FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT 
 OF METHODISM, 
 
 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. D. A. WAITERS, B. D., 
 
 Member of the Oregon Conference, and Professor of Systematic 
 Theology in Portland University. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES C. 
 
 I will put ray laws into their mind, and write them in their 
 hearts : and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a 
 people. HEBREWS vin, 10. 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY CURTS & JENNINGS. 
 1898.
 
 CWPVKIGHT BY 
 
 D. A. WATTF.RS.
 
 s 
 
 To the thirty thousand itinerant preachers of 
 American Methodism ; 
 
 To the young people of the Epworth League ; 
 
 To my aged father, 
 
 the best example of integrity and most trustworthy 
 guide of my youth ; 
 
 And to my faithful wife, whose encouragement 
 has made study and preaching a joy.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS little volume, the culling of years 
 from many sources, is given to the 
 public because of the relation its subject 
 sustains to what has been termed "The 
 greatest fact in the history of the Church of 
 Christ" METHODISM and with the hope 
 that the perusal of its pages may serve to 
 some extent in maintaining a spirit of love 
 and loyalty to the Redeemer's cause. 
 
 The life of William Watters, the first na- 
 tive itinerant of American Methodism, and 
 that of my father, Henry Watters, yet living, 
 and a descendant of the same family, more 
 than span the history of the Church in this 
 country. The present prodigious results of 
 the Church, produced in so brief a time, aug- 
 ment the worth and importance of first things 
 and first men. 
 
 We seek not to create a hero of our sub- 
 ject; only as "he who once is good is always 
 great." Heroes are discovered, not made. 
 His place at the head of the itinerancy; his 
 5
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 devotion and arduous labors during the Revo- 
 lution, when all the English preachers re- 
 turned to their native country except Asbury, 
 who was for years in retirement; his position 
 as peacemaker between the two factions of 
 the Church concerning the ordinances, make 
 his life at least a pleasing consideration. 
 
 A true life is the most convincing proof 
 and interpreter of the gospel, and is foremost 
 in establishing its truth in the hearts of men. 
 Few have ever had a more profound convic- 
 tion of the importance of the Savior's doc- 
 trine, of the new birth. Looking at the 
 purity, sweetness, and zeal of his life, who 
 shall say that his faith in the Holy Spirit 
 the enlightener and sanctifier was a mis- 
 taken one? 
 
 These pages have been prepared amid the 
 busy and delightful experiences of a happy 
 pastorate. If they kindle the heart of the 
 reader with love for the service of the Master, 
 as the research for their facts has kindled the 
 writer's, they will achieve the mission and 
 prayer with which they go forth. 
 
 D. A. w. 
 
 PORTLAND, OREGON, February 19, 1898.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 BIRTH, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD, AND CONVERSION, 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 His WORK AS AN EXHORTER, AND CALL TO THE 33 
 MINISTRY, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 His MISSIONARY TOUR WITH ROBERT WILLIAMS, 
 
 AND ADMISSION INTO THE CONFERENCE, . . 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 His FIRST CONFERENCE APPOINTMENT, INCLUD- 
 ING NEW JERSEY, DELAWARE, AND PART OF 
 MARYLAND, 61 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INCESSANT LABORS TROUBLESOME TIMES OF THE 
 
 REVOLUTION, ... . 73 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 LABORS AND HARDSHIPS FROM 1776 TO 1778, ... 95 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THREATENED DIVISION OF THE CHURCH PRE- 
 SIDES AT THE LEESBURG CONFERENCE 
 WORK FROM 1778 TO 1782, 117 
 
 7
 
 8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LOCATION LABORS AS A LOCAI, PREACHER, AND 
 
 RETURN TO THE TRAVELING CONNECTION, 141 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH DURING His LIFE- 
 TIME AND SUBSEQUENTLY, 157 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 ESTIMATE OF His LIFE AND CHARACTER 165
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 IX A ETHODIST people should become fa- 
 * * * miliar with the great characters of 
 Methodist history, the name of William 
 Watters should become familiar as a house- 
 hold word. Young preachers, especially, 
 would do well to read the lives of such men. 
 They can see how spirituality is the greatest 
 force on earth ; how God makes the souls 
 that love Him and trust Him the channels of 
 Divine power to the souls of men. There 
 are no obstacles which such men can not 
 overcome. It is because early Methodism 
 was blessed with the ministry of such men 
 that it received the mighty impulse which 
 yet abides, and which has made Methodism 
 the greatest factor in Protestant Christianity, 
 and which is destined to make her the suc- 
 cessful competitor of Romanism in every land 
 where the "commandments of men" have 
 been substituted for the Word of God. 
 9
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 We can not read such biographies with- 
 out catching some of the sublime enthusiasm 
 of those early days. 
 
 I cordially commend the life of Wil- 
 liam Watters, the first American itinerant 
 preacher, to our ministry and people every- 
 where. 
 
 CHARLES C. McCABE.
 
 Chapter L 
 $irtJj, -paretTtage, Cljtlbijoob, anb Con-
 
 Between broad fields of wheat and corn 
 Is the lowly home where I was born. 
 The peach-tree leans against the wall, 
 And the woodbine wanders over all. 
 There is the barn, and, as of yore, 
 I can smell the hay from the open door, 
 And see the busy swallows throng, 
 And hear the pe wee's mournful song. 
 O, ye who daily cross the sill, 
 Step lightly, for I love it still. 
 
 T. BUCHANAN READ.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WILLIAM WATTERS was born in Bal- 
 timore County (now Harford), Mary- 
 land, October 16, 1751. To him belongs the 
 honor of being the first native itinerant ol 
 American Methodism. "An honor," says 
 Abel Stevens, " never to be shared, never to 
 be impaired." He was the seventh son of 
 Godfrey Watters, who emigrated from Eng- 
 land when a young man, and died in 1753. 
 His mother lived to a ripe old age, and died 
 in 1803. 
 
 In his "Short Account" he says: "My 
 parents were members of the Church of Eng- 
 land ; my father was one of the vestry at the 
 time of his death, and, from all that I can 
 learn, for many years feared God and wrought 
 righteousness beyond any of his day and 
 neighborhood. He died when I was about 
 two years old, leaving my mother and nine 
 children, of whom I was the youngest, se- 
 verely to feel the loss of so valuable a hus- 
 band and father. He left us not rich, but in 
 comfortable circumstances, and, I believe, in 
 13
 
 14 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 faith and solemn prayer, he committed us to 
 God, whose kind providence has been over us 
 as a family to the present day." 
 
 Of his mother he says: u From my infancy 
 I always found the greatest affection for her, 
 as one of the best of parents ; and if at any 
 time I was sensible that I had grieved her in 
 any degree, I never could be at rest till I had 
 humbled myself and she had shown me tokens 
 of forgiveness." 
 
 His parents were planters, and evinced 
 all those essential qualities of noble life so 
 marked in their son. 
 
 Very early in life his mind was peculiarly 
 susceptible to tender impressions, and it was 
 here upon the farm, in the midst of the de- 
 lights of vale and forest, of fields and flowing 
 brook, that young Watters developed those 
 sturdy elements of character necessary to him 
 in later years as he went forth as a herald 
 of the cross. By the varied experiences of 
 plantation life, of communion with nature, of 
 careful training on the part of a devoted and 
 loving mother, he was, though unconscious of 
 it, being fitted for his important place in the 
 initial work of the greatest ecclesiastical 
 movement of modern times.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 15 
 
 Speaking of his education, he says: "Liv- 
 ing in the country, I was not put to school 
 till I was nearly seven years of age, when I 
 found it a great affliction to be so much away 
 from my mother, and made but little prog- 
 ress in learning for some time." He contin- 
 ued in the best schools in the community 
 until he had reached the years of manhood. 
 The work of the schools was supplemented by 
 the instruction of his mother and such good 
 and useful books as were at his command. 
 The practical character of his education pecu- 
 liarly fitted him for the early evangelistic 
 methods of the itinerancy. 
 
 The itinerant has overcome half his diffi- 
 culties when he has become familiar with the 
 customs, habits, and thoughts of the people 
 with whom he mingles. With all these our 
 young hero showed a marked acquaintance, 
 and in addition he possessed a tender and 
 responsive conscience. Through wise home- 
 discipline the cardinal principles of true 
 manhood had been inwrought into his very 
 being. He was looked upon as an exem- 
 plary youth and young man. Being of a 
 religious temperament, he longed for some- 
 thing better and more enduring, and was
 
 1 6 WILLIAM WATTRS. 
 
 quite dissatisfied with himself. A few ex- 
 tracts from his journal reveal his true state 
 of mind at this time : 
 
 " My corrupt and fallen nature was far too 
 strong for the poor barrier of a moral educa- 
 tion, which was all that I had ever had, while 
 sin had the dominion over every order of men 
 in my knowledge. I was of a truth without 
 Christ in the world, though called one of the 
 most modest youths in the neighborhood, and 
 thought by them as blind as myself to be 
 a very good Christian. It was my constant 
 practice to attend church with my prayer- 
 book, and often read my Bible and other good 
 books, and sometimes attempted to say my 
 prayers in private." 
 
 Although others thought him a very good 
 Christian, he thought himself a very great 
 sinner. A sense of deep humiliation fell upon 
 him, his evil habits embittered his life, when 
 he would resolve to do better, exclaiming that 
 he would give up the world, were it his, if he 
 could overcome every evil. At times, feeling 
 keenly the burden of his sin, he would be on 
 the point of taking his Bible and solemnly 
 swearing to sin no more. But his cour- 
 age would fail him, lest he "should break
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 1 7 
 
 through," and the mercy of God be withdrawn 
 from him, and his last state be worse than his 
 first. When in this state, he said: "I had no 
 one to tell me the. evil of sin, or to teach me 
 the way of life and salvation." In the Church 
 he found no relief. The parish Church, to 
 him, was in a dormant condition and was doing 
 nothing to change the course of sin and un- 
 belief, and direct souls to the Lamb of God 
 that taketh away the sin of the world. He 
 declares: "The two ministers in the two 
 parishes, with whom I was acquainted, were 
 both immoral men, and had no gifts for the 
 ministry; if they received their salary, they 
 seemed to think but little about the souls of 
 the people. The blind were evidently leading 
 the blind, and it was the mere mercy of God 
 that we did not all fall into hell together." 
 
 What a sorrowful time, "when sin had do- 
 minion over every order of men!" No one 
 could provide a remedy, while a few hearts 
 were secretly saying, "Is there no balm in 
 Gilead?" Such was William's heart; panting 
 and bleeding for the more excellent way, yet 
 with no one to tell him the evil of sin, or to 
 teach him the way of salvation. 
 
 So persistent were the strivings of the
 
 1 8 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 Spirit with him that he would leave the ball- 
 room and spend a time in prayer that God 
 might not be offended with him. All his en- 
 deavors to make his life better by overcoming 
 the sins and evil practices of the times proved 
 to be futile. Although sincere and earnest, 
 he was sadly disappointed in the result of 
 his efforts to reform. For a year before his 
 conversion he eagerly longed to overcome 
 sin, but advanced no further than a promise 
 to do better. 
 
 His words of experience at this period 
 indicate the unhappy condition of his strug- 
 gling soul: "Many times, when I have been 
 sinning against God, I have felt much inward 
 uneasiness, and often, on reflection, a hell 
 within, till I could invent something to divert 
 my mind from such reflections." 
 
 Before us is a young man with an "inward 
 uneasiness" amounting to a "hell within," in 
 whose mind has been aroused such intense 
 hatred of sin, that, looking upon one of his as- 
 sociates "beastly drunk and scarcely able to sit 
 in his chair," and contrasting him with a pass- 
 ing dog, deliberately concluded that he would 
 rather be a dog than a drunkard. Upon this 
 serious conflict hung issues vast and far-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. IQ 
 
 reaching. His deep conviction of soul, which 
 gave way to the joy of sins forgiven, was the 
 foundation of the profound conviction he ever 
 after labored to produce in the minds of the 
 multitudes that waited upon his ministry. 
 
 John Wesley's marvelous work in England 
 was now attracting attention in America, and 
 a few of his missionaries and some local 
 preachers had already arrived. When Mr. 
 Watters was nineteen years of age, and his 
 struggle for gospel liberty was at its height, 
 he first heard Methodist preaching. It was in 
 the month of July, 1770, that the itinerant 
 first appeared in the Watters' neighborhood, 
 and he " had frequent opportunity of hearing 
 him." The men of God who visited his 
 neighborhood were Strawbridge, Williams, 
 and King, local preachers of Wesley, recently 
 from the Old World. Their message of salva- 
 tion came from hearts aglow with the love of 
 God. They knew they had passed from death 
 unto life, and believed themselves commis- 
 sioned to declare the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ everywhere and to all men. 
 
 He says he could not conceive what they 
 meant by the new birth, and thought but 
 little of what they said for some time, "yet
 
 2O WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 dared not despise and revile them as many 
 then did." "Some even of my best friends 
 began to fear that I should become a Meth- 
 odist, but I had no such thought, and yet I 
 often found my poor evil heart drawn to them 
 as a people that lived in a manner I had never 
 known any to live before; still, through the 
 pride of my vain heart, I too often disputed 
 with them when present, yet could not hear 
 any person speak against them behind their 
 backs without taking their part." 
 
 Although he had not yet found the pearl 
 of great price, he is faithful in the defense of 
 those who have, and in this trait of character 
 shows a greater nearness to the kingdom than 
 he supposed. He who volunteers his service 
 in defense of a good cause becomes a factor 
 of the cause itself. To-day, as then, God 
 makes the wrath of man to praise him. How 
 many applaud the virtues of a godly life, and 
 defend the institutions of Christianity, who 
 have not themselves attained its excellence! 
 "Other sheep have I which are not of this 
 fold." He continued a studious inquirer of 
 the way of life, as seen from the following: 
 "The winter after this I had several very 
 alarming dreams, and the Divine Spirit did,
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 21 
 
 both with and without means, mightily strive 
 with me, a poor sinner, so that I saw plainer 
 than ever the heinous nature of sin, and of 
 course the want of Jesus Christ as a present 
 Savior. I began to delight in the company 
 of the pious and shunned the company of 
 others. I read my Bible with seriousness 
 and attention, and began to be uniform and 
 earnest in private, and gladly embraced every 
 opportunity of hearing God's Word, without 
 regarding by what denomination, and for sev- 
 eral months lived outwardly as a Christian; 
 and the last month before I was fully con- 
 vinced of my real state by nature and practice, 
 I seldom, if ever, omitted bowing my sinful 
 knees before the God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ four or five times a day, and, 
 though I was a Pharisee all this while, seek- 
 ing to be justified by the deeds of the law, 
 by trusting more or less in the performance 
 of those Duties, yet God knows I was sincere 
 in all that I did ; and the Lord be praised, who 
 did not let me continue to build on a sandy 
 foundation !" 
 
 There were now several Methodist con- 
 verts in the neighborhood; among them were 
 his oldest brother and his wife. They were
 
 22 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 happy in the love of God, and testified to the 
 knowledge of sins forgiven. They claimed 
 the itinerants as the agents in the hands of 
 God in producing this happy change. At all 
 this he was "very much confounded." It was 
 now his daily prayer that God would teach 
 him the way of life and salvation, and not 
 suffer him to be deceived. 
 
 On the Sabbath previous to his conversion, 
 he attended a prayer-meeting. At this meet- 
 ing the heart agony and earnest pleadings of 
 a penitent convinced him that he must be 
 born of the Spirit or never see the face of 
 God in glory. 
 
 " I went home," he says, "much distressed, 
 and fully determined, by the grace of God, 
 to seek the salvation of my soul with my 
 whole heart, and never rest till I knew that 
 God had blotted out my sins and shed his 
 love abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost." 
 In the afternoon he wandered alone into the 
 
 
 
 neighboring woods, and fell upon his knees 
 before God. But he was speechless, the foun- 
 tain of tears was dried up, and with groans he 
 lay prostrate before the Master. It seemed to 
 him that the enemy of his soul now concen- 
 trated his forces and employed every availa-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 23 
 
 ble means to hold him fast in unbelief. His 
 "heart felt as a rock" while he sought peace 
 and found none. Having determined that he 
 would seek until he found the peace and joy 
 of the kingdom of God, it was quite natural 
 that he should retrace his steps at the even- 
 ing time to the place where the morning 
 meeting had proved a blessing to him. 
 
 Here he found a company of devout people 
 singing and rejoicing in the love of God, and 
 praying for the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
 and the conviction and conversion of sinners. 
 He says, at this meeting " the Lord again 
 smote my rocky heart and caused it to gush 
 out with penitential sorrows," and he was 
 "blessed with a praying heart." 
 
 The following day, being unfit to give 
 attention to temporal affairs, he spent it 
 mostly in private, reading the Scriptures and 
 contemplating the marvelous atonement in 
 Jesus the Christ. He had now gained the 
 victory of taking his eyes off of his troubled 
 spirit and placing them upon the glorified 
 Christ. 
 
 Hope, the blessed boon, whose office it is 
 to give bright promise of the future, coming 
 quickly to his aid, and piercing the darkness
 
 24 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 of his spiritual sky, brought great relief in 
 tenderness of heart, of which he speaks as 
 making his " eyes to run down with tears," 
 and making him conscious of being "stripped 
 of all dependence on outward things." As 
 the thick mists hung heavily over his native 
 hills and valleys, but to pass quickly away on 
 the approach of the morning sun, likewise 
 the self-righteousness of this young man 
 faded away under the searchings and illumi- 
 nation of the Spirit. As he anticipated quick 
 and sure deliverance from the bondage of sin, 
 the old foundations crumbled down, and for- 
 mer prospects yielded to the assurance of 
 better things. 
 
 "I refused to be comforted but by the 
 Friend of sinners. My cry was, day and night, 
 ' Save, Lord, or I perish ; give me Christ or I 
 die, I die eternally!' In this I loved nothing 
 better than weeping, mourning, and praying ; 
 it was more than my meat and drink, day 
 and night, humbly hoping, waiting and long- 
 ing for the coming of the Lord to pluck me 
 as a brand from the everlasting burning, and 
 save me with a present salvation." In the 
 evening he found his way to the prayer- 
 meeting, where he met two others in the
 
 , FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 25 
 
 same distress as himself. During a season 
 of prayer, one of these was converted, who 
 "rejoiced and testified that the Lord had 
 blessed him with pardon and peace." 
 
 This circumstance very much strengthened 
 him in his resolution, and made him more 
 anxious for the promised blessing; yet, says 
 he, " I was bound down fast with the chains 
 and fetters of my unbelief." Day and night, 
 Jacob-like, he wrestled with God in prayer. 
 Clouds of anguish and gloom, often bordering 
 on despair, darkened his moral sky. Weep- 
 ing and fasting, he found no relief. Away 
 from companions, away from the busy haunts 
 of men, alone with God in the silent depths 
 of the forest, he cried out in the bitterness of 
 his soul, in the language of the apostle: "O, 
 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver 
 me from the body of this death?" 
 
 This was the preparation for his anointing. 
 Has it not been ever so with the servants of 
 God in preparation for special work? Moses 
 was sent to Midian; David into the strong- 
 holds of the mountains; Elijah to the juniper- 
 tree; and the disciples went to the hills and 
 sea of Galilee. 
 
 The following extract from his journal
 
 26 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 gives the reader an insight into his state of 
 mind both before and after his conversion: 
 
 "Tuesday. This is the third day since I 
 have seen the want of pardoning mercy, and 
 was spent mostly in the solitary woods alone, 
 sometimes on my knees and sometimes on my 
 face, prostrate before the Lord, while my head 
 was as waters and mine eyes a fountain of 
 tears. I could not bear to have one word 
 spoken to me, or even to think of anything 
 but the one thing needful. For three days 
 and nights, eating, drinking, and sleeping, 
 in a measure, fled from me, while my flesh 
 wasted away, and my strength failed me in 
 such a manner that I found it was not without 
 cause that it was asked, ' But a wounded spirit, 
 who can bear?' Various were the thoughts 
 that passed and repassed my wounded mind 
 during the night of my humiliation and pov- 
 erty of spirit. I sometimes thought I could 
 do no more, and for a moment feared that my 
 state was desperate, that the day of grace was 
 past to return no more, but never felt one 
 desire for my sorrows to abate for one moment 
 till I obtained mercy ; or if that could not be, 
 if it was too late, and the heavens were to 
 remain as brass to my cries, my determination
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 27 
 
 was to go mourning down to my grave, and 
 in hell I was sure I should clear God of will- 
 ing my damnation. My God, how little do 
 sinners know what they are doing while resist- 
 ing the Holy Spirit and refusing to have Christ 
 reign over them ! Being returned in the after- 
 noon from the woods, and having retired into 
 my chamber, my eldest brother, knowing my 
 distress, entered my room with all the sym- 
 pathy of a brother and a Christian. To my 
 great astonishment he informed me that God 
 had that day blessed him with his pardoning 
 love, and expressed being very happy in the 
 Lord. I expected that he had long known 
 this; but he had been so moral and possessed 
 so much of the form of religion that he found 
 it hard to come, as a sinner stripped of all, to 
 the Lord Jesus. After giving me all the ad- 
 vice in his power, he kneeled down with me, 
 and with a low, soft voice, which was fre- 
 quently interrupted by tears, offered up a fer- 
 vent prayer to God for my present salvation. 
 He concluded all by repeating from the poet 
 the following words, which were more blessed 
 to my encouragement than anything which 
 had been said to me since my conviction : 
 
 'For sorrow and sadness we joy shall receive, 
 And share in the gladness of all that believe.'
 
 28 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 For the most part, I had a gleam of hope that 
 God, in some distant time, would be gracious, 
 and that I should yet praise him in the land 
 of the living, and for a short space I had such 
 a glorious prospect of future happiness that 
 all my troubles became sweetened with the 
 lively hope that they would soon end in a 
 happy knowledge of the kingdom of God in 
 the world, and a preparation for happiness 
 hereafter. ' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of God.' ' Blessed are 
 they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.' 
 It is repeated not less than six or seven times 
 in the Gospels: 'They that humble them- 
 selves shall be exalted, but they that exalt 
 themselves shall be abased.' 
 
 "On Wednesday, several praying persons, 
 who knew my distress, came to visit me, and 
 after some conversation, I desired that they 
 would pray for me. The family was called 
 in, though it was about the middle of the day, 
 and J. P y gave out the following hymn: 
 
 " 'Give to the wind thy fears; 
 
 Hope and be undismayed ; 
 God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears, 
 
 God shall lift up thy head. 
 Through waves and clouds and storms, 
 
 He gently clears thy way;
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 29 
 
 Wait thou his time, so shall this night 
 Soon end in joyous day. 
 
 Still heavy is thy heart? 
 
 Still sinks thy spirit down ? 
 Cast off thy weight, bid fear depart, 
 
 And every care be gone. 
 
 What though thou rulest not? 
 
 Yet heaven and earth and hell 
 Proclaim, God sitteth on the throne, 
 
 And ruleth all things well.' 
 
 "While they all joined in singing, niy face 
 was turned to the wall, with my eyes lifted 
 upwards in a flood of tears, feeling a lively 
 hope that the Lord, whom I sought, would 
 suddenly come to his temple. The hymn 
 was well adapted to my state. My good 
 friends sang with the spirit and in faith. The 
 Lord heard, and appeared spiritually in the 
 midst. A divine light beamed through my 
 inmost soul, which in a few minutes encircled 
 me around, surpassing the brightness of the 
 noonday sun. This divine glory, with the 
 holy glow that I felt within my soul, I feel 
 still as distinct an idea of as that I ever saw 
 the light of the natural sun or any impres- 
 sion of my mind, but know not fully how to 
 express myself so as to be understood by those 
 who are in a state of nature, inexperienced in
 
 30 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 the things of God; for the natural man re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 
 for they are foolishness unto him ; neither 
 can he know them, for they are spiritually 
 discerned. 
 
 "My burden was gone, my sorrow fled, my 
 soul and all that was within me rejoiced in the 
 hope and glory of God, while I beheld such 
 fullness and willingness in the Lord Jesus 
 to save lost sinners, and my soul so rested 
 in him, that I could now for the first time call 
 Jesus Christ 'Lord, by the Holy Ghost given 
 unto me.' The hymn being concluded, we 
 all fell upon our knees; but my prayers were 
 all turned into praises. A supernatural power 
 penetrated every faculty of my soul and body, 
 and the words of the prophet were literally 
 fulfilled in my conversion to God : 'And he 
 shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and 
 he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge 
 them as gold and silver, that they may offer 
 unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.' 
 Such was the change, and so undeniable to 
 all present, that they appeared greatly affected 
 and confident that the Lord had descended in 
 the power of his Spirit, and wrought a glori- 
 ous work in the presence of them all. My
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 3! 
 
 two friends, greatly interested in my hap- 
 piness, caught me in their arms, rejoicing over 
 me as a father over a returning son who was 
 dead and is alive, who was lost and is found. 
 
 "When I went out, strange and enthusi- 
 astic as it may appear to those who have not 
 experienced anything of the sort, the heavens 
 over me, the earth with all around me, spake 
 in powerful though silent language to my 
 catm mind, while all appeared to stand in a 
 new relation to me. My cup was full and 
 my soul happy, day and night, in God my 
 Savior. I had but one desire on earth, which 
 was to be wholly the Lord's in time and 
 eternity." 
 
 Such was the remarkable conviction and 
 conversion of William Watters, the first 
 American to join the Methodist itinerancy. 
 He had not thought of becoming a Methodist, 
 much less a Methodist preacher; neither had 
 he previously attended a class-meeting, but did 
 not now hesitate to own the people who had 
 been so helpful in his conversion, and "gladly 
 attended one of their meetings the same day, 
 and thought it a greater blessing to be received 
 a member amongst them than to be made a 
 prince." "My conversion," says he, "was
 
 32 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 much talked of, as also my praying in so short 
 a time without a book, which to some ap- 
 peared proof that there was a notable miracle 
 wrought on me." 
 
 Some years later, through the study of the 
 Word, and reading Mr. Wesley's publications 
 on sanctification, he entered into the expe- 
 rience of perfect love. 
 
 So it is truthfully written: "The race of 
 American preachers begins with an example 
 of the divine power of those great doctrines 
 of the gospel, the preaching whereof has ever 
 been attended with the awakening of sinners, 
 the pardon of penitents, the regeneration of 
 believers, and the perfecting in love of conse- 
 crated souls." 
 
 The sons and daughters of Methodist altars 
 will never cease to sing: 
 
 " There is a spot to me more dear 
 
 Than native vale or mountain, 
 A spot for which affection's tear 
 
 Springs grateful from its fountain. 
 'T is not where kindred souls abound, 
 
 Though that is almost heaven, 
 But where I first my Savior found, 
 
 And felt my sins forgiven."
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 Ijts Wtork as an dkljorter anb Call to 
 tlje 
 
 33
 
 The Savior, when to heaven he rose 
 In splendid triumph o'er his face, 
 Scattered his gifts on men below, 
 And still his royal bounties flow. 
 
 Hence sprang the apostles' honored uame, 
 Sacred beyond heroic fame ; 
 In humble forms, before our eyes, 
 Pastors and teachers hence arise. 
 
 PHILIP DODDRIDGE. 
 34
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NO sooner were the early converts of Meth- 
 odism in possession of the blessed assur- 
 ance of their acceptance with God than they 
 heeded the commission, "Go work to-day in 
 my vineyard." In those days Methodist 
 classes had no regular preaching, and were 
 dependent for the advancement of the work 
 upon such meetings as they could themselves 
 hold. Williams, Strawbridge, and King 
 were the only Methodist preachers in Mary- 
 land fit the time of young Watters's conversion, 
 so that the neighborhood would have preaching 
 for several days and be without for months. 
 Necessity knows no law, or is a law unto itself; 
 thus these young bands of new-born Christians, 
 in a very practical sense, were all preachers, 
 holding prayer, class, and Bible meetings, and 
 on every occasion, in season and out of sea- 
 son, freely declaring what God had done for 
 their souls, and exhorting all to flee from the 
 wrath to come. Methodism is the ecclesias- 
 tical wonder of the age. It is self-propaga- 
 tive. There were but eight known Method- 
 35
 
 36 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 'ists in America in 1765, and not an ordained 
 preacher among them. Spontaneously, and 
 almost simultaneously, the revival fire was 
 kindled in three sections remote from each 
 other Captain Webb, an English soldier 
 and "a man of fire" preaching in Albany; 
 Philip Embury, through the exhortations of 
 Barbara Heck in New York; and Robert 
 Strawbridge in Maryland. In 1769, John 
 King, an English local preacher began the 
 work in Baltimore, using for his pulpit a 
 blacksmith's anvil block. Robert Williams 
 hearing of the encouraging work in the New 
 World hastened to New York in 1769, and a 
 little later came to Maryland, where he formed 
 one of the noble trio of Methodist preach- 
 ers Strawbridge, King, and Williams who 
 for nearly two years were alone in laying the 
 foundations of the new ecclesiastical order. In 
 1771 they were joined by Asbury. William 
 Watters, converted this same year, and at 
 once an exhorter, joined them as a traveling 
 preacher next year. The little band of eight 
 was now rapidly multiplying into hundreds. 
 Who does not see an analogy in this and the 
 early missionary work of Paul and Barnabas? 
 The neighborhood, now often left for months
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 37 
 
 without preaching, was too thoroughly awak- 
 ened to remain inactive. On the Sabbath- 
 day the new converts divided into small bands 
 of "two, three, or four," and went out into the 
 different neighborhoods, wherever they could 
 find an open door and a hearing, and would 
 read the Scriptures, sing hymns, pray, and 
 exhort the people. William Watters says 
 regarding these praying bands so spontane- 
 ously organized and so very effectual: "We 
 were weak; but we lived in a dark day, 
 and the Lord greatly owned our labors; for 
 though we were not full of wisdom, we were 
 blessed with a good degree of faith and power. 
 The little flock was of one heart and mind, 
 and the Lord spread the leaven of his grace 
 from heart to heart, from house to house, 
 and from one neighborhood to another, and 
 though our gifts were small, yet was it aston- 
 ishing to see how rapidly the work spread 
 all around, bearing down the little opposition 
 with which it met, as chaff before the wind. 
 Many will praise God forever for our prayer- 
 meetings." 
 
 It is eviden-t that this work was by the 
 Spirit of the Lord, for they had of themselves 
 neither might nor power. They thought they
 
 38 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 were weak, and in their humility were often 
 surprised at the gracious results following their 
 simple efforts. It was according to heaven's 
 law of victory, the faith that overcomes the 
 world. Weak yet strong, ignorant yet wise, 
 all opposition must fade away as mist before 
 the morning sun; for "God chose the foolish 
 things of the world that he might put to 
 shame them that were wise ; and God chose 
 the weak things of the world that he might 
 put to shame the things that are strong ; and 
 the base things of the world, and the things 
 that are despised, did God choose, yea, and the 
 things that are not, that he might bring to 
 naught the things that are, that no flesh should 
 glory before God." 
 
 They sought a solution of the question, 
 How shall we reach the masses? an old one, 
 yet new to every generation, by going to them 
 with the open Bible and hearts all aglow with 
 the mellifluous joy of their first love. Mr. 
 Moody, in his unique answer to this question, 
 says, "Go for them," which is exactly what 
 these early converts in the Watters neighbor- 
 hood did. They were imbued with the spirit 
 of the Master, and went about doing good 
 in a simple way, without the hope of earthly
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 39 
 
 reward or the praise of men. These early 
 praying bands adopted as the rule of their 
 Christian activity the motto of John Wesley, 
 "At it, all at it, always at it." 
 
 Their chief purpose was to glorify God by 
 doing good to all men and saving their own 
 souls. In the royal service of the king they 
 went forth to swift and certain victory. 
 
 In the autumn following his conversion 
 his second brother opened his house for relig- 
 ious services; and he, with one other believer, 
 conducted the meetings, although his com- 
 panion was often absent and he compelled to 
 toil alone. For a time he found "hard toil- 
 ing," and was much discouraged. He re- 
 newed his consecration, and prevailed in 
 prayer for them, and was answered beyond 
 his expectations. His brother was blessed 
 powerfully with a sense of all his sins for- 
 given, and the love of God shed abroad in his 
 heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him ; he 
 could not be content to eat his morsel alone, 
 but, in the language of the psalmist, cried to 
 his brethren, " Come hither, all ye that fear 
 the Lord, and I will tell you what he hath 
 done for my soul." 
 
 These meetings grew in interest and num-
 
 40 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 bers, so that his whole time was required to 
 care for the "meetings and the families that 
 were setting out for the kingdom." For sev- 
 eral weeks conversions occurred daily, and 
 the work of grace flowed on like a gentle 
 stream, with young Watters as manager and 
 leader. 
 
 The chief interest of the community was re- 
 ligion, sweeping on in its flame of love, break- 
 ing down all resistance, and establishing a 
 general conviction of sin. 
 
 He may not have been able formally to 
 state a single doctrine of Christianity; but he 
 had received the heavenly anointing: he had 
 found Christ in the pardon of his sins after a 
 long and distressing travail of soul. He 
 could sing and interpret the Scriptures by the 
 key of his own unmistaken experience, so 
 sweet, full, and powerful. He had been 
 shaken out of his slumbers, and his soul re- 
 plenished by a living faith that created in him 
 a lasting desire to see others in possession of 
 the same unspeakable blessing. 
 
 He records that, during these meetings, he 
 "found great enlargement of heart" for the 
 salvation of his fellow-creatures. Largely 
 through his agency, his mother and her entire
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 41 
 
 family of seven sons and two daughters had 
 found the blessing of sins forgiven, and had 
 become Methodists. The Watters family, in 
 the Church and itinerancy, may be traced as 
 a widening stream from that day to this. 
 
 Young Watters was surely being called 
 into the ministry, although he knew it not. 
 The supernatural character of his experience 
 was evident. He had parted with all dead 
 forms, and found the fervid life attesting its 
 own divine efficacy by results so immediate, 
 profound, and satisfactory as to be unquestion- 
 ably of God. His religion was divine. It 
 was to him "sent down from heaven." It 
 had prepared him to live as he had not be- 
 fore been able to live, and to engage in la- 
 bors of love previously impossible to him. It 
 was that which gave life to form, and made 
 morality actual and possible. 
 
 From the day of his conversion he found 
 his "mind much affected with a sense of the 
 danger poor sinners were in," and his "heart 
 drawn out with fervent desires and prayer for 
 their salvation," and stood ready to part with 
 every earthly joy that he might assist in 
 spreading the glad news of salvation through- 
 out the world. He shrank from the thought of
 
 42 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 becoming an itinerant. His work had been 
 much blessed, and many were pointing to him 
 as their spiritual father. Invitations to hold 
 meetings came from many directions. Doors 
 in new neighborhoods were thrown open to 
 him, many more than he could enter, and he 
 "felt a continued conviction" that it was the 
 will of God that he should labor in his vine- 
 yard. He made it a subject of fasting and 
 prayer, and, seeking the direction and will of 
 the Lord, "was led in the most unreserved 
 manner" to surrender to the hand of God, 
 "to be disposed of as his infinite wisdom 
 should see best;" for 
 
 " So high is grandeur to our dust, 
 
 So near is God to man, 
 When duty whispers low, ' Thou must,' 
 The youth replies, ' I can.' " 
 
 It is a delight to notice with what pre- 
 caution every step of progress is made in the 
 work of the Lord by this young man. Along 
 the path and experience by which he was led 
 into the active ministry, we discern the most 
 adorable traits of Christian character. No 
 ground once crossed was ^to be retraced, so 
 sure was he that the way was providentially 
 foreshadowed.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 43 
 
 So cautious, methodical, and pious was he 
 throughout his career, that Abel Stevens, the 
 eminent historian of Methodism, testifies 
 that, " Few holier ministers has the Meth- 
 odist Church ever had than William Watters." 
 
 He began to exhort with " fear and trem- 
 bling," but shrank from the thought of run- 
 ning before he was sent of God. He realized 
 great peace "in speaking to and inviting 
 precious souls to seek the Lord." His words 
 fell with powerful effect upon both saint and 
 sinner; but again blessed with less liberty, 
 he would exclaim, " Lord, I can speak no 
 more in thy name; I am too unfaithful!" 
 However, a keen sense of his responsibility 
 remained with him, and he again earnestly 
 besought God that he would not permit him 
 to go without his presence, and that his la- 
 bors might redound to the honor of Christ 
 and the salvation of men. 
 
 After fervent intercessions at the throne of 
 grace, his convictions of duty were umistak- 
 ably clear, and in his journal he gives, as the 
 state of his mind at this time, that, "The 
 word of the Lord would be as fire in my 
 bones, and I dare not refrain from declaring 
 his loving kindness to my fellow-sinners ; and
 
 44 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 although I have often shuddered at the 
 thought of being self-sent, yet have I much 
 oftener trembled lest by my backwardness and 
 unfaithfulness in warning sinners, they should 
 die in their sins, and their blood be required 
 at my hands." From the beginning of his 
 public labors, there were signal indications 
 of Divine presence and power. Men would 
 pass from darkness to the light of saving 
 faith while he was upon his knees making 
 supplication for them. Others would be 
 pricked to the heart and cry out for mercy, 
 and believers would receive the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost with overwhelming power. 
 Such was the dawn of day with him in pub- 
 lic ministrations, who was to head the long 
 line of American Methodist itinerants. The 
 people believed him to be called to preach, 
 and he was being "thrust out." It was in 
 the order of God's providence, who speaks 
 through the Church. 
 
 The seal of God was upon him. He could 
 no longer doubt it, His warm exhortations, 
 prayers, and Bible-readings had been owned 
 in the conversion of many, and the people 
 were calling in every direction for him to 
 come over and help them.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 45 
 
 Methinks, in heart, he said: 
 
 " Farewell, ye dreams of fame and power, 
 
 Ye festal scenes alluring ; 
 I turn through sorrow's rugged road 
 
 To riches more enduring ; 
 Through desert wastes my path may lie, 
 
 But they shall lead to glory ; 
 My crown is there, a fadeless one, 
 
 Unknown in Egypt's story."
 
 Chapter HL 
 
 jts Jfttsstottcmj cmr ttrittj Hnbfcrt 
 iams attb ^bmtssum into ttje 
 
 47
 
 And every one that hath forsaken houses, 
 or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, 
 or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's 
 sake, shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall 
 
 inherit everlasting life. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 48
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ROBERT WILLIAMS, one of Wesley's 
 local preachers, recently from England, 
 was planning a preaching tour through Mary- 
 land and Virginia, and invited William Wat- 
 ters to join him in his missionary movements. 
 
 It was on the i6th day of October, 1772, 
 his twenty-first birthday anniversary, that 
 they set out on this memorable journey, their 
 destination being Norfolk, in Southeastern 
 Virginia. 
 
 He had been a Christian about a year and 
 a half, and during that period had been active 
 as leader and exhorter, and had preached on a 
 few occasions. With this brief though tri- 
 umphant experience, he began his itinerant 
 life. It was not a pleasure-trip on which 
 they went, but one of toil in the Master's 
 vineyard. The occasion of his departure was 
 an affecting scene. His mother, now the sec- 
 ond time a widow, and for whom he had the 
 most tender affection, offered him all her 
 property if he would remain with her. But 
 he forsook all to become an ambassador for 
 
 4 49
 
 50 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 Christ, remarking that his brothers would 
 affectionately care for his mother. Many of 
 his friends wept and hung round him, yet 
 while confronted by weeping friends and the 
 entreaties of his mother, he says, "I found 
 such resignation and so clear a conviction that 
 my way was of the Lord, that I was enabled 
 to commit them and myself to the care of our 
 Heavenly Father, in humble confidence that 
 if we never met again in this vale of tears, 
 we should soon meet where the wicked cease 
 from troubling and the weary are at rest." 
 
 He stood at the gate, his noble steed in 
 hand, bidding adieu to the circle of friends^ 
 reserving his mother to the last, who, weeping 
 upon his neck, received his farewell kiss ; then 
 he mounted and rode away, thus introducing 
 the long unbroken line and unparalleled ex- 
 perience and achievements of the American 
 itinerant. 
 
 He went out to a land that he knew not 
 of, without a church, without a people, with- 
 out a promise of support, that he might 
 preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
 Truly, " not by their stations are God's 
 heroes known." "Whoever is inclined," says 
 Dr. Daniels, "to smile at the sorrow and
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 51 
 
 mourning with which this young man, the 
 first in America, was sent forth to be a Meth- 
 odist itinerant, let him remember that to take 
 upon himself that office in those days implied 
 the deliberate sacrifice of all things for Christ's 
 sake and the gospel's. To enter this min- 
 istry was to face the certainty of poverty, pri- 
 vations, dangers, ridicule, and opposition, with 
 a good prospect of violence and martyrdom ; 
 and in this view of the subject, the act of this 
 young man, in leading what was to be the long 
 column of American itinerants, was one of the 
 most heroic things ever done in this country. 
 No wonder, then, that there was sorrow in 
 the old home when this first young minister 
 set forth on this strange career." 
 
 They journeyed southward, holding meet- 
 ings as they went. Reaching Baltimore, they 
 tarried over the Sabbath-day, and holding 
 public service, young Watters preached his 
 third sermon. Onward they pursued their 
 way, preaching in the open air, private dwell- 
 ings, court-houses, and such other places as 
 were open to them, exhorting all whose atten- 
 tion they could gain, to flee the wrath to 
 come. He says of Mr. Williams on this jour- 
 ney, that he "made it a point to introduce
 
 52 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 religious conversation at every convenient 
 opportunity as we rode, sat by the fireside, in 
 taverns, and in private houses." Of a land- 
 lord, with whom they stopped overnight, he 
 says: "He was exceedingly attentive to us, 
 and received a word of exhortation with ap- 
 parent thankfulness, but appeared to be utterly 
 a stranger to heart religion." 
 
 Their route carried them through George- 
 town, Alexandria, and King William Court 
 House, where they spent their second Sab- 
 bath, holding two preaching services, with 
 congregations that behaved well, but discov- 
 ered great ignorance of experimental religion. 
 Here they were entertained with such royalty 
 that Watters speaks of this kindness of their 
 host as being "with all the hospitality of a 
 Virginian." 
 
 At Georgetown they tarried a day, and Mr. 
 Williams preached to "a large roomful of 
 inhabitants, who gave some attention to the 
 things that were said, and behaved with de- 
 cency." This was the introduction of Meth- 
 odist preaching into Georgetown. 
 
 Weary and much worn down, they at 
 length reached Norfolk, the place of their 
 destination, where they were made welcome
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 53 
 
 by waiting friends. Here a most deplorable 
 condition of spiritual matters confronted 
 them, the people were notoriously wicked 
 and depraved, sin of a base and revolting sort 
 abounded upon every hand, and he pronounces 
 the city "the most wicked place he had ever 
 set foot in." 
 
 While Mr. Williams went further south 
 into Carolina, Mr. Watters turned his atten- 
 tion to the neighboring country, forming a 
 little circuit, including several adjacent towns. 
 Success attended his efforts, and many souls 
 were brought to the knowledge of sins for-~ 
 given. 
 
 During the latter part of the winter, Joseph 
 Pillmore, who was preaching in Norfolk, left 
 his work in charge of Mr. Watters and trav- 
 eled as far south as Charlestown. While he 
 was absent, the parish preacher manifested 
 his unfriendliness to the cause by arraigning 
 the Methodists as " a set of enthusiasts and 
 deceivers." The text used for the occasion 
 was, " Be not over-righteous." "Among other 
 things he told his people, what none of them 
 would have otherwise suspected, that he knew 
 from experience the evil of being over-right- 
 eous."
 
 54 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 The young preacher rejoiced in the return 
 of Mr. Pillmore in a few days after this un- 
 friendly attack, who announced that on a 
 specified day he would preach on "Be not 
 over-wicked." He stated that his reason for 
 announcing his text was that he had been 
 credibly informed that a divine of that town, 
 in his absence, had solemnly warned the pub- 
 lic against being over-righteous. Then with 
 uplifted hands and expressive countenance he 
 exclaimed: "And in Norfolk he hath given 
 this caution!" 
 
 The young itinerant continued riding 
 round his little circuit, singing, praying, 
 preaching, and exhorting wherever he could 
 gain a hearing. His appointments multiplied 
 so rapidly that almost all his time was now 
 occupied in filling them. These were day 
 and night appointments, and often a consider- 
 able distance from each other. This new fea- 
 ture of religion very soon became a potent 
 factor in the circles into which it was intro- 
 duced, attracting universal attention and com* 
 ment. His messages were delivered with 
 greater liberty. The effect was both sur- 
 prising and gratifying. The revival spirit 
 prevailed, and his classes were recruited
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 55 
 
 by many new converts, both in town and 
 country. 
 
 In the spring he was attacked by the 
 measles, and owing to undue exposure, con- 
 tracted a severe cold, which forbade him trav- 
 eling for a few weeks. When sufficiently re- 
 covered, he entered again with consuming 
 zeal into the labors of his circuit, taxing his 
 strength beyond the limit of endurance. He 
 was, about the first of August, prostrated with 
 a nervous fever. During his prostration he 
 was tenderly cared for in the home of his 
 friend Jarrett, the parish clergyman. For 
 some time his life hung in the balance. His 
 friends altogether despaired of his recovery, 
 and he entertained but slight hope himself. 
 He feared that since he was the first Ameri- 
 can called out to preach the gospel among the 
 Methodists, that his premature death might 
 discourage others from taking up the work. 
 "But above every other reason" he "thirsted 
 to be more holy, to preach the blessed Jesus, 
 and warn poor sinners of their danger, which 
 was ever before him." It pleased the Lord to 
 restore his servant to health, and continue his 
 life for more than half a century. This was a 
 memorable year for Methodism. The three
 
 56 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 centers from which the gospel light was radi- 
 ating were New York, Philadelphia, and Balti- 
 more. 
 
 Williams, Pillmore, Strawbridge, Rankin, 
 Watters, and Asbury had all been in and 
 about Baltimore, while the first three had 
 penetrated far into the south, awakening the 
 masses in Virginia and North Carolina. These 
 earnest missionary efforts prepared the way 
 for the more abundant harvest, when the 
 Church gained almost one hundred per cent 
 in a single year. 
 
 At the Conference held in Baltimore in 
 1776, four new circuits were reported as hav- 
 ing been formed during the year in Virginia 
 and North Carolina, and all within the terri- 
 tory of the celebrated tour of Williams and 
 Watters in the year of 1772 and 1773. 
 
 The genuine character of this primary 
 work is apparent from the surprising ingath- 
 ering a little later from this identical field. 
 
 Shadford was the eloquent and successful 
 laborer in this territory two years subsequent, 
 where he reaped the most glorious and boun- 
 tiful harvest, perhaps, ever reported by one 
 man in a single year, there being eighteen 
 hundred conversions.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 57 
 
 This territory has ever remained a prolific 
 field of Methodism. The first Conference of 
 Methodist preachers having been held in 
 Philadelphia, in the month of July, and he 
 having fully recovered from his illness, been 
 received into the Conference, and assigned to 
 Kent Circuit, they returned by boat to Balti- 
 more, where they spent a Sabbath, preaching 
 in the city and at the Point "to considerable 
 congregations, with apparent encouragement." 
 From here he rode home in company with 
 one of his brothers, who came to the city to 
 meet him, and on his way fell in with Mr. 
 Asbury. He journeyed with him for several 
 miles, giving him, at his request, an account 
 of his labors in Virginia. This friendship, 
 begun under these accidental circumstances, 
 remained unbroken through almost half a cen- 
 tury, even to the death of the bishop. Mr. 
 Asbury often refers to Mr. Watters in his 
 journals as his " dear old friend, Mr. Watters," 
 and sometimes familiarly as "Billy Watters." 
 Henry Boehm speaks of riding with the 
 bishop to the residence of William Watters 
 in February, 1811, when he and the bishop 
 greeted each other with a "holy kiss." 
 
 Such were the trials and victories of the
 
 58 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 early itinerants that, as they crossed and 
 recrossed each other's paths as they passed 
 like meteors into unexplored regions, their 
 friendship often fanned into a flame of holy 
 love. There is no stronger brotherhood than 
 the Christian ministry, and that of the itin- 
 erancy in this New World possessed many 
 points of similarity with that ot the apostles. 
 
 He arrived home after an absence of eleven 
 months, and found his relations and friends 
 in health, holding fast their professions and 
 growing in grace and in the knowledge of our 
 Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; having been 
 fully initiated into the experiences peculiar to 
 the itinerant life. 
 
 During his rest for a few weeks at home he 
 met Mr. Rankin at the house of his brother, 
 and was greatly pleased with his preaching. 
 He adds that, " He continued to show him 
 every mark of his particular esteem to the end 
 of his stay in America. I always thought him 
 well qualified to fill his place as general as- 
 sistant among us. He was not only a man of 
 grace, but of strong and quick parts." 
 
 What an eventful experience our young 
 hero had passed through, having traveled by 
 land and by sea, in perils and sickness among
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 59 
 
 strangers, that he might declare to others 
 what God had done for his soul ! In this tour 
 of almost a year, Mr. Watters had been tried 
 as by fire. It was demonstrated that he could 
 preach so as to awaken sinners and bring 
 them to Christ. He was by this prepared for 
 a wider and more arduous field of labor. 
 
 He became a member of the first Meth- 
 odist Conference, being the only native Amer- 
 ican in it, and was assigned, with John King, 
 to New Jersey. 
 
 To his faithfulness and success Abel Ste- 
 vens pays the following beautiful tribute: 
 "Down to the end of 1783 he continued to 
 travel in Maryland and Virginia with a zeal 
 that knew no abatement, and success hardly 
 excelled by any evangelist of the denomina- 
 tion; often in new circuits in mountain 
 regions, his lodging in log cabins, his chapels 
 barns, his health broken so much that three or 
 four times his brethren expected to bury him 
 a martyr to his work."
 
 Chapter IV, 
 
 Ijts etfirst Conference Appointment 
 tng Hen) Sersetj, JMcmmrB, ant) 
 Part of jlarnlanb.
 
 Sow thou thy seed ; 
 Glad is the light of spring the sun is glowing, 
 
 Do thou thy deed ; 
 
 Who knows when flower or deed shall cease its 
 growing? 
 
 Thy seed may be 
 Bearer of thousands scattered far and near ; 
 
 Eternity 
 May feel the impress of the deed done here. 
 
 ARTHUR I,. SALMON. 
 62
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A?TER recuperating for a few weeks under 
 the tranquil influence of the parental 
 home, strengthened by maternal affection and 
 counsel, and encouraged by the good cheer 
 of his old associates, he set out for his new 
 field of labor, fired with all the courage of a 
 young soldier. 
 
 The work assigned him and John King 
 was named New Jersey, which included the 
 States of New Jersey, Delaware, and part of 
 Maryland. Watters went first to that part of 
 the work called the Kent Circuit, which lay 
 between the Delaware and the Chesapeake 
 Bays, partly in Delaware and partly in Mary- 
 land. 
 
 On his way thither he renewed his cove- 
 nant with God and reconsecrated his life to 
 the work of the ministry. He says that he 
 "felt a divine evidence within that God would 
 be with him, and bring him to the people to 
 whom he was sent, in the fullness of the bless- 
 ing of the gospel of peace." Here he labored 
 for half a year with marked results, and "with 
 63
 
 64 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 much greater freedom, liberty, and success in 
 preaching the gospel than at any previous 
 time." Between these two bodies of water 
 lay the first field assigned by a Methodist 
 Conference to an American itinerant. This 
 was the start of the work by the native sons 
 of American Methodism, which has spread 
 like holy leaven throughout the United States, 
 and has gone with remarkable results and 
 trustful confidence into every land under the 
 sun. To secure all these prolific results, only, 
 a little more than a century of time has been 
 required. 
 
 His congregations rapidly increased, and 
 his -appointments multiplied; for from many 
 quarters came the Macedonian cry for help, 
 so that in a brief time his field enlarged into 
 a four weeks' circuit. When it is remem- 
 bered that the early itinerant traveled con- 
 stantly, preaching one or more sermons every 
 day, one will see what a vast extent of ter- 
 ritory a four weeks' circuit often covered, 
 and to accept and prosecute the work of a 
 Methodist preacher in those days required 
 a spirit of self-sacrifice and heroism unsur- 
 passed. 
 
 But our young hero could not long move
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 65 
 
 on upon a smooth sea. His preaching was a 
 gospel of present salvation full, free, and 
 everlasting, to whosoever would receive it. 
 As one barrier was removed, others appeared. 
 He had grown in favor with the masses, and 
 the doors of welcome flew open to him, more 
 than he could enter. This aroused the parish 
 clergyman of the Church of England, who 
 sought many devices to checkmate his work. 
 It was a law of the State that every house 
 used for preaching must be licensed for that 
 purpose. Mr. Watters accepted an invitation 
 to preach in the home of Mr. Fogwell, in 
 Queen Anne. As he approached the house, the 
 people having already assembled, the parson 
 met him, and threatened to prosecute Mr. Fog- 
 well if he permitted the proposed unlawful use 
 of his house. To save his friend from trouble, 
 Watters requested the congregation to with- 
 draw to the open air. The proposal met with 
 popular favor, and was a triumph for the 
 young itinerant. The people were soon as- 
 sembled beneath the rustic boughs of God's 
 first temples, where no law could fetter their 
 religious liberty. The parish clergyman, de- 
 feated in his first attempt to silence the young 
 ambassador, took his place in the congrega- 
 5
 
 66 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 tion to hear what he might say, and plan 
 another point of attack. 
 
 The text for the occasion was: "Seek ye 
 the Lord while he may be found: call on him 
 while he is near." 
 
 The text announced, the young preacher 
 began to lay out his work, and proceeded with 
 freedom and liberty to announce the three 
 following propositions, which he discussed 
 with an unction that won for him the friend- 
 ship of his hearers and brought conviction to 
 many hearts : 
 
 1. The text presupposes the greatest loss 
 the favor and image of the Lord. 
 
 2. This loss may now be remedied, and to 
 this end is the exhortation given in the text. 
 
 3. Dreadful consequences will ensue from 
 neglecting to seek the Lord while he may be 
 found. 
 
 Having discussed the propositions in their 
 order, he closed with the usual plain applica- 
 tion, exhorting all present to accept the mer- 
 ciful offers of salvation in this the accepted 
 time of the Lord, before they should be given 
 over to hardness of heart. When he had con- 
 cluded his sermon and exhortation, his critical 
 auditor, nothing daunted, arose without apol-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 67 
 
 ogy or permission and began addressing the 
 congregation. He said "that the young man 
 had given them a warm exhortation to a 
 religious life, and that he liked what he had 
 said better than anything he had ever heard 
 from any of them." He then began to ply 
 a series of questions to the young preacher, 
 publicly before his congregation, as "though 
 he were one of the pope's inquisitors." 
 
 These qiiestions were about the doctrines 
 he presented and his authority to preach. 
 The object seemed to be to entangle him in 
 his words and intimidate him from preaching 
 any more in the community. His gentle and 
 forbearing spirit is seen in his replies. "I 
 was cautious," .says he, " in my answers, and 
 gave him soft words, and no more than I 
 could well avoid." 
 
 The gentle, forbearing and peace-loving 
 characteristics of young Watters are marked 
 traits of his life to the end of his pilgrimage. 
 
 Some months subsequent to the above in- 
 cident, Abraham Whitworth was preaching 
 within the bounds of this same clergyman's 
 parish. When he finished his discourse, the 
 parson arose and unceremoniously condemned 
 him for preaching a knowledge of sins for-
 
 68 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 given, adding that, as the young man was a 
 stranger, without a college education, he 
 ought not to preach. 
 
 When he ceased speaking, Mr. Whit worth 
 arose and said that he could not boast of 
 his learning, but still was of the opinion, not- 
 withstanding all he had said, none were fit 
 to preach the gospel but such as were con- 
 verted and sensible of their call to the min- 
 istry. 
 
 He then proposed a method that should 
 bring the matter to an issue : The parson was 
 to choose a text anywhere in the Bible, and 
 he would preach from it immediately; and 
 then he would choose one for the parson, and 
 he must preach from it, and the congregation 
 was to judge which was the better qualified 
 to preach the gospel, his critic by his learn- 
 ing, or he by the grace of God. 
 
 Mr. Watters says that his proposal was 
 popular, and took with the people more than 
 many arguments would have done. The 
 parson excused himself because of the late- 
 ness of the hour, but never again annoyed 
 his brethren with questions concerning their 
 right to preach the gospel. 
 
 This labor of six months was attended
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 69 
 
 with enlarged success. "Many were deeply 
 awakened and soundly converted to the 
 Lord." His attachment was so great for his 
 people that it was with reluctance he parted 
 with them when the time for exchange of 
 circuits had come. 
 
 He spent the remainder of the Conference 
 year on the Baltimore Circuit among his 
 friends, but "did not find that life, power, 
 and liberty " in preaching as among the peo- 
 ple on Kent Circuit. Here he was betrayed 
 into a spirit of levity, doubtless due to his re- 
 newed association with friends of youthful 
 days, to which he attributed his meager suc- 
 cess in winning souls. After this unpleasant 
 experience, in loss of power in his new-found 
 work of love, he sought prayerfully the cause, 
 and records the following conclusion : " Let 
 others plead the innocence or usefulness of 
 levity, I can not ; though, God knows, I am 
 too often betrayed into it, but never, to say 
 the best of it, without feeling that it more or 
 less unfits me for that deep reflection and that 
 constant communion with the Lord, which 
 nothing for a moment should interrupt." 
 
 Very similar is the confession of Bishop 
 Asbury, who writes in his journal : " The
 
 70 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 next day my conscience checked me for the 
 appearance of levity." 
 
 It is gratifying to notice how the fathers 
 grappled with every phase of conduct that 
 threatened their peace with God and their 
 power with man. Whatever would in any 
 sense grieve the Holy Spirit must be quickly 
 and forever renounced. 
 
 The lesson of the Savior was ever before 
 them. The right eye and the right hand 
 must be parted with, if necessary, to save the 
 soul from death. Young Watters had not 
 made his distressing pilgrimage of repent- 
 ance, of fasting and prayer, from which he 
 had escaped into the marvelous light of the 
 gospel liberty, to be easily enticed again into 
 the entanglements of sin or any question- 
 able conduct threatening his peace of heart 
 and mind. To the close of his long, useful, 
 and eventful life, he guarded carefully the 
 citadel of his soul and character, and reputa- 
 tion of the Christian ministry. No charge 
 was ever brought against his Christian or 
 ministerial .character. The cause he had 
 espoused he served with zeal and faithfulness 
 to the end. 
 
 Over this chasm of a few weeks, when he
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 7 1 
 
 felt shorn of his power to awaken unbelievers 
 and lead them to Christ, he was filled with 
 " great grief," and " mourned and wept, 
 fasted, prayed, and truly longed to be sancti- 
 fied throughout, soul, body, and spirit," that 
 he " might be able to serve the Lord with- 
 out interruption." 
 
 This fact recognizes a great truth, which 
 has an important bearing upon the subject of 
 power with God and results with men. 
 
 It teaches the need and shows the practical 
 results of oft-repeated searchings of one's own 
 spirit. 
 
 To him the power and blessedness of the 
 Christ-life were to be abiding evidence of sav- 
 ing grace. The fathers of Methodism would 
 not suffer their minds to be diverted from the 
 grave work of soul-saving, nor would they 
 permit the least disturbance of their Christian 
 experience to go unquestioned.
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 labors tembiBsoniB ftrauea x>f 
 ttje 
 
 73
 
 Our country hath a gospel of her own 
 
 To preach and practice before all the world, 
 
 The freedom and divinity of man, 
 
 The glorious claims of human brotherhood. 
 
 I,OW K LI.. 
 
 74
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE second Conference of American Meth- 
 odism began in Philadelphia, May 25, 
 1774. William Watters was present at all its 
 sessions. Although he was made a member 
 of the first Conference, he was not present at 
 its deliberations, but was busy preaching in 
 Southern Virginia. The year had been ex- 
 ceedingly prosperous. Ten men had been 
 sent into the field, and they had harvested 
 nearly a thousand converts, almost doubling 
 the membership. Seven ministers were added 
 to their number at this Conference. Concern- 
 ing his fellowship with the brethren of the 
 Conference, he observes: "I was much edified 
 with the conversation of my elder brethren." 
 Upon him was laid the duty, at this annual 
 gathering, of preaching before his brethren. 
 He says: " I felt some embarrassment in hav- 
 ing to preach before the preachers and so 
 large a congregation, in so large a house and 
 city, but endeavored to make a virtue of a 
 necessity; and as I could not give them any- 
 thing that was wise, I endeavored to be as 
 
 75
 
 76 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 simple as possible, and so, out of the fullness 
 of my heart, I gave them a short discourse on 
 the nature, necessity, and happiness of relig- 
 ion. I got through better than I expected, 
 and felt thankful for the little assistance with 
 which I was blessed." 
 
 Some may be inclined to doubt the pro- 
 priety of allowing this young man, not yet 
 twenty-three years of age, to speak upon these 
 vital topics of religion before his elder breth- 
 ren; but had he not felt as keenly as any 
 the poverty of his own soul without Christ; 
 had not he analyzed the nature of true relig- 
 ion by the process of its development in his 
 own agonizing heart; had not he a foretaste 
 of the joys of heaven to come, by his con- 
 scious sense of pardoning love ; and had not 
 he witnessed the awakening and conversion 
 of many under his ministrations of gospel 
 truth? These sons of foreign birth had a de- 
 sire as well as right to hear their converts of 
 a new nationality that were being admitted to 
 their company. It was not mere curiosity, 
 but that they might know the native sons of 
 the gospel to whom their work, in the provi- 
 dence of God, was to be so largely transferred 
 in the near future.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 77 
 
 From this Conference he was sent to Tren- 
 ton Circuit. He speaks of being in Trenton 
 when Hancock and Adams passed through 
 on their way to the first Congress in Philadel- 
 phia, and says, "They were received with 
 great pomp, and were much caressed by the 
 inhabitants of the town." 
 
 He refers to being kindly received by the 
 people of his new work. "Our brethren," he 
 says, "went sweetly on, hand in hand, bear- 
 ing each other's burdens, and striving together 
 for the hope of the gospel." Here he was 
 blessed with great liberty of spirit and speech, 
 and his circuit was soon on fire with revival 
 fervor, and his burning desire to see souls 
 daily converted was in some measure realized. 
 
 At this period of his life and ministerial 
 experience, he expresses himself as entertain- 
 ing a fear that he was growing faster in gifts 
 than in grace, so he began to apply himself 
 more zealously to heart-culture. He read the 
 life of Thomas Walsh, one of Wesley's early fol- 
 lowers, an Irishman, remarkable for his piety, 
 learning, and eloquence. No more suitable 
 book could have fallen into his hands at this 
 time. He saw with clearer vision than ever 
 what manner of man the preacher ought to be.
 
 78 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 The young itinerants started into the open 
 field of evangelization were always wisely 
 advised regarding their intellectual life. Care- 
 fully-selected books were put into their hands. 
 Now a four years' course of study is required, 
 the careful pursuit of which will assure a 
 good degree of mental culture. It is remark- 
 able with what assiduity this course is often 
 pursued, and how men have trained through 
 it to the highest scholarship. If any one who 
 reads this is laboring under the false notion 
 that a Methodist preacher has but little to do, 
 we would have him examine the course of 
 study referred to, and see the wide field of 
 mental activity to which it leads. One of 
 our rules is to be diligent, never to be un- 
 employed. 
 
 Young Watters early learned to apply him- 
 self after the methodical and studious manner 
 of the itinerants of the Old World, and his 
 religious temperament and studious habits 
 were soon adjusted to Methodist rule. The 
 indispensable saddlebags not only contained 
 the Bible, Hymn-book, and Discipline, but 
 such other useful books of theology, biog- 
 raphy and experience as the purse might 
 afford, and such as might be borrowed and read
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 79 
 
 on the way. It was no uncommon thing for 
 the itinerant to read on horseback, and some 
 have written and preached in the saddle. 
 
 The scenes of Methodist labor lay in the 
 territory of the terrible mutterings of inevi- 
 table war. The -ever-darkening cloud was 
 about to break in one terrific thunderbolt of 
 carnage and determined struggle ; yet the 
 itinerant pursued his way, crying, " As the 
 lightning cometh out of the east and shineth 
 even unto the west, so shall the coming of 
 the Son of man be." 
 
 While the patriots were laying deep the 
 foundations of civil liberty, our young preacher 
 was proving his loyalty to the higher govern- 
 ment by faithfully building the higher relig- 
 ious liberty of the gospel, without which the 
 former could scarcely hope to endure. 
 
 During the year, Mr. Rankin sent him for 
 three months into Chester Circuit, that he 
 might heal a dissension. After traveling 
 round the circuit a few times, he gained ac- 
 cess to all the disaffected ones, and won them 
 back to the societies. They dismissed their 
 deluded leader^ and he left for other parts. 
 At the end of the quarter, he returned to the 
 Trenton Circuit, where the most happy rela-
 
 80 WILLIAM WATT3RS. 
 
 tion existed between him and the people, and 
 where he enjoyed many conveniences for im- 
 provement. Here his work enlarged and pros- 
 pered to the end of the year, and in his own 
 words, "Our meetings were lively and power- 
 ful. I was often much blessed in my own 
 soul, and my hands lifted up, which were too 
 apt to hang down. O how sweet to labor 
 where the Lord gives his blessing, and sets 
 open a door which no man can shut!" 
 
 Conference convened in Philadelphia, May 
 J 7> Z 775- On the way from Conference to 
 Frederick Circuit, his new appointment, he 
 visited at home. 
 
 On his new work many hardships con- 
 fronted him. The country was new, and the 
 people lived in rude cabins, and possessed but 
 few of the accommodations which he had en- 
 joyed in the parental home. But the friends 
 .were kind and loving, and he could well en- 
 dure their scanty fare and cabin life, and 
 sleep, if need be, under the open sky; for the 
 Master had not where to lay his head, and he 
 would " be thankful for the meanest place " 
 in the vineyard, just so that he might serve 
 at the Savior's bidding. After traveling over 
 his circuit a few times, the revival flame be-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 8 1 
 
 gan to rise, and spread rapidly in every part 
 of the circuit. The people flocked from far 
 and near to hear what he might say. The 
 preacher rose to white heat, and hundreds 
 were cut to the quick. Day and night the 
 harvest was gathered. The mighty work of 
 God spread among these humble people as by 
 magic. Saint and sinner alike witnessed the 
 unfolding of God's eternal love. The king- 
 dom was implanted within them and the evo- 
 lution of the Savior's love made clear as the 
 morning light. Preacher and people raised 
 their voices in praise, and the special services 
 closed only after the power of further endur- 
 ance was exhausted. 
 
 How very essential were those early dem- 
 onstrations of power and successful efforts in 
 winning souls essential in vindication of the 
 new doctrines, seemingly new, but as old as 
 the Christian religion ; new in being brought 
 afresh to the consideration of men, after be- 
 ing long covered by the fog of ecclesiastical 
 wrangle and unorthodox philosophy. 
 
 In November, we find him attending, with 
 Mr. Rankin, a quarterly-meeting at Lees- 
 burg, Virginia, and traveling with him for 
 
 several weeks throughout the work in that 
 6
 
 82 WIUJAM WATTERS. 
 
 section of the country, and into Maryland, 
 where he was present at two quarterly-meet- 
 ings, where, also, he was much cheered by 
 the progress already made and by the promis- 
 ing outlook for the future. He spent the 
 next few months in Fairfax Circuit. 
 
 On his first tour of the circuit, ever alert 
 to the most meager omens of refreshing grace, 
 he discovered favorable signs of a coming re- 
 vival. This was a large circuit, and had a 
 score or more preaching-places. Many re- 
 ceived the Word gladly, and his efforts were 
 blessed with the "greatest revival" he "had 
 ever seen in any place." One season of grace 
 followed another, requiring unusual drafts 
 upon his strength, until he often felt that he 
 could hold out no longer ; yet on he went, 
 preaching day and night, his strength being 
 renewed from day to day, and, as he believed, 
 in fulfillment of the promise, "As thy days, so 
 shall thy strength be." So genuine and rapid 
 was this work of grace, that within a few 
 weeks more than a hundred were converted 
 and added to the Church, and the work con- 
 tinued in its gracious effect, transmitting joy 
 and gladness to the utmost bounds of the cir- 
 cuit, breaking down the barriers of prejudice
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 83 
 
 and persecution, preparing the way for the 
 more free and successful movement of the 
 itinerants among the masses, and for the 
 place given them a little later as representa- 
 tives of the "People's Church." 
 
 Among the converts were many of the 
 most highly-respected people of the com- 
 munity. One of them was Nelson Reed, one 
 of the worthies of Methodism, serving the 
 Church twenty-two years as presiding elder, 
 and at the time of his death, in 1840, the 
 oldest Methodist preacher in the world. 
 
 As we glance back over more than a cen- 
 tury, to the early beginnings of the Church, 
 is it not delightful to behold the rich fruitage 
 of the labors of him who went first into the 
 vineyard? Wherever he went, the revival 
 fire began to burn, whether in summer or in 
 winter; for to him all seasons were harvest 
 times for the garnering of immortal souls, 
 who were by delay in impending danger of 
 eternal death. 
 
 During this period of six months of revival 
 flame he was alone in the circuit, and the very 
 prosperity of the work, with the care of the new 
 converts, made the task exceedingly arduous; 
 yet in the midst of his new-found victory, we
 
 84 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 see him reaching forth for new fields of con- 
 quest in which to declare the infinite riches 
 of saving love and the joy of a salvation that 
 is full, free, and eternal, having no other am- 
 bition than to give his young life in heroic 
 and self-sacrificing service to the cause of his 
 Master. 
 
 The mutterings of war were now heard in 
 every direction, and the dark cloud of impend- 
 ing death hung heavy over the fair land of the 
 Colonies. The terrific conflict was now known 
 to be inevitable. The result no man could 
 surely predict. The patriots' cause was rap- 
 idly gathering strength from many sources. 
 Men were everywhere mustering for the field. 
 Armies were marching and counter-marching. 
 
 Every lover of his country was decrying 
 the mother-land for her cruel oppressions, and 
 was supremely demonstrative in his support 
 of the movement to resist them to the end. 
 
 "Young Watters," writes Abel Stevens, 
 " was abundant in labors and patient in trials 
 during this troubled period." Silence was 
 often construed for disloyalty. All English- 
 men were suspected, did they not take the 
 oath of allegiance. Most such either entered 
 the English army or returned to their native
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 85 
 
 country. The clergymen of the Church of 
 England deserted their posts in great num- 
 bers. Our own preachers, who were English- 
 men, refused to take the oath, as they were 
 subjects of the crown, and all except Bishop 
 Asbury returned home, and he ceased trav- 
 eling for more than two years, during the 
 most of which time he felt compelled to keep 
 himself secreted from the public view. About 
 the middle of the war he wrote a letter to a 
 friend in England, expressing his belief in 
 the justness of the American cause and his 
 faith in the final triumph of the Revolution- 
 ists. This letter was intercepted, and through 
 it the authorities, becoming satisfied that he 
 was not an enemy of the Colonial cause, 
 gave him no further uneasiness, and he after- 
 ward moved with more freedom among the 
 circuits. When independence was established, 
 he became a citizen, and was ever after loyal 
 and true to his new-found country. 
 
 So we perceive, then, how the care of the 
 infant Church was intrusted to the hands of 
 the native preachers, whose loyalty went un- 
 challenged, except by some one who did it 
 for some ignoble purpose. 
 
 Much greater credit is due this class of
 
 86 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 noble and self-sacrificing heroes, who bore 
 aloft the banner of Christ during the years of 
 fierce conflict for national independence, than 
 the history of the Church has yet accorded 
 them. But for them, all previously gained 
 might have been lost. Through all, William 
 Watters was instant in season and out of sea- 
 son, carrying with him the unmistakable evi- 
 dence of his loyalty to the great cause of 
 human redemption and to the cause of Ameri- 
 can independence also. 
 
 Although some circuits could not for a time 
 be supplied with preachers, yet the work 
 prospered throughout all the years of war, 
 increasing in membership during the eight 
 years, from 3,148 to 11,785, so that the cause 
 was not only saved from the havoc of war, 
 but a most creditable advance made. Mr. 
 Watters says: "Though wars and rumors of 
 war were all around us, we were permitted 
 to dwell in peace. ... It is true we 
 were sometimes charged with being deceivers, 
 false prophets, enthusiasts, and even with 
 being enemies to our country, but seldom 
 suffered in person or property." 
 
 Of this particular territory about Fairfax, 
 he says: "No part of the continent suffered
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 87 
 
 less with the distresses of the war than those 
 parts for a considerable distance both above 
 and below ; yet we could feel, even here, in 
 many instances, that it often checked the vital 
 flame. The fears and cares that would nec- 
 essarily crowd in upon even the pious at be- 
 ing drafted, or being the next that might be 
 drafted, and sent into distant parts, with 
 other hardships that are concomitants of war 
 and slaughter, were unfriendly to them, as 
 likewise to sinners embracing religion, or 
 adorning their profession if they did embrace 
 it. Yet it is not more astonishing than true, 
 that the work continued to spread in all those 
 parts where we had preachers to labor, and I 
 doubt whether at any time, before or since, the 
 work has been more genuine among us than 
 it was during the war. Some few, both of 
 preachers and people, were called to suffer in 
 their person and property ; but such instances 
 were comparatively few and their sufferings 
 short." A rifle-ball was once shot through 
 Bishop Asbury's carriage, which, however, did 
 him no harm. Occasionally a native preacher 
 was beaten, presumably for disloyalty, but 
 really for preaching the gospel. 
 
 Our denomination did not arise without
 
 88 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 persecution of a bitter and prolonged char- 
 acter; but that day is now almost past, only 
 an occasional assault now being made by the 
 base and ignorant in some rural part or foreign 
 field where our history is unknown and our 
 doctrine not understood. William Watters 
 did not wholly escape persecution, in at least 
 some of the milder forms; and while he pos- 
 sessed a most gentle, affable, and forbearing 
 spirit, he stood ever ready to defend the doc- 
 trines he preached and the people he served, 
 and made wise and ready reply to every false 
 accusation against Methodism. The follow- 
 ing instance, illustrating the above points, is 
 given in his own language: 
 
 "Congress having appointed a fast, as 
 they frequently did during the war, to im- 
 plore the divine protection in our unhappy 
 struggle with our mother country, I had 
 appointed to preach on the occasion, and 
 finding that the parson of the parish had 
 an appointment at the same hour, I thought 
 it better, with the congregation, to attend 
 his appointment, intending nothing thereby 
 but friendship, and thinking that, on the 
 present occasion, it became us to forget all 
 smaller differences, and to unite in seeking
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 89 
 
 the common interest. The parson preached 
 first. His text was Romans xiii, i, 2: 'Let 
 every soul be subject unto the higher powers. 
 For there is no power but of God : the powers 
 that be are ordained of God.' His discourse 
 consisted of two parts. First, of what he 
 called an explanation of the text; secondly, 
 an attack on the Methodists. This was to 
 me the more unexpected, as I never had 
 heard of his saying a word about us in 
 public. 
 
 "I was glad that I happened to be present 
 to speak for myself. We were all in general, 
 and the preachers in particular, declared to 
 be a set of Tories, under a cloak of religion ; 
 that the preachers were sent here by the 
 British ministry to preach up passive obe- 
 dience and non-resistance; that their pre- 
 tended desire for the salvation of the people 
 led them to travel and preach throughout the 
 country; but money, in his opinion, was their 
 real object. He concluded this part of his 
 subject by declaring that he would, if at the 
 helm of our national affairs, make our nasty, 
 stinking carcasses pay for our pretended scru- 
 ples of conscience. My turn came next, and 
 my text was Matthew xvii, 21 :' Howbeit this
 
 90 WILLIAM W ATTARS. 
 
 kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.' 
 My first proposition was, that all men, since 
 the fall, were possessed of this evil spirit that 
 goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. 
 After proving this doctrine from both Old and 
 New Testaments, my second attempt was to 
 prove it from matter of fact amongst all peo- 
 ple and in every age of the world down to 
 the present time. 
 
 "Amongst other things, I remarked that it 
 was this spirit that had led those who had 
 been our guardians, and ought still to be such, 
 to become our unnatural oppressors in the 
 present unhappy war, and that it was our 
 duty, in our affliction, to humble ourselves 
 under the hands of Almighty God, who only 
 could turn the hearts of our oppressors and 
 defend us from their cruel power, it being the 
 same with God to save by few or many. But 
 a still stronger proof of this spirit possessing 
 all orders of men, until he is cast out by 
 prayer and fasting, is, that until that event 
 takes place, he even creeps into the sacred 
 pulpit, and often rails and reviles others of 
 different denominations, because they differ 
 in some small matter of religion. My second 
 proposition was, that this evil spirit, this spirit
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 91 
 
 of the devil, is in this day, as heretofore, to 
 be actually cast out by prayer and fasting. 
 Thirdly, I was to reply to the accusation 
 just brought against the Methodists. First, 
 I observed, that in all accusations, particu- 
 larly those of a public nature, where there was 
 no proof offered, and that the parson had not 
 pretended to offer any of any sort, they de- 
 served no answer except silent contempt; 
 yet, as the present assertions were of so ex- 
 traordinary a nature, I hoped I should be 
 excused, on the present occasion, in acting in 
 a different manner. First, the parson has 
 told you we are all Tories. I say, as per- 
 emptorily, we are not; and call on him, or 
 the whole neighborhood, to prove, if they 
 can, an action in any one of us which is un- 
 becoming good citizens. Second, the parson 
 has told you we are sent by the British min- 
 istry to preach up passive obedience and 
 non-resistance. 
 
 " I deny that they ever sent me, or that 
 they know there is such a being on earth. I 
 appeal to the many hundreds and thousands, 
 both in the town and in the country, who are 
 our stated hearers, whether they have heard 
 any one of us say one word like the doctrine
 
 92 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 of passive obedience and non-resistance, and 
 that I was confident that the present large and 
 respectable audience must and would acquit 
 us from any such charge; likewise I do in the 
 most unequivocal manner deny knowing any- 
 thing about the Methodist preachers being 
 sent by any one but Jesus Christ, who hath 
 said, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 gospel to every creature.' The parson has 
 also told you that we preach for money. 
 Then I venture to say we preach for that we 
 do not get. I can not tell what could induce 
 him to assert this, unless it is from his own 
 motive in preaching. Certainly, if I were so 
 disposed, I might retort; but to our own 
 Master we stand or fall. I concluded by ob- 
 serving, that though I did not think politics 
 ought to be introduced into the sacred pulpit 
 on any occasion, yet I did most seriously deny 
 that there was one drop of Tory blood flowing 
 through my veins. I firmly believed my 
 business was to preach the gospel, and not to 
 meddle with public affairs, which were in 
 much better hands, and in my opinion was 
 unbecoming men of my profession. The 
 parson was polite enough to stay and hear me 
 till I drew near a close; he then quietly and
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 93 
 
 alone rode off, or we might have had each 
 other's company in riding home." 
 
 There were exceptions, however, to this 
 severe and uncharitable criticism of the clergy. 
 Messrs. Jarratt and McRoberts treated the 
 itinerants with great kindness, and have built 
 their monuments in Methodist history, and as 
 well in the hearts of our people, by their 
 friendly approval and kindly aid. The rapid 
 growth of our cause in Virginia can be traced 
 to the kindly treatment of the above-named 
 clergymen. How beautiful is the Christian 
 fellowship which tolerates those who differ 
 from us in points of doctrine! In variety 
 there is exalted unity. While traveling the 
 Brunswick Circuit in Virginia, he heard Mr. 
 McRoberts preach a sermon on experimental 
 religion, which greatly pleased him, who, he 
 says, "was the first minister of the Church of 
 England I ever heard preach on Christian 
 experience." Every time he came round his 
 six weeks' circuit he found a home for a day 
 with Mr. Jarratt "His barn," says he, "well 
 fitted up with seats and a pulpit, was one of 
 our preaching-places, and I found him very 
 friendly and attentive to me while I staid in 
 those parts."
 
 94 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 No more beautiful adornment can come to 
 the Church of God than the oneness of the 
 Savior's prayer. Oneness is divinity. Fel- 
 lowship is love. " By uniting we stand, by 
 dividing we fall." 
 
 "One sole baptismal sign, 
 
 One Lord below, above ; 
 One faith, one hope divine, 
 
 One only watchword Love ; 
 From different temples though it rise, 
 One song ascendeth to the skies."
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 Cctbors mtb flarfcgljipg frmn 1776 to 1778.
 
 Heaven is not reached at a single bound; 
 But we build the ladder, by which we rise 
 From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
 
 And we mount to its summit round by round. 
 
 96 J. G. HOLLAND.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 !\ yi AY 21, 1776, the fourth Conference con- 
 1 V 1 vened in Baltimore. 
 
 Of this occasion Mr. Watters says: "It 
 was a good time, and I was much refreshed 
 in meeting with my brethren and companions 
 in tribulations and in the kingdom of Jesus 
 Christ. We were of one mind and heart, and 
 took sweet counsel together, not how we 
 should get riches or honors, or anything this 
 poor world could afford us ; but how we 
 should make the surest work for heaven and 
 eternal happiness and be the instruments of 
 saving others. We had a powerful time in 
 our love-feast a little before we parted, while 
 we sat at our Divine Master's feet and gladly 
 heard each other tell what the Lord had done 
 for us and by us, in the different places in 
 which we had been laboring." 
 
 At this Conference Nicholas Watters, Wil- 
 liam's brother and senior by twelve years, en- 
 tered the itinerancy, and continued in the 
 work for more than a quarter of a century, 
 passing to rest from the pastorate in Charles- 
 
 7 97
 
 98 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 ton, South Carolina, in 1804. He was a faith- 
 ful laborer, and one of the successful heroes 
 of his day. He is reported, by Bennet Hen- 
 drix, his colleague, as peculiarly wise in seiz- 
 ing upon every favorable opportunity for win- 
 ning men to Christ. His last words were, " I 
 am not afraid to die, thanks be to God." 
 
 From this Conference he was appointed 
 junior preacher of the Fairfax Circuit. On 
 his way from Conference he drew aside for a 
 brief time under the parental roof, where in 
 the midst of friendly environments, he rested 
 in peaceful quiet, recuperating a little before 
 taking up the duties of another year. 
 
 What happy days of peaceful rest and ra- 
 diant love they were to him, as he rehearsed 
 to the home circle the experience of trial and 
 triumph through which a kind Providence 
 had safely led him! The parental home yet 
 remains the most restful retreat to the young 
 itinerant a place aside, where he may re- 
 count with liberty his experience in labors of 
 love, and where he may ever find responsive 
 hearts full of sympathy and help. It is easy 
 to see that, when the Savior said to his disci- 
 ples, " Come ye yourselves apart into a desert 
 place and rest awhile," he meant that his
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 99 
 
 followers should remember this, and heed it 
 as carefully as any other saying of his. 
 
 From these quiet hours of the home arbor 
 he hastened on to his new work, which he en- 
 larged into a four weeks' circuit. 
 
 Leaving the circuit under the care of his 
 assistant, he made a tour through Berkeley 
 and Frederick Counties, "preaching to very 
 large congregations, and in several neighbor- 
 hoods where they never had any Methodist 
 preaching before." Here he prepared the 
 way for several new circuits, and was much 
 encouraged by the kindness and hospitality 
 of the people, as also by the awakening and 
 inquiry of the unsaved in various neighbor- 
 hoods, in which he preached and exhorted 
 the people to flee the wrath to come. The 
 tour brought him in contact with "all sorts 
 of people," and " was much blessed to his 
 soul." He says, " I had many powerful 
 seasons, in public and in private, and labored 
 day and night, while the people came from 
 all quarters to hear the words of eternal 
 life." 
 
 About this time he notes that, " For years 
 past, preaching and inviting poor sinners to 
 the arms and open side of the Friend of sin-
 
 IOO WILUAM WATTERS. 
 
 ners has been my chief delight and more than 
 my daily meat and drink." 
 
 Is not the sense of delight with which the 
 early itinerants prosecuted the arduous work 
 of the Christian ministry infallible evidence 
 of a Divine call, especially when their labors 
 were followed with such immediate and over- 
 whelming results in awakenings and conver- 
 sions ? 
 
 As we follow the unfolding of Methodism, 
 as it moves irrepressibly into new fields, 
 planting itself against strong adverse winds, 
 and seldom yielding a field ever entered, we 
 see it as forcibly, beautifully, and truthfully 
 characterized by Dr. Chalmers, "Christianity 
 in earnest." Whatever may be charged to 
 the account of the young itinerant, in this one 
 attribute, at least, he stands unimpeached and 
 unimpeachable. The need of his day was 
 zeal, and he furnished it. There was knowl- 
 edge, but it lacked the fire of enthusiasm. A 
 complacent religion prevailed, and to him it 
 was sin. Seeking and securing immediate 
 results was in strict conformity to gospel law, 
 and evinced a living faith. 
 
 The encouraging results of the year were 
 only achieved after the most self-sacrificing
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. IOI 
 
 labors, accompanied by much disagreeable 
 exposure and other hardships peculiar to his 
 day and work. Seldom was it that he slept 
 in the same house two nights in succession, 
 or ate at the same table more than a day at a 
 time. 
 
 Such were the vicissitudes of the traveling 
 preacher, that it was necessary that there 
 should be coupled with a free heart and sound 
 mind a constitution capable of enduring hard- 
 ships. 
 
 The years of repeated and rigid test began 
 to lay hold of his hitherto rugged frame and 
 shake it, as if eager to discover the weakest 
 spot. "By continual labors," says he, "I was 
 often much worn down, and at this time I was 
 greatly afflicted with a cough that was hard 
 to be removed, and thought I was dying a 
 sure though lingering death, and although I 
 have feared hastening my dissolution by an 
 ill-judged zeal, yet I have long desired not to 
 live to be useless. It is much more desirable 
 to wear out than to rust out. My merciful 
 God, keep me from offering unto thee the 
 sacrifice of self-murder. And O, keep me 
 from wrapping in a napkin and burying my 
 talent, with the slothful servant, jn the earth!"
 
 102 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 In the autumn lie attended a quarterly- 
 meeting in Berkeley Circuit, and " was not a 
 little rejoiced to see the work increasing on 
 every hand." He returned by way of Fair- 
 fax, preaching and bidding adieu to the friends 
 with whom he had been associated more or 
 less for the past twelve months. "May the 
 God of all grace water the seed which has 
 been sown, that they may bring forth fruit 
 with patience unto the end!" was the tender 
 benediction of his heart, pronounced on the 
 people of Fairfax Circuit, as noted in his 
 diary. 
 
 From here he rode into Maryland, preach- 
 ing as he went, through Baltimore and Balti- 
 more County, attending quarterly-meeting at 
 his "brother's meeting-house, where we had 
 been often uncommonly blessed at such times 
 with the presence and power of the most high 
 God." 
 
 The next two quarters he spent in Fred- 
 erick Circuit, where he had labored a part of 
 the previous year, and where he gathered sev- 
 eral hundred converts into the Church. It 
 was during this period that the first impor- 
 tant religious awakening occurred on this cir- 
 cuit. Some .of the preaching-places on this
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 103 
 
 work were : Georgetown, Rockville, Seneca, 
 and Adams (now Langley), in Virginia. The 
 preaching-places of that day were not per- 
 manent, as the people were without church- 
 buildings of their own, and the preachers, be- 
 ing limited to the choice of such places as 
 were voluntarily offered them, were constantly 
 taking up new appointments, and sometimes 
 dropping old ones; ever alert, however, for 
 the "open door," the place of invitation and 
 welcome ; thus early adopting the rule of go- 
 ing where most desired, and where the great- 
 est good can be accomplished. 
 
 He pays the following beautiful tribute to 
 the people of Frederick Circuit: "The mem- 
 bers of this circuit are happy in being of one 
 heart and one mind. Disputes are seldom 
 heard of. Few fall off. The most appear to 
 be growing in grace and in the knowledge of 
 our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 
 
 On his way to Conference he met with a 
 friend from Norfolk, which led him to review 
 the experience of his first efforts in that city, 
 to which he refers as having been made "in 
 weakness and in much fear and trembling." 
 Then, as if suddenly amazed at the remem- 
 brance of the ample measure of grace given
 
 104 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 him in those testing days, he exclaims: "O 
 how kind a providence has been over me from 
 that day to this, and yet how little have been 
 the returns of love and praise that I have 
 made to the best of Masters!" How affecting 
 and instructive the confession of this humble 
 and consecrated man ! For years he had done 
 nothing else but preach the gospel, sing 
 praises, and shout the hallelujahs of the Lord, 
 yet all these were as nothing when he consid- 
 ered the boundless providence of the loving 
 Father and his Son. 
 
 The fifth Conference convened May 20, 
 1777, at the "Watters meeting-house," in the 
 northern part of Maryland, on Deer Creek. 
 This was one of the very earliest Methodist 
 chapels. William Watters always refers to it 
 as his "eldest brother's preaching-house." It 
 stood upon his plantation, and doubtless re- 
 ceived its name from that fact. Here was 
 one of the first societies in Maryland, and the 
 Watters family composed a large part of the 
 original class, as the nine children, all grown, 
 with their mother and other members of their 
 families, were converted in the early revivals 
 of the community, and helped to form the 
 charter membership. It was, perhaps, owing
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 105 
 
 to the violence of the war, producing unrest 
 in the cities, that this quiet retreat was sought 
 for the deliberations of the Conference. Many 
 preaching-places previously occupied were 
 not visited at all by our preachers this year. 
 Norfolk Circuit, Virginia, had been abandoned, 
 and from this year no preacher was sent to 
 New York until 1783. Notwithstanding the 
 work had suffered from the disparaging influ- 
 ences of the war, yet a very encouraging gain 
 in membership was made, the increase being 
 2,047 members, and twelve preachers, making 
 a total of 6,968, and thirty-six preachers. 
 
 Mr. Watters says of this Conference : " It 
 was a time long to be remembered. The 
 Lord was graciously with us. There appear- 
 ing no probability of the conflict ending 
 shortly between this country and Great Brit- 
 ain, several of our European preachers 
 thought, if an opportunity should offer, they 
 would return to their relations and homes 
 in the course of the year ; and to provide 
 against such an event, five of us Gatch, 
 Dromgoole, Ruff, Glendening, and myself 
 were appointed as a committee to act in the 
 place of the general assistant, in case they 
 should all go before next Conference. It was
 
 106 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 also submitted to the consideration of this 
 Conference whether, in our present situation 
 of having but few ministers left in many of 
 our parishes to administer the ordinances of 
 baptism and the Lord's Supper, we should 
 not administer them ourselves; for as yet we 
 had not the ordinances among us, but were 
 dependent on other denominations for them ; 
 some received them from the Presbyterians, 
 and communed with them, but the greater 
 part with the Church of England. In fact, 
 we considered ourselves at this time as be- 
 longing to the Church of England, it being 
 before our separation and our becoming a reg- 
 ularly-formed Church. After much conversa- 
 tion on the subject, it was unanimously 
 agreed to lay it over for the determination of 
 the next Conference, to be held in Leesburg 
 the i Qth of May. I never saw so affecting a 
 scene at the parting of the preachers before. 
 Our hearts were knit together as the hearts 
 of David and Jonathan, and we were obliged 
 to use great violence to our feelings in tearing 
 ourselves asunder. This is the last time I 
 ever saw my very worthy friends and jfathers, 
 Rankin and Shadford." 
 
 The English preachers all went home this
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 107 
 
 year, as they had planned to do, except As- 
 bury, and he ceased traveling at large for over 
 two years, a part of the time hiding away in 
 parts unknown to the public, but always 
 where the preachers could reach him for ad- 
 vice; so the Committee for General Assistant 
 was never needed, except for special consul- 
 tation and convenient medium between the 
 preachers and the mystic assistant, who, like 
 Luther in the castle of Wartburg, was more 
 powerful because unseen and his whereabouts 
 unknown. 
 
 He was sent from this Conference to the 
 famous Brunswick Circuit. His assistants 
 this year were Freeborn Garrettson and John 
 Tunnel, "very devout and faithful men;" the 
 former had entered the work the previous 
 year, and afterward became renowned for his 
 successful labors in early Methodism. This 
 circuit was eminent as the most prolific field 
 in all the Methodism of America, and these 
 young itinerants were doubtless well pleased 
 with their appointment, for they had received 
 the "best appointment." 
 
 It lay chiefly within the parish of Rev. D. 
 Jarratt, of the Church of England, who was 
 himself an evangelist of much zeal, preaching
 
 108 . WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 a present and full salvation, showing great 
 love for the itinerants, greeting them cordially, 
 providing preaching-places for them, and often 
 entertaining them in his own home. 
 
 The revival spirit had prevailed here for 
 many years. It was on this circuit that the 
 eloquent and impetuous Shadford had, in a 
 single year, gathered eighteen hundred con- 
 verts.- William Watters had traveled over a 
 part of this territory when on his famous trial 
 tour, with Robert Williams, in 1772, about 
 the time the special revival work began in 
 that section, at which time also he had be- 
 come acquainted with Mr. Jarratt, to whom 
 he had become much attached because of his 
 friendly co-operation. He makes pleasant 
 reference to traveling between the James and 
 Roanoke Rivers, in company with a number 
 of his brethren, all on their way from Con- 
 ference to their respective appointments. Of 
 this he remarks: "We all appeared to breathe 
 the same spirit, and I verily believe our sole 
 desire in leaving all was that we might be 
 instrumental, in the hand of God, in bringing 
 lost sinners into the fold of Christ." 
 
 Preaching often on his way, he became 
 seriously afflicted with hoarseness, which hin-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 109 
 
 dered and annoyed him for a considerable 
 time. On reaching the home of Mr. Jarratt, 
 he was so weak and exhausted by his sick- 
 ness and the journey that he was scarcely 
 able to sit on his horse. On the following 
 Sabbath, being somewhat improved in health 
 and rested from the fatigue of the long jour- 
 ney, and like the war-horse eager for the battle, 
 he began the work of the year with a preach- 
 ing service at Maberry's Chapel. It was a 
 great day for him and his young associates in 
 the work, as they witnessed the gathering of 
 their new congregation on that beautiful 
 spring day, surveyed the situation, and laid 
 their plans for the labors of the year. The 
 class-meeting always a feast of love the 
 earnest prayers, the glowing testimony, the fer- 
 vent hallelujah, and the warm hand-shaking, 
 all conspired on that memorable day to 
 quicken their zeal, increase their devotion, 
 and cheer them on their way. 
 
 William Watters, being senior preacher, 
 felt very keenly his heavy responsibility upon 
 this large circuit, which required six weeks 
 to travel over it. He was, however, much 
 encouraged in finding a devout people and 
 large societies in every neighborhood, some
 
 110 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 of whom "had experienced the great salva- 
 tion." He began to lay new stress upon the 
 higher Christian life, and he himself soon 
 attained to perfect love; and "the most glori- 
 ous work" he "ever beheld among believers 
 was on this circuit." He says: "My two 
 brethren who labored with me were very de- 
 vout and faithful men. We endeavored to 
 bear each other's burdens 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 glorious cause of our gracious Mas- 
 ter, and daily found his presence to be perfect 
 freedom." 
 
 Their first quarterly-meeting was held in 
 the month of August, at Maberry's Chapel. 
 As was the custom on quarterly-meeting oc- 
 casions, the people, miles around, with their 
 preachers, both local and traveling, had come 
 up to the "feast of reason and flow of soul" 
 in such numbers as to entitle them to be 
 reported "a very large assembly of preachers 
 and people." As they were about to open 
 the meeting, an officer of the law entered and
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. Ill 
 
 presented to them the oath of allegiance 
 required of every preacher not a resident of 
 the State of Virginia. Any one refusing to 
 take the oath was required to give bond to 
 leave the State within a given time or go to 
 jail. Of this circumstance, Mr. Watters says : 
 "As respected myself, I had no hesitation in 
 taking it ; but the difficulty was, several of my 
 brethren could not, and my taking it would 
 leave them the more suspected, though there 
 was no more to be feared from them than from 
 myself." He, being the recognized leader, 
 took the oath, as did also Andrew Yeargain ; 
 and the officer, seeing the uneasiness of the 
 congregation, overlooked the others and qui- 
 etly retired. Some of our native preachers, 
 although loyal to the American cause, were 
 nevertheless conscientiously opposed to the 
 oath, while others, subjects of Great Britain, 
 were compelled to reject it on the same 
 ground. Following this exciting flurry came 
 the sermon. "The Lord was present and 
 gave a door of utterance, and the word was 
 like a hammer and fire that breaks the rock 
 in pieces. . . . The God of Daniel was 
 in the midst, and many on both days of the 
 meeting shouted aloud the praises of our I in-
 
 112 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 manual. We parted, filled with zeal and 
 more than ever determined to follow the Lord 
 fully." 
 
 He was directed by the Conference to make 
 .a tour through the Pittsylvania Circuit some 
 time during the year. He set out cheerfully 
 on this mission immediately after the Ma- 
 berry meeting, and for six weeks was "seldom 
 a day without preaching, unless traveling 
 through some unsettled parts." His affliction 
 of hoarseness, which he terms his "thorn in 
 the flesh," grew worse, yet he did not relax 
 his labors, but became more careful not to 
 abuse his voice, learning at last duly to appre- 
 ciate the "blessing of a clear, strong voice," 
 nature's rich endowment, a voice doubtless 
 overtaxed by preaching and singing indoors 
 and out through all seasons, with but little 
 rest for many years. At the midyear Quar- 
 terly Conference on the Brunswick Circuit, 
 the preachers from the neighboring circuits 
 met and conferred together concerning the 
 exchange of circuits for the remaining six 
 months of the year, according to the custom 
 of the itinerancy at that early period of our 
 history, fixing the limit at six months. 
 
 The meetings of the itinerants, during the
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 113 
 
 seclusion of Francis Asbury, are, in form, 
 more congregational than episcopal; and it is 
 quite probable that, had Mr. Asbury, like his 
 countrymen, returned home during the war, 
 our Church government would have been 
 somewhat different from what it is. 
 
 He remarks of the Brunswick Quarterly 
 Conference, that " it was a good and profita- 
 ble time to me, and much more so to many 
 others," and that the brethren were possessed 
 of burning zeal and conquering faith. 
 
 The old-time quarterly-meetings, with their 
 love-feasts, were distinguishing features of 
 primitive Methodism. They lasted for two 
 days, and were enlivened with preaching, 
 singing, prayer, exhortation, testimony, power- 
 ful convictions, and joyous conversions. The 
 climax was usually reached in the love-feast, 
 when thrilling incidents of experience were 
 pathetically related, and vociferous shoutings 
 and hallelujahs were freely indulged. What 
 else could be expected, when preachers, trav- 
 eling and local, had come together from all 
 the adjoining charges, and the people also 
 from every community, for twenty-five miles, 
 in vehicles, on horseback, and afoot men, 
 women, and children, in expectation of a 
 8
 
 114 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 marked manifestation of divine favor in a 
 gracious baptism of the Holy Ghost. They 
 were seasons of peculiar power and refreshing 
 grace. Alas for the changes that have come 
 over us, and the days that have fled forever, 
 except perhaps as they may be repeated in 
 our foreign missionary fields ! t 
 
 In the assignment of the work for the re- 
 mainder of the year, his lot fell to Sussex Cir- 
 cuit. Here he found many faithful servants 
 of the Lord, " who were giving all diligence to 
 make their calling and election sure. They 
 were to me the excellent of the earth, with 
 whom I often took sweet counsel, and bowed 
 down before the God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." His efforts were especially 
 blessed in this field by the sanctification of 
 believers. Many were the occasions of holy 
 anointing, when " scores professed to be sanc- 
 tified unto the Lord." He was here conscious 
 of a "deep sense of the Divine presence," 
 and enjoyed the experience of perfect love. 
 
 He testifies that, "The holy fire, the heav- 
 enly flame, instead of sinking or decreasing, 
 as it had frequently done, after great refresh- 
 ments, now rose higher and higher. My 
 heart was enlarged for the salvation of sin-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 115 
 
 tiers ; but more especially for the children of 
 God, that they might be kept from the evil 
 of the world, and be made perfect in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 The early itinerants were specialists, and 
 retained their hold upon the people by their 
 unrelenting zeal for their spiritual welfare, 
 and by frequent reference to their own per- 
 sonal faith and experience. Experience is the 
 most convincing of all evidence, and their 
 skill in the use of it has never been surpassed. 
 That the pulpit now refers so sparingly to per- 
 sonal experience is a matter of much regret, 
 for he who neglects this potent element of 
 convincing argument will find himself shorn 
 of a large element of evangelistic power.
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 Otmsion of tljB (ftijurclj 
 at tlj CBBsburg ConfetBttce 
 Work frnm 1778 tp 1782.
 
 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them 
 also which shall believe on me through their 
 word; 
 
 That they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art 
 in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
 in us: that the world may believe that thou 
 hast sent me. 
 
 And the glory which thou gavest me I have 
 given them ; that they may be one, even as we 
 are one: 
 
 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be 
 made perfect in one ; and that the world may 
 know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved 
 
 them as thou hast loved me. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST. 
 118
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON Tuesday, May 19, 1778, the sixth 
 Conference opened its session in Lees- 
 burg, Virginia. Mr. Watters observes, re- 
 specting this Conference, that, "Mr. Rankin 
 and Mr. Shadford had left the continent and 
 returned home, having intended staying only 
 four years when they first came to America. 
 Mr. Asbury had stopped traveling. He was 
 an Englishman, and that was enough with 
 some why he should be suspected as un- 
 friendly to our cause and country, though I 
 will venture to say that his greatest enemy 
 could allege nothing else against him, not 
 even that with propriety." 
 
 " Having no old preachers with us, we 
 were as orphans bereft of our spiritual par- 
 ents, and though young and inexperienced to 
 transact the business of the Conference, yet 
 the Lord looked graciously upon us and had 
 the uppermost seats in all our hearts, and of 
 course in our meeting. As the consideration 
 of our administering the ordinances was, at 
 the last Conference, laid over till this, it of 
 119
 
 120 WILLIAM WATT^RS. 
 
 course came on and found many advocates. 
 It was with considerable difficulty that a large 
 majority were prevailed on to lay it over till 
 the next Conference, hoping that we should 
 by then be able to see our way more clear in 
 so important a change." Nathan Bangs, in 
 his history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 says that Mr. Watters presided at this Confer- 
 ence, although his modesty prevents him from 
 making any allusion to the interesting cir- 
 cumstance. 
 
 So to him also belongs the credit of being 
 the first of his class of preachers to preside, 
 in the absence of the general assistant, at an 
 Annual Conference. Six new circuits had 
 been formed, some of which lay within the 
 new territory inspected by him in his tour 
 the previous year through Berkeley and Fred- 
 erick Counties, and five old circuits had been 
 abandoned, so that a decrease is reported in 
 the membership, due doubtless to the im- 
 perfect reports from abandoned territory. 
 
 On the 6th day of June, 1778, he was mar- 
 ried ,to Miss Sarah Adams. He said, " I con- 
 sidered her as given me of the Lord, and 
 believed she would approve herself a true 
 helpmeet in the Lord." She outlived him
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 121 
 
 eighteen years, and continued, at the old 
 home, the special meetings, held by him for 
 many years previous to his death. 
 
 Another missionary trip was taken during 
 the autumn of this year, in company with 
 Caleb Pedicord, a young man who had the 
 previous year entered the traveling connec- 
 tion. They traveled through King William, 
 Stafford, King George, Spottsylvania, and 
 Hanover Counties, and "found many open 
 doors and were treated kindly in most parts." 
 This tour of several weeks, and attended with 
 many hardships, was one of remarkable en- 
 couragement, in that it revealed to them the 
 spiritual impoverishment of the people, and 
 also an unexpected measure of willingness to 
 give attention to the gospel message, in con- 
 sequence of which he was blessed with "great 
 liberty and enlargement of heart in preaching 
 in this rambling way among strangers." 
 
 This evangelistic tour prepared the way 
 for several new circuits, which were subse- 
 quently formed and provided with itinerant 
 evangelists. 
 
 It is evident that, during the years of 
 Mr. Asbury's retirement, William Watters 
 was foremost among the itinerants in opening
 
 122 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 up new territory and laying the foundations 
 of the new ecclesiastical order, so soon to be- 
 come the leading factor in American evan- 
 gelism. He had been in touch with Straw- 
 bridge, Williams, King, Shadford, Rankin, and 
 Asbury, and had from them imbibed the spirit 
 of true Wesleyanism, and, being left alone 
 with such helpers of his own countrymen as 
 followed him in the itinerancy, he went hero- 
 ically to the conquest, sustaining the move- 
 ment in its most aggressive form. 
 
 The propriety of administering the ordi- 
 nances had been warmly discussed at the two 
 preceding Conferences, and was to come up 
 again at the approaching session. William 
 Watters had carefully reviewed the whole 
 matter, and had been in correspondence with 
 the brethren of both parties concerning it, 
 with the hope that an agreement might be 
 reached and the threatened division averted. 
 He makes the following note on this subjec^: 
 "My great concern was not whether we 
 should or should not adopt them; but on 
 account of the division that I was satisfied 
 would take place at their being adopted. I 
 could freely and without hesitation have 
 agreed either way to have prevented what I
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 123 
 
 considered one of the greatest evils that could 
 befall us. This important matter lay with 
 solemn weight, day and night, on my mind, 
 and caused me many sleepless hours. Noth- 
 ing to me appeared more formidable and 
 leading to more terrible consequences than 
 introducing unscriptural doctrines into or 
 dividing the Church of Christ. I finally came 
 to a determination to endeavor by every 
 means in my power to prevent a division; or, 
 if that could not be done, to stand in the gap 
 as long as possible. I had no sooner come 
 to this determination than the peace and wit- 
 ness I felt within fully satisfied me that I 
 was on the ground on which the Lord had 
 set me, and that, through his grace, neither 
 friends nor foes, rough nor smooth usage, 
 should prevent me from endeavoring to hold 
 those together whom God hath joined." 
 
 The next Conference was appointed to 
 meet at Brokenback Church, Fluvanna 
 County, Virginia, May 18, 1779. On April 
 28th, previous to the above Conference, Mr. 
 Asbury called the preachers, east of the Po- 
 tomac, together, in an opposition Conference, 
 at Thomas White's, in Delaware. As Mr. 
 Watters was suspected by them of leaning to
 
 124 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 the ordinance party, he had no notice of the 
 called Conference, yet, learning of it indirectly, 
 he determined, although " in a weak state of 
 health," to attend, " if possible to get there." 
 " One of my objects in attending this meeting 
 was to get Mr. Asbury to attend the regularly 
 appointed Conference, to be held the i8th of 
 May, 1779. But all that I could do or say, 
 he could not be prevailed on. All I could 
 obtain was the opinion and determination 
 of this little Conference on the matter in 
 debate, and a few letters from Mr. Asbury 
 to several of the older preachers. I was the 
 only preacher in connection who attended 
 both Conferences." Of these Conferences he 
 says: " I felt a heavy heart at both, and could 
 not but wonder at seeing some of the best 
 men I ever knew so little concerned, in ap- 
 pearance, at what was to me one of the great- 
 est matters in the world." 
 
 At Brokenback he presented the letters 
 of Mr. Asbury, and the view of him and the 
 preachers of the earlier Conference touching 
 the ordinances, and entreated them to delay 
 their decision for more mature deliberation, 
 because of the disastrous consequences of a 
 final separation.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 125 
 
 The preachers complained that an illegal 
 Conference had been held, to which they had 
 not been invited, and that the only purpose of 
 it was to defeat them in the ordinance meas- 
 ure. In spite of earnest entreaties on his 
 part, and " after much loving talk on the sub- 
 ject," a committee was appointed to ordain 
 each other, and then all the rest. It is clear 
 that Mr. Watters acted as peacemaker in this 
 unpleasant affair ; and that a union was ef- 
 fected and peace restored a little later was very 
 largely due to his unceasing efforts, and could 
 scarcely have been effected without him. 
 
 At the Baltimore Conference, in April the 
 following year, a committee was appointed to 
 visit the ordinance party at their Conference, 
 and, if possible, bring about a reconciliation. 
 The committee was Asbury, Watters, .and 
 Garrettson. At the Baltimore Conference a 
 committee was present from the ordinance 
 division, consisting of Gatch and Ellis, to 
 learn what could be done to prevent final sep- 
 aration. Referring to this, Mr. Watters says: 
 "They complained that I was the only one 
 who did not join them that treated them with 
 affection and tenderness." 
 
 The breach widens, and the danger becomes
 
 126 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 more threatening. Like a brittle thread, 
 the strained relation existing between the two 
 parties seems ready to break. Filled with 
 fear, the committee appointed by the Balti- 
 more Conference went on their mission of 
 peace to their brethren in session at Manakin. 
 The following extract shows the tender love 
 they had for one another, and the anxiety 
 they felt in the settlement of the question that 
 had so long a time disturbed the peace and 
 threatened the future prosperity of the young 
 Church. " We had a great deal of loving con- 
 versation, with many tears ; but I saw no bit- 
 terness, no shyness, no judging each other. 
 We wept, and prayed, and sobbed, but 
 neither would agree to the others' terms." 
 
 The terms of union proposed by the com- 
 mittee were, " to suspend all their administra- 
 tions for one year." Their answer was, "We 
 can not submit to the terms of union." Mr. 
 Asbury speaks of his disappointment as "the 
 heaviest cloud" he "ever felt in America." 
 "O what I felt, nor I alone, but the agents on 
 both sides ! They wept like children, but kept 
 their opinions." The committee despaired of 
 success, retired to their respective places of 
 entertainment, and laid the whole matter be-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 127 
 
 fore God in prayer. While they were en- 
 gaged in asking Divine direction, the Confer- 
 ence was led to reconsider their former action, 
 offering to suspend the ordinances for a year, 
 and lay the whole matter before Mr. Wesley. 
 The brethren of the committee were invited 
 back to the Conference-room, and a mutual 
 agreement entered into according to the 
 above facts. Mr. Watters was then invited 
 to preach before the Conference, and spoke 
 from Numbers x, 29: "We are journeying unto 
 the place of which the Lord said, I will give 
 it you: come thou with us and we will do 
 thee good ; for the Lord hath spoken good 
 concerning Israel." A love-feast followed, of 
 which Mr. Asbury says, "Preachers and peo- 
 ple wept, prayed, and talked, so that the 
 spirit of dissension was powerfully weakened." 
 
 How beautiful are these examples of pa- 
 tience, prayer, and wise counsel, by which the 
 breach was finally healed and the Church pre- 
 served in unity! 
 
 By each of the two Conferences of 1779 
 he was appointed to the Baltimore Circuit. 
 His two assistants on this important circuit, 
 at that time the most prominent part of Meth- 
 odism, were Thomas Chew and W. Adams,
 
 128 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 his brother-in-law, who died during the year. 
 Mr. Watters preached the funeral sermon on 
 the occasion of the burial of his young col- 
 league, and observes that he was "a young 
 man who lived holy and died happy. Many 
 had expected that he was to be a very useful 
 man in the vineyard ; but he was cut off before 
 he had reached twenty-one. The judgments 
 of the Lord are a great deep." 
 
 The revival fire was soon kindled, and 
 swept gracefully and powerfully on, until 
 great numbers were converted, and many be- 
 lievers sought the enduement of "power from 
 on high, to love God with all their hearts." 
 Here are his own words touching his Chris- 
 tian experience and the character and results 
 of his work upon the Baltimore Circuit : 
 "I never went to my appointment under a 
 more clear conviction that the way was pre- 
 pared of the Lord, and that I should not 
 labor in vain, nor run uncertainly, nor fight as 
 one that beateth the air. My prayer was, that 
 I might go up in the fullness of the blessing 
 of peace. . . . The first time I went 
 round the circuit I met with much encourage- 
 ment ; my brethren received me with affec- 
 tion, and expressed great confidence that the
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 129 
 
 Lord had come with me, and would bless my 
 labors among them. Many poor sinners were 
 cut to the heart and humbled in the dust be- 
 fore the Judge of all the earth, and were hap- 
 pily brought out of darkness into the glorious 
 light of the gospel. There was a general 
 move and quickening among the members of 
 society. We had but few exceptions. Many 
 of them were deeply convinced of the remains 
 of sin, and determined to tarry at Jerusalem 
 until they were endued with power from on 
 high to love God with all their hearts; and a 
 considerable number, through grace, found 
 the great and gracious promises of the glori- 
 ous gospel applied to their souls, to the de- 
 struction of sin. We sweetly pulled together, 
 and were of one heart and mind ; while the 
 ungodly in many places and in many instances 
 stood astonished, and could but acknowledge 
 the arm of the Lord was visibly revealed. I 
 could not be satisfied, without pressing, with 
 all my might, a present and full salvation from 
 all sin; and many, I am fully persuaded, to 
 this day recollect those divine seasons with 
 grateful hearts, and have ever since felt their 
 happy effects, and will feel them more and 
 more to all eternity. I never traveled any 
 9
 
 130 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 circuit with more satisfaction and profit, to 
 my own spiritual interests, and could have 
 willingly staid longer where the Lord was so 
 powerfully working, and where there were so 
 many strong in the Lord and in the power of 
 his might, continually giving glory to God 
 and the Lamb, whose promises to them were 
 all yea, and in him amen ; not my will, but 
 thine be done." 
 
 The work of the year closed with a mem- 
 orable quarterly -meeting at the "Watters 
 preaching-house." It was the culmination of 
 the steadily-advancing interests of the year. 
 The gathering shekinah broke at last, in one 
 mighty sunburst, upon their already illumi- 
 nated souls. The heavenly benediction rested 
 upon them, and they were filled with ecstatic 
 joy. "Never," says he, " did I hear such ex- 
 periences before. The holy fire, the heavenly 
 flame, spread wider and wider, and rose higher 
 and higher." 
 
 During this year he was much exposed, 
 because of " the severity of the winter, with 
 the vast quantity of snow," yet he was abun- 
 dant in labors for the Master, traveling long 
 distances, preaching almost daily, and attend- 
 ing many quarterly-meetings outside of his
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 131 
 
 own circuit. Mr. Asbury being yet in seclu- 
 sion, and he being the senior preacher, his 
 advice and assistance were much in demand 
 among the brethren. No distance was too 
 great or hardship too severe to prevent his 
 lending a helping hand in any direction 
 where there was the least hope of doing good. 
 He moved freely among both preachers and 
 people, and had the delightful satisfaction of 
 seeing the work enlarge in a degree scarcely 
 expected by the most confident of his co- 
 laborers. 
 
 Nothing proves so conclusively the genu- 
 ineness of primitive Methodism as the admi- 
 rable institution reared by later workmen 
 upon the foundation-stones of those humble 
 efforts. As the Unseen Hand guides the 
 trustful soul, so they builded better than 
 they knew. 
 
 A part of this year was spent on Frederick 
 Circuit, where, in the month of September, he 
 was attacked with sickness, which greatly en- 
 feebled his health, yet he continued unspar- 
 ing in his labors. He became so debilitated 
 that often after a day's journey, on riding to 
 the door of his host he could not alight from 
 his Ahorse without assistance, having to be
 
 132 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 helped into the house and put to bed ; yet in 
 the midst of his severe sufferings he humbly 
 pronounces himself "an unworthy and un- 
 profitable servant," declaring that, had he 
 " ten thousand lives instead of one," he 
 would rejoice in spending them all " in trav- 
 eling and preaching the gospel." He grew 
 worse, and for a time his friends thought he 
 could not recover, yet he was sufficiently re- 
 stored to continue his work. 
 
 Several times during this year he was 
 taken suddenly ill almost unto death, and a 
 few times almost as suddenly restored. 
 
 Such was the condition of alarm about 
 him that in several neighborhoods the word 
 went out that he was dead and buried. Oc- 
 casionally he would surprise his friends by 
 suddenly appearing in neighborhoods where 
 his death had been reported, and would be 
 received " almost as one from the dead." It 
 is difficult to find devotion more complete and 
 love more perfect than this. 
 
 In company with John Tunnel he made 
 a tour through Calvert County, Maryland, 
 where he preached to "crowded houses" and 
 to great congregations in the open air, often 
 numbering hundreds of people, if not thou-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 133 
 
 sands. On this journey he was repeatedly 
 threatened with bodily injury if he presumed 
 to preach in certain places where he had al- 
 ready announced, yet he desisted not in a 
 single instance, and often found the crowds so 
 favorably affected by the gospel message that 
 they not only did him no violence, but were 
 often moved to deeds of greatest kindness, 
 "while many were cut to the heart under the 
 Word." 
 
 Of this missionary tour he says: "It is 
 truly animating to see the crowds from every 
 quarter that attend, in deep, silent, solemn 
 attention, while their weeping eyes, their anx- 
 ious inquiries, show to all around that they 
 are beginning to take the kingdom of heaven 
 by violence." 
 
 The work of this year closed with a quar- 
 terly-meeting at Fairfax, held in the midst of 
 the most intense war excitement. British 
 war-ships lay in the river below Alexandria, 
 threatening the town with imminent destruc- 
 tion. The Revolution was now at white heat, 
 with a hopeful prospect of a speedy and suc- 
 cessful end. 
 
 The horses and wagons of the neighbor- 
 hood had been pressed into service to aid the
 
 134 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 hasty march of the army. Women and chil- 
 dren, in wild excitement, were seeking to 
 escape from the enemy with their personal 
 effects. The solicitude was intense. The 
 day of the quarterly-meeting arrived. The 
 people, anxious for sympathy and eager for 
 the gospel, came to the meeting. Mr. Watters 
 says: "We all had to foot it to chapel." 
 Several of the preachers from farther south, 
 on their way to Conference, tarried in the 
 neighborhood over Sabbath, and were present 
 at the quarterly-meeting. "It was a sweet 
 and good time, while we looked forward to 
 that world where wars and rumors of wars are 
 no more. Sin, O cruel sin, the procuring 
 cause of all evil!" 
 
 He joined his brethren, and set out for 
 Conference. On this he makes the following 
 comment: "Tuesday, the 24th of April, 1781, 
 faint and exceedingly debilitated, yet able to 
 sit on my horse, and being anxious to meet 
 with my brethren once more before I go hence, 
 I set off, and about twelve o'clock took my 
 seat in the Conference, and was not a little 
 comforted in finding all so united in the bonds 
 of the peaceable gospel of Jesus Christ. We 
 rejoiced together that the Lord had broken
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 135 
 
 the snares of the devil, and our disputes were 
 all at an end." 
 
 Notwithstanding the great violence of the 
 war, which raged this year with overwhelm- 
 ing frenzy, the labors of the itinerants had 
 been especially blessed ; more than two thou- 
 sand having been added to the membership, 
 and twelve preachers added to the itinerancy, 
 a gain of about twenty per cent in member- 
 ship, and more than twenty-eight per cent in 
 the itinerancy. 
 
 While the year was made famous in the 
 history of our country, in the capture of Corn- 
 wallis and his army at Yorktown, the victories 
 of the itinerants were scarcely less renowned 
 in the capture of more than two thousand of 
 the enemy of the kingdom of Christ, and their 
 complete transformation into acceptable sub- 
 jects of the new kingdom. The important 
 interests of Church and State have since run 
 parallel in their growth and philanthropic 
 methods, the one establishing the liberty of 
 civil government, the other the liberty of sins 
 forgiven. 
 
 During the Conference session he was pros- 
 trated with rheumatic fever, from which but 
 little hope of recovery was entertained by
 
 136 WILLIAM WATTKRS. 
 
 his friends. After Conference had adjourned, 
 the brethren, before separating for their new 
 appointments, came and bade him an affec- 
 tionate farewell. He says: "At parting with 
 them, the language of my heart was, I am, my 
 gracious God, in thy hand ; I am, through thy 
 grace, willing to live or die. Thou knowest 
 which and what is best for me. Not my will, 
 but thine be done. Mine eyes have seen thy 
 salvation in healing the divisions that have 
 been among us for these several years, and 
 now, what wait I for but to depart in peace?" 
 In about six weeks he was fully restored, and 
 entered again upon his work. Three times 
 in nine months he had been thought by his 
 friends to be at death's door, but the Lord of 
 hosts suffered it not. He says of his illness : 
 " I often longed to be able to go to my appoint- 
 ments, deliberately believing traveling and 
 preaching to be the most desirable life on 
 earth. I fear living to be burdensome to any. 
 Lord, increase my faith ! Good is the will of 
 the Lord! For all I desire to praise him in 
 time and eternity." 
 
 This year he travels the Baltimore Circuit, 
 takes a trip through New Jersey, and visits 
 Philadelphia. The year produces but little
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 137 
 
 change in his general health. For years he 
 had suffered much from fever, ague, rheuma- 
 tism, and hoarseness. Nor does this seem 
 strange when we consider the exposure and 
 hardships to which the itinerants of that day 
 were subject. The inevitable result was, that 
 many of those consecrated men should fall 
 into the sleep of death in early life, and that 
 others should only escape by retiring from 
 the traveling connection. We would not like 
 to charge those faithful heroes of that trying 
 time with the sin of ignorant or willful over- 
 work. Perhaps they were spurred on, in their 
 excessive labors, by the gigantic and success- 
 ful struggles of the Revolutionary patriots 
 all about them, fast making the American 
 Colonies the gateway to civil and religious 
 freedom. 
 
 We find Mr. Watters present at the Annual 
 Conference convened in Baltimore, May 21, 
 1782. From this Conference he went to Flu- 
 vanna Circuit in Virginia. Leaving his wife 
 with friends in Baltimore, he went on horse- 
 back to his work, a distance of ninety miles, 
 which he reached in two days. 
 
 Owing to the meager support, privations, 
 and actual hardships, with the necessity of
 
 138 WILUAM WATTERS. 
 
 traveling almost constantly, the itinerant 
 without a family was thought to be least in- 
 cumbered; for but few who married were able 
 to continue in the traveling connection. Mr. 
 Watters, however, was so situated that the 
 care of his wife for he had no children did 
 not prevent him doing full work. He went 
 to this circuit, he says, "still desirous to do a 
 little more in the Lord's vineyard before I 
 dropped into the dust; . . . therefore, 
 with my life in my hand, and trusting in the 
 kind providences of God, I took up my cross, 
 and once more left all to preach the gospel. 
 The rides were long and a great part of the 
 circuit very mountainous, enough to have 
 tried a much stronger constitution." It was 
 with much anxiety for his welfare, as he went 
 forth in his debilitated condition, that his 
 friends followed him into this new field of 
 labor, requiring heavier labors to insure suc- 
 cess than he could, with safety to his health, 
 afford to endure. With the courage, however, 
 of a man of God, and an unwavering faith, 
 impelled by the interior guide, he thrust him- 
 self into the arena and opened the battle. 
 Like David of old, he went in the name of
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 139 
 
 the God of Israel, to meet the Goliath of sin. 
 Armed with his own simple equipment, and 
 with the sword of the Spirit, he conquered. 
 James Cromwell, who had entered the travel- 
 ing connection two years previous, was his 
 traveling companion. Of him he says : " He 
 labored hard and diligently, but was often 
 much discouraged and even dejected." The 
 early itinerants were all evangelists, and reck- 
 oned no results unless men were converted 
 by their ministrations. They endeavored 
 to reap the harvest of their own sowing. In 
 some parts of this hard field, revivals began, 
 and goodly numbers were gathered into the 
 fold. He spent the latter part of the year in 
 Hanover Circuit, a work little less laborious 
 and difficult than the former one. 
 
 He suffered all the year from ague, and 
 had a growing conviction that the itinerancy 
 was prematurely wearing away his life. Ow- 
 ing to his sick and weary condition, he looked 
 upon the experiences of the year as' the most 
 unhappy and unsatisfactory of his life. 
 
 The next Conference met at Baltimore, 
 May 27, 1783. From this Conference he went 
 to Calvert Circuit, where he labored with
 
 140 WIUJAM WAITERS. 
 
 much success and satisfaction until December, 
 when he located and moved to his farm near 
 Washington, D. C., which he had recently 
 purchased, and which was ever after his home, 
 except the few years when in the traveling 
 connection.
 
 Chapter VIIL 
 
 Cocatton labors as a Cocal JOreaxljer, 
 anb tfUtnrn to tlje 
 Connection*
 
 Great Master, touch us with thy skillful hand ; 
 
 Let not the music that is in us die ! 
 Great Sculptor, hew and polish us : nor let, 
 
 Hidden and lost, thy form within us lie! 
 
 Spare not the stroke ; do with us as thou wilt ! 
 
 Let there be naught unfinished, broken, marred; 
 Complete thy purpose, that we may become 
 
 Thy perfect image, thou our God and Lord ! 
 
 HORATIUS BONAR. 
 
 142
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A LTHOUGH William Watters was now lo- 
 2\. cated, he did not cease preaching, but 
 traveled long distances, filling appointments 
 often under difficult circumstances. 
 
 The following year after his location but 
 one preacher was sent to the circuit in which 
 he lived, and he says: "I rode, I believe, for 
 a considerable part of the year, as much in 
 the circuit as the preacher who was appointed 
 to it. I attended Greenwich preaching-house, 
 forty miles off, every fourth Sabbath, and 
 Leesburg, thirty miles off, every fourth Sab- 
 bath, besides the places between me and 
 those above mentioned." 
 
 It will be clear to the reader that our first 
 itinerant was compelled to quit the traveling 
 connection because of ill-health. We have 
 followed him around his large circuits, losing 
 his own life that he might save others; at- 
 tacked with fever, ague, and hoarseness, on- 
 ward he pursued his way, until he would 
 find himself unable to alight from his horse 
 without assistance, and often, after lying down
 
 144 vVILUAM WATTERS. 
 
 at night, would be unable to rise in the morn- 
 ing. Because of his supreme devotion to his 
 calling, it was with much regret that he was 
 compelled to retire, and declares that had it 
 pleased the Father to have continued his 
 health, he would have been happy in remain- 
 ing at his post. He was convinced that this 
 step was the means in the providence of God 
 in restoring his health and lengthening out 
 his days. 
 
 He again entered the work in 1786. He 
 attended Conference at Abingdon, Virginia, 
 and was assigned to Berkeley Circuit, where 
 he labored successfully for a considerable 
 time, but was forced to retire before the close 
 of the year. He continued faithful as a local 
 preacher, and had yearly many proofs of his 
 ministry. 
 
 Some of the early itinerants, who located, 
 were charged with having an unrighteous love 
 of money, and desiring to become rich. That 
 he might not come under the ban of this 
 class of critics, he says, concerning himself: 
 " I have never had one wish, from the day of 
 my conversion to the present, to become rich 
 and great in the world. . . . Through 
 the grace of God, I did ever, and do still, pre-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 145 
 
 fer Agur's prayer to any other in temporals, 
 as I believe men in that state are not only the 
 most likely to receive the gospel, but to adorn 
 their profession, and finally to meet with the 
 approbation of the Judge of all the earth : 
 ' Give me neither poverty nor riches : feed 
 me with food convenient for me, lest I be full 
 and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or 
 lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of 
 my God in vain.' " 
 
 His life of plain dress and simple fare was 
 in strict conformity with the practice of the 
 early Church. His frugal habits saved him 
 the mortification of extreme poverty in old 
 age, a misfortune which has beclouded the 
 lives of many of our most faithful heroes of 
 the itinerancy after the days of their activity 
 were passed. May we not hope that we are on 
 the eve of conditions that will relieve our 
 veterans from pecuniary embarrassment, that 
 only the mellow shadows of infinite provision 
 may cross the valley of life's golden sunset? 
 
 As we have seen, William Watters was true 
 to his calling as a local preacher, losing no 
 opportunity his strength would allow to preach 
 the gospel and instruct the inquirer in the 
 way of salvation. 
 
 10
 
 146 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 
 
 His health having improved, he again re- 
 entered the traveling connection in the spring 
 of 1801. He was sent to Alexandria, where, 
 after a few weeks, a genuine revival broke 
 out, and continued throughout the year. Of 
 this charge, he says: "I never preached to 
 any people with more freedom and comfort in 
 any part of my life. I never felt more grati- 
 tude to God for any station, and could, with 
 confidence, say, that if it had not been blessed 
 to any one else, it had to me. The happiness 
 that I enjoyed amongst my Alexandria friends 
 much more than compensated for all the pains 
 I had taken in serving them." 
 
 The Annual Conference met May i, 1802, 
 in the city of Baltimore. His appointment 
 this year was Washington, D. C. It was a 
 year of great activity, and the Church re- 
 ceived many accessions to her fold. He says: 
 " The friends got more engaged, and sweetly 
 strove together for the hope of the gospel; 
 the congregations continued larger and much 
 more attentive and tender under the Word. 
 . . . This was a year of great peace and 
 consolation to me. I enjoyed good health 
 and great enlargement of heart for the in- 
 gathering of souls to the Lord's kingdom,
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 147 
 
 with considerable life and liberty in all the 
 ordinances of his house, but in none more 
 than in dispensing the words of eternal life." 
 
 In 1803 he was again pastor at Alexandria. 
 It was a successful pastorate. The revival, 
 begun two years previous, was still aglow. 
 This was the second time he had been pastor 
 of this people, and he pronounces it the more 
 successful of the two. 
 
 The next Annual Conference convened in 
 Alexandria, April 27, 1804. He says: "It 
 was a profitable time, and we were blessed 
 with great harmony and brotherly affection." 
 The Church requesting his return to Alexan- 
 dria, he was appointed for the third time to 
 that charge, where he labored faithfully and 
 "with greater freedom and power in public, 
 address " than in either of the previous years. 
 
 From the Winchester Conference, held 
 April i, 1805, he was sent to Washington, 
 D. C. After the first quarter, he changed, 
 every other Sabbath, with the pastor of 
 Georgetown. He speaks pleasingly of this 
 pastorate, when he says : " The friends of both 
 places were loving and kind, and we often 
 sat together in heavenly places. I did not 
 meet with one jar or any considerable uneasi-
 
 148 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 ness among them through the year, and in 
 the city we had a small addition to the Church, 
 and a considerable increase in the congrega- 
 tion, and there were no small hopes that the 
 way was prepared of the Lord for much good 
 to be done the ensuing year." 
 
 At the end of this Conference year he again 
 located, and with his location closed his serv- 
 ice in the traveling connection, although he 
 continued to preach for many years, filling ap- 
 pointments in every direction from his home, 
 his house being the place of weekly meetings 
 to the day of his death, and for many years 
 after. No preacher more loyal to Methodism 
 ever graced the ranks of her itinerancy than 
 William Watters. True, faithful, and abun- 
 dant in labors, in season and out of season, he 
 opposed all schisms, and, observing the signs 
 of the times, he sought the reconciliation of 
 all estranged parties, that the unity of Meth- 
 odism and the bond of peace might be pre- 
 served. Unwavering in his faith and devo- 
 tion to God, his fealty to the Church of his 
 choice was never questioned. He was ever 
 ready to defend her doctrines and polity. He 
 observes, " That as a Christian and member 
 of the Methodist Church, when I first cast in
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 149 
 
 my lot amongst them, I had no doubt of their 
 being the people of God and man. I know 
 of no denomination to be compared to them. 
 This is precisely my opinion still." 
 
 "As a minister amongst the Methodists, I 
 never joined them for the loaves and fishes, 
 but purely because I confidently believed that 
 God had not only called me to preach, but to 
 preach among them the unsearchable riches 
 of his grace." 
 
 Regarding Methodist doctrines, he ob- 
 serves: "I have not only embraced them all, 
 but to the present day continue established in 
 them; yet feel the greatest cheerfulness in 
 wishing every man the liberty of thinking for 
 himself, as every one must give an account 
 to God for himself in the day of the Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 He expresses gratification at seeing effected 
 several changes in our economy, for which he 
 had hoped, and believed that such modifica- 
 tions would be made in the future as time and 
 circumstances would require. He expressed 
 his belief in the flexibility of our economy 
 and in the power of the Church to adjust 
 itself to the changing conditions of society 
 and government, and exhorts his brethren in
 
 150 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 the gospel to loyalty and patience. "I have 
 thought," said he, "that son acts unbecoming 
 his relation to his mother, who turns his back 
 on her and perhaps speaks all the unkindness 
 that his unnatural heart can devise, because 
 some of his brethren of the same parents, in 
 some things, think differently from him, or 
 others of them have not treated him with 
 that affection which at all times they should 
 have done." 
 
 His views of the itinerant system, as a be- 
 neficent institution for carrying the gospel to 
 the masses, as also the kind of men it de- 
 mands, are expressed in the following para- 
 graphs taken from his "Short Account:" 
 
 "I know of no plan adopted by any of 
 the reformed Churches, or any that could be 
 adopted, to equal ours. Hence we see the 
 success that has attended it from the begin- 
 ning, and need not wonder that restless, de- 
 signing spirits should be so uneasy under it, 
 for no part of our Discipline, as it respects 
 our ministry, has any respect to individuals, 
 but the general good is the object throughout. 
 The man that becomes a traveling preacher, 
 humanly speaking, makes a great sacrifice to 
 leave all and to have not the least hope of
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 151 
 
 any greater worldly compensation than barely 
 food and raiment, and that only while he is 
 able to fill his appointment. . . . But 
 no one is worthy of the name of traveling 
 preacher that does not cheerfully go anywhere 
 he can for the general good. ... If the 
 preacher has any object in view but the glory 
 of God in the salvation of souls, he hardly 
 can stand his ground. Hence one and an- 
 other have turned their backs on us, after 
 making the most public declarations of their 
 attachments, and though many have rejoiced 
 to draw off such from us, and many mourned 
 their loss, yet I am well satisfied that this is 
 one means of purging our ministry, and as 
 such has had a blessed tendency to keep us 
 of the same spirit, of which we were in the 
 beginning of the work." 
 
 He was generous-hearted toward all, and 
 readily fellowshiped all Christians, notwith- 
 standing the difference of opinion that might 
 exist regarding the interpretation of the 
 Scriptures. He made Tightness of heart the 
 basis of fellowship. 
 
 " I think," says he, "Christian affection and 
 forbearance at all times and on all occasions 
 should be shown those who may differ with
 
 152 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 us on some points of theology. I never have 
 found an obstacle in my way in readily believ- 
 ing well, and heartily so, to all of every de- 
 nomination who have evidenced their faith 
 by a pious life, however different they have 
 thought from me; and why should any one, 
 when so many holy and wise in almost all 
 ages of the Church differed so widely in the 
 less essential parts of their religious senti- 
 ments? However well established and as- 
 sured any one may be in his orthodoxy, yet 
 must the wisest and best of men know that 
 they see but darkly as through a veil, as also 
 that there are more truths, and of much more 
 importance, in which we perfectly agree, than 
 those smaller points in which we differ." 
 
 He was greatly beloved by the poor, whose 
 humble homes were often cheered by his 
 presence and prayers. He delighted in help- 
 ing the needy by showing sympathy and 
 lending aid in sorrow and bereavement, by 
 pointing out the consolations of the Scriptures 
 and instruction in the knowledge of God and 
 his unchanging love. 
 
 His simple, earnest life of doing good 
 among the lowly to the end of his pilgrim- 
 age was the answer to his prayer, made at
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 153 
 
 an early period of his Christian life, that he 
 might be useful to the end of his days, that 
 he might neither overwork nor underwork. 
 He declared that he believed it far better to 
 wear out than to rust out, yet immediately 
 followed it with the prayer: "My merciful 
 God, keep me from offering unto thee the 
 sacrifice of self-murder, and O, keep me from 
 wrapping in a napkin and burying my tal- 
 ent, with the slothful servant, in the earth!" 
 During the last ten years of his life he was 
 afflicted with almost total blindness, yet he 
 persisted to the close of his life in preaching, 
 in holding public religious meetings in his 
 home, and in visiting the sick and the poor. 
 So great was his devotion to his Master and 
 to the work of the ministry that he ceased 
 only to labor when he ceased to live. 
 
 Mr. Wren, his wife's nephew, who lived 
 with him the last few years of his life, and 
 helped to inter his body, was a young man 
 when Mr. Watters died, and says, "If ever 
 there was a good man it was Mr. Watters." 
 He also adds, that while Mr. Watters was 
 quiet and gentle in his demeanor, yet under 
 his pulpit ministrations and under his sing- 
 ing for he possessed a sweet, musical
 
 154 WILLIAM WAITERS 
 
 voice the people would become powerfully 
 moved, and "he sometimes thought they 
 would shout the roof off the house." It is 
 said that a sweet and hallowed influence fol- 
 lows his name, even at this distant day, in 
 the localities where he labored and the com- 
 munity where he spent his last days. 
 
 " So when a good man dies, 
 
 For years beyond our ken, 
 The light he leaves behind him lies 
 Upon the paths of men." 
 
 In his old family Bible, now in the Meth- 
 odist Historical Society in Baltimore, is the 
 following record of his and also of his wife's 
 death : 
 
 " William Watters died on the 29th day of 
 March, 1827, an( ^ was buried in the family 
 burying-ground on the farm of Mr. Thomas 
 Wren, his nephew. 
 
 "Sarah Watters died on the 29th day of 
 October, 1845, and was buried by the side of 
 her husband." 
 
 Thus we see that the first American itin- 
 erant was permitted to continue his sacred 
 office, adorning his profession, for fifty-five 
 years, or almost half the present history of 
 the Church, outliving all his contemporaries.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 155 
 
 At the Virginia Conference, in 1889, it was 
 resolved to mark his grave with a suitable 
 monument. The subscription list was headed 
 with a liberal sum by the presiding bishop, 
 and, with the gifts of others, ministers 
 and laymen, to which also the writer had the 
 esteemed privilege of adding his mite, the 
 sacred spot where rest the ashes of William 
 Watters, almost lost to the Church by neglect 
 and by the ravages of our Civil War, is now 
 marked by an imposing marble shaft and pre- 
 served to future generations. 
 
 The grave is in Fairfax County, Virginia, a 
 few miles from Washington, D. C. The mon- 
 ument is a simple veined marble shaft, with 
 this inscription: 
 
 In Memory of 
 
 REV. WIGWAM WATTERS, 
 
 The First Native Itinerant 
 
 Methodist Preacher in 
 
 America. 
 
 Born Oct. 16, 1751, 
 Died March 29, 1827. 
 
 He was a pioneer leading 
 
 the way for the vast army of 
 
 American Methodist Itinerants 
 
 having the Everlasting 
 
 Gospel to preach.
 
 156 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 Fervent in spirit, prudent 
 
 in council, abundant in 
 
 labors, skillful in winning 
 
 souls, he was a workman that 
 
 needed not to be ashamed. 
 
 Also His Wife, 
 SARAH ADAMS. 
 
 Erected by the Virginia 
 
 Conference of 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal 
 
 Church.
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 dfotuttj flf ttjB (ftljixrclj IDurhtg \\ 
 
 anb 
 
 157
 
 'T is weary watching wave on wave, 
 
 But yet the tide heaves onward; 
 We build like corals, grave on grave, 
 
 But pave the pathway sunward. 
 We 're beaten back in many a fray, 
 
 But newer strength we borrow, 
 And where the vanguard camps to-day 
 
 The rear will camp to-morrow. 
 158
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WILLIAM WATTERS was much elated, 
 and even surprised, at the rapid and 
 substantial growth of Methodism. And well 
 might he be, for at the time when he began 
 traveling in 1772 there were scarcely a thou- 
 sand Methodists in America, and only eight 
 preachers, all of foreign birth. The first sta- 
 tistics reported were in 1773, giving the mem- 
 bership at 1,170. At the time of his death, 
 1827, these had increased to 421,105 mem- 
 bers, and 1,642 preachers. It is universally 
 admitted that he had contributed the best 
 energies of his life toward the necessary labor 
 that made possible, in so brief a time, this 
 grand total of nearly half a million of Meth- 
 odist communicants. Considered from the 
 point of view of their humble beginnings, 
 their unfavorable environments, and the forces 
 arrayed against them, these results are, to say 
 the least, very much beyond ordinary human 
 expectation. Great was the task of the itin- 
 erants, and right well did they prove them- 
 selves equal to the work in hand. The im- 
 159
 
 160 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 posing proportions and possibilities of the 
 Church at the present fully attest the genuine- 
 ness of the foundations laid by the courageous 
 men who crossed bridgeless rivers, blazed 
 their way through dense forests, surmounted 
 rugged mountains, slept on the ground, and 
 lived on plain and often unwholesome food, 
 that they might hew out the first timbers and 
 lay the first stones of the temple. Surely the 
 little one has become a host. Both ministry 
 and membership have doubled many times 
 since William Watters went to his reward. 
 
 Let no one imagine that these large fig- 
 ures indicate the approximate end of our mis- 
 sion, for any such thought would be delusive 
 in the extreme. Our task is yet Herculean. 
 It has become a hand-to-hand conflict. The 
 enemy is intrenched, and, if possibly less 
 bold than in former years, is none the less 
 stubborn when attacked. 
 
 Intemperance, ungodly greed of gain, cor- 
 rupted politics, anarchism, enmity to our pub- 
 lic institutions, with commercial and social 
 sins, are a few of the hosts with which we 
 now contend. It will require the combined 
 forces of Christianity to overthrow them. 
 Our part calls for faith, equipment, and hero-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. l6l 
 
 ism surpassing that of the pioneer days. 
 How are the social and religious problems of 
 our age to be solved but by greater personal 
 consecration and self-denial? Victory can 
 never be purchased by a compromise with 
 evil. It has not been so in the past, can not 
 be so in the future. The object of Method- 
 ism has been from the beginning to "spread 
 Scriptural holiness over the land," that the 
 people might depart from iniquity and love 
 righteousness. The sincere effort to reach 
 this divine ideal is the key to the large meas- 
 ure of success already attained, so far, at 
 least, as the human factor is concerned in it. 
 The workmen have become a multitude, and 
 their endeavors incalculable. Barely a cen- 
 tury and a half have elapsed since John Wes- 
 ley began organizing societies, yet it has suf- 
 ficed to create a family of sister Churches 
 " distinct as the billows, but one as the sea," 
 numbering, according to the latest census, 
 45,283 ministers; 77,196 churches ; 6,503,959 
 members; 6,634,162 Sunday-school scholars ; 
 24,900,421 adherents. 
 
 In America alone, where the greatest gains 
 have been made, we find 39,042 ministers; 
 51,578 local preachers, and 5,683,289 mem- 
 ii
 
 1 62 WILLIAM WAITERS 
 
 bers. The hope of triumph in the future 
 Church is much enhanced by the certain 
 promise of our institutions and organizations. 
 Among these are the Epworth League, with 
 more than 26,000 Chapters, Junior and Senior, 
 and a membership of a million and a half; 
 the Missionary and Deaconess Training- 
 schools ; Missionary Societies, Home and 
 Foreign; Orphanages; Hospitals; Deaconess 
 Work; Homes for the Aged; Itinerant Clubs; 
 and our numerous educational and benevolent 
 societies. Besides these we are sharing in 
 the extended activities of the interdenomina- 
 tional societies; such as Chautauqua Literary 
 and Scientific Circle, the Woman's Christian 
 Temperance Union, the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association, the Evangelical Alliance, 
 the King's Daughters, and others. 
 
 There are those who believe that the over- 
 flow of Methodism is nearly or quite equal to 
 its organized force. We have furnished other 
 denominations with many ministers and com- 
 municants; but how many can never be 
 known. This prodigious overflow has doubt- 
 less been due to a wise and inscrutable Provi- 
 dence, and one can scarcely wish otherwise 
 than that it should continue until the knowl-
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 163 
 
 edge of the Lord fills the earth as the waters 
 cover the sea. 
 
 Whatever features of our "Christianity in 
 earnest" we may have lost along the way, 
 our purpose and consecration remain the same 
 as at the beginning. We have taken our 
 stand before the world with an invincible 
 determination with "an earnest purpose for 
 a generous end," and, while the world stands, 
 our energies ought not to abate.
 
 Chapter X* 
 
 (Estimate of -fijis Ctfe cmi> Character. 
 
 165
 
 Beautiful toiler, thy work all done, 
 Beautiful soul into glory gone ; 
 Beautiful life with its crown now won, 
 God giveth thee rest. 
 
 Rest from all sorrow, and watching, and fears ; 
 Rest from all possible sighing and tears; 
 Rest through God's endless, wonderful years, 
 At home with the blest. 
 
 MARY T. I,ATHROP. 
 166
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HIS piety was of a choice and unquestion- 
 able type. To prayer and thanksgiving 
 of a sanctified heart he added that other grace 
 of spiritual energy which delights itself in 
 doing good. Christ the Savior engaged in 
 doing good was his ideal. With the Holy 
 Ghost love in his heart, he strove to be like 
 him in works of mercy and help to our suffer- 
 ing humanity. So absorbed was he with the 
 world's need, so moved by its misery, so in- 
 spired by the hope of helping it, that he 
 seldom thought of his own hardships, and 
 declared that had he a thousand lives they 
 should all be given to evangelizing the unbe- 
 lieving world. He said it was " with bitter- 
 ness of soul and with weeping eyes " he be- 
 held the forlorn condition of humanity, and 
 prayed daily, "O my God! raise up and send 
 these poor lost sheep in the wilderness, pas- 
 tors after thine own heart, who shall gather 
 them into thy folds, and feed them with the 
 sincere millc of thy Word." Unwavering de- 
 votion to God, with decision of character and 
 167
 
 1 68 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 untiring activity, are marked characteristics of 
 this noble life. He formed fixed habits of 
 benevolence, sometimes engaging in business 
 transactions, after he had retired from the 
 traveling connection, with the sole purpose of 
 giving the entire profits to charitable purposes. 
 
 His special method for keeping himself in 
 favor with God was by humiliation and prayer. 
 Very frequently such language as-, "O that 
 I may ever be as clay in the hand of my Di- 
 vine Potter! My God, save me from this evil 
 man, myself!" is recorded by him in his jour- 
 nal. He speaks of himself as "unworthy," 
 -< poor worm of the dust," and of his labors as 
 "faint attempts," and with "fear and trem- 
 bling." 
 
 The intensity of his devotion is seen in his 
 long rides, even when ill, to meet his appoint- 
 ments, conversing freely with all he met 
 upon the subject of religion, and writing let- 
 ters of loving appeal to others whom he could 
 not see. Although not formally framed, as 
 we have it now upon our Epworth banner, 
 " Look up, lift up," was the essence of his 
 life motto. Modern Methodism has nothing 
 in it not in the old ; it is only better expressed, 
 and more systematically applied.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 169 
 
 Perhaps the chief element of his character 
 was that of peacemaker. He could not en- 
 dure the thought of strife and divisions among 
 his brethren, and where such unpleasantness 
 existed, he was sure to be found seeking a 
 reconciliation of the estranged parties, and 
 not a few are the instances wherein he was 
 successful in healing dissensions and restor- 
 ing peace. 
 
 At the solicitations of friends, he wrote a 
 "Short Account" of his own life, and made 
 good use of his pen in defending the dis- 
 tinctive doctrines and peculiar usages of his 
 Church. When the episcopacy of Methodism 
 in general, and the character of Bishop As- 
 bury in particular, were assailed by unfriendly 
 critics, we find him zealously defending both, 
 proving every accusation false and unwarrant- 
 able. He corresponded freely with his min- 
 isterial brethren concerning the general good 
 of the Church, and respecting proposed 
 changes in her economy. 
 
 Although born in a Slave State, and reared 
 under its system, he, very soon after his con- 
 version, speaks of the "impropriety of hold- 
 ing our fellow-creatures in slavery." On re- 
 turning home in the spring of 1774, he learned
 
 1 70 WILLIAM WATTERS. 
 
 that his oldest brother, dying suddenly a few 
 weeks previously, had "left all his poor blacks 
 in bondage." "I felt sorry," he writes, " that 
 so pious a character should leave so bad an 
 example behind him. I believe it was en- 
 tirely owing to the prejudice of education, 
 and the want of not weighing the matter 
 thoroughly." 
 
 William Watters was a man of tender con- 
 science, sterling integrity, pure life, and sin- 
 gleness of purpose. In his day the itinerant 
 was expected to witness a good confession of 
 faith, and to speak often of his religious ex- 
 perience. This he did on every proper occa- 
 sion, with clearness and emphasis, employing 
 Scriptural phraseology, yet with due modesty 
 and reserve. It is with pleasing admiration 
 we recall a life so simple, so beautiful, and so 
 true. But little is known of his personal ap- 
 pearance. Only a few men now live who 
 remember seeing him. In 1883, Mr. Thomas 
 Wren, of Virginia, described him as a man of 
 medium height and slender physique, digni- 
 fied in his carriage, and exceedingly courteous 
 and affable, attired in knee-breeches, buckle- 
 shoes, claw-hammered coat, and gold spec- 
 tacles.
 
 FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. iyi 
 
 His place in the affections of the older 
 Methodists, as he himself grew old, is indeed 
 notable. They would arrange with him for 
 their funeral obsequies. He would be called 
 to their bedside to comfort and cheer them in 
 their dying hour. Frequently they would 
 hold him by the hand, and pathetically ad- 
 dress him as their "spiritual father," "father 
 in Christ," " God-father," and " the good old 
 veteran that had long been in the field." 
 
 For miles around, the people for many 
 years considered his home the center of their 
 religious interests, and William Watters as 
 their leader and chief adviser. 
 
 The declining years of the aged itinerant 
 were even mote beautiful than had been 
 those of his early manhood. With the frosts 
 of seventy-six winters upon his locks, he had 
 come at length to the end, in the fullness of 
 the gospel of peace, 
 
 " Rich in experience, that angels might covet, 
 Rich in faith, that had grown with the years." 
 
 His sincere life was humble and unpreten- 
 tious, his example good, his work genuine 
 and enduring in a great and righteous cause, 
 and his name can never perish.
 
 172 WILLIAM WAITERS. 
 
 " If we work upon marble, it will perish ; 
 if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if 
 we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; 
 but if we work upon immortal minds, if we 
 imbue them with principles, with the just 
 fear of God and love of our fellow-men, we 
 engrave on those tablets something that will 
 brighten to all eternity."
 
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