Preface. THE " "age of chivalry" was renewed in its noblest aspects, in the beginnings of Methodism. Its history, especially in America, is a record of moral heroism unsurpassed in any age of the Church. The story is yet unwritten. The historians of the country have generally ignored, in utter blindness, one of the richest fields open to them; and the historians of the Church have done but little toward a true and ample account of the vast and valorous labours of these modern apostles. Every memorial, then, however slight, of the lives and toils of the fathers is at once a blessing to the Church, and a contribution to the true history of the civilization of the age. To this class belong the sketches of Wesley, Fletcher, Garrettson, M'Kendree, Roberts, Pickering, and Hedding, given in this volume. To a later period belong the lives of Fisk, Emory, Levings, and Olin; but the very names will justify their collocation here with the elder fathers. They are illustrations-wonderful illustrations in fact-of the vigorous and healthful growth of Methodism; each of them affording a noble specimen of high intellectual power and large accomplishments devoted, with entire self-denial, to the service of the Church of God. One memoir, and only one, of a living person is given and the name of JABEZ BUNTING, the great leader of English Methodism, will justify that deviation from the plan of the volume, if any name could. The names of the authors of the sketches are given in the table of contents, except in two instances not left to the editor's discretion. Should this volume meet with the favour of the public, it will be followed by another, and perhaps by several, in succeeding years, printed and illustrated in the same beautiful style. NEW-YORK, Oct. 20, 1853. JOHN M'CLINTOCK. JOHN WESLEY...... Contents. BY THE REV. O. T. DOBBIN, LL. D., HULL COLLEGE, ENGLAND. PAGE 69 105 139 159 191 223 241 263 275 317 343 BY THE REV. ABEL STEVENS, A. M. THE OLD NEW-ENGLAND CONFERENCE...... ... ... .................. 361 Illustrations. METHODIST BOOK CONCERN......................... ROBERT R. ROBERTS.............. NOAH LEVINGS................ STEPHEN OLIN............. .... 78 105 122 139 159 191 THE HOUSE IN WHICH FLETCHER WAS BORN................ 209 FREEBORN GARRETTSON........................................ WILLBUR FISK.................. PICKERING'S MANSION............. 275 317 WESLEYAN THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, RICHMOND, ENG..... 356 ENTRANCE HALL AND PRINCIPAL STAIRCASE.................. 52 689 |
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