It is quite impossible to give a circumstantial account of the labours of M'Kendree in the West. It is probably enough to say concerning his regular employment, that he gave great efficiency to the presiding eldership. He did not simply as much as his fellow-labourers expected of him, as belonging to his office, but he was in labours more abundant than any one of them. At the Conference of 1805 he was removed to the Cumberland District. district lay between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, and west of the mountain ranges, and was composed of eight circuits, one of which was in the State of Illinois. The work of the Lord continued to increase in every direction. The year following the missionaries penetrated into Missouri.

This

In the summer of 1807 M'Kendree resolved to visit these new fields of labour, and started off in company with two of the preachers. They crossed the Ohio River from the lower part of Kentucky, into the State now called Illinois, but then forming a part of the great North-west Territory. The place where they crossed the river was near the present site of Shawneetown. Hence they proceeded west to Kaskaskia, upon the Kaskaskia River, preaching at every place where they could find any people to listen to the word of salvation.

The journey had its difficulties; but when the work of the Lord prospered the travellers counted all their losses and sufferings great gain. They had to encamp in the woods almost every night; cross many rapid and dangerous streams, where the horse had to swim with both rider and baggage; but a season of prayer, and communion with the Most High, made them quite forget their toil and exposure. It is said that after Mr. M'Kendree had preached,

with his usual ability, at one of his appointments, a gentleman said to him: "Sir, I am convinced that there is a divine influence in your religion; for though I have resided here some years, and have done all within my power to gain the confidence and good-will of my neighbours, you have already many more friends here than I have." Mr. M'Kendree spent some weeks in the two States, and then returned, much encouraged, to his district.

The Conference of 1807, which was held in the town of Chillicothe, Ohio, elected him a delegate to the ensuing General Conference, which was to be held in Baltimore, in May, 1808. It was then that his labours in the West closed, and it may be well to glance at the increase of the Church during the time in which he was connected with it.

The field of labour had grown from one district into five, and it now reached from Natchez on the south to Marietta on the north, from East Tennessee on the east to Missouri on the west. Instead of having only eight men, as at the beginning, to stand up and proclaim the gospel, as many as sixty-six were proclaiming the glad tidings to the western settlements; and not a few of these were men of strong minds, who have since occupied important positions in our Church. The membership increased in the same ratio; less than three thousand names were enrolled when he entered on the work, but now there were more than sixteen thousand. And there was something quite as encouraging as this; the work, mighty as it was, was seemingly but commenced, and they could even then, with some certainty, prophesy that this region was to become the stronghold of Methodism.

The General Conference of 1808 was one of much importance, especially as having provided for the regular delegated Conference, and imposed the restrictive rules which are now part of the constitution of our Church.

The death of the venerable Bishop Whatcoat, and the absence from the continent of Dr. Coke, left Bishop Asbury alone to superintend the whole work. He was himself growing too old for the performance of much labour, and it was evident to all that some assistance must be given him in the exercise of his yearly toils. At first a motion was made to restrict the presiding elder's office, and elect seven additional bishops; but this was lost by a large vote. The effort was then made to secure two bishops; but at last a motion prevailed to elect and consecrate only one.

When Mr. M'Kendree came to the General Conference he was unknown to almost all the younger members, both by name and reputation. He had been so far removed from the centre of the work that he had to some extent become a stranger to most of the eastern preachers, and they were not in the least aware of his magnificent powers as an orator and divine. Indeed, his elder brethren, who had not heard him for seven or eight years, were hardly prepared for the improvement he had made during his self-denying labours in the West; but on the Sabbath before the election for a bishop was to take place, he was appointed to preach in the morning at the Lightstreet Church.

Bishop Asbury, who was present, was heard to say that the sermon would make him a bishop, and his prophecy was true; for on the 12th of May, the day that the resolu tion passed to elect and consecrate an additional bishop, he was elected. The number of votes cast was one hundred

and twenty-eight; of those Mr. M'Kendree had ninetyfive, the remainder being divided between E. Cooper and Jesse Lee; it was the largest majority by which any bishop has been elected, except Bishop Asbury. He was consecrated to the office of bishop, or superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on the 17th of May, 1808, in the Light-street Church, by Bishop Asbury, assisted by Rev. Messrs. Garrettson, Bruce, Lee, and Ware, who were the oldest and most prominent elders in the ministry at that time.

Bishop M'Kendree immediately entered upon the duties of his office with that zeal and diligence which had exalted him in the eyes of his brethren; and Bishop Asbury felt himself greatly relieved, both in the active duties and responsibilities which had been resting upon him since the death of Bishop Whatcoat. Bishop Asbury remarks, in his journal: "The burden is now borne by two pair of shoulders instead of one; the care is cast upon two hearts and heads."

For the first year of Bishop M'Kendree's exercise of the episcopal office he was almost continually with Bishop Asbury, who introduced him to the work, the Conferences, and the preachers. Their route took in nearly all parts of the United States, and a part of Canada, and required them to be moving in all seasons of the year. They visited, prayed, and preached, from Maine to Georgia, along the sea-coast; on the north and west they skimmed along the lakes, the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; and in the interior their steps were known among the damp swamps, and rich prairies, and magnificent mountains of the Alleghany ranges. The roads, in the best seasons, were but poor-in the wet seasons miserable. They lodged sometimes in the

houses of the rich, but quite as often in the log-hut or cabin, and not unfrequently they camped out in the woods.

The following extract from Bishop Asbury's journal contains a lively picture of the situation and thoughts of these two devoted and talented servants of God:-"My flesh sinks under labour. We are riding in a poor thirty-dollar chaise, in partnership-two bishops of us; but it must be confessed that it tallies well with the weight of our purses. What bishops! Well-but we have great news, and we have great times; and each Western, Southern, together with the Virginia Conference, will have one thousand souls truly converted to God. Is not this an equivalent for a light purse? And are we not well paid for starving and toil? Yes, glory to God!”

The General Conference of 1812 met in New-York, and was composed of members from eight Conferences of men whose Christian character and talents had placed them foremost among their brethren. The growing state of the field seemed to call for an addition to the superintendency; but after a full interchange of thoughts it was considered best to let the subject rest as it was. Bishop Asbury had been meditating a visit to his native land; but at the suggestion of his brethren he relinquished the idea, and remained at his post in the itinerancy as efficiently as his age would allow.

Within a month after the adjournment of the General Conference, the United States declared war against Great Britain, and the hostilities occupied the minds of the people, greatly to the injury of the work of the Lord. Bishop Asbury continued, however, to attend the Conferences, in company with his colleague, upon whom devolved by far the greater part of the labour; yet the presence and coun