USA > New Jersey > Memorials of Methodism in New Jersey : from the foundation of the first society in the state in 1770, to the completion of the first twenty years of its history > Part 12
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" The day appointed at Mr. Holladay's, the traveling preacher came, and a great concourse attended, to whom he preached; some seemed awakened, some disputed, and some were in great consternation. When he con- cluded he asked if he should give out preaching there again. Mr. H. replied he might. At the time ap- pointed abundance of people attended, to whom brother Ivy preached with great power, being full of faith and the Holy Ghost. Many of the people wept, and it was a good season. By this time there were many doors opened. One cried, Preach at my house ; and another, Preach at my house, &c. The next appointment was made at J. D.'s, for brother Dudley : he came and preached with power. After meeting I told them that that day week I would declare to them, 'Even the mys- tery which hath been hid from ages and from genera- tions, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
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of this mystery, among the Gentiles ; which is Christ in you the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,-Whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily.' Col. i. 26-29. The people concluded that I was going to prophesy, and would tell how the war would terminate ; this brought abundance together. I preached, and God attended the wora with power. I had not spoken long before a professing Qua- ker said it was a mystery to him; but before I con- cluded, himself, his wife, son, and daughter were all struck under conviction, and never rested until they all found rest to their souls, and joined the society. About six months after, the son died in a triumph of faith ; the father was taken ill at the funeral, and never went out of his house again until carried to his grave. He de- parted this life praising God in a transport of joy. By this time there was a general alarm spread through the neighborhood. We had prayer meetings two or three times a week, and at almost every meeting some were either convinced or converted. One old woman, to whose soul the Lord had spoken peace, clapped her hands, and began to praise the creature instead of the Creator. I stepped to her and said, I have done nothing for you; if there be any good, it is the Lord that has done it, and
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therefore praise God. 'Oh,' said she, 'but you are a dear good creature for all !' I turned away and went among the people. At this meeting we had the shout and power of Israel's God in the camp : prayer was kept up until near midnight.
"Next morning a young man came to my house to know what he must do to be saved. I applied the prom- ises of the gospel, and then went to prayer, and after me my wife, and then my daughter Martha ; and while supplicating the throne of grace on his behalf, the Lord, in his infinite goodness, spoke peace to his soul ; and we were all made partakers of the blessing. He joined the society, lived several years, and died clapping his hands, and shouting, 'Glory to God! I am going home!' That moment his hands ceased clapping, he died.
"We had now about twenty-two or three in society ; but persecution soon arose, and the devil stirred up one J. N., a professor of religion among the Presbyterians, who at first appeared very friendly, and was active in bringing us into the neighborhood; but soon after, he became an instrument in the hand of the devil to oppose and lay waste the truth, and did much hurt to the cause of God, and all under the cloak of religion. He went among our young converts, and told them that God had revealed it to him that the Spirit which they professed to receive at their conversions was of the devil, and not
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the Spirit of Christ. But, glory to God ! it was not in the power of men or devils to extinguish the Divine flame, although they cast a cloud on many minds, and turned some out of the way.
" The height of my harvest being on our meeting day, when meeting time came I told my reapers that they must all go to meeting, and that I would pay them their wages as though they were at work. We all went, and God wrought powerfully ; several fell to the floor and two found peace; it was a great day to many. After meeting we returned to our work again.
" I continued for about two months to preach under the trees, for the house would not contain the people. We seldom had a meeting during that period but that some were either convinced, converted, or sanctified.
" I now thought it might be expedient to make an at- tempt toward building a meeting-house. A subscription was drawn for that purpose, but not being able to obtain a suitable piece of ground to build on, as those who had such refused to sell, it fell through for nearly four years, and we continued our meetings as before.
"One day while I was speaking, the power of the Lord laid hold on a Quaker woman, and as she was about to escape, she fell on her hands and knees. Some of her friends helped her up, got her into a wagon and car- ried her off. I was afterward informed that it took them
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two weeks to kill her convictions. The work of the Lord went on among the people, and I continued to im- press the necessity of sanctification upon believers. We had, at that time, twelve children who were converted to God."
While Abbott resided in Penn's Neck, two wicked men resolved that should he attempt to preach at a certain place again they would kill him. The friends besought him not to run the hazard of doing so, but he replied, "I fear them not," and proceeded in his undertaking. " The two men came to the door of the house with heavy clubs in their hands. When Abbott saw them he called aloud on the Lord to 'strike those daring sinners.' Both became alarmed and turned and ran; one fell down; but, by the assistance of their cronies, both got away, so well frightened that they never came to kill Abbott again."*
One day Abbott went to a neighbor's (Tobias Cas- per's), "and told the family that all his children had em- braced religion except his son Elisha ; he had been pray- ing for him, and he believed the Lord would convert him or kill him! The next day the family heard a great and strange noise, just over the Branch, which separated the two farms. Some of the family thought the British
* Methodism in West Jersey. This, and the remaining facts of this chapter are not given in Abbott's Life.
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had come on shore and were about to kill the people over on that side; but Mrs. Casper went to the door, and hearing the sounds, said, 'That is the noise of shouting; it is Elisha Abbott ; he is at work along the Branch.' She went over to see, and there found that the Lord had indeed converted Elisha, all alone, in the swamp or woods. Mrs. Casper found the young man leaping, shouting, and praising God. His father soon came also; and it was such a time as when the fatted calf was killed to celebrate the prodigal's return.
"The husband of Catharine Casper, the woman named, was very much opposed to the Methodists. He hated this new sect, which was everywhere spoken against. He was violently opposed to his wife going to meetings ; but she was faithful; taking up the cross daily, and never faltering in her duty. One Sabbath day, while she was gone to Methodist meeting, her hus- band, Tobias Casper, kindled a fire in the oven. One of his neighbors, Azariah Dixon, came to the house, and seeing the fire blazing from the great mouth of the oven, asked, in amazement, what Casper was about-what he was going to do with the oven. He replied that 'he wanted to heat it nine times hotter than it had ever been, and he intended to burn his wife in it as soon as she came from meeting.' Casper kept up the fire until his wife returned. When she saw it, and inquired what he
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was going to do with the oven, he said, 'To burn you.' "Well, if you have more power than the Master, whom I serve, has to keep me out, I will go in it.' He, no doubt, expected violent opposition, and the offer to go into the fire confounded him. . He looked at her a while and then said, 'Well, you are a fool,' and walked off; and there the affair ended.
" During the first revival in Penn's Neck under the preaching of Benjamin Abbott, a female slave, by the name of Phillis, was converted. She belonged to a wealthy lady of the place, Mrs. Miles; and the lady, displeased with her conversion, made the service of her black slave harder than ever, 'because she had become a Methodist.' But Phillis was faithful, and used to go to the barn to pray. At one time her mistress took the cowhide and went to the barn after her servant. Hear- ing a noise, she paused; and listening, distinctly heard the slave praying to the Lord, and supplicating for mercy for her hard-hearted mistress. Conviction seized the lady's heart; and she exclaimed, 'Can it be possible that my slave thinks more of me and my soul's salvation than I do myself?' She returned to the house leaving poor Phillis at prayer ; and, retiring to her chamber, fell upon her knees and prayed aloud for mercy. Phillis heard the cry when she came in, and in a short time the Lord converted the lady. The overjoyed slave ran off
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to Mrs. Casper, and told her. She came over, and found Mrs. Miles happy in God, praising him for what he had done in answer to the prayers of poor Phillis. At the death of Mrs. Miles, she left Phillis a house, and a lot of four acres of land, which, with her freedom, enabled her to live comfortably during her life. She continued faithful, died happy, and is, no doubt, in the kingdom of heaven with her mistress."*
* Raybold's Methodism in West Jersey.
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CHAPTER XI.
METHODISM IN SALEM.
IN giving sketches of local Churches we cannot well be confined to the chronological method, which we en- deavor to preserve, as far as practicable, in our narrative. To gain a clear and just idea of the establishment of Methodism in any neighborhood or town, it is necessary to group together the events of several years, so that they may be seen in their appropriate relation to each other. On this principle we introduce our sketch of early Methodism in Salem at this period in our narra- tive, (1782,) which was about the time the first Method- ist society was formed in that town.
As Benjamin Abbott was the most distinguished hero of Methodism in Salem county, it will not be improper here to notice some of the facts of his personal history which are not given in his Memoirs.
We have elsewhere remarked that though we had no definite proof of the fact, yet it was our opinion that
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he lived, at the time of his conversion, in the township of Pittsgrove, and that the class which was formed in his neighborhood, and of which he was appointed the leader, must have been the nucleus of either the Broad Neck, or Murphy's, since called Friendship, Church. We have since learned that this opinion is in accordance with the facts in the case.
" At the time of his conversion, [1772,] he lived in the township of Pittsgrove, and labored for one Benja- min Vanmeter, who employed him solely on account of his muscular strength ; for otherwise he was very objec- tionable, being intemperate, and when so very quarrel- some. In the same neighborhood there lived one John Murphy, a member of the Presbyterian Church, a man of sterling sense and extensive reading, whose house ap- pears to have been a home for the Methodist itinerants, and among the first preaching places in the county. After a time he became a member of the society, quite contrary to the wishes of his former friends, so much so that they cited him before the session, and wished to know why he could not be a Presbyterian. He replied, ' that he never could believe that God had ordained man . to sin, and then damned him for doing what he could not help.' Being displeased at this, they commanded si- lence and dismissed him. At the house of John Murphy was formed the first Methodist society in this county,
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and, perhaps, in all Jersey west of Pemberton. Here for several years the circuit preachers preached, admin- istered the ordinances, held love-feasts, &c., until the so- ciety had increased so much that they formed the pur- pose to build, which resulted in the erection of a log meeting-house. On the same site there was erected, about ten years since, a good, substantial brick building, and is called on the Salem circuit plan, Friendship. Benjamin Abbott was, no doubt, one of the first members of this society, as John Murphy was one of his neigh- bors ; and it was returning from a visit to J. Murphy's that Mr. Abbott's wife was converted."
The above is the statement which Rev. Jefferson Lewis wrote and published twenty years ago. He ob- tained his information, no doubt, from authentic sources, and hence his testimony is to be believed. It agrees precisely with the opinion given on a previous page be- fore the writer knew that there was any such corrobora- tive testimony in existence. Mr. Lewis, who took the pains to investigate the subject at that time, says that Abbott, "no doubt, was nearly the first Methodist in Salem County."
The third society that was formed in the county, was, it is understood, at Quinton's Bridge, about three miles from Salem. It was formed about 1781 or 1782, probably as early as 1781. Abbott preached there at
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the house of Benjamin Weatherby, and soon formed a class, among the members of which were Henry Ffirth and John McClaskey. The latter became a distinguished preacher, and filled several important appointments, in- cluding the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Balti- more, and also that of Presiding Elder. The former was a convert from Quakerism, and brother to John Ffirth, the compiler of Abbott's Memoir. He was in- strumental in the erection of the first Methodist Church edifice in the town of Salem.
Rev. John Lednum, who was stationed in Salem in the year 1826, thirty years after the occurrence, and who, therefore, had a good opportunity to learn the facts, says that Mr. Weatherby was "a zealous laborer in the cause of Methodism, and afterward fell away." He thinks that he was the person Mr. Abbott publicly ad- dressed at the funeral of Mrs. Paul, in Salem, a short time before his death, in which address "he called to mind the happy hours that he had spent under his roof ; how much he (Mr. W.) had done for the cause of God ; and how often they had rejoiced together, as fellow-la- borers in Christ Jesus; and then warned him, in the most solemn manner, of his impending danger, in the love and fear of God, until tears flowed, his strength failed, and he was unable to speak any longer." Though Mr. W. appeared angry, yet the word produced its in-
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tended effect ; and, after Mr. Abbott's death, he rose in a love-feast and declared that God had healed his backslidings, and that Mr. Abbott was an instrument in the Divine hand in his restoration .*
" Whether the Penn's Neck," says Mr. Lewis, in the sketch from which we have already quoted,-"whether the Penn's Neck or Salem society has the precedence, in point of time, is difficult to determine. My own opinion, however, founded on circumstances, is, that they were formed nearly at the same time."
Methodism was introduced into Salem about the year 1774. Daniel Ruff, who was appointed that year to Chester circuit, and who, as we have before seen, ex- changed for a time with William Watters, who was on the Trenton circuit, visited the town of Salem and preached in the Court-house. Thomas Ware, who was then a youth about fifteen years of age, was present and heard the sermon. He said when Mr. Ruff entered the town he walked into the porch of the tavern, which was then kept by an uncle of Mr. Ware, and with whom the latter then lived, "and sat down until the bell rang, when he repaired to the house, and opened the exercises by singing the hymn beginning,
' Fountain of life to all below, Let thy salvation roll.'"
* See Life of Abbott. pp. 270-71.
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Sixty-five years after the occurrence of this event Mr. Ware retained a distinct recollection of these words. He also remembered having heard Abbott preach about this time. The latter, undoubtedly, preached in Salem about the same period as Ruff.
One interesting incident connected with Abbott's min- istry in Salem is not given in his Life. He resided at the time, in Mannington, the township adjoining Salem, to which place he removed about two or three years after his conversion. He went into Salem with a load of wood. So far as his appearance was concerned, he presented rather a sorry figure. He wore an old tattered great- coat, girded round the waist with a rope. "Now," said the lawyers, as he advanced up the street, " here is old Abbott, let us have some fun, he'll preach for us if we will ask him." They did ask him, and he consented to preach. The room selected for the service was in the tavern opposite the Court-house, called the grand jury room. When Abbott entered the room he looked all around, and seeing but one door, he took a chair and placed himself in it in order to prevent a retreat on the part of his auditors, and announced for his text, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell ?" Mr. Ware observed that such a flood of terror " had seldom been poured from the lips of any preacher. He, however, closed in a tender, win-
15
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ning manner, by directing them how to escape; and as Mr. W. intimated, much to their relief.
" Mr. Abbott continued to labor as a local preacher, in his peculiar style, throughout the county, for fifteen years ; and, although it was repulsive to many people, and particularly so to formalists, he was greatly in- strumental in the conversion, not only of the immoral, but some who stood high, professionally, in other religious societies, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Churchmen, and even Roman Catholics. So great was his fame in combating the powers of darkness, espe- cially the sin of intemperance, that some thought the devils existed in a kind of subjection to him. A certain man who had been so addicted to drunkenness as to bring on repeated attacks of delirium tremens imagined, during one of these attacks, that his bed-room was full of devils, that he saw them sticking to the tester of his bedstead, &c .; at the same time alleging that father Abbott (as saint and sinner called him) had driven them out of Penn's Neck,* and they had come to Salem, and nothing would answer but father Abbott's prayers to drive them from his bed-room. He was accordingly sent for."
The first meeting-house in Salem was erected in the year 1784. Henry Ffirth superintended the enterprise.
* Abbott removed from Mannington to Penn's Neck, about 1781.
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He was thought to possess some wealth at the time, but he failed shortly after, which gave occasion to the ene- mies of Methodism to say, "The Methodists have ruined him!" The truth was, however, he was involved beyond recovery before he became a Methodist.
When the attempt was made to build a Church in Sa- lem, the society, which was small and scattered, found themselves too weak to accomplish the undertaking. They therefore called upon their Quaker neighbors for assistance, and they subscribed liberally. The matter was talked over at the Friends' Quarterly-meeting, and it was objected that the Methodist preachers " spoke for hire." To this it was answered, " No, it was only for a passing support." At length consent was given that Friends who were free to do so, might contribute towards the enterprise .*
Benjamin Abbott was baptized in this Church soon after it was finished. Although he was converted about twelve years previously, and commenced preaching shortly after, he was not baptized, in consequence of the Methodist ministry being an unordained ministry, until the Salem Church was erected.
The Rev. J. Lewis, in his sketch of Salem Methodism, published in 1839, says :-
" The planting of Methodism in Salem was accom- * Asbury's Journal, vol. i. p. 464.
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panied with many circumstances common to its introduc- tion in other places, and some rather peculiar ; one of the latter I shall mention. The Methodists, on applica- tion to the magistrates, had obtained such effectual relief from open violence that their persecutors were obliged to have recourse to some new expedient to accomplish their purposes, without rendering themselves amenable to justice. The method to which they resorted was this : to assemble together in a place of their own, in order to turn experimental religion into a farce. In this burlesque on religion, the persons present acted band-meetings, class-meetings, and love-feasts to the great entertainment of the profane congregation, who, with corresponding irreverence and much apparent sat- isfaction, enjoyed this new species of theatrical mirth.
"It happened, one night, while they were performing a band-meeting, that a young actress stood upon one of the benches to speak her pretended experience. At length, after having said much to command the mirth of the delighted audience, she exclaimed, with mock solem- nity, at the same time beating her breast, 'Glory be to God, I have found peace, I am sanctified, and am now fit to die.' Scarcely had the unhappy girl uttered these words before she actually dropped from the bench a life- less corpse.
"Struck with this awful visitation the auditors were
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instantly seized with inexpressible terror, and every face filled with consternation and dismay. The assembly im- mediately broke up; and, in consciousness of having gone beyond the bounds of common profaneness, they all silently and sneakingly retired to their respective habitations, except the mournful few left behind to take charge of the melancholy victim. From this moment all persecution was at an end in Salem, and not a tongue was afterward heard either against the gospel or any of its friends .*
"An aged member of society, who joined about ten years after this circumstance took place, informs me that the young woman did not die immediately, but was car- ried, after falling, first to the house of her sister, who, understanding the circumstances, refused to receive her, and, in being conveyed thence, she actually died upon the wheelbarrow with which they conveyed her. This occurrence must have taken place some time about 1792, when Benjamin Abbott and David Bartine traveled the Salem circuit, one of the seven circuits in New Jersey."
In the same territory in which there were then seven circuits, there are now two conferences, and nearly three hundred circuits and stations, and in Salem there are now two large Churches, each one supporting its own pastor. Such has been the growth of Methodism within that period.
* Dr. Coke's Journal, page 186.
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CHAPTER XII.
SKETCHES OF PREACHERS.
WE meet this year for the last time in New Jersey, WILLIAM WATTERS, the first traveling preacher raised up in America, and one of the first that regularly la- bored in New Jersey. He returned this year simply to visit the scenes of his former toils and the friends of other days. He moved slowly, visiting several places, and proclaimed again to his delighted friends the gospel which seven years before he had preached with so much success among them. During his visit he was suffering from the ague, which rendered him, in some degree, unfit for labor; yet the demands made upon him were such that he could not well refrain from preaching, as he says, "I was obliged to preach oftener amongst my old friends than I wished, for my ague and fever attended me as constantly as the day.". He speaks of the work of re- ligion being, at this time, in a prosperous condition in the portion of the State which he visited. We cannot
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take our final leave of him without lingering to cast a more minute survey over the history of his useful life.
As we have already seen, he was born in 1751, ( his birth occurring on the 16th day of October,) in Balti- more county, Maryland. His parents were members of the Church of England, and at the age of two years he was deprived of his father by death. The family were left in comfortable circumstances, though not rich, and at a very early age William was the subject of religious impressions, " but was naturally vain, proud, self-willed, passionate." "Cursing, swearing, lying, and such like practices," he says, "were not allowed in my mother's family; and from my infancy I always found the great- est affection for her, as one of the best of parents ; and if, at any time, I was sensible that I had grieved her in any degree, I never could be at rest till I had humbled myself, and she had shown me tokens of forgiveness."
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