who reports 12 congregations served, 360 members, 250 children catechised, $195.25 contributed, 60 accessions during the year.

Randolph colored mission was served the past year by the Rev. T. R. Stuart, who reports 5 appointments, 100 members, 50 catechumens, $35 raised for his support. The people desire its continuance.

Sumpter and Lee colored mission was served the past year by the Rev. William M. Watts, who reports 12 appointments, 102 members, 48 accessions during the year, 49 catechumens, $60 raised for missionary purposes.

Worth mission was served the past year by the Rev. A. J. Deavors, who reports 19 appointments, 64 members, 16 added to the church during the year. Darien and McIntosh mission sends no report.

Emmanuel mission was served the past year by the Rev. F. W. Flanders, who reports 155 members, $43.42 missionary money raised, 11 accessions during the year.

Bullock and Bryan mission was served the past year by the Rev. W. B. McHan, who reports 90 members, 2 Sabbath-schools, 2 classes catechised, $112.25 raised for support of missionary, 20 added to the church during the year,

The Board of Managers recommend that the following missions be converted into circuits: Ellijay mission, Murphy mission, Carrolton mission.

The Board of Managers also recommend the discontinuance of the following missions, namely, Iron Works and Etowah mission, Upson colored mission, Randolph colored mission.

The Board still further recommend that the Oglethorpe colored mission be merged into the Oglethorpe circuit.

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CHAPTER XI.

HISTORICAL SKETCHES.

METHODISM IN CHARLESTON.

THE following sketches of Methodism in Charleston have appeared in successive numbers, during the year, in the Southern Christian Advocate. We give the entire series, believing it worthy of preservation in a more substantial form than it can have in the columns of a weekly newspaper.

No. I.-MR. WESLEY'S VISITS.

On Saturday, July 31st, 1736, John and Charles Wesley reached Charleston from Savannah, after escaping a perilous storm in St. Helena's Sound. It is true, neither of the Wesleys visited Charleston on this occasion, Methodist preachers, as the term is now understood, but it is not uninteresting to know that Charleston was one of the few spots on American soil trod by those men of God who afterwards shook the world. John Wesley says of his visit: "We came to Charleston. The church is of brick, but plastered over like stone. I believe it would contain three or four thousand persons. About three hundred were present at the morning service the next day, (when Mr. Garden desired me to preach,) about fifty were at the holy communion." The Church here alluded to, was the building ocupying the site of the Episcopal Church, now known as St. Philip's.

Mr. Alexander Garden, the rector, held the relation to that congregation thirtyfour years. At the time of Mr. Wesley's visit, he was the Bishop of London's Commissary. He was a man held in high esteem by the literati of Europe, and in compliment to his valuable botanical investigations, Linnæus named after him that beautiful and popular flower of the South, the Gardenia. He was, as we will see hereafter, a great stickler for the forms of the Episcopal Church.

Mr. Wesley was much struck with the presence of several negroes at church, and sought occasion for conversation with one of them. "She told me," he continues, she was there constantly, and that her old mistress (now dead) had many times instructed her in the Christian religion. I asked her what religion was. She said she could not tell. I asked if she knew what a soul was. She answered: 'No.' I said: 'Do not you know there is something in you different from your body -something you can not see or feel?" She replied: 'I never heard so much before.' I added: 'Do you think, then, a man dies altogether as a horse dies?' She said: Yes, to be sure.' O God! where are thy tender mercies? Are they not over all thy works? When shall the Sun of Righteousness arise on these outcast of men with healing in his wings?" The answers given by this poor creature were far from being creditable to the teachings of her mistress, but the conversation proves Mr. Wesley to have been fully imbued with the spirit of a true missionary. How satisfactorily has this prayerful inquiry of his been answered. We very much doubt if in all the streets of Charleston, now numbering its ten thousand negroes, one adult among them could be found so utterly ignorant of religious truth.

He visited Charleston again in April of the next year, as he says, "determined, if possible, to put a stop to the proceedings of one, who had married several of my parishioners without either banns or license." During this visit he again preached in Mr. Garden's church. His text was 1 John 5: 4. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." He must have spoken on that occasion like a Methodist preacher ought to speak; for after service, "a man of education and character seriously objected to the sermon," saying, "Why, if this be Christianity,

a "ristan must have more courage than Alexander the Great." He remained tre mi ne blowing Saturday, and met the ministers of the neighboring parSCEN a mer annum samnen. He complains that, during their assembly, he Para Ire a Cies ar zereusness-we suppose the Antinominan view— he had heart at any scaten in England" He visited Charleston but mer aforis and pat vis in the occasion of his reembarking for England after Speaches in Sanmal. I was on this visit, made in the depth of winter, ta. be a den Saamad to what is now Beaufort, via Purysburgh. On his NVI UN Uni Mat & seep in the wilderness, which resulted in severe sickF. A. M.

egim napormeate to make mention, also, of Mr. Whitefield's visit that a rear ader M. Wesley's departure from America. cute 15 Gaolen. 21 a mention of his sermon, it is said, "the IN ONE D mail, but his engaging address soon gained their genfaxel ll I startaly.” Mr. Whitefield,

L

- Emeth wiel, mis a “ a grand church, resembling Speaking of his second visit, he says: Vian Vas Sturm, Jan. 3, 174. I could scarcely MANAN AMAL ters, koll a respect to gayety of dress and tr farien, alviing v 1 Vsier's £fficulties in Savannamai 1 day similar difficulty, Curing his sected visit, however, 1 tester acting, he had forfeited the Pricedings were instituted rivines, and he was cited by Mr. gutres vici vere to be objected a is sui, and the reformation wusses at their úr mining to use the Whered appeared,

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reconnoitering expedition, and concluded the ground was too closely occupied for any set effort for the establishment of Methodism. F. A. M.

No. III.-BISHOP ASBURY'S FIRST VISIT.

The first regular effort for the establishment of Methodism in Charleston as a distinct part of the Christian Church was not made until the year 1785. In that year Bishop Asbury, accompanied by the Rev. Jesse Lee of celebrated memory, and Henry Willis, visited the city, the latter preceding the Bishop several days, and announcing for him his appointments along the route. They spent several days in Georgetown, S. C., on their way to Charleston, stopping with a Mr. Wayne, a nephew of General Wayne, of Revolutionary fame. He recommended them in Charleston to Mr. Edgar Wells, to whose house they immediately repaired upon their arrival. They found Mr. Wells at home, but far from anticipating the visit of two or three Methodist preachers, the bugbears to all the irreligious people of that day. They found him in the midst of a studied preparation for a visit to the theatre that evening. His plans of amusement, however, were abandoned, and he gave these messengers of God a warm and gentlemanly reception. Family worship was the instituted engagement of the evening. Through the perseverance of Henry Willis, they obtained the use of the abandoned Baptist_meeting-house, situated on Church street, between Broad and Queen streets. Jesse Lee commenced operations by preaching in the morning of Sunday, Feb. 27, and Henry Willis followed in the afternoon, succeeded by Jesse Lee again at night. The Bishop, during the day, visited the Episcopal (St. Philip's) and the Independent (Circular) Churches. He mentions that at the latter he heard a good discourse. The congregations of these pioneers through the day were quite small, but by night the curiosity of the people was fully aroused, and the house was crowded, and a goodly number were moved under the faithful appeal of the giant of early Methodism. The Bishop says: "The Calvinists, who are the only people in Charleston who appear to have any sense of religion, seem to be alarmed." So it appears that the alarm felt now in some quarters, where the deserted churches have been reopened through the zeal of Methodist preachers, is not peculiar to our day.

The Bishop, probably from excessive fatigue, did not preach until Wednesday of that week, when he delivered his first message from 2 Cor. 5: 20: "Now therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God." Service was continued every night of the week, and Saturday afternoon, Mr. Wells, the gentlemanly host of the strange preachers, acknowledged himself under deep conviction. The Bishop remarks: "My soul praised the Lord for this first fruit of our labors, this answer to our prayers." We know not what were Mr. Wells' prejudices up to this time about the Methodists; but if he was opposed to becoming one, he placed himself in great danger of such a result, when he entertained three Methodist preachers of such faith and prayer as Asbury, Willis, and Lee.

The second Sabbath morning of Charleston Methodism was characterized by much feeling in the congregation, though it was few in number. At night the Bishop says: "A large, wild company were in attendance." Several of the ministers of the other churches had taken the pains to prepossess the minds of the people against this new sect. Forewarning them that "those who have turned the world upside down are come hither also;" so that from the very commencement of the church here, we have also to date its oppositions and struggles. On the following Wednesday night Mr. Wells was happily converted to God. The Bishop, the following day, having appropriately addressed the congregation from 1 Pet. 3:15: "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you, a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear," took his leave for Georgetown. At his leaving he discovered his hostess, Mrs. Wells, under deep conviction for sin. He says, speaking of the city: "The inhabitants are vain and wicked to a proverb;" and also at leaving: "I loved and pitied them, and left some under gracious impressions." F. A. M.

[The following article appeared in the Southern Christian Advocate, and is introduced here, and being intimately connected with the preceding article, its perusal will not interrupt the reader :]

THE FIRST METHODIST IN GEORGETOWN-REV. WM. WAYNE.

Having read the third No. of "F. A. M.," published in the Advocate, with much interest, and being acquainted by direct tradition, with the history of the incidents that led Bishop Asbury to the residence of Mr. Wells in Charleston, I thought it might be interesting to some of your readers to detail the circumstances that attended the conversion of the first Methodist in Georgetown, as it was by his recommendation that the Bishop visited the residence of the first convert in Charleston. The detail, in the sequel, will show, that the providence of God was conspicuous in planting "Christianity in earnest," in Georgetown, from which place it reached Charleston.

The Rev. Wm. Wayne was awakened to a sense of his unregenerate condition under the preaching of a High-Churchman named Twyfoot, on the necessity of prayer. His conviction was of the deepest kind. I heard my mother say it lasted about three years, and that at one time he lay three nights on the floor in terror, strongly tempted to put an end to his existence; that these words, "Watch ye, and stand fast, quit ye like men, be strong," came to his mind accompanied with an overpowering sensation of joy, which prompted him to go and essay to convince some of the good citizens of Georgetown, who had thought him in a somewhat insane state, of the excellency and force of the religion which he then felt. My mother said, he came back with his ardor cooled by the refrigerating effect of his skeptical reception. Nevertheless, he remained in a happy frame about three

months.

At that time the Baptist Church, under the ministration of the pious "parson Bottsford," stood high as a religious body. My father essayed to join them, but that good minister was also under the impression that he was insane, and advised him to defer awhile. In this situation he remained until Bishop Asbury came to Georgetown, and was directed to his residence. He soon found, in the Bishop, one who perfectly understood his case, and was by him received into and made a member of the Methodist Church in Georgetown. He it was who gave the Bishop at his departure, a letter to Uncle Wells, in Charleston. William Wayne was orphaned in infancy, and was raised by the parents of Jno. Anthony Wayne, in Chester Co., in the State of Pennsylvania. Anthony and William were first cousins-that one was a nephew to the other is a mistake. John was the younger: both were soldiers in the effort to deliver their country from British rule; and we know that one, and we trust the other, triumphed in a higher conflict. Both have long since gone to their reward, and the last surviving male descendant of the elder is now in the seventh decennial of his limited existence, still clinging as to the surest anchor of hope, to the faith that stood out in bold relief in the lives of the founder of "Christianity in earnest" and his coadjutors.

May I be permitted to say, as an incidental thought, that the increasing prevalence of the persuasion of the "million," that the Methodist doctrines are most consistent with an enlightened conception of a perfect God, worthy to be loved even more than to be feared, and more consonant with scriptural representations than any other, may influence that Church to act under the feeling of a self-glorifying esprit du corps. But although I am under the full persuasion of our being the most liberal in theory, and can and do most earnestly desire that "Christianity in earnest" may prevail so extensively as to cause every man, woman, and child under heaven to "love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," yet I could not with courteous feelings pray that all persons should join the Methodist body. GEORGETOWN, S. C. F. A. W.

No. IV.-FIRST YEAR.

Dr. Bangs and Bishop Andrew in their notices of Methodism in Charleston, agree in representing Henry Willis as the first regular laborer in the city. The statements of the minutes of the Conference, closing at Baltimore, May 28th, 1785, would indicate differently. At that Conference John Tunnell was appointed to labor in Charleston. That he reached there and labored there regularly is established by the Steward's book for Charleston Circuit, 1785, now before me. In that book John Tunnell paid over to the Stewards the quarterage collected on the circuit, amounting to £14 17s. 1d., and the Steward's book represents him as receiving in January, 1786, for quarterage, £11 11s. 9d. He is represented as

66 a man