Nathan Bangs · 20 of 28

Chapter 8. From the Close of the General Conference of 1824 to the Commencement of That of 1828. · Part 2

On Coeyman’s circuit, New York state, there was a general revival of the work of God. This also commenced among the professors of religion, who were induced to seek after “perfect love” as the privilege of believers in this life. Having their own souls baptized from on high, they were fired with a loving zeal for the salvation of their neighbors; and the consequence was, that one hundred and seventy were brought to the knowledge of the truth and added to the Church.

In the city of Albany, where Methodism had struggled with many difficulties for a long time, God poured out his Spirit, and about fifty souls were brought into the fellowship of the Church.

On the Champlain district, then under the charge of the Rev. Buel Goodsell, the work of God prevailed very generally among the circuits, and the hopes of God’s people were greatly revived and their hearts strengthened. This good work was the result of a number of camp meetings which were held in different parts of the district. These were the means of the conversion of many sinners, and a general quickening among the professors of religion.

New Haven district also, under the superintendence. of the Rev. Samuel Luckey, was favored with some revivals, and the state of religion was generally flourishing through the district.

In this part of the country, as well as in some others, it had been found that we had labored to little purpose in the cities and principal villages, for want of convenient houses of worship, and because we had not a preacher constantly among the people. From these defects in our plans of procedure, our societies in New Haven, Middletown, and Hartford, and many other places, had been but feeble, and often the prospects were discouraging. About this time a remedy had been pro provided in some places, and was providing in others, by erecting churches, and stationing preachers in those cities and villages where the people were able to support them. The blessed effects of these movements were soon felt and seen, though in some instances, in building churches, the people felt themselves compelled, as they thought, to depart from our general usage, by selling or renting the slips, as they could not otherwise either build the houses, or induce the people to attend the preaching — parents pleading that they wished to seat their children and members of their household with them in places of public worship.

Whatever may be said against this policy in other parts of our work, it is certain that its adoption in many portions of the country in the eastern and northern states has had a beneficial influence upon the interests of our Church. By this means the people have been able to meet the expense of sustaining the worship of God, and also to secure permanent congregations; and the preachers could more fully and effectually discharge all the duties of pastors, in overseeing the temporal and spiritual affairs of the Church, such as visiting from house to house, attending upon the sick, burying the dead, meeting the classes, and regulating sabbath school, tract, and missionary societies. And who will say that these things are not as important to the well-being of the Church, or the prosperity of true religion, as it is “to preach so many sermons?”

A great and glorious work this year prevailed in the Susquehannah district, in the bounds of the Genesee conference, under the presidency of the Rev. George Peck. Camp meetings were chiefly instrumental in kindling the sacred flame which spread among the circuits and stations of this region of country, and many sinners were happily converted to God, while the holy impulse was felt through the churches generally.

The Rev. Dan Barnes, in giving an account of the Black river district, in the same conference, speaks of a great work which commenced at a camp meeting and thence spread in various directions.

In the city of Baltimore the Rev. Samuel Merwin, who had charge of the church in that place this year, writes, that mighty works were wrought in the name of the Lord Jesus. He says that from fifty to one hundred and fifty were crying to God for mercy in the same meeting, and he presumed that from five hundred to six hundred were made partakers of pardoning mercy during the progress of the work.

About this time a lively feeling was awakened in the Christian community in behalf of seamen, a class of men hitherto almost entirely neglected by the church. Indeed, as early as 1816, a few benevolent individuals in the city of New York had directed their attention to the condition of this useful class of men, and they succeeded in forming a society for promoting the gospel among seamen in the port of New York, consisting of nearly all evangelical denominations, and its operations are conducted on the most catholic principles. Its affairs are managed by a board of directors, holding a corporate seal by an act of the legislature. Being patronized by the Christian public, they succeeded, in 1819, in purchasing ground and erecting a house of worship in Roosevelt Street, near the quays on the East river, quite convenient for the sailors to attend. At the dedication of this house, in accordance with the catholic principles on which it was built, the three sermons were preached by a Protestant Episcopalian, a Dutch Reformed, and a Methodist Episcopal minister. To insure the stated ministry of the word, the Rev. Ward Stafford, a Presbyterian minister, was first engaged to take charge of the congregation, who was occasionally assisted by ministers of other denominations.

After he left, the directors obtained a gratuitous supply by inviting ministers of various denominations, so as to keep up, as far as possible, the anti-sectarian character of the enterprise, that all might feel an interest in its promotion. It was soon found, however, that a congregation could not be collected and retained without the labors of a stated minister. Accordingly, in 1821, they employed the Rev. Henry Chase, at that time a local preacher, and an assistant teacher in the Wesleyan seminary in the city of New York, to take charge of a weekly prayer meeting in the church, to distribute tracts among seamen, to visit their families, and to perform such pastoral duties as might not interfere with his engagements with the seminary. Being quite successful in these efforts, at the request of the directors, and in accordance with the advice of his brethren in the ministry in the city of New York, Mr. Chase resigned his place as teacher in the Wesleyan seminary, and on the first of January, 1823, devoted himself entirely to the service of seamen.

In 1825 brother Chase was admitted on trial in the New York conference, and, at the request of the directors of the seamen’s society, was stationed in the Mariner’s church, where, with the exception of eighteen months, when they had a minister of another denomination, he has continued ever since. In 1825, perceiving that great good resulted to seamen from his labors, and of those similarly employed in other places, and feeling the inconvenience of those changes which ordinarily take place in our Church, the General Conference made an exception in favor of those preachers who were laboring for the spiritual good of seamen, allowing the bishop to continue them in the same station for any length of time. Mr. Chase has accordingly been continued in the Mariner’s church to the present time, as a member and elder in the New York conference, and his ministrations have been greatly blessed. Hundreds of seamen have been soundly converted to God, and the church is generally filled with orderly and attentive hearers every sabbath, and regular prayer meetings are held every week. There is, indeed, a great improvement in the condition and general conduct of this useful and suffering class of men.

As the Mariner’s church is supported by the several denominations of Christians, no church organization has taken place there, but those who were brought to the knowledge of the truth were at liberty to unite with whatever church they pleased; but I believe most of them have united with the Methodist Episcopal Church; and their numbers have become so considerable, that they have recently organized themselves into a church, under the name of the Methodist Episcopal Seamen’s Church in the city of New York, have elected trustees, and are now (1840) making preparations to erect a house of worship for their accommodation and that of their seafaring brethren.

Similar efforts have been made in other places, and with equal success, which will be noticed under their appropriate dates.

On the whole, it would appear, notwithstanding some portions of our Church were agitated with discussions on the different modes of church government, that prosperity generally attended the labors of God’s servants, and that the spirit of revival pervaded the ranks of our Israel. Some other churches also caught the flame in many places, and were therefore making delightful progress in the advancement of true religion.

Fifty-eight preachers were located this year, fifty-five returned supernumerary, and eighty-three superannuated; fourteen had died, and three had been expelled.

Among the dead was William Beauchamp, whose eminent talents fitted him for great usefulness in the church of God. And while the civil historian enriches his pages with memoirs of statesmen, poets, orators, philosophers, and men of military renown who have benefited their country, we may be allowed to preserve a record of those eminent ministers of the sanctuary who, by the depth and ardor of their piety, their genius, and their eloquence in the pulpit, have contributed to advance the best interests of their fellow-men. The characters of such men are a precious legacy which they have bequeathed to the Church, more valuable, indeed, than silver and gold.

William Beauchamp was born in Kent county, Delaware state, on the 26th day of April, 1772. He was a descendant of a pious Methodist preacher, who, about the year 1785, removed to the west and settled on the Monongahela river, and from thence, in about eight years, on the Little Kenhawa river, Wood county, Va. Here, in conjunction with Mr. Rees Wolf; another Methodist preacher, he was instrumental in establishing some Methodist societies. William was a subject of religious impressions when quite a youth, and at about sixteen years of age he was made a partaker of justifying faith, and became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1794 he joined the traveling ministry, and after discharging the duties of an itinerant preacher with great acceptance and usefulness west of the Allegheny mountains for three years, he was stationed, in 1797, in the city of New York, and a few of the people here still remember the able manner in which he fulfilled the duties of his station. In 1799 he was stationed in Provincetown, in Massachusetts, and from thence he was removed, in 1800, to the island of Nantucket.

In this place Methodism was scarcely known at that time. A local preacher by the name of Cannon had preached there with some success, and hence the conference was requested to send them a regular preacher, and Mr. Beauchamp was accordingly sent. Here his piety and talents soon gained him the confidence of the people, and he was instrumental in raising a society of eighty members, and before he left the place a large and commodious house of worship was erected. This laid the foundation of Methodism in the island of Nantucket, which has continued to enlarge its dimensions from time to time, so much so that the New England conference has held two of its sessions in that place, the first in 1820, and the second in 1836.

Unhappily for the Church, whose interests he served, in 1801 Mr. Beauchamp located. In the same year he was united in matrimony to Mrs. Frances Russell, the widow of Mr. A. Russell, who had been lost at sea.

Without stopping to notice the intervening periods of his life, it will be sufficient for the purposes of this short memoir to remark, that he remained in a located relation to the Church until 1822, when he re-entered the traveling connection, and continued therein until his death, which happened on the seventh day of October, 1824, in the fifty-third year of his age.

His piety was unquestionable, and his talents as a minister of Jesus Christ, as a writer, and as a man of business, were of the first order; and, had he continued in the itinerant ministry, no doubt he would have arisen to the first distinction in the Church. During his located relation he removed to the west, and settled first in his former place of residence, on the Little Kenhawa, and then, in 1816, in Chillicothe, and finally he took up his residence at Mount Carmel, Illinois. Of this latter place, he, in conjunction with his friend, Thomas S. Hinde, was the founder. In all the places where he resided he obtained the confidence, respect, and affection of the people, and was eminently useful as a minister of Jesus Christ, as well as a citizen among his neighbors. Indeed, such is said to have been the confidence of his neighbors in his wisdom and integrity, that often civil suits were withdrawn from courts of justice and submitted to his arbitrament. He also infused into the minds of the youth within the circle of his acquaintance a taste for literary acquirements, both by example and precept.

During this same period of his life he appeared before the public as a writer, and in 1811 he published an “Essay on the Truth of the Christian Religion,” which is said, by those who are capable of judging of its character, to be a work of sterling merit. In 1816, while residing at Chillicothe, he became the editor of a monthly periodical, called “The Western Christian Monitor,” for which he furnished some valuable pieces, written with spirit and much critical acumen. At this time we had no periodical publication; and feeling, in common with many others, the want of such a medium of instruction, he was led, aided by some of his literary friends in the west, to undertake this work. For the short time it existed its circulation was considerable, and its pages were enriched with articles, both original and selected, which did honor to the head and heart of its editor. Among others who contributed articles for the Western Christian Monitor was Thomas S. Hinde, better known under the signature of “Theophilus Arminius,” whose sketches of western Methodism afterward enriched the pages of the Methodist Magazine, and who became the biographer of his deceased friend, the Rev. William Beauchamp. The work, however, continued in existence only one year, but it contained evidence of the piety, industry, and talent of its editor.

After the commencement of the Methodist Magazine Mr. Beauchamp became an occasional contributor to that work, and all his pieces bear the stamp of genius, of an original thinker, and an accurate writer.

Having returned to the ranks of the itinerancy, he again entered upon his work with all that ardor, and in the display of those ministerial qualifications, by which he had been before distinguished. In the second year he was appointed a presiding elder of the Indiana district. While traveling this district he was seized with a complaint with which he had before been visited, namely, an affection of the liver. He lingered under the influence of this corroding disease for about six weeks, during which time he exhibited the patience, faith, and love of the Christian, and died in the in hope of eternal life.

Mr. Beauchamp was a close, a diligence, and a successful student, though in his youth he was deprived of the customary advantages of education. While a lad his father removed to the Monongahela, where schools were not to be found. But as he had contracted a taste for books before his removal, he surmounted the difficulties of his situation, procured torch-lights as a substitute for candles or lamps, and when the labors of the day were finished, and the family retired to rest, young Beauchamp would prostrate himself upon the floor, and examine his books by the light of his torch. In this way he treasured up a stock of useful information, of which he availed himself in after life. He became thoroughly acquainted with the principles of his vernacular language, studied the Latin and Greek, and in his riper years mastered the Hebrew tongue. In addition to these acquirements, he cultivated an acquaintance with some of the sciences, through the medium of the most accomplished authors. With this taste for literature and science, it seems strange that he should have neglected the study of history, as it is stated he did, this being of all others the most important to store the mind with useful knowledge, and especially for the minister of the gospel.

These qualifications, superadded to the depth and uniformity of his piety, his love of the Bible, and his acquaintance with its doctrines and precepts, fitted him in an eminent degree for usefulness in the Church; and had he devoted himself exclusively to the work of the gospel ministry, as before said, he might have risen to one of its highest offices: as it was, after his return to the itinerancy, at the General Conference of 1824, which he attended as a delegate from the Missouri conference, he was a candidate for the episcopacy, and lacked only two votes more to insure his election.

His style of preaching was remarkable for its chastity, plainness, and nervousness. No redundancy of words encumbered his sentences — no pomposity of style swelled his periods nor did there appear any effort to produce a momentary effect for the empty purpose of gaining the shout of applause. His attitude in the pulpit was solemn, his gestures easy and graceful, his arguments sound and conclusive, and his positions were all fortified by apposite appeals to the sacred Scripture. And though he made no artificial efforts at oratorical display, yet he exhibited the true eloquence of a gospel minister, by making his language reflect clearly the perceptions of his mind, by pouring the truths of Christianity upon his audience in the purest strains of a neat and energetic diction, and by enforcing the whole by the sincerity and earnestness of his manner. His delivery was deliberate, not loud and boisterous, but clear and distinct, leaving an impression upon the mind of the hearer that truth and duty were the object of his pursuit.

His biographer relates the following incident in proof of the power and conclusiveness of his arguments, when engaged in establishing a controverted point. His antagonist, who was listening attentively to the discourse, finding the arguments too powerful for him to answer, rose, apparently with an intention to leave the house, but was so overcome by the force of truth, and his whole frame so agitated, that, finding himself staggering, he caught hold of the railing, reeled, and dropped upon his seat, and there remained, overwhelmed and confounded, until the sermon was ended; he then silently withdrew, and left Mr. Beauchamp master of the field.

But he rests from his labors. And whatever of human infirmities he may have exhibited, they were lost sight of amid the many excellences which adorned his character, and may therefore be entombed beneath the same turf which hides his mortal remains in Paoli, until the last trumpet shall awake his sleeping dust to life and immortality. Acknowledging himself indebted to divine grace for present peace and future salvation, he hung upon the promises of the gospel for support and comfort, and finally resigned up his soul to God in the full hope of eternal life.

Another of the worthies who exchanged the itinerant race for the crown of reward was William Ross, of the New York conference. Though his race was comparatively short — for he died in the thirty-third year of his age — his course was steady, and his end glorious.

He was a native of Tyringham, Mass., and was born February 10,1792. In the seventeenth year of his age he was made a partaker of the justifying grace of God, became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and, in his twentieth year, entered the ranks of the itinerancy. In the early periods of his ministry he labored chiefly in the state of Vermont, where, in consequence of the badness of the roads and coarseness of the fare, he sometimes suffered many privations, which gave him an opportunity of trying the strength of his resolutions, of his faith in Christ, his love to God and the souls of men. The faithfulness with which he discharged his duties in this rugged field of labor gave him favor in the eyes of the people, and commended him to the approbation of his brethren in the ministry.

After traveling various circuits, in which he acquitted himself as an able minister of the New Testament, in 1821 he was stationed in the city of New York, where he labored two years with great acceptance. For the last two years of his ministry he was stationed in Brooklyn, Long Island, where he ended his life and labors in the full triumph of faith and hope. His last hours, indeed, were a brilliant comment upon the doctrines he had preached, and tended not a little to strengthen our faith in the divinity of their origin, and the efficacy of their application to the heart and conscience.

William Ross is not exhibited as a great man, nor yet as a learned man. He was neither the one nor the other, in the common acceptation of these terms. But he was a good man, a good preacher, and a good husband, father, and friend, and he was thus good because the grace of God in Christ Jesus had made him such. In one sense, indeed, he was great. He had a clear perception of the plan of redemption by Christ Jesus, well understood the sacred Scriptures, was indefatigable in his labors, was an eloquent and successful preacher of righteousness, and exemplified in his own life those pure precepts of Christianity which he recommended to others.

The high estimation in which he was held by his brethren, and by the Christian community generally, may be inferred from his being frequently called, in the course of his ministrations in New York and Brooklyn, to plead the cause of Bible, missionary, Sunday school, and tract societies. Here, indeed, he sometimes spoke with a force and eloquence which astonished and delighted his friends, while it confounded the enemies of these benevolent exertions for the salvation of the world.

In the pulpit there was a peculiar solemnity in his manner, and dignity of expression — the grave, distinct, sonorous intonations of his voice giving force and impressiveness to the sentiments he uttered, and reminded the hearer that be was listening to a messenger who felt the weight and importance of his message. Being a decided friend to all our benevolent institutions, and particularly to the missionary and education causes, he often advocated them in public, and gave them the weight of his influence in his more private intercourse in the circles in which he moved. Some of his satirical thrusts — for he sometimes used this dangerous weapon to put error and folly to the blush — at ignorance and covetousness, cut with the keener edge because of the strength and appropriateness with which they were sent by his skillful hand. Nor was he deterred from exposing these common pests of human society merely because the wounds which he inflicted upon their votaries made them writhe and groan under the sensations of pain which they frequently suffered.

He was equally skillful and much more delighted in the pleasing task of portraying before his audience the glowing beauties of charity, the divine excellences of the other Christian graces, and the attractive charms with which Christianity invested him who clothed himself with its rich and lovely livery. When, therefore, William Ross “occupied that holy place, the pulpit,” no one was disgusted with a repetition of cant and unmeaning — unmeaning, I mean, to him who utters them — phrases, but he listened to the solemn realities of eternity, which fell from the speaker’s lips in accents of deep feeling, in language at once chaste, plain, and intelligible, uttered in a tone of voice which bespoke a soul filled with the subject on which he was discoursing.

I have made this short record as due to one who, had he lived and prospered in his race as lie began and ended it, would doubtless have ranked among the first ministers of our Church. There was, indeed, an amiability of disposition and courteousness, of demeanor about the movements of William Ross which drew forth the love of those who knew him, and at the same time a dignity of deportment which commanded their respect.

There is one fact respecting him, which happened near the close of his life, that goes most forcibly to set off the beauty and strength of his character. When it was ascertained by the official members in the city of Brooklyn that he was to be stationed among them, some of them, perhaps the majority, remonstrated against the appointment, so strongly indeed that the bishop hesitated about insisting upon making it. Among others who may have been consulted, the writer’s opinion was asked. The reply was, “Send him; for such is the weight of his character, the urbanity and meekness of his manners, as well as his talents as a preacher, that he will soon overcome all opposition, and prove himself worthy of the affection and confidence of the people;” and then added, “A people who will reject such a man as William Ross are unworthy of any preacher.” This was said from an intimate acquaintance with the man, and likewise from a knowledge that the objections to him originated from a prejudice which had no foundation in truth and reality.

He was sent. It was not three months before every objection against him was removed, the work of God prospered, the church was filled with hearers, and never was a man more highly esteemed or affectionately loved than brother Ross was by the people of Brooklyn. So highly did they estimate his labors among them, that, immediately after his death, the society contributed about twelve hundred dollars for the support of his widow and orphan children.

Of the other twelve who had ended their labors during the past year, honorable mention is made of their fidelity in the cause of God and of their peaceful death.

Numbers in the Church: Whites This Year: 298,658; Last Year: 280,427; Increase: 18,231 — Colored This Year: 49,537; Last Year: 48,096; Increase: 1,441 — Total This Year: 348,195; Last Year: 328,523 — Increase: 19,672 — Preachers This Year: 1,314; Last Year: 1,272; Increase: 42.

1826

The aboriginal missions which had been commenced and prosecuted under such favorable auspices continued to prosper, and to promise the most happy results. There was, however, no other aboriginal mission opened this year, and nothing worthy of special notice which happened among those which had been begun, except that their continued prosperity still attracted the attention of the Church, and led to those plans for the evangelization of other tribes which will be noticed hereafter.

The great change which had been wrought among the Mississauga Indians, heretofore related, was followed by the most blessed results on other fragments of the same tribe. An additional number of twenty-two, who professed faith in Christ, were baptized this year and formed into a class in Bellville, in Upper Canada. They were placed under the care of two of their principal men, Captain William Beaver and John Sunday, who had before given evidence of a sound conversion, and who now acted as class leaders. Nothing could furnish a more convincing evidence of the thorough change which had been effected in the hearts of these people, than was evinced by their forsaking entirely their the heathenish habits, and banishing from among them the use of all intoxicating liquors, becoming thereby sober and industrious. Infidelity itself was constrained to bow before the majesty of truth, and to confess, however reluctantly, that nothing short of divine power could produce a reformation so thorough and permanent.

Some new missions were commenced this year, embracing parts of Florida and Alabama, called the Holme’s Valley and Pea river missions, and were put under the charge of the presiding elder of the Tallahassee district, the Rev. George Evans. These countries were but thinly populated, the settlements sometimes being from twenty to forty miles distant from each other, separated by a wilderness. On this account it was difficult to collect congregations, or to pass from one settlement to another; but, notwithstanding these discouraging circumstances, the missionaries succeeded in their evangelical efforts in forming societies, so that, in 1827, there were returned on the Holme’s Valley mission one hundred and two white and thirty-five colored members, and on Pea river one hundred and four white and twenty-one colored; and the good work thus begun has steadily gone forward from that time to this, so that Tallahassee has since become the seat of the Alabama conference.

The Rev. S. Belton was sent to form a circuit in the newly settled townships between the Mississepa [sic] and Attawa rivers, in Upper Canada, places which had been seldom if ever visited by any minister of the gospel. The settlements had been formed chiefly by emigrants from Ireland, who were in very moderate circumstances, and therefore unable to do much for the support of religious institutions. They were, however, thankful for the care thus manifested for their spiritual welfare, generally listened with attention to the word of life, and did what they could to make the missionary comfortable. That the word took effect is manifest from the fact that the next year there were returned on the Minutes two hundred and seven members, and the work has continued to prosper, under the labors of God’s servants, from that to the present time.