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 14
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JOHN TUNNEL was admitted on trial in 1777, and ap- pointed to Brunswick circuit, Va., in company with Wil- liam Watters and Freeborn Garrettson. These were all excellent and laborious men, yet their labors in that field were not remarkably successful. Much depends upon the circumstances under which, and the character of the people among whom, the minister labors. Sometimes
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there may be a large congregation to listen to the word, and yet that congregation may be mainly composed of persons who already profess to have experienced the saving power of the gospel. In that case if a pastor builds up the flock in holiness he does a blessed work. It is not to be expected that he should have a great ingathering of souls, if but few are within the circle of his, or his Church's influence, who do not already profess religion. Even the strongest and most effective men of our primitive ministry did not always witness, imme- diately, such results of their labors as they desired. This is shown by the following passage from the Life of Watters, in regard to his own and Garrettson's and Tun- nell's labors in Brunswick circuit :
"In this circuit," he says, "we had many hearers, but only a few of those who were not of our society ap- peared to be benefited by our preaching. There were large societies in almost every neighborhood, and gener- ally speaking, our brethren were lively, many of them much so. My hands were full, and my work was much greater than my strength; so that I often feared I did not pay that particular attention to every soul of my charge, that I ought. My two brethren who labored with me were very devout and faithful men, and I was not a little comforted in the thought that they would supply my lack of service. We endeavored to bear each
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other's burthens and strengthen each other's hands ; and though our success was by no means equal to our wishes, yet the Lord did evidently own us in every neighbor- hood, both in and out of our societies. We labored to the utmost of our abilities in the good and gracious cause of our glorious Master, and daily found his service to be perfect freedom."
In 1778 Tunnell was appointed to Baltimore with Jo- seph Cromwell, Thomas M'Clure, and John Beck. M'Clure had previously labored in New Jersey, Crom- well and Tunnell also subsequently labored there. In 1779-80 he was appointed to Berkeley, Va., with John Haggerty ; Micaijah Debruler laboring with them the second year as preacher in charge. In 1781 he was ap- pointed to Kent, Delaware; 1782, East Jersey, as preacher in charge; 1783, Kent, Md .; 1784, Dorches- ter, Md. ; 1785, Charleston. In 1786 he was "Elder" over a district which included East Jersey, Newark, New York, and Long Island. In 1787 he went to East Ten- nessee, where he labored as Elder. The circumstances under which he went to that missionary field are given by Rev. Thomas Ware, in an article published in the Christian Advocate and Journal, Feb. 28, 1834, as fol- lows :-
" It was at a Conference in the spring of 1787 where three young men, who esteemed the reproach of Christ
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greater riches than all earthly treasures, volunteered to accompany the Rev. John Tunnell on a mission to East Tennessee, then called Holstein. A mission at that time to this section of country was no less perilous than one at this time is to the coast of Western Africa.
"East Tennessee, though very remote from trade, is a fine country. It is finely watered by five rivers, of which Holstein is the chief; but none of them is navi- gable but for small boats. The bottoms along the water courses are very rich, and here the first settlers became located, and of course the population was vastly scat- tered, insomuch that a parochial ministry could not be supported. And, although it had become a State, it might rather have been called a pagan, than a Christian State; for when we arrived there, there were not more than four or five sorry preaching-houses within its whole jurisdiction, two of which had been built by the Meth- odists.
" Here, then, was a pressing call for itinerants. And the pious father of Mr. Tunnell had written an affecting letter to his son, describing their destitution of the means of grace, and urging him to come to them, and bring with him two or three young men who counted not their lives dear, so that they might save souls, and closed with-Let no one come who is afraid to die : their lives will often be in jeopardy from the red men of the wilder-
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ness. And the Rev. H. Willis, who had traveled one year in Holstein, said, All that good old Mr. Tunnell had said was true, and more; and in his view all that went on this mission should know all about it-should know if they traveled there, they must ford and swim the rivers at the risk of life; sleep, if they could, in the summer in blankets, and in winter in open log-cabins, with light bed-clothes, and often with two or three child- ren in bed with you. But in particular, he should know that he was going to a frontier country, infested with savage men, cruel as the grave. Yes, continued he, the red man, seeing his possessions wasting away as the white man approaches, has become infuriated, and is re- solved to sell his country at the dearest rate, and, sav- age-like, wreaks his vengeance indiscriminately ; hence many a hapless virgin, or mother and her innocent babes, are slaughtered or led away captives ; moreover, it is needful that they should know clothing is dear and money scarce."
Notwithstanding the perils that awaited them, Tunnell and his associates heroically entered that rugged field which so greatly needed their evangelical labors, and he continued there to toil until the Master said, "It is enough ! Come up higher."
In 1788 he was elder over a very large district which included ten circuits and extended into North Carolina.
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In 1789 he was elder in East Tennessee. This was his last appointment. He died of consumption at the Sweet Springs, in July, 1790.
Tunnell was a man of placid spirit, and " was no less tranquil in his death than in his life." He was deficient in physical strength, and his "appearance very much re- sembled that of a dead man," but he possessed a strong, musical voice, with which he frequently "poured forth a flood of heavenly eloquence," when he seemed like "a messenger from the invisible world." "A sailor was one day passing where Tunnell was preaching. He stopped to listen and was observed to be much affected ; and, on meeting with his companions after he left, he said, ' I have been listening to a man who has been dead and in heaven; but he has returned, and is telling the people all about that world.' And he declared to them he had never been so much affected by anything he had ever seen or heard before."*
Asbury visited him during his illness, and found him very low, " but very humble and patient under his afflic- tion." The Bishop attended his funeral, on occasion of which he recorded the following tribute in his Journal : " Brother Tunnell's corpse was brought to Dew's Chapel. I preached his funeral: my text, 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' We were much blessed and
* Life of Rev. Thomas Ware, p. 85.
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the power of God was eminently present. It is about fourteen years since brother Tunnell first knew the Lord; and he has spoken about thirteen years, and traveled through eight of the thirteen states ; few men, as public ministers, were better known or more beloved. He was a simple hearted, artless, child-like man ; for his opportunities he was a man of good learning, had a large fund of Scripture knowledge, was a good historian, a sensible, improving preacher, a most affectionate friend, and a great saint; he had been wasting and declining in strength and health for eight years past, and for the last twelve months sinking into a consumption."
Lee, the first historian of American Methodism, pays a tribute to Tunnell's excellence and gifts as follows :- "Mr. Tunnell was elected to the office of an elder at the Christmas Conference, when we were first formed into a Church. His gifts, as a preacher, were great ; and his conduct, as a pious man, was worthy of imita- tion. He was greatly beloved in his life, and much la- mented in his death. He died about a mile to the west of the Sweet Springs. His friends took his remains over the mountain to a meeting-house about five miles east of the Sweet Springs, where they buried him."
JOSEPH EVERETT was born in Queen Ann's county, Maryland, June 17, 1732. His parents were neither
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rich nor poor, but were accustomed to labor, and trained their son to habits of industry. They were without religion, except the name, and called themselves of the Church of England. Until he was twenty years of age Joseph never heard a gospel sermon. The preaching he did hear had no savor of Christ and no unction of the Spirit. It consisted of such dry moral teachings as an irreligious clergyman might be expected to furnish to his hearers.
At an early age he became addicted to the vices of profanity, falsehood, &c., and continued in a course of open sinfulness until after he was married. His wife was about equally devoted to the pleasures of sin as himself, and they walked together in the downward path. He, however, had, during his career of folly, frequent unrest of soul, and was afraid of death, and sometimes felt such a sense of guilt as would cause him to resolve to reform his life, but his resolutions, he says, were but as "ropes of sand."
At length the New-lights, or Whitefieldites, entered the region where he lived, preaching the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. He went to hear them. His views of the nature of religion now underwent a change. He had thought that it consisted in breaking away from outward sin, but he now saw it was a change of the heart-the infusion of a new life into the soul. He be-
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came convinced of the necessity of the new birth, and entered upon a course of religious duties with the hope of obtaining it. He read his Bible, prayed in secret and with his family, observed the Sabbath, and attended preaching, while his mind was engrossed with the con- cerns of his eternity. A clearer light dawned upon his spirit, but his heart did not find rest. He felt himself to be one of the most miserable of men, and would even envy the brutes because they had no souls. Thus he continued for nearly two years, and though his outward life was greatly changed, and he entered into communion with the Church, and was regarded by many as a good Christian, yet he had not conscious peace with God. The hour of deliverance, however, came at last.
"One Sabbath day," he says, " as I was sitting in my house, none of the family being at home, meditating on the things of God, I took up the Bible, and it providen- tially opened at the eleventh chapter of St. Luke's Gos- pel ; and casting my eyes on the fifth verse, read to the fourteenth. And that moment I saw there was some- thing in religion that I was a stranger to. I laid down the Bible, and went directly up into a private chamber to seek the blessing. And everlasting praises be to Him who has said, Seek, and ye shall find. I was on my knees but a very few moments before he shed abroad his love in such a manner in my heart, that I knew Jesus 17
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Christ was the Saviour of the world and the everlasting Son of the Father, and my Saviour; and that I had re- demption in his blood, even the forgiveness of my sins. I felt these words by the power of his Spirit run through my soul, so that the tongue of a Gabriel could not have expressed what I felt ; I have loved. thee with an ever- lasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. I felt such rapture, and saw with the eyes of my soul such beauties. in the Lord Jesus Christ, as opened such a heaven of love in my breast, that I could with the poet sing the following lines :-
' I then rode on the sky, Freely justified I, Nor did envy Elijah his seat ; My soul mounted higher In a chariot of fire, And the moon it was under my feet.'
So that being justified by faith, I had peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. I rejoiced in hope of the glory of God."*
For some time he continued in the enjoyment of the Divine favor, but through the influence of what he after- ward regarded as false teaching, respecting the deliver-
* An account of the most remarkable Occurrences of the Life of Joseph Everett. In a letter to Bishop Asbury. Arminian Maga- zine, (American) vol. II. 1790.
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ance of the soul from the indwelling of sin in this life, and by neglecting the means necessary to the mainten- ance of a life of piety, he relapsed into formality and sin. "I went," he says, "to hear preaching, as usual, but my conscience reproached me and told me I was a hypocrite. I prayed in my family, but no life-my visits to my closet were short, and very seldom; and, withal, uncomfortable. I would talk about religion, but my heart was after my idols. In plain truth, I lived in such a manner as I thought it impossible for a Christian to live-though my principle was, there was no falling from justifying grace. And, indeed, it was impossible for me to fall, for I had shamefully fallen already."
He wandered further and further from the way of peace until he was excluded from communion with the Church, and became an open, reckless transgressor. At the commencement of the war of the revolution he be- came a zealous whig, and volunteered in the service of his country. Such was his courage as a soldier, that he says before he would have fled from the place of action or danger without orders, he would have fallen dead upon the spot, though his soul would have been lost for ever.
A man of so brave and resolute a spirit, if he could but be properly enlisted on the side of righteousness, and trained to use the sword of the Spirit, could not fail
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to make an earnest champion for the truth, nor to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. God had prepared the instrumentality already by means of which he was to be inducted into the arts of a spiritual war- fare, and equipped for a sublimer battle than earth's he- roes ever fought.
When he returned from the camp he found that a people called Methodists had entered the neighborhood, who proclaimed to the people that they all might be saved. He did not approve the doctrine and determined to oppose them, not having " the least thought that they were sent of God." When opportunity served he did not fail to manifest his decided antipathy to the new sect, but "always," he says, "behind their backs, or at a distance. As I have frequently seen since, our great- est enemies are those who will not hear us; and if at any time they do come out, they pay so little attention to what they hear, and run away with a sentence here and there, that they fill the hearts of the people with prejudice."
In this course he continued until the spring of 1778, when, after considerable hesitation, he was led to go to the house of a Mr. White, one of his neighbors, to hear a Methodist preach. Mr. Asbury was the preacher. After singing and prayer he expounded the second chap- ter of Judges. There was nothing in the exposition to
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find fault with, he says, unless he rejected it because the speaker was a Methodist. No part of the discourse pro- duced any special effect upon his conscience, but his prejudice was shaken, and henceforth the avenues to his heart were open and he found power to pray, though for twelve or fourteen years he had not bowed his knees in secret.
He now felt the return of the Spirit to his heart, con- vincing him of sin, and empowering him to employ the means necessary to his salvation. He lost his attach- ment to the society of the wicked, and also his delight in military affairs. The Methodists noticed and encour- aged him. One, particularly, who knew that he held Calvinistic opinions, used every prudent means to ren- der his convictions effectual, and placed the writings of Wesley and Fletcher in his hands to show him the dif- ference between the Arminian and the Calvinistic tenets. This he did with such prudence " that he entirely pre- vented the least prejudice, and made way for liberal principles to take place."
A single well-timed and apt remark is sometimes the means, under God, of flashing the light of volumes of truth upon the inquiring but beclouded understanding. So was it with Everett. His Methodist friend once re- marked in his hearing, "that if Christ died for all the world, all the world was salvable; and they that were
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lost were lost by their own fault," which, he says, gave him a better insight into the scheme of redemption than all his reading, and all the conversation, and preaching he had ever heard had afforded him.
He became more and more engaged to secure his sal- vation, which he " found the devil as much engaged to prevent." Often when employed in devotion it would seem as if he could hear the adversary say, "What ! you are at prayers again, are you ? You had better quit, for after a while you will tire and leave off as you did be- fore." At the same time he was a by-word in the mouth of the world. But notwithstanding these " fears within, and fightings without," he went forward in the way pointed out in the Divine word until the fifth of April, 1778, when between seven and eight o'clock in the even- ing his soul was again set at liberty, and he rejoiced in the love of God which was shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost.
He now sought to find out the truth. He read the works of Wesley and Fletcher, and attended Methodist preach- ing. As his peace had been restored, he wished to know how he might preserve it, and in worshiping with the Methodists he found comfort and strength. Still he did not join the society. His reason for this was, he says : "I knew that they were a despised people, and thought if I did not join them I might be more useful when it
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was known that I was not a member of their society. But I soon found this to be very poor logic; for the children of the devil hate the light, let it come from where it will. I read Mr. Wesley on perfection ; but the mist of Calvinism was not altogether wiped from off my mind. With the Calvinists I was taught that temp- tations were sin. I did not attend to the law of God to find out what sin was. I could not distinguish between sin and infirmities, and hardly believe that any Antino- mian can. They say all we do is sin. We are told that the sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. But this is no proof that the children of God commit sin. I believe with the apostle that he that is born of God sinneth not ;- and he that does is of the devil. I believe that in every justified soul there is the root of every iniquity. Yet if he faithfully uses the grace and power already given to him, he thereby keeps himself from transgressing the law, which alone is sin ; and therefore the evil one, the devil, touches him not. And I believe that it is the privilege of every babe in Christ to grow in grace; not only to be young men and to be strong, but to become fathers in Christ ; to receive the fulness of all the rich promises of the gospel : such as the law of God on their hearts ; to love the Lord with all their soul ; to be dead to the world and crucified with Christ, &c., all which I believe to be the common
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privileges of all believers in this day ; though it is to be much lamented that many live beneath them. And I praise the Lord that I am as much confirmed in the doc- trine of full sanctification, as I am that a man may know that his sins are forgiven on this side the grave."
The Methodists invited him to class, but did not per- suade him to join. In reading, and in conversing with them, he "began to feel," he says, "the necessity of joining the society ; which I did with this view, to grow in grace myself, and to strengthen the hands of the preachers in the work of God, because I thought it to be the will of God, which ought to be our end in all we do. I saw the necessity of mortifying the corrupt cravings of the flesh, as well as using all the means of grace, in order to be perfected in love; which constitutes a Meth- odist."
Having united himself with the Methodists, and being well pleased with their doctrines and discipline, he was impelled by his zeal for the salvation of souls to speak to his acquaintances on the subject of religion and even to proclaim publicly the gospel of reconciliation. "Be- fore he had been officially authorized," says Rev. Wm. Ryder, "he commenced sounding the alarm to rebellious sinners. He came truly with the thunders of the law. The Lord owned his word, and many were convinced,
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convicted, and happily converted to God through his labors."*
Finding that his word was rendered effectual in the accomplishment of good, he began to be deeply exer- cised in mind about preaching, and these impressions continually attended him. Obstacles, arising from a sense of his weakness and inability for so important a calling, rose before him, and caused him to hesitate. " Ten thousand difficulties," he says, "would shut up the way, and made it appear an impossibility, yet it con- stantly pursued me."
Pedicord then traveled the circuit in which he resided, of whom he says, "that man of God;" and he sent for him to meet him at an appointment in Delaware. He was well acquainted with Pedicord and complied with his request. After Pedicord preached he asked Everett to exhort, which he did, and before they parted he gave him a license to exhort.
He continued to labor earnestly and zealously for the cause, attending at the same time to his secular employ- ment, until the latter part of the year 1780, when he entered upon his itinerant career, as the colleague of Pedicord, on Dorset circuit. Here his labors were blessed of the Lord, and he remained until February, 1781, when Pedicord received a letter from Asbury, di-
* Christian Advocate and Journal, May 12, 1837.
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recting that Everett should go to Annamessex circuit. He accordingly removed to his new field of labor, where he proclaimed the truth successfully until November, when, as we have seen, he was sent by Bishop Asbury to West Jersey. There he labored with success, having many seals to his ministry, until the Conference in May, when he was appointed to East Jersey, where he like- wise labored successfully until November, when he went to Philadelphia. He remained there, the work prosper- ing meanwhile, until the Conference in May, 1783, when he was appointed to Baltimore. That part of the Phila- delphia circuit which profited least under their labors, he says, was the city ; and for this he assigned the fol- lowing reason :- " They resemble too much the Corinth- ians ; one saying, I am of Paul, another, I am of Apol- los, and another, I am of Cephas. Where this is the case there are very few to follow Christ. They are like weathercocks, which can never be kept at one point."
A source of severe trial to him in the beginning of his ministry was the opposition of his unconverted wife, who strongly disapproved of his traveling. Notwith- standing, he went forward in the way of duty, praying that she might be brought to a better mind. His pray- ers were now answered in her conversion. "She saw," he says, "how she had been fighting against the Lord, in treating me wrongfully; which wounded her very
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sensibly ; and this was sweet revenge to me. Here I saw the word of the Lord was fulfilled, to wit, 'Be not weary in well doing, for in due season ye shall reap if ye faint not.' That man should always pray and not faint. She had no more objection to my traveling."
His travels, as an itinerant preacher, extended over a very large field, embracing appointments in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. He was or- dained a deacon in 1786, and an elder in 1788. He filled important appointments in the connection, includ- ing that of Presiding Elder, in which office he spent a number of years of his ministerial life. In 1804 he was so worn out that he was unable to perform effective labor, and he was placed on the superannuated list, yet he con- tinued in strictest union with his brethren of the Confer- ence until his death.
Everett was a remarkable man. In reviewing his character and life, we have been forcibly reminded of the Apostle Paul. Some of the distinguishing traits in the character of the great apostle were strongly marked in him. He was a man of dauntless courage and heroic bravery, yet, at the same time, he possessed a meekness and tenderness of spirit becoming the lowly disciple of Jesus. He was resolute and conscientious in the per- formance of duty, and neither the threatenings of the wicked, nor the smiles of friends had any influence to
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