Methodism, old and new ...

Front matter

METHODISM

OLD AND NEW.

WITH

Preface

ion as has been presented is of course subject to the criticism of the reader.

Methodism is beyond all question a wonderful organization, and it may not be doubted that society is greatly indebted to it and its pioneers in America, as well as in other lands, not only for its humanizing influences, but for the matchless power it has developed in bringing mankind to a better understanding and appreciation of his relations, duties, and responsibilities to the Supreme Architect of the Universe ; and deeply impressed by this great fact, the author of these pages has felt that even so modest a contribution to its literature as is herewith presented will be acceptable to its votaries.

J. R. F.

Contents

CHAPTER I. — Origin op Methodism in England. Introductory Remarks — History of the Movement — Condition of Society in England — The Oxford Students — Wesley joins and leads them — The Wesleys visit America — George Whitefield

takes to the Open Field . 9

CHAPTER II. — Introduction of Methodism in America

Philadelphia the Birthplace of American Methodism — The Sail- Loft Society — Captain Webb, the Soldier Preacher — Pilmoor and John King — The Office of Bishop — Coke, Asbury, and Whatcoat 18 CHAPTER III. — The Class-Meeting the Seed op the Church. Simplicity of the Original Movement — Mr. Wesley the Creature of Circumstances — The First Class in England — Wonderful Growth from a small beginning — M. Guizot's Theory applied — Old St. George's, its Origin and Improvement . . . .27 CHAPTER IV.— The Old Churches.

Superior Progress of Methodism in America — Reasons therefor — - The Pioneers of Local Methodism — Description of St. George's — Criticism on Watson's Annals — Methodism spreading — The Second Street Market-House a Preaching-Place — Old Ebenezer,

1790— Preachers of the Olden Time 35

CHAPTER V. — Progress of Methodism — Bethel Colored Church.

From whence Methodism has drawn its Supplies — The Dutch- Irish Descendants of the Palatines — Mr. Wesley's Connection with the Moravians — He is converted at one of their Prayer- Meetings — Ezekiel Cooper — Criticism on Mr. Lednum's History of Bethel — History of Bethel — " Dickey Allen," the first Colored

Bishop 44

CHAPTER VI. — Divisions of Methodism — The Methodist Protestant Church — Free Methodists — Wesleyan Methodists. Comparison of Methodism Old and New — Prayer, Formal and Informal — No Prayer in the Book for a Broken Leg — Origin of the Methodist Protestant Church — The Free Methodists — The Wesleyan Methodists an Anti-Slavery Church — Primitive Methodists 53

CHAPTER VII. — Another Church for the Colored People — Mission Conferences established — Bishop Asbury and the Negro Punch.

Zoar a Frontier Station — What to do with the Colored People — Adam Wallace in the Conference of 1864 — Conferences composed of Colored Preachers — Rev. Mr. Roberts's Trouble wfth Bethel Congregation — A Barricade erected against his Entrance 61 CHAPTER VIII. — O'Kelley's Rebellion — Strawbridge's Independence.

Rev. Mr. O'Kelley, his Character and Disposition — Ambition threatens* Destruction — The First Council, 1789 — The Demands of the Rebels — They are resisted and Secession follows — Dr. Coke alarmed — O'Kelley organizes the a Republican Methodists" — Persecution of Episcopal Methodists — O'Kelley's Move- 1* 5

6 CONTENTS.

PAGE

ment a Failure — Strawbridge refuses to be controlled by the Rules — Does great good as an Independent Preacher, and dies greatly respected 70

CHAPTER IX. — A Secession prom St. George's — Organization of the Academy Society.

A Graphic Incident by way of Introduction — Trouble in St. George's Society — Bourbons in those Days as now — The Cause of the Difficulty — More than Eighty Members secede — They form an Independent Society — They rent and subsequently Purchase the Old Academy — Who built the Academy — Dr. Franklin a Contributor — The Seceders return to the Conference Fold and are happy — Bishop Asbury in " the College Church" . . 79

CHAPTER X. — A New Departure in Local Methodism — St. Thomas's Church a Failure.

The History of the World a Reflex of its Creation — Enterprise of the Academy Society — Moving into Better Quarters — Westward the Star of Empire — The Academy People build a New Church on Tenth Street, and name it St. Thomas — Stephen Girard makes a Liberal Contribution — Girard and Doctor Stoughton — The New Church a Failure, and is sold to the Episcopalians — ■ Union Methodist Church 90

CHAPTER XI. — Two Important General Conferences, 1808- 1820 — Three Bishops die.

A Revery on the Olden Time — The Church compared with the Government — A Sign of Danger to the Church — Threatening aspect of Affairs in 1808 — A Demand for the Election of Presiding Elders by the Preachers — and for a Delegated Representation—Secession avoided through Concession — The General Conference changed to a Delegated Body — The Presiding Elder Question in 1820 — Death of Bishops Whatcoat, Coke, and Asbury 102

CHAPTER XII.— More New Churches— A Great Preacher. " The Old Brick" — The Kensington District— Methodism preached under the Old Treaty Tree— St. John Street Church— The Old and the New — Remarks on Old Preachers — Rev. John P. Durbin — The Author's First Impressions of him — Appearances deceptive — The Old German Woman at Ebenezer — Mr. Durbin's Strange Power as a Preacher — A Wonderful and Startling Sermon at St. George's — Description of Mr. Durbin . . .113

CHAPTER XIII. — Origin of Salem Church — An Eccentric and Popular Preacher.

Frontier Settlements in Philadelphia— Bush Hill, Goosetown, etc. — Salem Alley the Birthplace of Salem Church— Rev. William Barns — Barns as an Orator — His Irish Brogue — His Eccentricities — Barns as a Loyalist— Characteristic Anecdotes— The Pitman-Barns Controversy — A charge of Heterodoxy not proven — Peculiarity of Doctrine— He dies in the Harness . . . 124

CHAPTER XIV. — Origin of Nazareth — Rev. Solomon Higgins. The Methodists not all Saints— Old Father Gruber, the Circuit Rider — His Treatment of a Dissatisfied Member — The Germ of a New Church Society — Organization of Nazareth— The Perry Street Meeting- House — The Congregation builds a New Church Edifice— Sketch of Rev. Solomon Higgins — His Early History — Mr. Higgins as a Preacher— A Gentleman of the Old School- Anecdote of Gruber — First Methodist Episcopal Church in West Philadelphia— Close of Mr. Higgins's Career . . . .136

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV. — A Controversy out of which grew a New Church.

St. George's Charge convulsed — Stewards versus Trustees — Rev. George Cookman revives an Obsolete Law — It creates Great Disturbance — The Members take Sides pro and con — The Controversy grows hot — The Bishops interpose to make Peace — The Lawyers settle the Question — Dissatisfied Members withdraw from Ebenezer — They organize a New Society and christen it St. Paul's — They worship in Old Southwark Hall — Buy out the Methodist Protestants on Fifth Street — Build St. Paul's on Catharine Street — Liberality of Paul Beck — No Padlock on his Pocket or his Heart 146

CHAPTER XVI.— Rev. John Newland Maffitt.

Introduction on Oratory — Quintilian on the Power of Speech — Appearance of Mr. Maffitt in the American Pulpit — His Birth and Parentage — His Personal Appearance described — Maffitt as a Sensational Preacher — His style of Oratory — Magnetic, flowery, finished, and dazzling — An Incident at Cincinnati — A Converted Horse-Jockey Backslides — Opinion of Mr. Maffitt's Character

\ — Mr. Elsegood relates an Incident — Maffitt's Domestic Relations — Leaves his Wife in Dublin, marries again in Brooklyn — Love with Gall and Honey doth abound — A Light Supper — Fatality of his Life; he dies broken-hearted .... 157

CHAPTER XVII.— Lay Delegation— The Philadelphia Movement.

Importance of the Laity — Sketch of the Movement to procure Lay Representation — Resistance of the Clergy — The Seed planted in a Dry- Goods Store brings forth Fruit — A Meeting of Lay Members from all the Churches called — Ninety-eight Methodist Gentlemen at Trinity — What they did — Another Meeting at Union — A General Convention is called — The Movement obstructed by the War — It is successful after Twenty Years of

CHAPTER XVIII.— Rev. Joseph Rusling.

Introduction, Speech and the Press — Birth and Parentage of Rusling — Personal Description — His Education ; is a Pupil of Rev. William Mann — Rusling as a Poet — Rusling and Banghart on Circuit — " The Infernal Saints' Path" — Rusling on Burlington Circuit — Anecdote of an Old Lady — He is transferred to Philadelphia — His Experience at St. John's — An Extraordinary Occurrence — Obliged to expel a Member, Mr. Rusling and the Trustees are prosecuted — He remains in Philadelphia Six Years — He buys a Presbyterian Church and organizes Fifth Street- Rev. John Kennedy's Criticism — Rusling the Foster-Father of Abel Stevens — He takes him out of a Factory and educates him — Anecdote of his Brother Sedgwick — Rusling the Father of the

Church at New Castle 182

CHAPTER XIX.— The Itinerancy.

Criticism on Progress and Religious Beliefs — Many Methodists tired of the Itinerancy — Incident concerning a New York Methodist — Comparisons of the Old and New — A Case in Point at Saratoga — Origin of the Itinerancy System — Whitefield and Wesley differ — First Preachers in Ireland — The Itinerancy in America — Its Great Importance and Results — Bishop Asbury on the Generations of Methodism — An Incident — Fashionable Methodists of the Seventh Generation ..... 196

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PAGE

CHAPTER XX.— Camp-Meetings.

The Great Church of the Future — The First Camp-Meeting in the United States — Bishop Simpson and Father Boehm don't agree — Camp-Meetings now and then — Lorenzo Dow inaugurates Camp-Meetings in England — The Wesleyan Conference prohibits them — Description of Dow — His Early Life and Experience — His Trouble about Religion — He contemplates Suicide — He marries, and Travels extensively — His Wandering Life and Eccentricity — He is prosecuted for Libelling a Dead Man and is convicted— His Wife " Peggy" 208

CHAPTER XXI. — Asbury on Church Location.

Mr. Asbury's Opinion of Building Churches in Obscure Places — Fruitful Years — Establishment of Asbury Church, West Philadelphia — Missionary Spirit at Ebenezer — Rev. George G. Cookman preaching on the Wharf — The Devil's Stamping Ground — The Old Mariners' Bethel— The New Mariners' Bethel . .218

CHAPTER XXII.— Rev. Charles Pitman.

The Heart of a Statesman in his Head — David Paul Brown on Heart-Power — Birth and Education of Mr. Pitman — He takes the Field as an Exhorter in 1815 — His Career as Preacher and otherwise — Personal Appearance — His Mental Powers — His Great Power as a Preacher — A Thrilling Incident at St. George's — Mr. Pitman as a Business Man 228

CHAPTER XXIII. — Controversy to be discouraged.

Lord Bacon on "the Unity of Religion" — Bishop Asbury's Advice to Young Preachers — Rev. Henry G. King — His Personal Appearance and Style of Dress — His Birth and Parentage — Peculiar Characteristics — His Ministry in Philadelphia — A Great Camp-Meeting Preacher — Gruber's play upon Names . . 236

CHAPTER XXIV.— The Brickmakers of 1832.

Introduction of the Cholera in Philadelphia — Panic among the People — Sinners resort to the Brick-Kilns for Salvation — The Brickmakers' Church organized — Meetings in an Old China- Factory — Doctor Swaim gives them Ground and they build a Church — Western Methodist Episcopal Church — Its want of Success — A Reminiscence ........ 245

CHAPTER XXV.— There is no Time like the Old Time. A Retrospect — An Opinion by Ruskin — Ebenezer the First-Born of Mother St. George's — Her Offspring — Some Old Members — More Missionary Effort — A Sunday-School grows to be a Church Society — Bethesda Mission on Rye Street — Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church — Rev. John A. Boyle — Rev. Wm. C. Poulson 257

CHAPTER XXVI.— Rev. John Wesley.

Wesley as the Founder of Methodism — His Birth and Parentage —The Mother devotes the Son to God on account of his Providential Escape from Death — His Grandfather — Wesley a Creature of Circumstances — Comparison with the Reformers of Old — The Singular Experience of Mr. Wesley — He sails for America, and arrives at Savannah, Georgia— The New World a School of Instruction and Trial — His Affair with Miss Hopkey, and the Persecution that followed — He returns to England— His Personal Appearance — Amiability and Firmness of Character combined 266

Appendix

Doctrine — Articles of Religion — Statistics 283

METHODISM,

OLD A£TD NEW.

CHAPTEE I.

Origin of Methodism in England.

The marked growth of the Christian denomination which owes its existence to Wesley, not only in our own but in other countries, renders a consideration of its movements or its status, either generally or locally, at all times a subject of much interest to very many persons. And it has hence been thought that a series of articles relating to its existence in the olden time, and its progress during the several decades that have since passed, would be acceptable to a large number of readers.

It may be safely said that the period of our history covered by the years that have elapsed since the breaking out of the recent rebellion have constituted not only " a fast age," but one of remarkable forgetfulness. It is not at all surprising that such is the fact, for the strain upon the public mind during the period covered by the war, supplemented and continued, as has been the case, by reason of the industrial and financial a* 9

METHODISM, OLD AND NEW.

revolution that followed, has not only proved a most powerful absorbent of mind and memory, but a source of great demoralization, and it will require years of less " disjointed thinking" and reading to restore the necessary healthful equilibrium by which our people will be enabled to retrospect with facility and profit such portions of their country's history as are essential to creditable intercourse in society.

We are a somewhat singular people, differing widely in many material ways and methods from any others on the face of the globe. Our propensity for overdoing things, for instance, is without a parallel in the history of other nations. This propensity leads to an underdoing, or a neglect of things that are vital to our interest, morally, politically, and commercially ; and it is greatly to be deplored that there has not been discovered some better means of calling a " halt" than the too often inevitable one that is best distinguished by the term " crash." The rapid progress made in our country during the half-century which closed with our centennial year has been of such startling character as to wellnigh daze the ordinary mind, and it is therefore not at all wonderful if the conditions that existed, or events that transpired, only two or three decades back of the present, are like so much Greek and Hebrew to an immensely large number of our people. To what extent this marvellous progress has been beneficial to the Church, and whether it has served to promote the original design of what is here best expressed as Wesley ism, or to obstruct it, is a question upon which

ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN ENGLAND. H opinions will differ ; but the man or woman who knows anything about the origin of Methodism, and who goes into a Methodist church of the present day, especially such as are found in the large and populous cities of the country, gets but a poor idea of the primitive sort of meeting-house in which the fathers of the sect were wont to minister or worship ; and, glancing at the fashionable array and costly attire of " the congregation," one will seek in vain for the plainness recommended as an essential ingredient of the " new generation" by the founder of this now extensive denomination of Christians.

THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF METHODISM,

although sparse enough, is a plain and simple one, and the name under which the Banner of the Cross has been carried to remotest quarters of the earth was given to it in derision, designed, indeed, to be one of reproach. It was in the year 1729 that a few students in the Oxford (England) University, lamenting the low-down condition to which the Church had fallen, and the want of vital Christianity that was everywhere apparent, even among the clergy, commenced the reading and study of the Sacred Scriptures in the original tongue.

Bishop Simpson, in his recently-published " Cyclopedia," referring to the state of religion in Great Britain at the period mentioned, says it was " deplorable," and adds : " From the period of the restoration, infidelity was widely diffused, and it had deeply affected the educated classes of society. Public morals suffered from

METHODISM, OLD AND NEW.

the abandonment of religious principles, and from the example of those high in authority. While there were some of the clergy of the Church of England illustrious for intellectual power and personal piety, many were quite ignorant, and even loose in their morals. Writers like Swift and Sterne indulged in licentious humor, to the discredit of the pulpit which they occupied, while other clergymen spent their time in hunting, gambling, and intemperance. Doctrinal views were as unsettled as conduct. Arianism and Socinianism were advocated by such writers as Clarke, Priestley, and Whiston, and evangelical piety was regarded as fanaticism. Bishop Burnett deploringly says 6 the outward state of things is bad enough, God knows, but that which heightens my fears rises chiefly from the inward state into which we are unhappily fallen/ i Of the clergy/ he adds, 'the much greater part of those who come to be ordained are ignorant to a great degree not to be apprehended by those who are not obliged to know it/ . . . Dr. Watts, the eminent poet, states that, 'both among dissenters and churchmen, there was a general decay of religion in the hearts and lives of men/ Archbishop Decker says 6 such are the dissoluteness and contempt of principle in the higher part of the world, and the profligacy, intemperance, and fearlessness of committing crime in the lower, as must, if this torrent of impiety stop not, become absolutely fatal/ "*

* Hon. Benjamin Harris Brewster, in an elaborate and finished address delivered before the literary societies of Dickinson Col-

ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN ENGLAND.

Other authors show the same deplorable condition of the churches and the masses of the people, and it was lege at the ninety-sixth commencement of that institution, referring to the period immediately preceding the inception of Methodism, and the then existing and dangerous condition of society in England, says, " Turn then to the history of England, at, and about the time of its (Methodism's) establishment, and we will immediately see how potential it was for the political, social, and temporal security of that kingdom. "When John Wesley felt the divine impulse within him, when, chosen and sanctified by God's grace, he went forth to save men, there was a season of lassitude and indifference. The very devil of sensual impiety and heartless irreligion pervaded all walks of life. Christianity was not believed in. It was treated as if it were untrue, but permitted because it was necessary for society to have some form of religious belief. . . . The chief ministers of the Church, often stained with sin and puffed up with pride, delivered over to underlings the people they were deputed to guide and save. The rich were growing richer, the poor poorer. The vulgar vices of those in authority were readily taken up and imitated by the untaught and unprotected population. Infidelity was active, aggressive, and generally diffused ; rebellious discontent was fermenting in the souls of men who saw no happiness in this life, and who believed they were doomed to a fate of perpetual labor, living on the edge of starvation. Society was sick, sick to its heart of hearts, and a fearful storm was gathering. That sentiment of Nihilism which Peter Lombard, the ' master of the sentences,' is reported to have taught in the twelfth century, and Abelard is accused of having been the author of, and which now infests the Kussian Empire, and was the ruling principle of communistic action, was crawling over the public mind of the common people of Great Britain. . . .

" The bloodshed and blasphemy of the French Eevolution would have been repeated in England, had it not been for the interposition of this religious zeal, excited and organized by John Wesley.

METHODISM, OLD AND NEW.

in presence of this wretched state of affairs, that the students already mentioned set about the work of vitalizing, or, to use a modern term, reconstructing themselves, with a view, doubtless, to sow broadcast the seed from which might result the fruit they expected to reap through an honest and sincere study of the Word of God in all its entirety. These young men formed themselves into a society, the membership of which was at first confined to an extremely small number. Their object w T as not simply to read and study the Scriptures, but to aid and support each other in efforts for religious improvement. They arranged their time and systematized their conduct, and fixed for themselves and observed certain times and periods for fasting and prayer, and, as they progressed and received inspiration from on High, they went outside of the University among the people, carrying with them the faith with which they had been inspired, and exhorting the people to repentance and reformation ; and here may be said to have originated what we may quite properly characterize as the colossal structure now known as Methodism. The fellow-students of these young pioneers in the work of

The middle and lower classes were captivated with its influence, and thus diverted from righting their grievances with the sword or the flames of revolution. The very men who suffered most, and would have heen the first to have revolted against the evils that enveloped them, were the first to repel all attempts to excite them to acts of resistance and popular tumult. . . . The men who shouted with Wesley and Whitefield at their chapels and in their field preaching, would have heen raving with anarchy and burning with hatred for all religion.' 7

ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN ENGLAND. 15

Gospel truth, of course, ridiculed them, and applied to them various terms designed to be of reproach. They called them "Holy Bigots," "The Godly Club," "The Holy Club," and Methodists, a term which had been applied in derision very many years before to a sect of persons otherwise known as Anabaptists.

JOHN WESLEY,

who a great many persons in this country believe to have been an illiterate person, was a Fellow of Lincoln College. He was a man of superior attainments and an accomplished scholar. He had been ordained a priest, and had acted for some time as a curate. At the period stated he was about twenty-five years old, a sincere and devout Christian.

As the little society w^hich originated in Oxford grew by degrees, and began to be felt outside of the University, Mr. Wesley was added to its number. Something older than the others, he developed administrative ability that attracted attention, and, as is usual in all such cases, he was very soon accepted as a leader of the little band, just as Washington and other heroes of our Kevolutionary times who developed the needed capacity, whether of a civil or military character, were accepted by the people as leaders in either council or field of war ; and directly there grew into being an active organization, with Mr. Wesley as its head and director. Among

THE PIONEERS OF METHODISM

in England were also Charles Wesley, an educated man,

METHODISM, OLD AND NEW.

and a college tutor ; the celebrated preacher Whitefield, Doctor Coke, Morgan, Kirkham, Burridge, Hervey, and Ingham, and, by way of ridicule, Mr. Wesley was styled, by the opposition that would naturally exist to such a movement, the " Curator of the Holy Club." The little society grew apace, but differences arose as to points of doctrine, and some of those at first connected with it turned their steps in other directions. We do not find that there was, at the beginning of this movement, any intention on the part of those concerned in it to organize or establish a separate church or denomination, but it is ever thus of progressive movements which concern the interest of the masses of mankind. If the principle involved be of a vital character, it grows as it is elaborated, and its swelling proportions directly call for such substantial recognition as results in distinctive and permanent organization.

Within ten years after the date given above, the Wesleys visited this country, and after their return to England they began the public preaching of the Word. Whitefield, however, took the field in advance, and the churches being closed against him, he preached in the open air.

" Letting down the gilded chains from high, He drew his audience upward to the sky."

" I thought," said he, " that it might be doing the service of my Creator, who had a mountain for His pulpit and the heavens for a sounding-board ; and who, when His gospel was rejected by the Jews, sent His

ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN ENGLAND. 17

servants into the highways and hedges." This declaration was probably made in justification of what the Wesleys were disposed at first to consider too much of an innovation, for Whitefield was really the advance courier of Methodism in the open field, the pioneer who went before all the rest, and felled the trees in the forests, and cut away the matted accumulations, the growth of many years of ignorance, neglect, and debauchery that had overspread the land ; but the Wesleys followed shortly after him, and the elder of these two, feeling, probably, that he also must justify his departure from the " decorum" of the Church establishment, said, "I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation and thus was the bark of the new generation of Christians got ready for launching on the sea of public opinion in England. But it was as yet a shapeless affair. A single word signified the nature of the propelling force, and that was reform. There was then no dream of revolution. Nothing more was sought than a revival of religion ; a calling back of the people to duty, and a realization of their responsibility to God. We shall see, however, as Ave progress,

" The matchless working of the Power That shuts within the seed the future flower, Bids these in elegance of form excel, In color these, and these delight the smell : Sends Nature forth, the daughter of the skies, To dance on earth and charm all human eyes."

2*

CHAPTER II.

Introduction of Methodism in America.

Although it is historically stated that " Methodism was introduced into New York and Maryland in 1766, and gradually spread along the coast," it may, nevertheless, be fairly claimed that Philadelphia is the birthplace of American Methodism; and, considering the predominance of the Quaker element in that city in the olden time, the fact is one of just pride to its very many citizens who are connected with that denomination of Christians. It was there that the first "Annual Conference" was held, and there stands to-day the oldest Methodist church edifice in America. It was there, also, that the first " General Conference" was held, and, for many years, the " Quaker City" was the fountain from which flowed the streamlets which in after-times grew to be swollen rivers of Gospel truth and vital Christianity.

Bishop Simpson, in his " Cyclopaedia of Methodism," says: "As early as 1767, Captain Webb held the first Methodist service in Philadelphia. Dr. Wrangle, a Swedish missionary, who had preached in Philadelphia, and who was acquainted with Mr. Wesley's writings, on leaving that city had recommended his members to hear any of Mr. Wesley's preachers who 18 might visit that city. Hence the way was prepared for Captain Webb's reception." The author adds : " In 1768 he organized a class of seven members, . . . and during 1769 additions were made to the society." This " society/' which constituted, as we think, the first organization of Methodism in America, met for some time in a sail-loft on the edge of what was then Dock Creek, near where is now the line of Front Street. During this year, as is learned from the authority quoted, Messrs. Boardman and Pilmoor arrived in Philadelphia as missionaries, sent out by Mr. Wesley, the former, after having preached there for a while, going to New York. Mr. Pilmoor, who remained in that city, wrote to Mr. Wesley that he found there about " an hundred members."

Bishop Simpson, in his article on New York City, says : " The first Methodist society in New York was founded in 1776," — eight years later, as will be seen, than the date given for the sail-loft organization or society in Philadelphia, and seven years after Mr. Pilmoor had written to England that he found there " an hundred members." It is true that there had been some preaching in New York previous to the time fixed as the period for the foundation of the first society in that city, and there was certainly exhortation by Embury, and some preaching by Captain Webb as early as 1768 ; but the question of priority in this connection is not, perhaps, of sufficient importance to warrant a discussion of it at greater length.