ued to be of that number. The proposed relation to the London circuit was not, however, realized. The annual Conference became more appropriately the centre of unity to the societies.

A variety of minute regulations originated at this session. Quarterly meetings, which had been held in some places, were ordered to be everywhere observed. Watch-nights and love-feasts were to be held monthly. Every circuit was to be supplied with books by the Assistant, and every society was to provide “a private room," and also books, for the Helper. A return was to be made quarterly of money for books from each society, and thus began that organized system of book and tract distribution which has secured to Methodism a more extensive use of the religious press than can be found in any other Protestant denomination. Wesley had already issued many publications, from the one-page tract to the stout volume. He forthwith began his "Christian Library," in fifty volumes, and all his preachers were soon active "colporteurs." Tracts especially did he publish, and scatter both by his own hands and by his preachers. "A Word to a Smuggler;" "A Word to a Swearer;" "A Word to a Street-Walker ;" "A Word to a Drunkard;" "A Word to a Malefactor;" "A Word to a Sabbath-Breaker;" such were the titles of small publications which he disseminated over the kingdom. "He thus," says his best biographer, "by his example, was probably the first to apply, on any large scale, this important means of usefulness to the reformation of the people."19

A

On the 8th of March, 1750, was held the seventh Confer ence. Only four months had passed since the preceding session; its proceedings seem not to have been important. Not a 'trace of its Minutes is preserved; nor have we the Minutes of any subsequent sessions, save two, before the year 1765, when their regular publication commenced.

A little more than ten years had passed since the recog nized epoch of Methodism. The results thus far were cer 19 Watson's Life of Wesley, chap. 8.

tainly remarkable. A scarcely paralleled religious interest had been spread and sustained throughout the United Kingdom and along the Atlantic coast of America. The Churches of both countries had been extensively reawakened. The great fact of a Lay Ministry had been accomplished-great not only in its direct results, but perhaps more so by its reacting shock, in various respects, against the ecclesiasticism which for fifteen hundred years had fettered Christianity with bands of iron. It had presented before the world the greatest pulpit orator of the age, if not of any age; also one of the greatest religious legislators of history; a hymnist whose supremacy has been but doubtfully disputed by a single rival;20 and the most signal example of female agency in religious affairs which Christian history records. The lowest abysses of the English population among colliers and miners had been reached by the Gospel. Calvinistic Methodism was restoring the decayed nonconformity of England. Wesleyan Methodism, though adhering to the Establishment, had taken an organic and permanent form; it had its Annual Conferences, Quarterly Conferences, Class Meetings, and Band Meetings; its Watch-nights and Love-feasts; its Traveling Preachers, Local Preachers, Exhorters, Leaders, Trustees, and Stewards. It had districted England, Wales, and

20 The Presbyterian Quarterly for March, 1858, says: "We regard it as a great loss to the Presbyterian Churches of our country that so few, comparatively, of Charles Wesley's hymns should have been admitted into their collections. It may not be generally known that, not even excepting Dr. Watts, he is the most voluminous of all our lyrical authors, and it were only justice to add, that he is the most equal. . . . We have never read or sung a finer specimen than his well-known paraphrase of the 24th Psalm: Our Lord is risen from the dead, etc. There is another objective hymn by Charles Wesley which is among the finest in the language. We wonder that it has not found its way into American hymn books: Stand the omnipotent decree, etc. Well has this hymn. been spoken of as being in a strain more than human. There is the noble hymn by Charles Wesley, Jacob wrestling with the Angel, concerning which Dr. Watts did not scruple to say that it was worth all the verses he himself had written. James Montgomery declares it to be among the poet's highest achievements. Never have we read a finer combination of poetic taste and evangelical sentiment."

Ireland into Circuits for systematic ministerial labors, and now commanded a ministerial force of about seventy men.21 It had fought its way through incredible persecutions and riots, and had won at last a general, though not universal peace. Its Chapels and Preachers' Houses, or parsonages, were multiplying over the country. It had a rich Psalmody, which has since spread wherever the English tongue is used 1; and a well-defined Theology, which was without dogmatism, and distinguished by two notable facts, that could not fail to secure popular interest, namely, that it transcended the prevalent creeds in both spirituality and liberality—in its experimental doctrines of Conversion, Sanctification, and the Witness of the Spirit, and in the evangelical liberalism of its Arminianism. It had begun its present scheme of Popular Religious Literature, had provided the first of that series of Academic institutions which has since extended with its progress, and was contemplating a plan of Ministerial Education, which has been effectively accomplished. Already the despondent declarations of Watts, Secker, and Butler,22 respecting the prospects of religion, might be pronounced no longer relevant. Yet Watts had been dead but two years, and Secker and Butler still survived. 23

21 There are no data for an estimate of the membership of its societies. 22 See pages 28, 29.

23 Watts had lingered in his hospitable retirement at Abney Park, whence he beheld with grateful surprise the religious revolution which was spreading through the country. He received there occasional visits from Charles Wesley, Lady Huntingdon, and other leading Methodists. Doddridge still survived, welcoming Whitefield and the Wesleys at Northampton and corresponding with them. He revised Whitefield's journals. and, in his occasional visits to London, found religious consolation an ong the Methodists at Lady Huntingdon's mansion.

BOOK IV.

PROGRESS OF METHODISM FROM 1750 TO THE DEATH OF WHITEFIELD IN 1770.

CHAPTER I.

METHODISM IN IRELAND: 1750–1760.

Wesley again in Ireland-John Jane-Progress of Methodism - Remarkable German Colony-It gives Birth to American MethodismMethodism in the Army in Ireland-Duncan Wright, a Soldier, becomes a Preacher-Sketch of his Life — A Military Execution induces him to preach-He joins the Itinerancy-A converted Surgeon Thomas Walsh-His Sickness - His saintly Character-His Dissent from Fletcher on the Death of Good Men - His own Mental Trouble in Death.

IMMEDIATELY after the Conference of 1750 Wesley again started for Ireland, passing through Wales, and preaching with much success on his route. He was accompanied by Christopher Hopper, a man of note among the early Methodist itinerants. He summoned John Jane, a self-sacrificing evangelist, to meet him and Hopper at Holyhead before they embarked. Jane gave an example of the usual heroic obedience of the lay preachers to their great leader's commands; he made the journey on foot with but three shillings for his expenses. The devoted man could not fail, however, to secure the interest of humble families on the route; he was entertained six nights out of seven by utter strangers, and arrived at Holyhead with one penny in

his pocket. In a few months he sunk under excessive labors. The poverty of the Methodist itinerants seldom allowed them to use horses in those times, and John Jane usually traveled on foot; a long walk to a preaching place on a hot day produced a fever, under which he died with more than resignation-" with a smile on his face," said one of his fellow-laborers, leaving as his last utterance the words, "I find the love of God in Christ Jesus." Wesley concludes a notice of his death in his Journal with these remarkable words: "All his clothes, linen and woolen, stockings, hat, and wig are not thought sufficient to answer his funeral expenses, which amount to £1 17s. 3d. All the money he had 'was 1s. 4d., enough for any unmarried preacher of the Gospel to leave to his executors."1 St. Francis himself, adds Robert Southey, might have been satisfied with such a disciple.

Wesley spent nearly four months in Ireland during this visit, traveling and preaching in every direction. At Dublin he found the societies in a more prosperous state than ever: In Cork the riots had not yet entirely subsided; their contagion had also spread to other towns; and he was frequently assailed while preaching in the open air in that part of the island. In Limerick the foundations of Methodism had been securely laid; sixty Highlanders of the army had joined the classes, "and by their zeal, according to knowledge, had stirred up many." At Newmarket, the former residence of Thomas Walsh, he met a prosperous society, and was so deeply affected among them as to be compelled by his emotions to stop short several times in his address. At Athlone, he says, it was such a night as he had seldom known; the stout-hearted were broken down on every side. In Longford a storm of rain could not drive the people from the out-door services; the word cut like a two-edged sword; several persons fell as if smitten with death, and some were carried away insensible. Others, he writes, would have gone away but could not, for the hand of

1 Wesley's Journal, Anno 1750,