithful until death, I shall see them again, where sin
and sorrow, pain and death are felt and feared no more.

TRANSFERRED TO THE PITTSBURGH CONFERENCE. 267

CHAPTER XIV.

Transferred to the Pittsburgh Conference— Removal to Alleghany— Remarkable
Dream— Lorenzo Dow and General Jackson— An Arbitrary Sexton— Second Gen-
eral Conference— Df.bate on Slavery— Liberty of the Press— Meeting of Pitts-
burgh Conference— Removal to Holliday's Cove, Virginia.

After the Ohio Conference had been in session about three
days, I left, in company with brother Shinn and his lady, for
the Pittsburgh Conference, which was to meet the week follow-
ing in Pittsburgh. It was no easy matter to sunder the ties
which bound me to the Ohio Conference. Nor was it any
trifle to go by a small boat, in hot weather and in time of low
water, from Cincinnati to the Iron City. Through much trib-
ulation, we reached the Conference on the second day of the
Bi -sion, and had a joyful meeting with old friends whom I had
not seen for several years. The river trip had hurt my health,
yet I was immediately assigned to duty on the Stationing Com-
mittee, and suffered much in the performance of the labors en-
joined upon me. In this Conference some unpleasant occur-
rences gave me a good deal of pain. Sore, cutting, thrusting
con testa between preachers have always been painful to me.
Borne preachers are strong — not in faith, like Abraham, giving
glory to Q-od — but strong in bitter feeling, to worry one an-
other in Conference. Tliis savors more of hell than heaven,
and argues an utter want of the mind that was in Christ,
However, matters were ultimately adjusted among the brethren,
and they all, al the close of the Conference, t<>nk their appoint-
ments and wi-ni t(, their work for another year. I was ap-
pointed to the Alleghany Station. Tin- was gratifying to n
as I Pound it to he in accordance with the wishes of the peo-
ple committed to my pastoral care. I entered immediately

268 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

upon the duties of my charge, but sickness in my family de-
layed their removal, and I had to return to Cincinnati, and
remain there about one month, before it was deemed practica-
ble and safe for them to accompany me to Alleghany. This
was effected early in November, and then, with all my might, I
went into my ministerial and pastoral labors. I did my best
in pulpit preparations, and with all my soul did I strive to
preach the Gospel of Christ. I went through the whole Church
in a course of pastoral visitations. My congregations were
large and attentive, but uncommonly dull and formal; but few
of the signs of spiritual life were to be found among them, and
so they continued until the early part of the winter. This
state of things gave me great concern of mind. It seemed to
me that my Gospel mission had about run out. I preached
religion from the pulpit ; I talked and prayed religion in all
the families of the Church, and I tried to practice it in my
life ; yet in all places religion was undermost and the world
uppermost — all was cold and formal. What could be the mat-
ter? Was this a rebuke to me for past unfaithfulness? or was
it for leaving the Ohio Conference? To me this was a dark
day of trial, a time of great mental anguish. The Church
had made the best provision for my temporal subsistence
that had ever been made since my entrance into the minis-
try, and yet it seemed to me that I was doing them no spir-
itual good.

One evening, at leaders' meeting, in a free and full conversa-
tion with that official body on the state of the Church, I dis-
closed to the brethren, as fully as I could, all the sorrows of
my heart — that to live and labor among them, to be comfort-
ably supported by them, and to do them no spiritual good, was
painful, in the extreme, to my feelings. What shall we do?
What can we do to change the existing state of things in the
Church for the better? These brethren seemed to enter, to
some extent, into sympathy with me, bade me to be encouraged,
and said a better day was coming. We then prayed together
for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and returned to our
homes. That night I had a remarkable dream. In general, I

REMARKABLE DREAM. 269

put no confidence in dreams, but in this one I did, for it
changed the whole current of rny feelings, and filled my soul
with buoyant hope. I dreamed that I was at a splendid feast.
Every thing in the room was in the finest order, and it was
most brilliantly illuminated. The guests were patriarchs, proph-
ets, and apostles — all arrayed in white. At the head of the
table sat the Saviour himself, in mild and heavenly dignity.
The table was long, the company large, and there was but one
between me and the corner, at the far end, on the left-hand
side. In such an assembly, a sense of littleness and unworthi-
ness came over my soul, and I felt amazed that I was permitted
to be there. All eyes were turned toward the Saviour, who
graciously cast a benignant look on the whole assembly, and
finally fixed his eyes on me. It was a look of tenderness, and
seemed to indicate that he knew the state of my heart. Be-
fore blessing the food, he arose, came to me, and took me to a
private interview. He said, "I have witnessed all your trials,
and the sorrows of your heart : be encouraged ; preach the pure
Gospel faithfully- — I will be with you and give you success."
As he turned to resume his place at the table, my soul followed
hard after him, and was well-nigh drawn out of me in desire to
be with him. Being greatly excited, I awoke; the feast had
vanished from my sight, but on my mind a favorable impres-
sion remained. Tlie very next time I went to the pulpit, on
the Sabbath-day, a glorious revival. of religion commenced, and
continued all through the winter, and the Church was greatly
strengthened by the additions 60 her membership and her own
higher attainments in the Divine life.

Toward the ' of the year, a crash came in the financial
in*' I' the country. President Jackson had removed (lie

deposits, fchi d, after some time, issued his Bpecie circular. As a
defei - againsl th wernmental act-, the State banks, gen-

!y sn pended specie payment, and the distress throughout
the country was very great. Mos< of ti,,. manufacturing estab-
lishments about Pittsburgh and Alleghany suspended opera-
tion, and tin' hands employed in them were thrown ou1 of work.
Th:- bad a Berioue effeel on the Church under my pastoral care.

270 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

I gave about sixty certificates in one month, to members of my
charge — mostly young converts — *who removed into the country
to find employment and the means of living. This state of
things gave me great concern. Any action of the Government
producing financial distress in time of peace, equal to that ex-
perienced in time of war, must be wrong, and no political logic
under heaven can justify it in the court of sound morality.
When President Jackson broke down the old Bank of the
United States, Lorenzo Dow, then confined to bed by his last
illness, in Georgetown, D. C. — as I was informed by Rev. W.
C. Lipscomb, of that city — arose from his couch, girded on his
mantle, went to the White House, and stood before General
Jackson, like the prophet Elijah before Ahab, and reproved
him, in the name of the Lord, for the injury he had done to
the country. Dow had often been entertained by the General
at the Hermitage in Tennessee, and had always agreed with
him in politics; but now he thought him wrong, and having
gathered up all the remaining energies of life, he 'stood before
Jackson, leaning on his staff, as a reprover. The General, see-
ing how feeble he was, and remembering their former friend-
ship, desired him to be seated and have a little refreshment.
But the stern old prophet said, "No, he would neither sit down
nor eat bread in his house." So, turning to his carriage, he
went to his room, and in a few days he died. This last act of
Lorenzo's life had in it a real moral grandeur, and was cer-
tainly the work of a fearless, honest-minded man.

In addition to the preaching due my people in the Alleghany
Station, I did much ministerial labor in various localities be-
yond the bounds of my charge, in view of establishing our
cause. No matter how good a cause may be, living agencies
are necessary to its establishment. Christianity itself required
living, active agents to plant it in all the world. Nor have I
ever dreamed that our ecclesiastical principles, however good,
could establish themselves. Our preachers who have full faith
in our views of Christian doctrine and principles of ecclesias-
tical government must, by laborious diligence, carry them out
into practical operation among the people. Where this is not

AN ARBITRARY SEXTON. 271

done, our cause does not extend, nor does Christianity in any
form. A conviction of this truth led me to perform much out-
side labor during my term of service in Alleghany Station.

My pastoral duties, too, were very onerous. A membership,
spread over so much space, to be visited once a quarter — all
the sick much oftener — and so many funerals to attend, did
iiot leave me a great deal of time for rest or study. Yet, by
carefully adhering, as far as practicable, to my old plan of
i nenoon study and afternoon visiting, I kept up all my work.
The people of my charge worked with me well, in the revival
already mentioned; indeed, they had become religiously in
earnest in the work of the Lord, and a better band of laborers
among penitents at the altar was rarely to be found. It did
my heart good to witness the whole-hearted energy of my dear
old friends Rev. C. Avery, E. W. Stephens — men of wealth —
and Henry Williams, G. Kurtz, and many others, in the hum-
bler walks of life, together with the ladies of the Church — all
baptized into the spirit of this revival. Around the altar of
the Lord the rich and the poor met together in one common
cause, and upon our united laboTs the blessing of the Most
Sigh came down abundantly.

It may be worth while to say something of our sexton, as
we pass along. To look at human nature in every phase might
be instructive. A little brief authority will spoil some men.
To put some sinners into office is to place them beyond the
reach and force of Gospel truth. To put some professors of
religion into office is to fill them with pride, and render them
an intolerable nuisance to the Church. Our sexton had once
been a very intemperate man; but, on his making a profession
of religion and joining the Church, so orderly was his life, and
such were tin: evidences of liis piety, that he gained the confi-
dence of lii.^ brethren generally, and might have lived and died
a good Christian, if he bad never been taken from the ranks
and put into office. By some hap, W. <!. was appointed sexton
of tin- Methodisl Protestant Church in Alleghany, ami in a ,-hort
time he began to assume airs of meat self-importance. The
office made him feel large, and his actions became insufferably

272 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

insolent. No advice would he take; all remonstrances were dis-
regarded. At precisely nine o'clock at night, during the revival,
he would call out : " It is time to close the meeting, and for all
honest people to be at home." Then, without waiting for the
congregation to retire, or the penitents to he taken from the
altar, he would extinguish the lights, leaving us all in the dark.'
Several times we had to light up again, it being inconvenient to
move out at a moment's warning. Our remonstrances againsl
such arbitrary and ill-advised conduct were again and again
repeated, but all to no purpose. Our sexton grew worse and
worse, alleging that the meeting-house and all who came into
it were under his control, and that he had the right to close
the meeting when he pleased. When nothing else would do,
this man's office was taken from him and given to another.
This so enraged him, that we had to turn him adrift by an ab-
solute expulsion from the Church. When he became cool, he
lowered sails, and, to appearance, became very humble, but in
my day it was deemed advisable not to receive him again into

the Church. This man's case is the case of thousands. From

•

the bottom to the top of society, a weak-minded man is pretty
certain to be spoiled by office, especially in the Church of
Christ. Paul says of a Christian bishop, that he must "not
be a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the
condemnation of the devil." So, it appears that an angel of
light, through pride, from the height of his position fell, and
was turned into a devil, and that "novices" in ecclesiastical
offices are very apt to follow the example of that apostate
angel. In relation to this matter, the Churches can not be too
careful. The advice given by Paul to Timothy, concerning or-
daining men to the Christian ministry, is valuable, even to the
appointment of a sexton : " Lay hands suddenly on no man ;" put
no man into any responsible position in the Church of Christ,
until his character is well understood to be every way trust-
worthy.

In September, 1837, the Pittsburgh Conference was held in
Wheeling. At that time the Methodist Protestant Church in
that place was in a prosperous condition, and the Conference

SECOND GENERAL CONFERENCE. 273

was well entertained, and made a favorable impression on the
community. I was reappointed to the Alleghany Station. As
the distress in financial matters still remained, and was rather
growing worse every day, my success in building up the Church
was not very great. So many removed, to hunt business and
find the means of living in other places, that our increase was
hardly equal to our losses. A time of financial distress brings
out the faultiness of character among professors of religion, in
a manner not to be conceived of in a time of prosperity. Some
were really not able to pay their honest debts during the press-
ure, and there were others who did not appear to want to pay
tbem. Against this latter class there were many complaints,
and in adjusting matters in which their integrity was implicated
I had no little trouble. Yet the great body of the member-
ship were of a reliable character, and struggled hard to main-
tain the honor and advance the prosperity of the Church.

In the month of May, 1838, our second General Conference
was held in Pittsburgh, and there was a pretty full representa-
tion from all the Conferences, North and South, in attendance.
Of that body I was a member, and was chairman of the com-
mittee on the slavery question. * The other members of the
committee were from the following Conferences : Rev. R. B.
Thompson from Virginia, W. Disney from Ohio, N. Green from
Champlain, and W. S. Stockton from , formerly the vet-
eran editor of the old Wesleyan Repository. Stockton, Green,
and I, being a majority, brought in a report against slavery, as
being inconsistent with the morality of the Holy Scriptures.
Brother! Thompson and Disney made a minority report. The
slavery question was then ably discussed for about three days.
Finally, the whole matter was referred back to our people, in
their primary assemblies, for instruction as to how it should be
disposed of at the next General Conference. This was done on
Saturday afternoon. Thai eight we had a session, in view of
acting on the report of the committee on the Church paper.
That report being rend, Dr. Armstrong, of Tennessee, offered
a resolution to the effect that all matter on the subject of
slavery be excluded from its columns. Then followed, OD Arm-

274 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

strong's resolution, one of the most excoriating discussions, be-
tween the members North and South, that I ever remember to
have heard in any deliberative body, on the subject of slavery.
Judge Hoskins, of Ohio, did battle for the South, and was
most provokingly severe on brother Shinn's argument in favor
of the liberty of the press. Several of the Southern members
followed in the same pro-slavery strain — all exceedingly bitter
against modern Abolitionism. Shinn then replied to the whole,
in a speech of great logical, sarcastical, and ironical power.
He gave a showing-up of the Southern manner of bullying and
blustering our Northern statesmen in Congress, on the slave
question; "but," said he, "for one, I am determined that South-
ern blusterers, with all their Northern satellites, shall meet with
a manful resistance in the General Conference, in their attempt
to break down the liberty of the press, in order to cover up
the horrid crime of slavery."

All this time the discussion had proceeded by mistake, on
the supposition that the General Conference had full power over
the question at issue. I made several attempts to get the floor,
to show that the freedom of the press was secured to the Church
by the Constitution, but failed to get a hearing. Brother
Springer finally moved an indefinite postponement of the whole
matter before the Conference, believing, as he said, from the
temper of the body, that we could not come to an agreement
so as to have any Church paper at all, and he gave it as his
opinion that Church papers could be best managed by the An-
nual Conferences. I then got the floor, but the friends of
Springer's motion called the previous question on me, and I
took my seat. At that juncture, brothers Kesley and Brown,
of Maryland, kindly interposed in my behalf, and got me a
hearing, on the ground that I had made several attempts to
speak, but some one else always got the foreway. They desired
to hear me, and hoped, as I had the book of the law in my
hand, I could cast some light on the subject then before the
Conference.

I then proceeded to say: "As a citizen of this nation, the
Constitution of the United States is the charter of my rights

LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. 275

and privileges. As a citizen of the Keystone State, the con-
stitution of Pennsylvania is the guarantee of my rights and im-
munities. As a Christian, the New Testament is the book under
which I hold my claims to rights and privileges. But, as a
Methodist Protestant, the constitution of our Church is the
charter of my rights, and the rights of all here assembled.
This constitution, made in 1830, by a convention of the whole
Methodist Protestant Church, is of binding force on this Gen-
eral Conference. We are not here to nullify or amend it, but
to obey it in all our ecclesiastical legislation. Our Church con-
stitution, which I will now read, plainly says, (Article X, Item
III,) ' No rule shall be passed infringing the liberty of speech
or of the press, but for every abuse of liberty the offender shall
be dealt with as in other cases of indulging in sinful words and
tempers.' This, certainly, settles the question. The press with
us is constitutionally free, and this body has no power to make
it otherwise."

Dr. Armstrong then asked me what I understood to be the
freedom of the press in the Methodist Protestant Church. To
this question I immediately replied, that, in order for our press
to be free, at least all official documents must be published, and
that to reject them would be an infringement of the liberty of
the press. As to private communications written by individ-
uals, over these the editor must have discretionary control, and
he would, in many instances, deserve as much credit for what
he left «ut as for what he published. As no one objected to
this view of the freedom of our press, I said if Springer and
Armstrong would withdraw their motions, I had one to make.
These brethren complied. I then called for the reading of the
first section of the law, then in order, regulating the publica-
tion of our Church paper. When it was read, I moved its
adoption; the vote was unanimous for adoption. I then called
foT the second section: when it was read, I moved its adoption,
and the vote in it^ favor was unanimous, and so on until every
secthm in the law was adopted.* I then moved the adoption

* in this place, the published mlnntee, owing t" the (front excitement, arc very de-
fsctivo in the statement of fucts.

276 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

of the law as a whole, and the vote was again unanimous.
Here, then, in this free country, under the free constitution of
the Methodist Protestant Church in General Conference assem-
bled, we all agreed to have a free Church paper. When all
was over, and I had resumed my seat, the whole Conference
gave indications of joy at the favorable termination of this
stormy debate. Those who had indulged in harsh expressions
against their opponents recalled them, and asked forgiveness,
which in every instance was cordially granted. Then followed
a general shaking of hands and a great deal of mirth. About
eleven o'clock at night we adjourned and went to our homes,
all in a very pleasant state of mind. My own feelings were
cheerful, too; God had helped me to assist the brethren in the
dark hour of trial, and I was contented and happy. Especially
was I happy, because the freedom of the press had triumphed.
On the next Monday morning, Rev. T. H. Stockton was
elected editor of our free Church paper. Our Church constitu-
tion made it free, and the whole General Conference had, in the
foregoing way, declared it should be free. In view, therefore,
of the premises, brother Stockton went on to Baltimore, to enter
upon the duties of* his office, and on his arrival had the deep
mortification to find that, on the slave question, the Book Com-
mittee, right in the teeth of the constitution, and over the ac-
tion of the General Conference, had gagged our Church paper!
This was a daring act of usurpation, and the names of that
famous Book Committee must be given to my readers. They are
the following: James R. Williams, Samuel K. Jennings, John
Chappell, John Clark, Dr. F. Waters, L. J. Cox, Philip Chappell,
Beale H. Richardson, and the stationed preachers of Baltimore.
These are names of renown in our history; but, in bowing to the
genius of slavery, they tarnished their former glory. Brother
Stockton, with all the Christian and American manhood in him,
declined the editorial chair, and refused to have any official
connection with a muzzled press. Rev. E. Y. Reese was then
appointed editor, by the Book Committee, and filled his position
with fine ability. But, alas for him and for us all ! in a free
country, and in a free Church, he edited a gagged paper! a

MEETING OF PITTSBURGH CONFERENCE. 277

thing much abhorred in the North, and intended to shield
slavery. To meet the demand for a free press in the North
and West, and to open the way for free discussion of all moral
questions, the Western Recorder was originated that same year,
with Rev. C. Springer for editor. But that, being an individual
enterprise, did not wholly satisfy our people. Our only official
paper sat there in Baltimore with a gag in its mouth, and they
were disgraced. Great numbers of them went to other Churches.
In September, 1838, the Pittsburgh Conference was held in
New Lancaster, Ohio, where we had, at that time, a prosperous
Church. The Conference was handsomely entertained by the
community, and seemed to make a good impi-ession. But, from
some cause, not known to me, our Church in that place had
been on the decline. It was a time of suspicion as to the in-
tegrity of some of our preachers. Rev. W. W. Arnett, ap-
pointed by our last Conference to Steubenville, had, while in our
employ, gune through a course of study with Rev. D. Morse,
in view of connecting himself with the Protestant Episcopal
Church at the close of the year. Now, it was believed that his
father-in-law, Rev. E. S. Woodward, who had been stationed in
New Lancaster the preceding year, was about to take the same
course, ami that no minister would build up a denomination
which he was preparing to leave, and that it was not morally
honest to make our Church a mere boarding-house, where a
man might eat. and sleep and live at our expense, while making
ready to renounce our form of ordination and take work else-
where. To meet this case fairly — and others of a like kind, if
ther. Bhould be any — a new question was, by direction of the
Conference, added to the list of those propounded to the
preachers. It was, in substance, as follows: "If you receive
an appointment from this Conference, is it now your intention
to devote your whole time and talents to the performance of the
work assigned you, faithfully, to the end of the year?"* Mr.
Woodw.nd answered this question, when his character was mi-
der examination before the Conference, very distinctly, in the

• Rev. z. Bagu mored the u'ldition of tin-- Qtieitloa.

278 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

affirmative. He was then reappointed to New Lancaster, on the
faith reposed in the honesty of his answer. But, in a short
time, he passed away to the Protestant Episcopal Church, hav-
ing first made an effort, as I was informed, to take our little
membership in that place along with him.

At this Conference I was appointed to the Ohio Circuit. In-
stead of occupying the parsonage at Eldersville, by consent of
the brethren, I situated my family in Holliday's Cove, among
my relations, near the place where I had spent the first eight
years of my life; neaf^ where the old school -hou&e once stood
in which, from my fifth to my eighth year, I had Squired some
of the rudiments of learning; and nearer still t^'the old stone
school-house, yet standing, where, on my approach to manhood,
I had spent nearly two years in an effort to carry forward my
education. Though forty-six ^years of age, still around the
scenes of my childhood there" was an indescribable charm.
Even down to over three-score years and twelve, I look back
with a great deal of pleasure to the place where my race in life
commenced. 0, the happy days of childhood and youth ! no
more to return on earth; but I look forward to all the glory of
eternal youth in heaven. My hope is full.

Rev. W. Ross was stationed in Washington. He and his
people desired to be united to my circuit. The union was
formed ; so Ross and I traveled together that year, and I found
that pious, talented young man to be all I could desire in a
colleague. This was, in many respects, one of the most pleasant
years of my ministerial life. I was, truly, among kind people,
tad a noble-hearted fellow-laborer, and at most of the appoint-
ments God gave us success in our work. My support was in-
adequate, but this was no new thing for me. The disciplinary
allowance was too small, and the financial regulations of the
Church were to blame for this, rather than the people.

One very cold Sunday, after preaching, at eleven o'clock A.
M., in Washington, Pennsylvania, I had to ride eleven miles to
preach at night in West Middletown. The intense cold, made
more severe by a strong wind meeting me in the face all the
way, against which my cloak was but a poor protection, did me

REVIVAL IN STEUBEXVILLE. 279

a very serious injury. About midway, I took the cramp in
my legs and feet. To remedy this, I dismounted from my
horse. At first I could scarcely stand or walk, but finally got
relief, and walked about a mile. I then took to my horse again,
but did not ride far before the cramp seized me with greater
violence than ever. After enduring it for a short time, and
feeling that life itself was in danger, I once more dismounted.
To stand or walk had now become more difficult than before.
But, by great efforts, such as a man will make for his life, I got
my blood a little into circulation, the cramp relaxed its terrible
grip, and I walked about another mile. Then I returned to
my horse again, and in a short time the cramp seized my whole
frame, and held me firmly as in a vise. I would have stopped,
but there was no house near the road. To dismount I regarded
as dangerous, as I might neither be able to walk nor return to
my horse; so I remained in my saddle, enduring all the pain
the cramp could inflict, for the last three miles. When I
readied West Middletown, Judge McKeever and his sons came
out, and, on learning my condition, carried me into the house.
Here, from the Judge and his family, I received every kind
attention that my case required. The cramp left me, and, after
some refreshment, I went to the meeting-house and filled my
appointment. But the next day, on my way home, a fever set
in, and I had a sore spell of sickness. By the time I got out
to my work again, kind friends had furnished me with a first-
rate, warm overcoat, to protect me against the chilling blasts of
winter in future.

During 1 his year, under the administration of Rev. John
Burns, there wa,s in Steubenville a glorious revival of religion.
Many of my old friends, and some of my relations, embraced
religion and united with the Church. All my spare time was,
by request of brother Burns and his jKM.pl.:, spent in that
work. Sometimes he supplied my place; on the circuit, and left
roe to work for him. This was an agreeable change to us
both. In those days I did regard brother Burns as a choice
laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, and he still remains in
the itinerant ranks, a faithful Christian minister. He and I

280 RECOLLECTIONS OF" ITINERANT LLEE.

differ as to the propriety and necessity of the action of the Con-
vention of 1858, in cutting loose from all the slaveholding Con-
ferences and Churches in the South. But the events unfolding,
against the conclusion of this great and terrible war, will, no
doubt, bring us to see alike. Grood men may differ in opinion,
and still be kind to one another, until further light is obtained

CONFERENCE IX NEW LISBON, OHIO. 281

CHAPTER XV.

Conference in New Lisbon, Ohio— Elected President— Removal to Steubf.nville—
Conference in Pittsburgh— Appointed' to Pittsburgh— The Use of Tobacco— Con-
ference tn Alleghany— Reappointed to Pittsburgh with Rev. J. Cowl as Assist-
ant—Annual Conference Action on the Slavery Question.

In the month of September, 1839, the Pittsburgh Conference
was held in New Lisbon, Ohio. Our Church in that place was
not strong, but still had friends, and the Conference was enter-
tained in a very satisfactory manner. Once more I was elected
President. Having been out of that office for five or six years,
it was now deemed my turn to serve again. Yet, if I had been
aware of the full amount of labor before me, I should certainly
have shrunk from the task. Rev. Hugh Kelly's case gave the
Conference some trouble. He had been stationed in New Lis-
bon the preceding year, and for very grave offenses against the
people of his charge, and others, complaints were laid before
the Conference against him. A committee, with Rev. A. Shinn
for chairman, was appointed to examine into the matter, and
report a bill of charges and specifications, if a judicial investi-

tion should be deemed necessary. The committee did find a
bill of very serious charges against him, and ordered his case
to be referred to the proper authorities for trial. Kelly then
arose, made an abusive Bpeech, refused to go to trial, and with-
drew from the Church under charges. The eight after the ad-
journment of Conference, Borne citizens got ap an indignation
meeting in the court-house, to denounce that body for finding
a hill of charges againsl Kelly, and ordering him to be tried,
according to the laws of the Church. Rev. /. Ragan and my-
self, with a few other preachers, remained to attend the meet'

282 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

ing in the court-house, and vindicate our action. Several law-
yers and one doctor spoke in favor of Kelly, neither of whom
seemed to know exactly the nature of the case. Then a young
Presbyterian minister gave the Conference a most ample vindica-
tion. Ragan and I each made a speech, showing that the charges
against Kelly were very grave; that the witnesses in behalf of
the Church were numerous and respectable ; that the Confer-
ence had proceeded in the case according to the forms of law ;
that Kelly had fled from justice; that that assembly was not
the place fairly to determine the guilt or innocence of the man,
and that a due respect for themselves, and for the Church from
wbich he had fled, ought to cause them to forbear any action
that would cast censure on the Conference. By this time, that
crowded audience began to think, I suppose, that they did not
fully understand the case in hand ; so, looking wisely at each
other, they all took their hats and quietly went home, leaving
Kelly to his fate. The meeting closed with a great deal of
mirth at his expense, and that of his friends, who certainly
meant to teach us a lesson not soon to be forgotten. This
Kelly was from England, and had been eight years a sailor.
He had been the means of great injury to one of our Northern
Conferences, and then went to Canada, from whence he came to
us in Pittsburgh, where he was kindly received, for at that time
we knew nothing of his history. He hated our civil govern-
ment, and was often heard to say that our nation would never
be respectable until it became a monarchy.

After moving my family to Steubenville, and comfortably sit-
uating them among kiud friends, I went forth to the labors of
the presidency. The Pittsburgh District then included Western
Virginia, Western Pennsylvania, and North-eastern Ohio, down
to the Scioto and Sandusky Rivers. Witb'n these bounds, our
cause having prospered, a great deal of work was to be done.
To give a Sabbath to each circuit and station filled up the
whole year. It was a time of ingathering to the Churches, and
on week days and nights, as well as on Sundays, they kept me
preaching. Besides all my labors in traveling, attending Quar-
terly Conferences, love-feasts, sacraments, revivals, conversation

APPOINTED TO PITTSBURGH STATION. 283

among friends, and keeping up a heavy correspondence, I av-
eraged six and a half sermons per week, throughout the whole
year. By the close of it, however, my health had very much
failed; my liver, lungs, and diaphragm were all in a bad con-
dition. From that time to the present, (1864,) my lungs have
never regained their original elastic power, and, as a conse-
quence, an occasional stutter comes over my speech, and my
articulation in preaching has to be more deliberate than in
former years. But wounds received and the scars of war,
whether inflicted in the defense of our country, or in the bat-
tles of the Lord, will never be considered as marks of disgrace
by any candid man. When I returned from the toils of the
district, at the end of the year, I found my family in sorrow.
My youngest son lay dead in fix' house, and I was not aware
of that fad until T reached my own door. It was a time of
great political exeitemi at. Martin Van Buren and General W.
H. Harrison were the candidates for the chief magistracy of the
nation. Both political parties had a meeting in Steubenville
thai day. The town was full of people and banners and noise
Amid the whole of this confusion, two liours after my arrival
at borne, our den- little BenjamiD was laid in his grave. To
bury lovely children is a sore trial to parents. Yet, with all
tin- certainty that tin; truth of Holy Writ can give, we know
we shall, it faithful, see them again, "for of such is the king-
dom of heaven." Heaven is full ■>/ little children. What a
Turkish divinity thai is which teaches the doctrine of infant
reprobation I Ii i. not found in the I!il»le: it is a metaphysical
deduction fron a mere assumption, and has neither justice nor
men y to stand upon.

In 8ept< I 540, the Pitt I'uru-h Conference was held in

Steubenville, and I was appointed to the Pittsburgh Station.
Thi appointment wae in agreement with the wishes of my old
friends in that city, and with my own inclinations. But, after
all, it ought not to have been made, ae I was really unable to
pe form the labors of that w< That year my

b !Hi required re I and oare, but it was impossible to take
either, and yet attend to all the duties of suoh a station. Ho

2S4 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

my health and the station both had to suffer together. But
brother Shinn's return to his home in Alleghany gave me some
relief, as, by an arrangement, he filled the pulpit for me every
other Sunday morning. His age, experience, and heavenly wisdom
were all of great value to me and to the people of my charge.
Yet, the balance of the labors of the pulpit and the toils of
pastoral visitations required more strength than I could com-
mand. So kind-hearted were the people of my charge, that
they bore with me in my afflictions, and placed a higher value
on my services than they deserved, and many a time I felt sor-
rowful because I could not be more efficient as a laborer among

them. The conore°;ations in the Fifth Street Station, consid-
er O J

ering my defective ministrations, were generally good. This
was attributable more to pastoral visitations and brother Shinn's
assistance in the pulpit, than to such preaching as mine that
year. But, in the midst of all my infirmities, I did the best I
could, and my labors were not in vain in the Lord. Sinners
were converted, and there was quite an encouraging addition
mtfde to the Church ; some of whom have gone to heaven, some
have moved to other places, and others yet remain to honor the
cause of Christ, and to greet me when I return to visit my old
friends in Pittsburgh.

On the first day of January, 1841, Rev. Z. Ragan, then Presi-
dent of the Conference, and I entered into an agreement that
we would discontinue the rise of tobacco, regarding it as hardly
reconcilable with personal decency, and as prejudicial to health.
Though I had used tobacco for about nine years, and its use in
that time had become habitual, yet a fixed resolution carried
me forward, and I used it no more for one whole year. This
effort, instead of resulting in physical improvement, had pre-
cisely the contrary effect. It was about the most unhealthy
year of my life. In about two months I accumulated thirty
pounds of additional flesh, of not a very sound character. The
cavity of my chest became gorged with fat, leaving but little
room for the expansion of the lungs in breathing. They
seemed constantly prone to run into inflammation, by being
too tightly compressed together, and my breathing was a mere

THE USE OF TOBACCO. 285

pant with the upper part of them. A constant determination
of blood to my brain, vertigo, a sense of weariness, as if my
weight were far too great for me to carry about the streets, all
indicated danger of an attack of apoplexy. With these symp-
toms of disease upon me, I struggled through the year, often
having to seek relief for my head and lungs by getting freely
bled, when out from home visiting my flock.

3Iy ultimate conclusion was, after one year of fair trial, that,
somehow or other, I had made tobacco constitutionally neces-
sary to my life and health and usefulness. I then returned to
its use: my flesh gradually became reduced; all the various
symptoms of disease left me, and I have been able, with but
little obstruction, to pursue my ministerial calling ever since.
The conclusions which I draw from this whole matter are the
following: First. It is utterly wrong to get into the habit of
using tobacco, and all men who have not yet gone so far as to
have made it constitutionally necessary to them, should quit the
u>e of it at once and forever. Secondly. In those cases of
fleshy men, where long use has made it constitutionally neces-

v to them, it is better to use it than to throw away health
and usefulness and life. Thirdly. Persons who have but little
flesh should never use tobacco; it is a constant drain upon the
physical system. If it would reduce a fat man like me, it
would reduce them, and they have no flesh to spare, and must
suffer injury by its use. The very argument, therefore, which
justified me in using tobacco would be strougly against the use
of it by persona who arc lean in flesh. I have no doubt that
persons of a slender physical constitution often waste themselv< -
down to consumption by u.dng tobacco. Fourthly. Some rank
the use of tobacco among the moral evils — as a positive sin in
all cases. I have nol so regarded it, but have placed it among
things indifferent. Still, when it injure- health, it is certainly
a moral evil, for everj man who abuses his health is a sinner.
lily. What J< ii said in reference to another case may. on

era] principles, be applicable here: "Hearken unto me, every
one of yon, and understand: there is nothing from without a
man that entering into him can defile him: but the tilings

286 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

•which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wicked-
ness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, fool-
ishness. All these things come from within and defile the
man."

In September, 1841, the Pittsburgh Conference was held in
Alleghany, and I was reappointed to Pittsburgh. I accepted
this appointment as a matter of favor to me, personally, in a
time of feeble health. Some few of the brethren, I was in-
formed, desired a change, and to have a more efficient laborer.
This was natural, and I could not blame them. But all parties
were accommodated, as the Conference gave me Rev. John Cowl
for a colleague. He was a vigorous, talented, pious, faithful
young man. He boarded in my family, was a hard student, a
good preacher, and" possessed a generous, social heart. We had
a pleasant year together.

At this Conference the representatives to the General Con-
ference of 1842 were elected. This was the time to receive in-
structions from the primary assemblies as to how we were to
act in General Conference on the slave question. Very few of
the circuits and stations had expressed their wishes, yet the
brethren, on the few memorials we had, proceeded to give in-
structions. While this matter was on hand, the debate ran very
high ; not that any one favored slavery, but, as not more than
one-eighth of our people had spoken, and the Conference could
not be authorized by such a small minority to instruct their
representatives — of whom I was one — to the General Conference
to take action either for or against slavery, it was deemed by
myself, and some others, best to be left free until a competent
majority of the primary assemblies should give direction to our
action in opposition to that evil. But instructions were given,
and I made up my mind that, as a representative to the General
Conference, I would do no act in that body which, in my judg-
ment, would rend the Church. Sound Christian morality, I
knew, condemned slavery, and I was ready to condemn it, too,
whenever the Annual Conference, authorized by a majority of

VIEWS UPON SLAVERY. 287

our Church members, instructed me to do so. The General
Conference of 1838 had thrown out the slave question to the
Churches, that during the following four years they might give
direction as to what should be done with it at the next General
Conference, and I was not willing to act in the premises until
the Churches had spoken, demanding condemnatory action at
my hands. How could the General Conference of 1842 act any
better upon this question, without instruction from the primary
assemblies, than the General Conference of 1838 ? And for
the Annual Conference to assume the right to give instructions,
apart from the people, to whom the case had been referred, I
held to be ecclesiastically wrong; so did many others.

These views I continued to entertain at the time of the Gen-
eral Conference in 1842. and by acting on them I brought upon
myself, from the ultra Abolition party, a great deal of censure.
But few of the Conferences had asked the General Conference
for action on this Bubjecfy and I was not willing to be drawn
into it by a minority. Such was the character of our Church
constitution, that we could not legislate against slavery, for this
would be an attack upon the civil laws of the South, and was
prohibited by that instrument. Nor could we legislate in favor
of slavery, for that would be contrary to the Holy Scriptures,
and was, likewise, forbidden by the constitution. This was
equal to a prohibition of all legislation on the question. But
the General Conference mighl express its Bentiments in a reso-
lution. This I was not willing to do at the request of a minor-
ity of our Churches. In my judgment, it took a majority to
command General Conference action in a cast; which might di-
vide tin: Church. In my opinion, at that time, a resolution
condemning all slaveholder.-, indiscriminately, as guilty sinner-,
would have done the slaves no good, would have so exasperated
the masters as to divide the Church— a thing 1 very much
wished to avoid -and would have precluded the poi ibility of

the Northern Churches doing any g 1 in the South on the

slave question, or in spreading the (iospel amone. them, in all
time to come.

Finding that action of some kind must be had by the body,

288 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and feeling unwilling to put the integrity of the Church at too
great a hazard, I went with the conservatives, both in speech
and vote, and the following resolution was adopted :

" Resolved, That, in the judgment of this General Conference,
the holding of slaves is not, under all circumstances, a sin
against God ; yet, in our opinion, under some circumstances it
is sinful, and in such cases should be discouraged by the Meth-
odist Protestant Church. This General Conference does not feel
authoi'ized by the constitution to legislate on the subject of
slavery, and by a solemn vote we present to the Church our
judgment, that the different Annual Conferences, respectively,
should make their own regulations on this subject, so far as
authorized by the constitution."

This resolution was in agreement with the light we then had,
and, in our opinion, saved the Church from immediate division.
My action in the premises was assailed with a great deal of mis-
representation and bitterness by Revs. John Clark, jr., Edward
Smith, and John McKaskey, in a paper called the Spirit of
Liberty. Smith, the editor, very kindly called upon my con-
gregation, in an editorial, to withhold my support and starve
me into measures. Did not this look like persecution in its
worst form? To doom me to death by starvation, for difference
of opinion, would be about as merciful as to burn me at the
stake. My defense against these attacks was made in the West-
ern Recorder, and our people, in general, justified my course.
The light we had, the progress of events in our cooperation
with the South, and the unfoldings of Providence had not, at
that time, prepared us for a separation from slaveholding
Churches and Conferences.

I could not vote for the foregoing resolution at the present
time. In my deliberate judgment, not only the slave-trade, but
slaveholding under any circumstances, is always sinful. If the
sin is not in the man who holds the slave and would free him
if he could, it must be in the law which hinders freedom. And
where the slaveholder's heart is in agreement with the wicked

ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 289

law which hinders freedom to the slave, the sin is hoth in the
law and in the man who holds the slave. This thing of part-
ing husbands and wives, parents and children, and making mer-
chandise of the souls and bodies of human beings, is certainly
a sin of the highest character against the spirit and laws of the
Christian religion. And for complicity in this mammoth wrong
to the colored race, and for other sins, our nation is now un-
dergoing a terrible punishment at the hands of a just God, in
the form of a most desolating civil war. God be merciful to us
tinners.

As the year advanced, my health improved, and among the
good people of Pittsburgh I found myself comfortable and
happy; and not one of them, to the best of my recollection,
ever attempted to starve me by withholding support, as advised
by the editor of the Spirit of Liberty. A considerable number
of my charge were Abolitionists, but they were a liberal-minded
people, and allowed me to think and speak and act for myself,
without bringing the pressure of starvation to force me into
their peculiar views. Where was ever found a more thorough
Abolitionist than Rev. Charles Avery? Who was ever more
liberal and courteous to those who differed from him in opinipn,
than he? And the great body of the members of the Pitts-
burgh Church were of the Avery stamp, and copied after him
in liberality of sentiment and action. Edward Smith, I was
told, aided by John Clark, got up a meeting of the leading
abolition members of the Methodist Protestant Church in Pitts-
burgh, and used his utmost endeavors to draw them off from
me, because I could not, or would not, pronounce the' tine Abo-
lition Shibboleth in hie style. But they resisted him manfully,
and said to me the next day, with a good deal of pleasantry,
thai they had found it necessary to defend themselves against
Smith's efforts to take them into a new organization, by the use
of my arguments.

The year drew to a close. Cowl and 1 had labored together
in harmony. At a protracted meeting during the winter, the
Church bad been mueli revived; -inner- had been converted and
cast in their lot with us, and all was peace throughout the

290 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

brotherhood. A more orderly Church I never knew, nor have
I ever found a Christian community of a more trustworthy, re-
liable character. Many a time have I thought that I would
like to close my life among my Pittsburgh friends, and sleep
in death somewhere near the resting-place of brother Avery,
my old benefactor, and brother Shinn, the prince of preachers.
But God has, I suppose, ordered it otherwise. My sons lie
buried here, and I must find a resting-place with them. No
difference where our bodies lie on earth, so we all meet in
heaven.

DIVISION OF PITTSBURGH CONFERENCE. 291

CHAPTER XVI.

Division- of Pittsburgh Conference— Elected President— Exercise of Church Dis-
cipline—Removal to Steubenville— Toue in Western Virginia— Conference in
Pittsburgh— Re-elected President — Discussion on Phrenology— Lumbermen at
i. i i ill A.D ventures is the Mountains— Conference at Fairmont— Third
Year in the Presidency.

In September, 1842, the Pittsburgh Conference was held in
Mt. Vernon, Ohio. On my way to that Conference, my horse
became so seriously diseased that I had to leave him in St.
Clairsville. When I returned, poor Jack was near his end,
and died in a short time. From thence, Mrs. Brown and I
went, by stage, to a camp-meeting near Brownsville, on the
Muskingum Circuit. It was a glorious meeting. Brothers
Sliiini. Springer, J. Dalbey, and a good many otlier ministers
wen- there, on their way to the Conference. The preaching was
attended by the unction of the Holy One; sinners felt the power
of saving grace and were converted to God, and professors were
itly revived. From the meeting we were taken to Mt. Ver-
i in a private conveyance. At that Conference the Mus-
kingum District was set off. Rev. Israel Thrap was elected
President, and bo was I. We were lefl to settle the question
between ourselves as to our fields of labor. I offered 'I'll rap his
chi. ice. hoping lie would he equally generoUB and refer the choice
knk to me. I'm- I wanted Mu>kiiiguin; but he at once chose that
Conference, SO I was left, rather contrary to my wishes, to the
Pittsburgh District, with all the hills, mountains, and valleys of

Western Virginia ami Western Pennsylvania before me. ^ et

among these mountains, hill-, ami valleys I had many warm
friends, and felt very well satisfied with my field of labor. My

292 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

district, being in an elevated region, afforded me good water and
pure air, and thus contributed very much to my health.

The Conference was comfortably entertained at Mt. Vernon,
and made a favorable impression on the community; but the
slavery question, as usual in those days, occasioned us no little
perplexity. Two of the preachers gave us trouble. Each, by
mismanagement, had become embroiled with his circuit, and on
each circuit a strong party was formed against the Superintend-
ent, with an unstationed preacher at its head. On neither cir-
cuit did the membership act together in the election of delegates,
so each party on each circuit sent up a delegate, and in each
case the party adverse to the Superintendent laid in charges
to the Conference against him. These double delegations were
rejected by the Conference, and both the preachers were re-
ferred back to the scene of their strife for trial, under my ad-
ministration. As both of these afflicted circuits were large and
valuable, I made all due haste to bring on the trials. On nei-
ther of the circuits were there any neutrals; all the members
were strongly for or against the men to be tried. In each case
there were about sixty witnesses, and the indications were un-
favorable for harmony in the testimony. Party coloring might
be expected under the circumstances, and conflict in testimony
might ruin the circuits. In each case I approached the day ap-
pointed with much concern of mind — perhaps more than either
of the accused felt — and, before going into trial, preached a ser-
mon to the assembly, which was large, on Christian charity,
showing the absurdity of expecting forgiveness from God if we
did not forgive one another. In each case I made the parties in
controversy a proposition to try, first of all, to settle their diffi-
culties on Gospel principles, by mutual confessions and mutual
forgiveness, provided the preacher be removed to some other
field of labor. This proposition was accepted, the confessions
were made, not only by 'the accused, but by many others on
each side of the controversy,, and the brethren generally mu-
tually forgave one another. The preachers were then removed
to other places, and the whole matter was left to calm down.
Some few were dissatisfied, because the accused had not been

REMOVAL TO STEUBENVILLE. 293

tried as the Conference had ordered. But what better could I
do with such overwhelming, wide-spread, untoward cases on my
hands? I maintain that in each of these cases I did conduct a
Gospel trial, which reached not only the accused, but both par-
ties, with its humbling and reforming influences. The object of
all just Church discipline must be to serve the cause of Christ,
and I think this end was accomplished. I have stated these
cases together because of their general similarity. I had never
seen the like of them before, and hope I never may again. The
ensuing Conference, very much to my gratification, approved of
my administration. Many Churches might be saved from ruin
if the mutual confession and forgiveness plan were more gener-
ally adopted.

That year I retained my house in Pittsburgh until spring,
witb brother Cowl still boarding in my family. When he was
with them, I felt less concern of mind while out on the district,
as I had all confidence in his kindness of heart and willingness
to see to their welfare. On the 1st of April, 18-43, I removed to
ibenville, to cheapen my rent and living, and to situate my
family among old, well-tried friends, where there was a first-class
ft- mule seminary, to which I could send my daughter. There,
too, my eldest son had the advantages of Dr. Scott's academy.
Itinerant ministers can not, in the nature of things, leave worldly
wealth to their children" Let them make sure of giving them a
1 Christian education. This is the true wealth of the mind
and heart.

After living one year in a rented house, I bought a comforta-
ble little home of Edwin M. Stanton, Esq., the present Secre-
tary of War. When, through the assistance of brother Avery,
I made the last payment on my property, the interest, amount-
to ninety-three dollars, was all forgiven by Mr. Stanton.
"Now," -aid I. --this is all very kind, and completes the wli
transaction save the removal of the mortgage." "About that
mortgage," he replied, "there will be no trouble, as I never had
ii recorded." So, from among his papers, he drew it out, and
handed it to me, with a laugh, saying he had "never entertained
auy fears of my not paying him." My opinion is, if he had

294 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

found me seriously puzzled to make the last payment, three
hundred dollars, the whole would have been forgiven by that
kind-hearted man. I am justified in this opinion by his vari-
ous acts of kindness to me since that time, especially since he
has been Secretary of War. The help he gave me in the recov-
ery of my dying son from Grant's army, near Vicksburg, when
all other help had failed, will never be forgotten. While I live
and cherish the memory of my dear son George, who is now in
heaven, I shall always be thankful for such a friend as Secretary
Stanton. I have known him from his boyhood. I took him into
the Methodist Episcopal Church when he was about twelve
years of age, drilled him about two years in a Bible-class, and
have full faith in the integrity and benevolence of his character.
I felt my home in Steubenville to be agreeable, for I was
among an excellent class of citizens. The Methodist Protestant
Church in that city stood well in the community, and I regarded
the membership generally as pious, earnest, intelligent Chris-
tians, among whom it was a pleasure to have my family situ-
ated. It was an agreeable place in which to spend what little
time I might have to rest from the toils of the district. Some
of the best Christian friends I ever had in my life still reside in
Steubenville. Among the more prominent of them, it gives me
pleasure to name Captain J. A. Dohrman, M. M. Laughlin, and
M. E. Lucas. Captain A. Devinny has passed away to the eter-
nal world; so has A. Sutherland, Esq. This last-named brother
was drawn crooked by rheumatism, and was a man of feeble
health; but he was a real, practical philosopher, and had in his
mental constitution a rich vein of ready, pungent wit. Shortly
after I organized the Methodist Protestant Church in that city,
the following anecdote was told me by Rev. T. M. Hudson, pas-
tor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the same place. The
contest in court between the Hicksite and Orthodox Quakers,
about Church property, was just over. Judge Tappan had been
the leading lawyer for the Hicksites. One morning, the Judge,
having just heard of the new swarm out of the old Methodist
Episcopal hive, met 'Squire Sutherland on the way to his office,
and said, with a nasal twang in his voice, while he peeped into

TOUR IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. 295

Sutherland's face with his squint eyes, "Hey, 'Squire! I hear
you have got the devil in your Church, too." " I did not
know that, Judge," said the 'Squire; "when did you join?'
'Humph!" said Tappan, and away he went, amid the pealing
laughter of the bystanders. Mr. Sutherland was a true Chris-
tian as well as a great wit — a man of sound judgment in ecclesi-
astical matters.

Having visited all the central part of the district during the
fall and winter, the two extremes demanded my attention the
remainder of the year. Early in May, with my wife and two
of the children, Ann Eliza and George, I started on a long
Southern tour in Western Virginia, intending to leave Mrs.
Brown and the children with my brother-in-law, Robert Jack-
son, at Milford, Harrison County, Virginia, until my return from
the Greenbrier country. To make the stages of travel easy. I
had arranged to have appointments at suitable distances, both
going and coming. While resting at Dr. O'Kelly's, in Morgan-
town, George, while at play with the Doctor's children, in the
yard, fell and broke his arm. This was a sad disaster; hut the
bone was immediately Bel by the Doctor, and we moved on that
afternoon to Fairmont. When my meeting in that place was
over, it was deemed best not to take the family any further.
Robert Jackson was then called on. by letter, to visil them in
thai place; and, on Monday morning, leaving my carriage, I
took my horse and was oiF for Greenbrier Circuit, with J. W.
Beshor, the assistant on Morgantown Circuit, for my traveling
companion. It t . >« » k as pretty hard traveling until Saturday,
eleven o'clock A. M., •" reach our destination. After a good
meetinL' with our Methodist Protestanl brethren, at a place
called the Bush, it took us until meeting-time on the following
Sunday morning to return to Fairmont. Thus, it will he seen,
that, to meet tin' wishes ami expectations of thai distanl circuit
and of the Superintendent, Rev. D. R. Belwiok, I traveled hard
for near two weeks through mosl intense heat. To go so Gar,
righl off from all our other work, for hut one general meeting,
.lid seen to he ;i hardship. Vet Presidents of Conferences have
to do these things, or the cause will differ. Men may say what

296 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

they will, but I know that presidential visits have a tendency
to harmonize our body, and are very valuable to our people,
especially on border circuits. A traveling presidency, at the
expense of the whole district, ought to be kept up for the gen-
eral good of the Church.

On rny return I found George's arm improving, and my wife
and daughter well. After a few days of rest among old friends,
we journeyed on toward Pennsylvania, where we spent about
three weeks attending my appointments, and then shaped our
course for home. This whole tour was accomplished in six
weeks, and, bating a little for the breaking of George's arm —
which was well by the time we reached home — it was a very
pleasant trip to us all, and prosperity attended the meetings
generally.

J. W. Beshor was a quarter-blooded Indian ; his mother was
a half-breed. This part of his history is true, but in every
thing else his statements were mere fabrications. He reported
himself to have been born among the Indians, about one thou-
sand miles above St. Louis, on the head-waters of the Missis-
sippi (I do not now remember the name of the tribe) ; that he
was brought in by a missionary, to be educated at Marietta
College; that, having spent some time at college, he left and
went in search of the Methodist Protestants and joined them,
and finally entered the itinerant ministry among them. In
many places he delivered lectures on the peculiarities of In-
dian character, and generally took up collections. He did this
once — perhaps more than once — while with me on our tour
through South-western Virginia. He denied ever having be-
longed to any other Church than ours, and seemed desirous to
be sent back to his tribe as a missionary from our Church, for
"he was greatly concerned," he said, "for the salvation of the
much-neglected children of the forest."

Finally, Beshor came to me and took a transfer to one of the
Western Conferences. Immediately after this, it came out in
proof that he had been born in Belmont County, Ohio, near
St. Clairsville, and had never been among the Indians at all ;
also, that he had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal

CONFERENCE IN PITTSBURGH. 297

Church in Ohio, and was actually a runaway apprentice from
some tin-shop in Wheeling. As this young impostor had de-
ceived me, I reported his case faithfully to the brethren in the
West, and he could not get a standing among them. He weut
then, I was told, to the New-School Presbyterians, but his char-
acter followed him. He then went to the Campbellites, and
there, too, his character followed him. From thence he went to
the Roman Catholics. He seemed to have a "through-ticket."
Whether he ever joined the Jews or not, I have never heard.
It is an awful thing to be an impostor. Beshor was a talented
young man, but he lacked honesty of character.

After accomplishing my tour in the north-eastern part of the
district, where I attended an excellent camp-meeting, distributed
Evans's Ecclesiastical Catechism among the people, and, at the
request of the congregation, gave them a lecture on Church
government, I returned home and prepared for Conference.
Though the Pittsburgh District had, by the division the year
before, been reduced in size, yet I had found in it full employ-
ment for all my time and all my strength, and at the end of the
year felt very much worn down.

In September, 184H, the Conference was held in Pittsburgh,
and I was again elected President. We had a very pleasant,
harmonious session, and the impression made by the body on
the community was decidedly good. This year I had no eccle-

stical investigations to conduct; all the preachers were at
peace among themselves, and success generally attended their
labors. All my traveling was by buggy, which I now found to
be less fatiguing than by saddle. From the lake on the north
to Greenbrier in the south, I found no hills or mountains that
I could not manage to pass over in my buggy. The nol>l<' an-
imal I drove was always sale and reliable; she was of great
spirit, and, when it, was found necessary, could take nie liflv

miles a day, if the roads were good. As the usual amount of

laboi ami privation were required this year, T shall QOl enter
into detail.-. bu< only give a few of the more interesting occur-
rences.

In attending to my appointments, I traveled among the hills

298 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

of Western Virginia, until I came to Parkersburg, in my
buggy, and then left it and "Lize" in the care of a friend,
and took a steamer for a point ninety miles below, on Jackson
Circuit. My meeting was at Ripley, in the court-house, twelve
miles out from the river. When I landed at the mouth of Mill
Creek, an elderly gentleman met me on the bank, to whom I
made myself known, and that I wanted a horse to carry me out
to Ripley, to attend my meeting the following day — Saturday.
Said he, " If you will come and rest yourself with me to-night,
I will furnish you with the best horse for the trip in Jackson
County; provided, you will agree to leave an appointment and
preach for us, at my house, on your return." To this I agreed,
with a great deal of pleasure, and was very kindly entertained
by that courteous family. In the morning, when the horse was
brought out, he had on an old Mexican saddle, with a piece of
carpet under it instead of a pad, and the old gentleman apolo-
gized for his lean appearance, by saying, "The winter has been
long and hard, feed very scarce, and, as a consequence, the horse
is rather low in flesh; but he has a stout frame, and will carry
you very well." When I saw that animal and his rigging, I
thought of what I read in a newspaper about the productive-
ness of Jackson County. A gentleman passing through a lane
said to a colored man sitting on the fence, "Is this a pretty
good country?" The answer was, "First rate, massa, first rate;
it brings two crops a year." "Ah!" said the gentleman, "how
is that?" "Why," replied Sambo, "in de fall ob de year
massa sells off all de hay — dat one crop; den in de spring ob
de year he sells off all de skins ob de cows — dat two crops."
It did seem to me that the skin of that horse was very near
going into the second crop. A rain had fallen, the road was
slippery, and the horse had no shoes — up hill it was bad, down
hill it was worse. The feebleness of that poor horse, and the
slipperiness of the road, made my ride dangerous to life and
limb all the way. Finally, with no little mud thrown on me
by the long, sweeping tail of that " best horse in Jackson
County," I reached my destination, and preached in the Ripley
court-house, to quite a large congregation.

DISCUSSION ON PHRENOLOGY. 299

That day, in company with, two other preachers, I dined with
the clerk of the court. At table the conversation turned on
phrenology, the company being divided in opinion. A young
preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who took the lead
in favor of that so-called science, said to me, "You had a very
talented lecturer on phrenology to hear you to-day, and he will
be here in a few minutes to see you." The clerk of the court,
who was also a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, asked my opinion of phrenology. Being thus called
out before that company, I said, without any hesitation at all,
that I had not the least confidence in it as a science. " But,"
said I, "for the sake of accommodating the present company,
I will admit that if a man has no head he can not think. But
that the power of thought on all subjects, or the cast of char-
acter, is. made to depend upon the bumps on the cranium, is a
matter which, in my judgment, lies beyond the reach of proof.
Some of the finest heads I ever saw — taking phrenology for my
guide — I have found on the shoulders of natural fools; and
other heads, absolutely under phrenological condemnation, be-
longed to profound philosophers, statesmen, and divines; so,
when a pretended science contradicts experience, I must re-
ject it.'

"I wish," said the young preacher, "you had been present
to hear the lecture- during the pasl week; you certainly would
have bi ivinced thai phrenologj is a real, substantia] sci-

ence -as truly so as mathematics." "Gentlemen," I replied,
'•in my judgment, phrenology is in open conflict with the moral
government of God. It is certain, according to the Bible, that
truth, justice, betfevolence — in short, religion, is required of us
all. It i- also certain as Holy Writ can make it, that through-
out all nature God ha indicated his designs. He need qoI gi i
us a revelation to teach as the use of the eyes, the ears the
teeth, the hands, the feet: in all these, and in other cases, the
gift indicates the intention of the giver. Now, where a man, in
his original formation, lacks eyes, ears, or teeth, it is equally
clear thai God doc. not intend thai he -h.ill Bee, hear, or chew
his food. And it is just ae i lear, too, that if God, in any man's

300 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

original formation, has given him no organ for veracity, he
means him to be a liar; if he has given him no organ for jus-
tice, he means him to be a rogue ; if he has given' him no organ
for benevolence, he means him to be a selfish miser; and finally,
to include all this in one thing, if God has given him no de-
velopment for religion, he means him to be a wicked infidel.
So here phrenology and God's moral government are in con
flict, and I am constrained to reject the former because it can
not be reconciled with the latter.

"Suppose we admit all this," said the young preacher, "edu-
cation will develop all these organs of truth, justice, benevo-
lence, etc." "So, then," I answered, "it comes to this: God's
work, in forming man's cranium, was defective, and man, by
education, is to improve God's work and make man capable of
morality and religion ; thus, in all cases where education de-
velops the organs, morality, religion, and eternal happiness are
not of God, but of man." Just at this juncture, we saw the
lecturer coming on to the porch, and out went my opponent, to
have his head examined scientifically. When dinner was over,
the rest of us went out. The young preacher cast his eye on
me, and said to the phrenologist, "This man don't believe in
your science." " At this the individual addressed gave me a
very grave look, and said, " I hope, sir, you will be open to
conviction." "Yes, sir," said I, "if you have any thing to con-
vict me with." "What kind of an argument," he asked, "do
you want?" I replied, "Fifty-one years have now passed over
me ; by this time I may be supposed to have a tolerable degree
of knowledge of my own character. If you will examine my
head and come any way near making a correct estimate of my
mental and moral character, I will be an unbeliever no longer."
"Agreed, sir," said he; and I sat down to undergo a phreno-
logical examination. As the operator progressed, the chart was
marked carefully. While this was being done, I saw rather a
rough class of people collecting about us, but suspected no evil
design. When all was over, I took the chart, went in and
seated myself at the back window of the dining-room, to over-
haul the marks, and see what kind of mental and moral char-

LUMBERMEN AT GOOSE CREEK. 801

aeter scientific phrenology had given me. It was in all respects
too good. I came out too great a man. He even gave me ex-
traordinary poetical powers, at which I laughed heartily. Im-
mediately the crowd came in to inquire " what I thought of
phrenology as a science?" I told them that, "in my judgment,
it was nothing but a humbug." Out they all went, and in about
ten minutes, on hearing a great noise, I looked out, and there
went the phrenologist on horseback, with the mob after him,
hurling sticks, stones, and eggs, and making a furious uproar.
The poor fellow was flying for his life, with his hat off and
his saddle-bags on the pommel of his saddle, crying "Murder!
murder!" He was much more frightened than hurt. Though
I did not believe in phrenology, yet I always abhorred mobs,
and felt afraid that I had, unintentionally, had some influence
in getting up that one. I found, on inquiry, that matters had
for several days been ripening to that result, and when I pro-
nounced phrenology a "humbug," it was the last drop in the
cup of bitterness, that made the waters overflow and sweep the
phrenologist out of town.

After a pretty good meeting in Ripley — somewhat embittered
by the fate of the phrenologist — I returned to the river, with
my borrowed horse in better plight, and the road in better
order, and preached to a crowded congregation in the house
of my old friend who lent me the horse. The next morning
I returned by boat to Parkersburg, to go on my way to the
Greenbrier country. After a night's rest at Parkersburg, with
James Dagg — a cousin of my wife — who had taken good care

Of ■• Lize," I was off early the next iiiuming fur Weston, a dis-
tance of about eighty-four miles. Traveling on the Staunton
pike and making fine speed, I came to Goose Creek, a distance
of twenty miles, by cleu-n oVloek A. M. About one quarter of
a mile, on the Parkersburg Bide of said creek, I saw three men
in the road, who bad jus! come oui of a tavern, all very drunk.

o of them were trying to put the third one on a very poor
horse, with high hip bones, and on the horse there was an old

ged Saddle. I drove up beside them and halted, to witm
the effort. They had him by a Leg and an arm on each .side,

302 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and were hoisting away to get him into the saddle, still calling
out as they lifted, "Are ye up now, John?" "No, not yet,"
was John's reply. Then another effort was made, with another
call, "Are ye up now, John?" and the same answer was made,
"No, not yet." After taking breath, another effort was made,
and John was thrown into the saddle. He then reached for-
ward over the pommel of the saddle, took the horse round the
neck with his arms, and rolled as if about to fall on one side
or the other. At last, with his leaden, heavy eyes, he gave me
a real drunkard's look, and said, "Who the d — 1 are you?"

"Gentlemen," said I, "is this Goose Creek I am coming to?"
One of them swore it was Goose Creek. Said I, "Is there not
a toll-gate at the creek?" With an oath, one of them replied
that there was, and coming right up, he demanded toll of me.
" It will be time enough to pay," said I, "when I get to the
gate, which is a quarter of a mile ahead." But he contested
the point stoutly, with oaths, insisting upon immediate payment
of toll. "Come, my good fellows," said I, "when I pass the
gate I '11 pay my toll, and not before." Then said I, "Is there
not a man living about half a mile up this creek by the name
of Thornton?" Then one of them, with both hands and his
right foot lifted up, and an oath in his mouth, said, " That man
married my sister." Just then one of them came near, laid
his hand on "Lize's" inane, looked up in my face, and said,
"A-a-a-aint you a preacher?" "Yes, sir," said I, "that is my
calling; I try to do a little in that way." "Well, sir," said he,
"if a body might make so free, wha-wha-wha-what Church do
ye belong to?" "The Methodist Protestant Church, sir," said
I. Then lifting up both hands and one foot, with great vehe-
mence he said, "Be d — d if I don't b'long to the same Church
myself." So there I was, right among the brethren, for they
all claimed to "belong to the same Church."

Immediately they all got at me to stop in the neighborhood
and preach, saying that just beyond the creek they had a h — 1
of a fine meeting-house, and if I would only allow them, they
would circulate the appointment, and get me one of the d — dest
congregations that any man had ever preached to in all that

APPOINTMENT AT MORRISON'S. 303

country. I excused myself, as lacking time, and drove on to
Thornton's for dinner. I have given this narrative just about
as the facts occurred, deeming all the various phases of human
nature capable pf ministering instruction. I found, on inquiry,
that these men were members of the Methodist Protestant
Church ; that before they joined the Church they had all been
very intemperate ; that they were hard-working lumbermen, and
had, generally, since they became members of the Church, con-
ducted themselves with sobriety; but that sometimes, when
they went down the river with lumber, they came back in what
was called a "spree." When they got sober, confessions and
promises of amendment were made by them to the Church, and
it was deemed best still to allow them to retain their member-
ship, in order, if possible, to save them. (Query : was not this,

•under all the circumstances, the better way?) In them the vir-
tuous principle was in a perpetual Struggle against an old,
vicious habit. To have excommunicated them would certainly
have been their ruin. To bear with them, and keep the bond
of Church obligations upon them, was, in all probability, the
only way to save them. Yet. after all, great care should be
taken, and the lenity of the Church should only be extended
when it is in evidence thai persevering efforts are being made
to overcome evil habits.

At Weston T left my buggy, took to my saddle, and went on
to my appointment at .Morrison's, on Braxton Circuit. There
I met with Rev. John Eardman, who. with Dr. Williams, agreed
to accompany me through the mountain ranges, to the Green-
brier camp-meeting. The meeting at Morrison's was quite fruit-
ful in conversions and in the general edification of the Church.
When we started foi Greenbrier, it was found 1>\ Eardman ami
I tli.it Dr. Williams "had >ni ax '<> grind." In thai case I
eonld not hell, him: but Eardman did, by carrying his saddle-
bags full of the Doctor's books. When we started, "Now,"
said brother Morrison to the Doetor, who was his nephenp"do
you take these brethren t" tic- house of my daughter to night,
on-' niil<* 'iff from the main road, seven miles 'hi- side of Nicn-

' olas Court house. There they will be comfortably entertained."

304 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

That day, in a cabin by the wayside, we made our dinner on
rough corn-bread and very sour buttermilk. Toward sundown,
" Now," said the Doctor, " I '11 turn off here, and spend the night
with my cousin, and overtake you in the morning, before you
leave Nicholas Court-house." This roused our indignation,
for we thought, according to the instructions of his uncle, we
were all to go to his cousin's. To be impressed with the idea
that the Doctor was treating us unfairly, and to have his books
to carry too, was rather galling on brother Hardman, with whom
I felt no little sympathy. We both regarded Williams as a
tricky doctor. A little after dark we reached the village and
put up at a tavern, ate a hearty supper, and sat up late, to let
the digestive process go forward. So, after a good night's rest,
we were up early, had breakfast, and waited for the Doctor until
eio'ht o'clock ; but he did not come. From the Court-house,
through that vast range of mountains, to Greenbrier, we had no
road — nothing but a blind path — no Doctor to be our guide, as
promised ; and Hardman was carrying that man's books ! What
a bore !

Without a guide,, we sat out, determining to find the mount-
ain-path, if possible, independently of Dr. Williams. In four
miles, we came to the Gauley River, an exceedingly rapid
stream. Under cover of an island, in a very small ferry-boat,
we went up a great distance, to take the shoot for the other
shore. If we missed the landing, we should be dashed against
rocks, for there was but the one place to get out. Our horses
were very much scared at the noise of that thundering river,
and could scarcely be held in the boat. But the ferryman un-
derstood his business well, and made the landing in safety. So,
paying him forty cents each, and thanking him kindly for his
skillful management, we betook ourselves to the path of the
mountains. That day we traveled hard, got very hungry, but
found no place for refreshment. At last we met four hunters,
with three horses loaded with four deer, which thev had killed
at a deer-lick. They told us of a house, about ten miles ahead,
where we might possibly get entertainment for the night- On

ADVENTURES IN THE MOUNTAINS. 305

we went, hungry enough, men and horses all jaded down. Those
were ten long, weary miles.

Finally, about four o'clock in the afternoon, we found, in a
gap in the mountains, the place named by the hunters, and
there we put up for the night. It was an unpromising place
in appearance ; but to go the remaining fourteen miles across

the mountains was impossible. That place was called C 's

Tavern. It was a mere cabin, with one room, and a little shanty
at one end of it for a kitchen. After seeing the horses get a
little hay. I called for supper, and told the lady of the house
we both desired tea. "God bless you," said she, "there is. not
an ounce of tea in all this county." "Well, now," said I, "if
you have n't any, I have, and sugar too." So, opening my sad-
dle-bags, I handed her the tea and sugar, of which, to all ap-
pearance, she took out plentifully, and returned the balance to
me. Then we waited, with as much patience as hunger would
allow, for our suppers; but, seeing no favorable signs, we went
out to a peach-tree, but the fruit (it being October) was hard
and bitter; so we failed in this resort. Returning to the house,
we continued to wait. Finally, the table was drawn out, the
cloth laid on, and a saucer, with something in it intended IV >r
butter — but it looked like bear's oil — was placed upon it; then
came the plates and tea things. At these promising signs our
appetites were whetted up to the highest degree. But still we
wire doomed to wait awhile longer. Ultimately came a plate
of corn-dodgers, to appearance finely baked, ami, last of all, a
Bhoulder of bear-meal in a large dish. We were then invited
co tli': table. When tho blessing was asked, then said the

woman — who had taken the place in thai house of Mrs. C ,

a banished wife — "Gentlemen, 1 owe yon an apology; I have
spill your tea, and have nothing for you in place of it but
warm water." "Why. madam," Baid I. "why <li<l you not come
and get more? You knew I bad plenty." "0," said she, "I
was ashamed." (The history of this woman, as I got it after-
ward, would indicate tli.it she was imnpablc of shame.) That
bear-meat was so black, and coarse, and hard, and bough, with

306 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

such an offensive smell, that I could not eat it, and but for the
hunger I felt, I could not have remained at the table where it
was. My old friend Hardman — in former years a great bear-
hunter — ate of it freely, but found afterward, to his cost, that
his stomach had not the power to digest it ; so he became sick
from his bear-meat supper. My supper was made exclusively
on corn-dodgers and warm water well sweetened.

That night, about nine o'clock, in came about twelve men, all
dark, suspicious-looking fellows. Hardman and I were much
concerned at their appearance, supposing them to be a band of
robbers. Their whole manner indicated their character. They
talked together here and there, in little companies, and we could
hear them talking of us, as being the very men they had seen
back in the mountains. Finally, they quit talking among them-
selves, and came to us, and desired to be informed what busi-
ness we were on — whether purchasing land, or cattle, or some-
thins; else. I at once told them, "We are two Methodist
preachers, on our way from Braxton County over to Greenbrier,
to attend a camp-meeting." When these words were uttered,
up started a small, crooked man, who had come in unobserved,
and seated himself in a corner, and said, " Yes, that camp-
meeting will commence to-morrow, on the land of Richard Wil-
liams. I left his house this morning, and they were all busy
making preparations for the meeting." The confirmatory testi-
mony of that stranger, given in the nick of time, I have no
doubt saved us from the hands of the gang. They gave the
matter up, seemed disappointed, but let us alone.

I then said to the proprietor of the house, " It is my custom,
wherever I tarry for a night, to pray with the family, if it is
found to be agreeable. Will you, sir, allow me the privilege of
praying to God in your family?" "Certainly, sir," was the
reply. "Then," said I, "have you a copy of the Holy Scrip-
tures in your house? I usually read a portion of the Word of
God before family prayer." He said he "thought there was."
After a long search, he found a part of the New Testament, on
an upper shelf of an old corner cupboard, and handed it to me.
After reading, with a strong, full voice, a most lovely chapter —

RAIN IN THE MOUNTAINS. 307

the fourth of the Ephesians — I said, "Now let us all kneel
down before the Lord and pray." All obeyed the request, and
went to their knees. That was a most solemn season of earn-
est, feeling, pleading prayer. When it was over, I felt no more
fears of either men or devils. While I prayed, God gave me a
firm confidence in his almighty protection. Hardman and I
went to bed, and the gang slept on the floor in the same room,
and nothing disturbed our rest throughout the night.

In the morning early we left those men all fist asleep on
the floor,, and were off for the camp-meeting, in a very heavy
rain. In a short time, as we ascended out of the gap of the
mountains to the higher regions, the rain became finer and
finer, until at last we were fully in the cloud, enveloped by a
dark mist which floated slowly over the mountain, with no de-
scending rain at all. After traveling on the higher land some
distance, we began to descend into another gap. Shortly we were
in the fine rain, which became coarser and coarser, until we got
fully under the cloud, which lay like a bridge across the gap
from peak to peak: there the rain was falling in torrents, and
the darkness waa not bo great. When we again went up out of
the gap into the clond, and reached the highest point of fine
rain, with our umbrellas over us, there we stopped to examine
into the works of God— to see. if we could, the attraction of
the aqueous particles so as to form drops of rain. But this
operation was bo minute as entirely to elude our visual pene-
tration. Where the cloud melted Into rain we could not dis-
tinctly Bee. God not only hides many of his works from as,
but he hides himself in his works; yel his works reveal his
being and his glory. Be i- in all places, to give effect to all
the laws of nature established by himself.

About nine o'clock in the morning we came to Martin's, be-
yond the .Meadow River, gol a good breakfast, and were over-
taken by Dr. William-, lb- came up jus! in time to be our guide
when we were through the wilderness, and fell thai we could do
very well without him. We did ool regard him afterward as
one of as, and had \cry little sociality with him. Thai even-
ing we reached the camp-meeting. Hardman was yel Bick IVoin

308 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

that indigestible bear-meat supper eaten in the gap of the
mountains, and went to Richard Williams's for medical assist-
ance. I remained on the camp-ground and preached the open-
ing sermon to a very attentive audience, but was much inter-
rupted by the crying of children. Crying children and barking
dogs did not disturb the people of that country, but it was not
so with me. A good state of civilization, to say nothing of re-
ligion, ought to be an effectual guarantee against all such an-
noyances at a place of public worship. Yet, it will not do to
measure all people by the same standard. At that camp-meet-
ing there certainly were a goodly number of plain, earnest
Christians. A holy unction attended the preaching, many sin-
ners were converted, and the Church, notwithstanding the cry-
ing of children and barking of dogs, was greatly revived.

In a tent adjoining the one occupied by the preachers, where
several of the ladies had met to smoke and talk, I overheard,
as I lay in my bed, a conversation which very much amused
mc, concerning my inability to preach among crying children.
"Did you not see," said one of the ladies, "that Mr. Brown
had to stop altogether when that little boy bawled so in the
altar, and while the dogs back of the stand were barking?"
"Yes," said another; "he is no such a preacher as brother Hel-
mick, though he is President." Then another said, "Brother
Helmick would never have minded the noise if he had been
there." "0," said, another, "brother Helmick is the greatest
preacher I ever heard in all my life ; I have heard him preach
where there were a dozen children in the congregation, all bawl-
ing as loud as that boy in the altar to-night, and he never
minded it, but went right on ! " I think that woman must have
exaggerated. How could brother Helmick have hoped to do
any good while preaching to a congregation where there were
one dozen of crying children ? Such meetings are disorderly.
At any rate, the case is given as it occurred, because all sides
of human nature deserve to be seen. My silent reproof did
good. We were not much troubled afterward with crying chil-
dren. When the meeting was over, Hardman and I returned
by Huntersville and Beverly to Weston; from which point 1

A MEETING-HOUSE MOVED IN A STORM. 309

again traveled in my buggy, which I found the easier way for
me to get through the country.

In September, 1834, the Pittsburgh Conference was held in
Fairmont, Virginia, and was handsomely entertained by the
Churches and citizens. The impression on the community in
favor of the Methodist Protestant Church was good, as it was
there seen that the lay delegation system worked well, and that
we had a valuable body of ministers. Again I was elected
President, and had another year of hard labor on the Pitts-
burgh District. To give in detail the occurrences of this year
will not be necessary ; a few incidents only will be given. As
usual, the central portion of the district was visited during the
fill and winter. Early in the spring, I made a tour through
the river counties of Western Virginia. While preaching at
Harrisville, in a large frame, unfinished meeting-house, on the
Sabbath-day, at eleven o'clock A. M., there came on a most
fearful storm of wind, rain, hail, thunder, and lightning. The
violence of the tempest increased for about twenty minutes.
During all that time, the congregation, which was very large,
looked pale and terror-stricken, and seemed inclined to fly to
si niie place for safety. But it was about one-half mile to town,
and there was danger from the falling timber, there being many
trees in that vicinity. All concluded, finally, to remain. I
ceased to preach while God walked upon the wings of the wind,
glanced the lightning flash of his eye upon us, rocked the
world with the thundering artillery of heaven, and, with his
mighty hail, startled every living creature. How terrible was
that storm! How critical was that moment! All hearts were
lifted up to God in solemn prayer for safety. At last came the
final mighty ru-h of tin' tempest, and moved the meeting-house,
with that large congregation in it. about lii/ht inches on tts foun-
dation! Every joint in tli.it frame house creaked as if all were
going to pieces. The congregation Btarted up in expectation of
a genera] ruin. Bui in a few moments the Master hushed the
tempest, and. behold, there was a greal calm! M.y discourse
was resumed and finished; then followed the holy communion.
It was a time of great mercy to us all. Never, while memory

310 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

lasts, can I forget that storm, or the solemnity inspired by the
terrible majesty of God on that occasion.

Such a storm brings to mind the 18th Psalm: "Then the
earth shook and trembled ; the foundations also of the hill?,
moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went
up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth de-
voured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also,
and came down: and darkness was under his feet. lie made
darkness his secret place ; his pavilion round about him were
dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness
that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail-stones and
coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the
Highest gave his voice; hail-stones and coals of fire. Yea, he
sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out light-
nings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were
seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy
rebuke, Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."

Having visited the Susquehanna part of the district in the
summer of that year, on horseback, I returned to Indiana,
Pennsylvania, where I had left my buggy. On my way from
thence — through Kittanning to the circuits up toward Lake
Erie — in a very narrow lane, I met a drove of frightened cattle,
running about up to the top of their speed. They were young
stock cattle, about three hundred in number, not yet broken to
the road. They came from a wood-covered hill, to the right of
the mouth of the lane. The noise made by their running, be-'
fore they came in sight, threw my faithful " Lize " into a ter-
rible fright, and set her to snorting and prancing; but, finding
myself in a low place in the lane washed out by the rain, I
could not turn back or get into a corner of the fence; so I had
to face the danger, fearful as it was.

Immediately the cattle appeared in sight, and came pitching
down the hill. As they entered the lane, filling 7 it from side
to side, and came rushing fearfully on, the indications were that
my whole establishment would be a wreck before the cattle were
passed. But I knew " Lize," in times of alarm, had, in many
instances, been quieted by my taking the bridle and standing

CAMP-MEETING AT COXXEAUT. 311

at her head until the danger was passed. So I leaped from my
seat in the buggy, took hold of the bridle close up to her chin
with my left hand; then, with the whip in my right hand, I
fought off the cattle to the right and left, shouting and halloo-
ing with all the voice I had. "Lize," during the time the
cattle were passing, was perfectly quiet, though they raked the
buggy on each side, and the fence likewise on both sides of the
lane. When the danger was over, I felt thankful to God for
presence of mind all the time, and for having preserved me from
all harm — man, horse, buggy, all safe! What a mercy ! Then
came the men who drove the cattle, and offered their hearty
congratulations. They had witnessed my danger from the hill,
and said they saw no way for my escape, and expected man,
horse, buggy, and all to be crushed. As no injury was sus-
tained, we all thanked God. together for the merciful preserva-
tion. On looking over this interposition of Providence, 1 have
felt like saying, with David, " Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep; Lord, thou
preserve-t man and beast" — yes, and the buggy likewise — all
saved by the Lord.

When this whole affair was past, 1 found that I had been very
much excited, for 1 was trembling and exhausted, and hardly
able to remount the buggj to pursue my journey. Such, bow-
ever, has been my experience Prom early life. In danger I have
been cool and collected, but when the danger was past there
came a sense of exhaustion. Were I a soldier in battle, how I
should fight I can not venture to say but; if not slain by the
enemy, 1 might die of exhaustion when the battle was over.

After spending two bours in ELittanning, I came to Butler
by five o'clock in the evening, a distance of fifty miles from In-
diana. This was fasl traveling over a billy country. The aexl

day I passed on to the Conneaut camp meeting. That i i

inc was good throughout: sinners wen- converted, and the cause

Of Chris! advanced in that Community. As usual. I Was 'ailed

on, by a rising vote of the Sunday congregation, for a Lecture on
Church government, which I accordingly delivered on Monday

afternoon, to an unusually large audience. The Neil Lights of

312 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

that vicinity were there in full force, with their preacher, to hear
me deal with the arbitrary principles of the government of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Their minister, who was a tal-
ented man of good standing in the community, had moved the
congregation to call for a lecture. Of course I had to remem-
ber him and his Church in my lecture, for they, professing to
take the Bible alone as their rule, went against all creeds, con-
fessions of faith, and Church discipline made by men. So I
placed the New Lights, who opposed all human regulation in
Church government, on one extreme ; and the Episcopal Meth-
odists, in whose ecclesiastical economy all legislative, judicial,
and executive power and authority was claimed as of divine
right by the itinerant clergy, on the other. Then the ground
occupied by the Methodist Protestant Church was shown to lie
between these two extremes, securing effectually the Mutual
Rights of the ministers and members of the entire Church.

In that lecture I aimed to convince the New Lights that,
taking the New Testament to be the grand constitution of the
kingdom of Heaven set up in the world, some by-laws, under
the constitution, either written or unwritten, such as human
reason could frame, were necessary, in order to carry out Chris-
tianity into practical operation among men ; and that these by-
laws, which were all we meant by Church government, should
always be printed in a book and be circulated among the people,
so that they could be read and known of all men. Unwritten
rules always render Church operations very uncertain, as they
might be twisted any way to suit the whim or ambition of
popular leaders. The New Light minister, seated right in
front of the stand, nodded assent to all I said, and I did hope
that good would result to him and his people, from that
lecture.

I then brought into view the Methodist Episcopal Church
government, as occupying the other extreme; as being too
strong; as placing in itinerant hands all legislative, judicial,
and executive power; all creed- making, property-controlling,
member-receiving, member-expelling, ofSce-making, officer-ap-
pointing, officer-removing power, etc., in the whole heaven and

LECTURE ON CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 313

earth of the government, leaving nothing to the local preachers
and lay members but absolute submission to their will or ex-
patriation from the Church. Against this I argued as being
Roman Catholic in its character, contrary to the teachings of
the New Testament, contrary to Lord King's Account of the
Primitive Church, contrary to Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History,
and contrary to the American Bill of Rights, as well as injuri-
ous to the liberties of mankind. A people educated to rever-
ence such a Church government would find no great difficulty
in exchanging our republic for a monarchy.

I then affirmed the Methodist Protestant principle to be
this : that the Church of Christ has as much right to a free
representative government as the United States, and that to be
monarchists in the Church and republicans in the State involves
a contradiction which every lover of civil liberty in the land
should make haste to put away. I then showed a similarity
between the Book of Nature and the Book of Grace; that the
" inalienable rights " seen by our Revolutionary fathers in the
Book of Nature had an exact parallel in the teachings of Christ
and his Apostles in the New Testament. If it be true, as our
Methodist Episcopal brethren affirm, that the Holy Scriptures
only give us the principles, ami not the form, of Church govern-
ment, then it follows, with all the strength of a logical conclusion,
that they were not obliged hy the oracles of God to adopt their
form of ecclesiastical economy, by which the rights of the laity
are bo completely ignored. The men who took upon themselves
the task of giving Methodism a government in this country
were Europeans; so they established the only kind of govern-
ment familiar to their minds — an ecclesiastical monarchy; and it
never suited the American people, as the various efforts to have
it amended, followed by disruptions from the body, will ahum'
antly declare.

The self-evident truths contained in the American P.ill of

Bights are such as the following: "G-od hath created all men

equal, and bath given them certain inalienable rights, such as

the right t.i life, liberty, and a pursuil of happiness. Thai to

are these rights, governments arc instituted among men,

314 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
In this way did our Revolutionary sires read and understand
the Book of Nature. Now, if the God of Grace is not against the
God of Nature, there will be principles found in the New Testa-
ment — which is the Book of Grace — in exact agreement with
those found in the Bill of Bights. See the following: "We
have one Father, even God;" "we are also his offspring" —
equally near and dear to him, and upon one common level among
ourselves. All are equal in the fall — "all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God." All are equal in redemption —
" Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, hath tasted death for every
man." All are placed under spiritual treatment — "I will pour
out my Spirit upon all flesh;" "the manifestation of the Spirit
is given to every man to profit withal." All are equally eligi-
ble to salvation, if they repent and believe in Christ ; all equally
liable to be lost without repentance and faith in Christ; all are
held to a just account at last — " So, then, every one of us shall
give account of himself to God." After this manner, and with
many other arguments from the Holy Scriptures and other
sources, did I, in that lecture, sustain the position that " the
Church of Christ had as much right to a free representative
government as the United States, and that to be monarchists in
the Church and republicans in the State does involve a contra-
diction which every lover of civil liberty in the land should
make haste to put away." I was calm and respectful to all par-
ties, and the lecture evidently made a strong impression in favor
of our cherished doctrine of " Mutual Bights."

It is to be deeply regretted that the preachers now holding
the foreground in our itinerant ranks know so little of the con-
troversy which resulted in the expulsion of many of the cham-
pions of ecclesiastical liberty from the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and thereby necessitated the organization of the Meth-
odist Protestant Church. Their knowledge of the doctrinal,
experimental, and practical truths of Christianity, generally
speaking, is admitted, and it is a matter of thanksgiving to God
that they are thereby enabled to build up Scriptural Christianity
in the land. But for want of a competent knowledge of the

LECTURE ON CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 315

controversy in question, and of ecclesiastical history in general,
the testimony of our Church in favor of mutual rights, and
against all manner of despotism in the Church of Christ, has
been measurably dropped, to the injury of our cause. If our
principles were right at first, they are right now, and should
be faithfully, intelligently, and powerfully advocated by our
• preachers every-where. Christianity in all its parts is aggress-
ive, and the war of truth against error should be eternal. Prot-
estantism has never dropped its testimony against Popery, nor
should our Church ever drop her testimony against the Popery
of Methodism. When the Methodist Episcopal Church admits
lay delegation into practical and efficient operation in all her
official bodies, and enfranchises her people with all the immu-
nities of ecclesu;sticalTreedoin, then should our testimony cease,
and not before ; for to us is this great work committed of
spreading the Christian religion and religious liberty all over
these and other lands, as fast ami as far as God, in his provi-
dence, may open our way, and all our preachers should be quali-
fied for the great work assigned them.

316 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTER XVII.

Appointed Conference Missionary— General Conference in Cincinnati— A Quar-
terly Meetin« among the Colored People— Pittsburgh Conference Held in Al-
leghany— Elected President— Public Discussions on Church Government with
Methodist Episcopal Ministers— Conference at Waynesburgh, Pennsylvania-
Re-elected President— A Sketch of Border-Life in Western Virginia.

In August, 1845, the Pittsburgh Conference was held in Con-
nellsville, Pennsylvania, and I was appointed Conference Mis-
sionary, with the understanding that I was to work at such times
and places as would be most favorable to my health, for hard
labor on the district had nearly prostrated my physical energies,
That was a very pleasant "and interesting Conference. It was
well sustained, and highly appreciated by the citizens. But
Rev. T. H. Stockton's serniou, splendidly eloquent as it was,
gave some offense to the Masons. They were not by any means
gratified at being compared to " owls and bats and other doleful
birds of night," by a man who, in the nature of things, knew
nothing certainly about them or their institution. Why inflict
censure and contumely on an institution and an order of men
■when, in his own confession, he knew nothing about them?
These hits in the dark are unworthy of a dignified mind; they
never did any good, and they never will. He who attacks Ma-
sonry, or any other institution, without a competent knowledge
of the subject on which he speaks, is sure to speak unadvisedly
with his lips, and will be regarded by all who have knowledge,
as speaking nonsense, and setting aside, in every such instance,
the laws of Christian charity. Yet, after all, with this little ex-
ception, I regard Stockton as being at the head of the American
pulpit — fervent in piety, profound in general knowledge, and
splendid in argumentative and noetic eloquence.

LABORS AS CONFERENCE MISSIONARY. 317

The Conference elected Dr. P. T. Laishley President for the
first time, and he gave general satisfaction in the performance
of the duties of his office. At that Conference representatives
were elected to our fourth General Conference, to be held in
Cincinnati the following May, and I was one of the members
elected.

About three months' hard labor as Conference Missionary,
mainly in North-western Pennsylvania, convinced me fully that
whatever good I might do as a pioneer in a new district of
country, in breaking up new ground, I could not obtain among
the people a support for my family. Late in the fall, I re-
turned home to Steubenville, a little the worse of wear, both in
body and in mind. Five dollars clear gain for three months' in-
8 --.nit toil did not look very promising! But the winter was
spent in assisting the brethren at their protracted meetings in
the circuits and stations nearer home, where the wants of my
family were liberally provided for by my old friends. Among
these, New Manchester Circuit, under the superintendence of

Rev. Joseph B , took the lead. Will God in mercy be

pleased to remember that once faithful and useful minister, and
bring the wanderer to the fold again! His case is proof posi-
■, I think, that men may fall from grace. May it also be
proof that a backslider may he reclaimed I

Early in the spring I was called to Washington, Pennsyl-
vania, to assist in adjusting a difficulty between Rev. S. Claw-
Bon, the superintendent, and his people. He was a high-strung.
eccentric, impulsive man, and being overruled by the vote of
his Quarterly Conference, he took it in very high dudgeon, and
at (Mice renounced his charge. After due time for reflection,
he repented of bis hasty ait. and wished to return to his work
again, but he had men of Bpiril to deal with, who held him at
bay for a time. Cltimatoly, the parties agreed to leave the
whole matter to my judgment. 1 went at their call. The
whole Church was convened. The parties stated the matter at
issue between them, ami I Pound it a small matter, indeed, aboul
Which to have so much trouble. Clawson, at last, made ;ill due
acknowledgment-, as to the rashness of his conduct in abandon-

318 RECOLLECTIONS 'OF ITINERANT LIFE.

ing his people, because his favorite measure was voted down in
the Quarterly Conference. At my instance the Church then
agreed to forgive him, and let him continue in pastoral charge
to the end of the year. Yet a few of the best members of the
Church were not entirely satisfied with this adjustment: they
were displeased with Clawson's eccentricities. In after years,
he was nearly bereaved of his senses, by a report that a great
estate in England had fallen to his wife. In the prospect of
getting it, he borrowed money in considerable sums, in various
places ; but, as the estate was never obtained, his friends were
injured by lending him money which he never will be able
to pay; and he himself, having lost public confidence, is now
among the rebels and traitors. When I last heard of him, he
was a prisoner at Camp Chase.

On attending the General Conference of May, 1846, in Cin-
cinnati, I found that we were again to have trouble on the slave
question. After a long and rather irritating discussion, a con-
servative resolution on that subject, similar to the one adopted
at the preceding General Conference in Baltimore, was finally
carried, but it left all parties dissatisfied. The Southern mem-
bers were displeased to have it declared by that body that
slavery, under any circumstances, was inconsistent with the
morality of the Holy Scriptures. The thorough-going Aboli-
tionists were displeased because they could not get a resolution
through the Conference declaring it to be a sin against God
under all circumstances. The conservatives wanted no action
at all, in the full persuasion that God, in his Word, had already
settled and declared all moral principles that were to govern
his Church, and that the local authorities in all the Confer-
ences, without any declared opinion of the General Conference,
had the right to sit in judgment on all moral questions — as
well the question of slavery as any other — and decide them, not
according to a General Conference opinion contained in a reso-
lution, but according to the revealed will of God. Besides, from
the light they then had, they supposed that there might be cir-
cumstances under which a man might hold a slave without be-
ing a sinner against God. But, as the question was pressed

GENERAL CONFERENCE AT CINCINNATI. 319

upon the body, and action had to he taken, a conservative res-
olution, that satisfied nobody, was finally adopted, and I was
found acting among the conservatives. I now believe that
wherever there is slavery there is sin. If the sin be not in the
master, who would free his slaves if he could, it is in the cruel
law and the law-makers, by whom emancipation has been ren-
dered impossible.

At this General Conference the mission question, brought up
from the Maryland Conference, in which Rev. T. H. Stockton
took so deep an interest, was finally adjusted on a plan pro-
posed by Dr. F. Waters, President of the Conference, and was
incorporated into our book of discipline. It then served to set-
tle a question, but was of very little utility to the Church, and
has since been superseded by a better plan. My recollection is
not sufficiently distinct to enable me to state exactly the origin
of the controversy in the Maryland Conference concerning mis-
sions, hut it certainly involved the following questions: 1. What
territory within the bounds of an Annual Conference can fairly
be considered missionary ground? 2. Can an old charge, either
a circuit or station, by calling itself a mission, thereby legally
th k < • itself from under the operation of the restrictive rule and
n l ii)i its pastor for an indefinite term of time? Brother T. H.
Stockton was in favor of the right of old charges to become
missions if they chose to do so, and of a continuation of a pasr
toral relation beyond the time allowed by the restrictive rule
Hi- argument was eloquenl and powerful, and, had it been
yielded to, would have revolutionized our whole connection, by
turning all our most important charges into missions, where tho
p toral relation could have been continued after the manner of
the Cot 1 Churches, and our beloved itinerancy, left

to operate on the feeble outskirt appointments, would certainly

have come to an end. Much as brother Stockton was loved by

the whole bod ra not deemed best to substitute Congre

ionalism for our itinerant ystem, in accordance with Ins
views. Yet. toward the conclusion of the Conference, he did
bu tceed in getting a new district boI off, including Philadelphia
and other adja enf places. But the brethren in the charges in-

320 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

eluded in this new Conference were not all agreed to substitute
the settled pastorate in the room of the old itinerant plan, so
they sought an alliance with the Maryland Conference, and at
the next General Conference the Philadelphia District was, by
action of that body, included in the Maryland District, very
much to the grief of brothers Stockton, Wilson, Ward, and other
valuable Christian brethren. Some of them went into Inde-
pendeney, but brother Stockton still holds his membership in
the Pittsburgh Conference, where he is greatly beloved by the
brethren.

During the General Conference in Cincinnati, the colored
brethren, having bought the Millerite Temple, were about to
dedicate it with a quarterly meeting. At that dedication a num-
ber of the members of the Conference were present. Among
them was Rev. Josiah Yarden, from whom we have the follow-
ing amusing anecdote. The house was a perfect jam. The del-
egates were near the center of the congregation, wedged in so
tightly among the colored brethren that a retreat was impos-
sible. The windows in that queerly-eonstructed house were so
high, that they could not conveniently be reached and raised
to admit fresh air. The weather was quite warm, and the odor
of that crowded assembly was by no means pleasant, yet it had
to be endured by the delegates during a pretty long sermon.
When the sermon came to an end, up rose a short, thick col-
ored preacher, and went into the pulpit. With eyes laughing
and white teeth showing, he said, " We hope our white friends
will excuse de smell to-day. When we did buy dis house ob
de Millerites, we did employ de carpenter to cut a hole in de
roof for let out de effervescence ob de gas. After some time,
we found he would not do it widout de money in advance, and
we had no money to give him. So now, gentlemen and ladies,
we are going to make a collection to-day, for pay de carpenter
to cut a hole in de roof for let out de effervescence ob de gas.
Brother Moses, hand round de hat." It is to be hoped that the
delegates of our General Conference, after such a rich treat to
their olfactory nerves, did contribute liberally to help the col-
ored people to pay the carpenter for cutting a hole in the roof,

SORE PROVIDENTIAL AFFLICTION". 321

to let out the effervescence of the gas. Never, from that day
to this, have I thought of the very pleasant fix of our delegates
on that occasion, and the ludicrously-pompous speech of the
colored preacher, without heing deeply moved to laughter. In
such cases mirth becomes irrepressible.

"While at that General Conference, Dr. Laishley, the Presi-
dent of the Pittsburgh District, engaged me, as Conference mis-
sionary, to fill his appointments in the north-eastern part of
"Western Pennsylvania. The Doctor gave me a plan of the ap-
pointments, and was to publish them immediately, for me to
fill and receive his pay. So I returned home to Steubenyille,
and in due time set out to perform the labor assigned me. I
reached every appointment before the paper got there to notify
the brethren that I was coming. So I had, in every instance
but one, to get up my own appointments as best I could. I
believe the Doctor sent on the appointments for publication in
time, but either in the printing-office or in the mails there was
a tardiness which caused me a great deal of trouble. So I had
bard labor and a very meager remuneration. In another respect
I had a very sore providential affliction. The clay I left home,
driving merrily on, singing as I went, a rough, harsh bug
dashed against my ear, and in he went, struggling hard, as if he
meant to go clear through my head ! He was at once beyond
my reach. I had no means to withdraw his bugship from his
position. II is struggles nearly convulsed my whole nervous
• in, and threw my entire frame into the most intense agony.
But here came a lady on horseback. I leaped from my carriage,
and implored ber to dismount and remove the bug from my car.
Instantly, slic kindly made the trial, but failed. Her effort did
no more than kill the bug; it was still in my car, and my agony
was more intense than before. I then drove on with all speed
to Wellsville, to th«- house of brother Joseph "Wells, hut then:
was tin one al home. I then turned back to the office of Dr.
Stevenson, but he was doI there; however, kind friends soon
found him and brought him to my relief. He tried to float the
bug out with sweet-oil, hut did not succeed. He then picked
it out, a bit ;it a time, with an instrument. My ear bled freely,

322 ' RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

the lever was high, and the pain very great. "With sweet-oil
and wool in my ear, I drove on that afternoon to Beaver, the
pulse near my ear sounding like the stroke of a forge-hammer
all the way. Three times during my tour of five or six weeks
did suppuration take place, and hloody matter was discharged.
For a time I entertained fears that the tympanum, or drum of
the ear, was utterly destroyed. That forge-hammer-like sound
still followed me in all my toils — for I filled all my appoint-
ments — nor did I wholly recover for about six months. But
my recovery was complete, and, by the blessing of God, I have
good hearing even down to old age.

This thing of supporting one's family on the proceeds of
Conference missionary labor was, in my case, an utter failure.
But for my own scanty means, and the voluntary assistance
granted me by several of "the circuits and stations in the dis-
trict, my family would have suffered. To me this was a year
of trial and sore conflict with the enemy of my soul. My re-
ligion was tested at every point, and, in some instances, I frankly
own that I did not maintain my ground against the enemy as
a true Christian soldier should have done. To myself I take
shame and confusion of face, but to the Lord my God I give
glory, honor, and praise for bearing with me and taking care
of me in all my trials.

In September, 1846, the Pittsburgh Conference was held in
Alleghany, and I was again elected to the presidency. The
Conference was well cared for by the community; but the
weather being excessively warm, the brethren were by no means
comfortably accommodated, crowded, as they were, in the base-
ment of the new meeting-house. There were certain of the
members of that station who expressed an unwillingness to
allow the Conference to remove its sittings to the main audience-
room, up-stairs, lest the house should be defiled by tobacco-
chewers. They alleged that "the basement was good enough for
such a set of men." Rev. C. Avery and E. W. Stephens, lead-
ing brethren, who mainly built both the meeting-house and the
parsonage, expressed a wish that the Conference would pay no
attention to these offensive objectors, but go at once up-stairs

A TROUBLESOME BROTHERHOOD. 323

into the body of the church, where they would have a free cir-
culation of pure air. But the brethren of the Conference, under
an impression that the objectors were numerous, felt themselves
a little offended, and determined to finish their business, with all
possible dispatch, in that sultry basement, and then return to
Alleghany no more to hold a conference, until they were sure
of more respectful treatment. They were, perhaps, a little too
sensitive. It is probable that the number of members opposed
to their using the body of the church was but few. The feel-
ing on this offensive matter in a short time passed away. In
nine years we held Conference there again, and found that the
over-nice brother, who was head and front of the opposition to
the Conference occupying the audience-room, lest it should be
defiled by tobacco-chewers, had not been over-scrupulous on
questions of high moral character, and had been excluded from
the Church for dishonesty in his dealings. 0, how many there
are who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel — are very nice
about little things, tithing mint, anise,' and cumin, while they
pass over the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy,
and the love of God. Let men be nice, and keep a clean
church, but, at the same time, let them maintain a good moral
character before God and all the people.

During this year I visited all the circuits and stations in the
district. My greal tour of hard travel and labor in Western
Virginia nearly broke me down. On returning from the Green-
brier country, I rested and recruited my health a little at home
in Steubenville. While there, God put it into my heart to
attack a very troublesome brotherhood of infidels, all of them
members of the Church. At first they were llestorationists,
and believed in a Limited punishment of sinners who might die
without repentance. Then they went further, and adopted 1'iii-
versalism proper, and did ool believe in any future punishment
at all. The ne,t atep was to embrace Deism, and renounce
the Christian religion ami the Saviour of sinners altogether.
This was a legitimate consequence of Universalism ; for if there
be no hell, no future punishment at all, there is no sinner upon
earth in any danger of being lost; the IJiblc is false, the Cliris-

324 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

tian religion is a fable, and Christ is an impostor for pretend-
ino- to save sinners when they are in no danger of being lost.
But these men did not stop here; they went on to open Athe-
ism, and believed in no God at all. I knew these men well,
and was aware of the existence of their debating club, where
Atheism was openly and defiantly advocated. Often did I
wonder why their minister did not come out against them, for
they were generally in the congregation on the Sabbath-day.

The first Sunday after I got home, I was invited to preach,
and, without notifying any one of my design, I took up the
case of these infidels. That afternoon I received a note from
the leader of the club, requesting me to "repeat the dose" — ■
they "wanted to hear more of it." On Monday evening, the
Quarterly Conference, by resolution, desired me to preach a
series of sermons on the authenticity and Divine authority of
the Christian religion. So, being requested by both parties, I
prepared myself, and with all the intellectual and moral power
that God gave me, I handled the question in six consecutive
discourses. By the time I was done, the Church was in the
temper to bring these infidels under disciplinary treatment, and
either reform or expel them. But they all declined a trial, and
left the Church. Yet some of them did not want their families
to leave the Church, embrace their sentiments, and associate
with infidels ; for they frankly confessed that infidel society,
as a general thing, was not sufficiently respectable for ladies to
associate with. In my opinion, men who talked in this way
did not more than half believe their own doctrine, and, but for
a false pride, would have recanted their errors.

It is certainly a matter of Christian propriety for a Church
to bear with erring brethren while their errors are of a minor
character, and no attempt is made to propagate them or to dis-
turb the peace of the body. But when error becomes rampant
and fearfully infidel in its character, and seeks, in the club-
room and elsewhere, to extend a poisonous influence through
the community, then a Church should immediately take action
against . its advocates, and reform or expel them, as the case
may require. The man who led the above-mentioned Church

DISCUSSIONS ON CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 325

members astray was a talented, eloquent Restorationist, sound
in the Christian faith on all points save that one, nor did he
ever suppose that those who adopted his views were taking the
first step to Atheism. The beginning of error is like the let-
ting loose of waters — small at first, but finally becomes a rush-
ing torrent, sweeping all before it. By any means, and to any
extent, to fritter away or lower down the Divine Law, or its
penalties, certainly tends to the increase of crime and the ruin
of souls.

From Steubenville I proceeded to New Brighton, then to New
Castle, and then to Conneaut, holding my annital meetings as I
went. Between Lockport and Gerrard we held a very profitable
and interesting camp-meeting. I had, on several preceding
visits to that region, circulated among the people who attended
my meetings Rev. W. B. Evans's "Questions and Answers on
Church Government," and I had also delivered lectures on the
panic subject. This had roused Rev. Mr. Flowers, of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, who came to the camp-meeting with
the determination, as I was told, to call me to a public account,
in case I delivered a lecture on Church government, or circu-
lated any more of Evans's Questions and Answers. The Quar-
terly Conference on Saturday, by resolution, requested me to
deliver a lecture. I agreed to do so, provided the Sunday con-
gregation, at the close of the morning service, would vote for
it, but not else. I did not intend to thrust my lectures upon
the people without their consent. On Sunday morning it was
called lor by an almost unanimous vote of a very large congre-
gation, and w.i- then announced for Monday, at two o'clock
P. M. Rev. .Mr. Flowers, being present, was publicly informed
that be should bave a lair opportunity to reply. Monday morn-
ing came. After sacrament and dinner were over, I took my
position in rpiht of the stand, spread out my books and papers
on a table, and then invited Mv. Flowers to come forward and
be seated mar me. After being introduced to him, we had a
little friendly conversation of rather a pleasant character. I
then proposed to him, in the presence of that large assembly,

that we should choose a presiding officer, to maintain order.

326 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

This was accordingly done, to our mutual satisfaction. I then
proposed to deliver rny argument against the ecclesiastical econ-
omy of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in favor of that
of the Methodist Protestant Church, at full length, without in-
terruption from him or any one else ; that he, Mr. Flowers,
should have an opportunity to reply, at whatever length he
chose, after which I would review him and he might review
me, and that this should close the discussion. To all of this
he agreed, without one word of objection.

I shall not attempt, in this place, to give any part of my
argument, though I still have my notes. I spoke a little over
two hours, covering the whole ground of controversy between
the two Churches. It was my aim, throughout, to treat the
old Church with all possible fairness ; to be kind in language
and strong in argument, and to bring the doctrine of Mutual
Rights before that assembly under as favorable' circumstances
as I conveniently could. Indeed, I was religiously in earnest
in my effort to get the whole truth on the subject at issue
before the people, and I think I did succeed. The impression
appeared to be very fine.

When I was done, and had taken my seat, Mr. Flowers was
called for, but he declined a reply that afternoon. He was
urged four different times, but, on one ground or another, he
still declined, and said his reply would be made the next morn-
ing. The people, however, wei'e not satisfied, and insisted upon
his going on, according to arrangement. I then interposed in
his behalf, and expressed a Wish that he might have suitable
time to prepare himself for the work before him. So the meet-
ing was adjourned until ten o'clock the next day. That night
I did not rest well ; my nerves were affected by the effort I had
made, and I arose in the morning quite unwell, and felt entirely
unfit for duty. By ten o'clock the congregation had assembled,
and Flowers was on hand to make his reply. He would not
occupy my position in the altar, but took the stand, supposing
he could speak better from thence. In his argument in support
of Episcopacy, he made pretty free use of Dr. Emory's " De-
fense of the Fathers." He brought forward most of the old

VISIT TO CLARION CIRCUIT. 327

exploded arguments in favor of the powers in the government
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, claimed and held by the
itinerant preachers. He admitted that the bishops and itiner-
ant clergy did hold all the ecclesiastical power in their Church
that I had shown them to possess. He asked, "What of it?"
Had it done any harm? Did not the Church mainly owe her
success to that form of government? He seemed to forget all
my arguments and authorities from Scripture, history, and rea-
son against their high claims to clerical power, and that it was
"the Gospel of Christ," and not the power of the clergy, that
was " the power of God unto salvation to all them that be-
lieve."

In the review of my opponent, I showed that my main posi-
tions had been admitted ; that his boasted form of Church
government had already done much harm ; that none of the
divisions in England or America had grown out of doctrinal
dissensions; all had resulted from disputes about clerical power;
and that, in such a country as ours, such a government as
theirs was destined to do harm, in many ways, as long as it ex-
isted. It might, ultimately, injuriously affect our civil govern-
ment. When my opponent came on with the closing speech,
he was somewhat kind and complimentary to me, but aimed
itly bo land ami magnify Episcopal Methodism as the great
instrumentality by which the world was to be converted. He
• the audience a zealous exhortation to take passage on the
Old Ship which had landed BO many thousands on the heavenly
Bhore. She was well built, her timbers were good, and t here
was no danger of her being wrecked or cast away. In all of
this there was nothing like a review or argument. The evident
intention of the speaker was bo raise the highest amount of
feeling possible in flavor of bhe Methodist Episcopal Church.
The discussion closed with entire good-will and kindness be-
tween bhe parties.

Prom the aforesaid camp meeting, in company with Rev. N\ ,

II Doe and lady. I went on to (Marion Circuit. My first ap-
pointment was in a small village called Troy. The congrega-
tion was large. There was quite a revival influence abroad

328 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

among the people. Some lively singing and praying followed
the sermon. Then a motion was made, and carried by an al-
most unanimous vote, requesting me to deliver them a lecture
on Church government, the next day, at ten o'clock A. M. The
Methodist Episcopal preacher of that circuit then asked the
assembly to grant him the privilege of making a reply. That
privilege was allowed him. So here I was, in for another public
discussion. The preliminary arrangement was then and there
made, and was exactly the same as that adopted at the discus-
sion at the camp-meeting. That night my opponent, whose
name I have forgotten, paid me a visit at my lodgings. He
said he did not know the ground I meant to occupy in my
lecture in opposition to their Church government. He wanted
to be informed, so as to know how to frame his reply. After
mature reflection, I told him he was asking too much ; that
when he heard my lecture he would fully understand the ground
I occupied. However, as I saw he was in trouble, and as I
desired to afford him the fairest opportunity I could to defend
his ecclesiastical system, I stated to him the entire plan of my
lecture. When this was done he left me, and spent the whole
night, as I was informed, in preparation for the coming struggle.
In the morning, when the people assembled, my lecture, of
something over two hours in length, was delivered. It was the
same I had given on the previous Monday, at the camp-meet-
ing, only an enlargement on some points was deemed necessary.
The congregation gave me a very patient hearing, and I thought
I could see signs of approbation among the people generally.
My opponent, for a time, took notes. Finally, he laid by his
paper, and seemed to indicate, by his manner, an irritated state
of mind. Yet, throughout my lecture, my language was en-
tirely kind : there was nothing to offend, unless quotations from
Scripture, history, the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and fair argument were deemed offensive. When 1
was done, my opponent came forward and took the stand.
After some feeble attempts at a reply, he lost his temper, and
poured forth upon me and upon the Methodist Protestant
Church a perfect torrent of abuse; nor could he be kept in

ABUSIVE SPEECH. 329

order. The leading members of his own Church, after remon-
strating against the abuse given me, left the house, declaring, as
they went, that I had "treated their Church with all due kind-
ness, and they were not going to sit there and hear their
preacher disgrace himself, and his Church too, by abusing me."
I went out and persuaded them to return, by telling them, " I
can stand all his abuse, and you must; it will not do to break
up this meeting in disorder." So we all went back and heard
him out.

In my review I was very brief, claiming that my entire argu-
ment stood in full force against the anti-i-epublican character
of the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. I
claimed, too, that my opponent would have done better but
for a lack of arguments. I excused him for the abuse heaped
upon me and upon my Church on the sole ground of a want
of argument. "The mouths that lack argument are always
filled with abuse.!' This, I think, was the general opinion of
that assembly; indeed, all sensible men admit the truth of this
maxim. My opponent had the closing speech. He did noth-
ing at argument; he did not recall his abusive language, but
left things as they were; and so the discussion closed, leaving
a very general impression in favor of the Methodist Protestant
Church in the vicinity of Troy. This gentleman, having failed,
on that occasion, to defend the government of his Church suc-
cessfully, fell into trouble among his brethren, and ultimately
joined our Church. After this, in conversation with him con-
cerning our discussion, he told me, frankly, that before I was
half done with my lecture, he felt in his soul that he could not
answer my arguments, which to him was a very vexatious mat-
ter, and roused in him a disposition to cover his retreat by a
volley of abuse. Many men besides him have math; this last
resort, but it is not a very reputable way to get out of trouble.
Better yield the point at once than to adopt such a plan of
rettf

I'* '.in Troy I went on with brother Doe to his quarterly-
meeting:, -'i distance of about thirteen miles. It was held in 'i
very large barn, owned by a wealthy farmer, whose name I have

330 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

forgotten. During the meeting, which was a very good one,
the two lectures in the past week were much talked of by the
people. On Sdnday the congregation called on me, by a rising
vote, for a lecture on Church government, and on Monday it
was delivered to a crowded audience. It was well received by
the people, but it lacked the interest of the former lectures, as
there was no one to reply. After visiting the circuits in the
Susquehanna country, and the Johnstown Station, I returned
home to Steubenville, and prepared for Conference.

In September, 18-47, the Pittsburgh Annual Conference was
held in Waynesburg, Green County, Pennsylvania, and I was
again elected President. The Conference was most handsomely
entertained by that community, and the brethren began to think
that country towns took immensely more interest in an Annual
Conference than did the large cities, where such assemblies are
so frequent as to lose their novelty. An Annual Conference
in a large city moves nobody beyond our own membership;-
but let one be held in an interior town, and the whole popula-
tion is astir. From the town and the country people come pour-
ing in, to see what is going on at these Conference gatherings.
At that time there was, on the part of the preachers, a very
able and interesting discussion on the restrictive rule, in the
presence of a crowded assembly. No result was reached.
Brother T. H. Stockton was present with us, and laid before
the Conference and the citizens, who densely packed the house,
his entire plan for a Brotherly Love Association. It looked
beautiful, but was thought impracticable. It might do in the
Millennium, but not in the present state of society. If I re-
member right, there was in that plan no provision against an
evil-doer. It was taken for granted that every body in the asso-
ciation would do exactly right. Even the defects in the scheme
showed the goodness of the man. Brother Stockton has a very
pure and elevated spirit. On the Sabbath-day, as no house of
worship in Waynesburg would accommodate the great multi-
tude of people that assembled, we all repaired to the grove, to
hear brother Stockton on one of the great central doctrines of
Christianity — the Atonement — a world's redemption by Jesus

APPOINTMENT IN SUTTONVILLE. 331

Christ, The theme was grand, and the minister was surpass-
ingly eloquent.

1 shall not deem it necessary to give a detailed account of
all the occurrences of this year. To note such matters of in-
terest as have made a lasting impression on my mind will be
sufficient for my purpose. I spent, as was my custom, the fall
and winter in visiting the circuits and stations in the central
portion of the district. Our young Church in the free States
had suffered much by the abolition controversy; still she main-
tained her conservative ground. She was anti-slavery in her
sentiments, but not yet ripe to cut loose from the slaveholding
Conferences in the Smith. The Wesleyans, because of our- re-
lation to the South, had made inroads upon us. taken away
many of our societies, some of our circuits, and in one instance
nearly a whole Conference. But now, at last, we began to have
peace and prosperity. In the course of this year many souls
were converted to God. I engaged Rev. D. II. Helmick to visit
the Greenbrier region for me. and only extended my own labors
into the Virginia part of the district as far as the Braxton Cir-
cuit. All through the West Virginia portion of the Confer-
ence there were revivals of religion, and the Redeemer's king-
dom was greatly advanced by means of .Methodist Protestant
pr< aching.

On my way to my appointment on Braxton Circuit, at the
Union Mills, on Elk River, ! spent a night in Suttonville, the

• of justice for Braxton County. Elijah Squires, my travel-
ing companion, go1 up an appointment for me to preach in the
courf bouse thai oight. In that town there was, in those days,
a half-finished court-house and some sort of a jail, but do
school-house or meeting-house, and intemperance was doing its
terrible work among the people. During Divine service, the
clerk of the court, a man of fine talent-, and one of the l< F, P.
\ -. ' fell himself insulted by the overhauling given in mj • >
nion to intemperanci . and occasioned do little disturbance to the
congregation and myself. Never would that n»an bave done
such a thing if be bad been sober. Poor Suttonville is now
(18(J5) in min-. having been desolated by the war. The next

332 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

morning, brother Squires and I made an early start for the
quarterly meeting, twelve miles up the river. Most of the way
there was no bottom land ; the lofty hills came precipitately
down to the Elk River, whose waters ran rapidly and were very
clear. It was found somewhat hazardous to travel along a very
narrow path, with the river to the right, sometimes from fifty
to one hundred feet below, and a steep hill or mountain on
the left, rising high above the travelers. In one place the turn-
ing of a boat in the. river was a very interesting sight. The
boat, bottom upward, with a large pile of rocks on it, was floated
out into deep water ; then the rocks were all moved over to one
side ; that side went down, the other side was elevated, until at
last over it went, and, as it turned, the men who conducted the
operation took to the skifl" for safety.

Ultimately, we reached the Union Mills, the place of the
quarterly meeting. Here, among the mountains, was found
some good bottom land and several farms. But from the banks
of the river to the tops of the mountains, on each side, the
height looked fearful, and the whole scene was truly grand —
well calculated to fire a poetic imagination. The people assem-
bled for worship in the family residence of brother Skidmore.
It was indeed a crowded house. Where all the people came
from was more than I could even guess. When the preaching
was over, the Quarterly Conference was announced. But very
few left the house; all seemed anxious to see all that was to be
done. Before we entered upon business, Rev. A. J. Warin, the
superintendent, brought to me a man rather under middle size,
with black hair and keen black eyes, who wore what is called
in that region a hunting-shirt, girded on with a leather strap,
and introduced him in about the following style: "Brother
Brown, I wish to make you acquainted with brother Hosea, our
class-leader; he has killed five bears this fall!" — thus seem-
ing to commend him in his office of class-leader by a careful
mention of the number of the bears he had killed. A good
deal of pleasantry followed, and it was wound up with an
invitation from brother Hosea to go home with him, just

LIBERALITY OF THE MOUNTAINEERS. 333

across the river, and eat bear-meat for dinner. But, fond as
I was of bear-meat, and other kinds of wild game, to which I
had been accustomed in early life, I had to decline his invita-
tion, in view of attending to the business of the Quarterly Con-
ference.

When the Quarterly Conference and dinner were over, away
went all the men present, to carry boards from the saw-mill
hard by, to prepare seats for the Sunday congregation. A
great oak, rather low, with wide-spread branches, standing on
the bank of the Elk River, afforded a splendid shade for the
occasion. Sunday came, and although it was the 1st of No-
vember, yet no frost in that region had seared the leaves of
that magnificent tree. The congregation was very large — too
large by about one-half for the extensive preparations made.
Where did they all come from? It was amazing to see such an
assemblage of people in such a mountain region. A few from
distant points were clad iu the richest style, but the great mass
wore the homespun dress of the mountains. All were civil and
very attentive to preaching. That day, under the shade of that
venerable oak, God gave me unusual liberty in preaching Jesus
and the resurrection, and there were throbbing hearts and burst-
ing emotions throughout the congregation. God alone can toll
what became of the good seed sown that day. Doubtless some
of it fell in good ground, producing fruit unto life eternal.
When the harvest comes, we will know.

At the close of the sermon, the superintendent said: "The
President's claim on Braxton Circuit is just ten dollars, and,
from the look and feeling of this assembly, I am confident every
cent of it can he raised. Stewards, please proceed and take up
the collection." A.way went the two stewards, very tall, stilty-
looking men. They went in ;i hand-gallop; too fast, 1 thougl \
to gel any thing. People must nave a little time to get their
purees open. While this collection was being made, I wae Bay-
ing to myself, "Can there be money in these mountains? Out
of what can it be made? No doubt the people would give it
if they had it to give." But the superintendent had faith in

334 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

his mountaineers. In a trice the stewards returned to the stand
with ten dollars and twelve and a half cents. The superintend-
ent thanked the people for their liberality, then turning to me,
said: "This is a lumber country; just now money is plenty, and
these people take delight in paying their President, and their
preacher, too." I regarded this as a good example, worthy to
go down, like their own clear, mountain stream, into all the
land below. Some people, in the midst of plenty, always " make
a poor mouth," and .give grudgingly. These mountaineers al-
ways gave liberally when they had it, I was told, and only re-
fused when all their money was gone. Next followed the holy
communion, attended by a rich flow of heavenly feeling. It
was a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. City
Christians, who have this privilege once a month, can hardly
form an idea of a communion season among mountain Chris-
tians, who rarely have it oftener than twice a year.

When the congregation was dismissed, they all sat down
again, and seemed loth to leave the place. Mr. Skidmore, the
proprietor of the premises, came to me and said : " Do you see
that man with a blue hunting-shirt on? He sits on the corner
seat to the right." I replied in the amrmative. Then turning
a little to the right, he continued: "Do you see that high
point of rocks across the river?" Again I answered, "Yes."
"Well," said he, "that man was born in a cave under that point
of rocks." "Why," said I, "you astound me. I should like
to know his history." Mr. Skidmore then gave me the follow-
ing narrative.

"On the opposite side of the river, the two Carpenters, the
first white men that ever settled in this country, erected their
cabin. They were brothers. The elder had a wife and one
child; the younger was a single man." Then pointing still fur-
ther to the right, Mr. Skidmore said : " About where the lower
fence of that meadow stands, the younger brother was killed
by seven Indians. Immediately, the elder Carpenter removed
his wife and child to the cave under the rocks, and went in
pursuit of the Indians. He had a far-shooting, trustworthy

BORDER LIFE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. 335

rifle. He soon overtook them, and, at long range, brought
down one. The others all turned and fired, but their balls fell
short. They gave chase after hirn; but he loaded as he ran,
and, at a convenient place, turned and brought down another.
Then the Indians halted, and while they were trying to carry
off their dead companion, he killed a third, and before they
could possibly get out of the country, this daring warrior killed
five out of the seven Indians. The remaining two escaped,
leaving their dead, with all their guns and ammunition, behind
them.

"Carpenter then returned to his cabin, buried his brother, then
went to the cave under the rocks, where he found, to his sur-
prise, that during his absence his wife, in that lonely place, had
given birth to another son. That son is now sitting before you!
Carpenter remained with his wife in the cave until she was able
to endure a removal to the cabin. Starvation had then over-
taken them; they had neither meat nor bread: as for tea and
coffee, they were out of the question in those early times. The
cows had not been heard of for more than a week, so they had
no milk. Carpenter took his gun and went to the woods for
game, and, in a little time after his departure, Mrs. Carpenter
heard the cow-bell in the distance, up a valley" — toward which
Mr. Skidmore pointed. "This wonderful woman, every way
equal to her husband in pioneer life," continued Mr. Skidmore,
"disposed of her children by putting the babe into the bed, and
tying the little boy. who could run about, to the bed-post. This
done, she waded the river, then a little over two feet deep, and
Started after the COWS, fully determined to have milk for her
children, if possible.

"Being feeble, and the distance greater than she expected, she

was ah feral hours. When Bhe returned to the river with

the cattle, to her profound astonishment, a rain on the unl

aina -none had fallen where Bhe was— had caused a sudden rise
in the river of aboul twelve feet. From the plaee. wheiv she.
stood, she could plainly see that the water was in the house,
and already covered the floor where her little hoy was tied!

336 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

All the deep, moving feelings of a mother's heart were stirred
within her, and, with the courage of a lion, she drove the cattle
into the river, and as they went in, seized one of the largest
by the tail, and over she went, and saved her children. In a
short time her husband returned with game; so they had milk
and meat, if they had no bread, and rejoiced together in their
homely fare and in the safety of their children."

This is a little sketch of border life in West Virginia in early
times. Ever since the rebellion, that people have had another
kind of foe to deal with, in most instances far worse than the
Indians. They have needed the spirit of Carpenter and his
wife to sweep the rebellion from their mountains, hills, and
valleys. Blessed be God ! loyal hearts were found to fight the
battles of West Virginia, and she is now, by her own voluntary
action, a free State. The bodies of the Carpenters lie entombed
among her mountains, but their spirits — like that of Elijah in
John the Baptist — have gone abroad among her people, to urge
them onward to the battles of freedom for themselves and for
the nation; and to-night (February 3, 1864,) this nation is free
from all complicity with slavery, not only by the Proclamation
of the President of the United States, but by the action of our
National Legislature. Will God, in mercy, now forgive the sins
of this nation, restore the Union, bring this terrible war to an
end, and give us peace in all the land !

In the northern portion of the district I had much hard
ministerial labor, but no further controversy on the subject of
Church government. Our cause had some prosperity, but our
success in that quarter has never been of a gratifying character.
The extremes of the work have often been found to suffer, be-
cause the tendency of our preachers, like the blood to the heart,
has been so constantly toward the center of the Conference.
Can not this tendency be a little changed? Let the warm life-
blood of the Conference, in the form of ministerial piety, tal-
ent, and influence, be thrown, by the appointing power, to the
extremes, and prosperity will follow. At the close of the year,
I returned to my family in Steubenville, sick. Fearing that I

ATTEND CONFERENCE. $37

would not be able to attend Conference, all my Conference busi-
ness was committed to tbe bands of Rev. John Cowl, who agreed
to take care of my interests, and convey my message of love to
tbe brethren. Yet, after all, weak as I was, being encouraged
by two medical friends, I did make the effort, and reached
Conference about the third day of the session, with Mrs. Brown
as my traveling companion.

*388 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Removal to Connellsville, Pennsylvania— A Revival of Religion— Modes of Bap-
tism— Camp-Meetij is— Geneeal Confeeence— Madison College— Family Afflic-
tions.

In September, 1848, the Annual Conference was held in Fair-
mont, Virginia, and I was stationed in Connellsville, Pennsyl-
vania. Never had we been better entertained than at Fairmont.
The country towns have always done well by our Conferences.
A sore spell of dysentery had reduced me to a mere skeleton.
I had been almost at death's door. Wheu I reached the Con-
ference I could scarcely walk, and on entering the church and
seeing the brethren, I was overcome by emotion, and could do
nothing but weep nearly all that afternoon. In due time, how-
ever, my strength returned, and I was enabled to take part in
the business of the Conference.

That year I ought to have rested, for I was really unfit for min-
isterial service; but preachers being scarce, and the Church at
that time without funds to sustain disabled ministers, I yielded
to the necessity of the case, and, at the instance of brother
J. W. Phillips, the lay delegate from Connellsville, I consented
to be appointed by the Conference to Connellsville Station the
following year. Against I returned home niy health was much
improved, and I felt quite encouraged to hold on my way. Af-
fliction had done my spirit good, and I felt like more fully con-
secrating myself to Christ and his cause. To be instrumental
in saving sinners and in building up the Church of Christ was
every thing now to me, and all things else seemed less than
nothing and vanity.

In removing to Connellsville, my household goods went to

i
REMOVAL TO CONNELLSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA. 339

Pittsburgh by tbe river, in a keel-boat, the water being at a
very low stage. The children went across the country in my
buggy, while the remainder of the family went by stage to
Pittsburgh, then on a steamer, with our goods, to Brownsville.
From that point, the latter were taken in three open wagons, on
a very rainy day, to the place of our destination. All our fur-
niture and other things — about all we had — were exceedingly
injured. Such is often the lot of an itinerant preacher. Those of
us who went by the steamer with the goods to Brownsville
were taken by stage from that point to Uniontown, thence by
private conveyance to Connellsville. Finally, by various routes,
no little trouble, and great damage to our property, we all
reached our new home, and were cordially received by the
Church.

The Connellsville Church was not wealthy. No hope of
worldly gain moved me to go to that people. I went by invi-
tation of the delegate, and by appointment of the Conference,
because in that Church I had many highly valued Christian
friends; and because my health required care, a small field of
labor suited me best. I have reason to believe that my appoint-
ment had the Divine sanction, for, during my first year there,
Grod favored as with a glorious revival of religion. Many souls
were saved by grace, and added to the Church. Yet, in that
place there were evil influences and agencies at work, which
caused some, upon whom much labor and cave had been be-
Btowed, to backslide from the Lord. This was a grief to my
bouI. To see those in whose conversion I had entire confidence
grow Cold in religion, neglect the means of grace, yield to old
sinful habits, drop nut of the ranks of the sacramental host, and
finally die <>!' intemperance, could bring me nothing but grief.
At their graves I had no wonl id' cheer for surviving friends —
nothing hut warning to sinners, mingled with tears for the
lost; for a" drwiJcard can inherit the kingdom <</ (/oil. lint in
that charge there was, after all, a sterling membership, real

Workers, valuable in a revival, and trustworthy Christians under
all circumstances. It may be added, that many of the con-

340 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

verts maintained their integrity to Christ and the Church, and, I
trust, will ultimately inherit eternal life.

In that place there were two Baptist Churches. One of them
of the old order, and the other of the Campbellite persuasion.
Of course, as is usual in such cases, each of these parties did
all it could to indoctrinate the converts, whom God had given
us during the revival, into the belief that infant baptism was
wrong, and that immersion was the only Scriptural mode of bap-
tism for adult believers. Before I was aware of it, most of the
converts had been visited, and informed, by those who could not
possibly know, that "bapto," the root of the Greek verb to
baptize, and "baptizo," the derivation, in all parts of the New
Testament meant immersion only, and that all the learned
agreed with them in their interpretation of the two words.
After some time, it became necessary for me to vindicate our
position on the subject of baptism before that community.
This I did — public notice having been previously given — in our
own pulpit. On that occasion it was shown, from some very
learned authorities, that the two Greek words in question had
sundry other shades of meaning beside, immersion, all favoring
our view of the matter ; and that for men who knew nothing
of the learned languages, and scarcely any thing of their own,
to be passing through my congregation, trying to make prose-
lytes to the Baptist faith and order among the young, unedu-
cated portion of our Church members, on the ground that they
had all the learned with them, when they affirmed that "bapto"
and " baptizo," in the New Testament, meant immersion only,
were acting dishonorably and unjustly toward my people and
myself, and deserved to be called impostors. This vindication,
covering the whole ground of controversy, and occupying about
two hours, was all that I ever found it necessary to say in de-
fense of our position on the subject of baptism, while in that
station.

During my first year we had a very interesting and profitable
camp-meeting, in connection with the Connellsville Circuit, about
five miles in the country. At the meeting the preaching was

MADISON COLLEGE. 341

luminous, spiritual, and powerful. It was marrow and fatness
to Christians of advanced experience; it was wine, and milk,
and honey to the young converts; and there was in it a heav-
enly power to awaken and save sinners. The Church of which
I had charge derived great spiritual advantage from that meet-
ing. Yet the devil struggled hard to maintain his ground
against the Lord and his anointed Son. Ungodly men strove
to "ive us trouble ; but there were magistrates and other friends
of order there, and we were protected against all harm. Most
gladly now, in my old age, would I attend another such meet-
ing ; but I suppose I never shall, for our people have no more
camp-meetings.

It was during this year that Madison College was offered to
the Methodist Protestant Church by the Board of Trustees. I
had been called up from Connellsville, to appear before the
board on that occasion. After giving that body a pretty full
history of our college efforts and failures, I declined having any
thing to do with that college unless it were tendered by the
board to the whole Church, to be placed under the control of
the General Conference. No one, two, or three Conferences in
our fellowship had the means or the patronage to sustain such
an institution as it should be done. But if the General Con-
ference would take it, and make it an institution of learning for
the whole Church, then, in my judgment, we might reasonably
hope for success. The board then, by a resolution, tendered
Madison College to the General Conference, and I agreed to
bring the question of its acceptance before all the Annual Con-
ferences, and try to induce them to recommend its adoption by
General Conference, which was to assemble in the city of
in May, 18.")0. My part of the work was performed,
other friend- of the measure assisting, by able articles pnblished
in our Church papers, on the importance of such an institution
to the permanence and welfare of our Church. A large ma-
jority of tin' Conferences favored this eollege enterprise, and so
the matter was left to the final action of the General Confer-
ence.

In September, IS 19. the Pittsburgh Annual Conference was

342 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

held in Pittsburgh. J. W. Phillips was again the delegate, and,
by appointment of the Conference, I was again stationed in
Connellsville. This was very gratifying to me, for, after sus-
taining the pastoral relation to that kind-hearted people for one
year, I felt entirely willing to try them again. But to me this
second term was one of great and sore afflictions in several ways.
The preceding was a year of revival ; this was a year of sifting
out faithless backsliders. Added to this, my support fell off,
and I had but little means of my own to meet the wants of my
family. To find myself without the means to subsist and clothe
my family, and to be getting in debt, with a poor prospect of
being able soon to pay, was, indeed, very afflicting to me. A
Church in a revival state, full of heart and spiritual life, gen-
erally supports her preacher well. But while the discipline of
the Church is being brought to bear on faulty members — who,
with all their defects, have their friends — the purse-strings are
generally drawn pretty tight upon the preacher. For fear of
this, may not a preacher be tempted of the devil to let corrup-
tion in the Church go on, "unwhipt of the law," lest he should
fall short in his support? I think there have been such cases,
and wherever they have occurred, the purity of the Church has
been bartered away for the means of living. Christ was sold for
thirty pieces of silver. Yet I rejoice to record the fact that the
great body of Connellsville Church, like Zacharias and Eliza-
beth of old, "were righteous before God, walking in all the
commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." My
failure to "receive a righteous compensation for my labors"
was not for want of means or will in these poor people. A
well-digested financial system was wanted, and J. W. Phillips,
the master-spirit in all such matters, had removed to Union-
town, and there was no good financier to take his place. A
good financial system, ably executed, is very important to min-
isterial support.

In the mouth of May, 1850, I attended the General Confer-
ence in Baltimore. At that Conference, as usual, the slave
question gave us trouble; but, as only a few memorials on the
subject, from the Churches, came before the body, no definite

MADISON COLLEGE. 343

action was taken, and that troublesome question was left about
where the two preceding General Conferences had placed it.
Such ecclesiastical bodies as ours, limited as we were by the
constitution of the Church, could do nothing with it. We were
not ripe yet for a division of the Church — even that would not
have destroyed slavery; so we hung on to our constitutional
relation to the Southern portion of the Church awhile longer.
The time of our deliverance had not fully come.

At that General Conference, after careful examination, it was
found that a competent majority of the Annual Conferences de-
sired that body to accept Madison College, as offered by the
trustees, and make it an institution of learning for the whole
Church. A college committee was created, and an elaborate
report, full of legal forms and technicalities, was drawn up by
J. IT. Deford, Esq., who was chairman of the committee. A
minority report was also presented. After both were read, the
matter was discussed at great length. Both reports were voted
down, and the Conference adopted a few brief resolutions, which
I had drawn up, in favor of accepting the college. Seven com-
missioners were then appointed by the body, to visit Uniontown
at the time of the Pittsburgh Annual Conference in that place,
the following September, examine the college property, and
either accept or reject it for the General Conference. We
may here add, that ;i majority of the commissioners attended,
according to appointment, and, after due examination, Madison
College was accepted by them as a General Conference institu-
tion. Arrangement-; were then and there made to put the col-
lege under 1 1 » * ■ control of our trustees. When this was done,
tin: duty of the commissioners was accomplished, and it never
entered into their minds that our Board of Trustees would im-
mediately commence operations in regular college form. So
grave ami important an undertaking required ample prepara-
tions, Imt we bad made no preparations at all. It was do! long
before Rev. I! II. Ball was called by tie' board to take oharj
of that institution, and a college was opened, instead of an
academy or high school. This, to us, was the beginning of
sorrows.

344 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Before the close of the aforesaid General Conference, I was
called home by a dispatch. My son George was seriously ill of
the typhoid fever, and nry wife of the pleurisy. Mrs. Brown's
health was soon restored, but it was a long time before my son
recovered. Almost immediately after this, my son Henry, then
in Pittsburgh, was taken sick. My wife and I started to see
him. We traveled in a buggy, and as we journeyed on through
intense heat, I had what is called a "sun-stroke." So, leaving
the horse and buggy in Monongahela City, in care of a friend,
with whom we spent the night, and where I suffered great pain,
we went the next day, by steamboat, to Pittsburgh. There I
received medical assistance, found my son better, and in about
one week my wife, Henry, and I all returned home together,
in rather feeble health. Not long after this, I was stricken
down myself with typhoid fever, and lay about three weeks in
a very low condition, without any visible change for the better.
After I had been sick about ten days, my wife, worn out with
constant nursing and care, fell sick of the bilious dysentery.
So, here we were, both in bad condition as to health, and most
of our neighbors were afraid to come to the house to render any
assistance in taking care of us, lest they should take the typhoid
fever, or the cholera, which my wife was supposed to have.
Yet a few of them did commit themselves to the risk of ren-
dering us help in our distress, for which we were very thankful
to God and to them. \

During my illness I was wonderfully favored of the Lord in
several respects. 1. I had the full use of my mental faculties
all the time. 2. I had grace given me according to my day
and trial. I was very happy in the Lord. 3. I had not only
a skillful, but a very sympathizing Christian physician to at-
tend me. 4. Every day I could learn that not only our own
members, but those of other Churches, were praying for me-
Satan was kept at a distance, and the Saviour was with me all
the time. One morning, two consulting physicians, after exam-
ining the cases of my wife and myself, withdrew to the far
corner of my room, and there, in* a low whisper, talked the mat-
ter over. The fever had quickened my hearing, so that I dis-

FAMILY AFFLICTIONS. 345

tinctly heard all they said. Among other things, I heard them
say that " there was no chance to raise either of us, unless they
could salivate us." On hearing this, I laughed so loud that
they heard me, and came to inquire what had moved me to
laughter. "Why," said I, "my end has come; you have just
pronounced my doom. If my recovery depends upon my heing
salivated, you can't do that ; it has been tried by several physi-
cians, and they all failed, and you will, too; so my end has come.
Then I laughed again for joy. Doctors Lindley and Fuller
were pleased to find me so whole-hearted, and spoke of certain
preparations of calomel, which they were certain would salivate
me, if I would agree to have the trial made. "Gentlemen,"
said I, " you can salivate my wife, but you can not succeed with
me. However, I am in your hands, and have not the least ob-
jection to your making the trial on us both. Save my wife if
you can, but me you can not save." After a little rest and
reflection, I told them, "whether they salivated me or not, I did
believe that God would raise me up, for it was impressed on
my heart that all my work for Christ was not yet done." The
trial was made. With my wife it succeeded; with me it was
an utter failure. No preparation of calomel would do, nor
would any mode of application, however combined with acids,
answer the purpose, and they were left to wonder what sort of
a constitution I had. At last, the disease gave way, and grad-
ually God restored me to health again, without being salivated.
Yet, from that time to the present, my left shoulder has been
weak. To make a forward motion with my arm I have full
power; but in putting on my cOat, requiring rather a backward
motion, I lack strength to raise my left arm. Other weak-
nesses of my Bystem uric, with care, gradually overcome, and
my health Bince that time, generally speaking] has been perma-
nently good.

During my protracted illness ami slow recovery, my pulpit
was pretty well supplied by the ministerial brethren iii that
vicinity, and the kind In-arted people of my charge attended
faithfully to the wants of my family.
22

346 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTER XIX.

Conference in TJniontown, Pennsylvania— Kemoval to Manchester Circuit in Vir-
ginia—Elected President— Elected President of the Board of Trustees or
Madison College— Tour through West Virginia— Re-elected President of Pitts-
burgh Conference— Kemoval to TJniontown, Pennsylvania— Funeral of Rev. Asa
Shinn— Resignation of the President of Madison College— Elected President
pro tem. of College— Return to the Labors of the District.

In September, 1850, the Pittsburgh Annual Conference was
held in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where it was most comfortably
entertained by the Church and citizens. It was a very harmo-
nious session, and made a favorable impression on the public
mind. I went to it in very feeble health, being scarcely able
to ride in my buggy, with my wife driving. When I got there
I was unable to take any part in the transactions of the body ;
and when the commissioners went to examine Madison College,,
as directed by the General Conference, I had to be conveyed
in a carriage. At that Conference there was a desire on the
part of some of the brethren to put me into the Presidency;
but, owing to the state of my health, I had to decline that labo-
rious office. Indeed, it was a matter of doubt with me whether
I ought to take any appointment or not. But the stationing
committee, with whom I left my case, wishing to retain me in
the work, finally appointed me to Manchester Circuit, among
my relatives, where the work was light, and the probabilities
of a competent support good. To this appointment I gave my
most hearty consent, and returned home to prepare for our re-
moval, which proved very fatiguing. My eldest son and my
daughter went by buggy. The rest of us were taken by car-
riage to Brownsville, and from thence by steamboat to the place
of our debarkation. We were lauded, about midnight, goods

REMOVAL TO MANCHESTER CIRCUIT. 3-47

and all, on the river bank, near the residence of John Brown,
a relation of mine. Having been attacked with something like
cholera, on the boat, shortly after leaving Pittsburgh, I waa
scarcely able to reach the house of my relative. When there,
by a free use of John's cholera medicine and a warm foot-bath,
I was relieved, and slept soundly until morning. The holy Sab-
bath-day had then come, and, weak as I was, I attended Divine
service, and spoke to the people in the name of the Lord. The
next day our goods were moved to the parsonage in New Man-
chester, where we resided among very pleasant neighbors for
about two years.

On this circuit, all things considered, I had a pleasant year,
and the Church had some prosperity. But circumstances, orig-
inating with other agencies, over which I could not possibly
have any control, and which, owing to my full confidence in
the Christian integrity of those concerned, I will not narrate
in this reminiscence of past life, greatly obstructed my useful-
ness, and to that extent interfered with my happiness ; for use-
fulness and happiness are very closely associated in my creed.
All these matters have long since gone by. Let them be buried,
never to have a resurrection, and let my most unfeigned love
be confirmed to those concerned, now and forever. Amen.

Owing to the circumstances above alluded to, or to some
other cause not known to me, my meager salary on Manchester
Circuit was not fully paid. But in those days I had a living
friend. Rev. Charles Avery, who occasionally assisted me in an
emergency; and to bring me through the year in credit and
gafety, he sent me a present of two hundred dollars. When
tli.it man died, I, and thousands of others, lost a real friend.
P.ut his bright example still lives; may it always animate the
Church I I had on thai circuit a goodly number of relatives:
the Browns— James, John, Jacob, and G-eprge — their sisters,
the two Mrs. Hewitt-. Mrs. Brenneman, and one unmarried sis-
ter, Elizabeth. They were nearly all members of the Methodist
Protestanl Church- -plain, sensible, Christian people. I loved
them much, and often wished, if it could be bo, to arrange mat-
ters so as to finish my course on earth among them. Of my

348 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

own brothers and sisters, who have nearly all passed away, it
grieves me to say that no two of them rest in the same ceme-
tery, so greatly have we been scattered in life and in death.
Even my dear father and mother lie in separate graveyards.
I have often felt a wish to rest in death among my own rela-
tions. God has taken to himself my five sons — all I had — and
they are buried in different places, distant from each other.
Well, let it be so ; let me not murmur against Providence. The
resurrection morning will bring us all together again; one
heaven, I trust, will be our home at last. Such is my hope.

In September, 1851, the Pittsburgh Annual Conference was
held in Morgantown, Virginia. The Church and citizens of
that hospitable place entertained the Conference in their best
style, and the impression made by the body on the public mind
was, in all respects, favorable to our young Church. Rather
contrary to my expectations, I was elected to the presidency
again. During this Conference, the brethren took two perpetual
scholarships, at five hundred dollars each, in Madison College;
and shortly afterward the Board of Trustees took from our
itinerant ranks Dr. P. T. Laishley, to act as agent for that in-
stitution. We all felt a deep interest in the prosperity of our
newly-adopted college.

On my return home, it was agreed by the brethren that I
might remain in the occupancy of the parsonage, as the preacher
appointed to that circuit was a single man, and did not need
the house; and as my salary the preceding year had not been
fully paid, they would charge me no rent. This was both kind
and just to me. My family being pleasantly situated among a
very orderly people — mostly under Presbyterian influence —
where, at that time, there was no intemperance, Sabbath-break-
ing, or profanity, we all felt like remaining in Manchester. All
the central parts of the district were visited during the fall and
winter. The condition of the circuits and stations was, in the
main, good. In consequence of high water in March, I found
great difficulty in meeting my appointments along the Ohio
River, in Western Virginia. I went by steamboats from cir-
cuit to circuit, then out on horseback, to fill my appointments.

UNFAITHFULNESS IN THE MINISTRY. 349

My river tour ended with Jackson Circuit, at the Falls of the
Ohio. In no portion of this trip did I feel myself to be in
Paradise; yet God took care of me, and at the end of about
five weeks I returned by steamer safely to my family.

I remained a short time at home, to rest, recruit my health,
and prepare for further duties on the district. My next tour
was up toward Lake Erie, in North-western Pennsylvania.
About the first of May, with health not very firm, I was off
from home, to be absent until near the middle of July. In con-
sequence of great rains of several days' continuance, I found
the roads almost impassable. Deep mud, and streams greatly
swollen, very much impeded my progress. I had thrown "Lize"
out of the service. "Lucy," the animal I now had, was equal in
durability and trustworthiness, but not in speed. Yet, bad as
traveling was, I reached all my appointments in time. It will
be enough to say of this tour in the district, that it was one
of great labor and considerable success. On several circuits
there were revivals of religion, and the Churches were prosper-
ing. To this the Conneaut Circuit was an exception, having
been almost wholly neglected by the superintendent. The mem-
bership on that circuit had their mouths full of complaints to
me against their preacher, for his inefficiency in attending to his
work. He declined appearing at Conference to answer for his
conduct, but wandered off to the West, got into worldly specu-
lations, and for several years mixed preaching and speculating
together, until, al last, we heard no more of him; and Conneaut
Circuit, from the date of his mission there, began to decline,
ami is now not numbered among the appointments in the Pitts-
burgh Co n Terence. Such is the result of unfaithfulness in the
ministry. The preacher who takes an appointment from Con-
ference comee under a moral obligation to that body, to that
circuit or station, and to the Saviour of sinners, to dischai
all the duties legitimately connected with that appointment
faithfully, to the besf of bis ability, to the end of* the Confer

ence year. Do not let him plead a want of support as a reason
for neglecting bia work; for when a preacher faithfully performs

his whole duty, Christ generally puts it into the hearts of the

350 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

people in the Church, or outside of it, to supply his wants.
But unfaithfulness will tighten the purse-strings of any people.
Who wants to feed and. clothe an idle drone? Is it not the
law of the Lord that " if a man will not work, neither shall he
eat?"

At Johnstown, where, at that time, we had a promising little
Methodist Protestant community, I completed the labors of my
tour, and returned home through most intense heat. I found
all well, but was myself very much worn down with long-con-
tinued hard labor. We still have a good meeting-house in
Johnstown, and a few excellent members ; but, from some cause,
for several years past they have taken no preacher from Con-
ference. Why is this? In that rapidly-growing place we might,
I think, have a prosperous Church, if the right kind of meas-
ures were adopted. The truth of the matter I take to be this :
we lack a competent number of well-qualified ministers to build
up the cause of Christ in certain localities. The people want a
preacher to suit the place, or none at all. So the cause runs
down, and so it will continue to run down, until the Church
does more than heretofore to give her itinerant ministers a
competent training for the work. We must keep up with the
age in education, or suffer loss. Our doctrinal and ecclesias-
tical principles are certainly good, but they require well-trained
men to carry them out in all the land. Principles require agen-
cies to establish them among the people; they do not, by their
own abstract weight, establish themselves.

Having rested a short time with my family at home, I took
my son George for a traveling companion, and set out on a long
tour to the Greenbrier country, in Western Virginia. Having
been informed of my election to the presidency of the Board
of Trustees of Madison College, and that they were in some
trouble at that institution, I took Uniontown in my route, in
view of ascertaining, if practicable, what was the matter. It was
about this, if I remember accurately: Certain students, in their
literary society, had introduced resolutions supposed to contain
sentiments disrespectful to the character and position of the
President of the college. Being high-spirited, they would not

TOUR THROUGH WESTERN VIRGINIA. 351

retract, so the faculty expelled them. The case then, according
to the character, came before the Board of Trustees for a final
hearing. That body, overawed by the faculty, and fearing the
resignation of some or all of the professors, confirmed the
expulsions, supposing it better to sustain even an unduly rigor-
ous action of the faculty than to give up the college. Against
all this weakness, the President of the board, who was a man
of irritable temper, made a speech of a most vexatious and ex-
asperating character. He was, in that case, certainly right in
priuciple, but his manner was not suited to our civilization ; so,
in the annual election he lost his position, and I was chosen in
his place. On looking into this matter fully, I could not see
that I could afford to let the faculty override the chartered
rights of the board, if I could possibly hinder it, any more
than my predecessor; but I could be more respectful to all the
parties concerned in temper and language. As I was then Pres-
ident of the Conference, I could not hope to meet often with
the board. Once a quarter was all that I could promise, and it
was supposed that would be often enough, so I proceeded on
my journey to the mountains of Virginia.

My first appointment was on Barbour Circuit. The congre-
gation was very large. A congressional election was just at
hand, and the candidates were there. In the house, during serv-
ice, they were very civil and respectful, but before and after
public worship, they were busy in all directions among the peo-
ple, even on the Sabbath-day, striving to secure votes. Who
can fully comprehend the arts and devices of a winding, slippery,
serpentine politician? And what preacher can hope to do any
religious good in the presence of such a political influence as
was felt to be there? I think it likely that my efforts to do
good at that meeting were all in vain.

The next morning, early, George and I were off for the
Huntersville Circuit. Wo reached Beverly the first night, and
were kindly entertained at the house, of Mrs. Earle, where we
rested one day. Then, going out by the head of Tygart'a Val-
ley a little after nightfall, we came to Mr. Naoe'a, and were
comfortably entertained. The next day, having no farther any

352 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

graded road, we found it very difficult to travel with a buggy
along a blind path, obstructed by rocks and fallen timber and
mud. From the Gatewood Farm to Elk River our difficulties
came near being insurmountable. Finally, we came to Mr. Gib-
son's, on Elk River, about two o'clock P. M., and rested there
until the next morning. When morning came, we made an
early start for brother Buckley's, on Greenbrier River, thcplace
of my meeting for Huntersville Circuit. In passing across the
mountain from the Elk to the Greenbrier River, I became over-
heated. It was toward the last of August, and the scorching
power of the sun overcame me as I walked up the mountain.
A strong rush of blood to my brain bewildered me, and George,
who was ahead with the buggy, had to turn back and help me
along. I then concluded to ride, but was scarcely able to drive;
so George took me and the whole establishment in charge. That
dear son was of great service to me, as I was, indeed, a very sick
man. When we came to the river, we turned aside, up stream,
to the house of Mr. Gay, and there I received the best of at-
tention from that kind family, and by the next morning was
ready to go on my way to my appointment at Buckley's. Our
meeting at that place was well attended by our members from
all parts of the Huntersville Circuit, and by some from other
Churches who differed from us in doctrine. One man, with a
very shrill voice, kept George and me awake nearly all the first
night, arguing with his bedfellow on the foreknowledge and
eternal decrees of God. When unable to sustain the notion
that God had decreed all things that came to pass as being in-
consistent with man's free agency and accountability, he would
fall back to foreknowledge. "All men must admit fore-
knowledge," he said, "and knowledge has a binding force on
human actions." How did that man discover there was a bind-
ing force in knowledge? If God knew that man would sin, He
knew he would act freely in doing the very thing which had
been forbidden under the highest penalty; and if He knew he
would act freely in sinning, He knew that His knowledge would
have no compulsory influence in bringing about the sinful trans-
action. If God's knowledge of all the actions of created beings,

TOUR THROUGH WESTERN VIRGINIA. 353

good and evil, has a binding force on those actions, so as to
compel them to be exactly what they are, may not God's knowl-
edge of what He intends to do himself have a binding force
on His own actions, so as to leave us the amazingly absurd con-
clusion that there is no such thing as freedom of action in the
universe, and that God himself is bound in the chains of fate
by His own knowledge? All manner of crimes are forbidden
by Divine authority, yet God's infinite knowledge extends with
a compelling force to all those crimes, we are told, necessitating
them to come to pass! Thus God's knowledge is brought to
overthrow His own government, and, along with this, to destroy
His own personal freedom, and bind Him and the whole intel-
ligent universe in the chains of fate. After this manner I
reasoned, while kept awake by that shrill-voiced man, arguing
with his bedfellow.

But to return to the meeting at Buckley's. The church was
far too small to contain the people ; so we went to a neighbor-
ing grove, and God gave me unusual strength and liberty that
day in preaching the Gospel. That assembly, collected from
the mountains and valleys of the Greenbrier region, seemed
hungry for the Word of Life. The message of grace which
Christ sent to them that day by me was well received. They
drank in the word as the thirsty earth driuketh in the rain.
City congregations, who have so much preaching, do not appre-
ciate or enjoy a Gospel sermon as do the mountaineers. Among
them it was not deemed a crime, nor yet a breach of order, to say
"amen" when an emphatic sentence in the sermon pleased them;
and to praise the Lord for the manifestations of grace was con-
sidered a general privilege. When I saw that God was at work
among the people, their amens and hallelujahs never disturbed
me; nor did the tears and sobs and cries of the penitents for
mercy. These things all belonged to the Bchool of Christ in
"whi'-li 1 had been trained, and, as a matter of course, I under-
stood them well. At the close of the sermon came the holy
communion. It was a time of great mercy — a season of abun-
dant refreshing; for Chri-t wis with his people, and we all re-
joiced together in hope of a better life to come.

354 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

The meeting closed that evening. It ought to have been
protracted. I think the results would have been valuable to
the Church; but, as I had appointments ahead, I had to leave
very soon for brother Cochran's, at the Droop Mountain, where
I preached the next day to a large congregation. Again God
gave me liberty in preaching His word, and I trust good to
the people was the result of my labors. In that region I
had many dear friends — among them brother Jesse Cochran,
who gave me a namesake among the boys of his household.
At the time of the battle at the Droop Mountain, I thought
of all my old friends in that vicinity, and wondered whether
they were for or against the Union. As they had no slaves, I
think they had no interest in the rebellion, and my hope is that
they remained loyal to the United States. The next day after
we reached Cochran's, George and I went home with brother
Eli Taylor,, who lived at a distance of about five miles, a little
off from the direct road to Frankfort, the place of my meeting
for Greenbrier Circuit. In consequence of heavy rains and
high water, we were detained at Taylor's until Saturday morn-
ing, and it was even then with great difficulty that we forded
the streams and reached our destination. The meeting at
Frankfort was one of great interest, but, owing to circumstances
which I need not detail, it had to be closed on Sunday evening.
Brother William Bolton was, if I remember correctly, rendering
service that year on both Huntersville and Greenbrier Circuits.
He has since joined the Baptist denomination; and I leave it on
record in this sketch of the past, that he was considered in the
Greenbrier country to be a man of excellent character and a
valuable minister of Jesus Christ. My dear George, who is
now in heaven, and who always had a social heart, became
greatly attached to brother Bolton and to the Greenbrier friends
generally. There was much in that region to interest him.

On Monday morning we started for the camp-meeting on
Braxton Circuit. Going across to the Lewisburg and Kanawha
pike, we lodged at a tavern that night at the foot of the great
Sewell Mountain, on the west side. The next morning we were
prevented from taking an early start by finding that our horse

CONFERENCE IN PRUNTYTOWN. 355

had got out of the stable, and was gone, we knew not where.
We all supposed that she was stolen, but a brief hunt brought
her from a field on the side of the mountain. George and I were
much pleased to see her again, and, after feeding her, we started
for Summerville, the seat of justice for Nicholas County. By-
taking a right-hand road, about ten o'clock, we shortened the
distance, and reached our destination a little after dark. The
hard hills and hot weather had exhausted all my energies, but
George was blithe and gay, and waited on me and attended to
"Lucy" as though he had not felt the heat or the hills that
day. Such is the difference between youth and age. After
sleeping soundly through the night, and getting an early break-
fast in the morning, we were off from Summerville for the camp-
meeting on Braxton Circuit. The roads being muddy, the trav-
eling was hard that day ; but, a little after sundown, we reached
Suttonville, and were kindly entertained, free of charge, by John
Camden, who kept the only public house in the place. The
next day, by twelve o'clock, we came to the house of Richard
Walker, superintendent of Braxton Circuit. There we rested
until the following morning, and then went on with brother
Walker and his family to the camp-meeting. The ministerial
help expected did not come, so the labors of the meeting fell
too heavily upon me; yet, as was my day, so was my strength.
God gave us an unusually good camp-meeting. Walker, now
among the rebels, was a most indefatigable and successful la-
borer at that meeting. During the last night, even on until
tbe morning light appeared, his voice could be heard in a large
prayer-meeting tent, near the preachers' stand. The fruits of
that meeting will be seen in eternity.

My labors Tor the year were now ended. Next came the Con-
ference in Pruntytown, in September, 1852. On our way there,
George and I stopped awhile in Weston, with Mr. George A.

•Jack-on and Mrs. It. J. Hodgson, brother and sistei of my
wife. They and their children and George and I had a very
pleasant time together for a few days. When at Conference in
Pruntytown, my home was with William Kimble. Hi- parents
had often entertained me, and I loved them much; so I <lid

356 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

William, who was an amiable member of the Methodist Prot-
estant Church. But, somehow or other, the rebels drew him
into their ranks, as they have several others whom I tenderly
loved, in West Virginia. How can I ever forgive the rebellion
for these breaches made in the ranks of my friends? How can
I ever forgive the efforts which they have made to destroy the
government of my country and its friends? At the thought
of their crimes, even an old Universalist admitted to me, a
short time ago, that, " in relation to future punishment, he had
changed his mind : he now believed in an eternal hell for rebels
and traitors. My conclusion, when I heard this speech, was,
if rebels and traitors deserve an eternal hell for their present
rebellion against the best human government upon earth, then,
certainly, eternal punishment is due to all sinners who, in league
with the devil and his angels, dare to live and die in rebellion
against the holy and perfect government of God. I shall, if
spared, try to press this conclusion home on my old friend
when we meet again.

But to return from this digression. The Conference in Prun-
tytown was most liberally sustained by our Church, the other
Churches, and the citizens. The impression made by the body
on the public mind was altogether favorable to our interests
as a Christian denomination. At that Conference I was elected
President for the last time. I then returned to my family in
Hancock County, Virginia, and immediately removed to Union-
town, Pennsylvania. This grew out of a desire to be able to
render some service to Madison College, as President of the
Board of Trustees. Moreover, I wanted to educate my son
George at that institution. This change of residence was very
fatiguing, and proved quite injurious to our household goods.
It is hardly worth while for itinerant preachers, who are sub-
ject to constant removals, to have valuable furniture, to be
abused in all sorts of ways while in transition from place to
place. In a short time after I got my family comfortably situ-
ated in Uniontown, I attended a meeting of the Board of Trust-
ees, to ascertain as nearly as I could the state of affairs at the
college, and what duties I would be expected to perform, and

FUNERAL OF REV. ASA SHINN. 357

then went forth to my appointed labors on the Pittsburgh Dis-
trict. The central parts were visited during the fall and win-
ter, and, generally speaking, the Churches were found to be in
a healthy condition. During that winter my physical energie
were very much exhausted by hard labor, and I began to feel
it to be entirely wrong for me to be so much from home. My
family needed my presence, and my whole nature, soul and
body, needed rest. A weakness in the lower limbs, a soreness
in the diaphragm, and a constant determination of blood to the
brain, began to admonish me that my itinerant toils must be
brought to a close. Yet I loved itinerant life, and hardly knew
how to lock the wheels which so long had rolled me on, and
call a final halt.

Just as I was about to close my labors in the Sharpsburg
Station, and return to my family in Uniontown, the remains of
Rev. Asa Shinn, who had died in Brattleboro, Vermont, were
brought home to his family, in Alleghany, for interment, and
I was called upon to preach his funeral sermon in the Alle-
ghany church. His death occurred on the 11th of January,
1853. 0, how I felt my inability to do justice to the mental,
moral, spiritual, and ministerial character of that good and great
man of G-odl lie had b§en under a dark mental cloud for eight
or nine years, but now had gone forth to the clear light of an
eternal day. Will I ever see his like again? Shinn, Snethen,
and Jennings — what a trio! — all giants in the Christian min-
istry, all leading reformers, and all have passed away to their
home in heavenl Jennings was classically educated, yet always
yielded the palm of greatness to the other two; they, in turn,
conceded it to him. Shinn and Snethen, both self-made men,
wen- always found each to prefer the other before himself, and
neither of the three has left, in any of the Churches, a supe-
rior. Their greatness clothed them with deep humility of mind
and childlike simplicity of manners. They were lovely men,
ami left to the Church the bright example of a holy life.

On my return to my family in Uniontown, I found there was
trouble in Madison College. In consequence of some disagree-
ment between the President, Rev. R. H. Ball, and his Bubordi-

358 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

nates in the faculty, which bore very hard on Mr. Ball's health,
and sorely afflicted his mind, he determined to resign his posi-
tion in the college. This step, no doubt, met the approbation
of the remaining members of the faculty, but it by no means
suited the views and wishes of the trustees. Were the truth
fully known, I think it was to gratify Mr. Ball that, in the out-
set, a college was started instead of a high-school, and now for
him, in consequence of trouble which ought to have been left
to the trustees to settle, to leave the institution so soon, was
not satisfactory to the board, the students, the citizens, nor the
friends and patrons of the college generally. An appeal was
then made to Bev. Francis Waters, D. D., to come and take the
presidency of the college. He answered to our call, came out
from Baltimore to see us in our troubles, and agreed to accept
the position, but, in consequence of existing engagements, could
not enter upon the duties of his office until the following Sep-
tember. Meantime, to carry on the college, the board, by the
advice of both Ball and Waters, elected me to serve as Presi-
dent pro tern., until the collegiate year should close. So, here
I was, "Jack in a pinch" — many a time I have been "Jack in
a pinch" — compelled into service when every body else failed.
He who presides in a college should, in my judgment, un-
derstand, with critical accuracy, all that is taught in such an
institution, from the bottom to the top, and have good executive
abilities. But my qualifications would not come up to this
standard, as I was, mainly, self-taught; and with all my might I
remonstrated against my pro tern, appointment, but all to no
purpose, as it was affirmed, by Dr. Waters and others, that very
few Presidents were thorough masters of the whole college course
of instruction. When nothing else would do, I consented to
serve as best I could. Mental and Moral Science, Logic,
Natural Theology, and Ancient and Modern History belonged
to my chair. All of these branches had been my favorite
studies in former years, as closely connected with my minis-
terial calling, and I thought myself able to teach them, and
did feel in my heart a confidence that, with the blessing of
God, I could govern the college without a war with my col-

RETURN TO THE LABORS OF THE DISTRICT. 359

leagues or with the trustees. So, Rev. Noble Gillespie took my
place on the district for about three months, and I attended to
all his work in the Uniontown Station, and performed the du-
ties of President in Madison College to the end of the year.
Our annual commencement was a credit to the institution. Dr.
Waters was there, and delivered his inaugural address, which
was very highly appreciated by the people.

My term of service in the college being at an end, and
brother Gillespie having returned to the labors of his station,
after tilling my appointments, I took my son George again for
a traveling companion on the district in North-western Penn-
sylvania. Our route led us through Johnstown and to the Sus-
quehanna country ; thence to Jefferson, Clarion, Pleasant Valley,
and Gerrard, near lake Erie. From the last-mentioned point we
turned south, to a camp-meeting near the Ohio line, on Sharon
Circuit. We were out from home about nine weeks. The
weather was excessively hot; the traveling in a mountainous
country was very fatiguing to man and horse; my labor at the
various meetings was too great for my strength, and my health
at one time was so much broken down, that for about one week I
had to be nursed by kind friends on the Clarion Circuit. When
I reached home, all my physical energies were so far exhausted
as to produce a conviction in my mind that itinerant life with
me must now be brought to a final close. Had it not been for
the untiring watchfulness and care of my dear son, who managed
the horse and baggy and attended to all my wants, I could not
have accomplished the trip at all. Alter attending an excel
lent camp-meeting near Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where I
preached but once — there being other good ministerial brethren
there to perform the labor — I returned home to prepare for the
Conference, which was held in Washington, Pennsylvania, Sep
temb'er, 1863. At that Conference, being wmn out in the serv-
ice, the brethren granted me a superannuated relation at my
own request. To be compelled, by the enfeebled state of my
health, to retire from the itinerant ranks, where I had labored
so long, moved me to tears, and I never shall forgel the balmy
sympathy of kind friends who clustered round me with words

360 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

of encouragement. That was an interesting and impressive
Conference, handsomely entertained by our people, assisted by
the community, and made a good impression in favor of the
Methodist Protestant Church on the public mind. Yet there
was one thing that occurred — a little too painful to be written —
which gave me no little trouble for several years. Will God,
in mercy, be pleased to give me the charity that hopeth all
things and never faileth.

KEY. FRANCIS WATERS. D. D. 361

CHAPTER XX.

Bev. Francis Waters, D. D., President of Madison College— His Resignation— Rev.
S. K. Cox, President— Pecuniary Embarrassments in College Affairs— General
Conference of ISM— The Entering-wedge of Church Division— Cholera During
the Session of the Pittsburgh Annual Conference in Alleghany— Visit as Fra-
ternal Messenger to the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, at Blairsville, Penn.— Serious Trouble at the College— Expulsion of a.
Student— Reconsideration oi THE Sentence Urged— Threat of the Faculty to Re-
sign unless Sustained by Board of Trustees— Faculty Sustained— Visit to Cincin-
nati— Military Discipline— Prophetic Opinion on Political Matters Expressed
by Ex-Governor Branch, of North Carolina— Secession of Faculty and Founding
of an Institution at Lynchburg— Election to the Presidency of Madison College.

Being now free from itinerant service, and without any in-
come from the Church, I aimed to make a living for myself
and family by keeping boarders, but could not succeed. From
first to last, I sunk money by the operation. Nor was this all.
Heavy duties devolved upon my wife, which gradually wore
down her feeble constitution. Yet we were ambitious to sustain
our family, and continued at that business, much as we disliked
it, as long as we remained at Uniontowu. But, in the winding
up, I found that I had drawn heavily on my own means in-
stead of making a living by boarding -indents. The fact is,
we did not understand the business, bad not the tact for it nor
the health to undergo itfl toils, and l'rom it, on the score of
prudence, should have abstained.

During my pro tern, presidency in the college, Rev. William
Collier was in the presidency of the Board of Trustees. In a
slioit time he relinquished that office, and the board reelected

me t y former position. When the college was opened, on

the Lsl of September, Dr. Waters, bavin- removed with bis
famil y to Uniontown, took his position as President, and every
heart was glad; for be was a man of venerable age, of a com-
manding person, a thorough scholar, an able minister of the
23

362 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Gospel, a perfect gentleman in his social habits, and one of the
foremost educators in our country — the very man to build up
our institution. This, I believe, was the universal opinion in
relation to our newly-elected President. But in about two
months, owing to causes, as the Doctor informed me, not con-
nected with the college, or the Board of Trustees, or the citi-
zens, and not revealed to any one, he left the college and
returned to Maryland. As we had been greatly elevated in
our hopes and expectations by his coming, we were propor-
tionally distressed by his resignation and departure. Professor
Newell, at the instance of Dr. Waters, then took charge of the
institution, and the work went on as usual; but it was easy to
see, at home and abroad, that public confidence was very much
shaken.

Before Dr. Waters left Uniontown, the Board of Trustees
sought his advice as to a suitable person to be his successor.
He recommended Rev. S. K. Cox, who was at that time sta-
tioned in Georgetown, D. C. Immediately a correspondence
was opened by the board with Mr. Cox, who accepted the po-
sition, and in a short time came on. Again confidence began
to revive, for we found Cox to be a well-educated, ardent young
man, a good preacher, of fine social habits, and did not doubt
but he would do all he could to build up the college and win for
himself a high reputation as a first-class educator. In a short
time, however, we had reason to believe him to be somewhat
visionary, but did not dread evil results to the college, as he
was amiable in his intercourse with the trustees, and very labo-
rious in the discharge of all his duties in the institution. Mat-
ters for some time moved on very well. God gave us a revival
of religion in the Church. Many of the students were the sub-
jects of saving grace, and the President of our college proved
himself to be a valuable laborer in that revival, and thereby
gained an extensive influence over the students and among the
people at home and abroad.

But it will be necessary to turn back a little in the history
of events. In the month of March, 1853, the Board of Trustees
determined on the erection of an addition to the college build-

EMBARRASSMENTS IN COLLEGE AFFAIRS. 363

ings, at a cost of §3,200. The Methodist Protestant Church
was to pay one-half of this amount, and the citizens of Union-
town the other; and agents, one for each of the parties, were
then appointed hy the board to raise the required funds to ac-
complish the object. According to our contract with the build-
ers, the money was to be paid in four installments: one-fourth
when the foundation was laid, another when the roof was on,
another when the carpenters' work was done, and the balance
when the whole job was completed. As before stated, at the
conclusion of my labors in college, I had gone out to finish my
year in the Conference district as President. When I returned,
the building had progressed finely. Two payments were then
about due. The citizens had paid up ; eight hundred dollars were
due from the Church, and our agent had made no collections!
All of this was very painful and mortifying to me, especially
as the board determined that one or the other of two things
must now forthwith be done. Either we must abandon the
building enterprise altogether, or I must, by some means, raise
eight hundred dollars, to meet the Church's part of the pay-
ments, then due.

I took a little time for reflection, and was sorely grieved at
the failure of our agent. We had pulled down an old building
to put up a new one in its place. Unless we finished the new
building, we could not carry on a college at all, for want of
room. The idea of abandoning it altogether did not suit me,
Bf I knew the Church, from the beginning, had suffered much
for want of such an institution. Nor did it suit me to assume
'the responsibility of borrowing eight hundred dollars. Vet, to
save the character of the Church, and relieve myself from un-
speakable mortification, and to open up the way for the roll
to go ou, I did, with Daniel Huston lor security, borrow of

Mrs. Rachael Skilea the eight hundred dollars to pay the work
man. To meet the other payments on behalf of the Church,
at they fell due, eosl me a greal deal of trouble, and by far too
much of my own money; yet the whole was fully paid. In my
judgment, that new addition to the college building ought not
to have cost the Church one cent. The citizens Bhould bave

364 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

borne the entire expense of its erection, as, by our carrying on
a college among them, they had the advantage of educating
their sons at home, and the students expended a great deal of
money in Uniontown.

In May, 1854, the General Conference was held in Steuben-
ville, Ohio. This was the last time the North met the South in
General Conference. For sixteen years the constitutional liberty
of the press had been broken down by the Book Committee, in
Baltimore, to please slaveholders. The Fugitive-slave Law,
enacted by Congress in 1850, by which Northern freemen were
compelled to be slave-catchers for Southern slaveholders, was
doing our Church great injury in all the free States. There
being left in our Church no medium of free communication for
thought and argument against the great moral, political, and
domestic evil of slavery, it was thought best, by the members
of the General Conference who were from the free States, to get
that body to establish a book concern and a Church paper, un-
der its own control, somewhere in the West. To be degraded
into slave-catchers for the South, and have no medium through
which to utter a complaint, offer an argument or a remonstrance,
under General Conference authority, was most provoking to our
people, and led to a constant drain of our members off to other
Churches in the North. But the committee in this case, com-
posed of Northern and Southern members, could not agree to
report in favor of a book concern in a free State, under General
Conference control. The South, evidently, was afraid that a
free press, in Northern hands, would attack slavery and bring
trouble into the General Conference. The final action of that
body was to authorize the establishment of a book concern and
Church paper in the West, under the control of such Annual
Conferences as favored the measure, allowing the new estab-
lishment their proper share of the funds of the book concern
at Baltimore. At the same time, to make things even, the latter
was placed under the management of the Southern Conferences ;
and the Conferences North and South were authorized to carry
on their publishing interests by the action of conventions.

Here it will be seen that, to accommodate the slave power,

ENTERING-WEDGE OF CHURCH DIVISION. 365

•which at that time had a firm hold on the vitals of the Meth-
odist Protestant Church, an important portion of the constitu-
tional work of our General Conference was thrown out from
under the control of that body, to be subjected to the regula-
tions of conventions wholly unknown to the constitution of our
Church. Here, too, it will be seen that Church division was
commenced. A Church that will not, on account of slavery, or
any thing else, work together in sustaining vital interests of
a constitutional character, can not possibly remain united to-
gether. The members of that body generally thought their
action to be a "peace measure; " and that, as nothing published
on the slave question, by authority of these outside conventions,
could ever, in future, come before the General Conference to
disturb its harmony, henceforth the North and South would
be at peace among themselves. I, however, was of a different
opinion, and so was Dr. Armstrong, of Tennessee. We were
the only members of that body who opposed the measure as
tending to division. The Docter protested against the action;
I did not, but declared it to be my conviction that the General
Conference had "started an cnteriug-wedge — division would fol-
low." When I sat down, with a sad heart, unable to restrain
my tears, Dr. Thompson, of Virginia, came to me to soothe my
feelings, and. in the blandest tones possible, said: "I regard this
as a peace measure. The slavery question can no more come into
the General Conference, ami. as we shall have nothing to quarrel
about, all will be peace in future." "But," said I, "where will
be the use of a (iem-ial Conference at all, when all our gen-
eral interests are tin-own out to be managed by conventions?"
"There will be our missions and our college," he replied. I
was glad to obtain from him the least hint favorable to tli

importanl interests, especially the college enterprise, as in that
I \s;i- deeply interested; and it gave me unspeakable plea are
to witness, on the part of tint Conference, Buch a commendable

zeal to promote the welfare of our literary institution at I mioii-
to w n .

It is my firm belief that the friends of the foregoing "peace
measure" were all of them sincere. Yet, on mature reflection,

366 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

after their return to their homes, they were not satisfied with
what they had done, and it was soon most unmistakably under-
stood that this peace measure had waked up the spirit of war; for
a desire was almost immediately evinced by some of the members
of the General Conference, who had favored the action of that
body to call a convention, at once to dissolve our connection, in
order to avoid any further encroachments on our constitutional
rights by the slaveholders of the South. To accomodate them, we
had been deprived of the constitutional liberty of the press for
sixteen years, and now they had so managed as to get the Gen-
eral Conference to befriend slavery again, by throwing out the
book concern and Church papers to the unconstitutional con-
trol of conventions. The truth is, our Churches in the free
States were then in a condition where men of reason and re-
ligion could not easily be satisfied; but the time for division
had not yet fully come.

From the middle of May, 1854, to the month of September,
in Western Pennsylvania and the north-eastern parts of Ohio,
there fell no rain, of any account, to nourish the earth. There
was a general failure in the crops. Provisions were very scarce,
and could only be purchased at exorbitant prices. The distress
among the poor was exceedingly great the following fall and
winter. That year I sunk money by boarding students at a
slightly increased price; but still I retained my boys and did
the best I could. The students must have accomodations or go
home, and the college run down, which would have been a grief
to all its friends, for at that time it was in a flourishing con-
dition. I will here record the generosity of my old friend
Rev. C. Springer. Hearing of the famine, he sent me, from the
vicinity of Zanesville, Ohio, all the way to Uniontown, Penn-
sylvania, four barrels of apples, to help me through the winter,
for which I felt very thankful. God and my friends helped me,
and I did all I could to help myself and to aid those who were
worse off than I was, for even poor men may assist one another.

In September, 1854, the Pittsburgh Annual Conference was
held in Alleghany. There came a great rain, the first we had
had of any special advantage to vegetation for more than three

MATTERS AT MADISON COLLEGE. 367

months. Immediately the cholera made its appearance in the
cities of the two rivers, in the most alarming form. Rev. H.
T. Layton, one of our excellent itinerant ministers, fell by that
disease so suddenly that many of his brethren in Conference
had not yet been informed of his illness. Several other mem-
bers of the body were attacked, but by skillful medical treat-
ment, under the Divine blessing, they recovered. For fear of
this terrible scourge, several left for home. When Conference
was over, and I was about leaving, being delayed a little in
Pittsburgh on business, my turn came to feel, for the third time
in my life, what it was to be stricken down by the cholera. By
the aid of appropriate remedies, I was, in a short time, so far
recovered as to be able to return to my family; but it was
several months before my health was fully restored.

At that Conference, in the midst of so much cholera excite-
ment and alarm, the Western Virginia Conference District was
set off, very much to my grief. The brethren in that region
did not appear to favor the anti-slavery views and feelings of
the Pennsylvania portion of the old Pittsburgh Conference. A
new district they thought would enable them to extend the
work, and they would feel more comfortable by themselves; so
the brethren agreed to let them go. There was, undoubtedly,
an overruling Providence in this matter, as well as in the action
of the General Conference in Steubenville. God was preparing
the Methodist Protestant Church in the free States to escape
from the troubles which He saw were coming on the country
in consequence of slavery. Many a time have I found that
thingfl that caused me the greatest grief had in them the
great' -t -nod, upon the whole, when events more fully disclosed
the designs of Providence.

It will now be proper to give some further account of mat-
ters at Madison College. This is deemed appropriate BS a part
of my own personal history. Early in March, 1855, at the
requeei of R*y. S. K. Cox. President, I took charge of his
classes, while he went to attend the Maryland Conference, on
business pertaining to the college, and taught until near the
end of the month, when he returned and resumed his place and

368 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

duties again. On Sunday morning, the 18th of March,* while
I was attending an appointment in the country, three of the
students who boarded at my house, among whom was Washing-
ton Harbaugh, were requested to go into the room occupied by
W. and C. Bailey until their own room was put in order — the
Baileys and other boarders being absent at Sunday-school.
While there, Harbaugh took a book and read, but the other
two students put bits of paper in under the lid of W. Bailey's
desk to. tease him. They all then returned to their own room.
After church, the Baileys came in, and W. Bailey, on seeing
the bits of paper sticking under the lid of his desk, became
very angry, and said Harbaugh had been in his room playing
tricks on him. One of the students, anxious for mirth, went
and informed Harbaugh that he was accused. Out stepped Har-
baugh and denied the charge. Bailey called him a liar. He
again denied the charge; then Bailey repeated the declaration
that he was a liar. Harbaugh instantly took him by the throat,
and a fight ensued. The students who had played the trick
separated them, explained the matter, cleared Harbaugh, and
took the blame on themselves. Still, Bailey persisted in calling
Harbaugh a liar.

After preaching that night, Mrs. Brown gave me a statement
of all the foregoing particulars. It grieved me much that any
of my boarders, over whom I watched, and for whom I prayed
to God continually, should have outraged all moral order and
got into a fight. So I went up to talk to W. Bailey about the
impropriety of fighting, but found him in bed, fast asleep. I
then went into Harbaugh's room, and talked with him a long
time concerning the improper, disgraceful, dog-like practice of
fighting. He admitted all I said to be true, but insisted that
" there was no other way to deal with such fellows as Bailey
but to choke them, and he meant to choke back that lie on
Bailey the next morning." I then told him not to dare to do
such a thing; I prayed to God in my house, and could not
allow fighting among my boarders. So, after warning him
against indulging in anger, I left him for the night, hoping he.

*I here transcribe from a document written a little after that timo.

SERIOUS TROUBLE AT MADISON COLLEGE. 369

would be cooled off by morning. A good sleep often overcomes
blind passion.

In the morning the young gentlemen all ate their breakfasts
quietly together, and then started to college. On the way, Har-
bangh called upon Bailey to take back that lie that he had
charged him with. Bailey refused to do so, and then a fight im-
mediately came off, which was pretty sore on both sides. It
was just over as I came up. After prayer and roll-call in col-
lege, I reported the case to the faculty, and requested that due
attention should be given to it, and that the institution should
be saved from any further disgrace by their fighting. As they
both belonged to the preparatory department, I supposed that
such correction as they deserved would be administered by the
Principal. But a meeting of the faculty was called for one
o'clock P. M. The parties were summoned to appear. The
students from my house, and myself, were called as witnesses.
All the other witnesses testified before me, and screened the
boys all they could. Then I was called, and said I knew noth-
ing of the matter, only what my wife had told me. The fac-
ulty replied that would be taken as evidence, and directed me
to proceed. I did so, and gave all the particulars as they oc-
curred at my house, as my wife had stated them to me. A
part of my testimony was, that " W. Bailey called Harbaugh a
liar twice, and then the fighl began." Perceiving that the gen-
tlemen of the faculty talked among themselves while 1 was
testifying, and fearing that I was not understood, I repeated
my word-: "W. Bailey called fiarbaugh a liar twice, and then
the fighl began." Still, I was not understood; for, in making

up their award, ten demerit marks were given to Washington
Harbaugh f'-.r calling \V. Bailey a liar! This was putting the

saddle on the wrong horse; it was neither kind to me, nor just
to H»rbau-_h. who, when he -ot his sentence, lefl the room in
a rage and went home, being in no condition of mind for col-
lege duties that afternoon.

Finding what was done, ami how Harbaugh was grieved at

the injustice done him by the faculty, 1 dc-ired him to be
calm, and I would have the mistake rectified; and so 1 did, the

370 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

next morning, and reported that fact to him before morning
prayer. To this, however, he paid no attention ; for, when called
on by Professor Carroll to give an excuse for absence from
recitation, the previous afternoon, he replied, crustily, " I was at
home, sir." "That won't do," said Carroll, "You must have
a better excuse than that. I can't take that. Any gentleman
could say, I was at home.' Were you sick ? or what was the
matter? Answer me, sir." His manner was quite tart. I was
near enough to hear every word, and felt that two angry spirits
were now in conflict. "You did me injustice yesterday," said
Harbaugh. " You gave me ten demerit marks for calling Bill
Bailey a liar, when Mr. Brown testified that it was Bill Bailey
that called me a liar; and I '11 go home when I please, and stay
at home as much as I please." He was greatly excited and
very impertinent, and the feeling of the faculty was roused
against him to the highest pitch. One of them, who stood near
me, said "his very blood boiled," and all of them evinced con-
siderable viudietiveness of spirit, on that occasion, against Har-
baugh.

It may be proper here to submit two remarks. 1. Harbaugh
got into the quarrel through the fault of others. They stuck the
bits of paper into the desk. He was accused; he denied the
charge, and was called a liar; so the trouble began. 2. An
unjust sentence passed upon him by the faculty, right in the
teeth of my testimony, twice repeated, led to all the following
impertinence. He was made to suffer for the fault of others.
On this account I was constrained to pity him, and try to get
him fair play in all his troubles. He had very high mettle, but
was of a noble, generous spirit.

Young Harbaugh, now fairly in the current, was swept along,
and his ultimate destiny seemed inevitable. At one o'clock
that day, he was called before the faculty again, under charge
of impertinence to the officers of the college. They were now
avenging themselves on that boy for disrespect provoked by the
injustice of their own administration. The case required ten-
derness, as they were a party concerned ; but it got none. Five
demerit marks for being absent from recitation the preceding

EXPULSION OF A STUDENT. 371

afternoon, and twenty for impertinence to the faculty that
morning, were given him. This I had from themselves. As
Harbaugh was leaving the room, after getting his sentence, he
turned back and stood in the door, and said : " Gentlemen, make
out your bill, and when I have got enough demerit marks, I'll
go home." For this they gave him twenty-five more, on the
spot, which made the whole amount one hundred and two. So,
that evening the faculty reported him to me, at my own
house — expelled! Up to that evening, I did not know the na-
ture of their demerit-mark system, or that one hundred marks
expelled a student from college. I supposed the marks were
designed to go on the monthly reports, and be sent home to the
parents and guardians, as an indication of a young gentleman's
standing at college, and to be followed by letters from home
of an admonitory character. But now I began to see that the
college was under new regulations, which were not known to or
sanctioned by the Board of Trustees.

I was requested by the faculty to carry their decision into
execution for them the next morning. My age and character,
it was said by them, would give it weight. I excused myself
from performing the task, and said I was a member of the
board, not of the faculty. The case, according to the charter,
must come before the trustees; then would be my time to act.
I then requested them to change the sentence to sending him
home, instead of expulsion. To expel a student, and so pub-
li.-h it in the annual catalogue, was a deadly injury. A student
so expelled and published could not enter any other reputable
college in the land. But merely to send him hume was a sen-
tence that left him under no such disabilities, and it would as
fully relieve them of any further trouble in the case as would
expulsion. To this they finally agreed. I then ventured a
little further with these angry men, and pleaded hard that the
si ntence of i ending home mighl oot be executed until bhe Pres-
ident's return, hut eouhl nut prevail. It grieved me sorely to
see three young gentlemen, "I' tine talents and literature, indulg-
ing so much ill feelin'j i-.iinst a delicate youth, of a noble heart,
who had been brought into trouble by the faults of others, and

372 RECOLLECTIONS OP ITINERANT LIFE.

mainly by their own. The injustice which, through mistake, they
had done Harbaugh, should have induced a feeling of tender-
ness toward him. But in them, alas ! there was no such feeling.
On the next morning, after roll-call and prayer, Professor Car-
roll, President pro tern., in open college, pronounced the awful
words, "Washington A. Harbaugh, having got one hundred de-
merit marks, is, by sentence of the faculty, sent home." Poor
boy! His lips quivered, his face flushed, the tears started in his
eyes; he took his hat and left the college hall, and did not leave
a heart behind him more noble than his own. The men he had
to deal with never understood his character. In consequence
of feeble health, hard study was often irksome to him ; but kind
treatment, as health improved, would have brought him along
and made a first-rate man of him. About my house he was a
favorite. He was orderly, quiet, and respectful, but would resist
oppression at all hazards. His word could always be relied on.
I advised him not to go out through town, nor to write
home, until President Cox returned ; but to wait until they re-
ported to his father what had taken place. He remained in the
house as requested, and cried much of the time; said he was
ruined, and could not go home nor see his father. He admitted
his errors to me very frankly, and said, now that the ten ,de-
merit marks, unjustly given, were removed, he deserved all the
rest. Finding his spirit very much humbled, I persuaded him
to write a penitent letter to the faculty. He said he would do
it if I would assist him; so the following was written by me, ,as
he requested.

"To the Faculty of Madison College:

" Gentlemen — Having taken time for reflection on my present
painful situation, and having advised with confidential friends,
who are likewise your friends and the friends of the college, I
deem it proper, if possible, to undo all that I have done amiss.
A false charge and abusive language provoked me into a fight
with William Bailey. We were both brought to trial before
the faculty, where, through misapprehension of Mr. Brown's
testimony, ten demerit marks were inflicted on me more than I

A PENITENT LETTER. 873

deserved. Being greatly irritated at this grievous wrong, I did
not remain at college that afternoon. Next morning, being still
in an irritated state of mind when called on for my excuse, my
replies were exceedingly improper. Nor can I justify my lan-
guage to the faculty at the second meeting, where I was again
tried. Now, as the faculty, on being convinced of error, did,
in an honorable way, correct what they had done amiss in my
case, by striking out the ten demerit marks wrongfully given,
I hope they will allow me the privilege of rectifying my errors
too.

" I therefore acknowledge I did wrong in fighting, and that
my language to the officers of the college was entirely im-
proper. I am truly sorry for all that has occurred in this most
unpleasant and painful case, and ask the faculty to accept my
acknowledgment, to remove the demerit marks given me in this
case, place me where I was before, and let me remain at college.
If they will do this, I will try to do my duty in time to come.
The interests of the college will probably admit of this favor
being shown me. The feelings of my parents and my own wel-
fare appear to require that I should ask it at your hands. If
this request is -ranted, 1 shall be under great and lasting obli-
gations. Most respectfully, 1 am, etc.

" W. A. Harbaugh.

" Union-town, March 23, 1855."

This penitent letter met with no favor from the faculty. They
BCOrned it. and alleged that it made the matter worse, as it re-
ferred to the error they had fallen into and its correction, and
hoped that the writer would he allowed a like privilege to cor-
recl hi- errors. This reference to their error and its correction
was, in their opinion, the very height of insolence on the part
of Harbaugh, and they spurned him and his letter too. Find-
ing bow his letter was treated, he sent a copy of it, by my ad-
vice, u> President Cox, when he came home; and, from a con-
versation which I had with him, I had full confidence that our
troubles would Boon be ended by Harbaugh's restoration. Hut,
on Saturday evening, March 28, the faculty met. Cox wad

374 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

present, and, contrary to my expectation, gave his official sanc-
tion to the decree of banishment pronounced against poor Har-
baugh. So his penitent letter availed no more with Cox than
with his colleagues. I was informed by Mr. Cox of his con-
firming their decision, on Sunday evening, as we returned from
church. I only remarked at the time, that "I hoped no injury
would happen to the college from what they had done." He
replied, that they "would have restored him, but he was a hypo-
crite." Hypocrite! said I to myself, as we parted; how can the
faculty know that? Who but the living God can search the
heart of that boy? Have these young Southerners attained to
infallibility ?

That night I slept but little. My heart was sorely troubled.
A college without mercy to the penitent ! A faculty claiming
infallibility, to sustain themselves in acts of cruelty ! Such
thoughts came and went at pleasure through my mind. On
Monday I took the charter of the college, and went to Cox, to
show him, from that document, that things in our college were
not right; that the faculty were bound to govern the college
according to the laws sanctioned by the Board of Trustees, and
that neither the charter nor the by-laws made by the trustees
gave any sanction to the military system introduced by the fac-
ulty. "Our college building," said I, "is at this time a place
of deposit for muskets. Our students are in military garb; are
mustered on the commons and in our streets several times a
week. They attend church on the Sabbath-day in their military
uniforms. The demerit-mark system is a military affair. What
is to be done?" Cox said he "regarded all this as being in agree-
ment with the charter, as no infringement of the by-laws, and
as essential to the final success of our literary institution." So
he and I differed very widely in our opinion about what was
necessary to the success of a Christian college. At that time
he informed me he had communicated to Harbaugh's father that
he was to be sent home. "What," said I, "and no final action
of the board in his case!" After a little reflection, I said:
"Perhaps it is as well so; you have done it all yourselves. He
is now sent home by decision of the faculty alone. Don't

FACULTY THREATEN TO RESIGN. 375

trouble the board with it." I felt afraid of the consequences
to the college. Cox said he " had only reported the case to Har-
baugh's father as far as it had gone; he knew it must come be-
fore the board."

On the following Saturday there was a meeting of the trust-
ees. After transacting all the business in a very harmonious
manner, Cox brought up the Harbaugh case, the other gentle-
men of the faculty being present. The entire faculty objected
to Harbaugh's being present and to his penitent letter being
read, for he had sent a copy of it to the board. It took con-
siderable time to hear the j>ros and co?is, and finally settle this
little matter. The faculty had speech about with the board.
Air. Cox gave distinct intimations that resignations might be
expected if the board admitted Harbaugh, or allowed his letter
to be read; as if the only office of the board, in such a case,
was blindly to approve of what the faculty had done, without
hearing the other side at all. If this were not done, resigna-
tions might follow. On an appeal to me, in the chair, I de-
cided that, '-in a Methodist Protestant college, in an appealed
case, as I considered this to be, Methodist Protestant usages
should be maintained, as far as the charter and by-laws will
allow. In this case there is no obstruction from these docu-
ments; so Harbaugh may come in, and his letter may be read."
Alter this decision, the threatened resignations did not follow,
and we adjourned for dinner, all in a pleasant mood.

At two o'clock the board reassembled. All the members of
the faculty wen: there. Harbaugh Was admit ted. and his peni-
tent letter read. He had DO defense to make; that letter, he
said. Btated his desires Chlly. All he wanted was mercy; SO he

was directed to retire. Not wishing to call in question the
military Bystem — under which the college had been placed hy
the faculty — until the end of the year, a motion was made hy

J. L. Phillips, seconded by Hon. A. Stewart, to sustain the
action of the faculty, and recommend that body to restore llar-
baugh. Alter a good deal of discussion, Carroll ami Cos evi-
dently .•liming to overawe the board with their threats of resig-
nation, if a motion were adopted recommending the boy to their

376 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

mercy, that motion was withdrawn to make way for another.
Then Hon. R. P. Flenniken, with Dr. D. Gibbon for a second,
offered another motion to the same effect, only a little more full,
for it assigned reasons for Harbaugh's restoration; namely, "his
peniteut letter and his tender age." The first part of this mo-
tion was adopted, as it sustained the faculty; but on the second
part the tug of war came on. All the members of the faculty
opposed it in rather a fierce and fiery manner. They indicated
a determination to resign if the motion were carried requesting
them to restore Harbaugh.

In their opposition they were assisted by Hon. A. Stewart.
He admitted that Harbaugh ought to be restored ; but said,
" My doctrine is this : if we carry on the college, the faculty,
right or wrong, must be sustained." This gentleman would
have voted for the motion as a matter of right ; but, as a matter
of expediency, to retain the faculty and carry on the college, he
voted against it. He was not by any means the first man in the
world who "did evil that good might come." Cox then labored
hard, first, to sustain the action of the faculty in banishing
Harbaugh for his impertinence ; and, secondly, to show the great
mischief to the college which must inevitably result from adopt-
ing the motion then under consideration. Among the evils which
would immediately follow its adoption would be his resignation
and that of his associates. So, then, these gentlemen would
not even allow the board to ask them, respectfully, to show
mercy to a penitent student. If it was done, they would resign.
The very thought of such a spirit as was here evinced was
terrible to me. But Cox went on. "Harbaugh," he said,
"never wrote that peniteut letter. Besides, if he did, he was a
vile hypocrite; for, the very next day after it was written, he
was heard down street, by a respectable student, boasting how
he had, in that letter, given it to the faculty." I noted this
statement particularly, and knew it to be untrue and injurious
to Harbaugh's reputation. My whole family could testify that
he had not left my house to go anywhere for three days after
that letter was written ; and they, with the boarders at my house,
knew him to be an open-hearted, honest-minded youth — one who

HELPING THE PENITENT. 377

had been trained by reputable Christian parents to detest hy-
pocrisy.

Hon. R. P. Flenniken then said he wished to hear from me.
So Dr. Gibbon was called to the chair, and, in the kindest man-
ner I could, I spoke of the faculty as gentlemen, as being well-
qualified instructors, etc., and that all who knew me would give
me credit for the sincerity of my efforts to promote the interests
of the college; and, in my judgment, to pass the motion then
before the board would accomplish that object. I then ex-
pressed my hope that no such evils as brother Cox had inti-
mated would follow its adoption, and went on to say: "He has
asked, with an emphasis, What good can it do? It will do this:
it will let every body know that there is mercy in Madison
College for an erring student who repents and promises amend-
ment. At least it will show that there is mercy in this board.
It will ruin the interests of this institution, throughout the
Church and in all the country, if no forgiveness, is extended to
erring students when they repent and promise amendment.
Brother Cox says Harbaugh is a hypocrite, and, to prove it,
tells us of a respectable student who heard him down street, next
day after his letter was written, boasting how he had given it
to the faculty. Now, at our house, we all know this statement
to be a mistake. Harbaugh did not leave our house to go any-
where for three days after. On the third day, he went out into
the town for the first time, and when he heard how his letter
had been treated — bitterly criticised, and regarded as making
the matter worse — he then complained of the faculty, and for
a time regretted having written it at all.

"It is said by In-other Cox that Harbaugh never wrote that
penitent Letter. What then? It will not follow that it was
wron- for him to obtain assistance in writing it. I wrote it
for him. It is my duty to help the penitent. I found him
weeping, and believed him to lie sincere. After three days' Bore
distress on account of his situation, I advised him to write that

letter, ami. at his request, I wrote it lor him. and think 1 did

right in so doing. It can not he wrong to help the erring to re-
turn to duty. His conduct wa- impertinent. Justice can do
24

378 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

nothing for him. His only plea is mercy, and I hope he will
find mercy at the hands of this board."

The hard-hearted treatment received at the hands of the
faculty by Harbaugh roused the impetuous temper of J. H.
Deford, Esq., who gave us the next speech. I do not recollect
his points. His severity on the faculty made me forget the
chain of his argument. He was several times called to order,
but refused to obey. Three members of the faculty left the
house while he spoke; so did several members of the board. In-
deed it was a moving time. By the threats of resignation pre-
viously made and repeated that day, and from their leaving the
house in an angry manner while Deford was speaking, I was led
to expect every one of them to resign if the action of the board
in the slightest degree disturbed their decision in the Harbaugh
case ; and I was prepared to let them go, for I wauted God's
mercy to the penitent fully established in the government of
Madison College. When Deford's speech, so offensive to the
faculty in its character, was over, the members of the board re-
turned, and about nine o'clock at night the vote was taken, and
the question lost. So the faculty triumphed over the board
and over God's mercy. A Christian college, and no mercy in
it for an erring student who repents, implores forgiveness, and
wishes to return to his duty again! What a burning shame!
The very men — excepting Flenniken and Deford — who brought
forward the motion requesting the faculty to restore Harbaugh,
in consequence of his penitent letter and tender age, abandoned
their own measure when it came to the vote, for fear the faculty
would resign. I knew full well that, unless a change could be
effected, this would be the death of Madison College ; and felt
in my heart that my days in connection with that institution
were, if things remained in their present position, about draw-
ing to a close. To trample on God's mercy for the purpose
of sustaining faculty authority was revolting to my judgment
and conscience, and I resolved not to do it.

On the following Monday morning the college was opened
as usual, and that day Mr. Cox told me all was quiet, and that
he thought there would be no resignations. But, in order that

NO MERCY FOR AX ERRING STUDENT. 379

I might remain myself at Madison College, I felt it necessary
to make another effort to enthrone mercy over that institution.
To accomplish this, I got Mr. Flenniken to go to President
Cox and ask him, as the matter was now wholly with the fac-
ulty, and the board was done with it, to take early measures to
restore Harbaugh, and that the peace of the college would then
be reestablished. Mr. Flenniken soon returned, and informed
me that Cox said " nothing could be done then; they might do
it after awhile." Mr. Flenniken said, " If you can restore him
now, he can remain at college ; if not, Mr. Brown goes to
Cincinnati on Wednesday, and will take him to his parents."
'•Well," replied Mr. Cox, "nothing can be done now." So I
gave the matter up. Soon after, I met Cox on the street, and
said, "You saw Mr. Flenniken?" He answered, "Yes;" and I
then asked, "Can you do any thing to relieve Harbaugh?"
"May be we can on Saturday," he replied, "if you leave him."
" Do, brother Cox," said T, " restore him, and let me take him
home on Wednesday. His father has written me to bring him."
"But.'' said he, "if we restore him, why not leave him?'' To
this I replied, "I can not leave him in the midst of his enemies;
he has not a friend in the facility." I own that this was severe.
It was tin' lir-t and only severe thin- I .-aid in all this most
painful struggle. He Looked thoughtful for a moment, and then
walked away, making no reply.

On Wednesday morning, he came to my house and asked,
"Are you going to Cincinnati to day?" I told him I was.

II remained some time in conversation, partly with me and
pai ';. with the family. When he left, I went with him to the
door, ii'it Intending to say one word about the Harbaugh case.

B he said, - Will you indeed take Harbaugh with you?" I
to) I 1 1 i in I would. My heart being very full, I went on to say:
"Brother Cox, Madison College is ruined! Your military ap-
p< idage and demerit-mark Bystem have taken it from under

the charter and by-laWS, And, by faculty influence over the

board, there is no mercy in that body now for an erring Btu-
denl when he repents. You have, likewise, taken the colli

from under the control of the Methodisl Prot6Stan1 Church,

380 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

where penitents do find mercy. And, more yet, you have taken
it from under the control of the Christian religion. In that
religion there is mercy for penitents, but with you and your
faculty there is none. Now, since the board, overawed by
your threats of resignation, has sustained you in these things,
I see no way left for me but to abandon my present position in
the Board of Trustees, and attack your military administration
in both of our Church papers." "But you will not do that,"
said he, "if Harbaugh is proven to be a hypocrite?" "No,"
I answered; "if he is proven to be a hypocrite by that 'respect-
able student' you spoke of — and there are many such, and some
I hold to be doubtful — I will give the matter up. I never will
sustain a hypocrite. But who is that 'respectable student,'
who heard Harbaugh, down street, the next day after his peni-
tent letter was written, boasting how he had given it to the
faculty? " " That student was not before the faculty," answered
Mr. Cox. "I do not even know his name; but Professor Car-
roll said in the faculty meeting that there was such a witness."
"My family," said I, "know well, and so do I, that Harbaugh
remained in my house for three days after that letter was writ-
ten, and did not go down town at all ; so I know that thing is
not true. Can it be possible, brother Cox, that you have joined
with the faculty in pronouncing a sentence of condemnation
and banishment against a student of Madison College without
hearing the witness yourself, or even knowing his name? This
thing fills me with profound amazement! Bring me that stu-
dent if you can, and if you can not, then restore Harbaugh, or
I will, as I have already said, attack your administration in
both of our Church papers, and let the Methodist Protestant
Church know what you are doing at Madison College."

On hearing my earnest speech, all warm from my troubled
heart, away went Cox and assembled his faculty; but no witness
was brought to me. I suppose there was none to bring. In
about one hour he returned, and in a very pleasant manner
acknowledged a mistake in this whole matter ; said that Har-
baugh was restored, and that the faculty had agreed to show
mercy to penitent students in all time to come. This was all

STATEMENT OF A FALSE CAUSE. 381

I wanted. We parted in Christian friendship, and that day, at
one o'clock, I was off for Cincinnati, taking Harbaugh with me
to his parents. There was a great change for the better in my
feelings. I supposed that peace was now permanently restored;
that at the end of the collegiate year we could easily put aside
the military system introduced by the faculty, and return to our
former plan of government. My hopes were high, and I felt
now like renewing my efforts in behalf of the college. At that
time our prospects of final success were very fair; so Cox had
reported them at the Maryland Conference, as may be seen by
our Church paper. His speech before that body was encour-
aging. He returned home with several new students, and had
been successful in making collections. Now that the vexed
question about young Harbaugh was disposed of, and God's
mercy had returned to the college, and we had increasing public
favor, why should we not get along well? Even the overruled
trustees, as well as myself, were hopeful.

But in those days there were thorns and briers in every path
for me. While in Cincinnati, at the house of Mr. Harbaugh —
father of the young man who has figured in this narrative — I
read Cox's letter, informing him of the sentence by which his
son was sent home. In that letter no allusion was made to the
real cause of his banishment; namely, a contest toith the faculty.
All was put upon his inattention to study. This was only a small
part of the cause, and would not have led to his banishment at
all if there had been nothing else, f>r be was a youth of feeble
health, and did about as well as he could in his studies. I
myself was a witness to the fact in part, and had the balance
from the professors themselves, thai young Harbaugh gol more
than one-half of the demerit marks by which he was banished,
for his impertinence t<> the faculty during a three-days' contesl
with them. So, here was a false cause stated by the President
of our college to a father for the banishment of his son. I
could not have believed thai ('<>x would have assigned a false
cause in this case, instead of the true one, if I had ool seen il
with my own eyes. To have my confidence shaken in the
veracity of the Presidenl of our literary institution afflioted me

382 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

very much. When truth fails in presidents, colleges fall of
course. Yet, again, when I returned to Uniontown, I was
amazed and confounded, and knew not which way to look for
relief to my heart, when I was informed, by a number of re-
spectable students, that, while I was absent, Cox had said, in
open college, after morning prayer, that "it was not true that
Harbaugh had been restored, and that he had never said he
was, to any person." Now, this gentleman had informed me of
Harbaugh's restoration, in my own house, in the presence of
my family. I could not, therefore, be mistaken in the matter,
and the students affirmed that they were not mistaken as to his
denial of Harbaugh's restoration, or that he ever said he was
restored to any person. I took time for reflection as to what
was best to be done in this case, which gave me so much pain,
and finally concluded to do nothing, for the following reasons:
1. I was afraid of injury to the college. 2. I had already been
troubled enough in these struggles. 3. I had some reason to
believe that Cox had been led into all that he did, in intro-
ducing the military system into the college and in the Harbaugh
case throughout, by his colleagues. 4. At that time he was
involved in a good deal of trouble about temporal matters, and
I did not wish to add to his afflictions by an investigation of
a question of veracity. 5. I could not find that any one in that
community doubted his having told me that the faculty had
restored Harbaugh. In this view of the case, I deemed it best
to let the matter rest, and do all I could for the peace and
prosperity of the college. Cox was certainly a man of hand-
some talents, but impracticable and visionary in his conceptions
of things; easily involved in trouble in almost any direction,
and therefore more to be pitied than censured by me.

In the commencement of this college enterprise, as the lo-
cation of the institution was in a free State, the trustees deemed
it «;ood policy to take the President and professors mainly from
the slave States. The only Northern man in the college was
Rev. G. B. McElroy, who had been Principal of the preparatory
department, and was, finally, made Professor of Mathematics;
but, under President Cox's administration, he was compelled to

MILITARY DISCIPLINE. 383

resign his position under pressure of Southern influence. Mr.
McElroy was a fine scholar and an able mathematician; but at
that time he was not a graduate of any college, and for this
reason, as Cox informed me, the Southern part of the faculty
did not favor him, nor was it long before the Southern students
asked for his removal. After enduring considerable persecution,
he resigned, and Mr. Murfee, a gentleman from the South, was
chosen to fill his place. So, now all the officers of the college,
from the bottom to the top, were from the South; and, in a
short time, the military appendage already alluded to was intro-
duced, and the character of the discipline was materially changed
by the faculty, without the knowledge or consent of the trust-
ees. This was a daring innovation on the established regula-
tions of the college, and gave us much trouble, as has been
already seen. It took Southerners to do such filings.

I knew nothing of the theory or underlying principles of
this military appendage. I never saw the action taken by the
faculty in getting it up. I could, therefore, only judge of it
by its practical workings. I saw that a great number of our
students were clothed like soldiers, and appeared in their uni-
forms in college, on the streets, and in church on the Sabbath-
day. I saw that they had muskets when on parade, and that
our college building was the depository of military arms. I
Was informed that the college company had allied itself to the
regimenl of the county, in order that it might be entitled to
draw these arms. I saw the constant morning drill in the col-
lege Campus, and that they mustered on the commons and
paraded along the streets several times a week. I saw thai the
faculty had become a standing court-martial, and that nothing
COuld be 'lone, even in I'rcp-dom. with an offending student,

without a sentence from this court martial. This lefl the Prin-
cipal of the preparatory department without authority and
without respect. One hundred dameril marks, given by these
u i ors of damage for this, that, and the other, entitled a
Btuilent to expulsion, and to have his name so reported in the
forthcoming catalogue.

This whole military system was a violation of the eharter

384 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

and by-laws. It was supremely ridiculous in a Methodist Prot-
estant college. Many bave been the conjectures as to the de-
sign of the faculty in adopting that appendage. To me it is
now highly probable that the present rebellion, long prede-
termined by Southern statesmen of the Calhoun school, will
afford a clue to their design. West Point could not turn out
military men fast enough to satisfy the South. All the Southern
colleges, and others under Southern influence, must, if possible,
be induced to give young gentlemen a military training against
the approaching struggle, for the present rebellion had been in
contemplation, among the leading politicians of the South, for
the last thirty years. I am confirmed in my opinion on this
subject by the following fact: In 1854, Rev. John Scott, D. D.,
the present editor of the Western Methodist Protestant, and
myself attended the Virginia and North Carolina Conferences
of our Church. While at the latter Conference, ex-Governor
Branch, who resided near at hand, sent his carriage, and took
brother Scott and myself to his house to spend the night. We
found him to be very intelligent, courteous, and communicative.
After supper, taking a box of Havana cigars in his hand, he
invited us into the smoking-room. So, away we went, took
each a cigar, and, as the smoke went on, we talked over the
politics of the day. The Kansas trouble was then beginning
to be felt, and in our conversation the slave question came up.
The Governor spoke without reserve. "Gentlemen," said he,
"I am greatly concerned for my country. The slave-power
has always controlled this Government, and if the day shall ever
come when the South shall lose that control, she will break
down this Government and set up a Southern Confederacy." I
gave it as my opinion that he was mistaken. "Gentlemen, 1
am not," said he; "I am well acquainted with all the leading
statesmen of the South, and I know it to be a foregone deter-
mination among them to rebel and break down our National
Government, so soon as they lose the control of it, and set up
a Government for themselves."* So, here we have one of the

* Dr. Scott has reminded me, since the above was written, that Governor Branch thought
the next Congress would be the last.

PROPOSED ENDOWMENT OF MADISON COLLEGE. 385

great men of the South hearing witness to the determination
of Southern statesmen either to rule or ruin this nation — to con-
trol or destroy our Government. Will not this justify the in-
ference that these crafty men had enlisted all the colleges then
under Southern influence to drill the students in military tactics
acainst the time when the Southern control of the Government
should cease and the contemplated rebellion come on? Presi-
dent Cox and his colleagues often spoke, in my hearing, of the
military drill of students in Southern colleges, and, by the
example of those institutions, aimed to justify the drill at Madi-
son College. My opinion then was, that the thing was foolish;
now, I think, in view of the facts in the case, that it was in-
cipient treason, since fully developed in a terrible war.

The gentlemen of the faculty, in consequence of the military
character given our college without the sanction or the knowl-
edge of the board, and in consequence of their cruel treatment
of young Harbaugh, and of their overruling the board with
threats of resignation, if that body should ask them, by an
official act, to restore that penitent student, had brought on
themselves and their course of action pretty general condemna-
tion. The public mouth was opened wide. They and their
doings were much talked of in that community, which thing
made them all feel very sore, for they all loved popular favor.
In a short time it began to be alleged by these gentlemen that
the North had not done as much as the South for college in-
tcn-i-. Then again it came, in letters from the South, that
Rev. C. Avery, a great Abolitionist, had agreed to endow the
college, and that the Board of trustees, in consideration of this
great favor, had determined to admit colored students along
with the whites into the institution. Letters written by at
least one member of the faculty were given as authority for
these reports. The fir.-t of the above complaints was partly
true: our agents had canvassed the South, and were only then
beginning in the North. The second was wholly false: aeither
l£r. A '.'tv nor the board had ev< t thought of an endowment on
that principle. But the ides of taking colored Btudents into the
college, once thrown abroad on the Southern mind, had the iu-

386 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

tended effect: it prepared the Southerners to call home their
sons at the end of the term. To educate their sons along with
negroes was, to them, horrible.

As the collegiate year was drawing to a close, I was informed,
by a letter from Lynchburg, Virginia, that our faculty had, in
the early part of April, made arrangements to open a college
in that place. Yet, they gave us no information to that effect
themselves, until near the time of the annual commencement,
late in June. They were employed by our board, and under
our pay, and were, therefore, bound, in honor and justice, to
build up our institution ; but, instead of doing this, they worked
against our college, from the time of their contest with the board
in the Harbaugh case to the end of the year, and finally drew
off nearly all of our Southern students to their Lynchburg in-
stitution. At that time the South went for a Southern col-
lege ; at a later date, for a Southern Confederacy.

At the close of the annual commencement exercises, the fac-
ulty all resigned ; and President Cox stated, to a large assembly,
that they had made arrangements to open a Methodist Prot-
estant College at Lynchburg, the following September. Rev.
William Collier, D. D., then read a paper containing sundry
resolutions of the board, indicating a determination on the part
of that body to elect another faculty, and open the college at
the usual time in the fall. Very much against my wishes, I was
chosen by the board as President, and instructed to use all pos-
sible diligence to secure a competent corps of professors during
the vacation. I felt great reluctance in accepting the office as-
signed me by the board, because of a consciousness of a want
of literary competency for the work ; and because of a con-
viction in my mind that, since the South had gone from us,
there would be an inability felt to sustain a competent faculty.
However, being urged, and assurances being given me that the
Church would lend a helping hand, I agreed to take the office,
and do the best I could. The following gentlemen, all from
the free States, composed the new faculty: Rev. Gt. B. McElroy,
M. B. Goff, P. S. Bancroft, Professors ; and A. Hutton, Princi-
pal of the Preparatory Department. These gentlemen being

CONDITION OF MADISON COLLEGE. 387

secured as my fellow-laborers, I awaited the opening of the col-
lege, in iSeptember, with a great deal of anxiety. I was not
afraid of the integrity or ability of my associates, but I did dis-
trust my own qualifications. The character of the college had
been injured; many of our students, on false representations, had
left us, and our financial condition was not satisfactory.

388 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

CHAPTER XXI.

A New Faculty— Pecuniary Condition of the College— Traveling on College Busi-
ness—Tour Through Old Virginia— Visit to Lynchburg— A Southerner's View
of Slave-trading— College Commencement— Change in the Faculty— College
Closes.

On the first Monday in September, 1855, Madison College
was opened under a new corps of professors. P. S. Bancroft
was elected to the chair of Mathematics; M. B. Goff, who was
not present at the opening of college, was chosen Professor of
Languages. These two gentlemen, in a short time, to gratify
preferences, exchanged chairs, without objection from the trust-
ees. Rev. G. B. McElroy took charge of the preparatory de-
partment. Bancroft and Goff, both excellent young men, had
recently graduated at Alleghany College. McElroy graduated
at the succeeding annual commencement at Madison College.
With these gentlemen for colleagues, I commenced the term
with great concern of mind. Indeed, I would not have taken -
the presidency, or opened college at all, but for the urgency of
the Board of Trustees, especially the Church portion of it, who
assured me that the Church would stand at my bach in all my
efforts to build up that institution. Three Southern presidents
had left it. Eighty-five out of ninety of our Southern students
had been wrongfully carried off from us, by President Cox and
his colleagues, to Lynchburg. The character of the college, at
home and abroad, had been greatly depreciated. Our finauces
were in a crippled condition. Now that the South was gone,
the college was not sufficiently central to suit the free-State
portion of the Church. Uniontown was, financially, rather on
the wane, was somewhat sectarian, and would not give much
support to a Methodist Protestant college. All these things

RETURN TO COLLEGE DUTIES. 389

were rather against us; yet, it was deemed best to make a
trial, and give our friends in the North an opportunity to help
in this matter, as the college was very much needed by the
Church.

Shortly after the commencement of the term, the Pittsburgh
Conference held its annual session in Brownsville, Pennsylvania.
That body took spirited action in behalf of the college, and I
was encouraged to hope for an increase of students, and that
my old friend, Rev. C. Avery, now that the institution was no
longer connected with slavery, would do something handsome
toward its endowment. In a short time, I ventured to address
to him a most earnest appeal on that subject. To me he made
no reply, but placed in the hands of Revs. W. Collier and J.
Robison, as trustees, fifteen hundred dollars for the benefit of
our college. This was help in the right direction, and I was
inclined to hope, believe, and pray that he would do still more,
as he was abundantly able, and most munificently liberal. But
Madison College, owing to its location, not being sufficiently
central for the Northern portion of the Church, and to an
opinion entertained by him that enough had not been done for
the institution by men of wealth in its immediate vicinity, it
received nothing further from Mr. Avery. Certainly, men of
means who live near a college should be liberal in its support,
as they enjoy advantages not possessed by others who reside at
a distance.

I left the Conference at Brownsville, and returned to my
duties in the college on Monday morning. For two years I had
BUBtained a superannuated relation to the Conference, and did
not ask or expect that relation to be changed. Yet a change
was made, and I was placed back on the list of effective preach-
ers, as I was informed, because it was judged improper for a
superannuated minister to be President of the college. This
acl cut me off from a superannuated preacher's claim on the
funds of the Aid Society, and left me to depend exclusively
upon what OUT crippled college could give me. This was Dot
bringing "the Church to Stand at my hack," and I fell very
euro that all the fund.- thai could he made by the college would

390 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

have to go to pay my colleagues, or I would lose them as co-
laborers, and the institution would die on my hands. To get
along at all, I had to lean on my own limited means for more
than half the support of my family, while serving the Church
as President of the college. Would it, indeed, have been an
odium on the college for a superannuated minister to have been
its President? Or were the brethren mistaken in this matter?
At any rate, from the necessities of the case, I was compelled
to spend my own funds, to the injury of my family, and I did
not feel very comfortable under the circumstances. The above
is stated as connected with my personal history, and I take
pleasure in adding that this thing, long gone by, has left no
sore place in my heart. God has not yet, nor will he ever,
allow me and mine to suffer. Long ago, I made up my mind
never to forsake God, and I do most conscientiously believe that
he never will forsake me or mine.

My colleagues in college labor were all very agreeable and
companionable gentlemen. Bancroft and Goff were not profess-
ors of religion at that time, but were strictly moral. McElroy
had from boyhood been a member of the Methodist Protestant
Church, and for several years an itinerant minister. I felt it
pleasant to work with these men. They were all hard students,
and very attentive and persevering in the discharge of the duties
assigned them. But, unlike the Southern professors who had
preceded them, they did not mix much with society, and were,
therefore, supposed by some to lack social qualities. Perhaps
they did, and for this reason were not as popular as men of in-
ferior minds and attainments often are. Leaving the young
people of Uniontown to seek pleasure in their own way, they
seemed to have a high ambition to qualify themselves for suc-
cess as educators. In order to accomplish their purpose, they
drew me into an arrangement which, for a time, I did not like.
To open college at eight o'clock, instead of nine, and perform
all the duties of the day against the dinner hour, so as to have
no afternoon session, crowded matters on me a little too much,
the whole year round. Yet, it led to early rising, and gave the
students the whole afternoon more perfectly to prepare for reci-

TRAVELING ON COLLEGE BUSINESS. 391

tation the next morning. So, -while the professors gained time
for literary improvement, the students had an advantage, and I,
with the care of a large family on me, had pretty hard strug-
gling to be ready to open college at so early an hour.

Various efforts were made, during this collegiate year, to in-
crease the funds and patronage of the college. Being author-
ized by the trustees, I secured the services of Rev. W. Collier
to attend the Ohio and Muskingum Conferences, and the serv-
ices of Rev. J. Robison to attend the Genesee and Michigan
Conferences, in view of college interests. Three of these Con-
ferences secured to our institution, by notes, the sum of fifteen
hundred dollars ; but the fourth, after voting us five hundred
dollars, gave us no notes; so we actually got nothing from that
Conference but a vote ! Was this the fault of the agent, or
the fault of the Conference? Who can toll? This was a small
addition to our permanent endowment fund, which at that time
was not over eleven thousand dollars. The interest of this small
amount, and the annual income from limited scholarships and
tuition fees, constituted our entire pecuniary support.

To meet the impoverished condition into which the college
was thrown by the withdrawal of the South, the board reduced
the salaries of the professors down to the lowest living point.
The next effort was to secure agents to sell perpetual and lim-
ited scholarships, and bring us in students. But in this we
failed. All seemed to wish us well, and pray to God to bless
us, but we could net no permanent agents. So we labored on
in a lingering condition, with about sixty students, through-
out the first year. In addition to my giving to my colleagues
nearly all the college funds, and relying mainly on my own
resources for the support of my family, I got a lew friends to

join me in a note, and we horrowed live hundred dollars, to
meet the claims of my fcllow-lahorers at the terminal! I' the

collegiate year. I found (lie board determined to carry on the

college under my administration, especially the Church portion

of it; ami if I remained as President, I could only retain my

hy seeing them paid, I supposed. So the above sum

was borrowed. But the understanding among the makers of

392 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

the note was, that I was to make payment when the money fell
due.

Our annual commencement was considered by educated men
to be very creditable to the instructors. It was numerously
attended. The students acquitted themselves well. Our only
graduate was Rev. Gr. B. McElroy, who had gone through the
studies of the senior year while performing the duties of Prin-
cipal of the preparatory department. There would have been
others to graduate had they not been drawn off to Lynchburg.
"In hope, believing against hope," we had struggled through
the year with public approbation, and felt encouraged to labor
on, in hope of final success.

During the vacation, I undertook to relieve myself from the
weighty responsibilities under which I was placed by borrow-
ing money for college purposes. The Board of Trustees had
offended Mrs. Skiles, of whom I had borrowed the eight hun-
dred dollars to pay the Church's part for the addition to the
college building. She sent for me and demanded payment.
The five hundred dollars borrowed to pay the professors would
be due at the end of four months. So, here was work for me.
An appeal had to be made to my friends for assistance. I went
to Pittsburgh, Steubenville, Cincinnati; to the Pittsburgh Con-
ference in Indiana County, Pennsylvania ; to the Ohio, Mus-
kingum, and Michigan Conferences; to Baltimore and Philadel-
phia; then returned by home, and went on to Western Virginia,
making collections to relieve myself of these debts. I had just
taken time, amid these toilsome journeys, to open college, in
September, and arrange for my classes to be attended to, and
then go on again. Finally, being broken down in health, I re-
turned home, and paid off the two notes, amounting in all, prin-
cipal and interest, to one thousand four hundred and forty-six
dollars and seventy-five cents. During my absence from col-
lege, after vacation, I gave up my salary, and agreed to take ten
per cent, on moneys collected. But when I came to pay the
notes, I lacked fifteen dollars of the necessary amount, without
taking the ten per cent. So I lost my salary in college, the ten
per cent., paid the fifteen dollars out of my own pocket, and

TOUR THROUGH OLD VIRGINIA. 303

was glad, even with this loss, to see this troublesome matter
ended. To this I will now add, that the whole truth may be
known, that fifty dollars, sent me by Mrs. Reese, of Maryland,
as a present, and twenty-five dollars as a present from John
Clark, Esq., of Baltimore, helped to make up the amount which
I had to pay on that occasion. Indeed, I felt willing to endure
any toil, or make any sacrifice within the compass of my power,
to meet the expectations of the Church, and give our people an
educational institution of our own.

The following March I attended the Maryland Conference
in Baltimore, and did well in making collections on outstand-
ing obligations. I did well, also, in the District of Columbia.
The debtors to the college in these places had not thought of
repudiating our claims because President Cox had left us and
started a rival institution at Lynchburg. While in Baltimore,
I gained information which led me to believe that, within the
bounds of the Virginia Conference, our college claims would be
paid, if an agent were sent there authorized to make collections.
In the month of April, the trustees determined to make the
experiment and see what could be done; and, for want of a
more competent agent, they sent me on that enterprise. After
making an arrangement with my colleagues so as to have the
duties of my chair in college attended to, I left home on a col-
lecting tour in Old Virginia. In the city of Washington, sick-
ness came upon me, and I was detained about .ten days. Dur-
ing this time, I found a resting-place and very kind attention
at the house of brother Drake; and at intervals, as I felt able,
went out in the city, to Georgetown, Alexandria, aud a little
into the country, to attend to our college interests. Wherever
President Cox's influence extended, I had no success. Yet I
made some collections even in Georgetown, his old home, where
he was stationed when we called him to Madison College.

Leaving Washington, I went by boat and railroad, through
Richmond, to Lynchburg, Virginia, and took lodgings at a
public house. There I supposed myself to he an utter stranger
to every body. Soon a student, formerly of Madison College,
found me. !!<• informed Rev. W. A. Crocker, superintendent
25

394 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

of the Lynchburg Station, that I wasan the city, and he im-
mediately called to see me. Then came a number of the stu-
dents who had been drawn off from Madison to Lynchburg
College, all glad to see me, one of whom wished himself back
again. The next morning I commenced early to hunt up the
men of whom I expected to make collections. All acknowledged
the claims of our college against them to be just, and that if
they did not send their sons to be educated at Madison College
so as to get the value for their money, that was their own
matter, and did not destroy the validity of our claim. They
had given their scholarship notes, and thus created a reliance
upon them for money to carry on the college. But they wanted
a little time for reflection; so I gave them until the next day,
and returned to my lodgings. I supposed these men wanted to
consult among themselves, or, perhaps, to take legal counsel as
to what was best to be done.

That afternoon, Rev. S. K. Cox sent his carriage, with a po-
lite note in the hand of the driver, inviting me to his residence,
a short distance in the country, and to make his house my
home while I remained in that vicinity. On receiving this in-
vitation, all that Cox had done destructive of the interests of
Madison College came up to my mind. What should I do?
Finally, I concluded that, as the injury he had done was not to
me personally, but to the college, and as a refusal to visit him
might not only offend him, but offend the people too, and ob-
struct my collecting operations in Lynchburg, it would, there-
fore, be best to accept his invitation. While at his house, I met
with Rev. R. B. Thompson, D. J)., and one or two of the
former professors at Madison College, all very civil and clever
to me, but full of that Southern feeling which ultimately brought
on the rebellion. I visited the college buildings; saw the mili-
tary drill of the students; went up to the observatory to view
the city and the surrounding country, and found the scene truly
grand. That night, Dr. Thompson, Cox, and I talked, until
a late hour, about matters North and South. They supposed
there were troubles brewing in our country, and if the troubles
came, they would certainly be true to Southern interests. In all

A SOUTHERN VIEW OF SLAVE-TRADING. 395

this conversation, I took the ground that there was good sense
and good feeling enough in this nation to settle all our per-
plexing questions without a war. The next morning, Dr.
Thompson urged me to attend the Virginia Conference in the
fall, at which time he would pay his arrearages to Madison
College. Cox paid the interest on his college note then, and
they both wished me success in making collections. This was
better than I expected from them. When I was about leaving,
Mr. Cite: took me into the city in his carriage, and if he did
not aid, he did not obstruct me in accomplishing the object of
my mission. All the people with whom I had business treated
me kindly, and such of them as were able paid off their notes.
I then went by railroad, through Petersburg, to City Point,
where I took a steamer for Norfolk. From thence I went to
Hampton and Fortress Monroe. In all these places I made
collections for the college, amounting in all to between four
and five hundred dollars.

The following conversation, which occurred at the tea-table,
in a pretty large company, at the house of brother John Brown,
in Hampton, while I was there, will illustrate the feeling of the
people in that pari of Virginia on the subject of slavery:
"Brother Brown," said one of the guests, "what did you think
of the Doctor's speech last night in the Old-side love-feast?"
"It filled me with horror," replied our host. "I never had such
)'• 'lings in a love-feast before in all my life. With gushing
tear> the Doctor expressed his hope of meeting his dear old
father, who had died a short time before, in the kingdom of
glory, when in my heart I really did believe that his father
w.is in hell." "Come, come, brother Brown," said T. -who
made you the judge of all the earth, to fix the doom of a fel-
low-mortal in thai kind of style?" "Why," returned be, "we
all, in this pari of Virginia, think Blaveholding, without slave-
trading, is bad enough ; bui the Doctor's father had been lor
many years in the slave trade, buying up negroes — parting hus
bands and wives, parents and children — and driving them to
the Southern plantations, .-mil Belling them there into hopeless
bondage. We, in these parts, do not believe such a man can

396 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

be saved." "Now," said I, "if I had heard such a speech a^
home, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, I should have called it an
abolition speech, but what shall I call it here in Virginia?"
All at the table agreed that I might give it whatever name I
pleased. It fully expressed the sentiment and feeling of the
better sort of people in that part of the Old Dominion.

From Hampton I returned home by way of Baltimore, and
found all well ; but I was very much worn out myself by the
toils of travel in the South. After a little rest, I entered
upon college duties again, and continued to the close of the
collegiate year. When the annual commencement came on, in
June, we had six graduates; to-wit: G. W. Burns, J. N. Cas-
sell, A. W. Ross, C. H. Causey, D. W. Lawson, and E. W.
Stephens. These were all respectable young gentlemen, of
promising talents and fine acquirements ; and I hope they are
now doing good service somewhere for the benefit of our race,
the honor of their God, and their own present and eternal wel-
fare. The exercises of that occasion gave general satisfaction to
the public ; and though there was much in our financial embar-
rassments to give me great concern, yet the trustees determined
that the college should be carried on. Again I had to make
myself responsible for three hundred dollars to pay my col-
leagues, all of whom left me. McElroy and Goff took positions
in a Methodist Protestant college in North Illinois, and Ban-
croft returned to his home, near Meadville, Pennsylvania. This
was a great trial to me. Only Amos Hutton, who had been
Principal of the preparatory department, was left toward a new
corps of laborers for the ensuing year.

During the vacation, efforts were made in all directions to
secure patronage, an increase of funds, and a competent faculty.
Ultimately, John Deford, a graduate of Madison College, and
William Campbell, a graduate, I think, of Jefferson College,
both of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, were elected by the trustees
as my fellow-laborers in the up-hill business of running Madi-
son College. Amos Hutton was continued as Principal of the
preparatory department. At the appointed time, in September,
the college was opened in due form. We only had about forty

SITUATION OF UNIONTOWN. 397

students. Neither the town, the country, or the Church had
given us the patronage that was expected. But we held on our
way, hoping, praying, and laboring hard for success. In the
fall, I attended the Virginia Conference, in view of college in-
terests, and had only partial success in collecting funds. At
our Conference in Pittsburgh, in September, I had obtained but
little encouragement. A visit to Cincinnati, on college business,
toward spring, gave me but little hope. So, shortly after my
return, on consultation with the trustees, it was deemed advis-
able to close the college and give up the struggle. A contro-
versy in the Methodist Protestant Church, looking to a suspen-
sion of official cooperation between the North and the South,
was against us. The citizens of Uniontown had not paid more
than half of their part for the new addition to the college build-
ing, and the property was in danger of being sold to pay the
balance and other debts. This, too, was against us. That por-
tion of the endowment fund which came into the hands- of the
treasurer was, by order of the board, used, from early date, to
pay the professors — the board promising interest. This, when
it became known to our people, was likewise very much against
us. A non-paying institution, crippled in so many ways, could
not be carried on. Madison College, if my information be cor-
rect, has been sold to pay debts due on the property and other
debts; and I have been a great sufferer in many ways by my
efforts t < j carry on that institution for the Church. My head
turned gray very fust while 1 resided in Uniontown. All col-
to he successful, should have a full endowment, perma-
nently invested, before a single student is ever admitted to their
h;ills.

\- to Uniontown itself, it was beautifully situated in ;i healthy,
picturesque region of country. Among the inhabitants there
was a considerable amount of mental and moral culture, and a
high degree of sociality of character. STel it was aol :i good
place tor .1 college. The railroad had drawn away travel from
tie- <>ld National Pike, and had thereby greatly reduced the
amount of business done in tin- place. Business of all kinds
w.i- very much run down. A- in a man of declining health all

398 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

energy for business is gone, so in a waning town all enterprise
is at an end. Colleges should always be located in the midst
of a prosperous, enterprising people. It takes a people to feel
assured that they are making money before they can be habitu-
ally in the spirit of giving money to build up colleges, or to
sustain any other benevolent enterprise.

While I was in Uniontown, the question of the Methodist
Protestant Church in the free States suspending all official con-
nection with the slaveholding Conferences and Churches in the
South was argued in our Church paper in the West. I was as
fully convinced that slavery was a great moral, social, political,
and domestic evil as any of my brethren. I was as certain as
any of them that an end of the cooperation of the Churches
North and South would soon come ; but, for a time, I did not
agree with them as to the manner of bringing it about. I now
believe that they were right and I was wrong, and that there
was an overruling Providence shaping our course and directing
our affairs, when, in the convention of 1858, the Methodist
Protestant Church in the free States did suspend all official
connection with the slaveholding Conferences and Churches of
the South. In doing that act, we defined our position as a
Church on the slave question. We retained our ministers and
members, who, on account of our connection with the South,
would have gone off from us to other Churches. In doing that
act we were guided by a higher, wisdom than our own, in an
escape from the ruinous condition into which the coming war —
not seen by us — would have plunged our Church. Iu doing
that- act we did not, like the Methodist Episcopal Church, hang
on to slavery connections until the President of the United
States had killed slavery by his proclamation of freedom. In
doing that act, in obedience to our clearest convictions of moral
right, without waiting for the civil or military power to open
our way, we did what we never expect to regret while life or
thought or being lasts, or immortality endures.

DELEGATES TO THE SPRINGFIELD CONVENTION. 399

CHAPTER XXII.

Delegates Elected by Pittsbcrgh Conference to the Convention at Springfield,
i lino— Missionary Work and Farming Operations— Meeting op Committees on the
T'm'.n of the Wesi.eyan amd Methodist Protestant Churches— Compilation of a
Hymn-book — Visit of Fraternal Messengers from the Methodist Episcopal
Church to the Pittsburgh Conference— Visit as Fraternal Messenger to the
Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Blaiksvii.le,
Pennsylvania— Kemoval to Vicinity of McKeesport, Pennsylvania— Elected
Editob of Western Methodist Protestant— Kemoval to Springfield, Ohio-
Death op both My Sons— Views and Wishes on Ecclesiastical Matters.

In September, 1858, the Pittsburgh Annual Conference was
held in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. It was an important and
interesting session of that body, and made a favorable impres-
sion on the communfty. Delegates were elected to the Spring-
field Convention, and instructed to take action in favor of a
suspension of all official ecclesiastical relations with slavehold-
ing and Blave-tfading Conferences and Churches, as already
Stated. Revs. J. Scott, J. Robinson, and myself were the min-
isterial delegates. Brothers Jehu Redman, George Pogue, and
S. Homer were the lay delegates. At the above-named Con-
ference, I was again granted a superannuated relation, and the
brethren treated me with liberality in the apportionment of
the necessary funds for the subsistence of my family. But as
ministerial laborers were scarce, at the solicitation of friends,
I agreed to take charge of the Xoughiogheny Mission. So I
left Qniontown the scene of my college toils and sorrows— and
removed, in the fall, to Connellsville, that I mighl by means of
the railroad conveniently reach my field of labor. Once mdre
I was actively engaged in the itinerant ranks, and felt myseli
more comfortable in striving to build up the Church than in
the up-hill business of trying to Bustain a falling literary insti-
tution. On that mission I had some success. A society was

400 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

formed at Coultersville, of good materials, to which additions
have since been made, and there is, I have been informed, an
intention to build a house of worship the ensuing summer. No
Church can be permanent and prosperous without a house in
which the children of God can statedly meet for Divine service.

While on that mission, I rented a house and a few acres of
ground, near Braddocksfield, of my old friend Robert Milligan,
to which I moved my family on the 1st of April, 1859. Hav-
ing been brought up on a farm, and feeling it a duty to do all
I could in my old age for the support of my owji household,
and wishing to give my two sons honorable employment, I en-
tered upon this farming enterprise, and crowded that six-acre
lot to its utmost capacity with corn, oats, potatoes, tomatoes,
beans, cabbage, melons, etc. But, alas for us ! the ground, be-
ing far worn, was not very productive; and there was not
enough of it for such agriculturists as we were to make a com-
fortable living on. The situation of this property was very
pleasant, as it overlooked steamboat navigation on the Monon-
gahela River for several miles on one side, and the Pennsylvania
Railroad passed across the upper part of it on the other side.
So, between the passing of cars and steamers, we seemed to be
where the world was in motion about us. The neighborhood,
too, was very agreeable; but our house was too small to suit
us, so we only remained there one year.

As to my farming operations, my neighbors gave me a good
deal of credit. They, on each side of me, planted the small,
refused potatoes, which were not fit for table use. I advised
them against this, and told them if they would have good po-
tatoes they must plant good potatoes — always to take the best
of every thing for seed. My seed potatoes were the best I
could find in the Pittsburgh market. My neighbors' ground
was about like my own, and the culture was about the same.
The tops of their potatoes were very luxuriant ; mine were so
small as to make them laugh and say "they had the ague."
They had in number more potatoes than I had, but, like their
seed, they were generally small; while mine were very large,
and of a superior quality.

EXPERIENCE IN FARMING. 401

On the 4th of June, a very severe frost, which did much
damage over a great extent of country, cut off the young corn,
the tomatoes, and the Lima beans. My neighbors made haste,
as the season was far advanced, and plowed up their corn-
ground and planted again. My sons and I, with some other
help, immediately went all over our corn, beans, and tomatoes,
each having a pair of scissors, and cut the tops below where
the frost had reached. The beans and tomatoes sent outside
shoots from well-established roots, and produced abundantly ;
and the corn, being well-rooted in the ground, came right on
and did well. But I noticed that in every instance where we
failed to clip the corn below the part injured by the frost, the
disease went down into the root and destroyed the stalk alto-
gether. To be successful, this clipping must be done at once;
the third day may be too late.

On my grounds at Braddocksfield there was an abundance
of plum-trees, but they had brought no fruit to perfection, we
were told, for seven years ; all had been taken by the curculio.
My neighbors had generally lost their fruit by the depredations
of the same insect. To remedy this evil, I followed the direc-
tions of some old agricultural paper, and, by applying a com-
bination of the following materials', successfully repelled the
enemy: "To one pound of whale-oil soap, add four ounces of
sulphur. Mix thoroughly, and dissolve in twelve gallons of
water. Take one-half peck of quicklime, and, when well
Blacked, add four gallons of water, and stir well together.
When Settled and clear, pour off the transparent part, and add
tlit- soap ami tli.! sulphur mixture. To this mixture, add four
gallons of strong tobacco-water. Apply this compound with
a garden ByTinge to the plum-trees, when the plums arc about
the size of -null peas. Drench tin- foliage well. Should rain
come within a week, the mixture should he applied again."
Not only did this compound save my plums from destruction
by the curculio, hut, it drove the yellow-striped bugs from my
melons. All were saved. I have heard it said that when
whale-oil soap could not he obtained, common boA Boap has
been substituted, with entire success. I have introduced tie

402 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

little matters connected with my agricultural operations not
only for the attention they gained in the neighborhood, but
because they are in themselves valuable to farmers.

But it will be proper to turn back a little, in the history of
events, to the Springfield Convention of 1858. It fell to my
lot to preach the opening sermon, and to be presiding officer of
that assembly. I have already referred to the action of that
body in suspending all official cooperation with slaveholding and
slave-trading Conferences and Churches. At that convention,
at the instance of Rev. Cyrus Prindle, of the Wesleyan Meth-
odist connection, a committee on Church union was created, to
meet a committee of our Wesleyan brethren, in view of uniting
the two denominations in one body. The two committees met
in Pittsburgh, and, in great harmony, took such action and
recommended such measures as, in my judgment, ought to have
united the two communities in one brotherhood. But a discus-
sion sprung up on the secret society question, and the Church
union movement was a failure. As I was an acting member of
this joint committee, and took a deep interest in the success of
the enterprise, I felt afflicted that matters over which neither
civil nor ecclesiastical legislation ought to have any control
should have been brought in to defeat it. In view of the con-
templated union, the Springfield Convention, at the instance of
the aforesaid brother Prindle, agreed to appoint a committee to
act with Rev. W. A. Brewster, and other Wesleyan brethren,
in compiling a Union Hymn-book. I was appointed chairman
of said committee. Revs. Joel Dalbey, S. W. Widney, A. H.
Bassett, and J. M. Mayall were my associates. By an arrange-
ment, the labor of compiling a book was confided to brother
Brewster. When he had completed his work, the Methodist
Protestant committee was notified to attend at Cleveland and
examine it before its publiction. Brother Bassett and myself
were the only members who attended. After several days em-
ployed in a careful examination of brother Brewster's compila-
tion, we gave that work our unqualified approbation, and desired
its immediate publication, as our Church was in pressing need
of hymn-books. But, from some cause never fully explained

VISIT OF MESSENGERS FROM THE M. E. CHURCH. 403

to me, brother Prindle declined issuing the book until after
their General Conference. With a famine for hymn-books then
on our Church, our people could not possibly endure this delay.
So, being urged by my brethren, I entered, about the 1st of
December, 1859, upon the task of compiling our present hymn-
book ; and by constant toil, day and night, I brought my work
to a close on the 14th of March, took it to Springfield, and
submitted it to the' Board of Trust for publication. Brother
Bassett constructed the index and made various necessary cor-
rections. Such a work should not have been compiled in so
great a hurry. There was a young man of fine poetic taste by
my side, rendering me constant assistance in the execution- of
this task. It was my own dear son, Henry Bascom Brown,
who has since passed away triumphantly to heaven.

In September, 1859, the Pittsburgh Annual Conference was
held in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. This was an unusually in-
teresting and profitable session, and was handsomely entertained
by the ( 'lunches and citizens. We had in attendance two fra-
ternal messengers from the Pittsburgh Conference of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church — Rev. Homer J. Clark, D. D., and Rev.
Dr. Cox, both very amiable and talented Christian ministers,
whose excellent addresses to the Conference were very highly
appreciated by the members of the body and the spectators.
Then: two messengers, in their addresses, drew into notice the
points of agreement between their Church and ours in a very
happy style. I was then culled upon by the Conference to
respond. In doing this, I brought into new the old contro-
versy, when brother Clark and I were on opposite sides, in
the origin of the Methodist Protestanl Church in Pittsburgh;
th.it .it thai time both of us had honestly done what we could
for our respective causes, and in opposition to each other; yet,
mi inv part, I had always believed him to he a Christian gen

tleman, and I hailed him in our midsl in the ,-. • character.

I then said it wa& true th.it in Christian doctrines, experience^

and practice the two Churches were alike; hut it e thing wo

differed. We had the lay elemenl in our ecclesiastical eoonomy,
and they had not. If the time Bhould ever come when the

404 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

Methodist Episcopal Church would adopt lay delegation in her
Annual and General Conferences, the two Churches could then
unite and become one body, but not until then; for we were
a lay delegation people, and did believe that the Church of
Christ had as much right to a free representative government
as the State. As I was proceeding, brother Clark threw in a
response in favor of lay delegation, saying that a very consider-
able proportion of the ministers of his Conference (I forget the
exact proportion) agreed with their Methodist Protestant breth-
ren on that subject. The whole assembly on hearing this gave
vent to their feelings of delight by thanking God, and in va-
rious ways indicated their gratification. Other responses were
made, (I forget by whom,) and the interview with these fraternal
messengers was an occasion of great pleasure to us all. Wil-
liam J. Troth, an excellent lay brother, and myself were then
chosen fraternal messengers to the ensuing Pittsburgh Confer-
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and were instructed
to bear to that body friendly greetings from our brethren, con-
tained in a preamble and sundry resolutions, favorable to the
union upon proper principles.

During this Conference, I was appointed to preach on the old
battle-ground, corner of Smithfield and Seventh Streets. The
old meeting-house had been replaced by a new one, of greatly
superior style and capacity. A great change in the congrega-
tion had taken place. But few of the old members remained.
On that spot, in the old house, I had organized the Methodist
Protestant Church, in the month of June, 1829. Thirty years
since that event had now gone by, and I supposed the old an-
tipathies against me for my reform principles and actions still
remained among our Methodist Episcopal brethren in that sta-
tion. On hearing the appointments for the Sabbath-day an-
nounced, and that I was to preach in the aforesaid church, I
was taken by surprise. I arose and asked if that appointment
would be agreeable? I was assured by the appointing authori-
ties that it would, and that it had been made by the special
request of the minister and official members of that station. I
then agreed, with unspeakable pleasure, to fill the appointment.

FRATERNAL MESSENGERS TO PITTSBURGH CONFERENCE. 405

I had a large audience, and God gave me unusual liberty in
preaching the Gospel to that people. When service was over,
and I had gone from the pulpit into the altar, a great number
came forward to greet me, and there was no little shaking of
hands on that occasion. I had many invitations to dinner, but
brother Sinsebaugh, the preacher in charge, claimed me as his
guest. I was urged to remain and preach again at night, but
having another engagement, I could not comply. The secret
leading to all this kindness to me is found in the fact that, in
the course of thirty years, this people had become friendly to
lay delegation. They respected me because I had respected
my principles, which now, at last, God had taught them to
love.

In the month of March, 1860, brother W. J. Troth and my-
self attended the Pittsburgh Annual Conference of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, as fraternal
messengers. On being introduced to Bishop Janes, he intro-
duced us to the body, and we were received and treated in a
very friendly manner by the brethren. By request of the
Bishop, I occupied a seat by his side in the altar until the Con-
ference adjourned for dinner, and he wished me to continue to
occupy it afterward, but I asked him to excuse me from sitting
in so conspicuous a place, and said, if it would be equally agree-
able to him, I would rather take a seat among the members of
the Conference.

I was then asked by the Bishop if it would suit us to pro-
ceed at once to deliver our fraternal addresses, or would we
prefer delaying them to a set time. I told him that brother
Troth and I were comparative Btrangers to the Conference, and
it would be an accommodation to us if a delay were allowed, so
as tn ■/\\c us a chance to become acquainted with the brethren.
Tin- fact is, to appear before the Pittsburgh Conference, of
which I had <>nce been a member, and in which thirty-one years
had made so many changes, by thinning out the old members
and introducing new ones, affected me much. 1 w;ts in DO <i>ii-
ditioa :it that time to do justice to myself or to my Confer*
ence in delivering an address. A time was then appointed for

406 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

our addresses. The next morning, at ten o'clock, there was a
Conference sacrament. The Bishop invited me into the altar,
to assist him in those sacred services. It was an unusually rich
and solemn sacramental feast, and I was made to feel entirely
at home among the brethren.

When the appointed time came for our addresses to be de-
livered, the house was crowded. I was called into the altar to
speak. After reading our certificates of election as fraternal
messengers, and the preamble and resolutions of our Conference
on the subject of friendly relations between the two bodies, and
indicating a desire for a future union, I proceeded with my ad
dress, and brought to the notice of the Conference all the points
of agreement between the two Churches. When this was done,
I stated that there was one important point of difference : the
Methodist Protestant Church had the lay element; the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church had not. Then turning to the Bishop,
I said : " Mr. President, I ask your pardon ; I ought to have had
your permission before I broached this matter." " Not at all,"
said the Bishop; "go on, go on." I then proceeded to say: "I
am not intrusted by my Conference with any terms for the basis
of union ; but, understanding it to be your doctrine that Bishops
and Elders are the same order, according to the New Testament,
and that you consider your third ordination as nothing more
than the conferment of office, I will tell you what I will agree
to, and I think our Church generally would do the same.
We will take your episcopacy if you will take our lay delega-
tion." My remarks were, I think, well received by the breth-
ren. Brother Troth's address then followed. It was every
way creditable to himself as a layman, and to the cause he rep-
resented. A number of the members of the Conference re-
sponded in a very friendly and handsome style, making me feel
it very pleasant indeed to be in that assembly of Christian
ministers. At last came the old warriors — with whom I had
contended in former years — one after another, to the front of
the altar, and, with much tender feeling, gave me their hands
in token of friendship. Each spoke a few words of the hard
struggle between the parties in years gone by, and all seemed

REMOVAL TO VICINITY OF M'KEESPORT. 407

disposed to peace and friendship now. My own heart was
deeply moved, and I could scarcely restrain my tears.

When I proposed that we would take their episcopacy if
they would take our lay delegation, I knew then, as well as I
do now, that in their episcopacy there was a power that ought
not to be there. But it was then my judgment, as it is now,
that a lay delegation, admitted into the General and Annual
Conferences, would easily regulate all such matters. Let our
Methodist Episcopal brethren adopt lay delegation in an avail-
able form, then the way for Church union will be fairly open.

On the 1st of April, 1860, I removed with my family to
Prospect Hill, near McKeesport, seven miles further up the
Monongahela River. Here I had a larger and better house,
with twelve acres of ground, in an excellent neighborhood. I
leased this property from Edward H. Fisher for three years.
We were all well pleased with the change. Our habitation was
on an eminence, affording us a tine view of the Monongahela
for several miles up and down, and between us and the river
ran the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad. So, the passiug
of boats and cars made ours rather a lively country home. On
that little farm my sons, Henry and George, and I found full
employment. We occupied all our ground with something.
We raised oats, corn, hay, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, melons,
beans, etc. The orchard did well. We had an abundance of
peaches, plums, and cherries, of the finest quality, but not many
apples. While at that pleasant rural home, our coal only cost
us three Cents per bushel. We lived in the midst of plenty,
and had many comforts to repay our toils. Rut there was one
drawback. We had no well-established Methodist Protestant
Church in McKeesport. We had a small society, but no house
of worship, and the members being generally poor, we were not
able to build one. In a short time a Clninli trial divided our
little brotlierli 1, and the downfall of the whole OOncem -oon

followed. "A bouse divided againsi itself can not stand."
In September, I860, tbe Pittsburgh Conferenoe was held at

the Pleasant Valley Church, linen County, Pennsylvania. My
two sons, Rev. D. I. K. Riuc, our preacher, and myself all went

408 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

to it in a carriage together. We had a pleasant drive of nearly
two days, enlivened all the way by singing and interesting con-
versation. The brethren were well entertained at the Confer-
ence by the. people of the surrounding neighborhood, and were
brought to and taken from the place of our meeting in buggies,
carriages, and wagons. A Conference in a country place was a
new thing. It excited great interest in that community, and was
numerously attended by the citizens. My son Henry was there
received into the intinerant ministry. I regarded this step aa
an experiment, as his lungs were weak ; but the brethren were
disposed to give him a trial. He had a heart to work for
Christ, and, with some degree of reluctance, on account of his
health, I agreed that he might go forth as a laborer in the
vineyard of the Lord, and do the best he could for the Saviour's
cause.

In the month of November I attended the convention in
Pittsburgh, and was chosen to preside over the deliberations of
that body. I was likewise elected editor of the Western Meth-
odist Protestant for the next two years. The brethren, I think,
did this because they desired to draw me forth from my rural
retreat, and make my services available to the Church awhile
longer. After a few days of consideration, I finally concluded
to accept the position, in view of trying in some way to be use-
ful to the Church to the end of life. In advanced age, as well
as in early life, men must have reputable employment in order
to be happy. I left my family, on Prospect Hill, in the care
of my son George, and, about the 1st of December, ©ommenced
editorial life in Springfield. I found a comfortable home in
the hospitable dwelling of my old friend Rev. A. H. Bassett,
the former editor. Never shall I forget the kindness of that
dear brother and his excellent lady and niece. Had I been a
father to the whole family I could not have been cared for
with a greater amount of tenderness and respect.

In the month of March, I returned to my family, and at a
public sale disposed of my property, and prepared for a re-
moval to Springfield. Such a removal, being a very heavy
operation on the physical energies of my wife and myself,

DEATH OF MY TWO SONS. 409

brought us both to the conclusion that we would move no more.
Itinerant life had kept us moving for about forty years; so we
deemed it time to stop. After rendering very imperfect service
as editor of the Western Methodist Protestant for two years,
and suffering much in my health from that sedentary employ-
ment, the convention of 1862 elected Dr. D. B. Dorsey as my
successor, since which time I have retired from public life
altogether.

During the two-years of my editorial toils I lived in rented
property. In the spring of 1862, having concluded to remain
in Springfield, I purchased a cottage on Pleasant Street, where
I now reside. This is a pleasant, prosperous inland city. We
live in an agreeable neighborhood. The Churches of this place
are all liberal in their bearing toward each other. Our own
Church, though small, is quite respectable. Among this peo-
ple I expect to remain until it shall please God to call me home.
I am now advancing rapidly into the seventy-fourth year of my
earthly pilgrimage. In the natural course of events, I shall
soon pass away. To be ready for my change is now the great
object of my life. In the review of the past which I have
taken, I have found much to humble me in the dust before the
Searcher of all hearts. Yet I thank God that by His grace,
in Christ Jesus, "I am what I am." It is now a little over
fifty years since I entered the itinerant ministry in the Met h -
odi-t Episcopal Church, and to this day I have never, in a
single instance, failed, cither in the old Church or the new, to
attend the annual sessions of the Conference to which I be-
long( I : and I expect to attend them as long as I am able. For
abmit forty years in succession I was in the regular itinerant
work; then iii the college; then on the farm; then editor; now
on the lookout for the eternal world.

In 1-i',:;. God, whose counsel- are unsearchable, took from me
in v two sons. This was a Bore stroke. My son Henry, the su-
intendeni of Bellbrook Circuit, died in the midst <>C his peo-
ple, by whom he was greatly beloved, on the SKh of April, in
the full hope of a glorious immortality. His death Bcene the
final parting with father, mother, sister, wife — who can describe?
26

410 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

George had been in the ministry too, but left Richwood Circuit
and volunteered in the service of his country. He was in the
first battle at Vicksburg and at the taking of Arkansas Post;
but being overtaken by disease, and his captain assuring me,
by letter, that he could not live, I greatly desired to bring him
home to die. When all authority from Governor Tod and Gen-
eral Burnside failed to reach him, I appealed to my old friend
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, and in one hour after
he received my letter, I had a dispatch from him, with full au-
thority to go myself, or send an agent, and bring George home ;
and directing all superintendents of railroads and commanders
of Government transports to give me, or my agent, free passage
and subsistence there and back. Immediately I repaired to
Cincinnati, and secured the services of S. D. Evans — a brave
young soldier, who had been discharged in consequence of a
wound in the leg, from which he had nearly recovered — to go
as my agent and bring home my son. Through most appalling
difficulties, Evans succeeded, and George was brought to Cin-
cinnati. His mother and I met him there, and, at the house
of my nephew, Mr. George B. Hodgson — who, with his dear
mother, showed us every possible kindness — we nursed our
emaciated son nine days, when he died. George had carried
his religion with him through the toils of camp-life, and it sup-
ported him in death. On the 23d of June he calmly passed
away to heaven. Our two beloved sons were called away from
us within two months and a half of each other. I had often
indulged the hope that they would live long to preach the
Gospel of Christ after I had finished my course on earth, and
would both be present to close my eyes in death and bury me.
But, alas for me! I was called to bury them. Such was the
will of God, " who doeth all things well." All my sons, five
in number, have gone before me. God took three of them in
infancy. The last two, whose training cost me great solicitude,
were called away in manhood, just as the prospect of usefulness
began fairly to open before them. God gave me but one daugh-
ter. Upon her I strove to confer the advantage of a good ed-
ucation, and, what is still better, she is a conscientious Christian.

VIEWS ON ECCLESIASTICAL MATTERS. 411

Her husband, Mr. S. J. Ridgely, an amiable Christian gentle-
man, passed away to his home in heaven a little more than five
years ago; so my widowed daughter. Mrs. A. E. Ridgely, and
her two little sons, George and Adrian, reside with us, and are
a real comfort to my beloved and faithful wife and myself, in
the decline of life. God has greatly blessed me in my domestic
relations. Ours is a happy family, and we are all living in hope
of overtaking our loved ones in the heavenly country above.

My life is in the hands of the Lord, and I am striving to
hold myself in readiness to go hence into eternity, whenever it
may please him to call me. But, if it be God's will, I would
like to live to see an end of this terrible war; to see an end
of American slavery, and the perfect restoration of the govern-
ment of my country; to join in the transports of my fellow-
citizens at the return of peace; to see Christianity fill the
nation, North and South, and take a firmer hold of the Amer-
ican mind and heart and life than ever heretofore, and make
the people of these United States one great civil and Christian
brotherhood. I would like to see the prospective union of nil
the non-episcopal Methodists in our country conmunmated on
such principles as would secure the largest liberty to the
Churches that could be enjoyed consistently with a well-
guarded, efficient, itinerant ministry. I would like to Bee our
Bfethodjpt Episcopal brethren so modify their ecclesiastical
economy as to lower down tin; power of the, itinerant olei
and the episcopacy, ami introduce a lay delegation into their
Annual and General Conferences, so thai the whole Methodist
family could again be united in one body. But should th<
desirable anions never occur, it is still the duty of the Meth-
odist Protestant Church to fulfill her mission in spreading
Christian holiness and ecclesiastical liberty throughout our
country, ami to the ends of the earth, if she can. Our Church
at her organization, and for several years afterward, met with
mueli opposition from the Methodist Episcopal Church, Then,
again, she Buffered from her connection with the slavery qui

tion, until, in 1858, to gain relief, and to save her ft i-

ence in the free States, she came boldly up to the act of

412 RECOLLECTIONS OF ITINERANT LIFE.

pending all official cooperation with Churches and Conferences
connected with slavery. From the beginning, our Church has
been greatly in need of a faithful, laborious, enterprising min-
istry. Many came among us, apparently, to lounge and loiter,
to eat bread and live, who always contracted but never enlarged
the work assigned them, under whose worthless ministry the
Church always suffered loss. Such men do no good in any
Christian community. Preachers of this class have nearly all
passed away, and it will be well for the Church if they never
return. I think it can safely be said, that in our Church we
have now a more trustworthy class of ministerial laborers than
those who gave us trouble and brought us grief in former
years.

Notwithstanding all we have suffered by the war in the loss
of ministers and members, some of whom have fallen in battle
and others by disease, all through this terrible conflict the
cause of Christ, as committed to our young Church, has been
on the advance. Never, since we have been a Church, have
we done so much for missions as we are now doing. The pros-
pect of a permanently endowed first-class college is now very
good. This will afford educational facilities to our whole
Church. It will give to young men desirous of entering the
ministry among us the advantage of an education commen-
surate with the wants of the age in which we live. This will,
by the blessing of God, contribute largely to the permanency
and prosperity of the Church. Our book concern and Church
paper, through which we send out the literature of our connec-
tion into all the circuits, stations, and missions, are in an im-
proved condition, and are gaining a better support than formerly.

Should the contemplated union between all the non-episcopal
Methodist bodies be effected on principles satisfactory to all
concerned, I will be glad in the Lord. Should suitable modi-
fications be made in the government of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, so as to admit of all who bear the name of
Methodism being- united in one body, my joy will be greatly
increased. But if, from any cause or combination of causes,
the Methodist Protestant Church should be destined to remain

CLOSING REMARKS. 413

alone, through all time to come, I shall still have happiness.
Ours is an excellent Christian organization. It includes at
this time a valuable body of pious, talented, useful ministers.
Our membership, in piety and liberality, is, in my judgment,
equal to that of any other Church in the land, in proportion to
their numbers. Let our college be established. Let us have
an educated ministry. Let educational facilities be extended to
all our people, male and female, every-where. Let it be the
high and holy ambition of the entire body to spread Christian
holiness, Christian freedom, and Christian education throughout
our country and elsewhere, then God will give to our Church
a glorious future. He will make her a great power in His
own hand for good to our race, and a happy spiritual home
for the lovers of Christ in all future generations. Why may
not the Methodist Protestant Church, with her love of religion
and liberty and literature, by the blessing of God, go down
through all the ages of the millennium?

In closing my recollections of the past, I must add, with
gratitude to God, that this is a memorable day to me and to this
nation. The papers have this day, April 29, 1865, brought us
the news of the overthrow of the rebellion. This terrible war
is ended; the Government is saved; the slaves are freed; peace
will soon be proclaimed, and the American flag, without the
lose of a single star, will henceforth wave in glorious triumph
over " the land of the free and the home of the brave ! " " Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward
men." "Hallelujah I for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth."
God grant that Christianity may now take a deeper hold than
heretofore on the whole American people, and heal all the sor-
rows of our entire country.

APPENDIX.

AN ADDRESS TO THE

MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE M. P. CHURCH

IN ALL THE ANNUAL CONFERENCES, GREETING.

Beloved Brethren:

It seems to me appropriate, as a conclusion to what I have
written in the foregoing pages, that I should now address a
hrief communication to you on several subjects of abiding in-
terest to us all. Most of you know that I spent a number of
years in active itinerant labor in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
and that I had some share in the lay delegation controversy in
that Church, which, contrary to the wishes and expectations of all
the friends of reform, resulted in the organization of the Meth-
odist Protestant Church; and that, from the foundation of this
last-named Church, I have stood connected with her history and
her interests, doing what I could, in every position assigned
me. for her advancement ami prosperity. I therefore trust it
will not be considered an offensive intrusion if I speak freely
and plainly to my Christian brethren of things pertaining to
the welfare of our beloved Church before I am called away to
the eternal world. Mfearly all the old Reformers with whom I
once had the honor to labor have gone to their reward. They
were men of precious memory. I. too, must soon pass away.
Before I go, please indulge me a little.

It is often said by those who are Dot friendly to our young
Church, aud too often believed by the uninformed, in and out
of our organization, thai there is do difference between the
government of the Methodist Episcopal Church and thai of the
Methodist Protestant Church, and that a change from the
former to the latter i- attended by no advantage whatever. Now,
if this he so, it will certainly follow that the old Reforme'rs
labored long and hard, and suffered much, all to no purpose,

(41-.)

416 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

and that it would be a dictate of sound practical common sense
for us all to return immediately to the Methodist Episcopal
Church.

But before we abandon our ecclesiastical organization, we ask
to be heard a little in defense of the old Reformers. Many of
you, my brethren, have often heard me say, in former years, and
I will here repeat the saying again, "that the Methodist Prot-
estant Church only exists to be despised, unless she can show
very good reasons for her existence." To multiply distinct
Christian denominations, without an adequate cause for so doing,
is certainly a most foolish and wicked transaction. Did the
founders of the Methodist Protestant Church do this thing ?
Let us see.

In order to justify the existence of the Methodist Protestant
Church, and likewise to show the advantages of her ecclesias-
tical economy over that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it
will be necessary to go back and bring into uotice the objec-
tionable features of the government of the old Church, out of
which we came. In doing this, I wish to use all possible kind-
ness, for against that Church I have no word of complaint, save
only against the government.

In 1784, just at the close of the Revolutionary War, Dr. Coke
and Francis Asbury, both of them frem England — the land of
kings and bishops — with but few republican ideas in their
minds, and certainly no Republican love in their hearts, did in-
stitute and establish an ecclesiastical economy for the Methodists
in this country, more arbitrary in its character than the civil
government of King George III, which the Americans, by a
seven years' war, had just thrown off, at the expense of so much
blood and treasure. By the Revolution, republican liberty was
gained in the State. By means of these two Englishmen, it
was lost in the Methodist Church; for they placed in the hands
of the itinerant clergy alone all the legislative, the judicial,
and the executive powers of the government, leaving the local
preachers and lay members of the Church without due protec-
tion against this itinerant domination. King George's govern-
, ment, which our fathers banished by a bloody revolution, had
three principles in it — the monarchical, the aristocratical, and
the republican. The government established by Coke and As-
bury in the Methodist Church had then and has yet but two—
the monarchical and the aristocratical. Methodist episcopacy
answers to the British monarchy. The itinerant power-holding
system for life answers to the British peerage. But in Eng-
land they have a House of Commons, where the people are rep-
resented by delegates elected by themselves. But in Episco-

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 417

pal Methodism there is no House of Commons. The people
are not represented in either the General or Annual Confer-
ences.

In the North Western Christian Advocate, for February 15,
1865, Dr. Charles Elliott tells a good story concerning the Brit-
ish king. He tells us that ''George III was himself a Meth-
odist and a member of a Methodist class. His principal gar-
dener was his class-leader. We are in possession of several
interesting historical items on this subject that have not yet
met the public eye ; and the Methodist element imbued several
members of the royal family."

The British king, in whose government there was some re-
publicanism, was driven out of this land, with all his Methodism,
because he wanted to tax the colonies without allowing them
the right of representation. But what arbitrary rule lost in the
civil department, it gained and more than gained in the eccle-
siastical, when Dr. Coke and Francis Asbury placed the Meth-
odist Church under its present form of government. Now the
people bear all the pecuniary burdens without the right of
representation.

From the beginning of Episcopal Methodism in this country',
there were men of eminence to be found in the ministry and
among the laity of the Methodist Episcopal Church who were
nol in favor of an ecclesiastical government which ignored
Church representation. The old Reformers were of this class.
A< a general thing, they excused Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury for
introducing a Church government so arbitrary in its character.
These gentlemen had been taught by Mr. Wesley, who was no
republican. They were both Englishmen, and probably had no
ideas in their mind- of any other kind of government than an
ecclesiastical monarchy. But who can excuse the American
Methodist preachers, who in this free country, just after a seven
years' war for republican liberty, allowed such a Church gov-
ernment to be established? All the divisions in Europe and
America thai have ever taken place anion- the Methodists, so
far as I am informed, have grown oul of the arbitrary character
of the government. It was this ministerial government, then,
in wliic-h the people had no voire, that occasioned and did in
my opinion justify the controversy which resulted in the or-
ganization of the Methodisl Protestanl Church. The old Re-
formers did most religiously believe thai the Church of Christ
had as much righl to a free representative governmenl a j the
ted States, and, acting on this conviction, they introduced
the discussion of lay rights, lir-t in the "Wesleyan Reposi-
tory," edited by W. B. Stockton, a layman, an in' 1 lligent, noble-

418 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

hearted Christian gentleman; and then in the "Mutual Eights,"
edited by a committee of Christian brethren, some of whom
■were ministers of distinguished ability and piety, and others
were laymen of unblemished character and standing. When
this discussion was entered upon, none of those concerned in it
had any thought at all of making a new Church. Our object
was to reform the government of the old one ; but in this thing
we were doomed by the ruling authorities to a sad disappoint-
ment.

It now becomes my duty to justify the existence of the Meth-
odist Protestant Church as a distinct Christian denomination.
When a party in controversy in a Church is placed by the
ruling authorities on a ground that they can not occupy, with-
out an abandonment of their manhood and Christian honor, this
thing is equal to their expulsion. This was clearly done in the
case of the old Reformers.

In the progress of the controversy, the parties, as is usual
in such cases, became a little warm. Old Adam showed himself
among his children on both sides. It is questionable whether
the temper and doings of the friends or foes of lay delegation
did fully comport with the doctrine of entire sanctification as
held by the Methodists. Still, the principle remained the same,
and if the party in power were not willing at that time to grant
lay delegation, they ought, in all fairness, to have left it an
open question, and allowed to all the right of free discussion
in relation to the matter at issue. But this thing was not done.
Some time in 1827, the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy of Meth-
odism seemed to be roused into action against reform and its
friends. Rev. D. B. Dorsey, a member of the Baltimore Con-
ference, was suspended by that body from all ministerial func-
tions for one year, because, in a letter to a friend, he had
recommended the Reformer's periodical, called "The Mutual
Rights." At the next session of said Conference Dorsey was
expelled, because, while peddling books to support his family, he
had sold Rev. A. McCaine's "History and Mystery of Methodist
Episcopacy." By that same Conference Rev. W. C. Pool was
expelled for delivering a lecture in favor of lay delegation. All
the local preachers who favored reform were forbidden the oc-
cupancy of any of the Methodist pulpits in the city of Balti-
more. Finally, about eleven of them, and, I think, all the
members of the Editorial Committee, because they declined aban-
doning the "Mutual Rights" and their Union Societies, in obedi-
ence to the demand of Rev. J. M. Hanson, the preacher in charge,
were likewise excluded from the Methodist Episcopal Church.
These were all men of sterling integrity and great moral worth;

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 419

so acknowledged to be by those who expelled them. Their only
crime was, in fact, a great moral virtue. They loved Christian
liberty too well to abandon it, and the means of its propaga-
tion and defense, for the sake of retaining their standing in the
Church. Other expulsions in Virginia, North Carolina, and
elsewhere, for the same cause, and under similar circumstances,
occurred about the same time. Our cause had to encounter the
frowns of the stanch friends and supporters of Episcopal Meth-
odist authority in all places; for the days of argument with
them had gone by, and the days of punishment had come.
So the Reformers understood it, and expected no favors.

Yet, to give the authorities a chance to do justice, if they
would, Dorsey and Pool sent up their appeals to the General
Conference, in Pittsburgh, in 1828. The cases of all the ex-
pelled, in some shape or other, were brought before that body,
to get that high court of appeals, if possible, to take some ac-
tion that would be healing in its character, and lead to a resto-
ration of the expelled brethren. All of them had a desire to
retain their standing in the Methodist Episcopal Church, if such
a thing could be done in accordance with Christian honor. But
the members of that Conference were not in a temper of mind
to favor the Reformers in any way whatever, so the appellants
lo>t their cause. The testimony of one of themselves, Rev.
•Jacob Young, who used to preach at niy father's house, when
I was in my boyhood, may here be given. He holds the fol-
lowing language in his autobiography, page 387: "The great
B idical controversy, as they called it, was still in progress, and
it was the opinion of the most intellectual and pious members
of the Conference thai it had progressed as far as it could
within the pale of the Church, and that the Reformers must
cither submit to discipline or retire and set up for themselves."
Such " discipline " as had been exercised upon the brethren who
had been expelled they were not prepared to ••submit to," as,
in their opinion, it was wholly unauthorized by the laws of the
Church. A,a for "retiring and Betting up for themselves," they
bad qo inclination to do this, if it could be avoided; yel 'hey
had often been urged to this by their opponents, ami the fol-
lowing terms offered them by the General Conference of L828,
and found in the fourth volume of t he "Mutual Rights," page
335, will shuw thai these American Christiana had either to
submit to degradation or escpatriation:

" Wiikkkas, an unhappy excitemenl has existed in some
parte of our work, in consequence of the organization of what
have been called Union Societies, for purposes and under reg-

420 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

illations believed to be inconsistent witb tbe peace and harmony
of the Church ; and in relation to much of the matter contained
in a certain periodical publication called '■ Mutual Rights,' in re-
gard to which certain expulsions from the Church have taken
place; and, whereas, this General Conference indulge a hope
that a mutual desire may exist for conciliation and peace, and"
is desirous of leaving open a way for the accomplishment of
so desirable an object on safe and equitable principles; there-
fore,

" Resolved, by the delegates of the Annual Conferences, in Gen-
eral Conference assembled, 1. That in view of the premises, and
in the earnest hope that this measure may tend to promote the
object, this General Conference affectionately advises that no
further proceedings be had in any part of our work, against
any member or minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
on account of any past agency or concern in relation to the
above-named periodical, or in relation to any Union Society
above-mentioned. 2. If any persons expelled, as aforesaid, feel
free to concede that publications have appeared in said ' Mutual
Rights,' the nature and character of which were unjustifiably
inflammatory and do not admit of vindication ; and that in others,
though for want of proper information, or unintentionally, have
yet, in fact, misrepresented individuals and facts, and that they
regret these things. If it be voluntarily agreed, also, that the
Union Societies above alluded to shall be abolished, and the
periodical called the ' Mutual Rights ' be discontinued at the
close of the current volume, which shall be completed with due
respect to the conciliatory and pacificde sign of this arrangement,
then this General Conference does hereby give authority for the
restoration to their ministry or membership, respectively, in the
Methodist Episcopal Church, of any person or persons so ex-
pelled as aforesaid; provided, this arrangement shall be mutually
assented to by any individual or individuals so expelled, and
also by the Quarterly-meeting Conference, and the minister or
preacher having the charge of any circuit or station within
which any expulsions may have taken place; and that no such
minister or preacher shall be obliged, under this arrangement,
to restore any such individual as leader of any class or classes,
unless, in his own discretion, he shall judge it proper to do so;
and provided, also, that it be further agreed that no other
periodical publication to be devoted to the same controversy
shall be established on either side; it being expressly under-
stood, at the same time, that this, if agreed to, will be on the
ground not of any assumption of right to require this, but of
mutual consent for the restoration of peace ; and that no indi-

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 421

vidua! will be hereby precluded from issuing any publication
which he may judge proper on his own responsibility.

"It is further understood that any individual or individuals,
who may have withdrawn from the Methodist Episcopal Church
on account of any proceedings in relation to the premises, may
also be restored by mutual consent, under this arrangement, on
the same principle above stated."

Here, then, are the terms of "conciliation and peace" offered
by the General Conference of 1828 to the expelled Reformers
and their associates in the great struggle for lay delegation ; and
it is now my intention to analyze this document with calmness
and candor, and ascertain, if I can, all its attracting and re-
pelling forces. Was there really any thing in the terms of "con-
ciliation and peace," under consideration, to win back to the
Methodist Episcopal fold all the expelled Reformers and their
friends? Let me carefully examine this matter and see.

1. I begin with the very structure of the General Conference,
whence this document emanated. It is composed exclusively of
itinerant ministers. No layman has a legal right to a seat, or
a voice, or a vote in that body. This is equally true of the
Annual Conferences. Yet all the pecuniary burdens by which
the institutions of the Church are kept up fall on the people.
This I consider as repelling in its character, as it includes the
doctrine, in effect, of taxation without representation. This
<i':neral Conference had ratified the decisions of the Baltimore
Conference in the appealed cases of Dorsey and Pool, and had
thereby made the arbitrary acts of that body their own. It
was not, therefore, to have been expected, after that act against
men guilty of no moral wrong, that they would offer very favor-
able terms of "conciliation and peace" to the expelled Reform-
ers and their friends.

2. The act of "conciliation and peace" passed by the Gen-
eral Conference, in relation to the non-expelled Reformers, I
consider nothing but a suspension of hostilities, to be resumed
again, if it should be deemed necessary, by the ruling authori-
ties. The Conference "advises [it does not authoritatively
direct] that no further proceedings be had in any part of
our work against any member or minister of the Methodist
Kpiscopal Church, on account of uny past agency or concern in
relation to the above-named periodical, [the -Mutual Rights,']
or in relation to any Union Societies above named. The Ed-
itorial Committee in Baltimore, all of them, might havo retained
their standing in the Methodisl Episcopal Churoh, at t ho time
when they were expelled by the preacher iu charge, if they had

422 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OP

agreed to give up the "Mutual Rights " and the Union Societies.
Now, the General Conference is ready to overlook, pass-by, and
forgive all the "past agency and concern" of the non-expelled
Reformers, etc. Surely, this was kind. But is it not a little
marvelous that the kindness of the Conference did not lead that
body to restore the expelled Reformers? And since their kind-
ness did not lead them to do this, why did not the justice of
the Conference put all on one common level, and expel all the
Reformers, for all had done the same things? The non-expelled
Reformers knew very well that the words "past agency or con-
cern " implied a threat in relatiou to the future, and that if, in
time to come, they took any "agency or concern" in sustaining
the "Mutual Rights" and the Union Societies, they would be
made to follow those who had gone before into ecclesiastical
banishment. These non-expelled friends of ecclesiastical lib-
erty knew full well that their standing in the Methodist Epis-
copal Church now depended on conditions which, in conscience,
they could not comply with. To abandon their right to a free
and full investigation of the principles of Church government;
to discontinue their periodical, in which their investigations were
carried on, and to abolish the Union Societies, in order to meet
the wishes of arbitrary men, who had no right to make such
a demand, and all this for the sake of a standing in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, was a degradation to which they never
could submit. Had they done it, they would have abandoned
their mental and moral manhood, and despised themselves for
deserting their principles to the end of life. The expulsions in
Cincinnati, shortly after the General Conference, clearly demon-
strated to the Reformers what their fate would be if they re-
mained in the Church and did not abandon the Union Societies
and the "Mutual Rights." Degradation or expulsion awaited
them.

3. I come bow to the expelled Reformers. Here I under-
stand Revs. D. B. Dorsey, W. C. Pool, the editors of the "Mu-
tual Rights," and the members of the Union Societies to be
mainly meant. These expulsions took place in part by the
Baltimore Conference, but in the main by the authorities in
one of the Baltimore stations. The circumstances attending
those expulsions were considered by the expelled, and by the
Reformers every -where, to have been very aggravating and un-
fair. This may be seen by the resolutions of Quarterly Con-
ferences East, West, North, and South, in remonstrance against
those most unjustifiable proceedings. To these expelled breth-
ren, who were really the salt of the earth, if the earth ever had
any salt, the following terms of "conciliation and peace" are ten-

THE METHODIST PKOTESTANT CHURCH. 423

dered by the General Conference: (1.) They must "feel free to
concede that publications have appeared in the 'Mutual Rights,'
the nature and character of which are unjustifiably inflamma-
tory, and do not admit of vindication." (2.) "That others,
though for want of information, or unintentionally, have vet, in
fact, misrepresented individuals and facts." (3.) "And that
they regret these things." (4.) They must theu " voluntarily
agree that the Union Societies be abolished; (5.) That the
periodical called the • Mutual Rights ' be discontinued at the
close of the current volume; 6. And that no other periodical
devoted to the same controversy be established." When all this
is done, what theu? Why "this General Conference does hereby
give authority for the restoration to their ministry and member-
ship, respectively, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of any
person or persons so expelled as aforesaid." Here is the
authority for the restoration of the expelled, but through what
strait and narrow way is this return to their former standing to
be effected? Why. through the medium of the Quarterly Con-
ference and the hands of the preacher in charge. They say,
• Provided, this arrangement shall be mutually assented to by
the individual or individuals so expelled and by the Quarterly
Conference, and the minister or preacher having the charge of
any circuit or station within which any such expulsions may have
taken place." Now, in view of the foregoing terms of "concil-
iation and peace" offered to the expelled, the following remarks
may be in place.

1. Honesty and candor must admit that in this controversy
the parties became a little warm — human nature showed itself
to disadvantage on both sides. If there was any thing " un-
justifiably inflammatory" in the publications of the Reformers,

; lere was in the publications of their opponents. If one party

erved to be expelled for "these things," so did the other.

The better way would have been for each party to have looked at

home, corrected its own error-. cas< the beam out of its own <
before any attempt was made bo jiiek motes out of a broth

pel him from the Church. The expulsions, in my
opinion, were in Buch a case unjustifiable, and did no honor to
Christian religion. Had the Methodisl Episcopal Church
a been in the game temper Bhe is in now those expulsi i
would not ; ken place, and the discussions mighl have bi

carried on with advantage to the Church, many of whose minis -
ten and members now favor lay delegation.

2. Bui to require the expelled Reformers to "abolish
Union Societies, to 'discontinue the 'Mutual Rights,'" and to
promise "that no other periodical devoted to the Bame contro-

424 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

versy should be established," in order to a restoration to their
former standing, was to ask too much of American Christians ;
and it often happens that when men ask too much they get
nothing at all. These intelligent, pious brethren had in them
too high a sense of Christian honor to do a thing so degrading
as to voluntarily purchase back their lost standing in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church by the sale of their right to free investi-
gation in the "Mutual Rights," sustained by the Union Societies.
In this thing all the expelled and non-expelled were of one
mind, with a very few exceptions. As in the days of Christ,
some "went back and walked no more with him," so we found
it in those days.

3. But let us suppose the expelled Reformers in Baltimore,
from a disinclination to stand alone in the world, or organize a
new Methodist Church, or scatter themselves out among other
Churches, or, from the uncomfortable circumstances surrounding
them, to have, in the deeply-discouraged and panic-stricken
feelings of their hearts, concluded to abandon their undoubted
rights, denude themselves of the sturdy manhood belonging to
American citizens and Christians, and to have come down into
the dust, in deep humility, before the Baltimore Quarterly Con-
ference. What are they to say for themselves? Why, this:
We voluntarily agree to abolish the "Mutual Rights", to aban-
don the Union Societies, and to establish no other paper, in all
time to come, "devoted to the same controversy," and con-
fess our "regret" for many things that have been published.
Would the Quarterly Conference, a body known to be hostile
to them, and the enemies of the cause they advocated, restore
them to their former standing? Would that body do it with
that same Presiding Elder in the chair who took such pains to
have them expelled? It may be they would. And it is pos-
sible they might not; and if not, their deep degradation has
availed them nothing. But suppose they are restored by the
Quarterly Conference, what then? Why, they must go through
the hands of the preacher in charge. And who is he? Why,
the very man who, without justice or mercy, expelled them.
What chance have they with him? Very little, indeed. If he
rejects them, they are left out in the cold, the scorn of man-
kind; if he receives and restores them, like Judas, they must
meet the contempt of all men of integrity as long as they live
for the sake of a home in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Now, I ask my Methodist Protestant brethren every-where, I
ask all candid men in all the Churches and in all the land, if
such terms of "conciliation and peace" as were offered by the
General Conference of 1828 to the expelled Reformers were not

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 42-5

degrading? Did not those brethren do right, in the sight of
God aud man, when these terms were rejected by them?

But we must look a little further into the terms of "concilia-
tion and peace." In various parts of our country, there were

ruiers whose minds and hearts had been sorely pained at
the expulsion of their near and dear relations and friends by
the Church authorities. In Baltimore alone there were about
fifty excellent Christian ladies who withdrew, because, " for a
mere difference of opinion about Church government, their com-
panions, fathers, brothers, children, and friends" had been ex-
commnnicated from the Church. All these Christian ladies
obtained certificates of their good standing from Bev. J. M.
Hanson, the preacher in charge. This was, at least, one act of
justice on the part of Mr. Hanson. But the General Confer-
iu offering terms of "conciliation and peace," can only
allow to members withdrawn the same terms granted to mem-
bers expelled. Thus all moral distinctions are broken down, and
the innocent and the guilty (if guilt there was in this case) are
all treated alike. These good sisters, if they desired to return
to the Church, were not allowed simply to return their certifi-
cates and claim their places, but their restoration is ordained
by the General Conference to be "under" the same "arrange-
ment" and on " tlu j , same principles above stated," that were
offered to the expelled. They withdrew with acknowledged inno-
cence; they are to come back as criminals, abandoning their cause
entirely — "Mutual Rights," Union Societies, and all. Then,
upon a due confession of their "regrets," they might, like the
expelled, pass, through the hands of the Quarterly Conference
and the preacher in charge, into the Church — restored, indeed,
but never to respect themselves any more. Now, taking all
these three cases together — the non-expelled, the expelled, and
the withdrawn — could the General Conference, in offering such

iding terms to us all, expect "submission" to this kind of
"discipline?" Did they not, in order to get clear of the con-
troversy, intend to compel the Reformers, whose cause, in their
opinion, to ase the language of the Rev. Jacob Young, had
"progressed m far as it could within the pale of the Church,
to retire and tet up for themselves f "

It was not because there was not a majority in the Methodist
Episcopal Church at thai time in favor of lay delegation, nor
because all our measures broughl before the General Conference
failed, thai we did ••retire and setup for ourselves;" bul be-
oan ■■ the right of free discussion in the "Mutual Rights,"
tained by the Onion Societies, was now cloven down by an

tonsible 'General Conference. Our friends had been ex-

426 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

pelled, the standing of all the Reformers put to hazard, and
the way foreclosed, so that neither the expelled nor the with-
drawn could honorably return; nor could the non-expelled, on
principles of Christian honor, any longer remain in the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Here, then, the Methodist Protestant Church
finds her justification, in the doings of the General Conference
of 1828, for her separate and independent existence as a Chris-
tian community among the Churches of Christ in our country.

The Methodist Protestant Church came into being contrary
to the wishes or expectations of the old Reformers, who were all
true friends of the Methodist Episcopal Church, yet wanted
her government reformed. Over this matter of going out from
the old Church they had hardly any more control than a man
has over his parentage, or the time and place of his birth. Our
Church exists by the providence of God overruling the doings
of good but mistaken men. They meant to kill the cause of
Christian liberty; but God meant to embody the friends of re-
form, and demonstrate to the Methodist Episcopal Church and
to the world that ecclesiastical freedom was a good thing, and
that the Methodistical views of Scriptural Christianity could be
spread among mankind by an itinerant ministry and a lay dele-
gation working in perfect harmony together in all our official
bodies.

It may be admitted, from the structure of the government
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, that the old Reformers had
justifiable reasons for introducing the lay delegation question
and discussing it in the "Mutual Rights," sustained by the
Union Societies. It may be admitted, also, that the existence
of the Methodist Protestant Church, under the circumstances
connected with her origin, is fully justified. But still, it may
be affirmed by some that the two Churches are so much alike
that nothing is to be gained by a change of Church relations,
and that it would be a dictate of sound practical common sense
in all the ministers and members of the Methodist Protestant
Church to return immediately to the Methodist Episcopal
Church again. Now if this be so — if the two Churches are so
much alike — why go to them? Why may not they come to us?
seeing it is just as far from Cork to Dublin as it is from Dub-
lin to Cork. Let an examination now be made into the similarity
of the two Churches; and here we gladly admit that they are
alike in their views of Christian doctrine, in their views of
religious experience, and in their views of Gospel morality. In
all these things Methodism is the same all over the world.
They are alike, too, in the names of all their official bodies.
Have they Quarterly, Annual, and General Conferences? So

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 427

have we. Have they circuits, stations, and missions? So have
we. Have they love-feasts, class-meetings, and leaders' meet-
ings? So have we.

NW, let me call the reader back to an examination after the
rights of laity in these two Churches. Go to the General Con-
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and there you will
find a body of ministers, representing none but ministers, and
no layman's voice can legally be heard among them; yet this
body is. the law-making department for the eutia-e Church, as
well laymen as ministers. Go to the General Conference of
the Methodist Protestant Church, and there you will find a
body of miuisters and an equal number of lay representatives,
all elected to their seats in that assembly by the entire Church
in the electoral colleges of the Conferences, composed of min-
isters and laymen. En this assembly, representing the entire
community, the laws of the Church are made. Go to the An-
nual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and there
you will find an executive body, composed of itinerant minis-
ters only, to transact all the business of the Churches in all
tlic districts, circuit-; stations, and missions of the Conferences.
Go to the Annual Conference of the Methodist Protestant
Church, atnl there you will find all the itinerant ministers of
the district, ami an equal cumber of lay delegates from all the

•nit-, stations, and missions, transacting business together.
Go to an Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
and there you will find a Bishop, advised by his Presiding El-
der-, appointing all the ministers and preachers to their work
in the vineyard of the Lord for the coming year; and no min-
ister or preacher so appointed lias the righl of appeal, nor have
the people any leg ll redress if the appointed preacher d
not Buil them. Go to an Annual Conference of the Methodist
Protestanl Church, and there you will find a stationing commit-
tee, elected by the ministers and delegates of the entire district,

making out the appointments for the ensuing year. < >n this
committee there are two ministers and two laymen chosen.
The President of the Conference j^, j M virtue of his office,
chairman of tic committee, and has a casting vote in case of tie.
When the committee lias done its work, and reports a plan of
appointments to the Conference, that plan is then the property
of the Conference, ami may lie amended to suil either ministers
or delegates. Buf when it is adopted by the Conference, it is
final, and is to he regarded a- the work of the entire brotherhood
of ministers ami Churches, acting through their delegate! in
appointing the preachers to their fields <>\' labor. Episcopal

Methodism Baye much of a great central powei in tin; hands

428 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

of their Bishops, to wield all the itinerant taleuts of the Church
in the use of his appointing power. But in Methodist Prot-
estantism this appointing power is not lodged in the hands of
one man ; it belongs to the whole Church, including ministers
and members. Here is liberty and strength combined. When
this whole nation, through the President of the United States,
commands a citizen to perform a certain duty, is he not as much
obliged to do the thing commanded as if he had been com-
manded by a monarch who derived none of his power from the
people? Just so it is with us. When a whole people, through
an Annual Conference, appoints a preacher to a charge with his
own consent and that of the people to whom he is sent, he is
as much obliged to go and do the duties assigned him as if he
had been appointed by a Bishop who derived none of his power
from the people? Human nature recpiires a strong government,
as strong as it can be made consistently with human liberty.
Our people have liberty ; our Church government has power.

It may not be necessary to extend this examination any fur-
'ther. In the Quarterly Conferences, leaders' meetings, and in
Church property matters the Methodist Protestant Church has
greatly the advantage — the rights of the community are better
secured. Our Church is now a well-organized body of Chris-
tians. Our people are, as a general thing, contented and
happy under our present economy, and it would not " be a dic-
tate of sound practical common sense" for us all to return to
the Methodist Episcopal Church. To abandon lay delegation
and the liberty of the local Churches, and place our ministers
and members under the government of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, where the itinerants alone have control, and where the
voice of the laity, in an Annual or General Conference, could never
be heard, and where it could only be heard in the management
of affairs in the local Churches, so far as they were brought
into action by the iutinerant preachers, would never satisfy our
people. On the contrary, much would be gained, ecclesias-
tically, by the members of the old Church, were they to^unite
with the Methodist Protestant Church. 1. They would gain
their rights, for they have rights in the government of the
Church as well as the State. 2. They would get clear of a
very troublesome contradiction in their principles. To be a
republican in the State and a monarchist in the Church does
involve a contradiction. 3. It would open the way to en-
larged usefulness. In the Methodist Episcopal Church there
are many men of prime qualifications for usefulness, in the
General and Annual Conference and elsewhere, if they were
only brought into active service. 4. It would improve the

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 429

intelligence of Church members, in relation to the entire
economy of Methodism — a thing that can hardly be expected,
unless a full share is given them in the government of the
Church. 5. All of this would lead to a more ardent attach-
ment to the Church, thus governed, according to the principles
of eulightened freedom, and a higher love to Christ, who es-
tablished the Church, in view of the salvation of the world.

Luther, in his day, did not reform the Church of Rome;
but he did, under God, raise up a very respectable and influ-
ential Christian community, by which he gave a check to the
Pope's power, from which it never has recovered. He also
planted principles in that establishment, which have, like leaven,
been working ever since his time, and will work until Roman-
ism falls to rise no more. Wesley, in his day. did not reform
the Church of England; but, under Grod, he did raise Up a
community of Methodists, who, for piety and intelligence, are
the ''light" and "salt" of that island, and by them a leaven-
ing Christian influence has been sent into the English Church,
among the Dissenters, and into many other parts of the world.
The old Reformers did not reform the government of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, but when compelled by necessity, they
did frame an ecclesiastical economy, securing the "mutual
rights" of both the ministers and members of the Methodist
Protestant Church. In this denomination there are hundreds
of intelligent, pious ministers, and many thousands of valuable,

roted members, and it is believed that, to some extent, Meth-
odic Protested! influence has been felt by the Methodist Epis-
copal Church; for in thai community there appears to be a
ring desire to adopt our principles, and introduce a lay del-
egation.

It may be that influences from Beveral quarters have ope-
rated on the Methodist Episcopal Church, bo as to lead a lai
portion of her clergy and laity to desire a lay delegation. Her
own cool reflections, since the old Reform controversy closed,
mat have led her to the conclusion that, after all, the Re-
formers were right in principle, and thai Bhe herself ought to
adopt those principles. The odium of being drawn into com-
parison with the Church of Rome, whose clergy have all the
power in her government and her people none, may have had
it.- influence; or the shame of making her members bear all
the pecuniary burdens of the entire establishment, without
granting then, a Bhare in the government, may have mov< I
them in this matter; or the inconvenience <d' having two •
of principles republicanism for the civil department, and mon-
archical for ti tical may have influenced them; or a

430 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

conviction that she had not been compelled by the Holy Scrip-
tures, nor led by the instructions of Mr. Wesley, nor guided
by Church history to ignore the rights of the laity, may have
done something in this case; or, having seen from our example,
right under her eye for the last thirty-six years, that an itin-
erant ministry and a lay delegation can, with great advantage,
work together; or all of these taken together, may have moved
her; for the Methodist Episcopal Church, to some extent, now
desires a lay delegation. And why should she not? If she were
to delay any longer in this matter, the very stones would cry
out. At the present time this whole nation, as in an agony,
is moving to the task of giving voting-power to the colored
freedmen of the South. Certainly it is now high time for the
Methodist Episcopal Church to grant the right of suffrage and
a lay delegation to her own white members. As an island di-
vides a river, so did the Reform controversy divide the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church into two bodies; as the two streams
below the island come together and make but one river, so I
trust that the old Church will adopt lay delegation ; then these
two Churches, like the two rivers, may come together again.
Indeed, it would give me pleasure to see all the branches of
Methodists, episcopal and non-episcopal, united in one body,
sustaining and spreading Scriptural Christianity and ecclesias-
tical liberty throughout the world; for the Church of Jesus
Christ, in my judgment, ought to be the home and nursery of
every kind of freedom properly belonging to man. I would
like to see the great Methodist family, with all her divisions
healed, and all her scattered fragments gathered up into one
unbroken whole, like a broad majestic river, going down
through the millennium a great agency in the hands of Jesus
Christ to bless and save our raco.

In what I have now written, if. has not been my object to
give pain to any portion of the Methodist Episcopal Church;
but it has been my intention and aim to state the facts of the
case as I understand them; to show that in the structure of
the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in such a
country as ours, occasion was given for the controversy which
resulted in the organization of the Methodisi Protestant Church ;
to show that the circumstances under which the Reformers were
placed by the Genei-al Conference of 1823 were equal to their
expulsion, and that, therefore, our Church exists by a necessity
over which she had no control; and, finally, to show that
there is a strongly marked difference in the ecclesiastical econ-
omy of the two Churches — a difference more strongly marked
than is that between the governments of Great Britain and the

& v

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 431

United States — so that a liberty-loving people, understanding
this difference, may well be contented and happy, holding Church
relations in our community. Here all the essentials of Meth-
odism are found; here an itinerant ministry, in all its effi-
ciency, and the liberty of the local Churches, to every needful
extent, are happily combined. A larger liberty of the local
Churches could not be enjoyed, unless we were to become Corv
gregational, in the absolute sense of the word, and then we
should lose all the advantages derived from an itinerant min-
istry. To this our community would never consent.

After the foregoing notice of the old controversy, and a
brief vindication of our Church existence, I shall now turn the
attention of the reader to other matters relating to the Meth-
odist Protestant Church, as she stands related to other Churches,
to our country, and to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only living
Head of the Church universal.

I shall '"'gin with the .Methodist Protestant Church, yet
some of my remarks may be applicable to other Churches. I
hold it to have been the intention of the Saviour of sinners to
maintain a standing Christian ministry among men down to
the end of time. He did not leave his religion to make its
way in the world by the force of its own internal energy,
without the employment of human instrumentalities. He did
int.-nd to help man by man. Hence a Gospel ministry was
instituted by Christ to convey the glad tidings of salvation to
all mankind. My faith, and hope, and charity lead me to give

it as my solemn judgment that all the g I, great, and useful

men did not live in some former age of the world; but that
then. ;n-e ;it the present time in the Churches as pious minis-
ter— men as really called of Chrisl to the work of the ministry —
as were the original missionaries whom Christ commissioned to
preach the Gospel in all the world, to every creature. Yet it
nmsi he admitted thai the founders of Christianity, immedi-
ately appointed by Chrisl himself to that greal work, occupied
the vantage -round over all ministers of the Gospel, in after
of the world, in lour very important particulars.
In the fir-t place, they bad Been Christ, and had been trained
for their holy work under his personal ministry. What better
could" they have than this? Secondly, they had been
eye and ear-witnesses of his miraclee and teaching, and in their

,, preaching could "declare" unto the people " the thii
w hich thej had Been and heard" from the Saviour himself.
V, ministers in after ages could do this; Thirdly, thej were
empowered by ChriBl to gain credence to hia religion by work-
ing miraclee in his name, in all places, wherever they delivered

432 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

their Gospel message. None of their successors could do this.
Fourthly, by the laying on of their hands and prayer, the Holy
Ghost and power to work miracles was given, in the name of
Christ, to those who believed on the Saviour. In all these
things they had no successors. The age of miracles then ended.
Christianity being established by competent testimony from
heaven, signs, wonders, and divers miracles were no longer
needed. The truth once established remained like a fact proved
in court, established forever. If miracles had been continued,
they would have come at last to be considered no miracles at
all, and men would have ranked them under the ordinary op-
erations of the laws of nature.

Those who proudly claim to be in what is called the Apos-
tolical succession, and deny the authority of all ministers not
ordained by their Bishops to preach the Gospel and administer
the sacraments, have, as a general thing, made their claim to
rest on ordination alone, and not on an ability to work mira-
cles in the name of Christ themselves, or, by the imposition of
their hands and prayer, to impart miracle-working power to
believers. But can an unbroken succession of Bishops, from
St. Peter down through the anti-Christian Popes of Borne to
the present time, be sustained by unimpeachable Church history?
Our most learned and reliable divines and historians think it can
not, and if it could the thing itself would be shameful. An Apos-
tolical succession that comes through the hands of " the man
of sin, the son of perdition," the head of the great apostasy
of the last times, looks to me more like it came from Judas
than Peter. Such a succession, in my judgment, is a figment
of Popery still remaining, and is not an honor but a burning
disgrace to any Protestant Church.

I have full faith in an apostolical succession of a different
kind from the foregoing. In my judgment, the hands of a
Bishop laid on the head of an irreligious dunce never made of
that man a true Gospel minister, and never can. Where men
are truly converted to God, and drawn bv the Holy Spirit to
the work of the Christian ministry, and are filled with a burn-
ins desire to be instrumental in savinsr souls, whether these
men have five, two, or one talent it matters not. Christ calls
for various talents in his vineyard; he can use them all, each
in his pYoper place. When these men have the sanction of a
spiritually-minded Church, and are ordained by elders, these
men are in the true Gospel succession as it came down, not
from Judas, but from Peter, and he received it from Jesus
Christ. Peter was an Apostle by office, but an elder, as I
suppose, by ordination. Hear what he says of himself: " The

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 433

elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder,
[sum presbuteros, a fellow-elder,] and a witness of the sufferings
of Jesuij Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be
revealed." The elders addressed by Peter were the pastors or
shepherds of the flock; and in the next verse he directed them,
in his exhortation, to "feed the flock of God ; ' — taking the over-
sight, (episcopountes,) discharging the office of bishops or su-
perintendents. In the first verse he calls them elders, in the
second he calls them bishops; so, according to Peter, elders and
bishops were the same in his day. Now, while we deny the
false notion of apostolical succession, and believe in no such
absurdity, we hold, in the Methodist Protestant Church, that
our ministry is on the New Testament plan, and that our
Churches, raised up under such a ministry, in which elders and
bishops are one and the same order, and among whom the
pure doctrines, experience, and practice of Scriptual Christi-
anity are preached and enforced, is, in the highest sense of the
word, an Apostolical Church.

When Christ ascended to heaven, "He gave some, apostles;
and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors
and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all
come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the
Bod of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure and stature
of the fullness of Christ."— Ep h. iv: 11-13.

It may be proper to make a few remarks on this passage.
And, in the first place, apostles working miracles, and prophets
foretelling future events, are not now to be found in the Church.
It may- therefore, be legitimately concluded that these two or-
ders of ministers are not necessary to the welfare of Christ's
mystical body. But as prophets in the New Testament often
mean Christian preachers, as such they still exist, and will to
the end of time.

But, secondly, as to evangelists, I think they still exist in
the Church. An ailgel from heaven was the first evangelist.
■ ■ i-Y.ir not," said the angel to the shepherds, "for behold I
bring [or, as it lb in the Greek, evangelize,] unto you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Fot unto
i le born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is
ChrifM ill" Lord." There were in the primitive Church men
who were not particularly fixed to any our place, but, like gen-
eral missionaries, went wherever the providence of God opened
their way. proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation. It has
been claimed forthe Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church
that they are evangelists; but this can not be allowed, as they

434 ADDRESS TO THE .MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

are men of regular work. Those ministers who travel from
place to place, to promote revivals and raise up Churches in new
places, are evangelists. Such was Philip. Acts xxi: 8. Tim-
othy also was exhorted " to do the work of an evangelist." 2
Tim. iv : 5. No doubt he spent much of his time in this kind
of general missionary labor.

But, thirdly, there were " pastors and teachers." These two
offices were concentrated in the same persons. The pastors, or
shepherds, were commissioned to watch over the flocks, and
guard them from the wolves; as teachers, they were to instruct
the flock of Christ in all things pertaining to the kingdom of
God. The teacher or preacher of Christ's Gospel is, by virtue
of his office, the pastor or Shepherd of the flock immediately
under Christ, the great shepherd ; and St. Peter very clearly
defines his duty. 1. He is to feed the flock of God. 2. He
is to take the oversight of them, not by constraint, but willingly
and of a ready mind. 3. He is not to be moved in any thing
he does for the flock of Christ by a love of "filthy lucre."
4. He is not to be a lord over God's heritage, for Christ has
forbidden that thing. 5. In every sense of the word, he is to
be an "eusample" — a pattern of all the Christian graces and
virtues to the flock committed to his charge. 6. He is to look
for his reward at the appearing of Christ: "And when the Chief
Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not away." But, according to St. Paul, this pastor and
teacher holds his office from Christ, "for the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, unto
the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ."

Here, then, we see the true character of the Christian ministry.
Here we see their great work, and here, too, we see their ,great
reward — a crown of glory in heaven. Who is sufficient for
these things? He alone in whom the spirit of Christ dwells.
When Christ "ascended up on high," he not only gave apostles
and prophets, then needed to found and establish the Chris-
tian Church, but he gave the "evangelists," to go out and pub-
lish the glad tidings of the Gospel in new regions and organize
Churches; and he likewise gave the "pastors andteachers," to
take care of the flock when it was gathered into the fold of
the Good Shepherd. In all the evangelical Churches these
pastors and teachers are found to-day. The great body of the
ministers in the Methodist Protestant Church are of this evan-
gelical stamp. A good minister, a faithful pastor, is a most
invaluable gift of Christ to the Church; but an unfaithful

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 435

drone, who only lives to -.consume the produce of the soil, or a
money-hungry Judas, who would throw up his interest in time
and eternity for worldly gain, is a direful calamity on any
Christian community. All the Churches have a few of these
wolves in sheep's clothing — these selfish, earthly-minded men.

St. Paul, in l\omans x : 13-15, places the call to the ministry
in a very strong light: "For whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved." Salvation comes to the human
soul by calling on the name of the Lord. Standing there in
the midst of the Gentile world, the Apostle asks, "How shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed?" Where
there is no belief in the Lord, there will be no calling on his
name, and. of course, no salvation. Again he asks, "How shall
they believe on him of whom they have not heard? Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." His
next question is, "How shall they hear without a preacher?"
This makes the preacher's office among the Gentiles very irn-
portant indeed. All involved in heathenish idolatry, and no
preacher to teach them the way of salvation by Christ. Then
again he asks, " How shall they preach except they be sent?"
[• is the Lord's prerogative to call, commission, and send forth
the preachers ; and if he does not send them, there will be no
preaching, bearing, believing, calling on the name of the Lord,
or salvation. The vineyard is the Lord's, and he only has the
right t<> appoint the laborers. When the Saviour calls one of
hi- faithful servants to preach the Gospel, he is certainly ca-
pable of making that man fully understand that he is called to
thai work, anil, at the same time, to convince the Church of her
duty to granl him her sanction and -end him forth. A truly
spiritual Church will not often err in her judgment concerning the
piety, talent-, powers of utterance, and other qualifications lor
usefulness, of one of her own member.-, who is called of Christ
to preach the Gospel. The Bame spirit that moves him to the
WOrk will move the Church to -rant him her authority to go
out into the vineyard of the Lord as a laborer.

Chris! -died the twelve Apostles, and constituted them his
missionaries, '•> establish Christianity among all the nation.- of
the earth. He likewise "appointed other seventy," and directed
them to pray the Lord of the harvest, that he would "send [or,
:i - it i- rendered by Dr. Clarke, 'thrust'] forth laborers into his
harv< It takes "thrusting" sometimes, togel therighl kind

of men to go. Some, win, are thoroughly convinced of their
duty to pie, eii the Gospel, make many excuses for not going
into the harvest-field. Others, like Jonah, rather than go to
the work, would prefer taking -hip. and fleeing to Tar.-hi.-h,

436 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

and risk the storms of the ocean. Yet there are others who,
like Isaiah, say, "Here am I, send me." The willing laborer
in any department of life is always to be preferred. "If I do
this thing willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will,
a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me ; yea, woe is
unto me if I preach not the Gospel." In our itinerant field
some of the laborers are -only moved on in the work by fear
of the woe. At last they do quit the field, enter into worldly
business, get overwhelmed in trouble, and find that the woe has
come, and this, with them, may be only the beginning of sor-
rows. Buried talents are yet to be accounted for in the great
day of the Lord. Blessed is the man who cheerfully bears his
crosses and trials in the itinerant field, and faithfully does his
Master's work until the close of the day, or until he is other-
wise released from toil. God will give him a full reward. Yet 1
have known many who entered into the itinerant field reluctantly,
but came at last to like the work well. Amid all the embar-
rassments and trials connected with their calling, they held on
their way and finished their course with joy. Others of this
class are still in the field — men of prominence and good moral
worth.

To sum up all, as to the call to the ministry. As no power
on earth has a right to come into our country and appoint the
Postmasters of the United States, the Judges of the Supreme
Court of this nation, or the Generals of our armies, it being
the constitutional prerogative of the Chief Magistrate of our
Republic to do that work, in like manner there is no earthly
power in existence that has the right to supply the Church of
Jesus Christ with ministers. The prerogative to do that work
is in Christ only, and he never has and he never will give that
power into other hands. My conclusion therefore is, that we
have had from the beginning, and have at this time, in the
Methodist Protestant Church, just such a ministry as it hath
pleased the Master to give us. I thauk him most devoutly for
the gift of such a ministry. They have done well ; the cause
has prospered under their ministrations. If our ministry needs
improvement to suit the times, so did the Twelve after Christ
called them to the work ; for he gave them the benefit of over
three years' instruction to qualify them more fully for the min-
istry. And there was the eloquent Apollos, who was " mighty
in the Scriptures;" even he needed an Aquilla and a Priscilla to
"expound unto him the way of God more perfectly." "They
who will not learn can not teach." That our ministers need a
higher grade of learning to suit the cultivated age in which we
live is granted, and we hope soon to have an institution of

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 437

learning where our young men may go, not to get their call to
the mini-try, but where they may go after they are called, and
receive an adequate outfit of the right kind • of training for
their holy work. As in the origin of the Christian Church
Christ took fishermen and tax collectors and put them into the
ministry, so from the farms and the workshops of the land
he has given us our preachers. Such men need a further training.
It may have been best for the Methodist Protestant Church,
in the outset, to begin in a small way to test the advantages of
lay delegation. If the General Conference of 1828 had adopted
lay delegation, then the principle of Church freedom would have
been, to a great extent, in the hands of its enemies, or, at least,
in the hands of the uninformed, where its real worth could not
have been properly appreciated; so the whole scheme of re-
publican liberty in the Church might have been a signal fail-
ure. But, in the wisdom of God, matters in our case were or-
dered otherwise. As Judaism rejected Christianity, as a general
thing, and compelled it to go into a new organization and test
it- principles, on the outside of the pale of the Jewish Church,
so the old Reformers were compelled, by the action of the
highest tribunal in the Methodist Episcopal Church, to retire
and enter into a new ecclesiastical organization. As Chris-
tianity, small at the beginning, did spread throughout the world,
g and overcoming all sorts of opposition and trials, so
the Methodist Protestant Church, small in the outset, has spread
into all parts of our country, meeting and overcoming in her
progress all sorts of trials, and has had an ample opportunity
t . test, right under the eye of Episcopal Methodism, the great

■:h of lay delegation as connected with an itinerant ministry.
And a- the time will come when the Jews, together with the
fullness of the Gentiles, will be converted and come into the
Christian Church, so, according to the signs of the times, I
think the day is not distant when the Methodist Episcopal
Church will, in some available form, adopt lay delegation in her
Annual and General Conferences, and amply secure the liberty
of the local Churches. When this is done, then I trusl that,
in the providence of God, all the various branches of the Meth-
ndi-t family will again be gathered into one body. As this
nation, all over, from sea to sea, has aot one inch of Boil cursed
with Bkvery, bo let the Methodist Episcopal Church, including
all her offshoots, in one harmonious brotherb L, be ecclesias-
tically free, and bo go down to the latesl posterity. Am

During the thirty-six years of tl ■ ace of the Methodist

P • banl Church, the progress of oar cause has been gradual
and steady. For a aumbex of years after the commencement

438 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

of our operations, every inch of ground we gained was contested
by the ministers of the old Church. This led us to bring our
principles constantly before the people. Those principles gen-
erally met the public approbation, and our increase in those
days was more rapid than it has been since the contest measur-
ably died away. Opposition kept alive debate, the people
understood the controversy and all about mutual rights, and a
liberty-loving Christian always knew where to find a home; so
we moved on prosperously. Under a general impression that
our Church was on the right foundation as to doctrines and
ecclesiastical economy, the controversy for a number of years
has measurably been discontinued, the two Churches have be-
come quite friendly, and two results have followed. First, our
Church in time of peace has not increased in numbers as she
did while the doctrines of ecclesiastical freedom were kept con-
stantly before the people; but I hope our religion has been none
the less pure. Secondly, our Methodist Episcopal brethren
have had time to cool off and reflect, and, upon due considera-
tion of the matter, have indorsed our principles, and are aim-
ing to introduce lay delegation themselves. If the controversy
had been kept up by us, they might have remained as hostile
as formerly and made no movement toward a lay delegation.
Even truth will hardly be admitted in a time of strife.

But if the advancement of Methodist Protestantism has been
somewhat retarded in the way above-mentioned, it has been
much more retarded by the slavery question. This question, as
discussed in our Annual and General Conferences, and in our
Church paper, did for a time greatly perplex our people. It
hindered our Sunday-school operations and our missionary work,
and broke up our college. At last, to save the life of the
Methodist Protestant Church in the free States, we were com-
pelled, in the Convention of 1858, to suspend all official coope-
ration with those Conferences and Churches which did tolerate
slavery and the slave-trade. We did love our brethren in the
South, but they held fast to what we deemed a great moral
evil. Union with them was destruction to us; so, on principles
of morality and necessity, we declined cooperating with them
any longer, unless the evil complained of was entirely done
away. how profoundly deep and mysterious are the ways of
God in his providential dealings with man ! It never entered into
the mind of any man, in the Convention of 1858, that God, by
means of a terrible civil war, would abolish slavery in every
State in the Union in 1865; yet the deed is done, and, by -the
blessing of God, I have lived to see my country a land of free-
dom for men of all colors and of all races. Now that slavery

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 439

is dead and can be no more a source of trouble, it is my bope
tbat tbe two wings of the Methodist Protestant Church, North and
Soutb. will agree to work together again under the constitution,
and that abundant prosperity will attend our united efforts to
spread Cristianity through all the land. If it be desired by
the parties concerned, the General Conference of 1866 can
easily remove the suspension of 1858, and then both wings of
the Church, equally free from slavery, can act again in harmony
in building up the Redeemer's kingdom. It is time now, since
the war is over, to reconstruct the Churches as well as the
Union, provided it can be done on principles fair and honorable
to all concerned.

I have lately seen a disparaging allusion to tbe Methodist
Protestant Church in the New York '■ Christian Advocate and
Journal," which, in my judgment, deserves a rebuke. .Tbe
Methodist Protestant Church, now in the thirty-sixth year of
her age, holds a very respectable position among tbe Christian
Churches in our country. If the Advocate does not know
this fact, others do, and freely acknowledge it in every appro-
priate manner. Not having the Advocate at hand, I can not
quote its precise language ; but our Church is alluded to, in
a belittling way, as an obscure Church but little known ; and Rev.
T. H. Stockton's position in such a diminutive community is
referred to in tones of commiseration. It may do good, and I
hope it will do no harm to any one, if I call the attention of
the Advocate back to the position of its own Church when she
Was thirty-six years of age. Was she any more respectable in
her ministry or membership, or any more useful, than our Church
i- to-day? The Methodisl Episcopal Church had then 358
itinerant preachers and 86,734 members, colored and white.
Now, taking our Church, North and South, we have many more
itinerant preachers ami members than they bad at our age.
Since the war, however, we can not state our numbers with
certainty. The missionary interests of the two Churches for tbe
period mentioned have been about alike — no foreign missions
iblished. In the Methodisl Episcopal Church, all their col-
lege enterprises failed 'luring the time specified. During that
time we have had college failures too; yet we did run Madison
College, at Oniontown, Penn., about sis years, with some ad-
vantage to the Church and the country. Our book ooncern, I
think, is on ae good a foundation as thai of the Methodist

Episcopal Church was at our age. During her firsl thirty six

years tl Id Church had no denominational papers; bul we

have had one or more Church papers all the time. As to

houses of worship, parsonages, support of the itinerant ministry,

44:0 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

provision for the superannuated preachers, etc., I know that the
Methodist Protestant Church is now better off than the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church was duriug her first thirty-six years.
Our ministry now will suffer nothing in comparison with theirs
in 1815, when, under the direction of the Presiding Elder, Rev.
Enoch George, I entered the itinerant field. Our members, like
our ministers, I know, are no better than they should be; yet,
for intelligence, piety, and liberality, I hold them to be equal
to those of the Methodist Episcopal Church at any period of
her history. As to our lay delegation, for which the fathers
of Reform suffered ecclesiastical martyrdom, why are we re-
proached for that? Is not the old Church at this very time
seeking to advance her own interests by introducing that feature
of our economy?

Like John the Baptist, we have gone before the old Church
to prepare the way, and we are ready to acknowledge, as did
John, that a greater than we are cometh after us. Now, as
Christ gave due credit to his forerunner, so let the old Church
do to us. Let them treat us as being as respectable and useful
a body of Christians as they were at our age; let them cease to
call us "rads" and "radicals," and to speak sneeringly of the
'•old radical controversy" and its "violence," as though all
the "violence" was on our side. In their consciences they know
better than this. Let them remember that, in the days of their
youth, they were the people every-where spoken against; and
now that they have grown strong, let them not become proud
and treat contemptuously those that are weak, calling them
"radicals," etc. Why, if they did but know it, they are radi-
cals themselves ; for they seek a lay delegation, and this is the
very essence of radicalism. Yet, after all, I must do justice to
the old Church. I freely admit that her treatment to us has
been mild, compared with that of the Jews to the first Chris-
tians, or to that of the Catholics to the Protestants in the days
of other years. Her only Church paper that does us injustice
at this time, so far as I am informed, is the New York Advocate.
A little more mild, Christian candor in that paper would be an
improvement. As to the ministers and members of the old
Church, I do not charge on them the sins of the Advocate, and
I hereby take pleasure in acknowledging, in a general way, their
brotherly kindness to our denomination.

As to the other denominations of Protestant Christians in
our country, so far as my information extends, peace and Chris-
tian friendship prevail. The Presbyterians — Old School and
New — the Congregationalists, the United Presbyterians, the
Cumberland Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Protestant Epis-

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 441

copalians, the United Brethren, and the Wesleyan Methodist
Connection, etc., all treat the Methodist Protestant Church with
brotherly kindness and charity. Nearly all these denomina-
tions agree with us in according to the laity their ecclesias-
tical rights. And whatever may be in their standard books,
from their pulpits I have not heard any thing for many years
that would be offensive to the most delicate Methodist ears.
They occupy our pulpits occasionally, and our ministers occupy
theirs; and, on special occasions, the various congregations often
mingle together, iu the same house of worship, with a great
deal of brotherly affection, feeling that "One is their Master,
even Christ, and they arc all brethren." To have the good
will and occasional help of these influential denominations is
a real source of pleasure and profit to the Christian heart;
and it is likewise a matter of gratitude to God to see 'real
Christian sympathy so extensively prevailing over sectarian
bigotry. Christians may belong to different denominations, and
yet be one in heart.

Christian union is of two kinds — spiritual and ecclesiastical.
I wonder if even in the millennium all ctemoninational dis-
tinction- will he entirely done away. [f .Jesus Christ comes
from heaven to reign on earth in person, this thing may be;
but should his reign be wholly spiritual, and carried on from
heaven, a.- at present, men. I think, will always find arguments
to justify denominational distinctions. IT all the denomina-
tions above-mentioned, who have, in fact, a spiritual union, and

arc of one heart and • soul, were to pull down their various

ecclesiastical establishments, and out of the old materials erect
a new edifice large enough to contain them all. that might not
make the spiritual union any more perfect than it now is.
Bring the whole under one roof, and if the Holy Spirit does
not now mold the whole of them, and liil them with love to
God and one another, and make the spiritual union complete,
an ecclesiastical union mighl he rather an injury than a hlc-s-
ing. The more ansanctified, unloving souls you bring together,
the more trouble you have to maintain good order. Nothing

Inn heavenly love can he an adequate <•<• nt of Christian

union; and that love, with its long arms, can embrace a brother
across the line- in another Christian community, and without it

We might persecute him if we had him in our-. We are all

Bocial beings. Religious society is oecessan bo Christian happi-
ness, hut th.it Bociety need not include all Christendom in order
to our spiritual enjoyment. The greal worth of a strong ec-
clesiastical organization is found not so much in the power it

has to impart happiness to it- own individual members as in

442 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

its power to do a more extensive good to mankind, and thereby
bring a greater degree of glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. I
am, in this view of the matter, favorable to the proposed union
of all the non-episcopal Methodists. All these bodies are com-
paratively weak. Union may not make any member in either
body a better Christian, but it will give to the uuited body a
greater power to do good among men, and to glorify the Sav
iour of the world in a higher degree.

The Wesleyan Methodists came out from the Methodist
Episcopal Church on the anti-slavery question. We came out
from the same Church on the lay delegation question. Had it
not been for our connection with Churches and Conferences
that tolerated the slave system in all its branches, they would
have united with us at first, instead of going into a separate
organization. Ever since 1858, when our Church in the North,
through a convention, took action to relieve herself from all
slavery connections, and thus to save her own life, there has
been a growing desire for a union between the Wesleyans and
our body. Finally, the subject took a wider range, so as to
include all the non-episcopal Methodists in our country. In a
convention held in Cleveland, on the 21st of June, 1865, largely
attended by volunteer representatives from all the aforesaid
bodies, in great harmony, and with as rich a flow of heavenly
feeling as I ever witnessed in a deliberative assembly, the fun-
damental principles of union were adopted. Then a convention
to consummate the union was recommended. This convention
has been called by nearly all the non-episcopal Methodists to meet
in May, 1866, in Union Chapel, Cincinnati, and is clothed with
full authority to unite all those bodies together in one Church.
And it is my sincere belief that clear-headed, sound, Christian
logic will no longer justify these several Methodist communi-
ties in remaining apart. Their Christian doctrines are all east
in the same Methodist mold; their principles of ecclesiastical
economy are the same. They must unite or abaudon common
sense. In union there will be strength; in separate existence
nothing but weakness. This writer, with all his heart, goes
for the union, in the full faith that it is the duty of all con-
cerned, in every laudable and honorable way, to increase our
power, to benefit our race, and glory God by a more vigorous
advancement of the cause of Christ in the world.

And now for one thing more. A mere ecclesiastical union
is not enough. There is need of prayer to God to harmonize
all the jarring elements in the several parties concerned, in
order that the union may be brought about. There will be need
of faith, hope, charity, and prayer in the convention where the

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 443

union is to be effected, and then it will require a great deal of
the right kind of religion to make the union valuable.

During the past four years of terrible war for the mainten-
ance of the invaluable Government of our beloved country,
the ministers and members of the Methodist Protestant Church,
with a very few exceptions, have given evidence of the reality
of their religion by an undeviating loyalty to the American
Union. It has been pretty generally understood, by both
preachers and people, that loyalty and religion are enjoined by
the same Divine authority. "Render therefore unto Caesar, the
things which are Caesar's; and unto God, the things that are
God's," is the teaching of Christ. And St. Paul enforces obe-
dience to civil government in this language: "Let every soul
be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but
of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God;
and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation,"
etc. These texts, taken in connection with many others in the
New Testament, plainly enjoin loyalty to civil government as
an essential Christian duty. A man might be loyal and not
be a Christian, but he could not be a Christian and at the
Bailie time not be loyal, even to such a government as Csesar's,
and especially to so good a government as ours — the best that
the world ever saw. Hence, our Church, with this understand-
ing of her Christian duty, has uiven her most cordial support
to the union cause, until the rebellion was overthrown. What
Church, in proportion to her numbers, gave more ministers to
the army than ours? Some went as Chaplains, others as regi-
mental or company oilmcrs, and others again as common sol-
diers; while those at home who h.nl smis sent them to help
save the country, some of whom fell in battle and others by
disease. My stricken heart feels what [ now write, for I, too,
lo.-t a -mil the Lael son I had, my beloved George, lie was a
Christian preacher, a valiant soldier, and alter some hard-fought
battle-, he fell by disease. 80 it fared with many others of
our ministers— they losl their sons by tin- war. And the
preachers at home, in their Beveral charges, while doing all they

COUld for the cause of Christ, did not forged their country and

tlir army. They prayed for our rulers and the salvation of

our country; they delivered Bermons ami lectures, when neces-
,. in behalf of the cause. Ami what Church, in proportion
to her members, Beni forth to tin' war more of her private
members than ours? The blood of our brethren has stained
manj a battle-field; Borne have starved in Southern prisons, and
others till Boldiers graves in the far-off regions of the South)

444 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

while a goodly number have returned to cheer their families
and bless the Church. Thank the Lord for a Church combin-
ing in herself the great elements of loyalty to our country and
piety toward God ! Thank the Lord that the war is ended, the
government is saved, the slaves are freed, and that in all the
land we now have peace ! This is peace at home, within our
own borders, and we rejoice in it and give glory to Grod for it;
bat the American eye is turned toward Mexico, where, by the
aid of the Emperor of the French, Maximilian, a vile intruder
from Austria, is seated -on a tottering throne, aiming to subvert
republican liberty, which, according to the Monroe doctrine, our
nation never can allow; so now we may look for a foreign war.
May it not be so that we are now just on the eve of the last
great wars of the world before the millennium? The great
despotisms of the Old World will no more yield to argument
than did the slaveholders of the South, and yet those despot-
isms must be removed before "the kingdoms of this world can
become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ." I think
that we are taught by the Holy Prophets that, in the provi-
dence of God, the terrible hammer of war will do this work.
The missionaries in all the world are making converts to Chris-
tianity, and implanting ideas of a higher civilization in those
despotic, idolatrous nations. Opposing principles will come into
conflict, and a war of ideas will lead to war with swords ; then
comes on the last great wars of the world.

But, turning away from the Old World and looking at the
condition of our own beloved country, and leaving all our sister
Churches to pursue their own plans for the thorough evangeli-
zation of this nation, so as to make it to be as full of right-
eousness as it ever has been of sin. and praying God to bless
all the efforts of those Churches for our country's good, what
does the Lord Jesus Christ require the Methodist Protestant
Church to do in this great work of evangelization? Certainly
there is a great work to be done in this field, now "white unto
the harvest," and we are not to "stand all the day idle." Our
holy religion, with all its heavenly purity, did not propagate
itself. Living agents were chosen by Christ to spread the glad
tidings of salvation throughout the world. In like manner, our
methodistical views of Scriptural Christianity, connected, as they
are, with the rights of the laity, will not propagate themselves.
We need living, active, competent, spirit-stirring agents iu the
great Gospel harvest field to carry on the work. We need
good generals, who do not aim to do all the fighting themselves,
but who know how to marshal their forces aud lead on the
Bacramental host of God's elect into the battles of the Lord.

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 445

Will it not be for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great
Head of the Church, if there should be in all parts of Meth-
odist Protestantism a glorious revival of religion? Will it
not be for the Saviour's honor if all our lukewarm Churches
should be brought up to the higher Christian life and baptised
with the Holy Ghost and fire? Will not the Sou of God be
glorified if, through the instrumentality of our ministers and
Churches, multiplied thousands of sinners should be couverted
and added to the Church? To strengthen the Churches at
home, and thus more effectually enable them to render service
abroad, is certainly our first work.

Now, since protracted meetings are the order of the day, how
may they be carried on to the greatest advantage? 1. Let our
protracted meetings, where all our people in any given place
are expected to go into the work, be introduced by consent of
the Church, with all her members pledged to attend them, and
work for Christ in the meetings and among their friends and
acquaintances. Such a meeting requires all the influence the
entire Church can bring to bear on the community. 2. Under
a deep sense of the insufficiency of human efforts, and of the
need of Divine assistance on such an occasion, the meeting should
be introduced with a day of solemn fasting and prayer, and car-
ried on a .short time as a prayer-meeting, in view of obtaining
the baptismof the Holy Ghost. 3. All the preaching should be
directed to one point; namely, a revival of religion. Whether
one preacher or many shall he called into service, this one ob-
jecl should constantly be kept in view. On such an occasion,
the preachers should agree among themselves all to preach for
a revival. Repentance must be faithfully preached in all its con-
stituent principles ami feelings, and urged home upon the c.iti-
soienc sc of sinners, in order to bring them as penitents to the
mercy seat. Justification by faith alone, through the merits
of Jesus Christ, musl be preached in order to bring penitents
into the glorious liberty of tin' children of Q-od. Tim "clean
heart, the "right spirit," Bible holiness, entire sanctification,
the bigher Christian life, filling the soul with perfect love, must,
in the preaching, be Bcripturally explained and urged upon be-
lievers] nor must the poor guilty backslider be forgotten or
neglected. The preaching should faithfully and Bcripturallj till
the minds and hearts of the audience with true ideas or the
work of God to be accomplished. Let no preacher miss the
mark and fill the mind- of the bearers full of ideas foreign to
a work of grace. If be does this, hie prewiring la a real bin-
derance, and God will have to oast all that he has said out of

the minds of the people, and fill them with other ideas of tho

446 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

right kind before lie can get at them to carry on his work.
Better have no preaching at all than that which does not help
on the work of the Lord. A discourse on the external evi-
dences of the truth of Christianity, or one showing that geology
does not contradict the Bible, on proper occasions, may be in
place. But at a protracted meeting such discourses are like
putting down the brakes hard on the car of salvation. They
arrest, at least for a time, the whole work. A sermon made up
of abstract speculations, taken mainly from "Drew on the Resur-
rection," which I once heard in Steubenville in time of a revival,
where there were many penitents, put a chill on the whole meet-
ing. No penitents came to the altar that night. But where a
spiritually-minded preacher, full of faith and the Holy Ghost,
comes forth to the congregation with a sermon not wholly in
his head, but mainly in his heart — one that has cost him much
thought to arrange it, and much prayer to God for a blessing
on it, that souls might be led to Christ by it — good will be
done, nobody will be chilled, alt will be warmed by a heavenly
fire running through the assembly, melting all before it. Under
such preaching sinners will be converted, and the Church
strengthened in her numbers and in the vital energies of all
her Christian graces.

But, in order to a proper efficiency in sending the Gospel
to the destitute of our own country and other regions of the
earth, our Church must have the help of a first-class college.
This, I trust, we shall soon have. Our Church must do her
whole duty in the education of the rising generation. We must
educate the children of our membership, if we would retain them
in our community. To suit the age in which we live, and place
our young preachers on a par with the ministers of other
Churches, they must receive a thorough classical and theo-
logical training in an institution of our own. To educate our
young men whose hearts incline them to the Gospel ministry
in literary institutions belonging to other denominations, is to
tempt them to leave our ranks and give their services to that
Church under whose influence they were trained. In this way
we have lost from our itinerancy many of our most valuable
young men. Now, I trust that we shall do so no more, but edu-
cate them at home, and keep them to build up our beloved
Church ; for she needs, at this time, not only a pious but an
educated ministry.

When we shall be able to give the sons and daughters of
our people a thorough classical and religious education at our
own college, and do our full share in training the youths of
our country; when we shall be able to send forth, from our

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 447

college hulls well-cultivated men into all the learned profes-
sions; when they shall be found in the medical department, at
the bar, in the pulpit, on the bench, and in the legislatures of
our land, every-where prepared to befriend the Church that
originated and sustained the institution where they received
their education, our Church, in the hands of Christ, will be a
much greater power for the accomplishment of good in our
country than she now is.

One evidence of the want of culture among the ministers of
our Church, and perhaps of other Churches, too, is the use of
other men's skeletons of sermons. Does this really grow out
of the want of culture, or of native talent, or of industry? To
be a driveling retailer of other men's wares is not creditable to
a Christian minister, and I do solemnly believe the practice is
injurious to the Churches of the present age. On this subject
the following is my creed:

Article I. The Lord Jesus Christ only has the right to sup-
ply the Christian Church with ministers. No other being,
power, or authority can come in here to take his place and
perform this work for him.

A.RTICLE II. That in supplying his Church with ministers,
Christ did intend that there should be a diversity in their talents
and qualifications for service. "Unto one he gave five talents,
to another two. and another one;" an improvement is required
of all. No talents are to be buried, and all are held to a strict
account.

Article III. The Lord Jesus Christ never did call a man
into the ministry who had not at least one talent, or an ability,
with the aids afforded, to construct a sermon s-uch as that man
Ought to preach.

Articlk IV. If every minister called by Christ will preach
just BUch sermons a.-, by the aid of all sorts of good books ami
the Holy Spirit lie may he able to make for himself, then the
Church will get the variety intended for her by the Saviour,
and will prosper.

ARTICLE V. But should Christ's ministers, from any cause
whatever, decline making their own sermons, and try to satisfy
their consciences by preaching the sketches found in " Hannam,"

3imeon, ' "The London Five-hundred," or any hook of bones,
tli, mi .ill the preachers using the Bame hook- will appear to he of
one and the same grade of intellect, the Church will Lose that

variety intended for her by the Saviour, and there will he a

gr< al spiritual dearth in the Churches in tlo.se days. All those
preachers who lack mental capacity to make a sermon should
immediately return to their hone-,. So should all those indo-

448 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

lent drones who do business on borrowed capital, simply be-
cause they are too lazy to read and write and think, so as to
be able to make their own sermons. To preach other men's
sermons, or the skeletons- of other men, as though they were their
own, and give no credit to the real author, is considered "pla-
giarism;" i. e., a literary theft; and when thieves occupy our
pulpits, what is to become of the work of the Lord? No won-
der that the Churches decline under such a ministry.

Every preacher should not only be a man of prayer, but a
hard student and a maker of his own sermons. It is true his
sermons may not be equal to those of Shinn, or Suetheu, or
Stockton, but they will be his own, and just such as Christ re-
quires him to preach. Christ never required any man to ap-
pear fine in borrowed clothes. Let every man appear in his own
garments, earned by the blessing of God on his own labor. Let
every preacher write out a plan of his sermon, that he may see
his subject in all its connections and bearings; let him get his
mind and heart fully imbued with its truths; let him pray God
to breathe into it the breath of spiritual life, and to give him
power from on high to preach it to the people; and then from
his knees let him go to his pulpit, and deliver his message in
the name of the Lord. A real Gospel sermon, thus prepared
and delivered, will prove a blessing to any people. Both saints
and sinners will feel its power. One such preacher will, like
Elijah, whom God answered by fire from heaven, be more than
match for four hundred and fifty of the prophets of Baal. Such
preachers are much wanted infill the Churches.

There is a practice among the preachers of stuffing their
text, as it is called. The text really has no sermon in it. No
doctrine, no experience or practice can be found there by any
kind of legitimate interpretation; yet the preacher's wonder-
working genius out of that text brings forth to the people a
pretty good sermon. He stuffs the text with a meaning not its
own, and then brings that meaning out to an admiring, assem-
bly. Thus the text is made to speak what the Holy Spirit
never intended. Ehud's words to Eglou, king of Moab, when
he slew him with a dagger, is a favorite text with some preach-
ers: "I have a message from God unto thee." (Judges iii:
20.) I once heard a strong preacher read this text to his con-
gregation. The sermon was addressed mainly to the wicked,
and it was a good one, powerfully delivered, but it did not
grow out of the passage read. In that text, with fair dealing,
nothing can be found but Ehud's dagger. On another occa-
sion, I heard a sprightly preacher read this text to his congre-
gation: "And there were six steps to the throne." £ Chron-

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 449

icles ix: 18.) This text refers to Solomon's throne, and to
nothing else. The sermon was certainly a good one, but the
text did not contain it. According to the preacher, the first
step to the throne was consideration, the second was conviction
for sin, the third was repentance, the fourth was justification
by faith, the fifth was sanctification, and the sixth was glorifi-
cation in heaven. Will Christ be pleased with his ministers
for compelling a portion of Scripture to give forth a meaning
never intended by the Holy Spirit? If these "six steps to the
throne " had ever been referred to by the sacred writers as an
allegory, then the preacher might be justified in his use of it,
not otherwise. Preachers should be faithful expounders, not
in i -representee of God's Word. With them this should be a
matter of conscience. At another time I heard a venerable
preacher, on a sacramental occasion, read to a large congrega-
tion this text: "And the Lord shewed me four carpenters."
(Zech. i: 20.) The sermos was rather too long, but it was good
and appropriate to the occasion. But what mortal man upon
earth could honestly say it grew out of the text? To stuff a
text, and then draw out from it what Grod never put in it, or
meant it to teach, is miserable work. Why is this done? Cer-
tainly the Bible is full of texts of the right kind, all of them
full of meaning, to suit all occasions. I wish I could success-
fully guard my brethren in the ministry against torturing a
meaning out of God's Word which he never intended.

It is very important for ministers of the Gospel at all times
to lie appropriate in their discourses. A minister who does not
regard the Bigna of tie' times, and suit Ins discourse to special
occasions, will often appeal- before the public to very great dis-
advantage. I once heard a minister, who stood at the bead of
tb^ pulpit of this nation for many years, preach a mosl power-
ful -ernmn from this text on a sacramental occasion: -'And
Pot thi- cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie: thai they all mighl be damned who be-
lieved not tin: truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
(•1 TheBS. ii: 11, 12.; That was an awful sermon, toll of truth
aid sound argument. But it froze the audience with terror
instead of melting them with the Saviour's dying love. Indeed,

the (en. hr -train- of Calvary were not heard that day. and the

children of Q-od came to the Bolj Communion with a sad-
dened state of heart, produced by an inappropriate Bermon,
full of the curses of the Mosl High againsl an apostate Church,

Whose head is "the man of -in. the -on ..I' perdition. Sueh

Bermon- are certainly out of place at such a ti as that, and

I and many others wondered at a man of BUCh sound scuso

450 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AXD MEMBERS OF

delivering it before the eucharistic feast. On another occasion,
not long after the foregoing, I heard, from one of our best
preachers, a sermon before a sacrament, not on the death of
Christ, as it should have been, but on human responsibility,
from this text: "So then every one of us shall give account
of himself to Grod." Nothing could be more fearful and ter-
rifying than that sermon was. The awful day of accounts was
before the assembly. The Judge of the quick and dead, on his
great white throne, with open books to judge the world, was,
in imagination, a living reality before the people. What timid
disciple of Christ could venture to the table of the Lord un-
der the impr.ession made by that discourse? Why is it that
men of great talents so often fail to suit their discourses to
times, plans, and occasions? I will give, in further illustration
of the absurdity of preaching sermons which do not suit the
occasion, an anecdote from the Rev. Charles Buck, which I
will relate from memory. At the time of the plague in Lon-
don, in 1668, by which sixty-eight thousand persons were
carried off, Rev. Thomas Vincent delivered a discourse suited
to that most calamitous occasion, in which he dealt fearful
blows at the magistrates for their neglect of duty in not taking
measures to stay the plague, and for the health of the city.
About one hundred years afterward, when there was no plague
in London, a curate, an eloquent reader, by some means, got his
hands on Vincent's sermon, and, without considering whether
it would suit the occasion or not, he took it to one of the
leading pulpits of the city, and read it to a congregation made
up pretty much of estated gentlemen, magistrates, and other
dignitaries ; and, as he swept along in his eloquent reading,
the attack on the magistrates was commenced. The sermon
represented them as guilty of an utter failure in duty. The
plague was raging in various parts of the city, and carrying
off the people by thousands every day, and they were loungiug
and loitering about the taverns and ale-houses, drinking their
wine and ale, and paying no attention to the health of the city.
At this the magistrates broke from their seats and came from
all parts of the house, and stood before the pulpit, and de-
manded of the curate to stop and tell them where the plague
was raging, that they might go at once and take measures to
arrest it. "Plague raging? Why, my God, gentlemen," said
the curate, "I don't know where it is raging; it is in my
sermon!" Yes, and the plague has raged in many a sermon
not suited to times, places, and occasions since that day. AVhy
will men of sense allow themselves to preach sermons in which
the plague rages?

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 451

I will conclude what I have to say to my beloved brethren
in the ministry by some notice of the practice of reading ser-
mons. In former years, among the Methodists, there were no
readers of sermons. All who entered the sacred office were
preachers, and but few of them ventured to take more than a
few short notes or heads of their discourses into the pulpit,
and these they strove to hide from their hearers. To use even
skeletons was not popular, aud it was supposed that no minis-
ters read sermons to their congregations but the High Church
parsons, whose evangelical piety was very generally held in
doubt. But time has brought its changes. Other Churches,
who once opposed Methodist revival meetings, have come, at
last, to favor revivals, and to seek to build up the cause of
Christ by their means. The Methodists, who were in former
years so much opposed to Church parsons reading sermons to
their congregations, have now, in many places, readers of ser-
mons in their pulpits, instead of preachers.

Now, the question is, what advantage has the reader over the
preacher? He has none in reading books, none in study, none
in writing. The preacher can and does do all these things as
well as the reader. What advantage has the reader over the
preacher in the pulpit? None at all. To that sacred place he
comes with a sermon in his pocket, long ago written, and per-
haps very cold. The preacher has a well-digested sermon in
hi- mind and heart, warm and fresh. As to liability to confu-
Bion, they are both in danger of that. If the preacher fails to
remember some of his points, the reader often slips over two
leaves al once, or, in gesticulation, slips his finger a little too
low down on the page. This leads him, as I have sometimes
i. when he looks at his paper again, to begin in the wrong
place, and so get into confusion. The reader, in bending over
to see his manuscript, where the light is rather dim, allows the
congregation the advantage of looking at the top of his head;
but the preacher can Btand erect, and give the people the benefit
of hi- countenance, uplifted and beaming upon them. This is a
great advantage. Nearly all readers confine themselves strictly
to their manuscript. This cuts off all additional thoughts in,
spired by the occasion, the nature of the subject, or by the
II,;, Spirit. The preacher takes all these in, and often finds
that God gives him burning thoughts in the pulpit thai he

,,■!• had in his study. This musl be so, as Christ is with his
ministers always, even until the end of the world. The nailer
of sermons to the congregation has no New Testament example
for his modes of communication.

Neither Chrisi not his A.postles read their sermons to the

452 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF

people, nor have they the Divine command to support them.
Paul did not say, How shall they hear without a reader? or how
shall they read except they be sent? but he did say, "How
shall they hear without a, preacher? and how shall they preach
except they be sent?" And Christ did not, in the grand Gos-
pel commission, say, Go ye into all the world and read the
Gospel to every creature; but he did say, "Go ye into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Yet I do not
say that reading the Gospel to the people from a manuscript is
forbidden, or that God never blesses that mode of communica-
tion to the salvation of souls ; but I do say, of the two modes
of communication, in my judgment, that of preaching has vastly
the advantage over reading. 80 Christ understood the matter,
or he would not have ordained preaching as the mode of pub-
lishing his Gospel.

But whatever be the mode of Gospel communication, the
great object must be kept in view, namely, to glorify our Lord
Jesus Christ in the salvation of perishing sinners. "All men
should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that
honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father that sent him."
How, then, may the ministers and members of the Methodist
Protestant Church be most successful in glorifying Christ? In
a condensed manner, the following answer may be given to this
important question:

1. The Church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth,
and without which evangelical truth would perish from the
earth, must hold up Christ before this gainsaying world in all
the glory of his original divinity, or Godhead, as one with the
Father, the brightness of his glory, the express image of his
person, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and that he is truly and properly "God manifest in the flesh."
Now, he who represents the character of a man below the re-
quirements of the truth, is a detractor, and dishonors that man.
In like manner, he who denies the Godhead of Jesus Christ,
and represents him as a mere creature, does not glorify him,
but is a detractor from the essential character of this world's
Redeemer.

2. The ministers must lead on the Church to glorify Christ,
by giving to the world a true representation of the extent and
glory of that great work of redemption, which he did actually
accomplish on the cross. "All were dead." "One died for all."
He "tasted death for every man." He is the "propitiation for
the sins of the whole world." Now, as a man may be dis-
honored by detracting from the greatness and worth of his
Work, so he who limits the work of redemption to a few, while

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 453

the great mass of mankind are left out of the pale of God's re-
deeming mercy, can not be said in truth to glory the Saviour
of the world while he thus misrepresents the extent of his re-
deeming work.

3. We may glorify Christ by holding him up to the world
as the great Prophet, Priest, and King of the whole human
race. This world is in great mental and moral darkness.
Christ is a Prophet to enlighten it by his teaching. "lie is
the light of the world," "the true light which lighteth every
man that Cometh into the world." This world is in a state of
sin. guilt, and misery. Christ is a Priest to atone for the sins
of the world. He is both Priest and Sacrifice. In this he has
no parallel. Through his one offering of himself, once for all,
sin is pardoned, guilt removed, justification obtained, and eternal
life secured. This world is in a state of bondage to sin and
Satan. The whole world is placed under Christ's mediatorial
reign, and he can and will subdue all his and our enemies, and
put them all under his feet, and bring all who trust in him
into the glorious liberty of sons of God. Now, to disparage
a mail in any official relation which he may sustain to society,
is to do him an injury, and dishonor him in public estimation.
E en bo be who detracts from Christ's worth to the world, as
Prophet, Priest, or King, brings him no glory, and does him a
meat dishonor, and, at the Bame time, inflicts a proportionable
injury on mankind.

I. To glorify Christ, the ministers ami members of the Meth-
odist Protestant Church must maintain his holy religion in all
it- heavenly purity of doctrine, experience, ami practice. His
doctrin - are tie- true foundation of experience, and experience
of In- love in the heart will he a sure foundation for a good
moral practice. All these must go together. Ours must he
the religion of the bead ami heart and life; a religion that
may be felt ami enjoyed in the soul. Now. to teach mankind
thai Christ came into the world, 'lied on the cross, and then
returned to bis ancient -eat in glory, to give our race a religion
consisting of nothing hut outward forms ami ceremonies, and

that all tlio-e who |,ro|'e-- a knowledge of salvation by the for-

giveness of their >ins, are distempered fanatics or willful de-
fers; and thai no one worthy of credit ever yet professed to
have "fellowship with the Father ami bis Son Jesus Christ,"
i- certainly to dishonor Christ, by representing him as doing
ami Buffering bo much to give our race a religion "I' very little
value. These men of outward forms ami pompous ceremonies
should he led to understand, that to lower down the Btandard
of vital Christianity to suit the neWB of half-infidel profeSSOTS

454 ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OP

of religion is not the plan adopted by the Methodist Protestant
Church to glorify our blessed Saviour. We should, if possible,
lead all such people up to the higher Christian life, and induce
them to learn experimentally the meaning of St. Paul in the
following prayer (Eph. iii: 14—19): "For this cause I bow my
knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would
grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strength-
ened with might by his spirit in the inner man ; that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might
be tilled with all the fullness of God." This -seems like an
amazing prayer, yet it only leads us to contemplate the privi-
lege of "all saints." All may be "strengthened by his Spirit in
the inner man;" all may "know the love of Christ that passeth"
all the knowledge of worldly men; all may "be filled with all
the fullness of Grod." And to prevent us from "staggering at
the promises of Grod through unbelief," the Apostle tells us, in
this connection, that Grod "is able to do" for us "exceeding
abundantly above all that we can ask or think." And why tell
us of this, if he be not as willing as he is able to confer
all these great and unspeakable blessings upon his children?
Blessed are all they who do not mistake the outside of religion
for its inside, and rest in the form without the power of godli-
ness. Such shall be "the salt of the earth," and "the light of
the world," and have "all joy and peace in believing" in Jesus
Christ.

5. In order to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, our whole
Church, including ministers and members, should voluntarily
consent to be the Saviour's instruments or agents in the great
work of the recovery of our lost race back again from the ranks
of proud rebellion to holiness and happiness and heaven. All
the talents of mind, moral influence, and wealth found in the
Church belong to the Lord, and should be used to promote his
glory in the salvation of sinners. A Church that works for
Christ will grow in grace ; a Church that does nothing for
Christ will certainly backslide. While in a state of sin, all
worked for Satan and themselves. Now, in the Church, all must
work for Christ and the extension of his kingdom to the ends
of the earth. No minister can build up and carry forward the
cause of Christ who does not find employment for all the heads
and hands and hearts of the people of his charge. Each
Christian ■ has a soul to save, and were he to gain the whole

THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 455

. world and lose his own soul, the loss would infinitely outweigh
the gain. Personal religion, therefore, is first in order. "Work
out your won salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
(Phil, ii : 12, 13.) Then comes family religion. how important
is this ! Blessed is the house where both father and mother
are devoted Christians, and unite heartily in training up their
"children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Such
a family is an incipient Church, where the worship of God, in
spirit and truth, is regularly maintained. Next to this comes
t lie Church — the preaching and hearing of God's word, the
prayer-meetings, which all should most scrupulously attend.
Why should a Church suffer and spiritually die for want of a
well-attended prayer-meeting? AH the Instituted means of
grace, both commanded and prudential, shoule? be faithfully
attended by all the members, to keep the Church in a healthy,
growing state; and along with these duties, the Sabbath-school
deserves a very high regard. Here the children of the Church
and others are taught. Here our young members, and some of
the older ones, find room to work for Christ. Here the first
rudiments of a Christian education are imparted. From these
Sabbath-schools, with hearts deeply impressed by religous
truth, the children, by thousands, every year are passing into
the various Churches of our God. These Sabbath-schools, like
John the Baptist, are preparing the way of the Lord.

But, without delaying to notice our publishing interests and
our college, further than to commend them to the still more
extensive and liberal patronage of our people, I call the at-
tention of the Method isl Protestant Church to the great mis-
sionary field now open before us. Our holy religion is essen-
tially missionary in its character. Grod made all; Christ died
for all; the spirit is poured out upon all flesh; the Gospel is
to be preached in all the world to every creature. If, by reason
of the youth and scanty resources of our Church, we can not,
just yet. gel up and sustain missions in foreign lands, we can
do that work oearer home. All the new States ami Territories
call for our missionaries, And since the close of the war, in
numerous places in the South, we have calls for missionary
laborers; and nearer home, in some of the older Conferences,
there i- much ground vet unoccupied when' we oughl to plant
Churches. Now, as Christianity is a religion for all the world,
and is aggressive in its character, and musl yet triumph over all
the powers of darkness, until it fills the whole earth with the

glory of Q-od as the water- cover the sea, let our Chureh go to
work in good earnest, and put missionaries into all those desti-

456 ADDRESS TO MINISTERS AND MEMBERS.

tute places. It is as true now, as it was in the days of Christ's
sojourn upon earth, that " the harvest is great, but the laborers
are few," and it is still the Church's duty to "pray the Lord of
the harvest to thrust forth more laborers into his harvest."
We have many valuable ministers who are out of the work, be-
cause they needed a better support than the Church gave them.
I hope Grod will call these men back to the work, and stir up
the Church to support them in the missionary field. I pray
God to call out others well qualified, and send them forth. 0,
how we need our college now to train young men for this glorious
work of evangelization ! We want ministers in the work at home,
and in the missions abroad, who, like John the Baptist, are
" burning and shining lights." Some ministers burn all and shine
none, as though ignorance were the mother of devotion; others
shine all and burn none, as though knowledge alone were re-
ligion. But we want our ministers both to " burn " and " shine,"
that they may glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by diffusing abroad
enlightened piety in all the land. Not light without piety, nor
piety without light, but both together. It will take both to do
substantial good to man and bring the highest glory to Christ.
Along with this enlightened Christianity let the doctrine of
ecclesiastical liberty be inculcated every-where. It would be
dishonorable to Christ to teach mankind that he is, in any sense,
the founder of an ecclesiatical despotism, in which all the
powers of the government are in the hands of the clergy. The
Christian religion is at the foundation of American freedom,
and the Church has as much right to a free representative
government as the United States. So we believe, and so we
teach mankind every-where.

THE END.

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