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 21
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fying and elevating agency in society, by its beneficent effects upon the masses. For that reason it has always commended itself to the good sense and hearty sympa- thy of many persons of intelligence and influence out- side of its ecclesiastical enclosure, who have evinced their appreciation of it by generous efforts to promote its influence. Gen. Bloomfield believed, no doubt, that a Methodist Church in Burlington would be a blessing to the inhabitants, and, accordingly, he presented to the society the ground on which they might rear their temple of worship. This noble expression of sympathy and good will should ever be held in grateful remembrance by Burlington Methodists.
Soon after this church was erected, Bishop Asbury visited Burlington, and October 6, 1789, he writes in his Journal, " After twenty years preaching they have built a very beautiful meeting-house at Burlington, but it is low times there in religion."
Methodism has since been steadily advancing in Bur- lington. In 1821 larger church accommodations were found to be necessary, and accordingly the present Broad Street Church was erected. It stands upon the ground which was occupied by the old Court house, which, in connection with the Market house, was the scene of the first labors and triumphs of the cause in the city. During the two years in which Dr. Porter was
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pastor of the Church, (1838-39,) the membership was almost doubled, and for several years there have been two Methodist Churches in the city, each supporting its own pastor. For an account of the introduction of Methodism into Burlington, and also into Trenton, and of its first struggles in those cities, the reader is referred to the first chapters of this work.
When Jesse Lee entered upon his work in the Flan- ders circuit, which lay partly in New Jersey and partly in New York, he found there were formidable difficulties to contend with in the prosecution of his labors. The population was very heterogeneous, being composed of people of various nations, and their religious creeds were as different as the places of their nativity. But the predominant creed was that of Calvin. It was main- tained in all its rigor. There was no softening down of its distinctive features of unconditional election and reprobation in its presentation from the pulpit, the Churches generally were in a lukewarm state, and what zeal they did manifest was more for doctrines than for graces. Mr. Lee could not be satisfied without attempt- ing to counteract this state of things. He was the her- ald of what he regarded as a purer faith, and he exhib- ited it clearly and boldly. Sometimes, too, he publicly attacked Calvinism, "and opposed it with all the energy and skill he could command. On one occasion he spoke 25
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'freely and fully against unconditional election and reprobation ;' and he 'found great liberty in speaking, and the power of God attended the word. Many of the people wept, and some cried aloud.'" He became so bold in his utterances that at length he asserted " that God had taken his oath against Calvinism, because he had declared, by the mouth of the prophet : 'As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.' On uttering these words," he says, "I felt so much of the power of God, that it appeared to me as if the truth of the doctrine was sealed to the hearts of the hearers."
The following incident which, it is said, probably oc- curred on this circuit, affords a good illustration of the spirit and manner of Mr. Lee in combating Calvinism. He went to hear a Calvinistic minister preach, and seated himself in the congregation, in front of the pulpit. The minister announced his text, Psa. cx. 3. "Thy people shall be made willing in the day of thy power." Mr. Lee did not feel quite comfortable. The minister slowly and solemnly repeated it. Lee rose upon his feet, and respectfully addressing the minister, said :
"My dear sir, have you not mistaken the text ?"
The minister, somewhat astonished, replied, he had not.
A
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" Will you please read it again ?" said Mr. Lee. He read it again, but in the same way.
" Are you quite sure you read it right ?" asked Lee. " Quite certain of it," replied the minister.
" Well, that's very singular ; it don't read so in my Bible," said the earnest advocate of free will, at the same time holding up a small pocket Bible towards the pulpit, with the request, "Will you be good enough to read once more, and see if the word made is in the text ?"
The minister commenced reading, slowly, "Thy-peo- ple-shall-be-" he paused, gazed earnestly at the words, and again read, -- " Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." "True enough, there's no such word in the text." Lee resumed his seat. Notwith- standing, the minister did not see how the people could be willing unless they were made so, and he preached the doctrine, though the congregation perceived the force of Lee's commentary.
"The obstacles this forcing theory of Christianity was constantly opposing to the success of Mr. Lee," re- marks his biographer, " had no inconsiderable influence, it is likely, in leading him so publicly and earnestly to seek to expose its unscripturalness. But perhaps his zeal for truth was more commendable than his mode of pursuing it, at least, in the instance above related."
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The condition of the work on this circuit during the former part of the year was not encouraging. Several months passed before any fruit appeared to cheer the hearts of the laborers. At length, in January, 1789, signs of promise began to be visible. The congregations increased in number, and were more solemn. The
classes were better attended, and all the religious meet- ings were more interesting and spiritual. At a watch night service Lee preached on 1 Cor. xvi. 13 :- " Watch ye." "I found," he says, "great liberty in speaking from these words, and was blessed in my own soul. I spoke very long and loud, the power of God came down among the people, and many of them wept greatly ; many groaned and wept aloud. O my soul, praise the Lord, and let the remembrance of this meeting make me ever thankful. I spoke with tears in my eyes and com- fort in my soul. If I may judge from my own feelings, or the looks of the people, I should conclude that a re- vival of religion is about to take place in the neighbor- hood. I have not seen so melting a time among them before. I knew not how to give over speaking, and con- tinued for an hour and three quarters."
The work began to prosper, and the revival influence vouchsafed to the circuit continued until the time for the preachers to take their departure to Conference. Still, the minutes show a decrease of 274 white members on
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Flanders circuit this year, and one colored member. The cause of this large decrease we have no means of ascertaining. Whether it was caused by wholesale back- sliding, or removals, or members joining other churches, or all of these combined, we cannot tell, but surely the declension was a just reason for painful inquiry and sorrow.
While on the Flanders circuit Mr. Lee received an ac- count of the conversion of an Indian woman, which he recorded in his Journal. It is a singular illustration of the truth, that
" Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed ;"
and of the Scripture declaration, that God looketh at the heart. It is given by Lee as follows :
" An Indian squaw, who was awakened some years past, when there was a great work among the Presbyte- rians in this part of the world, concluded that God would not hear her because she could not pray in English ; but in the depth of her distress she recollected that she could say January and February ; and she immediately began to pray, 'January, February ; January, February,' and repeated the words till her soul was happily converted."*
The decrease in the entire white membership of the
* Life and Times of the Rev. Jesse Lee.
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several circuits in New Jersey this year was three hun- dred and one, while there was an increase of six in the colored membership, making the total decrease two hun- dred and ninety-five.
We turn now from the work to the laborers.
JESSE LEE is the most distinguished name in the list the present year. He was born in Prince George Co., Va., on the 12th of March, 1758. His parents were moral and respectable, but plain. At an early age he was taught the catechism "out of the prayer book." These lessons produced a saltuary effect upon him. "In a thousand instances," he says, "when I felt an inclina- tion to act or speak amiss, I have been stopped by the recollection of my catechism, some parts of which I did not understand; yet it was good, upon the whole, that I learned it."
His early life was unstained by flagrant offences, "ex- cept," he says, "one night, being in company with some wicked young people, I uttered some kind of oath for which I felt ashamed and sorry all the next day : and when alone, I felt that God was displeased with me for my bad conduct. I believe I never did anything in my youth that the people called wicked. I used, however, to indulge bad tempers, and use some vain words." When he was about fourteen years of age his father was made the subject of renewing grace through the labors
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of Rev. Devereux Jarrett, a zealous and useful Episcopal clergyman, who rendered important service to early Methodism in Virginia. A remark made by his father about this time was the means of his conversion. In conversing with a pious relative on the subject of experi- mental religion, the elder Mr. Lee said that "if a man's sins were forgiven him he would know it." That sen- tence "took hold," he says, "of my mind, and I pon- dered it in my heart." He asked himself the question, " Are my sins forgiven ?" He felt conscious they were not. A sense of his guilt and exposure to the retributive justice of the Almighty filled his heart with sadness. In his distress he cried unto the Lord. "I would fre- quently get by myself," he says, " and with many tears pray to God to have mercy upon my poor soul and for- give my sins. Sometimes in the open fields I would fall on my knees, and pray and weep till my heart was ready to break. At other times my heart was so hard that I could not shed a tear. It would occur to my mind, 'Your day of grace is past, and God will never forgive your sins.' It appeared to me that of all sinners in the world I was the greatest; my sins appeared to me greater in magnitude and multitude than the sins of any other person."
Thus he continued for about four weeks, "in which time," he says, "I never, for an hour, lost sight of my
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wretched condition. The cry of my soul was, 'How shall I escape the misery of hell ?' I cared little about the sufferings of this life, if I could but escape eternal misery. I read 'that some asked and received not, be- cause they asked amiss ;' the remembrance of this made me, for a season, afraid to use many words in prayer, for fear I should pray improperly, and, therefore, ask amiss."
One morning being in deep distress, and fearing, mo- mentarily, that he would fall into hell, he cried earnestly for mercy and his soul was delivered of its burden, and received the peace of God. He felt an indescribable pleasure, which lasted about three days, but he did not communicate to any one his new and delightful experi- ence. " I anxiously wished for some one to talk to me on the subject," he says, "but no one did. I then be- gan to doubt my conversion and to fear that I was de- ceived. I finally concluded that if I were not converted I would never rest without the blessing, and began to pray to the Lord to show me my lost condition, and let me feel my danger as I had previously done; but, as I could not feel the burden of my sins, the enemy of my soul suggested to my mind that the Lord had forsaken me, and that I had sinned away my conviction, and de- ceived my own soul. Thus I was a prey to those doubts and perplexities for about six months before I could as-
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suredly believe that I was in the favor of God. One evening, traveling in company with a religious neighbor, he asked me if I were ever converted. I told him I be- lieved I had been. He asked me several questions rela- tive to the circumstances of the change, which I endeav- ored to answer. He then said, 'You are surely con- verted.' I was much strengthened by that conversation, and so much encouraged as to tell other people, when they asked me what the Lord had done for my soul.""
It was not long before his misgivings were entirely removed by clearer evidences of the Divine favor, and he was enabled to say, "I know in whom I have be- lieved."
No Methodist preacher had entered the neighborhood, but when, in 1774, a Methodist society was formed, he, being then sixteen years of age, united with it, and from that time he was an ardent advocate of the doctrines of Methodism, and illustrated in his life their excellence and power.
He commenced his ministry in the manner usual in those days, by exhorting in prayer-meetings, &c., and laboring as he had opportunity for the salvation of souls, in which work his heart was deeply enlisted. He did not, however, indulge the thought of rising to a more prominent position in the Church. But God had evi-
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dently designed him for more public and extended labors, and was now leading him towards his ultimate destiny.
After he became a local preacher he was drafted into the army, but he refused to bear arms though he took his place in the military ranks. While detained in the army -a period of nearly four months-he did not forget that he was a soldier of the cross, and he fought bravely for the Lord.
For more than a year after he was released from the army, he zealously proclaimed the word of life in his na- tive neighborhood. He was frequently impressed, mean- while, with the conviction that he ought to enter the itinerancy, but a sense of the responsibility of the sacred office led him to hesitate. While the matter was thus resting upon his mind, he attended the Conference at Ellis's preaching-house, in Virginia, in 1782. The spec- tacle of the devoted and self-sacrificing laborers there assembled moved his heart. He says, "The union and brotherly love which I saw among the preachers, ex- ceeded everything I had seen before, and caused me to wish that I was worthy to have a place among them. When they took leave of each other, I observed that they embraced each other in their arms, and wept as though they never expected to meet again. Had heathens been there, they might have well said, 'See how these Chris- tians love one another !' By reason of what I saw and
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heard during the four days that the Conference sat, I found my heart truly humbled in the dust, and my de- sires greatly increased to love and serve God more per- fectly than I had ever done before. At the close of the Conference, Mr. Asbury came to me and asked me if I was willing to take a circuit. I told him that I could not well do it, but signified I was at a loss to know what was best for me to do. I was afraid of hurting the cause which I wished to promote; for I was very sensible of my own weakness. At last he called to some of the preachers a little way off, and said, 'I am going to en- list brother Lee.' One of them replied, 'What bounty do you give ?' He answered, 'Grace here and glory hereafter will be given if he is faithful.' Some of the preachers then talked to me, and persuaded me to go, but I trembled at the thought, and shuddered at the cross, and did not at that time consent."
It was not long, however, before he entered upon the arduous and responsible work to which his life was to be consecrated. "Before the end of the year," says Rev. A. Stevens, in his Memorials of Methodism, "he was on his way, with a colleague, to North Carolina, to form a new and extensive circuit. The next year he was ap- pointed to labor regularly in that State, and being now fully in the sphere of his duty, he was largely blest with the comforts of the Divine favor, and went through the
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extensive rounds of his circuit 'like a flame of fire.' His word was accompanied with the authority and power of the Holy Ghost. Stout hearted men were smitten down under it, large congregations were often melted into tears by irrepressible emotions, and his eloquent voice was not unfrequently lost amidst the sobs and ejaculations of his audience. Often, his own deep sym- pathies, while in the pulpit, could find relief only in tears."
After Mr. Lee left Flanders circuit he offered himself for New England, and was appointed to that field, where he succeeded in laying the foundation of Methodism. The Rev. Thomas Ware speaks of Mr. Lee in this con- nection, in an article in the Christian Advocate and Journal, as follows :- " Jesse Lee, styled, by some, the Apostle of New England, was persuaded Methodism could live where men can breathe. He therefore in 1789 offered himself a missionary for the land of the Pilgrims.
"For this mission Mr. Lee was singularly qualified. He possessed colloquial powers fascinating in a high de- gree to the people of the East. His readiness at repartee delighted his friends, and taught those who might wish to be witty with him it was safest to be civil.
" He knew he would have to contend with a learned clergy, venerable for their outward deportment, and with
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a shrewd adventurous people who would not hesitate to tell him to his face he preached damnable heresies. At the same time he knew such was their thirst for know- ledge, and their independence of spirit, that they would hear for themselves; and the truth that had made him free, and that God had commissioned him to preach with a power sinners could not resist, he felt assured, would cut its way and open in that land a wide field of action. He was, in a word, a man of courage. He feared not the face of man, and was no ordinary preacher. He preached with the greatest ease of any man I have known, and was, I think, the best every day preacher in the Methodist connection. He states in his history that on the 17th of June, 1789, he visited Norwalk, and not being able to obtain a house to preach in, he took his stand in the street. In 1793, the district of which I had charge took in a part of Connecticut, and I found the people full of anecdotes of elder Lee.
"' When,' said an inhabitant of Norwalk, 'he stood up in the open air and began to sing, I knew not what to make of it. I, however, drew near to listen, and thought the prayer was the best I had ever heard, but rather short. He then read his text, and began in sententious sentences, brought home to every heart, and compelled, I thought, all who were present to say to him- self, I am glad I am here. All the time the people were
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gathering, he continued this mode of address, in which time he held up to our view such a variety of beautiful images that I began to think he must have been at infi- nite pains to crowd so many pretty things into his memory. But when he entered upon the subject matter of his text, it was in such a tone of voice, and in an easy, natural flow of thought and expression, that I soon began to weep, as did many ; and when he was done we conferred together, and our conclusion was, that such a man had not visited New England since the days of Whitefield. I heard him again, and thought I could follow him to the ends of the earth.'"
At the General Conference held in Baltimore in the year 1800, Mr. Lee came within one vote of being elected a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church. On the first ballot the votes were scattering, and there was no election. On the second ballot the tellers re- ported a tie between Mr Lee and Richard Whatcoat. Had the former received only one more vote at this bal- loting he would have been bishop, but on the third ballot Mr. Whatcoat "was declared to be duly elected by a majority of four votes."
Mr. Lee's public labors extended over most of the Union. In 1783 he traveled Caswell circuit, N. C .; 1784, Salisbury : 1785, Caroline, Md .; 1786, Kent ; 1787, Baltimore ; 1788, Flanders; 1789, Stamford, Ct .;
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1790-1-2, elder in Connecticut; 1793, province of Maine and Lynn; 1794-5-6, Presiding Elder in New England. In 1797-8-9, he traveled with Bishop As- bury. In 1800 he was stationed in the city of New York; 1801-2-3, Norfolk district ; 1804, Petersburg, Va .; 1805, Mecklenburg ; 1806, Amelia ; 1807, Sparta; 1808, Cumberland; 1809, Brunswick ; 1810, Meherrin district ; 1811, Amelia ; 1812, Richmond; 1813, Bruns- wick ; 1814, Cumberland and Manchester ; 1815, Fred- ericksburg; 1816, Annapolis. During this year he ceased " to work and live."
The Rev. and venerated Henry Boehm of the Newark Conference, was privileged to be with him in his last hours. He thus describes the good man's end :-
"Through the first part of his illness his mind was much weighed down, so that he spake but little. On Tuesday night, September 10th, he broke out in ecsta- sies of joy. Also on Wednesday, 11th, about nine o'clock, A.M., he delivered himself in words like these : 'Glory ! glory ! glory ! Hallelujah ! Jesus reigns.' On the same evening he spoke nearly twenty minutes, de- liberately and distinctly ; among other things he directed me to write to his brother Ned, and let him know he died happy in the Lord.
"' Give my respects to Bishop M'Kendree,' said he, 'and tell him that I die in love with all the preachers ;
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that I love him, and that he lives in my heart.' Then he took his leave of all present, six or seven in number, and requested us to pray. This solemn night will never be forgotten by me. After this he spake but little. Thursday, the 12th, in the early part of the day, he lost his speech, but appeared to retain his reason. Thus he continued to linger till the same evening, about half past seven o'clock, when, without a sigh or groan, he expired, with his eyes seemingly fixed on the prize." *
AARON HUTCHINSON was born at Milford, Mercer county, N. J. the 17th of May 1767. He was converted to God about the year 1786, and though the youngest of the four brothers who became preachers, he was the first to enter the itinerant field. "When converted to God," says Rev. H. B. Beegle, to whom I am indebted for the following notice of him-" When converted to God he gave evidence of such gifts, and promise of so much usefulness to the Church, that brother M'Claskey immediately took him along with him around the circuit requiring him to exercise his gifts in prayer and exhor- tation. When they came came back to Joseph Hutchin- son's, brother M'Claskey said he must preach there. It was a great cross to the youthful soldier. But a few months since he was converted ; and no opportunities for study, for they had been on the wing from the time they
* Minutes.
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left until they returned. And then to open his commis- sion among his own kindred too. But he lifted his cross and stood up, and preached from Isa. ii. 3. They were all astonished at the marvelous manner in which God assisted the stripling. His mother, especially, wept pro- fusely through the whole service. He was immediately called out as a supply on some of the large circuits. Whether he labored with M'Claskey and Cooper on 'East Jersey' or went elsewhere we know not, but it is settled that he labored somewhere during most of the year 1786. At the Conference of 1787 he was admitted as a traveling preacher, and appointed to Dover, Del .; in 1788 and '89 he was on Flanders circuit ; in 1790 he was appointed to Trenton, where he ended his labors.
" The General Minutes, in noting his death, contain an estimate of him by his brethren of the Conference. They say he was 'a man of clear understanding; gospel simplicity ; blameless in his life ; acceptable as a preacher ; fruitful in his labors, which ended in the short space of four years. He was patient, resigned, and confident in his last moments.'
" He was married some time during his ministry to a lady by the name of Jaques. He frequently tried his hand at poetry. On meeting with Mrs. Hannah Salter, a daughter of Aaron Hutchinson, she informed me of her father's poetic tendencies, and of the many effusions 26
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of his she had stored away. She was away from home at the time, but with one she was so familiar that she could repeat it, and as she did so I penned it as follows :
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