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Our last volume closed with an account of the doings of the General Conference of 1828, including a brief history of the radical controversy, and its results. With a view to give a consecutive narrative of that affair, the chronological order of the history, in relation to that controversy, was anticipated for three or four years; and therefore no more need be said in reference to that subject than merely to remark, that great peace and harmony prevailed throughout the bounds of the Church, and the work of God was generally prosperous.

The Oneida conference was formed at the General Conference of 1828, making in all nineteen annual conferences to be attended by five bishops.

As, however, the health of Bishop McKendree was very feeble, the labor of the superintendency devolved chiefly on the other four bishops; and as Bishop George died early in 1828, the remaining three bishops had work enough on their hands for the three succeeding years. The manner, however, in which they fulfilled their high and weighty trusts gave general satisfaction to the Church, and tended powerfully to keep up its union, and to promote its peace and prosperity.

The cause of education was now advancing with much more rapidity than heretofore. A very able report was adopted at the last General Conference in favor of education, tending to show the great importance of this subject to the welfare of the Church, and particularly to the rising generation. In addition to three academies heretofore noticed, it appears that at this time the Mississippi conference had established the “Elizabeth Female Academy,” the name being given to it in honor of Mrs. Elizabeth Greenfield, who laid its foundation by the gift of a lot of land, and a building estimated to be worth three thousand dollars. Another had been commenced under hopeful prospects in Tuscaloosa, in the state of Alabama, and two others in Illinois, under the patronage of the Illinois conference, one in Green county, and the other in the county of St. Clair.

After some general statements on the number and character of the literary institutions then in existence under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the report, the production of the late Dr. Fisk, contains the following very just and timely remarks: — “In review of the whole, we find the efforts and successful operations in different conferences to promote the cause of literature and science have increased very considerably since the last General Conference. There are now six or seven promising institutions in successful operation, two of them having college charters, namely, Madison College and Augusta College, which are already prepared to take students through a regular course, and confer on them the ordinary degrees and literary honors of such institutions, and hold out encouragements and assurances that authorize us to recommend them to the patronage of our friends.

Other institutions are advancing to the same standing, and several more are contemplated, and will probably soon be put into operation. And it is a matter that ought to be noticed as calling for special gratitude to God, that revivals of religion have been so frequent in our literary seminaries. And this, too, ought to stimulate our people to encourage and patronize these institutions. If God smiles on our undertakings, shall we not proceed? We have reason, indeed, to think that the minds of both ministers and people are more awake to this subject than heretofore. The importance of literary institutions is more generally felt than formerly, and a greater and more general disposition to aid in this work is manifested. But we are still too much asleep on this subject. We are in danger of not keeping up with the improvements of society. If we should fail of contributing our share in this work, we should not only fall short of our obligations to society in general, but to our own Church in particular. The subject of education ought to be considered of special importance and of special interest to Methodist preachers, both as it respects their own usefulness and the interests of their families. We do not, indeed, profess to educate young men and train them up specifically for the ministry. But it will be readily seen, that, as our ministers are raised up mostly from among ourselves, their literary character will vary according to the general character of the Church. “We said this subject was of special interest to Methodist preachers’ families. We wish this to be deeply impressed on the minds of all, and we could wish every conference would by some means make provision for the education of the children of itinerant ministers. The changeable and uncertain life of a traveling minister, the duties which call him so much from his family and domestic concerns, all show the almost imperious necessity for such a provision. Posterity will hardly suppose we have conferred a great favor upon the world, if, in our zeal to benefit others, we suffer our own children to grow up uneducated and unrestrained, a disgrace to the gospel we preach, and a reproach to their parents. If we would save the itinerant plan from falling into deserved disrepute, we must see to it that our children be not neglected in their moral culture and literary instruction.”

There can be no doubt that this report gave a fresh stimulus to the cause of literature and science among us, and made many feel the obligations they were under to promote it, who had hitherto been indifferent to its success.

Such was the influence which the missionary cause was now exerting on the Church generally, that most of the new places which were occupied were entered under the patronage of the Missionary Society. This year the Red Hook mission, which embraced a territory lying on the east side of the Hudson River, the inhabitants of which were chiefly descendants of the Dutch, was undertaken in compliance with the earnest request of the late Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, whose widow contributed one hundred dollars a year toward its support.

In Steuben country, in the western part of New York, there was a considerable number of Welch people settled, who could not understand the English language; and the Rev. David Cadwalder, who was able to preach in Welch, was sent as a missionary among them. His labors were so blessed that be formed a society of sixty members, and also erected a house of worship for their accommodation.

In the western country new fields were constantly opening for gospel laborers. This year St. Marys mission was commenced. It embraced the new settlements in the northwestern counties of the state of Ohio. The labors of the missionary were blessed to the awakening and conversion of souls, and the work has gradually prospered and enlarged the sphere of its influence from that day to this. Another, called St.. Clair mission, in Michigan, was also begun under favorable prospects, and it was the happy commencement of a gracious work in all that region of country.

This year the “Publishing Fund” was established. This originated in a consultation with the book agents and the editor of the Christian Advocate and journal, the latter of whom had prepared a constitution for the contemplated Bible Society, at the suggestion of the late Bishop Emory, who was then the senior book agent. The object was to devise ways and means to enable the Book concern to publish Bibles and Testaments, Sunday school books and tracts, on the cheapest possible terms. When these societies were formed, the book agents had pledged themselves to furnish the books for the Sunday schools, and tracts for tract societies, as cheap as they could be purchased elsewhere; and as the American Bible, Sunday School, and Tract Societies, being largely patronized and aided by the public munificence, were able to supply the demand for their respective publications almost at cost, it was soon found that we could not compete with them in the market unless ways and means were devised to furnish the needful funds. Our Book Concern at that time was deeply in debt, and could not therefore, from its own resources, print and circulate the books for Sunday schools, and tracts, at as low prices as they were furnished by the American societies, without risking its own reputation, if not, indeed, its very existence. To remedy this defect, and to supply the deficiency in funds, at the consultation before alluded to, it was agreed to make an attempt to establish a “Publishing Fund,” in connection with the Bible, Sunday School, and Tract Societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was accordingly done, and the constitution, together with the address of the managers, was published in the Christian Advocate and Journal on the 17th of October, 1828.

The following extract from this address will more fully explain the principles and objects of this fund, and show that it was not intended to increase the actual resources of the Book Concern, or to add to its available funds, but simply to meet the extra expense incurred by furnishing publications on such terms as to enable our people to purchase books at their own establishment as cheap as they could be had elsewhere, without the hazard of being compelled to use books of which they could not approve. The following is the extract: — “The managers of these societies, in conjunction with the agents of our General Book Concern, have resolved to make a joint effort for the efficient prosecution of our common objects. God has blessed us in all our borders, temporally and spiritually. A thousand times we have exclaimed, ‘What hath be wrought.’ And yet the fields are opening before us, and still whitening to the harvest. The vast extent and the immense improvements of our country; its rapid growth, both in population and resources; the great and steady increase of our own denomination as a body of Christians, and our consequent obligations as stewards of the manifold grace of Him whose we are and whom we serve, and who requires us to excel in good works; our own growing resources, which ought to be consecrated to the Author of our mercies; the wants of the millions, of every age and sex, who sit in darkness or in guilt, and who must increase with the rapidly and vastly increasing population, without increased efforts for their good; the zealous and highly liberal efforts of other denominations, and our own special call, as we have from the beginning believed to be the design of God in raising us up, to aid in spreading Scriptural holiness over these lands: — in a word, the cause of God and of our country, of the rising generation and of posterity, demand of us, at this crisis, an exertion bearing at least some ratio of proportion to our obligations and to our means. “The present is an era in our history of unparalleled interest. In the great spiritual and moral objects avowedly contemplated by the benevolent institutions and the Christian movements of the day, we have repeatedly declared our cordial and entire concurrence. With regard to the means of accomplishing them, we have differed. For various reasons, repeatedly assigned, we have considered it our duty to decline the proposed ‘national’ combinations, which, in our view, threatened for a while to swallow up, and absolutely to annihilate, every other plan of operation in our country. Such a result we still believe would have been pregnant with hazard. This sentiment does not by any means necessarily imply an impeachment of the Christian motives of those who may have differed from us in judgment. Our resistance to the consolidation of denominations, in effect, has had, we believe, a happy influence. But does it free us from our responsibilities as stewards of the mysteries and of the mercies of God? Does it release us from our obligations to contribute our full share toward the great work of civilizing, moralizing, and Christianizing the world? It does not. On the contrary, it increases both, since, from the stand we have taken, it is peculiarly incumbent on us now to see to it that the great and common cause shall, at least, sustain no loss by our course. If we desire, indeed, to be ‘a peculiar people,’ ‘redeemed from all iniquity’ by the precious blood ofHIM who, for this purpose, ‘gave himself for us,’ let us not forget that we cannot sustain this high character without being at the same time, and in a correspondent degree, ‘zealous of good works,’ for which also Christ died. “The great object of the Methodist Book Concern, from the beginning, has been to serve as an auxiliary in spreading Scriptural truth and holiness. With this view it has been the medium through which our Sunday school books and tracts have been issued, and it is intended also to be the medium for the publication of our Bibles and Testaments. The well-known character and the established credit of this institution, under the direction of the General Conference, and, in the intermediate years, of the New York conference, is an ample guaranty for the faithful application of funds. Hitherto almost the whole business of our general benevolent associations has been performed through the agency of this concern, with the aid of its agents abroad. And whatever expenses, or risks, or losses have been incurred, either in the general depository, or by supplying the auxiliary depositories, were so extensive a country, have been wholly borne by this establishment. If it were practicable, as in ordinary cases, to establish the prices of such publications so as to cover all such expenses, and risks, and occasional losses, and to provide for such additional service as may be required, this might, perhaps, still be done. But the terms on which Sunday school books, tracts, Bibles, and Testaments are now expected will not admit of this; nor, in the prospect of the vastly increased demand, will it be possible for us, in this way, to maintain any thing like a fair and honorable competition with other institutions, which were originally endowed with large funds, and are still largely assisted both by regular annual contributions and by occasional donations; whose treasuries, nevertheless, we are assured, are still usually exhausted, and their calls for further aid are frequent and earnest. The consequence to us must be, either that the Methodist Book Concern, if left single handed and unaided, must be run down, and its great and benevolent objects be defeated, or our own publications, of the description mentioned, must be ‘forced out of circulation:’ to prevent which, if we mean to prevent it, ways and means must be devised to aid this establishment. It only remains for us, therefore, to determine whether we will aid our own institutions, or contribute our funds elsewhere. For give we must, somewhere; and continue to give, as God shall continue to bless us, and as occasions and objects continue to rise before us. Without this we cannot, we ought not to maintain our name or standing as a Christian people.

Shall we, then, refuse to give at home, and suffer our own institutions to flag or fail; and, after all, from sheer shame, if from no better principle, be compelled to give elsewhere? We say, no. “In view of the facts and premises above stated, the managers of the Bible, Sunday School, and Tract Societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church have resolved, jointly, to co-operate with the agents of the Book Concern, and their auxiliary agencies, to raise a fund to be vested in that concern, as a permanent and certain resource for the accomplishment of their common objects. And they have resolved to aim at a foundation broad and strong, in view not only of the wants immediately pressing on us, but also of those of which the vast prospect opens before us; and to erect a superstructure from which, with the divine favor, streams of blessing may flow to generations yet unborn.

For the buildings requisite for depositories, agents’ offices, printing office, bindery, and for the transaction of the general business of the three societies, and for stereotype plates, binders’ and printers’ presses, and all the requisite apparatus for printing and binding, on the scale contemplated, a sum not less than fifty thousand dollars will be requisite. For these objects a debt of nearly one fourth of that sum has already been incurred by the Book Concern, without any charge whatever for personal services And yet we can scarcely be said to have more than commenced in the operation of these Societies; and with regard to the Bible Society, hardly to have made a beginning, except in the preparation of a few sets of stereotype plates, in anticipation. To conduct our operations to the extent intended, and to which, with united exertion, we are amply adequate, much greater sums must yet be raised. It will doubtless be found necessary to introduce power presses, with other improvements, both to increase the rapidity of publishing, and to reduce the prices. In view of all which, after conferring together, in deliberate consultation, we are of opinion that it is not safe, for the purpose of enabling the three societies to make the necessary preparations, to name to our friends a less sum than that above mentioned. After these preparations shall have been made, it must be recollected, however, that considerable annual and current expenses still must necessarily be incurred, in the service necessary for preparing, packing, carting, and forwarding books and tracts, with the requisite clerkship, fuel, lights, insurance, ground rent, and postage, the latter item of which alone will probably increase to perhaps not less than from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars per annum. All such expenses have heretofore been borne by the Book Concern, which, consequently, has been obliged to fix the prices of the publications so as, in a measure at least, to cover those expenses, or else to sustain heavy actual loss. With a view, therefore, still further to lessen the prices, by having respect, in fixing them, to the actual cost of paper, press-work, and binding only, on the most economical principles, it is judged indispensable that a fund be raised, and be vested in the Book Concern, the use or interest of which shall be permanently appropriated to cover the above or any other unavoidable items of current expense and in consideration of which investments, when made, the said concern has pledged itself to submit to the managers of the above societies respectively, in conjunction with the agents, the determination of the prices at which their respective publications shall be furnished, on the principles above stated. And on this plan only, in our opinion, can they be furnished at the very low rates at which they are called for, and must be supplied. The further sum necessary for these purposes, on the enlarged and extensive plan contemplated, cannot be safely estimated at less than fifty thousand dollars, the interest of which alone, namely, three thousand dollars per annum, it will be observed, is to be applied to cover the items of annual and contingent expenses above-mentioned, or which I may unavoidably occur in the course of business. In all of which, however, it may be proper to mention, that it is not intended that an addition of one cent shall be made, out of any of these funds, to the support already allowed, agreeably to Discipline, to the regular agents of the Book Concern; and that they are intended solely to cover the extra expenses incurred by the extra business of these societies, whose publications are issued in connection with that concern. It was with a view to the extra labor caused by such publications, in part, that an additional agent was appointed at the last General Conference; and as our operations shall be extended, further help, in various ways, will undoubtedly be found indispensably requisite.”

It will be perceived that this fund was to be vested in the Book Concern, and the interest alone used to meet the unavoidable expense of publishing the requisite books for the above-mentioned societies. And though it was in contemplation to raise one hundred thousand dollars, the fund, even now, (1841,) amounts to only about forty thousand. Comparatively small, however, as it is, it has done much good, and the Book Concern has been enabled to fulfill its obligations in supplying the books on as low terms as they could be purchased at other depositories. The dissolution of the Bible Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by which the concern has been relieved from publishing Bibles and Testaments on those terms, will be noticed in its proper place.

Twelve deaths are recorded; fifty were located; seventy returned supernumerary; one hundred and one superannuated; and three had been expelled.

Among those who had died this year was Enoch George, one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The following is taken from the Minutes of the Conferences for 1829: — “He was born in the state of Virginia, Lancaster county, in the year 1767 or ‘68. His mother died when he was young, and he was left in the care of an elder sister. During his minority his father removed to the state of North Carolina. At about the age of eighteen or nineteen he became, through the instrumentality of the Methodist ministry, deeply convinced of sin, and sought and obtained the pardoning mercy of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. He was soon called to the exercise of public prayer and exhortation; and after fruitless struggles to suppress the impression of duty which increasingly rested upon his mind, with great diffidence he entered the field of labor as a preacher. He traveled a short time with Philip Cox, and was then sent, by Bishop Asbury, to assist Daniel Asbury in forming a circuit on the head waters of the Catawba and Broad Rivers. “In 1790 he was received into the itinerant connection on trial, and appointed to Pamlico circuit; and in 1791 to Caswell. In 1792 he was admitted into full connection, ordained deacon, and appointed to Guilford circuit; and in 1793 to Broad River. In 1794 he was ordained elder, and appointed to Great Pee Dee. The next year he was appointed to Edisto, with instructions to labor three months in Charleston, South Carolina; and the two years following he filled the office of presiding elder.

In 1798, on account of ill health, be traveled to the north as far as New York. Having measurably recovered his health, in 1800 he resumed his labors, and was appointed presiding elder of Potomac district, in the Baltimore conference. His health failed a second time, and he located in 1801. In 1803 he again entered the itinerant field, and was appointed to Frederick circuit; in 1804 to Baltimore district; 1805, Alexandria district; 1807, Georgetown, D.C.; 1808, Frederick; 1809, Montgomery; 1810, Baltimore circuit; 1811, Potomac district; and in 1815 to Georgetown district. “At the General Conference held in Baltimore, May, 1816, he was elected and ordained bishop. In the active discharge of the arduous duties of this highly responsible office he continued until his death.

He died at Staunton, Va., August 23, 1828, in the peace and triumph of gospel faith, and with his latest breath giving ‘glory to God.’

Bishop George was a man of deep piety, of great simplicity of manners, a very pathetic, powerful, and successful preacher, greatly beloved in life, and very extensively lamented in death.”

A more minute and extended memoir of this servant of God may be seen in the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review for 1830.

That which distinguished Bishop George among his fellows was the warmth of his zeal, and the quickness of his movements. This no doubt arose from the depth of his piety. He seemed, indeed, to live and walk in God. This was evident from the uniformity of his devotions, as well as from his general deportment, both before the public and in his more private intercourse with his friends. He always lose early in the morning, and, if circumstances permitted, would spend the morning before breakfast in a solitary walk in the field, for meditation and private devotion; and in these lonely rambles he delighted in the contemplation of the Deity, as he is seen in his works and ways, and in holding communion with him in praise and prayer.

He was naturally eloquent, and his eloquence was all natural. He never sought to embellish his subjects with those artificial tinsels of pulpit oratory substituted by some for those overflowings of the heart which proceed from being filled and fired with the truth which the lips utter. Hence his “preaching was not with the enticing words of man’s wisdom,” but it was in “demonstration and power,” and “with much assurance in the Holy Ghost.” He was more distinguished, however, for affecting the heart and moving the passions, than for enlightening the understanding and informing the judgment. Whenever, therefore, you saw him begin to rub his eyes with his fingers, as if wiping thence the gushing tear, you might expect a pouring forth of those streams of gospel truth, generally of that declamatory or hortatory character, which were calculated to move the hearer to weep or shout, according to his predominant feeling. And he seldom concluded a sermon without greatly moving his audience in either of these ways, because he was first moved himself by those sacred and heavenly emotions which were evidently produced by the energetic workings of the Holy Spirit.

Viewing him, therefore, simply as an ambassador of God, sent peculiarly to awaken the conscience of the sinner, and to alarm or to strengthen the faith of the believer, and quicken him in the divine life, he was most eminently qualified for his great work. In addition to the holy pathos with which he breathed out the “words of truth and soberness,” his voice was exceedingly musical, shrill, and clear, his action natural, and expressive of the feelings of his heart, and all calculated to impress the hearer with the solemn truths which fell from his lips. If, however, we were to judge him by other tests of a pulpit orator, we should detect some defects. In education he was quite deficient, and his general reading was very limited. For this lack of acquired knowledge he might be considered as furnishing more than a substitute in the pointedness of his appeals, and the manner in which he fortified all his positions by direct appeals to the sacred Scriptures. And if he dealt in detached sentences instead of following a consecutive order and arrangement of argumentation, he was abundantly compensated in the blessed effects which he saw produced in the hearts of those who heard him, and knew how to appreciate the value of a sermon more from its unction than its argument. His premises were found, where every minister of Christ should find them, in the Bible; and his conclusions were thence drawn without much regard to logical arrangement, and certainly without any circumlocution, direct, and with a force it was hardly possible to resist.

And from the earnestness of his manner, some have entirely mistaken his objects and motives. Beholding the emotions which were very generally produced in the pious part of his hearers, sometimes expressed in loud shouts of praise, those who were mere outward court worshipers, or uninterested hearers, have retired from the sanctuary under a conviction that Bishop George was acting the part of a mountebank, speaking for the purpose of gaining shouts of applause. A sad mistake this. He ascended the pulpit, not as a stage-player mounts the stage, but as an ambassador of Christ, commissioned to declare his counsel unto the people, and to negotiate a “Peace ‘twixt earth and heaven.”

And in the fulfillment of this commission he did not trifle with the awful realities of time and eternity, but poured forth from a full heart the solemn truths of God, in a manner which penetrated the conscience and drew forth the confession, by sobs and shouts, that God was with him of a truth.

Such was Bishop George in the pulpit. In the chair of the conference he was less acceptable. Though he was always intent on accomplishing the greatest amount of good by the best possible means, he often defeated his purpose by the haste with which he endeavored to dispatch the business.

His manner, also was sometimes abrupt and undignified, and of course did not always command that respect which every conscientious mind would wish to feel and pay to a superior. Nor were his decisions always made with that wisdom and deliberation needful to produce a conviction of their correctness in all cases. He appeared, therefore, to much greater advantage in the pulpit than its the chair of the conference; and had he lived and died simply as an itinerant Methodist preacher, he had commanded more respect than was felt for him as a general superintendent of the church. These defects, however, detract nothing from his moral worth, nor render him less worthy of affection as a Christian bishop, or as a man deeply and seriously devoted to the best interests of the human family; for who is perfect in every respect?

But in whatever light we view him, he will long be remembered with affection, as one of our early pioneers in the ranks of the itinerancy, as an indefatigable laborer in his Lord’s vineyard, who won many sinners to Christ, and was always a son of consolation to God’s believing people.

The warmth of his affections won him many friends, and the affability of his manners endeared him to them as a brother beloved, who might be approached at all times with a cheerful confidence.

His death was sudden and unexpected. Its announcement, therefore, spread a temporary gloom over the Methodist community. But death did not find him unprepared. He met this “last enemy,” not only with meek submission, but with a holy triumph, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life. As the words, “Glory to God!” had often fell from his lips in the pulpit, so in his last moments, in full view of the invisible world, he shouted forth the praises of God, and no doubt went to the abodes of bliss and immortality.

The following statement of the numbers will show that the work was generally prosperous.

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 359,533; Last Year: 327,932; Increase: 31,601 — Colored This Year: 58,856; Last Year: 54,065; Increase: 4,791 — Indians This Year 4,501; Last Year 4,209; Increase: 292 — Total This Year: 418,927; Last Year: 382,520 — Increase: 36,407 — Preachers This Year: 1,642; Last Year: 1,576; Increase: 66. We have before alluded to a controversy which arose between us and some other denominations of Christians; and as it came to its height during this and the two following years, that the reader may have a clear and full understanding of its character and results, it is thought expedient to give a short account of it in this place. It has been before remarked, that for a long time after our establishment in this country, very little was done to enlighten the public mind from our press, except the republication of some of Wesley’s and Fletcher’s sermons, Checks, and tracts, and the biographies of a few eminent servants of God. But in 1818 the Methodist Magazine was resumed and in 1826 the Christian Advocate and Journal made its appearance. The extensive circulation of these two periodicals, and the publication of numerous tracts, of a doctrinal, experimental, and practical character, and the continual augmentation of books on a variety of subjects, together with the prosperous state of our missions in various parts of our country, seemed to awaken the attention of others, and to call forth strictures upon our doctrines and general economy, of such a character as called for defense on our part.

Another thing seemed to put us in somewhat of an awkward position before the public. The organization of a separate sabbath school for the Methodist Episcopal Church made it necessary to provide means to supply our schools with suitable books. This led to the preparation and publication of sabbath school books from our own press; but as Bibles and Testaments formed the principal basis of sabbath school instruction, and as the American Bible Society was an institution in which all denominations were supposed to have an equal interest, it was thought that we had a right to claim a share from that society, in Bibles and Testaments, for the use of our Sunday schools. We accordingly petitioned the “Young Men’s Bible Society” of the city of New York, which had been constituted for the express purpose of supplying sabbath schools gratuitously with the Holy Scriptures, and to which the Methodists, as well as others, contributed, for a supply of Bibles and Testaments for the use of our sabbath schools but our petition was rejected, merely because, as was stated by the secretary of that society, we were sectarians, and therefore came not within the legitimate range of their charities.

This rejection of our petition compelled us, either to suffer our schools to languish for want of suitable books, or to devise ways and means to supply them from our own resources; and hence a proposition for forming a separate Bible Society was submitted to the General Conference of 1828, and the conference recommended its organization in the city of New York.

In conformity with this recommendation, the Bible Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was formed, with the view of obtaining a supply of Bibles and Testaments for our sabbath schools, and for the poor members of our own congregations. This separate organization, together with the steps which led to it, provoked no little opposition from various quarters, particularly from writers in the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, by whom our motives, being misunderstood, were misrepresented. These things tended to keep alive the spirit of controversy.

And as religious newspapers were now very generally patronized by the several Christian denominations, and agents employed for the several societies now in operation were traveling extensively through the country, each one zealous for his own sect, many things were written and published in those periodicals, implicating our character, impugning our motives, denouncing our doctrines and usages, and calculated to bring our institutions into contempt.

As Dr. Adam Clarke’s Commentary had obtained an extensive circulation, and Wesley’s translation of the New Testament, accompanied with his notes, was also published and circulated by our Book Concern, an attempt was made by a writer in the west, and his efforts were seconded by several editors of the periodical press, to bring these two writers into disrepute, by endeavoring to prove that they had altered, with a view to sustain their peculiar tenets, the sacred text, and thereby corrupted the word of God. As this was a heavy charge, and, if sustained, must impeach their moral character and Christian integrity, it was considered no more than a sacred duty we owed to their characters, and to the Church which delighted to honor them, to rescue their memories from this undeserved reproach.

Indeed, we had reason to suspect that there was a combination among certain sects, if possible, to destroy our influence. This we inferred from the fact, that the presses under the control of Calvinistic editors, in different parts of the country, almost simultaneously uttered the same language against Methodism, without at all mitigating the severity of their censures by an acknowledgment of the good we had been instrumental in accomplishing. The Christian Spectator, a Quarterly Review conducted by an association of gentlemen connected with Yale College, in a “Review on the Economy of Methodism,” commenced a rude and unprovoked attack upon our doctrine, discipline, and general economy, which was copied into other papers, accompanied with remarks as hostile to our Church, as they were untrue and unkind. This systematical and simultaneous attack upon us as a church was conducted with unsparing severity, and led us to conclude that a war was commenced upon our economy, as unjustifiable as it might be injurious in its results. Indeed, it was by no means confined to argumentative assaults upon our doctrines and usages, but the character of our ministers was assailed, their motives impugned, and they were represented as even hostile to the civil institutions of the country, and also of exercising a lordly despotism over the consciences of our own people.

Let us, however, classify these objections, and notice the answers to them. 1. Dr. Adam Clarke was accused of introducing into his Commentary unauthorized criticisms upon the original text.

To this it was answered, that he scrupulously followed, throughout, the present authorized version; and if at any time he dissented from it, he very modestly did it in his notes, assigning his reasons, and leaving every reader to judge for himself of the correctness of his opinions. But even allowing that he had altered the common English Version in some obscure places, with a view to render the text more intelligible, he did but follow the example of such men as Campbell, Houbigant, Macknight, and others, most of whom were Calvinistic commentators. This, therefore, was a groundless accusation, only calculated to raise the popular prejudice against Dr. Clarke, for the purpose of circumscribing his usefulness as a most able and pious commentator of the Holy Scriptures. 2. Wesley also was accused of mutilating the sacred text in such a glaring manner as to make “nonsense of some of the plainest texts in the Bible,” and several instances were adduced to sustain this heavy charge. And as this controversy may be revived at some future time, or may be referred to in an unfavorable point of light, I think it proper to insert here the answer to these objections to Mr. Wesley’s translation of the New Testament. It is as follows: — “The following texts are produced by the Religious Intelligencer, to show that Wesley ‘has made nonsense of some of the plainest texts in the Bible:’ JOHN 6:64\parCOMMON VERSION: — But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

Wesley’s Alteration : — But there are some of you who believe not. (For Jesus had known from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who would not betray him.) ACTS 4:27,COMMON VERSION: — For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel. were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

Wesley’s Alteration : — For of a truth both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and people of Israel, were gathered together against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel before determined to be done. JUDECOMMON VERSION: — For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wesley’s Alteration : — For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were of old described before, with regard to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. REVELATION 22:19 COMMON VERSION: — And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Wesley’s Alteration : — And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part of the tree of life, and the holy city, which are written in this book. 1 PETER 1:19,COMMON VERSION: — But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot; who Verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

Wesley’s Alteration : — But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot; who verily was foreknown before the foundation of the world. but was made in the last times for you. “Now whether Wesley’s translation be more in accordance with the original or not, we believe it is at least equally plain, and easy to be understood. “In respect to the first cited text, the chief difference is in the last clause, ‘and who would not betray him,’ though even this is very far from making ‘nonsense.’ Having never noticed this variation before we saw it produced in the Charleston Observer, we were not a little surprised that it should exist. To ascertain whether Mr.

Wesley so translated the passage — knowing that the original would not admit of it — we searched the different editions of his Testament, with notes, and the result is that it is a mere typographical error. In the English edition, printed in London in the year 1795, the negative particle (not) is not found. Neither is it found in the American edition, containing his notes, which was printed in the year 1812 — three years before the Testament which contains the error was printed. “In regard to the second and following passages, we wonder not that our Calvinistic friends are offended at the version made by Mr.

Wesley, for some of them strike at the root of the peculiarities of their creed. To be satisfied whether Wesley can be justified in his translation, it is necessary to examine the original Greek text. “In the first mentioned text, ‘For of a truth both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and people of Israel, were gathered together against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel before determined to be done,’ although the difference is very considerable, we think Mr.

Wesley is fully sustained by the original text. The Greek verb poiasai” is in the infinitive mood, and therefore may agree with either Herod, Pontius Pilate, etc.., or with the singular, thy holy child Jesus. Allowing this to be correct, it does not follow that the inspired penman meant to say that those wicked people were gathered together to do what the hand and counsel of God before determined should be done; but that it was ‘the holy child Jesus whom God had anointed to do’ what he had before the foundation of the world determined he should do, for the redemption and salvation of mankind. “The whole context requires this interpretation, we will not say to prevent its speaking ‘nonsense,’ but from speaking blasphemy.

According to the present rendering and the Calvinistic interpretation of the text, it is brought to prove that Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the people of Israel who clamored for the life of Christ, in all their wicked and blasphemous conduct, did nothing more than fulfill the eternal and unalterable counsel and will of God! The reader may now see the reason why our Calvinistic friends are so exceedingly displeased with John Wesley, merely because he has so rendered this text that we need not necessarily infer that all this evil conduct of the persecutors and murderers of Jesus Christ was according to the predetermination of God — although in doing so he has only followed the Greek text, by preserving the infinitive form of the verb “poiasai ,” to do; — whereas had he done otherwise he might justly have been accused, as we shall presently see Beza may be, of corrupting the text. Although it does not appear from his comment on the passage that Wesley made the transposition from a conviction that it materially affected the sense, yet the zeal of his opposers seems to be kindled into a flame whenever such an interpretation is given, however fairly, which goes to question their favorite theory respecting God’s having determined, and as now influencing, men to all their sinful actions. “We said that the context requires that the text should be so construed as to attribute the works which God had before determined should be done, to Jesus Christ, and not to Herod and his wicked associates. Those who ‘lifted up their voice’ on this occasion said, quoting from the second Psalm, ‘The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord.’ Now if those infatuated people were acting against the Lord, how could they at the same time be fulfilling his counsel and will?

Do people fulfill the counsel of the Lord in acting against him? And must they be consigned to eternal burnings for thus acting? This would be a hard case indeed. “Look also at the 29th and 30th verses, — ‘And now, Lord, behold their threatenings; and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thy hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.’ The true state of the case appears to be this: God had ordained that when Jesus Christ should be manifested in the flesh, in addition to his dying for the sins of the world, ‘signs and wonders should be done’ by him; that he should ‘stretch forth his hand to heal’ the sick, to restore sight to the blind, raise the dead, etc.; for this purpose he had been anointed, that he might do the things thus before determined in the eternal counsel should be done; and hence the apostles, after stating that Herod and his wicked associates had gathered together to oppose the Lord’s anointed, and to frustrate this gracious determination of God, pray that as their malevolent attempts had been so far defeated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that even now ‘signs and wonders’ may be done; that thus a full demonstration may be given to all that Jesus is the Christ, the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament. “It is probably on account of the manifest absurdities involved in the contrary supposition, that led Episcopius and many other commentators to adopt a similar construction to that of Wesley’s.

And to show that Wesley is by no means singular in his translation, we may observe that the French version of the New Testament, ‘printed from the London stereotype edition, and according to the edition of Paris for the year 1805, said to be ‘reviewed and compared with the Hebrew and Greek texts,’ and ‘printed under the inspection of the New York Bible Society, renders this text precisely as Wesley has done. The following is the translation “‘Car en effet Herode et Ponce Pilate, avec les Gentils et le peuple d’Israel, se sont assembles contre ton saint Fils Jesus, que tu as oint, Pour faire toutes les choses que ta main et ton conseil avoient auparavant determine’ devoir etre faites.’ It will be perceived by those who understand the French, that the translators have transposed the sentences in the same manner that Wesley has done, preserved the infinitive form of the verb “poiasai ,” by rendering it ‘pour faire ,’ to do, and connected it closely with the noun, ‘ton saint Fils Jesus,’ “thy holy on Jesus,” thereby allowing us to refer the works to be done to Jesus Christ, and not necessarily to his enemies who were gathered together against him. “The Latin version of Montanus follows the common English version, and preserves the infinitive form of the verb, Facere quaecumque, “to do” whatsoever, etc.. “It is somewhat singular that Beza, to whom we referred in our former number as having been accused by the indefatigable Macknight of corrupting the sacred text to support his own contracted Calvinistic views, in the translation of the passage under consideration, has changed the form of the verb from the infinitive to the subjunctive plural, (facerent,) with a view to make it agree exclusively with Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the people of Israel! “Beza also introduces a clause — which, to be sure, is not of much consequence, either way — into his version not found at all in the common Greek text, in hoc civitate, ‘in this city.’ The following is his translation of the two verses under consideration. — “‘Coacti sunt enim in hac civitate vere adversus sanctum Filium tuum Jesum quem unxisti, Herodes et Pontius Pilatus cum Gentibus et populis Israelis, Ut facerent quaecumque manus tua et consilium tuum prius definierat ut fierent.’ By thus rendering the verb in the plural number, making it to agree only with a plural nominative, Beza’s translation amounts to a comment on the text, which, to those who understand no other language than the Latin, is a manifest deception. We grant, indeed, that the grammatical construction of the sentence, as the infinitive mood of the verb may agree with either a singular or plural noun, does not necessarily require our interpretation or the contrary, but leaves the reader to adopt that which from the context appears most agreeable to the analogy of faith; and this consideration makes the conduct of Beza the more censurable; it is the same as if any one on the opposite side should render the passage thus — Thy holy child Jesus, whom thou host anointed that he might do the things thy hand and counsel before determined should be done; — and although we believe this is the genuine sense, we are far from thinking ourselves warranted in taking such liberties with the sacred text. However Calvinistically inclined our English translators may have been, they did not feel themselves authorized to follow Beza’s translation, but have given a literal rendering of the verb “poiasai ,” to do. “Now could Wesley be convicted of such rashness as Beza was guilty of, his enemies might well triumph. But Beza was a Calvinist. and therefore, in the estimation of his followers, who approve of his translation, he may be considered guiltless. Perhaps they may think that, being of the elect, God did not ‘behold iniquity in’ him; but poor John Wesley, being an Arminian reprobate, must have his name blotted from the book of life! For what, think you, gentle reader? For altering the sacred Scriptures? No, surely. This he never did; but for abjuring Calvinism — for taking off the mask by which its modest friends had endeavored to conceal its haggard visage. This is his sin — the offense for which he is now so severely castigated. “But whatever corrections Mr. Wesley may have introduced in his version, we are persuaded that they do not affect, in the smallest degree, any fundamental doctrine of Christianity. To this sentiment we think all will subscribe except those who believe that the distinctive feature of Calvinism, namely, unconditional predestination, comprehending unconditional election and reprobation, is a fundamental doctrine. “And although some have affirmed, in the heat of controversy, that unless we believe that doctrine according to the Calvinistic interpretation, we cannot be in a state of grace, yet we can scarcely persuade ourselves that any one, in his calm and sober moments, I say that all who demur at receiving this doctrine, thus explained, must inevitably be condemned at last. If any should assume such a position, we should despair of reasoning with him with any hope of success. “When we speak of fundamental doctrines, we mean those by which the Christian system is eminently distinguished from all other systems of religion; but more especially the fall and depravity of man; the redemption of the world by the atoning merits of Jesus Christ; the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit; holiness of heart and life, and all those collateral truths which are connected with or necessarily accompany these doctrines. Now if any man will show us a single text in Wesley’s translation which invalidates, or in the smallest degree weakens any one of these essential truths of Jesus Christ, or strikes at his real Godhead, or at the unity in trinity of the Deity, we will in that particular abandon him as our leader; we will believe in that instance he was under a mistake, and that he deserves the severe criticisms and censures of his adversaries. “Believing that we shall not be called upon to controvert this point with our polemical friends, we proceed to notice the other texts which have been produced to prove that Wesley has made ‘nonsense of some of the plainest texts of the Bible.’ The first in order is, JUDECOMMON VERSION — For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wesley’s Translation — For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were of old described before, with regard to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. “Now we presume that the material words in Wesley’s translation to which our opponents in this controversy object, are, ‘of old described before,’ which Wesley has substituted for ‘of old ordained,’ in the common version; which is much nearer the original than the other.

The Greek text reads, “oi pulai progegrammenoi ,” the most literal translation of which would be, ‘of old before written;’ for the word “progegrammenoi ” is derived from “pro ,” before, and “grapho ,” to write, or “gramma,” a letter or character of writing; though some have supposed that it means here, before proscribed, believing that the apostle meant to say that the ungodly characters he was about describing assimilated in their character and conduct to those ungodly persons who had long since, in the sacred writings, been proscribed and condemned. Whichever of these meanings may be put on the word here, it cannot be made to mean foreordained, as the word justly so translated has an entirely different meaning, and comes from a totally different root. The word which the lexicons and our translators have rendered foreordained, comes from “proopizw ,” and this from “pro ,” before, and “opizw ,” to bound, limit, or decree, and hence the compound word signifies to limit, bound, or decree beforehand, or, as very properly translated in the sacred Scriptures, to foreordain, or before appoint. “Macknight, whom we have before quoted, and who was a professed Calvinistic minister in the Church of Scotland, gives the following translation of this passage: ‘Who long ago have been before written.’ His comment upon the passage is thus: ‘Jude means that those wicked people had their punishment before written, that is, foretold in what is written concerning the Sodomites and rebellions Israelites, whose crimes were the same as theirs, and whose punishment was not only a proof of God’s resolution to punish sinners, but an example of the punishment which he will inflict on them. According to some, the words have an allusion to the ancient custom of writing laws on tables, which were hung up in public places, that the people might know the punishment annexed to breaking the laws.’ “To this rendering of Macknight the French version agrees: ‘Dont la condemnation est escrite depuis longtems,’ — whose condemnation has been written a long time since. “The Latin version of Montanus, which usually accompanies Leusden’s Greek Testament, translates — ‘Olim praescripti in hoc judicium,’ the literal English of which is, “of old before written, or described,” which is a faithful translation of the Greek, and a justification of the version of Wesley. “It is somewhat of a singular coincidence, that in this passage Wesley and Beza exactly agree in their translation; so that if Wesley has had his name blotted from the book of life for altering the sacred Scriptures in this place, he will be in the company of one of the leading champions of the Calvinistic forces. Beza translates, ‘prius jam olim descripti ad hanc damnationem,’ ‘before of old described to this damnation.’ “None of the versions, indeed, to which we have had access, except our English translation, have rendered the word in question ordained; and we may say with Dr. Adam Clarke, that it is as ridiculous as it is absurd to look into such words for a decree of eternal reprobation, etc.., such a doctrine being as far from the apostle’s mind, as that of Him in whose name he wrote.’ “As to the text in Revelation 22:19, the only material deviation from the common version is, that Wesley translates, ‘his part of the tree of life,’ and the common version, the ‘book of life;’ and how this can affect the meaning at all we are at a loss to see, as the person who has not his part in the tree of life, will hardly have his name in the book of life. Wesley, however, is sustained by Griesbach, who gives the word “xulon ,” tree, as the true reading, referring to the margin for the word “biblon ,” as being according to the commonly received text. We trust, therefore, that neither justice nor candor requires Wesley to be condemned for this emendation, especially as it does not at all affect the sense, and is justified by so high an authority as Griesbach. “The only remaining text to be examined is 1 Peter 1:20, where Wesley translates the word “proegnwsmenou ,” foreknown, instead of foreordained, as it is in the common version. On this we need not say much, as the merest tyro [beginner, novice] in the Greek language knows that this is the literal, grammatical meaning of the word; and that there is no more authority for rendering it foreordained, than there is for saying that because I know that this rendering of Mr. Wesley is accurate, I therefore decreed it; for the radix [origin] for the above word, “ginwskw ,” signifies to know, and can never be made to mean to ordain, or decree.

Is it not a little strange, that those Calvinists who contend that there is so slight a difference between foreknowledge and decree, that the one necessarily implies the other, should so vehemently reprimand Wesley for giving the literal translation of this word? If there be no difference between knowledge and decree, as they contend, how has Wesley altered the meaning of Scripture, even allowing that the original word here had been “proorizw ”, which it is not, by translating it foreknown?” 3. Not only were the characters of Wesley and Clarke thus ungenerously assailed, but the integrity of our ministry also was called in question. The Christian Spectator had said, “Nor can we here so much as begin to speak of the misrepresentations, and the many cunningly devised artifices, by which the doctrine and discipline of Methodism are so assiduously propagated.” This, indeed, was a grievous accusation. But how did they attempt its support? How! Why, by merely vague conjectures. It was wittingly surmised that we had immense funds at our command, by which our ministry was supported independently of the people; that even these funds were so dexterously managed that our own people themselves did not know; being kept in ignorance by our “cunningly devised artifices,” either their extent or application. This unfounded and cruel charge was met, refuted, and fully put down, by an appeal to facts. It was demonstrated that the funds of the Church — derived, as was alleged, from the Book Concern and Chartered Fund — so far from being immense, did not yield over three dollars a year to each claimant; and that those supernumerary and superannuated preachers, widows, their children and orphans, who were the legal claimants upon these funds, did not receive, including what they derived from the voluntary contributions of the people, over 25, 50, or seventy-five percent of that which was allowed them by the Discipline, which was one hundred dollars for such preacher or widow, and not over twenty-four dollars a year for each dependent child; and that, so far from concealing from the people either the amount of the revenues of the Church, or their application, the whole was annually published in the Minutes of our conferences.

This complete refutation of such a groundless charge seemed to silence our inconsiderate opponents, and to make their friends ashamed of their temerity in bringing it against us in so public a manner. 4. Another complaint was brought against the manner in which our Church property was held. It was alleged that it was deeded to the General Conference, and that therefore the people had neither a right in nor control over it. To this it was replied, that the statement was false in point of fact.

Church property, instead of being secured to the conference, and therefore the property of the preachers, was held by trustees appointed by the people — where the laws of the states in which the property was located provided for that manner of their appointment, and in other places as the Discipline of the Church directs — in trust for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in that place. This, it was justly contended, placed the legal right of the property where it should be, in the hands of the people, and not in the conference, as our accusers had asserted. 5. Our mode of Church government was represented, not only as unscriptural, but as being set up and vindicated in “contempt of Scripture authority.” This led to a Scriptural defense of our Church government, of our itinerancy, and general method of conducting our affairs; and finally to a comparison between Methodist Episcopacy and Presbyterianism and Congregationalism, as well as a defense of our entire economy. f2 6. Another subject of controversy arose out of the representations of the state of things in the valley of the Mississippi. We have before noticed the origin of the society for the education of pious young men for the gospel ministry. Out of this arose the “American Home Missionary Society,” which was organized in 1826. This society was composed of members and friends of the Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, and Congregational Churches, and as altogether a voluntary association; that is, it was not a church organization, not being recognized as the exclusive property of any particular denomination, nor under the control of its church judicatories.

And as the missionaries who were in the employ of this society were taken from either or all of the above-mentioned denominations, they were instructed to form churches according to the principles of either the Presbyterian or Congregational plan of church government, as might best suit the people; and to give greater efficiency to their labors, and a wider range to their operations, a “Plan of Union” was formed between these two denominations, so as to admit commissioners into the General Assembly from those churches which might be established on Congregational principles.

Comprehending these three large denominations in this society, under the name of American Home Missionary Society, its patrons gave it the name of a national institution, as though in it were represented the Christianity of America. To this assumption of a national society, we of course, entered our protest because it was calculated to mislead the public mind, especially in foreign countries. To say nothing of the Baptists, who were more numerous than either of the above denominations, the Protestant Episcopalians, the Lutherans, and numerous other sects, all of whom were exerting less or more influence in favor of Christianity, the Methodists were more numerous than either. It seemed, therefore, unjust to select a single society, made up of those three denominations, which represented not one fourth of the Christians in the United States, and call it a national society, thereby accounting all the others as nothing.

We had other objections. This society, by assuming a national character, was contrary to the genius of American institutions, which acknowledged no national religion. It seemed, therefore, like an effort to force public opinion to recognize the existence of a national church, in direct opposition to the declared intention of all our civil institutions.

This assumption of a national society, together with the avowed intentions of some of the reports of the American Sabbath School Union, respecting the circulation of their books, and the influence which it might have upon our state and general elections, excited an alarm in some minds, lest comprehensive plans were forming to secure the patronage of the state for the support of those denominations which were committed for the support of this society. And though this might have been a groundless alarm. it tended to awaken attention to the subject, and led other denominations to look about them, and watch over the welfare of their own institutions. And it is somewhat remarkable, that the very measures which were taken by this society to combine so many discordant materials in the range of their operations, and to make an impression abroad of the nationality of its character, should have led eventually to the dissolution of the union of the Presbyterian Church; for there can be no doubt that the Plan of Union,” by which that church permitted Congregational principles to become incorporated into their judicatories, was the entering wedge which finally split that church asunder; so that the means adopted to make themselves great, and to impress upon the minds of others that they represented the religion of the nation, were the very means of lessening their number and influence, and of creating one other instead of combining three into one sect.

But the means used by those missionaries who were sent out by this society to enlist the sympathies of the church and the public mind in favor of their vast project gave great and very just offense. At the time of the organization of this society, a periodical was commenced, under its immediate patronage and control, called the “Home Missionary and Pastor’s Journal,” in which the reports of these missionaries were, from time to time, published. These reporters very often gave such a description of the moral wastes and religious destitution of the countries where they traveled, as was truly alarming to the real friends of the country and of Christianity. On examination, it was found that many of those places which were thus represented as entirely destitute of the gospel, had been regularly supplied for years by our ministry, and that there existed in them large and flourishing societies. The fact was, that our ministers had penetrated every part of that country, had kept pace with the progress of the new settlements, had gone to the Indian tribes, hundreds of whom had been converted to the Christian faith, and had carried the glad tidings of salvation to the black population of the south and southwest, entering every open door, and preaching the gospel to all to whom they could have access. Yet these were represented as being totally destitute of the gospel and of Christian ordinances. These things were thought to be unjust and unchristian, as well as unwise and impolitic. We therefore considered it a duty which we owed to ourselves to expose them, and to enter our protest against them. This was done, principally, through the columns of the Christian Advocate and Journal, both by the editors, and those correspondents who were on the spot, and who therefore spoke from what they had seen and felt. And so palpable were the facts, that few undertook to justify the proceedings of these missionaries. Indeed, their own friends became convinced of the impolicy of such statements, and advised them to refrain; and hence, instead of saying that there were no ministers, they afterward reported that there were no Presbyterian ministers in such and such a place. To this manner of reporting there could be no objections.

The following extract from the Christian Advocate and Journal for this year will show how these objections were met and refuted: — “Every year, from the time that Schemerhorn and Mills made their missionary tour to the west and south, and published their famous journal of observation, the thrilling note of complaint has been heard echoing from one end of the continent to another, about the paucity of ‘educated ministers,’ ‘competent ministers,’ etc.., and the people have been called upon in no ordinary strains of mournful eloquence to exert themselves to replenish the funds of education societies, that the number of these ministers might be speedily increased; that the nation, to adopt the language of the Rev. Dr.

Beecher, might ‘arise and save itself by its own energies.’ To keep up the stimulus thus excited, — to continue the language of the last cited author, — ‘the trumpet must sound long and press must groan,’ and utter in the ears of our countrymen the story of their miseries, or the ‘nation is undone.’ And from the time this note of alarm was sounded by Dr. Beecher, it has continued rolling through our country, until the doleful ditty of the ‘moral desolations of the vast valley of the Mississippi’ has reverberated from hill to valley, with a sickening repetition. Yes, this fertile numerous, valley, where, besides the Baptists, who are the Protestant Episcopalians, and other denominations, we have no less than seven annual conferences, composed, according to the Minutes for 1829, of traveling preachers, and probably more than twice that number of local preachers, and 128,316 church members, has been, and is still, represented as being in such a fearful state, that unless mighty exertions are made to replenish the funds of the national societies, it is apprehended that such a swelling tide of immorality will flow back, and cross the Alleghenies, as to sweep away pure religion from the Atlantic states and every succeeding year, from that time to this, our ears are stunned with the deafening cry, ‘The treasury is empty!’ ‘the committee are in advance’ for so many hundreds or thousands of dollars. To add energy to this voice of distress, all other ministers are deposed as ‘incompetent,’ ‘uneducated,’ ‘inefficient.’ To say nothing respecting the truth or falsity of these statements, we would ask whether it is becoming in gentlemen who utter this doleful cry of distress, with a view to replenish their exhausted treasuries, while it would seem that their funds are already so great that some think that the people ought to be warned against lavishing any more into their hands, to accuse us of accumulating funds dangerous to the state?”

It is by no means intended to say that there was no call for additional laborers either here or elsewhere. No doubt there were many moral wastes, both in the west and in the east, in the populous cities, in the villages, and country places, which needed the reforming influence of the gospel, and more active laborers to effect it. We could therefore have no objection to an increase of zealous and holy ministers. Our objections were to the unwillingness manifested to acknowledge the gospel character and labors of others, and to recognize the good which had been most evidently effected by them, and particularly by the self-denying exertions of our ministry in the western country. Indeed, in many of these reports there seemed to be a desire manifested to depreciate those who had long since planted the gospel in those very places now represented as destitute, and where our preachers had labored with great success, amid hardships and privations to which few were willing to submit; and these things are here recorded, that those who shall come after us may know to whom they are indebted for the first promulgation of the gospel in our western wilds.

It is believed that this discussion did good. At any rate, it tended to enlighten the public mind on these subjects, to make our doctrines, usages, labors, and success, more generally known and more justly appreciated, and thus strengthened the hands and cheered the hearts of the members and friends of our Church. It tended likewise to convince our opponents, that if they presumed to misrepresent or to slander us, we had the means of selfdefense, and an ability and disposition to use them; and that when the facts were clearly stated, our doctrines and manner of propagating them fully explained, we should not be considered such dangerous heresiarchs as we had been represented to be. We are glad know, however, that these days of strife are past, and that a more friendly and amicable spirit prevails. We hope, therefore, that hereafter we may mutually strive only to provoke one another to love and good works.”

Another subject was agitated about this time which gave no little uneasiness, and occasioned much discussion. I allude to the Temperance reformation. The American Temperance Society had commenced its powerful operations in 1826, and was now doing much good to the souls and bodies of men both in and out of’ the churches. A proposition had been submitted to us to unite with that society, and on such terms as we did not think it expedient to accept. It was proposed to raise a permanent fund of twenty thousand dollars for the support of an agent or agents, who should be exclusively devoted to the temperance cause. To this it was objected, because it was thought that a permanent fund was unnecessary for the success of the enterprise, as the money needed to carry it forward might be better raised as it should be wanted. It was moreover urged that we had always been a temperance society, having made abstinence from intoxicating liquors as a beverage a term of church communion and therefore to come into the measures of the American Society would be a virtual acknowledgment that we, as a church, needed such a reformation.

This occasioned no little discussion, and gave rise to some heart-burnings on both sides of the question. By some, whose zeal was not always tempered with knowledge, it was contended that, because we did not unite in the society, and co-operate with it in all its plans and movements, we were opposed to the cause of temperance itself, and therefore stood in the way of its success. To this it was replied, that being already the friends and advocates of temperance, having, as a church, recognized the practice of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors as a common drink, it was unjust to accuse us of a want of friendship for the men engaged in this enterprise of benevolence, or of zeal in promoting their objects.

This was the true state of the controversy; but the manner in which it was conducted elicited facts and brought forth light which had been dormant, or had not been perceived for though it had been made it a term of church communion by one of our general rules, it was found, on a closer inspection, that the rule itself had been softened down, and that in many instances even this had been suffered to remain as a dead letter. In consequence of these things, it was clearly discovered that members of our own Church were in the daily habit using intoxicating liquors, and that the Discipline, at best, had been but partially enforced. This discovery led to important results. For though our opinion remained unchanged respecting the inexpediency of some of the measures of the American Temperance Society, particularly as regarded raising a permanent fund, yet the necessity of the reformation, even in our own Church, notwithstanding our prohibitory rule, became very apparent. Hence temperance societies were formed, and our preachers and people very generally fell in with the temperance measures, greatly to the edification and benefit of the Church, and to the cause of God generally.

In noticing this subject, I am very desirous of correcting an error respecting the course taken by the official organ of the Church, the Christian Advocate and Journal, then under the editorial control of the writer of this History. It was alleged frequently, and is sometimes even repeated now, that the paper opposed the cause of temperance. This was and is a sad mistake. It never, intentionally at least, opposed either the principles or practice of temperance. It did oppose some of the measures of the American Temperance Society, and advised our brethren and friends not to contribute their money to raise the contemplated fund; but its opposition was directed chiefly to the misrepresentations which were made of our real position, namely, that we were enemies to temperance, merely because we pleaded that our Church had favored the principles and practice of temperance from the beginning, and therefore had no motive to join the American Society.

This is the ground we took. And though afterward convinced we were in error in supposing that the strict principles of temperance were generally exemplified in practice by all the members of our Church, and therefore lent our aid to exterminate the evil from among us, yet we remain unchanged in our views respecting the impolicy of some of the measures of the American Temperance Society, while we hail with delight the onward march of the temperance reformation. And if any of our sayings or measures were construed into opposition to this reformation at the time, through misapprehension or otherwise, we think sufficient has been said and done since to convince all candid and unbiased minds of the rectitude and consistency of our course; and I here record my most solemn conviction that the temperance cause should be ranked among the most benevolent and efficient means now in use for the benefit of mankind. And this is recorded with the more pleasure from the fact that John Wesley was the first in modern days to proclaim a war of extermination upon the use of all intoxicating liquors, “except in cases of extreme necessity.”

The Oneida mission was commenced this year. This tribe of Indians were settled on an Indian reservation in the western part of the state of New York. They had been partially civilized, and some of them were cultivators of the soil, and had adopted the habits of civilized life. Though the Protestant Episcopalians had had a mission among them for several years, they were in a deplorable state as to religion and morals. Like most of the semi-civilized barbarians who skirted our states and territories, they were deeply debased by habits of intoxication, and all those degrading vices, which connect themselves with a course of intemperance. By these means, instead of being in a thriving condition, they were diminishing in numbers, and deteriorating in property and morals.

In this state they were when visited by a young man of the Mohawks, of Upper Canada. This man had been converted in the revival which had taken place among that tribe of Indians, and was now impelled by his thirst for the salvation of others to make known the way of peace and reconciliation to these people. Being able to speak to them of the things of God in their own language, and from his own experience, they received the tidings with penitent and believing hearts, and a work of reformation commenced among them, which eventuated in the conversion of upward of one hundred. A school was also established for the education of the children, and those adult Indians who were desirous of learning. This good work has steadily gone on to this day, and a number of the converted Indians have emigrated to Green Bay, who became the nucleus of a flourishing society in that place.

Through the example and teachings of these people, the Onondagas, a neighboring tribe, received the gospel, and twenty-four of them were converted to God and brought into church fellowship.

Several other missions were commenced this year in the new and destitute settlements in our western regions. St. Joseph’s mission embraced a tract of country on the St. Joseph’s river, which flows into Lake Michigan in Berrien county, Michigan. Among these new settlers the missionary found his way, and conveyed to them the glad tidings of salvation, and was instrumental in establishing several societies, which have continued to increase and flourish to this day.

In the frontier settlements of the states of Indiana and Illinois, on the waters of the Fox river, between that river and the lake Winnebago, the Rev. Jesse Walker, one of our old and experienced preachers, was sent as a missionary. Into this new and thinly settled country he penetrated, and succeeded in establishing several societies, and opening the way for the continued preaching of the gospel in that new country.

The country on the head waters of the Wabash was fast filling up with inhabitants from the older states, and therefore greatly needed the gospel.

Hence a mission was commenced this year for the benefit of these people; and the missionary, the Rev. S. R. Beggs, so far succeeded, that through his and the labors of his successors, in 1831 there were returned one hundred and forty-six Church members.

Galena mission was begun this year. This was in the state of Illinois, on the banks of Fever or Bean river, upward of four hundred miles above St.

Louis. Though Galena has since become a considerable town and a seat of justice, in the midst of the rich lead mines in that region, yet, at the time of which we now speak, it was but thinly settled, and its resources were just beginning to be known and appreciated. Though the people were generally so taken up in their speculating concerns — the mines presenting a fascinating temptation for obtaining wealth — as to manifest much indifference for religious things, yet a few were brought to the knowledge of the truth, and the cause has continued to advance steadily from that day to this.

Another mission, called Providence, was opened this year in the new settlements on both banks of the Mississippi river, from Vicksburgh to Lake Washington, and the adjacent settlement along the bayous and little lakes. The nature of the country and the condition of the settlers were such as to require great labor and many privations to carry the gospel to them.

The self-denying exertions of God’s servants, however, were owned and blessed, so that in 1832 there were returned on the Minutes one hundred and sixty-six members, sixty-seven of whom were colored, and the good work has prospered from that time onward.

We have already noticed the exertions that were making in behalf of seamen, and particularly the establishment of the Mariners’ Church in the city of New York. The example thus set excited benevolent Christians to adopt similar plans in other places for the melioration and salvation of this class of our fellow-citizens. Accordingly, about this time, the “Boston Port Society” was organized, and the Rev. Edward T. Taylor — who, before his conversion to God, had followed the seas — a member of the New England conference, was employed to preach to seamen, in the city of Boston. He commenced his labors this year, under the parsonage of this society, in the old Methodist meeting-house, the first built in Boston, and which was afterward purchased for the special use of seamen. Having been accustomed to the sea-faring life, and now thirsting for the salvation of seamen, Mr. Taylor was able to sympathize with them in a very peculiar manner, and to preach to them with energy and effect. And such has been the success of his labors, that a large and commodious house of worship has been erected, in which the word of God is preached to these sons of the ocean, a sailors’ boarding-house established, on both of which floats the Bethel flag; — a clothing store and a school for the education of seamen’s daughters, have also been opened, as most useful appendages to this institution of benevolence. A ladies’ society has been organized for the purpose of aiding in this good work, by furnishing employment to the poorer class of females, wives and widows of seamen, and the garments thus made are deposited in the store, sold to those who are able to pay for them, or given away to such as are most indigent.

This, altogether, is a noble charity; and the wealthy merchants of Boston know how to appreciate its worth. The manifest improvement, through the agency of the gospel, in the lives and general deportment of the seamen who attend the Bethel meeting, convinces all of the beneficial influence of the institution, and has prompted some individuals to give largely of their wealth for its support.

The spiritual interests of the congregation, and we may say its temporal interests too, are mainly entrusted to Mr. Taylor, and he has the satisfaction to see his house well filled, from sabbath to sabbath, with attentive hearers, who receive the word with joy; and the serious part of his hearers, as well as the sailors generally, look up to him with the utmost affection and confidence. In addition to administering to them the word and ordinances — for the ordinances of the Church are regularly attended to — Mr. Taylor is in the habit of visiting the ships in the harbor, and especially on their arrival, or on the eve of their departure on a voyage to a foreign port; of praying with them, and furnishing them with Bibles and tracts, and giving them words of admonition and encouragement. His congregation is indeed a floating one; and thus., while their pastor is stationary, they are the means of carrying the word of God to every port, and of exhibiting the blessed effects of experimental religion wherever their lot may be cast.

The sailors’ boarding-house connected with the establishment is of great use, as it is kept on strictly religious and temperance principles, and is designed as a refuge for them, while on land, from the temptations to those vicious indulgences so common to this class of men, as well as from the rapacious grasp of those who delight in cheating them out of their hard earnings when they come on shore. These “land sharks,” as they have been not unaptly called, are ever ready to open their jaws whenever a ship arrives, that they may readily and remorselessly devour the earnings of the unsuspecting sailor, by presenting to him the intoxicating cup, and enticing him to haunts of gambling and licentiousness.

That these exertions in favor of seamen have done and are still doing much good, is evident to all who are acquainted with the extent and influence of their operations. Instances of most powerful conversions, both on the land and on the water, have been recorded, and since the temperance reformation has been pushed forward with so much energy and success, many merchants have banished the use of inebriating liquors from their ships, greatly to their own advantage, and to that of those who manage their affairs. By these means the word of God and religious tracts have been substituted for the gambling table and the sailor’s grog, and the voice of prayer and thanksgiving has been heard instead of the voice of profane mirth and revelry, on board many of our merchant ships. And in some sense many of our seamen have become missionaries, by carrying the glad tidings of the gospel into the ports they have visited, thus teaching foreign nations that our God and his Christ are acknowledged and worshipped even by the hardy sons of the ocean. These floating Bethels, have therefore become, to some extent, itinerant ministers to foreign countries; and if the good work shall spread, as it may and will if suitable means are used, our sailors will become the connecting links between the several missionary stations in the different parts of the globe.

About this time the general work was much aided by means of what were first called “four days’ meetings,” and have since been known as “protracted meetings,” because they were appointed to be held at first for four days, and afterward for an indefinite length of time, to be determined by the probabilities of effecting good to the souls of the people. Such meetings, to be sure, were not new among us. We have before recorded several instances, in seasons of great revivals, when meetings of this character were held from three to sixteen days, while the camp meetings were always continued from four to eight days in succession. But at this time they were introduced in a more formal manner, and instead of inviting people from abroad, they were held from one neighborhood to another, with a view to awaken a more general and individual attention to the concerns of eternity.

They were commenced by the Rev. John Lord, of the New England conference, in the month of September, in the year 1827; and such were their good effects, that they soon spread through the country, even among other denominations, particularly the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists. They are generally conducted in the following manner: — Meetings are held morning, afternoon, and evening, opened with a sermon, and closed with a prayer meeting, during which penitent sinners are invited to come to the altar, to receive the benefit of prayer and exhortation; and they are continued from three to ten, and even twenty days, according to the nature and strength of religious excitement which may be produced; though generally, when they are lengthened out beyond four days, the exercises are confined chiefly to the afternoon and evening. These meetings, in some places, have nearly superseded camp meetings, and probably will, if continued, in many other places. That in some instances they have run into excesses, is no more than what might be expected, constituted as human nature is; but this is no more an argument against their continuance, than it would be to infer that any other good thing should be laid aside because of its abuse. As a means of awakening sinners to a sense of their sinfulness, and leading them to Jesus Christ for life and salvation, they have been abundantly blessed and owned of God, and should therefore be kept up so long as they are productive of these results.

Forty-two preachers received a location, sixty-seven were returned supernumerary, and one hundred and twenty superannuated; seventeen had died, three had withdrawn, and four had been expelled.

Among those who had died this year, all of whom departed in peace, we may notice particularly Samuel Doughty, of the Philadelphia conference, who died in the thirty-fifth year of his age and the fifth of his itinerant ministry. Though young in the work of the ministry, he had established a character which, had it pleased God to lengthen out his life, would doubtless have shone forth with a peculiar brightness before the Church and the world. The following testimony to his worth is taken from the account of his death in the Minutes for this year: — “Brother Doughty, as a preacher, was popular and useful. His discourses were frequently truly eloquent; and had his voice been equal to his other qualifications as a speaker, he would have attained much greater eminence. His literary and theological acquirements were highly respectable, of which his sermons in the Methodist Magazine, particularly that entitled ‘Instability in religion,’ afford satisfactory evidence. “His zeal for the glory of God and the welfare of men appeared in the interest which he took in the success of benevolent institutions.

He was their eloquent advocate, and was particularly active in the promotion of Sunday schools, both before and after he became a minister of the gospel. Just previous to his death he was engaged, with others, in organizing and bringing into operation a Conference Sunday School Union, auxiliary to the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which auxiliary he was corresponding secretary. In September, 1825, he was invited to assist in certain religious exercises at the enlargement of the church edifice in Wilmington, Delaware, and was there seized with the illness which terminated his life and labors on the seventeenth of that month, at the house of the Rev. Solomon Higgins. He died in great peace, rejoicing that death, to him, ‘had no terrors.’ He was highly respected and beloved, and the tribute of affection paid to his memory by the numerous and weeping members of his charge, who followed him to his grave, was gratifying to his brethren and to his surviving relatives.”

To those who knew him it is not necessary to add any thing more. Yet, having had the pleasure of his acquaintance, I cannot forbear saying that there always appeared in him a meekness of spirit and gentleness of deportment highly becoming the Christian minister, and which commended him to the affection and confidence of his brethren and friends. Though he possessed more than ordinary endowments as a preacher, and could convey his thoughts with a most graceful and easy elocution, yet he seemed unconscious of any superiority over others, and always put himself in the attitude of an humble learner, looking up to his seniors with diffidence, and to God by faith and prayer. He was therefore much beloved by his brethren, and hailed by the Church as a messenger of good tidings, and a willing and useful pastor to the flock of Jesus Christ.

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 382,679; Last Year: 359,533; Increase: 23,146 — Colored This Year: 62,814; Last Year: 58,856; Increase: 3,958 — Indians This Year: 2,250; Last Year: 538; Increase: 1,712 — Total This Year: 447,743; Last Year: 418,927 — Increase: 28,816 — Preachers This Year: 1,817; Last Year: 1,642; Increase: 175. The reformation which had been effected among the aborigines of our country seemed to awaken a most lively interest in their behalf throughout every department of the Church, and no less so among those of the natives themselves who had been truly converted to the Christian faith. For these converts were not merely nominal believers in Christianity. They had felt its renovating and transforming power upon their hearts, and this had produced a correspondent change in their habits, civil, domestic, and religious. By this means they presented in their own lives a living, palpable, and irrefutable evidence to all who beheld them, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is even now the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. These, therefore, were living epistles, written, not with pen and ink, but by the finger of the living God, and sent unto the other tribes that they might read with their own eyes of the wonderful works of Almighty God, and be convinced that Christianity is “not a cunningly devised fable,” but that it is still “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Acting under the sacred impulse thus produced, an effort was made this year to introduce the gospel among the Shawnee and Kansas Indians, and the Rev. Thomas Johnson was sent to the former, and the Rev. William Johnson to the latter tribe. These Indians inhabited the western part of the state of Missouri, and the missions were therefore undertaken by the Missouri conference. The Shawnees, especially, were found to be of a docile and tractable disposition, had commenced the cultivation of the soil, and manifested a great desire to be taught in religion, in literature, and the arts of civil and domestic life. Though the missionaries met with much difficulty, at first, for want of a qualified interpreter, yet a school was soon established for the education of the children, and a house erected for the accommodation of the mission. The commencement was small, and the progress slow, but success has attended the labors of God’s servants, and the mission has continued to flourish and enlarge its dimensions to this day.

Many, indeed, have been raised up among these natives of the forests, who are now ornaments to their profession, bringing forth the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God.

This year also several missions were commenced for the special benefit of the slave population in the states of South Carolina and Georgia. This class of people had been favored with the labors of the Methodist ministry from the beginning of its labors in this country, and there were at this time 62,814 of the colored population in the several states and territories in our Church fellowship, most of whom were slaves. It was found, however, on a closer inspection into their condition, that there were many who could not be reached by the ordinary means, and therefore preachers were selected who might devote themselves exclusively to their service. A catechism was prepared for their use, in which they might be taught the leading doctrines and duties of Christianity, and many of these slaves have been brought to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

This year a mission was begun on the island of New York, called the Harlem mission. This embraced a population in the neighborhood of the city, many of whom were but transient residents, and generally destitute of the means of grace. It has been continued on the list of missions to the present time, always yielding, however, a partial support to the missionaries. In the bounds of the mission four houses of worship have been erected, and a good foundation is thus laid for the future salvation of the people who may inhabit that part of our city and its environs.

Some of the old towns on the eastern banks of the Connecticut river were as yet unvisited by our ministry, and this year a mission was undertaken for their benefit. It was so far blessed that it soon became adequate to its own support, and has since remained among our regular circuits.

In the northwestern parts of the state of Missouri, on the several branches of the Sak river, Gasconade, and southern waters of the Osage river, there were extensive tracts of country, fast filling up with emigrants from the older states and territories. These people were “as sheep without a shepherd,” and therefore needed the gospel to bring them into the fold of Jesus Christ. Accordingly there were three missions commenced this year, namely, the Salt River, the Gasconade, and the West Prairie, for the benefit of these people. Notwithstanding the hardships and privations the missionaries had to endure in traversing this new country, they succeeded in raising up several societies and establishing regular circuits, which have continued to flourish to the present time, and are now aiding to send the gospel to other and more destitute place.

The Iroquois and Jonesborough missions, in the bounds of the Illinois conference, were likewise commenced this year. The former included the tribe of Kickapoo Indians, the condition of whom was somewhat singular.

It seems that a prophet had risen up among them, who acknowledged the true God, and was zealously engaged in instructing his people in religious things. Whether he had acquired his knowledge of God by intercourse either directly or indirectly with the white people, or had been conducted along by the secret whispers of that “Spirit which giveth understanding to man,” it appears that, though mixed with many errors and superstitions, he had made considerable progress in divine things, and was piously engaged in his exertions for the temporal and spiritual benefit of his people. He was not averse to hearing the truths of the gospel, though it was some time before he fully gave up his peculiar notions, and came heartily to embrace Christianity in its fullness and power The Jonesborough mission, which embraced a new country about one hundred and fifty miles from Vandalia, the capital of the state, was prosecuted with such success that it returned the next year two hundred and sixty-four Church members, and has since been numbered among the regular circuits.

Eleven preachers had died during the past year, and sixty-one had located; sixty-seven were returned supernumerary, and one hundred and twentytwo superannuated; four had been expelled, and four had withdrawn.

Among those who had taken their departure in peace was Henry Holmes, of the Virginia conference who died on the 27th of July, 1829, in the forty fourth year of his age, and the eighteenth of his itinerant ministry. The record of his death awards to him an eminent standing among his brethren in the ministry, as a man of deep piety, of unquestionable integrity and with rare qualifications as a minister of the sanctuary. In 1823 he was appointed to the office of presiding elder, which office he continued to fill with becoming dignity and great usefulness until he finished his work. He has therefore left a name behind him which will be remembered in connection with the progress of Methodism in that part of Virginia with pious gratitude by the people who were blessed under his ministrations. Though his death was sudden, it did not find him unprepared, for he met it with pious resignation and a joyful hope of future blessedness.

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 402,561; Last Year: 382,679; Increase: 19,882 — Colored This Year: 69,383; Last Year: 62,814; Increase: 6,569 — Indians This Year: 4,209; Last Year: 2,250; Increase: 1,959 — Total This Year: 476,153; Last Year: 447,743 — Increase: 28,410 — Preachers This Year: 1900; Last Year: 1817; Increase: 83.

In consequence of the action of the General Conference of 1828, by which it was mutually agreed, that if the Canada brethren saw fit, they might form an independent conference in Upper Canada, of which they had availed themselves, the members belonging to the Church in that province are not included in the above enumeration. Had these been added, the actual increase would have been 37,935. This shows that, notwithstanding the secessions of the “Reformers,” so called, and the agitations which followed, the labors of our ministry were still sanctioned by the Head of the Church. Indeed, greater peace and harmony pervaded the ranks of our Israel than had been realized for many previous years, all being convinced that bold experimenters were not the most infallible leaders. From the movements already alluded to in Upper Canada, the Indian missions in that province, including no less than ten stations, and 1,850 adult Indians under religious instruction, most of whom were members of the Church, were taken from our superintendence and put under the care of the Wesleyan conference in England. These missions, which had become endeared to us by such associations as could not be easily dissolved, and for the benefit of which we had expended so much labor and money, still clung to our affections and could not therefore be surrendered, even in the amicable manner in which the arrangement for their future supply was made, without feelings of regret. Knowing, however, that they would be provided for by our brethren in England with the same assiduous care with which they had been from the beginning, we withdrew our pastoral oversight with the less sorrow, still praying almighty God to bless and prosper them.

Hitherto our Indian missions in the United States and territories had been attended with unparalleled success. About this time, however, the action of the general government of the United States on the Indian settlements began to exert an injurious influence upon some of these missions, and even to threaten them with destruction. In 1821 the Rev. Dr. Morse made an extensive tour of observation among the western tribes of Indians, under the patronage of the general government; and, in his published report, gave it as the result of his observations, that, could an amicable arrangement be made between the government and the aboriginal tribes, for their removal west of the Mississippi, where they could live under the protection of the United States, and be taught the arts of agriculture and domestic life, it would be mutually beneficial. This opinion, which seems to have been adopted by the government, and by the leading men of the nation, was manifestly founded on the presumption that the Indians, while they remain under their own laws and usages, cannot flourish in the vicinity of the white population, nor yet so amalgamate with the whites as to become identified with them. And does not the painful history of these people fully justify this opinion? From the first settlement of the country until now, notwithstanding all the efforts which have been made by philanthropists and Christians to civilize and Christianize these people, they have gradually receded on the advance of civilized society, or melted away and become extinct. Why is this? Is it because they have refused to obey the original command given to man, that he must “dress the garden “and keep it,” and “till the ground whence he was taken?” Whatever may have been the cause, such are the facts in relation to their history thus far; and whether the efforts recently put forth and now using to save them from barbarism and destruction shall prove ultimately successful, we must leave for other generations to testify.

But whatever may be their future destiny, the general government have adopted the policy already suggested, of removing them from their present residences to the regions west of the Mississippi, with the promise of protection from future aggressions upon their rights, and the hope of bettering their condition. To effect this object, treaty stipulations were entered into with some of the tribes to purchase their lands, to indemnify them for their losses, and to aid in transferring them to their new habitation. As these treaties were often concluded in opposition to large minorities of the natives, they became difficult of execution, produced much irritation, and in some instances the hazard and even the loss of life.

This policy operated most injuriously upon the Cherokees, who were settled principally in the state of Georgia. Over these people Georgia undertook to extend her laws, and thus force them either to sell their lands and remove west of the Mississippi, or be deprived of the privileges of living under their own laws, as members of a separate community. As the project was resisted by the most opulent part of the Cherokees, and a considerable portion of the nation, a division of sentiment was created among themselves in regard to their removal, which excited much irritation of feeling, and operated injuriously on the interests of the mission. At this time there were no less than seventeen missionaries, including interpreters, and eight hundred and fifty Church members, and the prospects of extensive good were brightening until they were overcast by these movements. This year, 1831, the troubles increased, and one of our missionaries, the Rev. Mr. Trott, for refusing to take the oath of allegiance required by the state of Georgia, was arrested, imprisoned, put in chains, and otherwise maltreated. On promising, however., to leave the territory, he was pardoned by the governor and set at liberty. These proceedings greatly harassed the Christian Indians who resided within the chartered limits of Georgia, while those without the state were in a more prosperous condition.

Similar results were produced by similar movements among the Choctaws.

This mission had been remarkably owned of God, so much so that in there were reported not less than four thousand Church members, embracing all the principal men of the nation, their chief and captains, many of whom were eminently useful in instructing their brethren by exhortation and prayer. They were, however, less averse to being removed than the Cherokees, and finally, in a council which was held in March, 1830, they passed a resolution to sell their lands to the United States and emigrate to the west. This resolution, however, gave offense to a part of the nation, and furnished a pretext to the pagans to plot the destruction of the missionaries and Christian Indians. The treaty, however, was finally consummated, though with much difficulty, and the missionaries determined to accompany the Christian Indians to their new habitation. It should be recorded that the general government did all it could to mitigate their sufferings, by affording provision and protection to the emigrants, and securing to them their lands in the west.

Yet, with all the precautions which were used by the government and the missionaries, they suffered much in their religious enjoyments, became divided, some were disheartened, and not a few apostatized from Christianity. For these sad disasters there seemed to be no adequate remedy. The decree was passed, and remove they must; and the Rev.

Alexander Talley, who had devoted his best days and energies to this mission, and that too with a rare success, accompanied them to their new residence; and in a letter dated Sept. 5, 1831, he states that about five hundred had arrived, most of whom were members of the Church. These, with others that occasionally arrived at their new home, attended regularly to their Christian duties, and they have prospered more or less to the present time. These movements may account for the diminution in the number of Christian Indians on these missionary stations.

The Wyandott mission, which now included two hundred and twenty-three Church members, and had attached to it a flourishing school, was this year extended to the river Huron, where, through the labors of the missionaries and some native exhorters, there was a reformation effected among a few families of the Wyandotts and Shawnees, ten of whom became members of the Church.

The western country was almost daily presenting claims upon the bounty and labor of the Church to supply its spiritual wants. This year a mission was undertaken in Jackson county, Illinois, with the encouraging prospects of success. Another, called Deplain, was commenced, and has since been prosecuted with diligence and success.

The Lee mission, which embraced a tract of country in the counties of Lee and Marion, west of the Flint river, was commenced this year. This new country was now filling up rapidly with inhabitants and they were thus supplied with the word and ordinances of the gospel. The missionary formed a regular circuit, having no less than fifteen preaching places and in the course of the year received one hundred and twenty-five into the Church, besides erecting two houses of worship.

The cause of education was advancing steadily among us since its late revival, so that during the present year no less than three collegiate institutions had been founded, and had made a promising commencement.

One of these was in Middletown, in the state of Connecticut. The buildings, which were of stone, and the land connected with them, estimated at from thirty to forty thousand dollars, were presented gratuitously to the New York and New England conferences by the Literary and Scientific Society of Middletown, on condition that forty thousand dollars more should be raised for the purpose of establishing a literary institution to be under the control of the two conferences above named, and any others that might unite with them in the enterprise. These conditions being complied with, the premises were deeded to a board of trustees elected by said conferences, who have the sole management of the financial concerns of the institution; and it soon afterward received a charter from the legislature of the state of Connecticut, of a very liberal character.

The Wesleyan University, for this is its name, is located in a most delightful place, on an eminence in the western section of the city, having a commanding view of the Connecticut river, and the adjacent country east, north, and south, and is surrounded by a population noted for their steady, industrious, and religious habits, all zealous for the promotion of education, and most of whom take a deep interest in the university. The late Wilbur Fisk, D. D., was selected as its president, and, being aided by an able faculty, the university went into operation under favorable auspices, and has continued to meet the public expectation. Here, under the able guidance of its estimable president and his colleagues, many a youth has received his diploma in a manner alike creditable to himself and his instructors and what has tended to endear the institution to the Methodist Episcopal Church, a spirit of piety has pervaded its inmates, many of whom were born unto God during their sojourn in this young and rising nursery of learning and religion. It may be said in truth, that no place, in proportion to its numbers, has been more frequently or more generally blessed with revivals of religion than the Wesleyan University.

Another was established this year under the patronage of the Virginia and South Carolina conferences, in Boydston, Mecklenburgh county, Va., called the Randolph Macon College, under a charter from the state of Virginia. The Rev. Stephen Olin, favorably known to the public for his sound learning and deep piety, was elected its president, and he continued to discharge his duties with great satisfaction until his declining health obliged him to resign his station, for the purpose of making a voyage to Europe, in the hope of regaining his lost health.

This institution is also favorably located, and it went into operation under circumstances highly promising to its patrons and friends, having about sixty thousand dollars pledged to begin with. It has continued to fulfill public expectation, and, like the Wesleyan University, has been blessed with frequent revivals of religion, and has sent out sons imbued with sound learning and solid piety.

La Grange formed the third college which had been recently established under Methodist patronage. This was commenced under the patronage of the Tennessee and Alabama conferences, and was located in La Grange, in North Alabama, in a beautiful and healthy part of the country. Though its commencement was small, the whole property being estimated at only about twenty thousand dollars, yet it has gone on increasing in strength and patronage, commanding the public confidence and giving a useful education to its students. The Rev. Robert Paine was its first president, and he has proved his competency for the office by the satisfactory manner in which he has discharged its duties to this day. God has also smiled upon this institution, by pouring out his Spirit from time to time upon the students, and bringing them to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

In addition to these collegiate institutions, the several academies heretofore mentioned were in successful operation, and were so many feeders to these higher and larger fountains of learning and science. It would seem, therefore, that the Methodist Episcopal Church was determined to redeem its character from the foul blot cast upon it, not without some reason, that it had been indifferent to the cause of literature and science. And the experiments which had been recently made had thus far succeeded so well, that many who had hesitated concerning the propriety and feasibility of the enterprise seemed to be convinced that the indications of divine Providence spoke so emphatically in its favor that they felt it their imperative duty to come up to its help. And all that is wanting to establish these institutions upon a permanent foundation, is more ample endowment from the wealthy and benevolent. If supported and conducted as they ought to be, and certainly may be, they will become the fruitful nurseries of learning and religion, and tend to add strength and beauty to that Church, under the patronize of which they have been founded and thus far sustained.

The work of God this year was generally prosperous, as may be seen by a reference to the increase of membership.

Seventy preacher had located, two withdrawn. two had been expelled, seventy-six returned supernumerary, and one hundred and thirty-four superannuated.

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 437,024; Last Year: 402,561; Increase: — Colored This Year: 71,589; Last Year: 69,383; Increase: 2,206 — Indians This Year: 4,501; Last Year: 4,209; Increase: 292 — Total This Year: 513,114; Last Year: 476,153 — Increase: 36,961 — Preachers This Year: 2,010; Last Year: 1900; Increase: 110.

CHAPTER - THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF This conference assembled in the city of Philadelphia on the first of May, 1832, and was composed of the following delegates:

New York Conference: Nathan Bangs, John Clark, Laban Clark, James Covel, John Emory, Samuel D. Ferguson, Buel Goodsell, Noah Levings, Samuel Merwin, Daniel Ostrander, Fitch Reed, Phineas Rice, Marvin Richardson, Peter P. Sandford, Robert Seney, Tobias Spicer, John B.

Stratten, Nicholas White.

New England Conference: Daniel Fillmore, Wilbur Fisk, Benjamin F.

Lambord, John Lindsey, A. D. Merrill, Timothy Merritt, B. Otheman, George Pickering, Orange Scott, J. Steele, J. Stoddard, F. Upham, Daniel Webb, Shipley Wilson.

Maine Conference: C. Baker, Oliver Beale, S. Bray, P. Burgess, W. H.

Norris, D. Hutchinson, B. Jones, John Lord, W. Marsh, E. Robinson, J.

Spalding.

New Hampshire and Vermont Conference: John Adams, C. D. Calhoon, John W. Hardy, Benjamin R. Hoyt, Samuel Norris, Jared Perkins, George Storrs, Eleazer Wells, Oneida Conference: Elias Bowen, Joseph Castle, John Dempster, George Harmon, Josiah Kies, Zachariab Paddock, Nathaniel Salisbury.

Genesee Conference: Asa Abell, Robert Burch, Israel Chamberlayne, Abner Chase, John Copeland, Edmund O. Fling.

Pittsburgh Conference: Alfred Brunson, Ira Eddy, Charles Elliott, Robert Hopkins, Daniel Limerick, Wilder B. Mack, Joshua Munroe, Billings O.

Plympton, David Sharp, William Stevens, John Waterman.

Ohio Conference: Russell Bigelow, W. B. Christie, John Collins, Zachariab Connell, A. W. Elliot, James Finley, Curtis Goddard, Charles Holliday, Greenbury Jones, James Quinn, W. H. Raper, L. Swormstedt, J.

F. Wright, David Young.

Illinois Conference: James Armstrong, Thomas Hitt, G. Lock, Calvin W.

Ruter, William Shanks, Samuel H. Thompson, Allen Wiley.

Holston Conference: John Bowman, W. G. Brownlow, J. K. Catlett, James Cumming, George Ekin, John Henninger, Samuel Patton, Thomas Springfield.

Kentucky Conference: William Adams, Peter Akers, Henry B. Bascom, Benjamin T. Crouch, H. H. Kavanaugh, Marcus Lindsay, George McNelly, Martin Ruter, Jonathan Stamper, G. W. Taylor, John Tevis, Joseph S.

Tomlinson, Richard Tydings.

Missouri Conference: Joseph Edmundson, Jesse Green, Alexander McAllister.

Tennessee Conference: Thomas L. Douglass, Lewis Garrett, Alexander P.

Green, G. W. D. Harris, Greensville T. Henderson, J. M. Holland, Wilson L. McAllister, James McFerrin, William McMahan, Lorenzo D. Overall Francis A. Owen, Robert Paine, Fountain E. Pitts.

Mississippi Conference: William M. Curtis, Thomas Griffin, Ebenezer Hearn, Joseph McDowell, Robert L. Walker, William Winans.

Georgia Conference: James O. Andrew, William Arnold, Ignatius A. Few, Andrew Hamil, Samuel K. Hodges, John Howard, William J. Parks, Benjanim Pope, Elijah Sinclair, Allen Turner.

South Carolina Conference: Charles Betts, William Capers, Samuel Dunwody, Bond English, William M. Kenneday, Malcom McPherson, Hartwell Spain, Nicholas Talley.

Virginia Conference: Bennet T. Blake, James Boyd, Moses Brock, Thomas Crowder, Benjamin Devany, Peter Doub, John Earley, William Hammett, Caleb Leach, Hezekiah G. Leigh, James Read, Lewis Skidmore, William A. Smith.

Baltimore Conference: John Bear, Robert Cadden, Charles A. Davis, John Davis, Henry Furlong, Alfred Griffith, William Hamilton, James M.

Hanson, Andrew Hemphill, Gerard Morgan, S. G. Roszel, Henry Slicer, Henry Smith, David Steele, Charles B. Tippett, Norval Wilson.

Philadelphia Conference: George Banghart, Henry Boehm, Ezekiel Cooper, David Dailey, Manning Force, Solomon Higgins, John Kennaday, Joseph Lybrand, Lawrence McCombs, John Potts, William Torbert, Thomas Ware, Henry White.

Bishop McKendree, though in the city, not being able to attend the conference, and Bishop Roberts, the next in official seniority, not having arrived, the conference was opened by Bishop Soule, with reading the Holy Scriptures and prayer, Bishop Hedding being present.

Thomas L. Douglass was elected secretary, and Charles A. Davis assistant secretary. After the conference was thus organized, the bishops delivered the following address: — “To the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, assembled in Philadelphia. “Dear Brethren: — We have abundant cause of thankfulness to the Father of all mercies, for that gracious providence which has preserved us to assemble on this interesting and important occasion. And it becomes us to look up to him in humble prayer for his direction through the arduous business which may come before us.

Since the last meeting of this body, it has pleased the great Head of the church to pour out his Spirit upon us in an extraordinary manner. Our borders have been greatly enlarged, and the field of labor is continually extending with the advance of population. The increase of the membership for the four years ending last July has been one hundred and thirty-one thousand, one hundred and seventeen. “The troubles and dangers which threatened us at our last session have nearly passed away. The secession from the Church, although embracing some valuable members, has been far less extensive than was feared; and the results, with regard to the general interests of the Church, it is presumed, have been widely different from the calculations of the principal agents in the schism. “The measures which have been pursued by those who have been called ‘Reformers,’ have elicited a more careful examination of the principles of the government and economy of the Church, among our preachers and people, and through the community in general. “This examination has resulted in a clearer conviction of the excellence of our system, and especially the efficacy of our itinerant plan; and consequently peace, harmony, and reciprocal confidence have been greatly increased and confirmed. “To preserve such a happy state of things through that vast body of ministers and people to whom we are related in the strongest bonds of interest and affection, and to devise measures for the more extensive and efficient operation of that system which has already been so remarkably successful, is the chief business of your present deliberations and counsels. “Whatever may be the present apparent condition of the great Christian community, spread over this vast country, whatever success may appear to attend the measures adopted for the extension of the cause of truth, it is believed, that there has been no period in the history of Methodism in this country which involved greater interests, or called more loudly for a constant, clear, and zealous exhibition of those evangelical doctrines contained in our form of Discipline and standard works. “It may be the policy of others to suppress their articles or confessions of faith; to alter or change them to suit the condition of society; or to envelop them in the mists of metaphysical disquisitions and refinements; but with us it is very different. To circulate our articles of faith in the most extensive manner, to put our doctrine and discipline into as many houses and hands as possible, and to preach those doctrines everywhere, in the most plain and simple manner, especially holiness of heart and life, is our best policy. “Our Missionary, Sunday School, Tract, and Bible Societies have been found most valuable and efficient auxiliaries to the grand itinerant system, in carrying on the blessed work of spreading Scriptural holiness over these lands. Already much has been accomplished by the operation of these institutions, although they are but in their infancy. And it is believed that with the proper attention of the annual conferences, and the efficient agency of the preachers in the districts, circuits, and stations, all the objects for which these associations have been formed may be fully realized. It has, however, been thought by many, that the Sunday school system might be improved and made more simple, and that the organization of a school and mode of instruction might be so embodied and simplified, in a book, as to render the formation and discipline of the schools much less difficult. We recommend this subject to your attention. “The number of the annual conferences has considerably increased in the last four years, and in consequence of the enlargement of the work, it is probable others must shortly be organized. And as one of the superintendents has been removed from his labors and his sufferings to his eternal rest, we recommend to your attention the propriety of strengthening the general superintendency. “The Book Concern, under a judicious management, in the hands of able agents, has so increased as to afford, as the report of the agents will show, an increased dividend to the annual conferences.

It is believed to be in a prosperous state. This institution, both in regard to pecuniary means, and the spread of doctrinal, experimental, and practical religion, has a high claim to the patronage of the community at large, and to your attention as the guardians of its prosperity. “The last General Conference authorized the superintendents, by and with the advice and consent of the annual conferences, to form several new conferences, which has accordingly been done. But we beg leave to suggest that this method of dividing conferences, and forming new ones, involves a responsibility which we desire may not rest on us in future. “We would invite an inquiry whether the rule, (page eighty-six, compared with page thirty-eight,) which authorizes a preacher to exclude a member of our Church from love feast without a regular form of trial: and the rule, (page eighty-five,) which requires a member to be put back on trial for an improper marriage, are consistent with the right of our members of a trial by a committee, as provided in the restrictive articles. (See page twenty-one.) “Some of the annual conferences have had doubts relative to the course proper to be pursued when a preacher on trial is accused of crime. We recommend an examination of this subject, with a view to the adoption of a rule, should it be thought expedient, which shall effect an identity in the administration in such cases. “The rule relative to members who fail in business, or contract debts which they are not able to pay, has been ought defective in two points. First, It appears to limit the inquiries of the examining committee to the ‘accounts’ of the delinquent; and secondly, It is doubtful whether the ‘delinquent, if found guilty, is to be expelled on the decision of the first committee, or be tried before another committee in order to final expulsion. A difference of administration has resulted from this apparent defect in the rule. We recommend it to your deliberate consideration, together with the rule relative to cases where complaint is made for nonpayment of debts.

Most of the annual conferences have established literacy institutions. In some cases this has been done by a single conference, and in other cases by two or more conferences, united.

Most of these institutions, though in an infant state, are flourishing and prosperous, and promise great usefulness to the community in general, and to the Methodist Church in particular. We cannot but retard this as a subject of vital interest to the connection at large.

Your wisdom will determine whether any, and if any, what measures can be adopted by the General Conference at its present session for the support and advancement of this noble work. “We have witnessed with deep regret the moral and religious condition of many of the children committed to our charge; children who have been consecrated to God, and brought into a special relation to his militant church by baptism. We would recommend a careful review of the section on the instruction of children, with a design to determine whether any thing can be added to those most excellent directions, which may tend to confirm and reserve such children in this relation to the church of God. “Notwithstanding our earnest desire to establish a mission at Liberia, in conformity with the request of the General Conference at its last session, circumstances which seemed extremely difficult, if not impossible, to control, have hitherto prevented the accomplishment of this desirable object. But at present we have an encouraging prospect of being able to embrace the first safe time and opportunity to send one or two missionaries to the coasts of Africa.

Permit us, dear brethren, in conclusion, to commend you and ourselves to God, and to the word of his grace, praying earnestly that he would direct you by the light of his holy Spirit, and comfort and Support you by the word of his grace. And that the whole Church may be preserved in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bond of peace. “Yours, with much affection and esteem, “W. McKendree, “Joshua Soule, “Elijah Hedding. “Philadelphia, May 1, l832.” The following extracts from the several reports which were adopted by this General Conference will show its feelings and views in relation to the various subjects which came up for consideration.

The report on missions, which was adopted by the conference, after an approval of the general plan of operations, recommends again the establishment a mission in Liberia, the sending one person or more on a tour of observation to South America and Mexico, “with a view to ascertain the practicability of establishing missions in those countries,” and likewise the extension of the aboriginal missions on our western and northwestern frontiers, as well as the use of more energetic measures to fill up the waste places, whether in the older parts of our work or in the more recently settled territories.

The constitution of the society was, also, so amended as to make it the duty of the managers to make an estimate for the support of those aboriginal and foreign missions not connected with any particular annual conference, and authorizing the superintendent of such missions to draw on the treasurer of the society for the amount appropriated, in quarterly or half yearly installments.

The committee on education, after enumerating the several academical and collegiate institutions heretofore mentioned, and expressing their entire confidence in their character, and the manner in which they had been conducted, reported the following resolutions, which were concurred in by the conference. “Resolved, That we have confidence in the above-named institutions, and that it be respectfully recommended to the annual conferences, and to our people and tends generally, to give their patronage and liberal support to these institutions as they may severally prefer. “Resolved, That the above resolution is not to be so understood as to discourage the establishing of conference seminaries, as heretofore recommended by the General Conference, and that it is desirable that there should be, as far as possible, one first-rate institution of this class in each annual conference. “Resolved, That self-supporting literary institutions re highly approved of by this conference, and the establishment of a department of industry in manual labor in our seminaries and colleges, where it is practicable, is — earnestly recommended. “We deem it of great importance to the interests of our Church, that the colleges and academies which have been established under the direction of the annual conferences should be sustained and rendered permanent: and we invite our friends generally, as well as the members of our communion in particular, to bestow upon them a liberal patronage, and to assist in providing funds. To accomplish this it has been proposed to form societies for the purpose of raising moneys annually during a certain number of years, and the measure has been sanctioned by some of the annual conferences.

The plan is evidently a judicious one, and we recommend it to our societies wherever it may be judged practicable, but particularly in those sections where it has been already introduced.”

The Bible, Sunday School, and Tract Societies were highly approved of; and recommended to the patronage and support of the members and friends of our Church, as may be seen in the pastoral and dress.

The following extracts from this address will show the views which were entertained on the several subjects therein named: — 1. HOLINESS. — “When we speak of holiness, we mean that state in which God is loved with all the heart, and served with all the power. This, as Methodists, we have said is the privilege of the Christian in this life; and, we have further said, that this privilege may be secured instantaneously, by an act of faith, as justification was. Why, then, have we so few living witnesses that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin?’ Let us beware lest we satisfy ourselves with the correctness of our creed, while we neglect the momentous practical effects which that creed was intended to have upon us. Among primitive Methodists, the experience of this high attainment in religion may justly be said to have been common: now, a profession of it is rarely to be met with among us. Is it not time for us, in this matter at least, to return to first principles? Is it not time that we throw off the reproach of inconsistency with which we are charged in regard to this matter? Only let all who have been born of the Spirit, and have tasted of the good word of God, seek, with the same ardor, to be made perfect in love as they sought for the pardon of their sins, and soon will our class meetings and love feasts be cheered by the relation of experiences of this higher character, as they now are with those which tell of justification and the new birth. And, when this shall come to be the case, we may expect a corresponding increase in the amount of our Christian enjoyments, and in the force of the religious influence we shall exert over others.” 2. FAMILY RELIGION. — “Closely connected with personal holiness is family religion. Indeed, it may be considered as resulting from, and depending more or less upon it. He in whom the love of God is a paramount principle of action, will live in the bosom of his family as an instructing prophet, an interceding priest, and a leading example; and his influence will be felt. He will attend to the duties of family religion, not merely because they are prescribed, but because his heart is in them, and because he finds his greatest happiness in such attendance; and, wherever the heart prompts to a course of action that leads manifestly to happy consequences, the influence upon those who come within its range is great as well as certain.” 3. INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. — “The early instruction of our children in the knowledge of God, and of their duty to him, is a part of family religion which yields to none other in importance. Earliest impressions are usually the most lasting, and the most powerful in their influence upon the character of man. Hence it is, that so much emphasis is laid upon this duty in the sacred Scriptures. As a Church, we have admitted the high importance of an early religious education; but does our practice bear witness of the sincerity and practical influence of our convictions on this subject? Is it not a fact to be greatly deplored, that parents, religious, Methodist parents, too often act with no fixed plan in the education of their children? And where this is not the case, is not religion too often an object of; at most, secondary consequence in the arrangement of the plan adopted? Are we careful that not only our own instructions, but the books we place in the hands of our children, the company with which we encourage their association, the institutions in which we place them for education, and the instructors we provide for them, shall all, as far as possible, be such as shall contribute to the training of them up in the way in which they should go? Do we, when compelled to choose between them, prefer a course likely to make our children Christians, to one which will secure to them high standing in the world? If not, can we wonder if they shall choose the world rather than religion? We ourselves teach them that preference when we sacrifice their religious improvement to the acquisition of fashionable accomplishments. O, if parents would but consider how inconceivably important it is, that the minds of their children should be properly directed, they surely would shake off the indolence that prevents their own exertions for that purpose; and they would be careful that the influence exerted by others should, as far as possible, not only be innocent, but conducive to their forming an early religious character. When, as parents, we shall feel our weighty and fearful responsibility in this matter; when we shall properly appreciate the importance of an early religious education to the character and interests of our children, and when we shall act accordingly, then may we expect to see them early disciples of Jesus, steadily walking in the way in which they should go, and joyful partakers with us of the consolations of the gospel. Then may we see wiped off the reproach of that too often pertinent interrogatory, ‘In what are the children of Methodists better than those of others?’ And who of us that has known the joy of God’s salvation, that would not prefer that our children should be partakers in that joy, rather than that they should possess all that the world esteems good and great?” 4. SABBATH SCHOOLS. — “Among the most efficient auxiliaries in the religions instruction of our children, we may rank sabbath schools. The good that has beers accomplished by these will never be fully known till that day arrives which shall reveal the secrets of all hearts, and the operation and tendency of the various influences which have acted upon the human character. Then it will be seen how many inexperienced feet have been prevented from wandering into the mazes of folly and sin how many thoughtless wanderers have been arrested in their course, and brought back to the ways of righteousness; and how many have been led to inquiry and to God by their instrumentality. Considering, then, the mighty and beneficial influence of sabbath Schools, allow us earnestly to recommend, that wherever it is possible, institutions of this kind shall be established, and zealously and perseveringly supported, by all who love the Lord Jesus, and care for the best interests of the rising generation.

For reasons which we think must be obvious on the slightest observation, we prefer the establishment and support of sabbath schools in connection with, and supplied with books from, our own Sunday School Union.

Doctrines which we esteem of vital importance are not to be expected in the books or instructions of schools under any other patronage. We shall instance in only two particulars — the doctrine of Christian perfection, and that of the possibility of so falling from grace as to perish everlastingly.

Now, believing these doctrines, and considering them as of immense practical importance, are we willing that our children should receive a course of religious instruction from which they are to be excluded? And yet in those schools which are under the patronage of the American Sunday School Union, these doctrines must not be taught because some of the parties to this Union do not receive them as doctrines of the gospel. There are other important discrepancies in the opinions of those who compose this Union and our Church; but these are mentioned, because they are familiar, and because no mode of reconciling them could be adopted.

Nearly allied to this recommendation of our own Sunday School Union and Sunday Schools, is that which we would now urge upon you in relation to our own Tract and Bible Societies — the former for the reasons already assigned, and both, because, in giving the preference to books issued from our own Book Concern, we afford support to that Concern, which is, in all its bearings, a very important part of that system by which Methodism has purposed to spread vital holiness over these lands. We are not ignorant that we have been reproached with sectarian exclusiveness, in holding off from national religious charities; but we are little concerned at this. We are a sect of Christians, who honestly and conscientiously hold opinions, which we esteem of great importance, different from those which are held by most other Christian denominations; and we believe it to be our duty, not only not to disguise or to keep back these peculiar opinions, but to urge them constantly and emphatically upon all those, and especially the young, who are under our instruction. For these reasons, we would wish the liberty to conduct our religious charities on our own account, and in our own way.

Besides these, there are other reasons which have induced us not to connect ourselves with national religious charities. We believe that, in the arrangement of Providence, it is wisely permitted that the various sects of Christians should act upon their several views, the more extensively to spread the substantial truths of the gospel through the world, in order to check any aberrations, whether in doctrine or practice, to which human infirmity renders the best and wisest of all sects liable, and in order to excite each other to activity and diligence. We, moreover, believe that a union of the various denominations of Christians, for the operation of religious charities, while they continue to differ in regard to important religious doctrines, would lessen the amount of these charities, and lead in the end to dissensions and animosities not otherwise to be apprehended.

For these and other reasons, especially that we consider national religious societies incompatible with the safety of our free institutions, both civil and religious, we have long been known as in opposition to them.

And, as this has long been known, it is, to say the least of it, not a little surprising that agents of those societies have been found, who have confidently reported the Methodist Church as their supporters. It would be ridiculous, if not wicked, for these agents to excuse themselves, by saying that a few individuals of the Methodist Church are such supporters, when they cannot but know that, as a body, we are avowedly opposed to any such connection. But, not even this apology can be made by those who have continued, on the ground of unauthorized appointments, to represent our bishops and other ministers as officers in these societies, after they have, in the most unequivocal manner, declined the acceptance of such offices.” 5. GENERAL EXHORTATION. “And we earnestly recommend a strict observance of the requirements of our excellent form of Discipline, especially in what respects class meeting, conformity to the world, and the preservation of purity and peace in the members of a body associated for purposes of such mighty consequence, both to individual interest and the general good. If we would accomplish all the good contemplated in the formation of our society, we must strengthen and draw close the ties that hind us together; we most preserve the peculiar and distinctive features of our Christian character, and we must act with concentrated force. “In conclusion, dear brethren, after earnestly entreating your prayers, that we may have hearts to labor for God, and that he may crown our labors with success, we commend you to him and to the word of his grace, praying that he may make all grace to abound to you, and that he may bring us together to his everlasting kingdom and glory, through Christ Jesus, to whom be glory, for ever.

Amen.”

We have before noticed the movements in the Christian world on the subject of temperance. It came up for consideration before this conference, and resulted in the adoption of the following report, from the pen of the Rev. Henry B. Bascom, secretary of the committee to whom the subject was referred: — The delegates from the several annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in General Conference assembled, at Philadelphia, May, 1832, after due inquiry and deliberation, have deemed it necessary to submit to the consideration of the ministry and membership of the Church, throughout the United States, the following remarks and advice on the subject of Temperance, the viewed as a question of intense and growing interest, now extensively occupying the attention of the religious public and the American people in general. “The duty and necessity of strict and exemplary abstinence from indulgence in the use of ardent spirits and intoxicating liquors of every sort, will be found to have been a part of the moral discipline of our church from the earliest date of its existence and operations; and it is known to those who are at all familiar with our history, that we have accomplished much in preserving those immediately under our charge proverbially pure from the stain, and free from the curse of intemperance. Nevertheless, our success has not been entire, and much remains to be done before we can realize our wishes and the great object of our long-continued efforts in this very interesting department of Christian morals. And it is in order to effect this we now address you as the public servants of the Church, and officially entrusted with the administration of its discipline. We have too much confidence in the intelligence and piety of the persons addressed — the great body of our charge — to suppose for a moment that any apology is necessary for offering you the reflections and advice we propose, believing, as we do, that the intemperance we discourage, and would banish from the Church and the world, is alike unworthy and unbecoming all who bear the Christian name, or would be considered useful and reputable members of society in general. The vice of which we complain, and against indulgence in which we would urgently and affectionately remonstrate, is broadly and unsparingly condemned in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as directly inconsistent with Christian character, and fatally contravening in the hopes and claims of moral excellence. As Christians we how to the authority of inspiration; and its language is too explicit and solemn on this subject to be misunderstood, or waived, by any who are not utterly reckless both of the welfare of this life and the more weighty interests of immortality in another.

In the language of the Bible on this subject there is nothing deficient or equivocal; and although we do not propose an enlarged discussion, yet we cannot refrain from asking your attention to its fearful and varied testimony against the sin of intemperance, the condemnation of which is uttered in every variety of form and phrase. ‘Be not drunk with wine — wine and new wine take away the heart — wine is a mocker — strong drink is raging — he transgresseth by wine — they have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way — the priest and the people have erred through strong I drink — woe to them that rise up early to follow strong drink and continue till wine inflame them: therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure — woe to them that drink wine in bowls — be not among wine-bibbers — who hath woe, sorrow, contentions, and babbling? they that continue long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine — woe to them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink — he is a drunkard, and all the men of the city shall strike him with stones, that he die — it is not for kings to drink wine, nor princes strong drink — he who shall add drunkenness to thirst, the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven — woe to the drunkards of Ephraim they shall be trodden under foot — while they are drunken they shall be destroyed as stubble full dry — blessed art thou, O land, when thy princes eat and drink for strength, and not for drunkenness — woe to him that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth the bottle to his mouth, and maketh him drunken. ‘ A statute of perpetual obligation, throughout all generations of the priesthood, was, that they were not to ‘drink wine or strong drink’ while engaged in the service of the tabernacle; and in another connection the obligation is made equally binding: ‘Neither shall the priests drink wine when they enter into the inner court.’ The drunkenness of Noah, Lot, Nadab, Abihu, and Nabat, incurred the displeasure of heaven; while the vow of the humble Rechabites, ‘We will drink no wine;’ is commemorated by the special and public approval of Jehovah; and to these we might add the examples of the wife of Manoah, Hannah, Samuel, and the Nazarites, as securing the sanction of divine commendation. We need scarcely add that these solemn and admonitory lessons of the Jewish Scriptures on the subject of intemperance are enforced in the language of persuasion, as well as the most fearful denunciation. “And the language and warnings of the New Testament are equally decisive and uncompromising in the utter condemnation of the vice of intemperance in all its forms. ‘Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’ Drunkenness is ranked among ‘the works of the flesh,’ and is expressly said to exclude the delinquent from the kingdom of heaven. ‘If any man be a drunkard, with such a one, no, not to eat.’ Excess of wine is classed with the enormities of ‘lasciviousness, revelings, and banquetings.’ It is the offspring of darkness: ‘They that are drunken are drunken in the night;’ ‘Take heed that your hearts be not overcharged with drunkenness;’ ‘Let us walk honestly, not in drunkenness — be not drunk with wine — the evil servant who drinks with the drunken shall be cut asunder, and have his portion with hypocrites and unbelievers.’ The Pharisees thought the could not more effectually reproach our Lord than to style him ‘a wine-bibber!’ St. Paul ranks it among the virtues of Christian bishops and deacons, that they ‘be not given to wine.’ Look also at the example of John the Baptist and a greater than he. The stern and unyielding purity of the former in this as well as in other particulars is held up to the notice and imitation of all ‘who name the name of Christ.’ And when the intoxicating cup usually tempered to suffering malefactors, to procure insensibility to pain and lessen the agony of death, was by the courtesy of Jewish and Roman cruelty tendered our Lord, the lustrous sufferer disdained the unholy succor, and trod the winepress of the wrath of his Father without the dishonorable resort of accepting unworthy means to sustain him in the conflict. Would to God that we, that all Christians in affliction and trial, might do as he did, in the hope of overcoming with him! And allow us to add here, that such are the terminal and fatal effects of this species of intemperance, thus forcibly portrayed and denounced in the Bible, that wine, used as a generic term, denoting strong intoxicating drinks of every kind, and confining the remarks to its abuse, is made to symbolize the wrath of God and the misery of the damned in a future state of retribution! It follows, therefore, that no person of ordinary intelligence can consult the pages of inspiration without perceiving at once that the common use of alcoholic intoxicating liquors, of whatever kind, is strictly and unequivocally forbidden in the Scriptures, as plainly and fatally injurious to the best interests of man, in time and in eternity; and as in other instances, so in this, the beneficent Author of our being has unnaturally conformed the constitution and laws of our nature to the pre-existing purpose of his will in relation to the immutable principles of right and wrong, and accordingly all our physical aptitudes and moral instincts resist the allurements and motives to a course of intemperate indulgence, until a series of vicious experiment and training, offering rebellion to the best feelings of our nature, and grossly violative of every principle of duty and moral obligation, shall have prepared the victims of intemperance for all that is monstrous in folly or hateful in crime.

God, who is the Author of nature, no less than of revelation, has abundantly provided for the essential happiness and relative usefulness of mankind but the experience of all ages and nations has furnished the most indubitable proof that the use of ardent spirits is totally inconsistent with either, and thus opposed to His benevolent intentions of heaven and provisions of nature, must be considered as a transgression of the will of God. “And this view of the subject becomes the more convincing and striking when we attend to the peculiar nature and properties of all intoxicating drinks. In all these alcohol is the principle of all intoxication, and it has been clearly demonstrated by the researches and experiments of ministry and pharmacy, in connection with the structure and pathology of the human frame, that alcohol is an essentially active poison, and that the constant use of it, in any shape, must necessarily injure health, and finally destroy life itself.

The mischievous principle of inebriety, of which we now speak, cannot be made to nourish and invigorate the body. It is by the appointment of heaven and the constitution of our common nature rendered incapable of producing such a result. Its conversion into chyle, after being received into the stomach, and its subsequent appropriation by means of the blood vessels, for the purpose of renewing and invigorating the body, are known to be impossible. No alcoholic substance can be controlled, digested, or appropriated by the stomach. When received there it immediately diffuses itself throughout the whole system — it penetrates the very substance of the body, the brain, the nerves, and the blood vessels. All become excited and inflamed; the functions of the entire system become deranged; its action is irregular, and the well-adjusted play of its parts and mechanism disturbed and disordered; often deranging not only the functions of the body, but even its organic structure; and in whatever assignable measure alcohol, found in all spirituous liquors, and in most of our wines and malt drinks, may be drunk, these effects must necessarily follow, in a proportionate degree. And hence the wisdom and kindness of our Creator, manifestly shown in the fact that the appetite for this popular but mischievous poison is unnatural, artificially acquired, and a perversion of the dictates and provisions of nature. And in our judgment this view of the subject furnishes us with a strong additional argument in favor of the utter rejection of alcoholic drinks, except as a medicine, when the want of proper skill, or other adequate means, may authorize, in rare instances, an exception to the general rule of total abstinence.

We are the more disposed to press the necessity of entire abstinence, because there seems to be no safe line of distinction between the moderate and immoderate use of intoxicating drinks, — the transition from a temperate to an intemperate use of them is almost as certain as it is insensible; indeed, with us it is a question of great moral interest, whether a man can indulge in their use at all, and be considered temperate. We have seen that the natural, unperverted appetite of man does not ask for them, and the only motive that can possibly determine such an indulgence, is to obtain from them a vivid impression upon the nerves, more or less agreeable at the time, but utterly oblivious of better, because more salutary feelings. This result is unnatural, and of course it offers violence to the constitutional order and functionary uniformity of nature, and we respectfully submit, whether the means therefore must not be sinful. “It has been already remarked, that the essential constituent in intoxicating liquors, producing inebriety, is alcohol, and that this is found, in large proportions, not only in the different kinds of distilled liquors, but also in most of the wines, and vinous, as well as malt preparations drunk in this country. Who is not alarmed, not to say confounded, when he reflects upon the amount of this bewitching poison which is found in all our fashionable drinks!

How can a Christian account to his conscience and his God for swallowing daily an amount of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, of which alcohol is compounded, and which, if taken separately from other neutralizing ingredients, would deprive him of life perhaps in a few hours! In a bottle of brandy, for example, (we are guided in the estimate by Saussure and Brande,) there is more alcohol, by actual measurement, than water; — in our best wines, say Port and Madeira, as received and used in this country, nearly one half is alcohol; about six ounces of this poison will be found in a quart of strong cider, and little less than four in a bottle of porter or ale! In a brief address, however, we can only bring these facts into view in a summary way. We propose them for examination and reflection, and we implore the thousands under our charge to bestow upon the whole subject the attention it so obviously and pressingly deserves and demands. “The great and increasing interest, the deep and lasting stake we must always have, as a Church, in preventing and curing the evils of intemperance, will furnish an obvious and commanding vindication of the course we have adopted, in making this appeal to the good sense and enlightened piety of the Methodist Episcopal Church. We consider all intemperance, whether in its incipient or more advanced stages, as an abuse of the physical force and vigor of man, and seriously deducting from the integrity of his mental powers and moral purposes; and we therefore invoke the aid of our people in an attempt to banish the evil from our Church altogether. “We would remark here, also, that the immorality and curse of intemperance are most fearfully evinced, not only in its immediate and incipient, but in its final effects and relative bearings upon the confirmed intemperate, and others found in necessary connection or casual contact with them: impiety and worthlessness, disease and death, are its necessary attendants. God and nature have so disowned and frowned upon it, as to stamp it with the character of unmingled evil. The redeeming element or aspect about it. In it best and most imposing furnish it offers nothing but plague and pollution. God forbids it; it is the object of nature’s abhorrence, and its uniform effects demonstrate that to persist in its practice is to renounce the friendship of heaven and claim kindred, not with brutes, but infernals. All therefore, must look upon it as an evil unhallowed by any, the smallest good. We have seen that it invariably undermines health and leads to death, and, in most instances death untimely and disgraceful. However insidious in its progress, it is fatal in its issue. We need not ask you to look at the brutal, the polluted, and demoralizing victim himself, — a curse and a nuisance, whatever his name, or wherever found. We need not quote his beggared family and heart broken connections. We need not cite you to the wretched thousands found as criminals in your penitentiaries, patients in your hospitals, lunatics in your asylums, and vagabonds in your streets! Few, perhaps, are aware of the extent, the secret and insidious spread of the evil we would arrest.

Its destructive influence is felt in every department of business, duty, and society: in our legislative halls; at the bar of justice; upon the judicial bench, and even in the pulpit. A large portion, we fear, of the most important and responsible business of the nation is often transacted under the influence, in a greater or less degree, of alcoholic excitement; and can those be innocent who contribute to secure such a result, whether by the pestilential example of temperate drinking, as it is called, or the still more criminal means of furnishing the poisonous preparation by manufacture and traffic for the degradation and ruin of others?

The man who drinks intemperately ruins himself, and is the cause of much discomfort an inquietude, and perhaps actual misery, in the social scene in which he moves; but the manufacturer, and those who are engaged in the traffic of ardent spirits and other intoxicating liquors, do the work of death by wholesale; they are devoted by misguided enterprise to the ruin of human kind, and become directly accessory, although not intended by them, to the present shame and final destruction of hundreds and thousands. And we gravely ask, with no common solicitude, Can God, who is just, as well as good, hold that church innocent which is found cherishing in her bosom so awful and universal an evil? We have seen this evil broadly and unequivocally denounced in the Scriptures, as an utter curse, and big with ruin to the best hopes of man. Nature and Providence unite their testimony, and award to it the same condemnation. Our Church has long borne a similar testimony, and this is especially true of the father and founder of Methodism. “He says of ardent spirits in general, ‘First of all, sacredly abstain from all spirituous liquors; touch them not on any pretense whatever.’ On their manufacture and sale he remarks, ‘It is amazing that the preparation or selling of this poison should be permitted, I will not say in any Christian country, but in any civilized state!’ He pronounces the gain of the trafficker in ardent spirits, ‘the price of blood,’ and adds, emphatically, ‘Let not any lover of virtue and truth say one word in favor of this monster. Let no lover of mankind open his mouth to extenuate the guilt of it. Oppose it as you would oppose the devil, whose offspring and likeness it is.’ Of grocers, in this traffic, he affirms, ‘They murder mankind by wholesale, and drive them to hell like sheep.’ He denounces both the manufacture and the sale of spirituous liquors, except for mechanical and medicinal purposes, as a gross immorality declaring, ‘None can gain in this way by swallowing up his neighbors substance, without gaining the damnation of hell!’ And hence one of the original rules of the Methodist societies, as drawn up by John and Charles Wesley, precluded ‘drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, except in cases of extreme necessity.’ And we cannot but fear that the alteration of this rule by the American Methodists, and the substitution of another less unequivocal in its character, since 1790, have been attended with but little good to any, and perhaps with direct injury to thousands. And now that the engrossing question of total abstinence is arresting the attention of most evangelical churches in the United States, and in many of them becoming a term of membership, we are fully convinced it would be criminal in us to remain silent, and not lend our aid and co-operation in purging the church and redeeming the nation from this insidious, yet alarming and desolating evil.

Finally, persuaded as we are that intemperance, in all its aspects and gradations, is a physical evil, unmitigated by any mixture of good, and also a moral offense against the laws of God, and the claims of Christian piety, unmodified by any indemnifying consideration whatever, we would at all times, but at this time especially, when such combined and powerful efforts are making to arrest the evil, cast in our dividend of social and moral aid, and do all in our power to accomplish an object as every way momentous as it is desirable.

And we close by remarking, that we look upon all as implicated in the duty and the interest, and we shall cheerfully and promptly concur with all in an effort to expel the demon of intemperance, not only from our churches, but from the nation, whose welfare and fortunes must be always viewed in intimate connection with its morals.”

With a view to secure the hearty co-operation of ministers and people in the cause of missions, sabbath schools, and the distribution of Bibles and tracts, a clause was incorporated in the discipline making it the special duty of all those who have the charge of circuits and stations to attend to these things regularly and to aid them in this good work, it was also made the duty of presiding elders “to promote, by all proper means, the cause of missions and Sunday schools, and the publication, at our own press, of Bibles, tracts, and Sunday school books.”

The American Colonization Society was now gauling more and more on the affection and confidence of the American people. To aid in its benevolent enterprise, this General Conference passed a resolution authorizing the bishops to appoint agents in behalf of that society.

The affairs of our brethren in Canada were once more brought before the conference. By a reference to the proceedings of the General Conference of 1828, it will be perceived that a claim which they made upon a portion of the Book Concern was deferred for future adjustment. This claim was presented to this conference in a forcible appeal from their delegates, the Rev. Messrs. William Case and William Ryerson, who had been deputed by the Canada conference to urge it upon this General Conference. Though it was generally agreed by the members of the conference that the Canada brethren had a just claim upon a portion of the Book Concern, yet, after a full examination of the subject, the conclusion was drawn that the General Conference had no constitutional authority to make the apportionment without first obtaining the concurrence of the annual conferences. A resolution was therefore passed, referring the entire subject to the annual conferences, and authorizing the book agents at New York, whenever it should be certified to them by the secretaries of the annual conferences that “three-fourths of all the members of the several annual conferences, who shall be present and vote on the subject, shall to make a division of the stock of the Book Concern, in proportion to the number of traveling preachers, including those on trial and superannuated, in both connections.

But as three-fourths of all the voters were never obtained, the settlement was not made, and therefore the whole subject was postponed for final adjustment to the General Conference of 1836.

As, however, the Canada conference had not yet fully organized itself according to its intention when it declared itself independent, in conformity to the stipulations between it and the General Conference of 1828, the following resolutions were passed by this conference: — 1. That if the conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the province of Upper Canada shall, previously to the next General Conference, elect a bishop for said Church, and request any one or more of the bishops, together with any two or more of the elders of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, to ordain him, such bishop or bishops shall be at liberty so to do, provided the expediency and propriety of a compliance with such request be in accordance with the judgment of such bishop or bishops: and, provided also, that nothing herein contained be contrary to, or inconsistent with any law or laws of said province. “ 2. That until a bishop shall have been elected and ordained for the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, any bishop or bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, on the request of the conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Upper Canada, shall be at liberty to ordain any elders or deacons for the said Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, subject to the provisions and limitations specified in the foregoing resolution.”

The following report of the committee on the episcopacy was concurred in by the conference: — “ 1st. That they have examined the administration in the several annual conferences for the last four years, and find that it has been correct, and highly satisfactory, and therefore is entitled to the support and approbation of the General Conference. “ 2d. In consequence of the lamented death of our beloved bishop George, the extension of the work under our care and oversight, and the increase of the annual conferences, it is recommended that we elect two additional bishops at the present conference. “ 3d. As it is considered by the committee an evil of no small magnitude for the same preachers to be continued from year to year in town and city stations, the superintendents are respectfully requested to diversify appointments of this sort as much as possible among preachers deemed suitable for such appointments. “ 4th. As our charitable institutions, colleges, and seminaries of learning are continually increasing, and as the American Colonization Society is rising in its claims on the American community, it is considered proper for our bishops, whenever in their judgment, and in the judgment of an annual conference, it shall be found expedient, to appoint any preacher as an agent to promote the interest of either or all of these institutions. “ 5th. In consequence of the age and increased infirmities of our venerable and beloved bishop McKendree, it is recommended that his present relation be continued, and that the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars be allowed him annually for extra expenses, and to defray the expenses of a traveling companion, and one hundred dollars for the allowance of said traveling companion, and that he be authorized to draw this amount from the Book Concern. “ 6th. It is recommended that the rule to estimate the allowance of the bishops, for family expenses, be so altered as to make it the duty of the annual conference, within whose bounds the family or families of the bishop or bishops may reside, to estimate the amount necessary to meet such expenses. “ 7th. Considering the great extent of the work throughout this vast continent, committed to the oversight of the episcopacy, the committee deem it inexpedient to require each of our bishops to travel throughout the whole of their extensive charge during the recess of the General Conference, and therefore recommend to the episcopacy to make such an apportionment of the work among themselves as shall best suit their own convenience, and in their judgment most effectually promote the general good.”

Allusion is made in the above report to the enlargement of our work in connection with the death of Bishop George. The Illinois and New York conferences were divided, and three new ones were formed, namely, Troy, Indiana, and Alabama, making in all twenty-two. For these reasons, on the twenty-second day of the session, two additional bishops, namely, James Osgood Andrew, and John Emory, were elected, the former by a vote of one hundred and forty, out of two hundred and twenty-three, the whole number of voters, and the latter by a vote of one hundred and twenty-five.

Both having a constitutional majority on the first balloting, they were declared duly elected, and on the 25th they were consecrated in the usual form, by prayer and imposition of the hands of Bishops McKendree, Roberts, Soule, and Hedding.

Another important regulation was made at this General Conference. When the delegated General Conference was created in 1808, the number of delegates was limited to not more than one to every five, nor less than one to every seven members, and according to the proviso, neither this nor any other restrictive regulation could be altered except “upon the joint recommendation of all the annual conferences,” and then by “a vote of two-thirds of the General Conference succeeding.” As, however, the number of delegates had so increased that the General Conference of felt it to be burdensome both to themselves and others for so many to assemble together every fourth year, a recommendation had been sent the rounds of the annual conferences, requesting them to empower the General Conference of 1828 to diminish the number of delegates. This recommendation passed all the annual conferences except the Philadelphia; and as it required all the conferences to concur before the alteration could be made by the General Conference, the measure was defeated by the nonoccurrence of this single annual conference. It was thus that we all began to feel the pressure of the yoke which had been imposed upon us by the General Conference of 1808, by which we were compelled to submit to the burden until permitted to relieve ourselves by the concurrence of all the conferences in the Union. This unwise provision put it completely in the power of a very small minority to rule the whole body, on any question arising out of the restrictive rules. From such a grievous yoke, “which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear,” the General Conference of 1828 made an effort to break loose by passing the following resolution: — “Resolved, That this General Conference respectfully suggest to the several annual conferences the propriety of recommending to the next General Conference, so to alter and amend the rules of our Discipline by which the General Conference is restricted in its powers to make rules and regulations for the Church, commonly called the restrictive rules, as to make the proviso, at the close of the said restrictive rules, No. 6, read thus: — “Provided, nevertheless, that upon the concurrent recommendation of three-fourths of all the annual conferences who shall be present and vote on such recommendation, then a majority of two-thirds of the General Conference succeeding shall suffice to alter any of such regulations, except the first. And, also, “Whenever such alteration or alterations shall have first been recommended by two-thirds of the General Conference, so soon as three-fourths of the members of the annual conferences shall have concurred, as aforesaid, with such recommendation, such alteration or alterations shall take effect.”

This recommendation had been submitted to the several annual conferences, and had obtained a constitutional majority of all the voters.

Accordingly it came legitimately before this General Conference to alter the proviso, and then to recommend to the several annual conferences to authorize the lessening the number of delegates, and both of these powers were exercised. Without going into a detail of all the circumstances which led to the result, it is sufficient to say, that the proviso, which had held us at bay for so long a time, was so altered on the recommendation of the General Conference of 1832, and the constitutional vote of the annual conferences, subsequently, as to read as follows: — “Provided, nevertheless, that upon the concurrent recommendation of three-fourths of all the members of the several annual conferences, who shall be present and vote on such recommendation, then a majority of two-thirds of the General Conference succeeding shall suffice to alter any of the above restrictions, excepting the first article and also, whenever such alteration or alterations shall have been first recommended by twothirds of the General Conference, so soon as three-fourths of the members of all the annual conferences shall have concurred as aforesaid, such alteration or alterations shall take effect.”

And then the number of delegates was to be graduated as follows: — “They shall not allow of more than one representative for every fourteen members of the annual conference, nor allow of a less number than one for every thirty: provided, nevertheless, that when there shall be in any annual conference a fraction of two-thirds the number which shall be fixed for the ratio of representation, such annual conference shall be entitled to an additional delegate for such fraction; and provided, also, that no conference shall be denied the privilege of two delegates.”

It will be perceived that a motion may now be made by either the General Conference or the annual conferences, for an alteration in any of the restrictive regulations except the first, and that, as it requires to be seconded by the other, and concurred in by a majority of three-fourths of the voters in the annual conferences, or two-thirds of the General Conference, to make it obligatory, the rights of each are secured, and the voices of all are heard. And as this new regulation was made for the purpose of obviating the prohibitory character of the old proviso, which amounted in fact to almost a total and absolute withholding of all power from the General Conference ever to make any alteration, however imperative the necessity might appear, it seems preposterous to give such an interpretation to the language of the present proviso, as to involve us in the very same dilemma as that from which it was designed, and therefore made and adopted for the express purpose of delivering us! Such an interpretation involves the framers of this proviso in the most inexcusable of all blunders — a fault from which their acknowledged abilities and known integrity must for ever exempt them. We had been laboring under the galling yoke of this severe restriction for eight years, struggling the whole time to free ourselves from its iron bondage, and then securing our freedom, as we were simple enough to believe, by a substitute, when lo and behold, when we come to test it by actual experiment, it proves to be the same galling yoke still! An absurdity this too glaring to be admitted.

Notwithstanding all that had been done for the relief and support of our worn-out preachers, widows, and orphans, they were still but poorly provided for, and hence the following additional regulation was made respecting the manner in which their just and pressing claims might be met: — “It shall be the duty of each annual conference to take measures, from year to year, to raise moneys in every circuit and station within its bounds, for the relief of its necessitous, superannuated, supernumerary ministers, widows, and orphans. And the conference shall appoint a committee to estimate the several sums necessary to be allowed for the extra expenses of such necessitous claimants, who shall be paid in proportion to the estimate made and the moneys received.”

The following was also enacted in reference to those therein mentioned, who reside beyond the bounds of their respective conferences: — “Every superannuated preacher who may reside without the bounds of the conference of which he is a member; shall annually forward to his conference a certificate of his character and ministerial conduct, together with an account of the number and circumstances of his family, signed by the presiding elder of his district, or the preacher in charge of his circuit or station, within whose bounds he may reside, without which the conference shall not be required to allow his claim.”

Provision had already been made for the appointment of preachers as teachers, professors, or presidents of academies and colleges under our own control and patronage. This conference extended the authority to the bishops for other colleges, in the following language: — “Resolved, That the superintendents be authorized, whenever requested by an annual conference to do it, to appoint a preacher to a college not under our direction, and to continue him in the same manner as at the institutions which we patronize.

It seems that a practice had prevailed to some extent, whenever a preacher wished to attend to some temporal business for his own convenience, to be left, at his own request, without any regular appointment for a year, less or more. This had been found to be accompanied with so many difficulties, that the bishops felt it their duty to call the attention of the conference to the subject, and its consideration resulted in the adoption of the following: — “Resolved, That it is inconsistent with the spirit and interest of the itinerancy system to leave effective men without appointments at their own request.”

The following was also passed, fixing the responsibility of those preachers who might be appointed traveling agents for any literary or other institution, as already authorized by existing regulations: — “Resolved, That in all cases where agents are appointed, their names shall be attached to some district; and in case of any complaint, they shall be held responsible to the presiding elder of said district.”

It appears that a difference of opinion prevailed among the bishops respecting the meaning of the last resolution in the report of the committee on the episcopacy, which said, that it was considered “inexpedient to require each of the bishop’s to travel throughout the whole of their extensive charge, during the recess of the General Conference, and therefore recommend them to make such an apportionment of the work among themselves as shall best suit their own convenience, and in their judgment most effectually promote the general good.” It appears that some of the bishops were in favor of districting the work for the four years, and this was also the opinion of some of the delegates, each one confining his labors to his particular charge until the next General Conference, and so understood the above item in the report, while others contended that this matter was left to be regulated as the bishops themselves might judge proper. To settle this question, the bishops submitted to the conference the following queries: — “The bishops, being desirous of understanding with clearness and certainty the resolution passed by the General Conference at its present session, in relation to the episcopal visitations of the annual conferences, in the course of the ensuing four years, beg the favor of a vote of the conference, without debate, in answer to the following question, viz. — Was it the intention of the General Conference, by the resolution above alluded to, simply to relieve the bishops from the influences of the resolution passed at the last General Conference on the same subject, and to leave them now at liberty, on their joint and several responsibility, to make such arrangements among themselves, for the entire administration, and for the visitations of the annual conferences, as they shall judge most conducive to the general good; and without designing to give direction or advice whether it be or be not expedient for each of the bishops in the course of the four years to visit each of the annual conferences, should they themselves find it convenient and practicable, and judge it for the general good so to do?”

And it is added in the journal, “The conference voted an answer to the above question in the affirmative.”

The following resolution in relation to preachers admitted into an annual conference, and not ordained at the time, was passed, and should, therefore, I think, be considered as a standing rule, though it was not incorporated in the Discipline: — “Provided always, that when a preacher shall have passed his examination, and been admitted into full connection, and elected to deacon’s office, but fails of his ordination through the absence of the bishop, his eligibility to the office of an elder shall run from the time of his election to the office of a deacon.”

Having completed their work, read and improved of their journal, the conference was adjourned with singing and prayer, and the apostolic benediction, late on Monday evening, May 28th, 1832, to meet again in Cincinnati, May 1, 1836.

CHAPTER - FROM THE CLOSE OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF TO THE BEGINNING OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF We had now six bishops, and twenty-two annual conferences to be attended in the course of twelve months. But as the health of Bishop McKendree was fast declining, no dependence could be placed on him for effective service, and accordingly the General Conference, as we have seen, released him from that responsibility. The effective labor, therefore, devolved upon the remaining five bishops, who accordingly had each four conferences and a fraction to attend every year, besides the duty of ranging through their respective districts of labor — as far and as frequently as practicable.

The unanimity and energy with which the late General Conference entered into the missionary cause, gave it a new impulse, and inspired its friends with courage to persevere in their exertions to urge it forward.

Liberia had, for several years, been selected by the managers of our Missionary Society as a suitable place for missionary enterprise, and much had been said and written in favor of sending laborers into that distant and destitute field. Hitherto, however, the bishops had not been able to select such a man for the work as they considered suitable. Some had offered and been rejected, and those who were considered best qualified, were unwilling to go. At the late General Conference the subject was pressed upon its attention with renewed zeal, and the bishops were then, particularly by a committee from the Young Men’s Missionary Society of New York, who pledged money for its support., to use their influence to send one missionary or more to this inviting field of labor.

That the reader may understand the high demands which this place had upon the exertions and benevolence of our Church, for a supply of its spiritual wants, the following particulars respecting the settlement, and present state and prospects of Liberia are given.

Slavery in the United States may be considered the remote, and Christian philanthropy the proximate, cause of establishing the colony in Africa, now known as Liberia, under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. This society was formed in 1816, by some benevolent individuals, with a view to transport to Africa such free people of color from the United States as might consent to emigrate, and establish them as a colony, with all the rights and privileges of freemen. Though at first the society was viewed with suspicion by some, fearing it was designed chiefly to rivet the chains of slavery yet tighter on the slave, by removing the free colored people out of the land; yet as its character was gradually developed, the public confidence was acquired, and its friends and supporters were daily increased. The first experiment, however, to establish a colony on the coast of Africa proved unpropitious. The society was unfortunate in the selection of the site for this important colony. This was at the mouth of the Sherbro river, which separates the country of Sierra Leone from the Grain coast, on the western shores of Africa, latitude seven north, in the province of Guiana. The country is generally flat, exposed to the most intense heat from October to March, when violent and almost uninterrupted rains descend until the month of June, when the heat again commences and continues until July, and this is followed by rain until October. An atmosphere created by such physical causes must be extremely unhealthy to either Europeans or Americans, and so it proved in the present instance.

In 1818, a number of emigrants sailed from the port of New York, in the ship Elizabeth, accompanied by that eminent philanthropist and Christian minister, the Rev. Mr. Bacon, whose commendable zeal in the cause of African colonization led him to embark in this hazardous undertaking, as the principal agent of the society. Many of these voluntary exiles from their country were truly pious, some of whom were members of our Church.

The fate of this infant colony is well known. The place selected, as before said, for their residence proved insalubrious, and the poisonous malaria soon swept them from the face of the earth and among the dead was the pious and self sacrificing Bacon himself. This spread a temporary gloom over the prospects of this society, and furnished its enemies with renewed arguments against the enterprise. Opposition, however, awakened new energies in its behalf, and led to more vigorous measures to insure its success. New resources were called into existence, men and means were multiplied, and a more powerful pulsation was felt in the American community in favor of the sons and daughters of Africa.

To avoid the results of the former experiment, another and a more salubrious site was selected for the colony in contemplation. In 1821 the society purchased of the native chiefs a district of country on the western coast of Africa, two hundred and eighty miles in length, and from twenty to thirty miles in breadth, on the Grain coast, in about six degrees north latitude, including the cape of Montserado. A site for a town was laid out between the Mesurado and St. Paul’s rivers, both of which empty into the Montserado bay, which opens into the Atlantic Ocean. Here a settlement was commenced under favorable circumstances, and the town was called, in honor of the popular chief magistrate who then occupied the presidential chair, Monrovia. These emigrants were accompanied and headed by the pious and lamented Ashman, who finally fell a victim to his zeal in striving to build up a colony in this place.

The prosperity which attended this second attempt at African colonization, strengthened and fortified the hearts of its friends and patrons, at the same time that it disarmed its opponents of many of their arguments against the enterprise. Hence it was patronized by some of the most benevolent spirits of the age, by most of the ecclesiastical bodies in the Union, and by many of the state legislatures, and therefore seemed to promise a most happy issue. The colonists were generally happy and contented, and invited their brethren in America to come over and join them. Hence many masters liberated their slaves on condition of their emigrating to Liberia, and others, already free, accompanied them to this home of their fathers.

Nor were the churches inattentive to these movements. Even foreigners were attracted by the spirit of Christian philanthropy to this place, and several Swiss missionaries had already laid their bones in the soil of Liberia, while attempting to convey to the inhabitants the glad tidings of salvation.

As before said, our Missionary Society had not been an indifferent spectator to the spiritual wants of these people. They had gone from our shores; many of them were members of our Church, some local preachers of reputable standing; and they all sent a cry to us for help. The subject had been before the General Conference from time to time, and the board of managers had passed resolutions at several different times in favor of establishing a mission in Liberia. At length our hopes were realized by the offering of the Rev. Melville B. Cox, at the late General Conference, as a missionary to Africa, and his services were accepted by the bishops. After making the needful preparation, on the 6th of October, 1832, Mr. Cox set sail in the ship Jupiter, from Norfolk, Va., and after a long and tedious voyage, in which he stopped at St. Jago, the Cape of Good hope, and at Sierra Leone, he arrived in Liberia on the 8th of March, 1833, and was most cordially received by the acting governor, Mr. Williams, who was a member of our Church, and a local preacher of reputable character in the colony.

The heart of brother Cox seemed to be set upon Liberia from the hour of his appointment, and he accordingly records his great joy at finding himself safely landed upon its shores, and was much delighted at the prospect before him. But alas! he scarcely had time to mature his plans for future usefulness, before the fatal malaria of the place infused its poison into his system, and he soon fell a victim to the ravages of the African fever.

That he was eminently qualified for his station, so far as mental and spiritual attainments are concerned, is abundantly attested by his intimate friends, and by the monuments of his talents and piety which he has left behind. I say so far as mental and spiritual attainments are concerned, for his physical constitution had been much weakened by disease before he embarked on this mission, and he was, therefore, by no means able to withstand the shocks of an African climate.

But though he thus fell a martyr to the work of introducing the gospel into that part of Africa, yet he laid the foundation for a missionary establishment in Liberia, on which his successors have reared a noble superstructure, to the glory of the God of missions. The letters which he transmitted to the managers, describing the state and prospects of the colony, were of such an encouraging character, that a new impulse was given to the holy cause in which he had embarked, and inspired its friends with renewed zeal to prosecute it with more vigorous exertions. And the inspiring language of Cox to a friend on the eve of his departure for Liberia, operated as a charm upon the hearts of all who were engaged in this work. Being asked what should be written upon his tombstone, should he die in Africa, he replied, ‘Let thousands fall before Africa be given up!”

This noble declaration when repeated to the congregation at time his funeral discourse was preached in the John Street church thrilled through every heart, and no doubt inspired others to enter the ranks which had been weakened by the death of Cox.

Though his death occurred in 1833, it may be as well to say all that is necessary of brother Cox in this place. On his arrival in Liberia, he set himself immediately at work, of preparing for preaching the gospel to the colonists, and establishing a church according to the regulations of the Methodist discipline. He was much aided and cheered in his work by the Rev. Mr. Pinney, a Presbyterian minister, who had preceded him in the service of the American Colonization Society, as the governor of the colony. Finding missionary premises at Monrovia, prepared by the Swiss missionaries before mentioned, but which were now vacated by their death, Mr. Cox made a purchase of them for five hundred dollars, which was afterward sanctioned by the board of managers. The house he occupied both for domestic purposes and for holding meetings.

It has been already remarked that there were in Liberia members of our Church, and others, who, though not of our communion, held to our doctrines, and dissented only on some points of Church polity. These were convened by Mr. Cox to when he presented his credentials, and he was nearly unanimously acknowledged in his proper character, and on the ninth day of April, 1833, the following articles of agreement were adopted as the basis of their future action: — “Whereas the Methodist Church in Liberia, West Africa, is yet in its infancy, poor and in need of aid, inexperienced and in need of counsel; and whereas, by our direction a correspondence was opened with the Young Men’s Missionary Society of New York, and a missionary desired to be sent over to our help from the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, which we ever wish to acknowledge as our parent church; — and whereas the said Methodist Episcopal Church has kindly sent to our aid a man whom they have adjudged to be fitted for the work, therefore: — “Resolved, 1. That we resign the superintendency of all our churches in Liberia to the care of the said missionary, and that we will do all in our power to aid him in promoting the work of God among ourselves, and in extending the interests of his mission among those around us. “ 2. That we will adopt the “Articles of Religion,” the “General Rules,” and the moral discipline in general of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America; and that we will follow its “spiritual” and “temporal economy,” both to the letter and the spirit, as far as our changed circumstances will possibly allow us so to do. “ 3. That, though we regret exceedingly that the said missionary has not come out properly authorized to ordain and set apart others to the office of deacons and elders in the church of God, we will nevertheless patiently wait until Providence shall bring us this great blessing, and that hereafter none of us will administer the sacraments unless we have been, or until we shall have been properly authorized so to do by the regular episcopacy of the parent Church in America. “ 4. That we acknowledge the authority of the General Conference of the said Methodist Episcopal Church and that, considering our isolated situation, the wide distance between us and them, and the rapid accession that we confidently hope will attend the growth of our ministry here, we desire, as soon as may be, to be acknowledged by it as one of its annual conferences but that we will leave it entirely with the General Conference to say whether we shall be considered as a missionary station, as an annual conference, or as an independent Methodist Episcopal church in Africa. “ 5. That in view of the hazard of life which always must attend a change of our climate for another — of the mortality which has attended most of the white missionaries who have nobly come to our aid, and of the fact that we have not in our church a single regularly ordained colored elder in the colony, we earnestly request any one of our bishops, and they are hereby requested, to ordain to the offices of deacon and elder our brother, A. D. Williams; a man whom we judge to be well qualified for said offices, and who has been duly elected to these offices by our conference, and who, moreover, has been well acclimated and a long resident in the colony. “ 6. That, in view of the great responsibility of the ministerial office, and of the loud and increasing calls for constant labor in the churches and among the pagans around us, we will, as soon and as fast as the wants of our families will justify it, leave the service of tables, and give ourselves wholly to the work of the ministry.”

The reasons for the third article. In the above agreement are, that some of the colored preachers in Liberia had taken upon themselves the right of administering the ordinances without having been regularly ordained for that work. Unwilling at first to relinquish the exercise of this right, and Mr.

Cox refusing to acknowledge it, or to recognize them as regularly ordained ministers, there was danger at the interest of unhappy collision among the few who were desirous of worshipping God in the spirit, and of building up a pure church in Liberia. This breach, however, was thus prevented, as all, both preachers and people, set their names to the above articles of agreement. On beholding this happy result of their proceedings, Mr. Cox exclaimed, with pious gratitude, “The Lord has done it — the Lord has done it — Satan is disappointed, and the church of God triumphs.”

Having thus arranged matters to the mutual satisfaction of all concerned, Mr. Cox set himself to work in the most ardent manner for the enlargement of the field of labor in different parts of the colony. On the 9th of March, he held at Caldwell the first camp meeting ever attended on the continent of Africa; called the brethren together for mutual consultation and prayer; appointed days of fasting and thanksgiving, and planned several missions in other places contiguous to Monrovia and finally on the 6th of April he opened a sabbath school, consisting of seventy children.

These active labors, however, were destined soon to be interrupted, for on the 12th of April he was seized with the African fever, which raged to such a degree that he was soon so prostrated, that for twelve days he was confined to his bed. And, although he so far recovered from this severe attack as to be able to walk around his room, and to record in his journal his uninterrupted peace with God, and his firm hope of eternal life, yet he soon suffered a relapse, which, from the violence of its character, cut off all hopes of recovery. He lingered in great pain and weakness, sometimes reviving, and then again sinking, until the 21st of July, 1833, when he sunk into the arms of death, in the full hope of immortality, aged thirty-three years.

This sketch of his proceedings fully shows the predominant disposition of his mind, and evinces the most ardent spirit of devotion to the best of all causes. From the moment he had consecrated himself to this mission, his whole soul seemed to be absorbed in the contemplation of Africa, and he bent all his energies to make his mission prosperous. Aided as he was by the managers if the Missionary Society, and cheered on by the prayers and benedictions of the Church, he threw himself into the arms of divine Providence, determining to hazard all upon the altar of his God, whether for life or death, if he could only be the honored instrument of planting the gospel in the soil of Africa. At a missionary meeting held in the city of New York, on the eve of his departure, he remarked, in substance, that having embarked in this enterprise, the thought of treading upon the shores of Africa, even though it might be at the sacrifice of his life, was the most sweet and delightful of any thing else he could possibly contemplate. In this self-sacrificing spirit, he went — he fought — he sickened — he died. And in his death, so peaceful and triumphant, he reared a monument in Monrovia which has apprised all future travelers to that sacred spot, that the founder of the Methodist missions in Western Africa “counted all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ,” and for the rewards of a life devoted to so holy and glorious a cause.

In Melville B. Cox were united a firmness of purpose, with a meekness of disposition and amiability of manners. which at once endeared him to his friends, and commanded the respect and confidence of all who knew him.

Nor were his talents small. “The Sketches of Western Africa,” which he wrote, show the pen of a ready writer, and a mind accustomed to close and accurate observation. These, united with genuine, deep piety, and a disposition naturally amiable, and rendered much more mild and meek by the refining influence of divine grace, qualified him to be eminently useful in that department of labor which he had chosen for himself, and which was evidently designated to him by the Head of the church.

While therefore his mortal remains repose upon the soil of Africa, his friends may comfort themselves with the reflection that his soul, purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit, is now reaping the ample reward of his labors and sacrifices in the paradise of God. And though he fell an early sacrifice to the cause of missions, his bones have but fattened the soil in which they were entombed, and animated many a weary missionary to diligence and perseverance in his work of faith and labor of love.

Through the influence of the Rev. Mr. Spaulding, who succeeded brother Cox as a missionary to Africa, some generous individuals in Boston contributed a sum for the purpose of erecting a monument over his grave.

This was transported to Monrovia, and there it stands, with the following inscription engraven on three sides, in the words prepared by Mr.

Spaulding: — To the Memory of theREV.MELVILLE B.COX, the first Missionary from the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States to Liberia, Western Africa. He arrived in Monrovia on the 9th of March, 1833, where, having organized a branch of the same Church, he died in the triumphs of the Christian faith on the 21st of July of the same year, aged 33 years. He was a truly amiable man, a devout Christian, and an able and successful minister of Jesus Christ.

Another important mission was established this year at Green Bay, about five hundred miles from the city of Detroit, in Brown county, in the state of Michigan. This spacious bay is on the west side of Lake Michigan, and the country was inhabited chiefly by Indians, though the United States had established here a military post, and an Indian agency. To this place a number of the converted Indians of the Oneida tribe had removed, and they were very desirous of having the gospel preached to them and to the neighboring tribes; the enterprise was also highly favored by the United States government, particularly by then agent, Mr. Schoolcraft, who resided there.

Good impressions had been already made upon the minds of some of the Indians through the labors of John Sunday, who had been raised up from Heathenism to a preacher of righteousness during the great revival of religion among the aborigines of Upper Canada. He, and some of his brethren, had traveled into the country bordering on Lake Huron, had visited Machinaw, and the neighboring villages, and preached to their native brethren with great power and success, and a considerable number of these degraded people had been brought to the knowledge of the truth.

The good work thus begun, had attracted the attention of many of the Indians in that region of country, and as they were accustomed to wander about from place to place in their hunting excursions, those who embraced the gospel went from tribe to tribe, and told their brethren “what great things the Lord had done for them,” and they also believed unto eternal life. In this way the work of reformation spread among the several tribes; and though the Indians in the territory around Green Bay were separated some distance from the immediate scene of John Sunday’s labors, yet, by the means already suggested, they had received the impressions of truth, and were in some measure prepared to welcome the missionary of the cross.

The Rev. John Clark, of the New York conference, was appointed a missionary to this region of country. He was received with much affection and respect by Mr. Schoolcraft, by the inhabitants generally, and more especially by those converted natives who had removed from the Oneida mission in the western part of the state of New York. he therefore entered upon his work with a fair prospect of success, and laid his plans for establishing schools by erecting houses, and employing teachers, as well as fixing regular appointments for preaching. And though the mission has not resulted in the conversion of many of the natives, it is to be hoped that a foundation has been laid, which, by addressing gospel truth directly to the understanding and heart, may be productive of their salvation.

Several other missions were commenced this year in the bounds of the Illinois conference, in the new settlements which were filling up with great rapidity. Among these were Rock Island, in Adams county, South Bend, Chicago, Fort Clark, Macoopin, and Fort Wayne. A mission was also established this year in the bounds of the Tennessee conference, in Madison and Limestone counties, for the special benefit of the people of color. All these new fields of labor were cultivated with success, however unpromising they might have been in the beginning.

Somerset and Port Carbon, in the bounds of the Philadelphia conference, embracing destitute settlements which could not be supplied in the ordinary way, were blessed with missionary labor, and supported by the Philadelphia C. M. Society. An effort was also made to establish preaching at West Point, where the military school is located, in the state of New York, and which is quite remote from any circuit, by means of missionary labor. It did not, however, prove successful.

The work in general throughout the bound of the several annual conferences, both on the older circuits and stations, and on the mission, was in a prosperous state, and the spirit of revival, and of liberality in support of our various institutions, was evidently rising and prevailing more and more.

For the last two years, through the instrumentality of protracted meetings, there had been a powerful revival in the city of New York. This work commenced in the Allen Street church, and spread more or less in the different congregations in the city; but its most powerful effects were felt and seen in the church in Allen Street, where the meetings were continued for upward of forty days, and in the evenings for nearly three months; so that the “revival in Allen Street” became notorious all over the country, and the increase during the two past years was not less than one thousand four hundred. This extension of the work created the necessity of having an additional number of churches, which eventuated, in the course of a few years, in the erection of seven, making in the whole twelve, in two of which the slips were rented, and three of the old ones were rebuilt.

Our preachers and people more generally began to feel the necessity of building larger and more commodious houses of worship, and of providing parsonages for the married preachers, as well as of contributing more liberally for the support of our infant colleges, missions, and Sunday schools. Indeed, such had been the hallowed an happy influence of these institutions thus far, that opposition to them was mainly disarmed of its power, and success spoke loudly in their behalf.

Thirteen preachers had died during the last year, one hundred and fortythree were returned superannuated, and seventy-eight supernumerary; sixty-three had located, two had withdrawn, and three been expelled.

Among those whose death are recorded, are two among the oldest preachers in the traveling ministry, namely, Lemuel Green, of the Philadelphia, and William Phoebus, of the New York conference.

The former, Lemuel Green, was born in Maryland, about fourteen miles from the city of Baltimore, in the year 1751. When about twenty-five years of age, in the year 1776, while war was raging in our country, he was made a partaker of justification by faith in Jesus Christ, and immediately attached himself to a Methodist society. At that time the Methodists were but few, numbering only four thousand nine hundred and twenty-one, and there were but twenty-four preachers. At what time he commenced preaching we have no means of ascertaining; but in 1783 we find his name on the Minutes of conference, and he was stationed on the Yadkin circuit, and in 1785 we find him in the Allegheny circuit, at that time a new region of country, but rapidly filling up with inhabitants. he was, therefore, among the pioneers of Methodism in that new country, and he continued his labors in various places, sometimes filling the office of presiding elder, until 1800, when he located, and settled in the city of Philadelphia, and entered into mercantile business, by which means he acquired considerable wealth.

While in this relation he continued to preach occasionally, generally every Sabbath, and by his example to aid the cause of religion. His heart and house were ever open to receive his brethren, and he always made them welcome to his hospitable table.

In 1823 he was readmitted into the Philadelphia conference in the relation of a supernumerary, in which he continued until his death, which was peaceful and triumphant. His preaching is said to have been characterized by clearness and soundness, and attended with the energies of the holy Spirit. Had he continued exclusively devoted to the work of the ministry, instead of departing from it “to serve tables,” he doubtless would have shone much brighter, and diffused his light much more extensively among his fellow-men. But having become the head of a family, and hence feeling the pressure so common to itinerant ministers in those days, arising from the scanty support afforded them, he thought it his duty to exchange a traveling for a located ministry; and though he acquired a competency for a season, yet, by adverse circumstances, he was, a few years before his death, reduced to poverty, so that his declining days were overcast with temporal affliction. But whether in prosperity or adversity, he maintained his integrity, and bowed submissively to the will of his heavenly Father, exemplifying the virtues of humility and patience in an eminent degree.

This short record is made as a memento of that Christian friendship and fellowship which the writer enjoyed with his deceased brother, and in the hope of sharing with him in the blessedness of immortality and eternal life.

William Phoebus was also a native of Maryland, and was born in Somerset county, in the month of August, 1754. Though the exact time and means of his conversion are unknown to us, yet it appears from the record that he was brought to the knowledge of the truth in the early days of Methodism, became a member of its society and in 1783 he was admitted on trial in the traveling ministry. His first appointment was on Frederick circuit and in 1784 he attended the Christmas conference, when the Church was organized under the superintendence of Coke and Asbury, and the direction of Wesley.

After this he traveled in various places, sometimes contending with the hardships and difficulties of the new settlements in Green Briar, and other places no less rugged and destitute, where he accredited himself as a “good soldier of Jesus Christ,” fighting the battles of the Lord, and conquering souls by the power of gospel truth. In this good work he continued until the year 1798, when he located, and entered upon the practice of physic, in the city of New York, preaching, in the mean time, generally every sabbath, in the pulpits, with good effect.

He continued in this local sphere of action until 1806, when he was readmitted into the New York conference, and was stationed in the city of Albany. Thence he was removed in 1808 to Charleston South Carolina, and in 1811 was returned to the city of New York. From that time he continued to fill various stations until the year 1821, when he was returned a supernumerary, and in 1824 a superannuated preacher, in which relation he continued until his death, which occurred at his residence, in the city of New York, November 9, 1831.

Though a man of great integrity of character, and strongly attached to the Church of his choice, and a lover of the itinerancy, he pleaded the necessity of the circumstances in which he was placed for his partial locations.

Having entered into the marriage state about the year 1791, while traveling on Long Island, he soon found, as he thought, such difficulties besetting his path as an itinerant minister, as to justify him in restricting the sphere of his ministerial labors, that he might more effectually provide for himself and his own household.” These difficulties arose out of a want of adequate means of support, the lack of parsonages to accommodate his family, and the being dissatisfied, whether with or without reason, as he frequently affirmed with the office of presiding elder. Though it is believed that most of those who took this step did it unadvisedly, yet it is manifest that they had many arguments in its justification, arising out of the causes already enumerated; and the Church by this neglect toward her servants, incurred a fearful responsibility from which, however, she has been for some time endeavoring to relieve herself by a more liberal course in this respect.

Dr. Phoebus, for so he was called from his having been in the practice of physic, had acquired a large stock of useful information from his various studies and general intercourse with mankind. He lacked, however, that systematic arrangement of knowledge, which characterizes a mind that has been more early imbued with classical studies, and was therefore distinguished by certain eccentricities in his public administrations, conveying instruction more by detached sentences than by a chain of consecutive reasoning, or discoursing in a regular didactic manner. His style, however, was plain and perspicuous, his manner solemn and impressive, and he evinced on all occasions a mind familiar with the holy Scriptures, and deeply devoted to his work. He delighted much in the study of old authors, in examining the primitive records of the church, in analyzing the different modern systems of church order and government, and comparing them one with another, and with the primitive model.

Having formed some acquaintance with the original languages in which the Scriptures of truth were written, he was extremely fond of deciphering the radical import of the sacred text, and thence sifting out the exact scope and design of the writer.

His veneration for antiquity led him, we think, into the error of undervaluing the discoveries of modern days and of treating with too much neglect the improvements in the various departments of science and of theological knowledge. Hence a criticism by Clarke, or Benson, or even Wesley, whom he venerated as the greatest of modern divines, was not treated by Dr. Phoebus with half the deference as if it were made by some of the older divines, such as Poole, Henry, or Gill and the reasoning of a Reid or a Stewart would be rejected if contradicted by Locke. He never could pardon Dr. Adam Clarke for his ingenious speculations on the character of the serpent, or for his rejection of the eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ and the antipathy he imbibed against this learned, pious, and useful commentator, seemed to unfit him for a due appreciation of his merits in other respects, as one of the most profound expositors of God’s sacred word. He, indeed, claimed the liberty of thinking for himself on all subjects, and perhaps in the exercise of this noble independence of mind, the birthright of every intelligent being, he sometimes manifested too little deference to others for his own benefit. Hence an air of dogmatism obtruded itself in the social circle which wounded the feelings of others, without exalting, in their estimation, the value of his own aphorisms and opinions.

He was a great admirer of Baxter. From his voluminous and pious writings he had treasured up many sayings, with which he endeavored to fortify his own positions, whenever assailed by an opponent; while Wesley and Fletcher furnished him with argument, in time of need, to defend experimental, practical, and polemical divinity. Being thus furnished with knowledge from various sources, and having a fund of anecdote at command, which he had treasured up from various reading and extensive intercourse with mankind, his conversation was always instructive and lively, and his judgment on topics of importance was listened to with becoming deference, by his friends in the ministry, as well as by others who sought his instructions. And those who were intimate with him were generally careful how they provoked a controversy on those subjects with which he was familiar, lest they might be reduced to a mortifying defeat in entering the lists with one who well understood how to foil an adversary, or who could not easily brook a contradiction.

He held in suitable contempt those artificial decorations with which some young men were wont to adorn themselves, and all those tricks of oratory by which they attempted to gain a momentary and popular applause. Being asked by a friend “how it was that some preachers who seemed to have not much weight of character, and but a slender title to the merits ascribed to them by their fond admirers, gained so much attention,” he replied with an air of contempt not easily forgotten or imitated, “Pugh! If I were to pull off my old boot, and throw it up into the air, and cry, hurrah hurrah! I should soon collect around me a more numerous crowd than any man in the city.”

He had a deep insight into the human character, and hence was not easily imposed upon by the artful and designing. This enabled him to manage difficulties which occurred between brethren in the Church to great advantage, and to bring them to an amicable adjustment. In regard to all such things he was “the wise man who keepeth the matter till afterward,” never uttering his opinions to the disparagement of either party before the subject of dispute had been fully investigated.

It cannot be said that he was a popular preacher, in the common acceptation of that term, though he certainly commanded the respectful attention of the more weighty part of the community. A reason for his want of general popularity may be found rather in the dry and monotonous manner of his preaching than in the want of the depth and solidity of his matter. He often dealt, both in his private conversation and public addresses, in pointed apothegms [a terse saying or maxim] and short enigmas, not easily comprehended by the mass and often perplexing even those who were among the more thoughtful and deeply read.

As an instance of his enigmatical manner of speaking, the following may be mentioned: — At the conference of 1823, when addressing his brethren on the improbability of his being able to serve the Church much longer, he remarked, that the lease of his house had expired, and therefore he could not tell how soon he might be called to remove, as he was not certain that he could procure a renewal of his lease for any particular length of time; hence he could not pledge himself for any special service in the ministry.”

On hearing this, an aged minister, and one by no means deficient in mental sagacity, said to the writer of this, I thought the doctor owned the house in which he lives but it seems he was under a mistake, as he says that the time of his lease is run out.” To this it was replied, “You do not understand him.

He speaks in parables. He is now threescore years and ten, the common age God has allotted to man, and, therefore, cannot calculate on living much longer at most, and even that little time must be considered as an act of God’s grace, over and above what he usually grants to men.” This, indeed, was his meaning from his own subsequent explanation.

These remarks apply to him more appropriately at an advanced stage of his ministry than in his younger days, as it is asserted by those who heard him at that period that he was ardent, vigorous and often very fluent in his addresses to the multitude, deep and searching in his appeals to the conscience. He was certainly successful in those days in enlarging the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He always manifested the deepest reverence whenever the name of the Supreme Being was introduced in conversation. At all times, when he had occasion to mention the name of the Savior of the world, he would do it by a gentle inclination of the head, and if covered, by lifting the hat, and coupling with it the qualifying term, adorable thus, “the adorable” Savior, or, “The adorable” Jesus — thereby acknowledging the divinity of his character, and his profound reverence for his supreme Godhead. Indeed, all his discourses were richly interlarded with the names, the offices, the atoning merits, and the interceding work of Jesus Christ making him, as he justly ought, the alpha and omega of all his sermons, and as the only foundation of man’s hope, and medium of access and reconciliation to God. He thus very properly considered the “adorable” Jesus as “the light of the world,” the divine “Sun” whose effulgence reflected light upon the types and shadows, the sacrifices and prophecies of the Old dispensation, and whose rays penetrated the gloom of moral darkness, and opened up to the sinner the only sure path to immortality and eternal life.

Though this certainly was not a peculiarity of Dr. Phoebus, as every true minister of the gospel must make “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” the beginning and ending of his discourses, and the only medium of reconciliation to God, yet in the doctor it seemed ever to be his peculiar delight and his studied aim to hold up Christ most prominently before his hearers, in all the glories of his character, and in all the endearing relations he held to God and man as theREDEEMER OF THE WORLD.

The position which he occupied sometimes exposed him to the shafts of enemies. His apparent eccentricities provoked the ridicule of some, while his good sense, varied knowledge, and equanimity of temper, enabled him to repel their assaults with good effect, and to bear the sneering scoffs of fools with exemplary patience. And though on some occasions he may have returned the repartee with an air of severity calculated to provoke the feeling of hostility, yet he knew well how to disarm an adversary by the gentler rebukes of love, and the blandishments of fraternal regards. In all these respects the fear and love of God were eminently exemplified, and the dignity of the Christian minister generally maintained.

Dr. Phoebus lived to a good old age. After having served the Church as a minister for about forty-eight years, eight of which as a located preacher, he fell asleep in Jesus, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, in the midst of his friends, and in the full hope of eternal life. He retained his mental faculties to the last, and on his dying bed discoursed in an edifying manner upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and the prospect he had, through him, of everlasting life. Patience in suffering, and submission to the divine will, were remarkably exemplified in the midst of his bodily pains, while he gradually and peacefully sunk into the arms of death. A short time before he died, he quoted the words of St. James, “Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing,” and commented upon them with much apparent pleasure, and with great clearness of apprehension, exhibiting, at the same time, a lively exposition of the meaning of those expressive words in his struggles with his last enemy.

Having thus filled up the measure of his days, “as a ripe shock of corn,” he was gathered into the garner of God, to enjoy the rewards of his labors and sufferings in the world above.

After recording the death of those two aged veterans of the cross of Christ, we may be allowed to add that of a young minister of the sanctuary, who, though less distinguished for his long services in the church militant, was still more eminently characterized by the brilliancy of his talents, and his attainments in literature and science, and equally so in the depth of his piety. I allude to Nathaniel Porter, a member of the Philadelphia conference.

He was a native of Worcester, Mass., and was born in the year 1800. When about nineteen years of age he was made a partaker of justification by faith in Jesus Christ, and became a member of our Church. The Wesleyan Seminary had just been established in the city of New York, and as one object of it was to give an education to pious young men whom we had reason to believe God had called to preach, brother Porter, soon after his conversion, entered as a student in this seminary, where he made rapid advancement in the knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, and in mathematics, giving evidence, in the mean time, of his deep piety, and exercising his gifts occasionally in the pulpit, after having received license as a local preacher. In the spring of 1823 he was received on trial in the New York conference, and he soon gave satisfactory evidence of his call to the work of the ministry, and of his qualification for the faithful and successful discharge of its duties.

But as our brethren of the Genesee conference had resolved upon establishing an academy at Cazenovia, at the urgent request of the trustees of that infant institution, brother Porter was transferred to that conference, and appointed principal of the Cazenovia Academy. He entered upon his duties with great ardor and diligence, and succeeded to the satisfaction of all concerned, rising very high in the estimation of the people as an accomplished teacher, as an able minister of the New Testament, and as a deeply pious man. Such, however, was the character of the duties he had to perform, and the assiduous manner in which he applied himself to his vocation, that at the end of two years he found his health declining, and was obliged, with much reluctance to himself and the friends of the academy, to resign his office, and seek to reinvigorate his constitution by a cessation from labor, and a residence in a milder climate. He accordingly spent some time in the city of Baltimore, where he measurably regained his health, so that in 1828 he was transferred to the New York conference, and was stationed in Poultney, in the state of Vermont. There his labors were highly appreciated and greatly blessed. This cold climate, however, not agreeing with his feeble constitution, he was, in 1829, removed to the Philadelphia conference, and stationed in Morristown, New Jersey. In this place there had been a remarkable revival of religion for the past year, and brother Porter entered upon his labors with all that ardor of soul for which he was eminently distinguished, and with an ability which the times peculiarly called for in the defense of Methodist doctrine and usages. Here he felt himself compelled, by the force of circumstances, to buckle on the armor of a polemic, for the peculiarities of Methodism were assailed with much ingenuity and force of argument by the Presbyterian minister of the place, the Rev. Mr. Barnes, who had espoused the New School divinity, and arrayed himself in this new armor with a view, apparently, to put down the Methodism which had made, and which was still making, such powerful inroads into his parish.

With a view to sustain himself in this spiritual warfare, and to defend the doctrines, discipline, and usages which he believed to be Scripture, brother Porter wrote and published a pamphlet, in which he showed himself to be “a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Through the influence of his labors, this revival, which had commenced under Methodist preaching, the Rev. Mr. Atwood being stationed there at the time, was kept up, and the cause amply defended against its assailants, and he had the happiness of rejoicing over the conversion of souls, and the building up of believers “in their most holy faith.”

The next year he was stationed in Newark, New Jersey, where he closed his labors and life in the peaceful triumph of faith, and the firm hope of an eternal inheritance. His death indeed had long been anticipated by his friend, as he had been gradually wasting away with lingering consumption, whose insidious attacks, though fatal in the estimation of all who saw him, flattered him with the deceptive hope of regaining his health. But when at length he was compelled to resign his hope as delusive, he calmly submitted to the mandate of his rightful Sovereign, and looked forward with a believing eye to the issue of his struggles, as an entrance, through the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, into the everlasting kingdom of God.

Thus lived and thus died, Nathaniel Porter, a young minister of eminent endowments, whose piety and talents gave promising indications, had he lived to a mature age, of future usefulness to the Church of his choice. But, Nipt by the wind’s untimely blast, Parch’d by the sun’s directer ray, The momentary glories waste, The short-lived beauties die away.”

So, indeed, died away the beauties, and faded the glories of our beloved brother ere he had attained that maturity of experience and usefulness in knowledge which might have exhibited him as a “master workman” in the “building of God.” And in his death we are called upon to adore in solemn submission, the inscrutable ways of divine knowledge, in thus taking from his Church one of its most promising sons in his youthful days and in the midst of his usefulness, with high hopes of future eminence. But the wisdom of God shines not less conspicuously in its actings when the hopes of men are disappointed than it does in unfolding plans in conformity to their pious wishes and holy aspirations. Nor does the grace of God appear less powerful and energetic in ripening the early fruits of its creation, than in sustaining others for a series of years amid the toils, the sufferings, and useful pursuits of life.

Brother Porter was certainly a young man of more than ordinary talents and attainments. Though his early education was not thorough, yet his attainments in literature and general knowledge were rapid and constantly improving, and the more meritorious because they were chiefly the fruits of his own industry, after he was brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Feeling it to be his duty to devote himself to the work of the ministry, and trembling under an apprehension that he might enter upon this work without due preparation, he applied himself with all his might to the acquirement of useful knowledge, that he might be able to read, compare, and judge for himself in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And the short time he remained a student in the Wesleyan Seminary, under the tuition of the Rev. John M. Smith, by an assiduous attention to his studies, he laid the foundation for his future usefulness, as a sound scholar, and as an able minister of the New Testament. The manner, also, with which he afterward pursued his studies, in the midst of the active duties of his stations, as principal of the Cazenovia Academy, and then as an itinerant minister, evinced the unquenchable thirst of his soul for the acquisition of knowledge, and the practicability of attaining it even while discharging other indispensable duties.

With a mind thus stored with various sorts of knowledge, and a heart deeply imbued with the Spirit of Christ, brother Porter went forth into the vineyard of his Lord, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Nor was he less distinguished for his meekness and humility than for his learning and science. This was manifest from the deference he had to his seniors in the ministry, from the trembling manner in which he arose to express his opinions and from the diffidence he manifested in the decision of his own mind yet he exemplified the perfect compatibility of uniting, in the same mind and heart, meekness and firmness, diffidence and decision; for no man was more determined in his purpose, or more persevering in his work, when convinced of truth and duty, than was Nathaniel Porter; nothing, indeed, could turn him aside from a straight forward course in the pursuit of good, when convinced of the right way and means to attain it. These commendable virtues shone out in his life, and exhibited him as a worthy by example for the imitation of those who may come after him.

In conducting the controversy which his situation called him to manage, he exhibited at once great clearness of perception, acuteness of intellect, and comprehensiveness of argument, united with an ardent love of the truth, and a firmness of purpose in its defense. But in all his actions, whether in the pulpit, the use of his pen, or in his more private intercourse in society, the love of God and man appeared to be the predominant principle of his heart, and he breathed it out in accents of charity toward his fellow-men. If at any time there appeared a tartness in his expression, it was because he thought the honor of truth was insulted in a manner which fully justified the severity to which he reluctantly yielded. And though he exhibited evidences that he belonged to human beings, of whom it must be often said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” yet he has left behind him no less convincing proofs of his unreserved devotion to the best of all causes, and of his preparedness to “enter into the joy of his Lord.”

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 472,364; Last Year: 437,024; Increase: 35,340 — Colored This Year: 73,817; Last Year: 71,589; Increase: 2,228 — Indians This Year: 2,412; Last Year: 4,501; Decrease: 2,089 — Total This Year: 548,593; Last Year: 513,114 — Increase: 35,479 — Preachers This Year: 2,200; Last Year: 2,010; Increase: 190. The work of God this year was generally very prosperous. The agitations which resulted from the radical controversy had generally ceased, both institutions had been successfully defended against their rude assailants, and hence all went forward with alacrity and delight in the discharge of their respective duties. In addition to the ordinary means used for the promotion of the cause of Christ, the “protracted meetings” contributed much, for they were now very generally adopted throughout our bounds; and the circuits and stations, particularly in the older parts of our work, were brought into more compact order, so that pastoral duties could be more conveniently performed. But that which contributed still more to enlarge our borders, more especially in places before unoccupied by our ministry, and in the frontier settlements, was the energetic action of the Missionary Society.

A new mission was opened this year in the bounds of the Pittsburgh conference, called Braddock’s Field, in consequence of its embracing a tract of country comprehending the place where Braddock suffered such a disastrous defeat from his own headstrong and imprudent valor, and the impetuous onset of his savage foes. A warfare of a different character was now commenced upon the people by the missionary of the cross, and so successfully was it prosecuted, that in 1834 not less than one hundred and fifty were returned as belonging to the Church, and the next year it was numbered with the regular circuits, supporting itself and contributing its quota for the support of others still more destitute.

Within the bounds of the Mississippi conference several new places were occupied as missionary ground, and they were generally cultivated with encouraging success. The La Fourche mission, in the neighborhood of New Orleans, was undertaken chiefly for the benefit of the slave population, though the whites shared in the labors of the missionary. In 1834 there were returned on this circuit sixty-two members, eleven whites, and fiftyone colored.

There was an extensive tract of country, thinly populated, among the bayous and swamps bordering upon the banks of the Mississippi river, for whose spiritual benefit a mission was this year established. Into this unhealthy climate, the missionary, desirous only to save as many souls as possible, entered in the name of the Lord, and succeeded in calling the attention of the people to the things of eternity, and in forming several flourishing classes.

In the bounds of the Alabama conference the Taladega mission was commenced under favorable auspices, there being one hundred and fourteen members returned the first year, and the next two hundred and eighty-six. Noxabe, including a destitute population in the frontiers of Tuscaloosa district, was also brought under spiritual culture this year, with some degree of success.

In the state of Maine the Mattanawcook and Houlton mission, embracing a new and destitute population, was successfully established there being returned not less than seventy souls in Church membership in 1834.

The constant and rapid emigration to the west, as well as to the southwest rendered it indispensable, that the people might be supplied with the ordinances of religion, to enlarge the boundaries of our work in proportion to the increasing extent of our settlements. And the chief points of attraction in the west at this time were the states of Illinois and Michigan.

Hence to supply them with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Peoria, Fort Edwards, Henderson, and Blue river missions were established this year and by an inspection of the Minutes for the subsequent years, it will be found that all these places have yielded a rich harvest of souls as the reward of our labors; that they have not only supported their own institutions, but have contributed to send the gospel still further into the more remote settlements of the far west.

The Upper Wabash, Kalamazoo, and La Porte missions, included within the bounds of the Indiana conference, and embracing the frontier settlements in the state of Indiana, had been, as before mentioned, also recently established, and the labor of those men of God to whom the oversight was committed were accompanied by the Spirit of God, as was manifested in the awakening and conversion of sinners. These, like the others before mentioned, have prospered abundantly, and are ministering to their own and the wants of others, regular circuits having been established, and churches erected to the honor and for the worship of Almighty God.

The encouraging success which had attended the labors of our preachers among the slave and free black population of the south, stimulated our brethren in the southwest to imitate their example by opening missions for the special benefit of this class of people. Hence, at the last session of the Tennessee conference, the African mission, embracing the colored population of Nashville and its vicinity, was commenced; a regular four weeks’ circuit was formed, and the good work was prosecuted with such success, that in 1834 there were reported eight hundred and nineteen Church members.

It should be remarked that these domestic missions, as they have been called, to distinguish them from the aboriginal and foreign missions, differ in nothing from the ordinary new circuits, only in their receiving a support, whether in part or in whole, from the funds of the Missionary Society; for as soon as they become able to support themselves, they are struck from the list of missions, and supplied in the usual way. By this wise policy, we have been enabled continually and gradually to enlarge both our regular work and the number of missionary stations, with comparatively a small amount of money, considering the extent of our field of labor. And that this had a happy effect upon the missionary cause and religion generally, is manifest from the fact that this year the funds of the society had increased about seven thousand dollars over what they were last year, and that they have gone on increasing from that day to this.

This year two other colleges were founded under the patronage of our Church, the one in Carlisle, and the other in Meadville, in the state of Pennsylvania. For want of patronage they had both gone down in the hands of those who had established them at first, and were conveyed gratuitously to our Church, on condition that an attempt should be made to resuscitate them and give them a permanent existence.

The first, located in the town of Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pa., called Dickinson College, was founded by the Presbyterians, and was incorporated by the state in 1783. Its location is pleasant and healthy, and its property, at the time of its transfer to the present board of trustees, including the lot, buildings and apparatus, was estimated to be worth about $40,000. The Baltimore and Philadelphia conferences took it under their patronage, appointed agents to collect funds for its endowment, and called the Rev. J P. Durbin, then editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal, to its presidency. Having procured about $45,000 in donations and subscriptions, the college was opened for students in the summer of under favorable circumstances. It has thus far continued to answer the expectations of its founders and patrons, not only by imparting sound learning to its pupils, but also in blessing its youth with the principles, experience, and practice of Christianity. It has a law and preparatory school attached to it, and is daily acquiring more and more the confidence of the public. It has a charter from the state, and an annuity of $1,000.

The Allegheny College is located in Meadville, Crawford county, a very thriving village on French Creek, three hundred and thirty-four miles northwest of Philadelphia. This institution received its first charter from the state in 1815, but for want of adequate support, it was suffered to languish and die in the hands of its former patrons and supporters. With a view to its resuscitation, the entire premises were given to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Pittsburgh and Erie conferences took it under their patronage. The Rev. Dr. Ruter, who had retired from the presidency of Augusta College in Kentucky, was appointed the first president of this institution, and it went into operation this year under his direction, with promising hopes of success. It has continued, though sometimes embarrassed for want of more ample funds, to bless the youth entrusted to its care with its wholesome instructions, and many of them have dated their conversion to God in this seat of learning and religion. It is said that its library is by far the largest and best of any in the western country, and its buildings were ample and in excellent order. Though Dr. Ruter retired from its presidency in 1836, it has gone on prosperously under his successor, the Rev. H. J. Clark.

Another academy had been established at Lima, Livingston county, N. Y., under the patronage of the Genesee conference, and Dr. Samuel Luckey was appointed the principal, and professor of moral science. It has prospered abundantly from that day to this, and exerted a most salutary influence upon the youth entrusted to its care, and upon the Methodists of the Church generally, in that region of the country.

Sixteen preachers had died in peace during the past year; seventy-two were located, eighty-nine returned supernumerary, one hundred and sixty-eight superarannuated, four expelled, and two had withdrawn.

Much might be said in favor of all those whose deaths are recorded, as men of God, who had devoted themselves to his service, and ended their labors and days in the full assurance of hope. But as there was nothing special to distinguish them from others of a similar grade and character, it is thought not expedient to fill these pages with a mere repetition of what may be said of every good and evangelical minister. Of one, however, I feel it a duty to make honorable mention, because he was a young man possessed of some peculiar excellences and traits of character, worthy of remembering and imitating.

John M. Smith was the son of an old member of the Church in the city of New York, long distinguished as one of the most devoted and active trustees, class leaders, and sabbath school superintendents, as well as an indefatigable laborer at our camp meetings. Those who live in the city of New York, or its vicinity, will readily recognize, in this allusion to the father of John M. Smith, Joseph Smith, recently gone to his rest in heaven, whose active labors for the good of the Church will long be remembered by his surviving brethren with gratitude and fraternal affection.

His son John was born in the town of Brooklyn, N.Y., October 10, 1795, and in his fifteenth year was brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, while a student in Columbia College. Notwithstanding he was surrounded with all the gayeties of the city, and the daily temptations to vain amusements by his connection with thoughtless young men in the college, he maintained the purity of his Christian character through his college course, and graduated with honor to himself, and to the satisfaction of his friends. On leaving college he entered upon the study of physic, intending to devote himself to the practice of the healing art. Being, however, soon impressed that it was his duty to call sinners to repentance, he relinquished that design, and entered upon the duties of a traveling preacher in 1817, and was stationed on Jamaica circuit, on Long Island, as a helper to Dr. William Phoebus, an old and intimate friend of his father.

He continued in the work of an itinerant preacher, in which he gave evidence of deep piety, chastened zeal, and useful talents, until in the month of September, 1820, he was elected by the New York conference principal of the Wesleyan Seminary, in the city of New York, in which he continued until that institution was removed to White Plains, of which he also took the oversight. From this he was transferred, in May, 1832, to the Wesleyan University, as professor of languages. He entered upon the duties of his professorship with great ardor of mind, and promising hopes of distinguished usefulness; but alas! his days were soon cut off, for he died on the 27th day of the following December, aged thirty-seven years, two months, and seventeen days.

Mr. Smith was a diligent and successful student. In addition to the prescribed course of studies in the college, and this was by no means superficial, and the progress be made in the science of medicine, he acquired the knowledge of the Hebrew, French, and Spanish languages, was a proficient in botany, and other useful branches of polite literature.

He appeared, indeed, to possess a peculiar aptitude of mind to acquire the knowledge of languages, both ancient and modern, of the dead and the living, for he studied them thoroughly, and could read and translate them with ease and accuracy.

As a preacher he was sound and systematical, arranging all his discourses with great accuracy and in regular order, this being characteristic of his mind. Habituated from his youth to pursuing all his studies in consecutive order, nothing was done slovenly or negligently, but every thing had its appropriate place, and was made to suit the place it was designed to occupy. When you heard him preach, you could hardly avoid the impression, that his sermons partook of the character of scientific arrangement, and were the result of much thought and previous preparation, and they were delivered in language plain, elegant, and energetic, without any superfluous ornament, or the artificial graces of oratory. In this respect he seems to have taken Wesley for a model, an exemplar worthy the imitation of all who wish simply to do good to their fellow-men, by preaching the gospel of the Son of God. Instead, therefore, of aping the foppery of those who seek to gain a temporary applause by the sparklings of wit, or the mere flights of oratory, he seemed to “study to show himself approved of God,” and to penetrate the heart by the plain truths of the gospel, expressed in language which the learned could not condemn, and which the illiterate common-sense hearer might understand, feel, and appreciate. For style and manner, therefore, brother Smith may be held up as an example for those who aim, as all should, to be useful, instead of affecting to be great.

His mind was enlightened with various sorts of knowledge, and his heart “seasoned with grace;” meek, modest, and diffident, he appeared in the circle of his friends to “take the lowest seat,” at the same time that others considered him as “worthy of double honor.” Here the grace of humility shone out in all his word and actions, and set off the other qualities of his mind to the greatest advantage.

But with all these qualifications, he was not considered a great preacher.

Many who were far inferior to him in learning and science, who understood no other language than their mother tongue, and who went out into the field of itinerancy from the common avocation of life, far outshone him as preachers of the gospel, and much exceeded him in winning souls to Christ.

Though greatly beloved by all who knew him, for the urbanity of his manners, the meekness of his mind, the gentleness of his deportment, and highly esteemed by those who were acquainted with his attainments, with his worth of character as a man of learning and sound judgment, yet there were those, as before said, who could claim none of these literary advantages nor scientific attainments, who rose higher than he in popular favor, and were more eminently distinguished as able ministers of the New Testament.

May not this be accounted for from the diversity of his studies and duties?

While the others we have alluded to were men of one work, and hence gave their individual attention to their high and holy calling, Mr. Smith’s mind was occupied with a great variety of subjects, more especially after he commenced the duties of a teacher, and could not therefore give himself “wholly to these things.” Hence, while some shine out brilliantly on one subject, or rise high above their fellows in the exhibition of some peculiar excellence, we behold the graces clustering around him in the sweetest harmony, balancing one another, and each lending to the other the benefit of its strength and beauty. Instead, therefore, of overwhelming you suddenly with the effulgence of light on a favorite topic, he gently enlightened your mind with the radiations of truth, which fell upon your understanding and heart like the orient beams from the morning sun, and softly insinuated themselves into your affections, drawing them almost imperceptibly toward Jesus Christ, as the source and center of all blessedness. These things gave a polish and a finish to his character, uniting those graces which eminently fitted him to act with becoming dignity and usefulness in the various walks of life in which he was called to move and to exercise his gifts.

He has left, therefore, a sweet odor behind him, which it is hoped will invite others to follow his track, and profit by the brightness of his example.

By one of those providences which it is more easy to acknowledge and adore than it is to comprehend, his father was much reduced in the decline of life in his worldly circumstances, and the son was called to share in the father’s misfortunes. This compelled him to observe that rigid economy which induced some to suspect him of an unjustifiable penuriousness in his temporal matters, not duly considering that economy, in such a case, may become as much a duty as it is to be liberal in our gifts under more favorable circumstances. This affliction, however, he bore with Christian fortitude and submission and while it became a means of lessening his pecuniary resources, it no doubt tended to wean his affections from terrestrial, and to fix them more permanently on celestial objects.

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 519,196; Last Year: 472,364; Increase: 46,832 — Colored This Year: 78,293; Last Year: 73,817; Increase: 4,476 — Indians This Year: 2,247; Last Year: 2,412; Decrease: 165 — Total This Year: 599,736; Last Year: 548,593 — Increase: 51,143 — Preachers This Year: 2,400; Last Year: 2,200; Increase: 200. f5 The reader will perceive that, while the aggregate increase this year is unusually large, the revivals having been very general and powerful during the past year, there was a decrease of one hundred and sixty five among the aboriginal converts. This was owing chiefly to the continual agitations and troubles arising out of their removal west of the Mississippi. For, though our missionaries did all in their power to keep them together, and to preserve them from backsliding from God, and even went with the immigrating parties to their new abodes, yet the distractions introduced into their councils, together with the embarrassments and such things attendant upon their removal, created a most deleterious influence upon their religious character and enjoyments. We have heretofore noticed the improvements that were gradually making in building churches and parsonages in many parts of our work. The enlargement of our borders on every hand, and the increase of membership in the other circuits and stations, generally created an ability in our brethren and friends to supply the means to furnish accommodations for the people and their preachers and the necessity for these things, together with the urgent calls from the pulpit and the press, particularly in the columns of the Christian Advocate and Journal, excited them to activity in the discharge of these duties. Hence churches more commodious and central than heretofore were erected and erecting, parsonage homes built or rebuilt, and partially furnished; by which means the difficulties and expenses of removing were very much lessened, and the congregations became more numerous and permanent. It will be seen, therefore, that our increase this year and last was unusually large, and the missionary work went on most delightfully and prosperously, the whole being aided by protracted meetings, missionary anniversaries, and prayer meetings. These things, by diminishing the inducement to desist from traveling, lessened the number of locations.

We have already noticed the commencement of the Liberian mission, its incipient prospects, and its disastrous results upon the life of the missionary, the Rev. Melville B. Cox. but, though he had thus fallen a martyr to his work upon that distant and desolate shore, others were found to fill his place. At the call of brother Cox, and of the Missionary Society the Rev. Mssrs. Rufus Spaulding and Samuel O. Wright, with their wives, and Miss Sophronia Farrington, a female teacher, volunteered their services for this hazardous enterprise, and were accordingly appointed by the proper authorities of the society in 1833. While waiting for an opportunity to embark, the missionaries traveled as extensively as possible through different parts of the country, held missionary meetings, and thus contributed much to awaken and to diffuse the missionary spirit among the people. At length they set sail from Norfolk, Va., on the sixth day of November, 1833, and landed in Monrovia on the first day of January, 1834. They were received by the brethren with great cordiality, who hailed them welcome to their shores, bidding them “God speed” with all their hearts. They immediately entered upon their work with energy, and a most inviting prospect of success, the fields before them appearing already “ripe for the harvest.” But alas! they, too, were destined soon to feel the corroding effects of an African climate; for amidst the plans of usefulness which they had in contemplation, and the active discharge of the arduous duties of their station, on the 9th of February brother Spaulding was seized violently with the fever, and the rest of the mission family were soon prostrated with the same disease, to some of whom it proved most fatal.

On the first day of March, when so far recovered from his first attack as to be able to write, he says, “Sister Wright is dead! She left us on the morning of the fourth ultimo, and we have no doubt but that she is in heaven, while we are left to suffer yet longer on earth.”

Brother Wright soon followed his beloved wife to the eternal world. He survived the first attack, and was so far restored as to be able to walk about, read, and write, and probably through premature exertion brought on a relapse, which soon terminated fatally, and his mortal remains sleep beside those of his wife on the shore of Africa; the bones of Cox having first sanctified the soil.

Nothing daunted, however, by these disasters with death thickening around them, and staring them in the face, the survivors persevered in their work believing that Africa would yet be redeemed. Miss Farrington especially, though much enfeebled by disease, manifested all the heroism of a martyr: having laid her soul upon the altar of her God, she seemed determined to brave every danger rather than relinquish the work in which she had engaged. But who can resist the course of events? Such were the corroding effects of the malarian fever, and so frequent and violent were its attacks, that brother Spaulding and his wife found themselves so much reduced, as to be unable to pursue their calling; and having but little prospect of regaining their health in Liberia, they resolved, as the only alternative left to their choice, to return to the United States. This they accordingly did, leaving, however, behind them evidences of their piety and zeal, and much to be hoped for as the result of future laborers. Under another date we shall endeavor to give a consecutive account of the progress of this mission, from the time it was committed to the oversight of brother Seys, the present superintendent of the mission.

Another very important mission was commenced about this time. This was the Flat Head, or Oregon mission.

That our readers may understand the character of this mission, it is necessary that they should know something of the situation and state of the country in which it was established.

The vast territory now known as the Oregon, in which the present mission is located, was but little known before it was visited by Lewis and Clarke in the year 1805, under a commission from the United States government.

With immense labor and no little privation, they penetrated the wilderness west of the Missouri river, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and descended the Columbia river to its mouth, or where it discharges itself into the Pacific ocean, in about the forty-sixth degree of north latitude. It is true that the mouth of this noble river had been entered by Captain Gray, of Boston, Mass., in the ship Columbus. Having been the first modern navigator who entered the river, hitherto distinguished as the Oregon, or River of the West, Capt. Gray called it the Columbia, after the name of the ship in which he entered its mouth.

This extensive territory lies west of the Rocky mountains a high ridge stretching through the western part of North America, from the frozen ocean to Mexico, where it is connected with the Cordilleras, or Andes, which continue their course from the isthmus of Panama to the straits of Magellan. From its eastern boundaries on the Rocky mountains, the Oregon territory extends to the Pacific ocean west, and from the Russian and British dominions on the north to the northern line of Mexico and California, in about the forty-first degree of north latitude. This entire country is claimed by the United States, though its exact limits have not yet been ascertained and settled by the respective governments who claim jurisdiction over these western regions.

The Hudson Bay Company, incorporated in 1670 for the purpose of carrying on the fur trade at Hudson’s Bay, had extended their trading posts to the Columbia river, and had established a depot at Fort Vancouver, which is about one hundred miles from the mouth of the Columbia, a very fertile region of country. Here the governor of the company resides, the public store is located, and it is the center of trade in all that region of country. A large farm, belonging to the company, is under cultivation, and they have plenty of horses and cattle for domestic uses, and every thing is in a nourishing condition. This company is supposed to be extremely rich, having accumulated their property by the immense profits accruing from the fur trade which is carried on extensively with the Indians.

The company, however, instead of improving the moral condition of the natives, have exerted an opposite influence, unless it may be indirectly, by opening the way for the introduction of the gospel, and the arts of civilized life. Many of the agents and clerks connected with this establishment have been in the habit of marrying, some of them but temporarily, with the native females, and at the termination of their service of leaving them and their children to all the miseries of a semi-barbarous state, and to the poverty and wretchedness consequent upon their want of industry, and their great aversion to agricultural pursuits. Hence, the vices of licentiousness, of intemperance, and domestic feuds and quarrels, superadded to their heathenish practices, had made their condition even worse than it was in their state of entire barbarism; while most of the halfbreeds grow up in a state of heathen ignorance, irreligion, and immorality.

In 1811 John Jacob Astor, Esq., of the city of New York, commenced a trading establishment near the mouth of the Columbia river, and the fort which was erected was called, in honor of its founder, Astoria. But the war between Great Britain and the United States commencing soon after, through the timidity or unfaithfulness of the agents employed by Mr. Astor, the entire establishment was sold for a trifling consideration to the Hudson Bay Company, and the project of the North American Fur Company was abandoned.

With the exception of a few white men introduced into the country by these trading establishments, the whole territory was in the occupancy of the native tribes, who roamed at large, living upon the fruits of hunting and fishing, and the trade they carried on with the Hudson Bay Company, and some few American traders, who casually visited these regions either for the sake of gain, or from a roving disposition. These consisted of a great number of small, insulated tribes, who, in addition to their sufferings from poverty and idleness, were almost perpetually annoying each other by war and bloodshedding. The whole number of the Indians inhabiting this dreary region has been variously estimated, from sixty to one hundred and fifty thousand; probably the latter is nearest the truth.

Those who live on the shore of the Pacific, and along the banks of the Columbia river know the great Falls, have become very much deteriorated in their physical and moral condition by their proximity to and intercourse with the trading establishment and other white people who have occasionally visited the country, more especially by the introduction of intoxicating liquors, and those evils growing out of a promiscuous intercourse of the sexes. These sad fruits of that state of civilization which is unaccompanied with the blessings of pure religion, fix a fearful responsibility upon the white population who have made inroads upon the Indian settlements, and they present one of the strongest barriers against the entrance of the gospel by the missionaries of Jesus Christ. We shall see, however, in the progress of this, as well as in the other aboriginal missions which have been conducted under the auspices of our Society, that this and other impediments have been overcome by the power of gospel truth, and even these heathen, debased and corrupted as they were, have been given to Christ for an inheritance. This seems, indeed to have been “the set time” for God to visit these outcasts of men with the renovating power his religion, by those means which, while they confound the wisdom of the wise, plainly show the wisdom of God, and the power of God.

And although the consequences above mentioned followed the introduction of the trading establishments in Oregon, and the intermixture of white men among the natives, yet may we not trace the workings of benignant Providence in opening the way, that the voice of God’s messengers might be heard in this wilderness, “crying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, that he Himself may enter among them and make them a people for his glory! The perilous journey of McKenzie, from Montreal, and the subsequent one of Lewis and Clarke, though undertaken under the patronage of their respective governments for political purposes, for enlarging the boundaries of geographical knowledge, and the benefits of trade, were no doubt rendered subservient to God’s designs of mercy toward these wandering sons of the forest. Even the “ax and the saw,” in the hands of men, may be so used as to answer the ends of divine wisdom and love toward the human race.

The truth of these remarks we may see exemplified in the events connected with the Oregon mission. These we shall now more particularly endeavor to present to the reader. Among the various tribes inhabiting this territory, one was distinguished by the name of “Flat Heads,” because they flattened their heads in the manner presented in the following likeness.

The circumstances which led to the establishment of the Oregon, first called the Flat Head, mission, were as follows: It seems that two of the Indians belonging to the Flat Head tribe had received an education at a school in the city of Montreal, then elder the charge of Roman Catholic priests. After the return of these youths to their tribe, they endeavored, according to the dim light they had, to instruct their heathen brethren in the truths of Christianity. This imperfect instruction, mixed, as it was, with the superstitious notions of the Roman Catholic Church, awakened a spirit of inquiry among the Indians, and a great desire to know something more respecting the God of the Christians. This desire was afterward much increased by the conversation of a white man who had penetrated into their country, and was present at one of those religious ceremonies which they scrupulously perform at stated times and in which they exhibit no little of their heathenish folly and ignorance of spiritual and divine things. This man, after attentively observing their manner of worship, told them that they were wrong in their notions of the Supreme Being and of their modes of conducting religious services, — that there were a people who lived toward the “rising sun” who had the knowledge of the true God, which they received from a book he had given them.

On receiving this information, they convened a council to deliberate upon the propriety of sending a deputation to the people of whom they had heard, for the purpose of obtaining a more accurate knowledge of these things. This consultation resulted in dispatching four of their principal men on a journey over the Rocky mountains, to make the needful inquiries.

After traveling about three thousand miles, they arrived at St. Louis, and were introduced to General Clarke, the Indian agent, and the colleague of Lewis in his tour of observation over the Rocky mountains to the north Pacific. They immediately unfolded to him the object of their mission, and he gave them such information as he was able respecting the birth, works, character, doctrine, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, together with the objects he designed to accomplish by coming into the world, and other such Scriptural information as he thought might answer their inquiries.

The general facts being communicated to the world through the Christian Advocate and Journal, in the number for March 1, 1833, accompanied with a facsimile of the head of a Flat Head Indian, a most lively sensation was produced in the Christian community, and a great interest excited in behalf of these wanderers of the desert, who had manifested such an eager desire to become acquainted with the God of the Christians as to travel through a wilderness of about three thousand miles for the sole purpose of realizing the object of their desire. And the interest became yet more intense when it was ascertained that two of these noble chiefs had fallen victims to death in St. Louis, in consequence, it was supposed, of the change of climate and mode of living to which they were subjected while they were upon the very threshold of obtaining the object of their pursuit.

Soon after the announcement of these facts to the public, the excitement was raised still higher by a most touching appeal, made through the columns of the Advocate, by the late Dr. Fisk, whose soul ever burned intensely in the cause of missions, and who exerted himself in every possible way to help it forward. In this spirited appeal he inquired whether there were any young ministers who were willing to devote themselves to this work — to brave the dangers of the wilderness — to submit to the privations and sacrifices of a missionary among those Indians, and at the same time to reap the rewards of such an undertaking! This call was soon answered by two young men, brought up in Lower Canada, one of whom had been partially educated at the Wilbraham Academy, and they had both recently entered the traveling ministry. Having been inured to hardships from their youth, and now giving evidence of their piety and call to the Christian ministry, their services were accepted by the proper authorities of the Church, and Jason and Daniel Lee, uncle and nephew, were appointed missionaries for the Oregon territory, and they immediately set about preparing themselves for their journey across the Rocky mountains. As it was desirous to have a school teacher accompany them on the mission, Cyrus Shepard, a young man of deep piety and competent talents, volunteered his services, and was accepted by the board of managers.

On the eve of the departure of Mr. Lee and his companions, it was ascertained that Captain Wythe, who had before visited that country on a trading expedition was about to return with a large company by the way of St. Louis, over land to the Columbia river. This seemed another providential indication in favor of the mission, and Mr. Lee, in conformity to the advice of the board of languages, embraced the earliest opportunity for an interview with Captain Wythe and it resulted in an arrangement to accompany him in his journey over the Rocky mountains; in the mean time sending his heavy baggage, consisting of some farming and domestic utensils, clothing, etc.., by way of the Sandwich islands.

The projection of this important mission had a most happy effect upon the missionary cause generally. As the entire funds of the society, up to this time, had not exceeded eighteen thousand dollars a year and as this mission must necessarily cost considerable, with a view to augment the pecuniary resources of the society, a loud and urgent call was made, through the columns of the Christian Advocate and Journal, on the friends of missions to “come up to the help of the Lord” in this emergency; and to assist in this benevolent work, the Messrs. Lees were instructed, while remaining in the civilized world, to travel as extensively as possible, hold missionary meetings, and take up collections; and the “Flat Head” mission, as it was then called, seemed to possess a charm, around which clustered the warm affections of all the friends of the missionary enterprise, and special donations for the “Flat Heads” were sent to the treasury with most cheering and delightful liberality and avidity. As an evidence of the beneficial result of these movements, the amount of available funds had risen, in 1834, from $17,097.05, the sum raised in 1833, to $35,700.15. So true is it that those who aim at great things, if they do not fully realize their hopes, will yet accomplish much.

Being thus cheered on by their friends, buoyed up by the prayers of God people, and animated by the prospect of speedily planting the standard of the cross for the first time in that distant and desolate part of our continent, the company left St. Louis, Missouri, on the 10th of April, on horse back intending to make their first stopping place for recruiting their stores, and taking their final leave of civilized society at Liberty, about three hundred miles from St. Louis. Here they were joined by Capt. Wythe and his company, whence they started for the wilderness about the first of May, 1834. In their company were two Indian youths, one of the Flat Head tribe, about thirteen years of age, and the other of the Pierced Nose Indians, about twenty-one years of age, both of whom were brought, at their request, from beyond the Rocky mountains, by Captain Wythe, in a former journey through their country. They had expressed a wish to be conducted to the abodes of white people, with a view to become instructed in their language and modes of living. While here they had made considerable progress in learning, and were now taken back by Captain Wythe to assist him as interpreters in his intercourse with the Indians.

The distance from St. Louis, by the most direct route, was estimated to be about two thousand three hundred miles; but in consequence of the zig-zag course they were obliged to make, to shun steep mountains, and to cross livers, etc.., it was not much short of three thousand miles, which, by traveling at the rate of twenty miles a day, would require one hundred and fifty days to reach the place of their destination.

In this tedious journey, after exhausting the stock of provisions they were enabled to carry with them on packhorses, they were obliged to live chiefly on buffalo meat, which they procured by hunting the buffalo on the extensive prairies east of the Rocky mountains, in which fatiguing work the missionaries had to share equally with the rest of the company. They, however finally arrived in safety, and without any serious accident, though not without much suffering from hunger, and other incidents of traversing a wilderness infested with ferocious savages, beasts of prey, and in many places, particularly on the treeless plains, from the scorching beams of a summer sun, to the place of their destination. On arriving at the country of the Flat heads, about which so much had been said and written, they found them to be few in number, and these few of such a migratory character that they concluded it best to select some other place as the center of missionary operations. They therefore proceeded on to Fort Vancouver, the principal depot of the Hudson Bay Company, where they arrived in the month of September 1834. They were received and treated with great kindness and hospitality by Dr. McLaughlin, the company’s agent, and governor of the colony. On sabbath, the 28th of September, brother Jason Lee preached the first sermon ever delivered in that part of the country, to a very attentive audience, composed of whites, half-breeds, and Indians, who listened with much apparent interest to the truths of the gospel.

With a view to recruit their exhausted strength after such a toilsome journey, and to collect all the information they could respecting the state of the country, and particularly the most eligible situation for commencing the mission, they remained at Fort Vancouver and its vicinity for several weeks, and on the 14th of December brother Lee preached a second time, after which he baptized four adults and fifteen children. This was a solemn and deeply interesting season, being the first time this holy ordinance was ever administered in the Oregon territory, and therefore seemed like the opening of their commission as Christian missionaries in heathen lands.

It was a high gratification to Mr. Lee and his worthy companions, to find themselves so hospitably entertained and respectfully treated by Dr.

McLaughlin and his associates. And after collecting all the information they could from them and others respecting the state of the country, and particularly the aboriginal tribes by whom it was inhabited, they finally concluded it to be most advisable to locate the missionary establishment on the Williamette river, about twenty-five miles from its junction with the Columbia, and sixty from where the latter empties its waters into the Pacific ocean. Here they found a small settlement of white people, composed of French voyagers, who had been in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, and some Americans from the United States, who had wandered into that distant region. Many of them had married native females, and their children were growing up in heathenish ignorance and immorality, while the parents themselves were fast assimilating to a state of barbarism.

Being entirely dependent upon their own exertion for accommodations and a livelihood, the missionaries were compelled to go to work with their own hands, and fell the trees of the forest, and prepare the ground for cultivation, and they soon succeeded in erecting a log house thirty-two by eighteen feet, one story and a half in height. They then proceeded to the cultivation of a farm, plowing, and sowing grain and such vegetables as they could procure for culinary purposes. On examination they found that they and selected a healthy place, and fertile soil, which promised abundantly to reward the labor of their hands. Having procured these temporary accommodations, they commenced a course of religious instructions among the people and as soon as practicable opened a school for the instruction of the youth, and all things seemed to promise a happy result.

At the request of the head of department at Fort Vancouver, brother Shepard was left there in charge of a school which had been commenced two years before by a Mr. Ball, whose letters concerning the state of the country had been published and read with interest, but who had discontinued his services as a teacher of youth. The school consisted chiefly of half-breeds, collected from the vicinity of the fort, and the children of those belonging to the company. These, together with two Japanese youth to whom he imparted instruction in the evenings, soon made encouraging improvement in reading, writing, grammar and a few in geography and the first principles of mathematics. The labors of brother Shepard, therefore, were of the most useful character, and were highly appreciated by those concerned.

The information contained in this sketch of the state of things in Oregon having been communicated to the Missionary Society, and the prospects arising from these incipient steps toward establishing the mission, and the crying wants of the many heathen in that wild region, induced the board of managers, and the bishops, to adopt measures to send, as speedily as possible, a reinforcement to the mission. Accordingly a physician and blacksmith, with their wives and children, a carpenter, a single man, and three female teachers, in all thirteen, including the children and domestics, were selected for the mission, and they sailed from Boston in the month of August, 1836, by the way of the Sandwich islands. With these was sent a quantity of household furniture, about twenty boxes of clothing of various sorts and sizes, valued at not less than two thousand dollars, and also agricultural, mechanical, and surgical instruments, as well as an ample supply of medicine.

This family arrived in June at the Sandwich islands, where they were treated with great kindness and hospitality by the missionaries of the American Board, and after waiting some time for a passage, they set sail, and finally arrived at the mission house on the Williamette about the last of May, 1837, where they were hailed with great delight by those already on the spot. They had the unspeakable satisfaction of finding the two Lees in health, and pursuing their work with unexampled diligence, and great success. They had succeeded in procuring the confidence and affection of the natives, and the other settlers in the neighborhood; had a large farm under cultivation, and in addition to the log house before mentioned, erected a convenient home for preaching and for teaching the school, consisting of three rooms, well arranged, though but indifferently furnished. To the superintendence of this school, Mr. Shepard had been removed from Fort Vancouver, that he might more properly fulfill the object of his appointment as a missionary teacher among the heathen of Oregon. And before the arrival of the last-mentioned family, having no females attached to the mission, the brethren were compelled not only to raise their own provisions by cultivating the ground, but also to work for themselves, to make and mend their own clothes, and for the children committed to their care, as well as to be their own doctors and nurses.

From a part of these onerous duties they were glad to be relieved by the arrival and timely services of the females attached to the last family, to one of whom, Miss Maria Ann Pittman, of the city of New York, a young lady of eminent piety and respectable attainments, Mr. Jason Lee was married soon after her arrival and she soon became no less useful to the mission generally than she was every way agreeable and happy in her conjugal relation, though she lived but a short time to adorn her profession, and to comfort her husband in his labors and sacrifices.

Being convinced, from the representations made to the board by brother Lee, that more help was needed to carry on the mission with energy and success, measures were adopted to send two additional missionaries, and accordingly, on the 24th of January, 1837, the Rev. David Leslie, wife and three children, and the Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, accompanied by a pious young lady as a teacher, sailed from Boston, in the brig Peru, for the Sandwich islands, whence they found a passage in a short time to the mouth of the Columbia, where they arrived in safety after a voyage of about ten months. They immediately entered upon their work, and soon found the blessing of God upon their efforts.

Before their arrival, however, brother Lee, with a view to furnish the farm with stock, had sent, in conjunction with others who had united in the enterprise, to California, and purchased about six hundred head of domestic cattle, oxen and cows, about five hundred of which they had driven through a wilderness of nearly six hundred miles, the rest having perished or strayed away on the journey. This, though attended with great labor and hardships, enabled them to stock the farm with milk cows for the use of the missionary family, and with oxen for plowing, carting, etc., and to provide for replenishing themselves with all necessary food hereafter, as well as to keep up such an ample stock of cattle as their means of sustaining them and their accumulating wants might warrant and require.

But a more important achievement than even this had been effected. A project was formed by some individuals who had recently become domiciled in the settlement, to set up a distillery. Knowing that if this succeeded, all their efforts for the moral renovation and religious instruction of the people would be unavailing, Mr. Lee set himself to work to prevent the project from being carried into execution. He called the people together, and gave them an address on the evil effects of intemperance, and proposed the formation of a temperance society, under a pledge of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors as a beverage, which the people almost unanimously signed and as the gentlemen concerned had already expended some money in preparing for their contemplated establishment, the same people who had joined the temperance society subscribed more than a sufficient amount to remunerate him for their pecuniary loss, at the same time presenting an earnest, but respectful remonstrance against their project, urging the mischief it must, if carried into operation, bring upon the infant settlement. This had the desired effect.

The distillery was abandoned; and, greatly to their honor its projectors politely declined the proffered remuneration, and heartily united with the others in the cause of temperance.

By this means a foundation was laid for the future well-being and prosperity of this little colony, and very soon God bore testimony to the zealous efforts of his servants, by pouring out his Spirit upon the people.

The work commenced among the children in the school, and extended to the adults in the settlement, including some of the different nations, French, English, Americans, half-breeds, and Indians, who were grouped together in the village, molding their hearts into the image of Christ, and filling them with love to God and one another. Upward of forty were the subjects of this glorious work. This was most cheering to the missionaries, and as an evidence of their gratitude to God, they formed themselves into a missionary society and three hundred and forty-eight dollars were subscribed toward the support of the cause. This was a glorious beginning, being the “first-fruits” of a more plenteous harvest which they hoped yet to reap from among the heathen of that land of darkness and desolation.

Several other new places were occupied this year, chiefly west of the Allegheny mountains, under the auspices of the Missionary Society.

Smethport and Sinnamahoning, in the bounds of the Pittsburgh conference, were successfully cultivated; and King’s River, in the Missouri conference.

In the northwestern section of the Indiana conference, the Tippecanoe and Eel River, the Mississinewa and Maumee missions were commenced among the scattered settlements in that new and thriving country. Point Rock, in the bounds of the Tennessee conference, and Yalo Bush and Tallahatche missions, in the Mississippi conference, were commenced this year, and prosecuted with success. Several additional missions were also begun for the special benefit of the slaves in the neighborhood of New Orleans, and on the cotton plantations in the bounds of the Georgia and South Carolina conferences, which have proved highly beneficial to that class of our population.

As the lands formerly occupied by the Cherokee Indians were filling up rapidly by white people, that they might not be allowed to grow into a community destitute of the gospel, four missions were established in this territory, and they returned the next year four hundred and seven members of the Church. Mattawoman mission, in the Baltimore conference, embraced a population not hitherto supplied in the regular way, and one hundred and fifty-four members were returned in 1835, one hundred and nine of whom were colored.

The Philadelphia Conference Missionary Society, in addition to assisting largely in support of the aboriginal missions by the appropriation of its funds, exerted itself efficiently to supply destitute places within its own bounds, and Southwark, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, was added to those heretofore undertaken and supported by this society, and one hundred and fifty-eight members were returned the next year as the fruit of the labor bestowed upon it by the missionary.

The successful manner in which these new fields of labor were cultivated, together with the prosperous state of the work generally, tended to enlarge the sphere of our usefulness, as well as to increase the number of preachers and members. It was evident, also, that the ministry was improving in learning and general knowledge, and consequently in usefulness and respectability, while the continuance of the revivals was sure indication that they were not retrograding in piety and zeal.

Another college was founded this year in Lebanon, Illinois, under the patronage of the Illinois conference. It has gone on prosperously from that day to this, being under the presidency of a graduate of the Wesleyan University, a son of one of the old preachers of the New England conference, the Rev. Joseph A. Merrill. This institution is exerting an improving and hallowing influence on the present generation of that new and growing country, by calling into action their intellectual resources, and it promises stability and usefulness under the superintendence and patronage of its zealous friends and supporters.

The academies already established, now amounting to about twenty, were in successful operation, and becoming prolific feeders to the higher seminaries of learning. These all, no doubt, were exerting a most salutary influence upon our community, and tended to create among our people generally a more just appreciation of sanctified learning, and useful, scientific improvement.

A controversy had arisen in the course of this year respecting the collections which had been ordered by the General Conference, and were therefore recognized by the Discipline of the Church, which were made for specific purposes: such as for the support of the ministry, for missionary objects, etc. It seems, that some boards of trustees claimed the right, by virtue of their corporate powers, to take possession of all the moneys which might be collected in the churches, whether in the classes or otherwise, whether for specific objects or in the ordinary way, and appropriate them as they pleased. It was at once seen, that if this claim were yielded to the trustees, our discipline,