you replied, 'Make known to me the way, and in thy strength will I walk therein.' He then said, 'Go quickly forth among the crowds of earth, and let love and pity raise thy voice aloud to inform them that I am willing to save the chief of sinners from hell and from a dreadful eternity."

In the course of the dream various objections are made by him for whom this bright throne was prepared: his unfitness for so great a work, his lack of gifts, his unholiness, his dread of criticism, his pride. By the ingenious dreamer these are all overruled, and shown to be mere delusions of the enemy; and the conclusion is the utterance, by the hitherto disobedient prophet, of Paul's memorable words "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel!"

Frequently in after life was the good bishop wont to advert to the dream of the local preacher; and, now that he is seated upon that throne, and wears that dazzling crown, is it unlawful to suppose that this reminiscence of the past may form an ingredient in his cup of perfect bliss?

Soon after, at a watch-night, he gave his first public exhortation, having journeyed some six or seven miles on foot for the purpose of being present. He was clad in the garb of a backwoodsman; but his discourse, says one who was privileged to hear it, "was worthy of gray hairs and broadcloth." In fact, the whole congregation were perfectly amazed at the eloquence of his appealits propriety of language and its force of argument. He preached his trial sermon from the words of the prophet, "O Lord, revive thy work," and was recommended to the Baltimore Conference as a suitable person to be received as a travelling preacher. He did not attend the meeting of that body, having, as he conceived, done his duty by consenting that his application should be forwarded, and, with a mind at rest, he awaited the result. The responsibility was now thrown from his own shoulders; and if the Conference had declined to receive him, he would have taken their decision as the voice of God and rejoiced, for, as yet, he dreaded the sacrifices, the trials, and the toils of an itinerant life. Such, indeed, had nearly been the result. On the presentation of his name, objections were made to his reception. Most of the leading members of the body were single men, and young Roberts had a wife. The few who were acquainted with him stated his qualifications and eulogized his talents. They knew Mrs. Roberts also, and were satisfied that she would be no hindrance to her husband in the work of the ministry; but the prejudice against receiving married preachers was so strong that but a bare majority voted for his reception, and he was appointed as junior preacher on the Carlisle Circuit.

As is the case with regard to most of the early Methodist preachers, there are but few memorials of the labours of this young itinerant. "He was powerful and popular from the beginning," is the brief but comprehensive testimony of one who knew him well. At the various appointments on his circuit, he was, as a preacher, exceedingly popular. The more intelligent portions of the people of all denominations attended upon his ministry. As a singular peculiarity, it is stated that this tended rather to intimidate than to encourage him; and, at one of his Sabbath appointments, seeing the multitudes flocking to the house where he was expected to preach, his heart failed him, and he hid himself away until long after the time for commencing worship. He then dragged himself into the church, where he hoped to find some local preacher in the pulpit. He was disappointed, entered the sacred desk, and, after a few minutes spent in secret prayer, conducted the service with unusual liberty. "His performance on that occasion," says his biographer, "was spoken of with enthusiasm by the élite of the town, and served as a new reason for the increase of his congregation in future." His unaffected modesty won the hearts of his hearers; his solid good sense instructed the most intelligent; and the deep vein of piety and the holy unction which imbued his discourse, "became wine and fat things to the religious part of his audience."

With some of his own people, however, he was not so popular. His love of order and decorum, and his natural good taste, revolted from practices which, to some extent, were common in those regions at that day, and which were deemed, by the more enthusiastic, as sure evidences of the divine presence. Loud shouting, jumping, clapping of hands, and falling prostrate upon the floor, embarrassed the young man exceedingly. "We like him," said they, "well enough as a preacher; but when our meetings become lively he stops, and has nothing to say." So it was all through life. As junior preacher, when in charge of a circuit or station, as presiding elder of a district, and when in the office of bishop, he stopped and said nothing during these occasional paroxysms of excited feeling; but that was all. He uttered no language of rebuke, lest he might thereby cause Christ's little ones to stumble. He stood still, and resumed not his discourse until the storm had passed away. The result was, that when Roberts was in the pulpit, while there was always deep feeling, mingled at times with the half-stifled sobs of the penitent, the people controlled these boisterous manifestations, and all things pertaining to divine worship were done in accordance with the apostolic direction, decently and in order.

While he was upon Montgomery Circuit, to which he was transferred at the close of his first year's labour, he was invited to attend a camp-meeting in the neighbourhood of Baltimore, the first ever held east of the Alleghany Mountains. This was in the summer of 1803. It was a time of great power. Sinners fell in every direction. The noise and confusion unfavourably affected the mind of Mr. Roberts. He became very much troubled. For two days he was in a state of sadness and dejection. He knew not what to do. Balancing the evil and the good, and endeavouring to lay aside his prejudices and prepossessions, he retired into the woods, where, after a season of secret prayer, his mind became relieved, and he was enabled to take part in the exercises. Thereafter, although he occasionally attended such meetings, and preached at them in the demonstration of the Spirit and with power, he never greatly admired them, and had doubts of their propriety; at least, in those parts of the country where there are houses of worship sufficient to accommodate the people.

For the sake of his own comments, we may here advert to an undertaking which Mr. Roberts afterward regretted. This was the building of a mill, from the profits of which he hoped to maintain his family. Thirty-seven years afterward he gives this account of the matter, with advice less needed now, we venture to hope, than in the earlier days of Methodism. "I would advise," he says, "all preachers never to quit the work of the Lord to serve tables. However fair their prospects at making money may be, they are frequently delusive, and such ministers are losers in the end. As I had but little support from quarterage, I thought my family could be maintained by a mill, and I should be better able to travel without anxiety. But it was not so. It embarrassed my mind and took up my attention; and though for a while it did well, it eventually proved a loss."

The Conference passed a vote of censure upon his conduct for thus endeavoring to eke out the scanty pittance received for his ministerial support. It seems to us that the censure was more deserved by the people to whom he broke the bread of life. His poverty was so great on one occasion, when about to take a long journey, that all the cash he had in the world was fifty cents, with which, and the like amount borrowed from his colleague, he left the West Wheeling Circuit to attend the General Conference at Baltimore, in the year 1808. With this sum in his pocket he commenced, on horseback, a ride of three hundred miles, and reached his destination with five cents unexpended.

At the Conference he appears to have taken but little part in the public debates, though he was attentive to all the business brought before the body; and he preached in several of the churches with so much acceptance, that, by the urgent request of the people, Bishop Asbury transferred him from his circuit and gave him the pastoral charge of the church in Light-street, in the city of Baltimore. Here he maintained his reputation, and, after two years, was transferred to Fell's Point, thence to Alexandria, then to Georgetown; and in the years 1813-14 he was stationed in the city of Philadelphia. The year following he was made presiding elder of the Schuylkill District, and there being