more, where the preachers are holding, perhaps for the last time, at this writing, (March, 1856,) the session of the "Old Baltimore Conference."

Having examined the stream at its source, let us follow it a short distance as it widens, and hastens on to the ocean. The first effort to introduce Methodism into Baltimore, by means of preaching, was made by Mr. John King, the friend and fellow-labourer of Strawbridge. It was in the winter or spring of 1770. The place selected for opening his mission to the people of Baltimore town, was at the intersection of Front-street and the great eastern road, (now Frenchstreet.) Mr. King stood upon a blacksmith's block, and addressed an audience as discordant and undecided as to what this babbler had to say, as those of Ephesus to whom St. Paul preached for the first time. A Mr. James Baker, deputy surveyor of the county, who was one of his hearers, was deeply convinced of sin, and afterward converted. This was the first fruit gathered to Methodism in Baltimore. Mr. Baker's father lived on Gunpowder Falls, and his house was a preaching place for Mr. Strawbridge, where a flourishing society was formed by him, and met there for many years. Some of his descendants are still living in the city and county, and are influential and pious members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Encouraged by this indication of good, and believing that he was acting in the line of his duty to God and to the souls of men, Mr. King ventured into the heart of the citadel. Here the effect of his preaching was different and somewhat disagreeable to himself. The preacher stood on a table at the corner of Baltimore and Calvert streets, where the Museum now is. It being a day of general muster of the volunteers and militia, some young men of the "higher class," who considered it manly to get drunk on such occasions, determined to interrupt the services and break up the meeting. In the confusion which followed, the table was overturned and the preacher thrown to the ground. The captain of the company, grieved at the rude treatment of a stranger, and perceiving that Mr. King was a countryman of his, interfered and protected him from further molestation.

A circumstance occurred with Mr. King soon after, which, if it were not fully authenticated, might be placed among the "seven wonders of the world;" and considering, also, that he was but a mere lay-preacher, reminds one of Byron's remark, that "truth is stranger than fiction." It was no less than an invitation to preach in St. Paul's Church. By whom this civility was extended to the humble preacher, lately of the block and of the table, we have never

been able to learn; but one effect of the discourse was that some offence was given to the worthy rector; whether it was in the manner or in the matter of the preacher (perhaps both) is not quite clear. One who was present, and from whom we received the information many years ago, said "that Mr. King made the dust fly from the old velvet cushion." He was given to understand very plainly that hereafter the cannon should not be spiked for his benefit.

Early in the summer of 1770 Mr. Pilmore, one of the first missionaries sent over by Mr. Wesley, arrived in Maryland, and after spending some time with Mr. Strawbridge, visiting the societies in Frederick and Baltimore counties, and preaching with much satisfaction to himself and others, came to Baltimore, and addressed the people once or twice, standing on the sidewalk, as they came out of St. Paul's Church after morning service. Being a man of commanding appearance, and withal an able and convincing preacher, he was listened to with much interest. But the happiest event which could have occurred to Methodism in Baltimore, as well as to the cause of religion generally, was the arrival of Mr. Asbury in the fall of 1772, when he preached for the first time, in the morning at the Point, and in town at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at six o'clock in the evening.

Down to this period there had been no disposition shown, on the part of the people, to open their houses for Methodist preaching, or to extend to the preachers those hospitalities which are now so characteristic of Baltimore. It is true those preachers who had preceded Mr. Asbury were allowed the freedom of the place, but it was only to preach in the market-house, or at the corners of the streets, and to take lodgings at an inn, or retire to the country, which was their usual practice. But it was far otherwise in 1772; the good seed which had been sown by Strawbridge, Williams, and others, in the surrounding country, had been productive; while that scattered by King, Pilmore, and Boardman was beginning to spring up in Baltimore, so that Mr. Asbury found a people prepared to his hands. Captain Patton, a friendly Irishman on the Point, was the first to offer his house for preaching, and soon after Mr. William Moore, in town, at the southeast corner of Water and South streets, and also Mrs. Triplett, a pious lady of the German Reformed Church, opened her three story brick dwelling, corner of Baltimore-street and Triplett's Alley. These were soon, filled with attentive hearers, that on the Point taking the lead. In a short time the place was found insufficient to accommodate the people who were anxious to receive the bread of life. A sail-loft, at the corner of Mills and Block streets, was provided free of charge, which

was soon filled to overflowing, many coming from the country a distance of six miles, before some of the people of the town had risen from their beds.

Something like a permanent arrangement being made for perpetuating Methodism in Baltimore, Mr. Asbury set about in good earnest to regulate the societies by settling, as he says, the classes, and thereby giving to Methodism that form and consistency which it had in England; and no man knew better how to do this than he did. He had received a good training under the eye of Mr. Wesley, heartily sympathized with him in all his views in raising up a spiritual people, nor was he inferior to him in zeal, activity, and perseverance.

Hitherto the Methodists in Baltimore had no responsible head, but met together for prayer and mutual instructions without reference to numbers or time; having no one in particular to lead their devotions, and to give advice or reproof when needed. Mr. Asbury wanted order and certainty; and he knew full well that nothing could secure these but Methodist rule. Hence on the 3d of January, 1773, he says, after meeting the society, "I settled a class of men," and on the following evening, after preaching with comfort, "I formed a class of women." Mr. Asbury found it difficult at first to procure a suitable leader for the men, but not so for the women, and being partial to the Wesleyan plan in England, he appointed one of their own number over them as leader. The formation of these two classes, and the addition of others soon after, together with the difficulty of finding room for those who were willing to hear the word of God preached, made it necessary to provide other than mere private accommodation; and, accordingly, in November following, Mr. Asbury, assisted by Jesse Hollingsworth, George Wells, Richard Moale, George Robinson, and John Woodward, purchased (at five shillings) the lot, sixty feet on Strawberry Alley, and seventy-five feet on Fleet-street, for a house of worship, where the church now stands-the only original edifice of the kind of religious denomination in Baltimore. The following year Mr. Wm. Moore and Mr. Philip Rogers* took up two lots, and erected a church in Lovely Lane; Mr. Moore collecting £100 to assist in paying for it. Which of these two churches was first finished is not quite certain; tradition says the latter. The one in Strawberry Alley was commenced in November, 1773; that in Lovely Lane, the 18th of April, 1774. Mr. Asbury, speaking of the latter, remarks, "This day the foundation of our house in Baltimore was laid." "Who could have expected that two men, one among the Both converted by Mr. Asbury's ministry.

FOURTH SERIES, VOL. VIII.-28

chief of sinners, would ever have thus engaged in so great an undertaking for the cause of the blessed Jesus? This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. He hath moved them to this acceptable undertaking; and he will surely complete it, and raise up a people to serve him in this place!" Captain Webb, in writing to Mr. Asbury, then in New-York, said that the church in Lovely Lane was so far finished by the middle of October that he preached in it. It is of this remarkable man, who was the first to introduce Methodism into Philadelphia, and to build up the cause in NewYork, that the elder Adams remarks, while attending the continental Congress of 1774, in Philadelphia, "In the evening I went to the Methodist meeting and heard Mr. Webb, the old soldier, who first came to America in the character of quarter-master, under General Braddock. He is one of the most fluent, eloquent men I ever heard; he reaches the imagination and touches the passions very well, and expresses himself with great propriety."

Mr. Asbury, on his return from New-York to Baltimore, had the satisfaction of seeing the new house in Lovely Lane, (now complete,) and many of his old friends, with some new ones added to their number. Thus we see that in the short space of five years from the time when Mr. King first preached to the people, standing upon a blacksmith's block in old town, Methodism had grown to sufficient importance to command public respect, and to be able to entertain the conference which met in Baltimore, the 21st of May, 1776, the first three conferences having previously been held in Philadelphia. It would be a pleasant task at any time, and more especially when so large a body of Methodist preachers are met near the spot where the first conference was held in our city, to speak of those twenty-three itinerants, who seventy-nine years ago sat in Lovely Lane to give an account of their past labours and trials, and receive new orders for "spreading Scriptural holiness all over these lands;" to call up the names of those pious laymen, Hollingsworth, Rogers, Owings, M'Cannon, Hawkins, men of mark and of might; and those godly women, Rogers, Owens, Huling, Chamberlin, Fornerden, and many others, all prayer-leaders and class-leaders, and true helpers of those preachers who remained at their posts while others had fled, leaving the cause of Methodism to shift for itself, pouring from the heart warm and free the life-blood of Methodism, and sending it forward through the community in which they lived, keeping up their watch-fires in the dark and gloomy time of the Revolutionary war, which was now upon them; four of these noblest preachers in prison,* because they preferred saving men's souls to taking their lives; the • Garrison, Hartley, Forest, and Scott.

66

great Asbury in exile, not being allowed to preach, complaining, silence breaks my heart;" so that at the peace which was proclaimed in eighty-three, that found the strongest church in the land. wasted and almost destroyed, there were more Methodists in Baltimore than in any city or town on the continent.

We have now come within seeing distance of that great event in Methodism which took place in Lovely Lane Chapel, Baltimore, in the winter of 1784, when the Methodist Societies in America became an independent Episcopal Church. It would be tedious to give all the details of the cause which led to this change in the relative situation of the Methodist societies in this country to the Church of England, as well as all other religious denominations. Circumstances threatened the dissolution of Methodism in America, unless some remedy could be applied to prevent the evil. Before the Revolutionary war, the prevailing religion in Maryland had been that of the Church of England; but as most of the clergy had been loyalists, they left the country during the trouble. The Methodists had hitherto been members of the Church of England, but being deprived of their clergy, they found themselves destitute of the ordinances of religion, which they were accustomed to receive at their hands. For years they could not obtain baptism for their children, or the Lord's Supper for themselves, even in those cases in which they were willing to accept of it from any of the ministers of other Churches, unless they would leave the society to which they belonged. From time to time the preachers had earnestly importuned Mr. Asbury to take some measure, that the people might no longer be deprived of those privileges which they believed they ought to enjoy as members of Christ's Church. The case was laid before Mr. Wesley, who considered the subject, and formed a design of drawing up a plan of Church government, and of establishing a system of ordinations for the societies in America. Having, therefore, resolved on the line of conduct he would pursue, at the conference held in Leeds in the year 1784, Mr. Wesley set apart Dr. Coke, as a superintendent or bishop, giving him letters of ordination under his hand and seal to that effect. Dr. Coke arrived in New York, and on his way southward met Mr. Asbury in Delaware, and after consultation it was agreed that a general conference of the preachers should be convoked; and, accordingly, out of eighty-one American preachers, sixty assembled on Christmas Eve in Lovely Lane Chapel, Baltimore, where the form of government, and the manner of worship for the Methodists in America, which Mr. Wesley had arranged, were accepted and established. The name of superintendent was laid aside, and that of bishop was substituted in its place; and, in