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 4
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early age, and suffered keenly from his convictions of the evil and demerit of sin. He feared the Lord and greatly desired to serve him, but knew not how, yet he attended to his private religious duties with commenda- ble punctuality. "All was dark and dreary around me," he says, "and there was no one in the neighbor- hood who possessed religion. Priests and people, in this respect, were alike."
When in his seventeenth year, through the influence of wicked associations, he lost much of his concern for his spiritual welfare ; but, by means of afflictive provi- dences, his religious anxieties were reawakened; and, terrified by thoughts of death, judgment, and an eter- nity of misery, he mourned in secret places, often wish- ing he had never been born. For years he continued his efforts to find rest to his soul, but without success, until January, 1772, when he was permitted to hear the gos- pel from a Methodist lay preacher. The word was ac- companied to his understanding by the Holy Spirit. "I was stripped," he says, " of all my self-righteousness. It was to me as filthy rags, when the Lord made known to me my condition. I saw myself altogether sinful and helpless, while the dread of hell seized my guilty con- science." He continued to attend Methodist preaching as he had opportunity, though his father forbade him to do so, declaring that his house should not hold two reli-
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gions. At length he attended a prayer meeting. Fee .- ing that he was too sinful to remain where the worship of God was being performed, he arose and left the house ; but a friend, in whom he had confidence, followed him, requesting him to return. Influenced by respect for his friend's piety, he yielded to his request, and, un- der the deepest exercise of mind, bowed himself before the Lord, saying in his heart, If thou wilt give me power to call on thy name how thankful will I be ! "Immedi- ately," he says, "I felt the power of God to affect my body and soul. It went through my whole system. I
felt like crying aloud. God said, by his Spirit, to my soul, ' My power is present to heal thy soul, if thou wilt but believe.' I instantly submitted to the operation of the Spirit of God, and my poor soul was set at liberty. I felt as if I had got into a new world. I was certainly brought from hell's dark door, and made nigh unto God by the blood of Jesus.
"' Tongue cannot express The sweet comfort and peace Of a soul in its earliest love.'
Ere I was aware I was shouting aloud, and should have shouted louder if I had had more strength. I was the first person known to shout in that part of the country. The order of God differs from the order of man. He knows how to do his own work, and will do it in his own
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way, though it often appears strange to us. Indeed, it is a strange work to convert a precious soul. I had no idea of the greatness of the change, till the Lord gave me to experience it. A grateful sense of the mercy and goodness of God to my poor soul overwhelmed me. I tasted and saw that the Lord was good."
He at once became a decided and earnest Christian. His father soon renounced his opposition, and became, with most of the family, a member of the Methodist so- ciety, which was now formed in the neighborhood. Gatch soon began to give a word of exhortation in the prayer and class-meetings, and was blessed in so doing. His mind then became exercised on the subject of mak- ing his hortatory exercises more public, but he felt such a sense of weakness that to do so appeared impossible. His comforts failed, and he sank into despondency. He tried to stifle his impressions, but they would return with increased force, and again a sense of weakness would sink his feelings lower than ever. He knew not what to do. He read the first chapter of Jeremiah, portions of which seemed to suit his case. He then concluded that if the Lord would sanctify him he would be better pre- pared to speak his word. He now began to seek for a deeper baptism of the Holy Spirit. He says, "I la- bored under a sense of want, but not of guilt. I needed strength of soul. God knew that it was necessary for
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me to tarry in Jerusalem till endued with power from on high. The struggle was severe but short. I spent the most of my time in prayer, but sometimes only with groans that I could not utter. I had neither read nor heard much on the subject, till in the midst of my dis- tress a person put into my hands Mr. Wesley's sermon on Salvation by Faith. The person knew nothing of my exercise of mind.
" I thought if salvation was to be obtained by faith, why not now? I prayed, but the Comforter tarried. I prayed again, and still the answer was delayed. God had his way in the work; my faith was strengthened, and my hope revived. I told my brother that I believed God would bless me that night in family prayer. He knew that my mind was in a great struggle, but did not know the pursuit of my heart. In the evening, while my brother-in-law prayed with the family, a great trem- bling seized me. After it had subsided, I was called upon to pray. I commenced, and after a few minutes I began to cry to God for my own soul, as if there was not another to be saved or lost. The Spirit of the Lord came down upon me, and the opening heavens shone around me. By faith I saw Jesus at the right hand of the Father. I felt such a weight of glory that I fell with my face to the floor. * My joy was full. I related to others what God had done for me. This was
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in July, a little more than two months after I had re- ceived the Spirit of justification."
With increased moral strength and greater spirit- ual enjoyments, his impression that it was his duty to preach the gospel returned. Still he hesitated. He was visited with affliction, and in his extremity, like Jonah, he promised the Lord that if he would spare him he would speak his word " though it should be in ever so broken a manner."
Thinking he would be less embarrassed in his public exercises among strangers than among his relatives and acquaintances, he went into Pennsylvania, and made ap- pointments and held meetings. He continued to exhort and preach, and was greatly blessed in so doing, and had the pleasure of seeing the work prosper, until he was sent to labor in New Jersey.
In entering upon his new and extensive field of labor, which had received but little moral or religious culture, three considerations, he says, rested on his mind with great weight: first, his own weakness; secondly, the help that God alone could afford ; and thirdly, the salva- tion of the souls of the people to whom he was sent.
He realized the presence of the Master with him in his work, and his labors were crowned with a good de- gree of success. The Methodists were then, he says, very much spoken against. Much devotion, patience,
5
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and labor were, therefore, necessary to gain even small accessions ; every inch of the ground had to be strenu- ously contested, and obstacles, such as would have ap- palled a weaker spirit or a less resolute faith, had to be assailed and overcome. But he was not the man to shrink from difficulties, and during this period of service in New Jersey, fifty-two, he says, united with the Church, most of whom professed religion.
Among those, who at this time joined the society un- der Mr. Gatch, was the wife of Benjamin Abbott, and three of her children. Mrs. Abbott attended, with her husband, a meeting, one day, where Gatch was to preach. His discourse was of an alarming character, and it reached her heart. After the sermon she called him aside and said, " If what my husband tells me, and what you preach, be true, I have no religion." He went to Abbott and told him his wife was awakened and that he must take her to the place where he was to preach in the afternoon, to which he assented, and they accordingly After he had done preaching he called upon Ab- went.
bott to pray. " This," says the latter, " was a great cross, as I had never prayed in public, except in my family ; however, I felt it my duty to comply, and ac- cordingly took up my cross, and the Lord wrought pow- erfully upon the people ; among the rest, my wife was so wrought upon that she cried aloud for mercy. So
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great was her conviction that for three days, she eat, drank, or slept but little. She now saw she had only been a Pharisee, and was in a lost condition. On the third day, in the afternoon, she went over to John Mur- phey's, a neigbor of ours, a sensible man, and one well experienced in religion. After some conversation with him, she returned home, and upon her way the Lord broke in upon her soul, and she came home rejoicing in God. During her absence I went from home to visit a sick man, with whom I tarried all night. On my return next morning, she met me at the door with tears of joy; we embraced each other and she cried out, 'Now I know what you told me is true, for the Lord hath pardoned my sins.' We had a blessed meeting ; it was the happiest day we had ever seen together. 'Now,' said she, 'I am willing to be a Methodist, too;' from that time we went on, hand in hand, helping and building each other up in the Lord. These were the beginning of days to us. Our children also, began to yield obedience to the Lord, and in the course of about three months after my wife's conversion, we had six children converted to God; two sons and four daughters, the youngest, of whom, was only seven years old." One of the sons, David, after- wards became a useful preacher.
Abbott must have resided, at this time, in Salem
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County, and, probably, in Pittsgrove Township. For some months after his conversion, he tells us, there was no Methodist society in the neighborhood where he lived. As Mr. Gatch received his wife and some of his children into society, and as he also called upon him to pray the first time he prayed in public, it is probable that Gatch formed the first class in Pittsgrove and appointed him leader, for he says, after speaking of his first attempts at preaching, " About this time we formed a class in our neighborhood and I was appointed to lead them. We were taken into the circuit and had regular circuit preaching once in two weeks : I continued to preach on Sabbath days and the circuit preachers on week days."* We think it is not very improbable that this class may have formed the nucleus of either the Broadneck, or Murphy's, since called Friendship Church, two of the oldest societies in the County of Salem, and which now constitute the Pittsgrove charge, New Jersey Confer- ence. Nothing, however, on this point can be affirmed positively. We only speak of the probabilities indicated by the facts.
At length the time for Conference arrived, and Mr. Gatch was called to part with the people for whom he had labored. Though he found the cross to be heavy,
* Life of Abbott. p. 35.
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while serving the circuit, on account of the low estimate he placed upon his abilities, yet he felt it to be a great trial to part with the friends whose servant in the gospel he had been, for they possessed the unity of the Spirit, and he was united with them in the bonds of peace.
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CHAPTER IV.
THE WORK IN 1774.
THE Conference sat in Philadelphia, on Wednesday the 25th of May, 1774. It was, says Asbury, all things considered, a harmonious session, and was attended with great power. The appointments of the preachers were ac- quiesced in, and it closed on Friday "with a comfortable intercession." At this Conference New Jersey reported 257 members, an increase during the year of fifty-seven. There were only two preachers appointed to labor at a time in New Jersey this year, but there were two circuits, Trenton and Greenwich. William Watters was appointed to Trenton, and Philip Ebert to Greenwich circuit. They were to change with Daniel Ruff and Joseph Yearby, who were sent to travel Chester circuit, in Pennsylvania.
William Watters was the first native Methodist preacher that entered the traveling connection. He was
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not, however, it is said, the first American preacher that was raised up by Methodism. This honor is assigned to Richard Owings, who was converted under the labors of Robert Strawbridge, in Maryland. But, though Owings was a local preacher before Watters, his name does not ap- pear on the minutes until 1775, after which he again re- tired into the local ranks, but two or three years before his death he re-entered the itinerancy, in which he closed his life.
Though Watters stands first on the list of native Americans that entered the itinerant field, yet he and Gatch were very nearly assimilated in their history. " They were born the same year. Watters experienced religion first, but they began to exercise in public in the same summer of 1772. While Watters was laboring in Virginia, Gatch was laboring in Pennsylvania and other parts where the openings of Providence directed. Mr. Watters' name being on the minutes for 1773, brought him into the number admitted, and made an assistant May 25, 1774. Gatch was placed in the same relation at the same Conference, which shows that the Confer- ence considered the act of the quarterly meeting at which Mr. Gatch was employed, which Mr. Rankin and Mr. Asbury attended, as regular. Mr. Watters and Mr. Gatch sat, each for the first time, in the same Confer- ence in the same relation. This detail is rendered pro-
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per, as these venerable ministers were the first recruits for the itinerancy in America."*
WILLIAM WATTERS was a native of Maryland and was born in the year 1751. He professed conversion and joined the Methodists in the year 1771. He had six brothers older than himself, all of whom, with two sisters, professed religion within a period of nine months, and all joined the society the same year. The names of the brothers were John, Henry, Godfrey, Nicholas, Ste- phen, and Walter. They were among the first whose hearts and houses were opened to receive the Methodist preachers when they entered Harford County, in Mary- land, and several of them early became official members in the Church. Nicholas became a useful preacher, and was admitted on trial by the Conference, in 1776, and continued to labor on different circuits until 1804, when he died in peace and triumph, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. As he approached the dark river he said, "I am not afraid to die, if it be the will of God; I desire to depart and be with Christ; the Church will sustain no loss by my death, for the Lord will supply my place with a man that will be more useful. Thanks be to God I have continued to live and labor faithfully to the end." Among his last utterances was the following couplet :
* Sketch of Gatch.
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" Farewell, vain world, I'm going home, My Saviour smiles and bids me come."
William entered upon the duties of the ministry in the local sphere in 1772, and in 1773, as we have seen, he was appointed by the first Conference to New Jersey, but did not labor on that appointment, but labored during that year in Virginia and Maryland. In 1774 he is ap- pointed to Trenton Circuit, New Jersey. He entered upon his appointment, and was, he says, most kindly received. He labored successfully, his efforts being made a blessing to saints and sinners. "I felt," he says, "freedom of spirit, and preached as if every ser- mon was my last. I felt myself on the Lord's business, and forgot, comparatively, all other concerns."
While in this circuit, he met, for the first time, with the Life of Thomas Walsh. He was much impressed and affected in reading it. "I saw," he says, "perhaps much plainer than I ever did before, what manner of person a preacher ought to be, and that it was the privi- lege of all the children of God to love him with all the heart. Oh ! how did I long to be delivered out of the hands of all my spiritual enemies. Lord ! let me ‘ die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' Though I had too much reason to fear that I in- creased much faster in gifts than in grace, yet did the Lord sustain me in my weakness, and in some measure
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gave me the desire of my heart, in seeing a gracious prospect of sinners being daily added to the Lord, and to his people ; while our brethren sweetly went on, hand in hand, bearing each other's burthens, and striving to- gether for the hope of the gospel."
While he was in New Jersey, "the dreadful cloud," he says, " that had been hanging over us, continued to gather thicker and thicker, so that I was often bowed down before the God of the whole earth, fearing the evils which were coming on our sinful land. I was in Trenton when Hancock and Adams passed through on . their way to the first Congress in Philadelphia. They were received with great pomp, and were much caressed by the inhabitants of the town."
After Mr. Watters had been in New Jersey about one fourth of the year, Mr. Rankin, who was, at that time, the Superintendent, thought it best that he should ex- change with Daniel Ruff, who was on Chester circuit, in Pennsylvania ; promising him, however, that he should return at the end of a quarter. Accordingly he went to Chester, where he was blessed with a revival, but at the end of the quarter he gladly recommended the people to God and to the word of his grace, to return to his kind Trenton friends, who, he says, "re- ceived me with as much affection as ever."
Having entered again upon his appropriate field of labor,
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he had large congregations at most of the preaching places, and says he enjoyed, in this circuit, many conve- niences for improvement. In the latter part of the winter and through the spring he was favored with see- ing the work of religion reviving. "Many," he says, "in the upper end of the circuit were greatly wrought on, and our meetings were lively and powerful. The cries of the people for mercy were frequently loud and earnest, so that the voice of the speaker, or any one praying, was frequently drowned. Several, who had long rested in a form of godliness, were brought under press- ing concern, and found the Lord; and many of the most serious were greatly quickened. I was often much blessed in my own soul, and my hands lifted up, which were too apt to hang down. Oh! how sweet to labor where the Lord gives his blessing, and 'sets open a door which no man can shut.'"*
He spent nine months of the year in the Trenton cir- cuit, much to his own comfort, and was greatly encour-
* A Short Account of the Christian Experience and Ministerial La- bors of William Watters. Drawn up by Himself. Alexandria, 1806. This work has long been out of print, and probably very few copies are now in existence. Through the kindness of Rev. Dr. Roberts, of Baltimore, I have been favored with the use of a copy, which bears unmistakable marks of age, but is a precious memorial of the first American Methodist traveling preacher, and his times.
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aged to go rejoicing on his way. He attended the Con- ference in Philadelphia, in 1775, and was appointed to Frederick circuit in Maryland, to labor in connection with Robert Strawbridge, who formed, in that state, one of the first Methodist societies that existed in America. He felt afflicted with this appointment, and for a con- siderable time after he entered upon it he had great conflicts of soul, "and was often so exceedingly de- jected" that he was scarcely capable of performing his work; but in the summer a revival broke out, which spread all round the circuit, and increased dur- ing his stay, so that he was led to rejoice that his lot was cast there.
In 1776 he was appointed to Fairfax in Virginia ; in 1777 to Brunswick; in 1778 to Fairfax again ; in 1779 he was sent to Baltimore; in 1780 to Frederick; in 1781 he was again in Baltimore; in 1782 he was appointed to the Fluvana circuit in Virginia; and in 1783 to Calvert. In 1784 he located. He entered the traveling ministry again in 1801, and was stationed in Alexandria ; in 1802 Georgetown and Washington city ; in 1803-4 Alexandria ; in 1805 Washington. In 1806 he again located. He was a man of "good re- port" and occupied, as his appointments show, a very responsible and honorable place in the early ministry of American Methodism. He maintained the character of
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a laborious and successful minister of Christ until his death.
The work advanced in New Jersey during the year 1774, though in not quite the same ratio as it did the previous year. After making allowance for removals, expulsions, and deaths, three hundred members were re- ported at the close of the year, which was an increase of forty-three. One, and we cannot tell how many more, of the first fruits of the movement was, this year, gath- ered to the heavenly garner. Bishop Asbury, being in Burlington, says ; "Here Mrs. H. gave an account of the triumphant death of her sister, whose heart the Lord touched two years ago under my preaching." And from that time till the present, multitudes, who have been re- generated and sanctified through the agency of Method- ism, have been ascending year by year from New Jersey, to the celestial abodes on high. Some of their beauti- fully affecting and triumphant death scenes we shall have occasion to notice in the future progress of our work.
Captain Webb was again in Burlington, in the latter part of November of this year, in company with Bishop Asbury. When they arrived they "were saluted with the melancholy news that two unhappy men were to be hung on the Monday following; one for bestiality, and the other for abusing several young girls in the most
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" brutish and shocking manner." They visited them as ministers of Christ, for the purpose of assisting them in preparing for their terrible doom. One of them, who was a Papist, manifested a little attention to their words, but wanted to know if he might not trust for pardon after death. The other was a young man, who appeared stupid and careless in regard to his immortal interests. In the evening Asbury preached, and "showed the people the emptiness of mere externals in religion, and the ab- solute necessity of the inward power and graces thereof."
On Friday, December 2, Mr. Asbury writes in his Journal, "My soul enjoys great peace ; but longs for more of God. We visited the prisoners again; and Captain W. enforced some very alarming truths upon them, though very little fruit of his labor could be seen. Mr. R. came to Burlington to day and desired me to go to Philadelphia. So, after preaching, in the evening, from Prov. xxviii. 13, I set off the next morning for the city ; and found the society in the spirit of love."
Abraham Whitworth, who was appointed to Baltimore in 1773, and to Kent in 1774, fled from his circuit on account of immorality, and came into Jersey. Here he poisoned the mind of Ebert, who was on Greenwich cir- cuit, with the fallacies of Universalism, and he was therefore dismissed. In consequence of this the circuit remained for some time destitute of preaching. Mr.
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Gatch was appointed to labor on Frederick circuit this year, but he had been on it but a short time when he was sent to Kent circuit to fill the vacancy caused by the treachery of Whitworth. He labored there successfully till a short time before Conference, when he returned, by direction, to New Jersey, to look after the scattered sheep who, by the dismissal of Ebert, had been left without a shepherd.
Having fulfilled his mission, he proceeded to the Con- ference which was again held in Philadelphia the 19th of May 1775. At this Conference he was appointed to Kent circuit. He remained there until the fall when he went to Baltimore. There he remained for a time, and then exchanged with the preacher on Frederick circuit, so that he had three different appointments in the same year. In the last appointment he was most cruelly per- secuted. On one occasion he heard that a man, whose wife had been convicted under another preacher, meant to revenge himself upon him. A company of his friends gathered around him, and when he was assailed by the mob they desired to fight for his protection, but he per- suaded them not to use violent means, telling them he could bear it for Christ's sake. Two men held his horse by the bridle, while a third, elevated at a suitable height, applied the tar, commencing at the left cheek. The up- roar was very great, some swearing and some crying;
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the women especially, who were present, "dealt out their denunciations against the mob in unmeasured terms." The man who applied the tar laid it on liberally, and called out for more, saying that Gatch was true blue. At length one of the company cried out, "It is enough." The last stroke made with the paddle was drawn across the naked eyeball, which caused indescribable pain, and from the effects of which he never entirely recovered. His horse became so frightened that when released he dashed off with such violence that he could not rein him up for some time, and he narrowly escaped being thrown against a tree. "If I ever felt for the souls of men," he says, "I did for theirs. When I got to my appoint- ment, the Spirit of the Lord so overpowered me that I fell prostrate in prayer before him for my enemies. The Lord, no doubt, granted my request, for the man who put on the tar, and several others of them, were after- ward converted." The next day a mob lay in wait for him on his way to an appointment, but, by the direction of a friend, he eluded them by taking another route. The mob designed to tie him to a tree and whip him un- til he promised to preach no more. A very worthy young man, who was an exhorter and class leader was attacked by the persecutors while at work in the field and whipped " so cruelly that the shirt upon his back, though made of the most substantial material, was liter-
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