edged utility among the Methodists, that while the Presbyte rians have long since discarded them, as unsuited to their mode of operation for the advancement of religion, the former have. continued them in most parts of the country from year to year, and at former time have camp-meetings been more frequent, better attended, or followed by more beneficial results than at the present time.

About this time also, Methodism began to take deep root in the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, where it had before been introduced by several zealous preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and other Methodists from England; but as the author intends to speak of Canadian Methodism in a separate section of this work, he will in this place only state, that at the period of which we are now treating, regular circuits were in existence in different parts of these provinces. (See Section XII.)

In 1804, the fourth regular General Conference assembled in the city of Baltimore. It was composed of the three bishops, Coke, Asbury, and Whatcoat, as presidents, and one hundred and twelve members. Among the most important acts of this conference was one establishing the Book Concern in the city of New York, there having previously been published a few Methodist books in Philadelphia, at which place the Book Concern was first located, but on a small scale. At this conference also, the bounds of the several yearly conferences were fixed and printed in the Book of Discipline. The British Conference having again requested the labors of Dr. Coke in behalf of their missions, he was permitted to go under the same restrictions as before imposed upon him—that he should return by the next General Conference.

As nothing very extraordinary transpired in the interim between this and the succeeding General Conference of 1808, we pass to notice the proceedings of the latter, so far as matters of importance are concerned.

The fifth General Conference assembled in the city of Balti

THE GENESEE CONFERENCE FORMED.

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more, Bishop Asbury being the only bishop present. Bishop Whatcoat had died two years previously, in the 71st year of his age, and Bishop Coke, for certain reasons, had not found it convenient to leave his work in Europe for the purpose of attending this conference. He, however, wrote to the conference expressing his willingness to come over and labor, and live and die with them, but that unless his services were necessary to the church in America, he preferred remaining where he thought they were more needed, and where he could render himself more useful. In accordance with these wishes, the conference adopted resolutions commendatory of their absent bishop, and consenting to his remaining in Europe until called to America by the General Conference; or all the annual conferences. At this conference also, the Rev. Wm. M'Kendree was elected and consecrated a bishop; and provision was made for a delegated General Conference, to be composed of one delegate for every five members of an annual conference. It was also resolved, that the General Conference should meet on the first day of May, 1812, and thenceforward on the first of May, once in four years perpetually. Restrictive rules were also adopted, which have remained the same as originally adopted till the present time, excepting the one which relates to the ratio of representation. As the constitution and powers of the General Conference will be referred to in a proper place, it will be unnecessary to enlarge upon the same in this section.

The bishops at this conference were authorized-if they deemed it expedient to do so--to organize another annual conference, in addition to the seven already organized by the General Conference. Accordingly, in 1810, the Genesee Conference was formed, embracing within its bounds the whole of Central and Western New York, and the province of Upper Canada, which province Bishop Asbury visited in the year 1811. Crossing from the Indian village of St. Regis to Cornwall in Canada, the bishop, after having been a citizen of the United States since the independence of the same, and having lived

and preached in the colonies for a few years prior thereto, amounting in all to forty years, at length sets foot upon a soil protected by the flag of his native country, and it is no wonder that under such circumstances the old man should have strange feelings come over him."

The bishop proceeded up the province along the banks of the St. Lawrence, and preached in most of the towns between Cornwall and Kingston. After preaching in the latter place, he re-crossed the river, or lake, to Sackett's Harbor, and soon after, in conjunction with Bishop M'Kendree, he attended the session of the Genesee Conference, which was held in Paris, Oneida County, New York, and on its adjournment, the bishops returned again to their travels through the Connection, holding the conferences in Kentucky, and in Tennessee, and also in South Carolina.

SECTION VII.

THE first delegated General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church assembled in the city of New York on the first of May, 1812. Bishops Asbury and M'Kendree were present, and presided alternately. There were ninety delegates in attendance. No bishop was elected at this conference, but several important rules in relation to local preachers were adopted, as also resolutions in regard to raising money for missions, the publication of a monthly periodical, &c. &c., and after a session of three weeks, the conference closed its labors; and soon after the adjournment, the United States declared war against Great Britain. This unhappy event produced pernicious effects upon the interests of true religion in the United States, and brought the Methodists in the States and in the Canadas into an unfriendly relation, and frequently into actual collisions with each other. In consequence of this state of things, the American preachers appointed this year to Canada, either ob

tained permission to remain in the States, or having gone there, returned home. The Canadian preachers, who of course remained at their posts in Canada, were also prevented from attending the sessions of the Genesee Conference, to which they belonged, and were thus left to take care of themselves and their flock in the best way they could, during the war.

In the year 1813, a small secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church took place in Vermont, which resulted in the organization of the "Reformed Methodist Church." The originator of this secession was the Rev. Pliny Brett, a member of the New England Conference, who this year located, and succeeded in luring from the church several local preachers, in the vicinity of Cape Cod. From thence he proceeded to Vermont, and succeeded, through the assistance of Elijah Bailey, a local preacher in Readsboro', in drawing off a number of Societies in that town and vicinity, and after having called a general convention of all the disaffected ones, the Rev. Mr. Bailey was chosen President, the Reformed Methodists became a distinct body, and Mr. Bailey became the apostle of the new movement. Many local preachers and exhorters having joined them, they at one period in their history gave some promise of becoming quite a respectable denomination, having formed circuits in dif ferent parts of Vermont, New York, and Canada, but like some other secessionists, they finally became merged in other bodies distinct from the above, so that at present the Reformed Methodists have scarcely an existence in any part of the United States or Canada, although at the time of their greatest prosperity, they had five annual conferences, nearly a hundred preachers, and several thousand members.

In the year 1814, the sad tidings reached the shores of Europe and America, that Bishop Coke had departed this life. After having been more fully released from his engagements to the American Connection, Dr. Coke gave his especial attention. to the cause of missions in the British Connection, of which missions he had the superintendence. He at length resolved

to establish a mission in British India, and in company with seven others, whom he had selected as assistants, he left England on the first of January. After being absent about four months, and as the vessel which conveyed him neared the port of destination, the doctor, while in his berth, was seized with a fit of apoplexy, and on opening the door of his cabin in the morning, was found dead upon the floor. His body was consigned to the bosom of the great deep, with appropriate religious services by his surviving colleagues. Thus ended the life and labors of Bishop Coke, who, although having some enemies while he lived, had many warm friends, and who was himself the true friend of Methodism, in America, and in his native land,-a man whose life was entirely spent in the service of the church of God, and who, no doubt, exchanged the trials of this life for the inheritance of the sanctified in heaven.

Before the session of the next General Conference, a still greater calamity than the preceding one befell the Methodist Episcopal Church. This was nothing less than the death of the apostle of Methodism in America-Bishop Asbury—which occurred on the 31st of March, 1816, near Fredericksburg, in Virginia-aged seventy years. His health, for several years, had been declining, in consequence of his constant exposure to heat and cold, and all the hardships and vicissitudes of an itinerant life. His remains were finally deposited under the pulpit in a vault, in the Eutaw-street church, Baltimore. Thus perished the mortal existence of a man, a Christian, a Christian minister, and a truly apostolic bishop, who, during the forty-five years of his ministry in America, preached, probably, not far from twenty thousand sermons, and travelled not less than two hundred and seventy thousand miles—a distance equal to more than ten times the circumference of the earth!

In the year 1815, another secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church took place in Philadelphia, the subjects of it being colored people. At an early period in the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, its ministers had taken a lively