Nathan Bangs · 10 of 23

Chapter 5. From the Close of the General Conference of 1800, to the End of the Year 1803. · 1802

This year there were seven annual conferences, and as they remained stationary, as to numbers, for several years; and were generally held for each section of the country about the same time of the year, I will here give the time and place of each, that the reader may see the general route taken by the superintendents every year.

Oct. 1, 1801, the conference for the western preachers was held in Ebenezer, Tennessee: Jan. 1, 1802, in Camden, South Carolina: March 1, at Salem meeting-house, North Carolina: April 1, in Baltimore, Maryland: May 1, in Philadelphia: June 1, New York: July 1, in Monmouth, Maine. There were about twenty new circuits added this year, but as circuits were almost continually increased by the addition of new, and the division of old ones, by which their names were changed, it seems inexpedient to particularize them, unless something special shall render it necessary. As an evidence of the good effects of the revivals we have noticed, we may remark that there were sixty-seven preachers admitted on trial, and only ten located.

This good work continued in various parts of the country, particularly in the west, by the instrumentality of camp-meetings, and also in some of the southern states. In Virginia, where the cause of religion had suffered severely on account of the secession and subsequent conduct of O’Kelley and his partisans, the Lord began again to show himself in mercy in the awakening and conversion of souls. At Mabry’s and Merrit’s chapels, and in Greenville circuit, there were remarkable displays of the power and grace of God, which eventuated in bringing hundreds of sinners into the light of the gospel. Norfolk and Portsmouth shared in the blessed work. In Rockingham an account is given of a meeting which continued not less than nine days, during which time almost all secular business was suspended, so entirely did the concerns of eternity occupy the time and attention of the people. It seems, therefore, that protracted meetings, as they have been more recently called, were not unknown in those days. The chief difference between those and such as have been held within a few past years consists in this, that the former were introduced without any previous design, but were the result of providential occurrences, while the latter were appointed with the express intention of being continued for several days, and hence, at first, were called “four days’ meetings.” The result of the one mentioned above was, that one hundred and seven in the immediate neighborhood were brought into the Church, exclusive of those who came from a distance, and were benefited by the meeting.

There was also a great work of God which began last year on Flanders’ circuit, in the state of New Jersey, under the labors of the Rev. Elijah Woolsey and his colleagues. Mr. Woolsey had proved himself a bold and hardy veteran in the cause of Christ, by volunteering his services for Upper Canada, in the year 1794, in company with Darius Dunham and James Coleman, where he labored for two years with much patience and industry, and saw the fruit of his efforts in the conversion of souls. In 1801 he was stationed on Flanders’ circuit, and after cutting off those corrupt members of the Church who could not be reformed, he finally saw the blessed result of his labors in one of the most manifest displays of the grace of God ever witnessed in that part of the country. This work commenced at a quarterly meeting, at which it was judged there were not less than six thousand persons present. It seems that before the meeting commenced both brother Woolsey and the presiding elder, the Rev. Solomon Sharp, had a presentiment that the Lord was about to work at this meeting, and hence they went in the exercise of strong faith in the promises of God that it would be even so. When brother Woolsey arose to address the assembly, feeling “the word of the Lord like fire shut up in his bones,” he informed them that God would work among them; and accordingly a shaking and trembling began to be visible in the assembly, accompanied with strong cries to God for mercy. The meeting continued until eleven o’clock at night, and some, judged, remained all night in these solemn exercises. The work thus commenced spread throughout the circuit, and great was the rejoicing of the people, both among the young converts and the old professors of religion. This revival eventuated in the conversion of many souls, and created a hallowing influence on the surrounding population.

In Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, the quarterly meeting which began on Christmas day, continued sixteen days, and terminated in the conversion of upward of one hundred souls. In the states of North and South Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware, the Spirit of the Lord was poured out among the people in such a manner that some of the meetings were continued day and night, and hundreds became the subjects of the grace of life.

In Vermont, also, the good work was extended in many places, though the labors of God’s faithful ministers. Joseph Mitchell, Joseph Crawford, Elijah Chichester, and Elijah (now bishop) Hedding, had been instrumental, in the three or four preceding years, of carrying the glad tidings of salvation to the inhabitants along the shores of Lake Champlain, both in New York and Vermont, and had established many flourishing societies, which have continued gradually increasing until this day. This year William Anson was sent to form a circuit on Grand Isle, and such was his success, that there were returned for the next year one hundred and two members of the Church.

Montreal, in Lower Canada, was visited this year by Joseph Sawyer. He found a few persons there who had belonged to the Methodist society in the city of New York before the Revolutionary War, who received him cordially, and assisted him in procuring a school-room for preaching. A Mr. McGinnis and his sister, both unmarried, were among the first who attached themselves to the society in Montreal, and they remained faithful during all the vicissitudes though which Methodism was called to pass in that city until their death.

The Long Point circuit, in Upper Canada, was formed the latter part of this year, chiefly through the labors of Nathan Bangs [the author of this history — DVM], who went into the work under the direction of the presiding elder of the district. In the towns of Burford and Oxford particularly there was a great work of God commenced under his labors which eventuated in the conversion of about one hundred souls.

In the midst of this great work which was extending over the continent, and blessing thousands with its renovating influences, Bishop Asbury and his faithful colleague, Bishop Whatcoat, were moving among the churches, “as golden candlesticks,” reflecting their luster on all around them, and, by their example, exciting them to activity and diligence in the cause of God. In imitation of the primitive evangelists, these bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church itinerated through the extent of the work, east, west, north, and south, not neglecting the remotest settlements in the wildernesses. And that they might not interfere with each other, nor both travel over the same ground, we find them in the latter part of last year, after holding a council with some of their brethren, determining to meet the Virginia conference, and from thence accompany each other as far as the New York conference; after which one was to continue on east to superintend the conferences in that direction, visiting all the eastern and northern states, and on through the western section of New York state to Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and thence though the districts of Virginia, until he met his colleague at the Virginia conference; the bishop who took the western tour was to pass on into the western states and territories, through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and so meet, as before stated, in the center of the work in Virginia. What a diocese was this! Each bishop was to have a traveling elder to accompany him.

According to this wise arrangement they shaped their course thereafter, spreading themselves as far as possible over the entire field of itinerant labor, and, by the aid of their traveling companions, preaching, wherever they came, to the people, and giving a vigorous impulse to the work of God. And as a sample of the manner in which their time was occupied, and the kind of fare they sometimes were obliged to put up with, take the following from Bishop Asbury’s Journal: —

“Why,” says he, “should a living man complain? But to be three months together upon the frontiers, where generally you have but one room and fireplace, and half a dozen folks about you, strangers perhaps, and their families certainly (and they are not usually small in those plentiful new countries) making a crowd — and this is not all — for here you may meditate if you can, and here you must preach, read, write, pray, sing, talk, eat, drink, and sleep, or fly into the woods. Well! I have pains in my body ... which are very afflictive when I ride; but I cheer myself as well as I may with songs in the night.” It certainly may be said of those who “desire the office of a bishop" in connection with laborings and sufferings such as these, if they do not “desire a good thing,” they at least desire an office, not for its temporal emolument, nor for the sake of the ease and worldly grandeur it confers. After speaking of his arrival in New York for this year, he says, —

“We advance toward the completion of four thousand miles for the present year. I have had great exercises on going though rain and continual labor; but have been blessed with great peace by my good and gracious God.”

The following account of the conference which he attended in the city of Baltimore, together with his remarks respecting a portion of his journal which was printed during his life-time, is inserted as due to him as a writer, and to the benevolence of his heart as a superintendent of the Church, as they show, on the one hand, that he was not responsible for the errors in his journal, which all who saw lamented, and, on the other, that he rejoiced in the temporal as well as spiritual prosperity of the preachers under his care. He says, —

“Monday, 5. We had a day of fasting and humiliation for the conference, the continent, and the Church of God; I improved the occasion, and spoke from Acts xiv, 2:3. I was presented with a new impression of my journal; it is very incorrect; had I had an opportunity before it was put to press, I should have altered and expunged many things; the inaccuracies of grammar, and imperfections of composition incident to the hasty notices of a manuscript journal, are preserved in the printed copy. On Monday evening the conference rose: all the demands of the preachers were answered; money was advanced toward the purchase of horses; to those who had distant circuits and far to go, donations were made; and nearly two hundred dollars very liberally sent to the Monmouth conference, which is to meet in July next. Within the circling lines of this conference, we report to this sitting an addition to the society of three thousand souls and upward, besides those who may have died within the last eleven months. John Pawson’s letter, and fifty copies of a volume of sermons, came safely to hand; his, and other letters, concerning the work of God, I read to my brethren.”

Among other tidings which came to him while at this conference, was that of the death of his pious mother, for whom he always felt a tender and filial regard; and as she belongs, in some sense, to the history of American Methodism, by having given birth to a son who was so closely identified with its interests, I think the reader will he pleased to read the following reflections which the bishop made on receiving the news of her death. The following are his remarks:

While in Baltimore, I received an account of the death of my mother, which I fear is true. And here I may speak safely concerning my very dear mother: her character to me is well known. Her paternal descent was Welch; from a family ancient and respectable by the name of Rogers. She lived a woman of the world until the death of her first and only daughter, Sarah Asbury; how would the bereaved mother weep and tell of the beauties and excellences of her lost and lovely child! pondering on the past in the silent suffering of hopeless grief. This afflictive providence graciously terminated in the mother’s conversion. When she saw herself a lost and wretched sinner, she sought religious people, but in the times of this ignorance few were ’sound in the faith,’ or ‘faithful to the grace given:’ many were the days she spent chiefly in reading and prayer; at length she found justifying grace and pardoning mercy. So dim was the light of truth around her, from the assurance she found, she was at times inclined to believe in the final perseverance of the saints. For fifty years her hands, her house, her heart, were open to receive the people of God and ministers of Christ; and thus a lamp was lighted up in a dark place called Great Barre, in Great Britain. She was an afflicted, yet most active woman; of quick bodily powers, and masculine understanding; nevertheless, ’so kindly all the elements were mixed in her,’ her strong mind quickly felt the subduing influences of that Christian sympathy which ‘weeps with those who weep,’ and ‘rejoices with those who do rejoice.’ As a woman and a wife she was chaste, modest, blameless — as a mother (above all the women in the world would I claim her for my own) ardently affectionate as a ‘mother in Israel,’ few of her sex have done more by a holy walk to live, and by personal labor to support the gospel, and to wash the saints’ feet; as a friend, she was generous, true, and constant. Elizabeth Asbury died January 6th, 1802, aged eighty-seven or eighty-eight years. There is now, after fifty years, a chapel within two or three hundred yards of her dwelling. I am now often drawn out in thankfulness to God, who hath saved a mother of mine, and, I trust, a father also, who are already in glory, where I hope to meet them both, after time, and cares, and sorrows, shall have ceased with me; and where glory shall not only beam, but open in my soul for ever. Amen.”

On account of some difficulties in the Church in the city of Philadelphia, which, it seems, could not be amicably adjusted, a number of the members withdrew from the Church, and established a separate place of worship, in a building which had been erected by Mr. Whitefield for an academy, and in which he used to preach whenever be visited that city. — Hence these brethren were distinguished for a number of years as belonging to the Academy station.

Believing them to have been influenced by pure motives, and as they adhered to the Methodist doctrine, and wished to be supplied with Methodist preaching, as well as to be governed by our discipline, the question was submitted to the conference, which sat in Philadelphia this year, whether or not the bishop should grant their request to have a preacher stationed over them. After mature deliberation, it was agreed, with only one dissenting vote, that their request should be granted, on such terms as the bishop could make. From that time forward the Academy was considered as a branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and it has been recognized a and regularly supplied with preachers by the bishops and conference. And although for some time there was not a perfect union between them and those brethren with whom the difference originated, yet the disaffection gradually wore way, and they both have continued to prosper and increase in number and respectability to the present day; and it is believed that long since all alienation of feeling between the two sections has fully died away. Indeed, Methodism in the city of Philadelphia has gradually increased in its resources, both temporally and spiritually, from the period of its introduction by Captain Webb, in 1766, until the present time; and although it has had its share of difficulties to contend with, it has never been wanting in putting forth its energies in proportion to its means for the enlargement of the Redeemer’s kingdom, both at home and abroad.

The increase of members for the present year, which may be seen below, shows the blessed effects of the numerous revivals which we have narrated for the two preceding years.

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 68,075; Last Year: 57,186; Increase: 10,899 — Colored This Year: 18,659; Last Year: 15,688; Increase: 2,971 — Total This Year: 86,734; Last Year: 72,874 — Increase: 13,860 — Preachers This Year: 358; Last Year: 307; Increase: 51.

This is the largest increase in any one year since 1790, when it was 14,369, being 509 more then than now. The friends of the cause had also reason to congratulate themselves on the greater proportionate stability and perseverance of those who had entered the ranks of the itinerancy, there being a much less number than usually heretofore who exchanged the traveling for the local ministry.

There were seven annual conferences this year, the New England conference being held for the first time in Boston, and the New York in Ashgrove, in the northerly part of the state of New York.

There was an enlargement of the work of God this year in almost every direction, and “many people were added to the Lord.” The camp-meetings which had commenced in the west under such favorable auspices, continued to spread with increased usefulness, thousands being attracted by the fame of their character, who otherwise might never have heard the gospel. This year they were introduced into various parts of the country. Two were held in the lower parts of Virginia, the first in Brunswick county, and the second at a place called the Barn, at both of which the Lord manifested himself in great power and goodness to the people.

Similar meetings were held in Georgia, South and North Carolina, and in Maryland, at all of which there were remarkable displays of the awakening and converting grace of God, so that it may be said in truth, there were great revivals of religion through all those parts of the country. At a field meeting held in the vicinity of Middletown, Connecticut, there was a gracious work of God commenced, which terminated in the conversion of a number of souls.

This year the work extended in the western part of the state of New York, and Otsego, Black River, Westmoreland, Pompey, and Ontario were added to the list of circuits in that part of the country.

Samuel Merwin, Elijah Chichester, and Laban Clark, were this year sent as missionaries to Lower Canada; and Montreal, St. Johns, and Sorel, were included among the stations on the minutes of conference. Mr. Merwin visited Quebec, but not meeting with much encouragement, he stayed only about six weeks, when he came to Montreal, and spent the remainder of the year there, while Mr. Chichester, who was in Montreal, returned to the United States. Mr. Clark, after encountering a variety of difficulties in striving to form a circuit in the settlements along the Sorel, was reluctantly compelled to abandon the enterprise as hopeless, and he accordingly left that part of the country, and spent the remainder of the year among his brethren in the United States.

In the great revivals of religion we have noticed, many young preachers were raised up, who went into the world as flaming heralds, contributing much by the energy of their preaching, and the faithfulness of their pastoral duties, to diffuse the spirit of reformation among the people.

But the camp meetings were among the most efficient means of awakening the attention of the people to the things of eternity.

As I have, however, heretofore entered so particularly into the details of the character and good effects of these camp meetings, it seems unnecessary to repeat them here, only to observe in general, that wherever they were introduced, similar effects followed, until at length they became very general among the Methodists throughout the country, and were often seasons of great “refreshing from the presence of the Lord.”

Four preachers; namely, Lewis Hunt, Edmund Wayman, John Leach, and Anthony Turck, after having fulfilled their ministry with fidelity and usefulness, took their departure this year from a scene of labor to a world of rest, as it is recorded of them all that they died in peace and triumph. Fourteen located, and six were returned supernumerary.

Until last year the stations of the preachers were printed under their respective districts, as Georgia, South Carolina, &C., without naming the conferences of which they respectively belonged. In the year 1802 the name of the conference was inserted at the head of the stations, so that it might be perceived at once to what conference each district, circuit, and preacher belonged. This year the same method was observed in taking the numbers, by which means the relative size and strength of each conference might be estimated. The following is the recapitulation of the

Numbers in the Church

By Conferences

Western: Whites—7,738; Colored—464; Total—8,202

S. Carolina: Whites—9,256; Colored—2,815; Total—12,071

Virginia: Whites—13,099; Colored—3,794; Total—16,893

Baltimore: Whites—12,513; Colored—6,414; Total—18,927

Philadelphia: Whites—24,626; Colored—8,561; Total—33,187

New England: Whites—2,927; Colored—14; Total—2,941

New York: Whites—11,458; Colored—391; Total—11,849

Totals This Year: Whites—81,617; Colored—22,453; Grand Total—104,070

Totals Last Year: Whites—68,075; Colored—18,659; Grand Total—86,734

Total Increases: Whites—13,542; Colored—3,794; Grand Total Increase: 17,336

Preachers This Year: 383

Preachers Last Year: 350

Increase: 33

That we may see the comparative numbers of each conference in proportion to the extent of its territory, it is necessary to know the number of districts, circuits, and preachers of each, as well as the entire population of the territory comprehended in the bounds of each conference; but as the conferences were not bounded by state lines, it is not possible to estimate the comparative population of each; the following table, however, will exhibit the number of districts, circuits, preachers, and members in the several conferences respectively: —

Conference

Western: Districts—3; Circuits—17; Preachers—27; Members—8,202

South Carolina: Districts—3; Circuits—19; Preachers—35; Members—12,071

Virginia: Districts—4; Circuits—32; Preachers—44; Members—16,893

Baltimore: Districts—4; Circuits—34; Preachers—59; Members—18,927

Philadelphia: Districts—6; Circuits—49; Preachers—105; Members—33,187

New England: Districts—2; Circuits—24; Preachers—35; Members—2,941

New York: Districts—5; Circuits—38; Preachers—79; Members—17,336

By comparing the two largest conferences, Philadelphia and New York, we shall perceive that the former had a population of as one preacher to about three hundred and twenty-five members, and the latter as one preacher to about two hundred and twenty members. This difference may be accounted for in the sparsity of the general population of Vermont and the Canadas, both of which were comprehended in the New York conference, and although three preachers were stationed in Lower Canada, they were considered as missionaries sent to make a trial for the introduction of Methodism, and from which no members were returned: whereas the Philadelphia conference, though it embraced much of the new counties in the northern part of Pennsylvania and in western New York, comprehended also the other settled counties along the western bank of the Hudson River, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, in some parts of which Methodism had, from its beginning, flourished more than in any other portion of our country. The peninsula of Maryland especially was considered the garden spot of Methodism in those days.

If we take the Western and New England conferences, which are the two least, we shall find that the latter had a population of as one preacher to about one hundred and twenty-two members, and the former as one to four hundred and eighty-two. This difference is easily accounted for. In the western country, the Methodists were the evangelical pioneers among the people, and amid the great revivals which had originated at their camp meetings, they took the lead, and had already reaped a rich harvest of souls as the reward of their labors and sacrifices; while in New England, though the general population of the country was more dense than in the west, the Methodists had many sorts of opposition to contend with, doctrines adverse to their own to encounter, the prejudices of education, and denominational jealousies to oppose their progress. On these accounts, Methodism made but slow advances in New England; those who first joined its standard were generally of the poorer class, able to yield but a scanty support to the preachers, and it had, moreover, to contend against a strong current of opposition which set in against it: hence its members were comparatively small for several years. Indeed, it was not until the bands of sectarian bigotry were broken, and the bland influences of the gospel had in some measure softened the asperities arising from denominational peculiarities, that Methodism could stand erect and assert her liberties in New England.

From a review of the work for the last three years, we find abundant cause for thankfulness to the great Head of the Church for what he had done by the instrumentality of his servants. Methodism began to he felt throughout the country; and while it provoked the opposition of some, it had been the means of stirring up many other denominations to put forth their efforts for the spread of evangelical principles and holiness though the land; and if “righteousness exalteth a nation,” may we not believe that those great revivals of religion had a most happy and conservative influence upon our national character? Had those principles of infidelity with which the minds of many of the leading men of our Nation had been infected, and which, at one time, were descending with fearful rapidity to the lower ranks of society, been permitted to operate unchecked by any other barrier than a mere lifeless form of Christianity, or those restraints which a secular and civil education might interpose, is there not reason to apprehend that such streams of moral and intellectual, as well as political pollution, would have poured their poisonous waters over the land, as must have washed our civil and religious institutions into the whirlpool of destruction?

Without attempting to disparage other denominations of Christians, who doubtlessly all contributed toward checking the overflowings of ungodliness by making a firm stand against the secret workings of infidelity, it must, I think, be admitted by all who reflect impartially on the subject, that the labors of the itinerating Methodist preachers tended mightily to purify the corrupt mass of mind, and to awaken attention to spiritual and divine things, and to call off the attention of the people from mere secular and political affairs, to the momentous concerns of eternity.

And may we not hence see a reason why God wrought in such a remarkable manner, about this time, at the camp and other meetings? And why especially that he should have begun this work in the new countries? We know perfectly well, that in the settlement of new countries, being generally destitute of the ordinary means of grace, the minds of the people are apt to be occupied chiefly with temporal things, and thus, by habit, become forgetful of God and their eternal interests. In this state of things, and under such influences as were at work, our new territories were filling and growing up. And who should go after those wanderers? Who should follow them into the wilderness, and bring them into the fold of Christ? Let this duty devolve on whomsoever it might, the Methodists were among the first to discharge it. Their mode of preaching, too, plain, pointed, searching, extemporaneous, and itinerating from place to place, collecting the people in log houses, in school houses, in the groves, or in barns, was most admirably adapted to the state of society, and calculated to arouse the attention of a slumbering world to the concerns of religion.

Such were the means employed, and such were the effects produced. And who will say that God did not lead to the adoption of this method as best adapted to answer the ends of redemption, namely, the salvation of the lost. To awaken the men of that generation from their profound stupor, that they might shake off the slumbers of infidelity, and acknowledge the hand of God in their deliverance from the charms of error with which they were deluded, God, it seems, interposed in the remarkable manner before narrated, and by “signs and wonders" in the symbolical heavens convinced the people that he “ruled in the armies of heaven, and commanded among the inhabitants of the earth.”

By this means, as before said, the minds of the people were awakened to their eternal interests, religion became the topic of conversation, of inquiry, and investigation, and thus that light was poured into the understanding, and conviction into the conscience, which led men to see the errors of infidelity, the unsatisfying nature of a mere form of godliness, and to feel the conservative influence which vital, experimental, and practical Christianity exerts upon individual character, upon social and civil communities, and of course upon stales and empires.

What though the keen eye of criticism might detect some errors in doctrine or extravagance in conduct, originating from human weaknesses or unsanctified passions, — shall we cast away the good on account of the bad? Who does not see that such a process would lead to the abandonment of every institution, civil as well as religious, on earth? That thousands of sinners were reformed, in heart and life, the most skeptical must acknowledge. And a thoroughly reformed sinner cannot be otherwise than a good citizen, a good ruler, husband, brother, and friend. To make Christian patriots, therefore, is to purify the political atmosphere from all poisonous exhibitions, and to make it a healthful medium for the civil respiration of all who move and have their being within its circumference.

In addition to the direct influence which Christian principles were thus brought to exert on the heart and life, the itinerating mode of preaching had a tendency in the natural order of cause and effect, to cement the hearts of our citizens together in one great brotherhood. It is well known that our civil organization, into several state sovereignties, though under the partial control of the general government, naturally tended to engender state animosities, arising out of local and peculiar usages, laws, customs, and habits of life. What more calculated to soften these asperities, and to allay petty jealousies and animosities, than a Church bound together by one system of doctrine, under the government of the same discipline, accustomed to the same usages, and a ministry possessing it homogeneousness of character, aiming at one and the same end — the salvation of their fellow-men by means of the same gospel, preached and enforced by the same method — and these ministers continually interchanging from north to south, from east to west, everywhere striving to bring all men under the influence of the same “bond of perfectness?" Did not these things tend to bind the great American family together by producing a sameness of character, feelings, and views?

And all this too without entering into the arena of politics at all, or siding, as a Church, with any political party. For it is a well-known fact, that the Methodist Episcopal Church has never embarked on the rough sea of political warfare. She has left all her ministers and members free, to act as individual members of the civil community as they might list, only enjoining upon all a due submission to the “powers that be" — never attempting to dictate to any of her communion to what political party they should lend their influence, nor ever making civil polity the end of her exertions. The influence therefore, which she has exerted upon the civil destinies of the republic, has been altogether of an indirect and collateral character, growing out of that moral and religious stamp with which she strives to mark and distinguish all her children. That this conservative influence has been felt on the civil destinies of our country, originating from our religious institutions and the mode of carrying them into effect, is what is here contended for, and what, it is believed, all candid, impartial observers of the history of events and the connection between causes and effects must acknowledge.

Being foremost in congratulating the first chief magistrate of our republic on his elevation to that high and responsible office, she has remained unabatedly attached to the constitution of the country, inculcating obedience to its magistrates and laws, and promulgating those doctrines and enforcing those duties which, if believed and discharged, will ensure peace on earth, and lead ultimately to immortality and eternal life in heaven.