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the regular work; eighty-eight local preachers and exhorters; over seven thousand members, and nearly four thousand Sunday-school scholars, under the care of the Methodist Episcopal Church, besides those under the care of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

While the efforts of the church were thus being directed to foreign fields, the poor and destitute in sparse settlements of our own land, besides the German emigrants, were by no means forgotten. Many domestic missions within the last eight or ten years have been established within the bounds of the respective conferences, and in many instances have resulted in the permanent organization of large and flourishing churches. Neither has the "poor Indian" in his native wilds, or in the midst of civilization, been forgotten by the church. In different parts of the land are large tribes of Indians residing on reserved portions of land secured to them in perpetuity by the general or State governments. Among these tribes, missions have at different times been established and sustained by the liberality of the whites. Among these tribes of Indians located on such reservations is the St. Regis tribe, whose lands lie in the extreme north-east corner of the State of New York, called the St. Regis Reservation. A village counting a thousand Indian inhabitants stands partly on this reservation, and partly on land granted by the British government to those who reside on the Canada side of the line. For nearly a century a Roman Catholic mission has existed in St. Regis, and a large church has long been erected for their use; but still, although converted nominally from paganism to Christianity, they were sunk in ignorance, superstition, and vice. In the language of their priest in answer to the inquiry of a Methodist minister if the Indians were pious and sober-" They are very pious, but not very sober," was the characteristic reply. And such indeed was the truth; they were very pious in the Romanist sense of the word, attending upon all the ordinances and sacraments of the Roman Church, and living a life of debauchery, drunken

ness and crime. In the year 1847-8 Rev. Ebenezer Arnold of the Black River Conference, who was laboring on a contiguous. charge, providentially was led among them, and after preaching to them for a few times the requirements and blessings of a pure gospel, succeeded in arresting the attention of some, and in prevailing upon them to come to Jesus Christ by repentance and faith. The result was, that a small but flourishing Society was formed among them, and the succeeding conference witnessed the appointment of a regular missionary among them in the person of the Rev. J. P. Jennings. Through the indefatigable exertions of this young minister and others, especially through the kind concern of Bishop Janes who has had the charge of the Indian missions for the time being, a large and beautiful chapel was soon erected at an expense of over $1,500, being furnished with a fine-toned bell, and having a neat and commodious parsonage attached, with land for garden, pasture, &c., the whole costing not less than $2,000 or $2,500. Although the success of the missionary in the upbuilding of the spiritual part of the mission must necessarily be small at first, and gained only by slow degrees, yet sufficient encouragement has been given by the sound conversion of numbers of these Indians to warrant a continued effort for the special benefit of this degraded people.

Missions have also, since the division of the church, been established in different cities and towns for the benefit of the French, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian population, and the signs of the times clearly indicate that the Methodist Episcopal Church, always missionary in her character, and aggressive in her movements, is destined to become more emphatically a MISSIONARY CHURCH.

Great advancement has also been made in the cause of Sunday-school instruction, within the few past years. The General Conference, more than ever convinced of the importance of Sunday-schools, has wisely made provision for the increased wants of the young in this respect. The Sunday School Union

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of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized on the 2d day of April, 1827, but we are not to infer that the Methodists. had no Sunday-schools in their church until the latter date. At the time of the organization of the church in 1784, the preachers were instructed especially to give their attention to the children and youth, and in 1790 the preachers were further required to establish Sunday-schools in, or near the place of worship, but it was in the year 1827 that the cause received a new impetus by the organization of the "Union," and in 1840 still greater efficiency was given to the exertions of the church by the reorganization of the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and since the appointment of the present able and talented corresponding secretary, Rev. D. P. Kidder, the prosperity and increase of schools, scholars, and Sundayschool books, is probably without a parallel in the history of any branch of the Church of Christ, so that at present, there is no doubt, that not less than five hundred thousand children and youth are connected with the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

We have thus, kind reader, given you a brief historical account of the rise of Methodism in Europe, and of its introduction into America, and its progress from that time until the present. Further information in regard to its present state will be obtained in the account to be given of the institutions and statistics of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the latter part of the book. We now proceed to give an account of the introduction of Methodism into Canada; and of its rise and progress in that province.

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METHODISM appears to have been introduced into the ince of Canada in the year 1780, during the Revolutionary war between Great Britain and her North American colonies. A number of the soldiers who were sent over to Quebec at that time,

were members of Mr. Wesley's Societies in England. Among these pious soldiers was a commissariat officer belonging to the forty-fourth regiment of foot, who had been a helper or local. preacher under Mr. Wesley, and who immediately upon his arrival in Quebec began to preach, as occasion offered, to the officers and soldiers of the garrison. Mr. Tuffey, for such was this gentleman's name, remained in Quebec for about three years, and at the close of the war was recalled to England with a portion of the troops. The most of his Methodist associates in Quebec, having with other soldiers the privilege of returning to England, or of being disbanded in America, chose the latter, and soon scattered themselves over different parts of the province. But as yet no Society of Methodists had been formed in Canada, Mr. Tuffey thinking it best under all the existing circumstances not to attempt the formation of any Society.

After the declaration of peace between the two countries, the tide of emigration began to flow from the eastern shore of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes towards the British possessions, and in the winter of 1788-9, a young man by the name of Lyon, an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, engaged a school in the township of Adolphustown, Upper Canada. He soon began to hold meetings for prayer, and exhortation, and in a short time a revival of religion took place, in which some were converted, others were reclaimed, and lukewarm professors were aroused; but no Societies were formed by Mr. Lyon.

Shortly after this, an Irishman by the name of M'Carty, who had for some years lived in the United States, and who was a Whitfieldian Methodist, repaired to Canada and settled in the township of Earnestown. He soon began to preach written sermons according to the practice of the Church of England, but with such deep feeling and earnestness, that many were converted through his instrumentality. In this great work he was cheered and aided by numerous Methodists who had either belonged to Mr. Wesley's Societies in England, or to

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the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. The success of Mr. M'Carty and the Methodists who co-operated with him, aroused as usual the ire of some of the established clergy. A minister of the Church of England meeting one of these revivalists one day, said to him abruptly, “ You are going to hell!" "How do know that?" "Ah! I am sure of you it; for you run out against dancing, card-playing, horse-racing, &c., and you'll go to hell for it." Such being the character of the priests, it is not to be supposed that the morals of the people were of any higher order, so that it was not without opposition that Methodism gained a foothold in Canada.

The most active opposers of the work of God in the neighborhood where Mr. M'Carty preached, were the sheriff of the county, a captain of militia, and an engineer, who employed their power and authority in abusing and maltreating the Methodists. On a certain Sunday while Mr. M'Carty was preaching in a private house, four men armed with muskets came to arrest him. On the solemn promise of the gentleman of the house that the prisoner would make his appearance the next day before the sheriff in Kingston, the men left him and returned. The next day he repaired to Kingston, and although the sheriff at first refused to take charge of him, he was the same day thrown into prison, but released for a certain time on bail. When the time for which he had been bailed expired, he again repaired to Kingston to receive his destiny, where the orders of the chief engineer, he was put on board of a boat manned by four French Canadians, who were directed to leave him on an uninhabited island in the St. Lawrence. The boat's crew attempted to comply with their directions, but through the resistance of Mr. M'Carty, they were obliged to land him on the main shore, from whence he returned to his family. While thus persecuted by his enemies in Kingston, to the honor of the late Sir John Johnson be it recorded, that the latter furnished Mr. M'Carty with funds to carry on a prosecution against these vile wretches, and a kind-hearted attorney in