F R.EEBOR.N 
 CAR.RETTSON 
 
 E.Z¥fK S. TIPPLE
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Professor Roland D. Hussey
 
 
 FkBBBOKN GARRBTTSON
 
 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 By 
 
 EZRA S. TIPPLE 
 
 NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
 QNCINNATI: JENNINGS & GRAHAM
 
 Copyright, 1910. by 
 EATON & MAINS
 
 6X 
 
 TO THE 
 
 NEW YORK CONFERENCE 
 
 IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR HONORED DEAD 
 AND WITH AFFECTIONATE AND FRATERNAL 
 REGARD FOR ITS LIVING MEMBERS, WHO 
 SO WORTHILY REPRESENT TO THIS 
 GENERATION THE SPIRIT, PUR- 
 POSE, AND ENTERPRISE 
 OF THE FATHERS 
 
 894721
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 Prefatory Note 7 
 
 I. Estimate 9 
 
 II. In the Maryland Wilderness.... 12 
 
 III. The Summoning Voice 29 
 
 IV. In the Saddle 40 
 
 V. The Missionary 56 
 
 VI. The New York Conference 64 
 
 VII. The Home on the Hudson 74 
 
 VIII. The Preacher and Teacher 95 
 
 IX. The Ecclesiastic 104 
 
 X. His Personality 114 
 
 XI. The Itinerant's Last Journey 123
 
 PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 The sources to which I have gone for 
 information concerning Freeborn Garrettson 
 are: The Life of Garrettson, by Nathan 
 Bangs, written by him at the request of the 
 family; Garrettson's Journal, which was 
 brought out in 1791 and contained an ac- 
 count of his experiences and travels up to 
 June 28, 1790; his manuscript Journals, 
 manuscript Notes on his Printed Journals, 
 and an incomparable collection of Garrett- 
 son letters and papers in Drew Theological 
 Seminary; the Semicentennial Sermon 
 which he preached before the New York 
 Conference in 1826; Asbury's Journal, Lee's 
 Short History of the Methodists, and the 
 various other histories of American Metho- 
 dism, together with numerous other books 
 relating directly or indirectly to the period 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church covered 
 by his life. 
 
 The picture of Garrettson which ap- 
 pears in Bangs's Life of Garrettson, and 
 which has been reproduced many times 
 since, is from a painting by Paradise and 
 engraved by Durand. The picture in this
 
 8 Prefatory Note 
 
 volume is from a miniature portrait, 
 painted by J. Thomson for Mrs. Garrett- 
 son, and which remained in the family until 
 the death of Miss Garrettson, when it came 
 into the possession of Drew Theological 
 Seminary, where it now is. It has never 
 before been reproduced, and is of peculiar 
 interest inasmuch as it was a favorite pic- 
 ture with both Mrs. and Miss Garrettson.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 ESTIMATE 
 
 It is not my purpose to attempt to estab- 
 lish Freeborn Garrettson's place in Metho- 
 dist history. That has already been done, 
 and his place is forever secure. John New- 
 ton, speaking of Whitefield's eloquence, 
 said : "If any man were to ask me who as a 
 preacher was second of all I have ever 
 heard I should be at some loss ; but in re- 
 gard to the first, Mr. Whitefield so far 
 exceeded every man of his time that I should 
 be at no loss." By common consent Francis 
 Asbury is given the highest seat among 
 the fathers of American Methodism. And 
 while there may be some honest difiference 
 of opinion as to who should rank next to 
 him in the first half century of our history, 
 the consensus of opinion of Methodist his- 
 torians would seem to accord that honorable 
 distinction to Freeborn Garrettson. Dr. 
 Bangs, in his History of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, says that at the time of 
 Garrettson's admission into the itinerant 
 ranks in 1775 the number of preachers was 
 only 19, and members in the societies 3,148, 
 
 9 ^
 
 1 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 and at the time of his death in 1827 these 
 had increased to 1,642 preachers, and church 
 members 421,105, and adds, "and perhaps 
 no individual preacher contributed more, if 
 indeed as much, to promote this spread of 
 the work than the Rev. Freeborn Garrett- 
 son"; and no man of his generation was 
 better quahfied by personal acquaintance 
 with Garrettson, by wide observation and 
 knowledge of men, and by superior intel- 
 lectual attainments to give Garrettson's 
 measure than Nathan Bangs. 
 
 A recent writer in the Methodist Review 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
 says : "I doubt whether Freeborn Garrettson 
 has received his due recognition in our 
 early history. The fact that he was a Mary- 
 lander, a man of wealth with perhaps not 
 a little of the old aristocratic air clinging to 
 him, and that he had married into an old 
 and wealthy family in New York, may have 
 come in between him and his humbler 
 brethren of the North, and the fact that he 
 was an avowed antislavery man of the most 
 intense type, and opposed to the rule of 
 Asbury and McKendree, as it existed, may 
 have had something to do with his want of 
 popular favor in the South ; but whatever 
 the cause, I think the fact I have recog-
 
 Elstimate 1 1 
 
 nized is unquestionable, and yet the Church 
 has produced few men whose influence for 
 good has been greater and few men whose 
 history has had in it more features of ro- 
 mantic interest." 
 
 While unquestionably there is some basis 
 of fact in the opinion as thus expressed, 
 Garrettson has not at any time since his 
 death been in eclipse. Neither was he in 
 his life. Who of his brethren could throw 
 him into shadow? Not Jesse Lee, nor 
 Ezekiel Cooper, nor John Dickins ; not Ben- 
 jamin Abbott, nor Thomas Ware, nor Caleb 
 Pedicord ; not Richard Whatcoat, nor Will- 
 iam McKendree. There were men of that 
 generation who were more celebrated 
 preachers, and there were those who were 
 better scholars, but, all in all, itinerant, mis- 
 sionary, preacher, statesman, in that first 
 generation of Methodist itinerants, there 
 was only one man who o'ertopped him, and 
 that man was Francis Asbury. And who- 
 ever knows the position accorded by his- 
 torians to this greatest ecclesiastic of 
 American Christianity in the three or four 
 decades following the Revolutionary War 
 will appreciate that to be ranked next to 
 him is no insignificant or meager distinc- 
 tion.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 IN THE MARYLAND WILDERNESS 
 
 "I WAS born in the year of our Lord 
 1752." It is with this statement that Free- 
 born Garrettson begins the first part of his 
 Journal, which he entitles "A short account 
 of my hfe till I was justified by faith." 
 The date was August 15; the place, the 
 State of Maryland near the mouth of the 
 Susquehanna River. His grandfather was 
 an immigrant from Great Britain and among 
 the first settlers on the west side of the 
 Chesapeake Bay. His parents were com- 
 municants of the Church of England, and 
 their children were brought up in the forms 
 and usages of that Church. His father 
 was a very moral man and was considered 
 by his neighbors an eminent Christian. For 
 him, as for his mother, Garrettson always 
 had great affection. His mother was deeply 
 religious, having come under the influence 
 of the preaching of George Whitefield, who 
 in his various itinerant journeys in America 
 produced an impression which long con- 
 tinued. She had also heard Gilbert Ten- 
 
 12
 
 In the Maryland Wilderness 13 
 
 nent, an eminent Presbyterian minister, and 
 one of the minister-sons of the distinguished 
 WilHam Tennent, who is regarded as one 
 of the chief founders of Princeton Uni- 
 versity, and had been led by his preaching 
 to reHgious contemplation and activity. Her 
 son gave as his testimony in later years that 
 although she lived in a "very dark day" she 
 most certainly had "inward religion," which 
 seems to have been a rare experience be- 
 fore the Methodist itinerants invaded Mary- 
 land for the purpose of spreading scriptural 
 holiness. 
 
 Garrettson's biographer thinks that Gar- 
 rettson's parents entirely mistook the char- 
 acter of their child, believing him "prone 
 to pride, self-will, and stubbornness," but 
 what they deemed pride proved only a noble, 
 chivalrous spirit, ready at all times to frown 
 on meanness and to defend the oppressed, 
 and that what they thought self-will was 
 only the love of freedom and independence, 
 and that his stubbornness, when fully de- 
 veloped, became decision of character. 
 
 The boy was early taught the Lord's 
 Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, 
 the Catechism, "and all other things which 
 a Christian ought to know and believe to 
 his soul's health," in accordance with the
 
 14 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 parental vows made at his baptism. Gar- 
 rettson was always religiously sensitive. He 
 was strangely swayed all his life by his 
 "feelings." When he was but seven years 
 of age he had an experience which "sensi- 
 bly moved" him, although he did not com- 
 prehend in the least measure its spiritual 
 import. On another occasion, some two 
 years later, as he was walking alone through 
 the fields it seemed to him that he heard a 
 voice saying, "Ask, and it shall be given 
 you," and he was immediately drawn out 
 in desire to know what it meant; and, he 
 says, it was borne in upon his mind that this 
 was a token for good, and he immediately 
 became conscious of a new spirit of joy. 
 The Holy Spirit was plainly at work in his 
 heart, though if some one had asked him 
 concerning the Holy Ghost, as Paul did cer- 
 tain disciples at Ephesus, he probably would 
 have replied in the same terms they used, 
 "We have not so much as heard whether 
 there be any Holy Ghost." The state of 
 religion in Maryland during Garrettson's 
 boyhood was at a low ebb, but as always, 
 there were unseen spiritual forces, silent, 
 mysterious, which were at work. 
 
 Shortly after the incident mentioned 
 above he was again alone by himself, and
 
 In the Maryland Wilderness 15 
 
 once more a voice was heard. He knew 
 not whence it came, whether from the whis- 
 pering trees or from the depths of his own 
 heart, but it was as plain and real as if 
 spoken by some friend face to face with 
 him: "Do you know what a saint is?" It 
 was all so real that he answered, "There 
 are no saints on earth in this our day" ; and 
 the same strange voice replied, "A saint is 
 one who is wholly given up to God"; and 
 instantly he saw such a person "in idea," 
 as Garrettson phrases it, the most beautiful 
 that his eyes had ever beheld ! The vision 
 so affected him that he expressed aloud a 
 desire to bear such a character, and to him 
 there was given a "strong assurance" that 
 such should be his experience, and again a 
 spirit of joy flooded his heart. 
 
 His mother died when he was about ten 
 years of age, but he never forgot the ad- 
 monitions which she gave him. After her 
 going away, a sorrow which was followed 
 by other griefs, he became melancholy and 
 frequently went alone to weep. A modern 
 specialist would likely say that it was a 
 case of disordered nerves! He knew that 
 he wanted something but did not know 
 what, and instead of purchasing a treatise 
 on medicine bought a pocket Testament,
 
 16 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 which he read, often with bitter sighs and 
 broken prayers. 
 
 When he was twelve years of age he 
 went to school, where, he says, "I threw off 
 all serious thoughts about another world 
 and was as full of play and mischief as 
 others of my age." Though Garrettson 
 frequently condemns himself and brings 
 numerous charges against himself, there is 
 nothing to suggest that he was openly and 
 flagrantly sinful, he himself saying, "I did 
 not run into scandalous witness." He left 
 school somewhere about 1770, and by that 
 time there was a good deal of talk in Balti- 
 more County and elsewhere concerning 
 "the people called Methodists." The begin- 
 nings of American Methodism date from 
 1766, when Philip Embury began regular 
 preaching in the city of New York. This 
 is not the place to discuss the question 
 whether the work of Strawbridge in Mary- 
 land antedates the work in New York. The 
 best historians in America, such as Stevens, 
 than whom no greater denominational his- 
 torian has yet been raised up among us; 
 Atkinson, whose researches concerning the 
 beginnings of the Wesleyan movement in 
 America are both invaluable and as yet 
 incontrovertible; Wakeley, Buckley, Faulk-
 
 In the Maryland Wilderness 17 
 
 ner, and others unite in giving the prefer- 
 ence to New York. The date of Straw- 
 bridge's first sermon in Maryland may 
 never be known, since the year of his ar- 
 rival in America has not been definitely de- 
 termined (Crook, who made a careful study 
 of all the Irish line of evidence, does not 
 think that he left Ireland before 1766) ; 
 but whatever the year he began, whether 
 before or after Embury, this man who 
 founded Methodism in Baltimore and Har- 
 ford Counties in Maryland, restless by na- 
 ture, and conscious of the needs of the new 
 settlements which were unvisited by the 
 lethargic clergy of the English Church, went 
 in every direction preaching with glowing 
 lips the sure word of the gospel. "Every- 
 where he went he raised up preachers," and 
 whenever he preached sinners were con- 
 verted. It was this flaming herald who was 
 the first Methodist to be seen and heard 
 by the young man in Maryland who had but 
 recently returned from school and entered 
 upon a life of carelessness and indifference. 
 His picture of Strawbridge is doubtless the 
 best one we have of that early preacher: 
 "Mr Strawbridge came to the house of a 
 gentleman near where I lived to stay all 
 night. I had never heard him preach, but
 
 18 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 as I had a great desire to be in company 
 with a person who had caused so much talk 
 in the country I went over and sat and 
 heard him converse till nearly midnight, and 
 when I retired it was with these thoughts, 
 *I have never spent a few hours so agreea- 
 bly in my life.' He spent most of the time 
 in explaining Scripture and giving interest- 
 ing anecdotes." And it is not thinkable 
 that that great winner of souls would have 
 allowed the earnest young fellow who lis- 
 tened to him so eagerly to withdraw without 
 some word concerning his personal salva- 
 tion. 
 
 Garrettson's conversion was not without 
 signs and wonders, divine warnings and 
 divine interpositions. It is difficult to say 
 just when the process was begun. In a 
 letter to Wesley in 1785 he wrote: "This 
 spring is fourteen years since I was power- 
 fully convinced without use of human 
 means"; which would fix the date of his 
 awakening as 1771, when he was nineteen 
 years of age. In the same letter he says, 
 "It was three years from my conviction be- 
 fore I was brought through the pangs of 
 the new birth." During these years much 
 happened, and to his sensitive soul every 
 event had a spiritual significance. Such en-
 
 In the Maryland Wilderness 19 
 
 tries as these are to be found in his Journal, 
 which is a record of soul disclosures scarcely 
 paralleled in religious literature: "One day 
 as I was passing over a rapid stream, a 
 log on which I had frequently gone gave 
 way, and I was near being swept down the 
 stream; after struggling awhile I got out, 
 though much wounded among the sharp 
 rocks. This query struck my mind with 
 great weight, 'What would have become of 
 your soul had you been drowned?' I wept 
 bitterly, and prayed to the Lord under a 
 sense of my guilt. Still my stubborn heart 
 was not willing to submit, though I began 
 to carry a little hell in my bosom." How 
 strange it is that remorse awakened by some 
 grave peril so quickly dies out, and the 
 vows made in moments of thankfulness 
 over some deliverance from sudden death 
 are soon forgotten ! Garrettson a little 
 later found himself in still greater danger. 
 "In May, 1772, as I was riding out one 
 afternoon, I went down a descent, over a 
 large broad rock; my horse stumbled and 
 threw me ; and with the fall on the rock and 
 the horse blundering over me I was beaten 
 out of my senses. When I recovered in some 
 measure I praised God, as well as I knew 
 how, for my deliverance; and before I
 
 20 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 moved from the place I promised to serve 
 him all the days of my life." He at once 
 procured the best religious books that he 
 could obtain, and in retirement read much. 
 Up to this time he had heard but two or 
 three Methodist preachers. He had, as he 
 says, the form of godliness; fasted once a 
 week, prayed frequently daily in secret, and 
 attended church regularly, but whenever he 
 •went to hear Methodist preaching, as he did 
 now occasionally, his "poor foundations 
 would shake," especially under the preach- 
 ing of George Shadford. When Asbury 
 came into the country he went to hear him, 
 and "his doctrine seemed as salve to a 
 (festering wound." He followed the great 
 preacher to another place, with this result: 
 "He began to wind me about in such a man- 
 ner that I found my sins in clusters as it 
 were around me, and the law in its purity 
 probing to the very bottom and discovering 
 the defects of my heart; I was ready to 
 cry out, 'How does this stranger know me 
 so well?'" 
 
 His father began to be troubled concern- 
 ing him, and one night talked with him till 
 midnight. "I have no objections," said he, 
 "to your being religious, but why should 
 you turn from the Church?" Garrettson
 
 In the Maryland Wilderness 21 
 
 had already begun to have, it would appear, 
 some leanings toward the Methodists. One 
 day as he was riding home he met a 
 young man who had been hearing the 
 Methodists, who talked to him so sweetly 
 about Jesus and his people, and recom- 
 mended Christ in such a winning fashion, 
 that Garrettson was deeply convinced that 
 there was a reality in that religion, and that 
 it was time for him to take an open stand. 
 Another day he met with a zealous Metho- 
 dist exhorter who asked him if he had been 
 born again. Not long since a young friend 
 of mine heard a woman of another denom- 
 ination say with a sneer, ''I wouldn't be a 
 Methodist; why, the Methodists say you 
 have to be born again." Yes, indeed ! But 
 did not the Master also say that same thing? 
 Garrettson "could not easily forget the 
 words of that pious young man" ; they 
 seemed to him like spears running through 
 him! Thus matters continued until June, 
 1775, a day which Garrettson never forgot. 
 As the day was breaking he awoke, 
 "alarmed by an awful voice." "You are 
 not prepared to die," was the ominous an- 
 nouncement which was "thundered down" 
 upon his soul. Starting from his pillow, he 
 cried out, "Lord, if this be the case, have
 
 22 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 mercy upon me." "In the evening," he 
 says, "it was strongly pressed on my mind 
 to go and hear a Methodist sermon. Though 
 it was a very rainy evening I went, and for 
 the first time heard Brother Ruff." Shortly 
 after he heard him again. Daniel Ruff was 
 one of the earliest native preachers raised up 
 in America; "honest, simple Daniel Ruff," 
 Asbury called him. There may be ground 
 for controversy as to where were the be- 
 ginnings of Methodism in America, but 
 there can be no question as to where the 
 first native preachers were brought into the 
 ranks of the itinerant ministry. There was 
 William Watters, who was born in Balti- 
 more County, Maryland, in 1751, the year 
 before Garrettson, and who was converted 
 in 1 77 1, and began to preach the following 
 year. He has been called "the first native 
 itinerant," though recent investigations 
 would seem to make it clear that Edward 
 Evans, one of Whitefield's converts in Phil- 
 adelphia, who allied himself with the Metho- 
 dists and was given permission to preach, 
 is entitled to that distinction, even though, 
 dying before the meeting of the first Con- 
 ference in 1773, his name has no place on 
 the official records of our American Metho- 
 dism. And there was Philip Catch, born in
 
 In the Maryland Wilderness 23 
 
 Maryland the same year as Watters, who 
 entered the itinerancy and upon a dis- 
 tinguished career the same year as Wat- 
 ters, though his name does not appear in 
 the Minutes until 1774. And there was 
 Daniel Ruff, who was converted in Harford 
 County in the great religious excitement 
 which prevailed in that and Baltimore 
 County during 1771. The next year his 
 house became a "preaching place," and in 
 1773 he began his itinerant ministry. It 
 was after a sermon by this man that Gar- 
 rettson came into the light. Let him tell the 
 story in his own words : "After preaching 
 was over I called in with Daniel Ruff at 
 Mrs. Cough's, and stayed until about nine 
 o'clock. On my way home, being much dis- 
 tressed, I alighted from my horse in a lonely 
 wood, and bowed my knee before the Lord ; 
 I sensibly felt two spirits, one on each hand. 
 The good spirit set forth to my innocent 
 mind the beauties of religion, and I seemed 
 almost ready to lay hold on my Saviour. 
 Then would the enemy rise up on the other 
 hand, and dress religion in as odious a garb 
 as possible ; yea, he seemed in a moment of 
 time to set the world and the things of it in 
 the most brilliant colors before me, telling 
 me all those things should be mine if I would
 
 24 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 give up my false notions, and serve him. I 
 continued on my knees a considerable time, 
 and at last began to give way to the reason- 
 ing of the enemy. My tender feelings 
 abated, and my tears were gone; my heart 
 was hard, but I continued on my knees in 
 a kind of meditation, and at last addressed 
 my Maker thus: 'Lord, spare me one year 
 more, and by that time I can put my worldly 
 affairs in such a train that I can serve 
 thee.' (I seemed as if I felt the two 
 spirits with me.) The answer was, 'Now 
 is the accepted time.' I then pleaded for 
 six months, but was denied ; one month, no ; 
 I then asked for one week, the answer was, 
 'This is the time.' For some time the devil 
 was silent, till I was denied one week in 
 his service ; then it was that he shot a power- 
 ful dart. 'The God,' said he, 'you are at- 
 tempting to serve is a hard master; and I 
 would have you to desist from your en- 
 deavor.' Carnal people know very little of 
 this kind of exercise ; but it was as percepti- 
 ble to me as if I had been conversing with 
 two people face to face. As soon as this 
 powerful temptation came I felt my heart 
 rise sensibly, and immediately I arose from 
 my knees with these words: 'I will take my 
 own time, and then I will serve thee.' I
 
 In the Maryland Wilderness 25 
 
 mounted my horse with a hard, unbeHeving 
 heart, unwilling to submit to Jesus. O, what 
 a good God I had to deal with ! I might in 
 justice have been sent to hell. I had not 
 rode a quarter of a mile before the Lord 
 met me powerfully with these words : *I 
 have come once more to offer you life and 
 salvation, and it is the last time : choose or 
 refuse.' I was instantly surrounded with a 
 divine power: heaven and hell were dis- 
 closed to view, and life and death w^ere set 
 before me. I do believe, if I had rejected 
 this call, mercy would have been forever 
 taken from me. I knew the very instant, 
 when I submitted to the Lord and was will- 
 ing that Christ should reign over me : I like- 
 wise knew the two sins which I parted with 
 last, pride and unbelief. I threw the reins 
 of my bridle on my horse's neck, and put- 
 ting my hands together, cried out, 'Lord, I 
 submit.' I was less than nothing in my own 
 sight, and was now for the first time recon- 
 ciled to the justice of God. The enmity of 
 my heart was slain, the plan of salvation 
 was open to me, I saw beauty in the per- 
 fection of the Deity, and I felt the power of 
 faith and love that I had ever been a 
 stranger to before." If he knew that 
 glorious hymn of Doddridge,
 
 26 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 " 'Tis done: the great transaction's done I 
 I am my Lord's, and he is mine; 
 He drew me and I followed on, 
 Charmed to confess the voice divine," 
 
 he must have sung it, for it is said that hav- 
 ing found the pearl of great price he was 
 exceedingly happy, and began to shout the 
 praises of his Redeemer. Modern con- 
 versions may be more decorous, and it may 
 be they are just as complete, but when 
 Garrettson, who had not run the gamut 
 of sin and shame in his personal life — our 
 modern religious psychologists and advo- 
 cates of "educational conversion" gen- 
 erously say that some demonstration on the 
 part of a Jerry McAuley is pardonable — 
 found God, "the stars seemed so many 
 seraphs going forth in their Maker's praise." 
 He praised God aloud. As he neared the 
 house the servants heard him shouting and 
 rushed out to meet him in surprise. It did 
 not take them long to discover that some- 
 thing had happened. He called the family 
 together, and his prayer was turned into 
 praise. Temptations soon beset him, and 
 for a time he was in perplexity. Great 
 souls often have to wade through deep 
 waters. But before many days passed there 
 were indisputable evidences that his con-
 
 In the Maryland Wilderness 27 
 
 version was complete. One Sunday morn- 
 ing — this is one of the most interesting in- 
 cidents in Garrettson's whole life — although 
 he was still unsettled in his mind, from a 
 sense of duty he summoned the household 
 for prayer. "As I stood with a book in my 
 hand in the act of giving out a hymn" — I 
 give his own account of the event — "this 
 thought powerfully struck my mind: 'It is 
 not right for you to keep your fellow crea- 
 tures in bondage, you must let the oppressed 
 go free.' I knew it was that same blessed 
 voice which had spoken to me before; till 
 then I had never suspected that the practice 
 of slavekeeping was wrong; I had not read 
 a book on the subject or been told so by 
 any. I paused a minute and then replied, 
 'Lord, the oppressed shall go free'; and I 
 was as clear of them in my mind as if I had 
 never owned one. I told them they did not 
 belong to me, and that I did not desire their 
 services without making them a compensa- 
 tion. I was now at liberty to proceed in 
 worship. After singing I kneeled to pray. 
 Had I the tongue of an angel I could not 
 have fully described what I felt. All my 
 dejection and that melancholy gloom which 
 preyed upon me vanished in a moment, and 
 a divine sweetness ran through my whole
 
 28 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 frame." Could anyone doubt that there 
 had been a real change of heart after such 
 an unexpected proof of the sincerity of his 
 new purpose ? It was in keeping, moreover, 
 with Garrettson's subsequent career. There 
 at that home service was given the first 
 earnest of his hatred of slavery and of his 
 long fight for the oppressed. Freeborn Gar- 
 rettson was a new man in Christ Jesus. 
 His conversion was as complete as that of 
 Saint Paul, the currents of his thought and 
 life having undergone in some respects 
 quite as radical changes. From this hour, 
 when it was borne in upon him that some 
 things which hitherto he had considered 
 right, were not right, he submitted all 
 questions, all plans, all actions, all attitudes 
 to the new standard which he found in 
 Christ Jesus his Lord.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE SUMMONING VOICE 
 
 The matter of a call to the Christian 
 ministry is a complex one. Spurgeon used 
 to say that he was foreordained to be a 
 preacher, and it does seem as if we should 
 make that concession to his sturdy Calvin- 
 ism, so remarkable was the prophecy ut- 
 tered by Richard Knill, a representative 
 of the London Missionary Society, who, a 
 visitor to the parsonage in which Spurgeon's 
 father lived, as he was leaving took the boy 
 of ten years on his knee and said: "I do 
 not know how it is, but I feel a solemn pre- 
 sentiment that this child will preach the 
 gospel to thousands. So sure am I of this 
 that when you, my little man, preach in 
 Rowland Hill's Chapel, as you will one day, 
 I should like you to give out the hymn com- 
 mencing, 
 
 " 'God moves in a mysterious way 
 His wonders to perform,' " 
 
 a prophecy which years later was fulfilled 
 to the letter. Some men come into the min- 
 
 29
 
 30 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 istry, as Burton says, "by the pull of numer- 
 ous forces." Often the call is as the blow- 
 ing of the wind, something mysterious, 
 almost intangible even. Again it is as potent 
 as the luminous cross seen by Constantine 
 in his march to Rome, or the spirit-voices 
 heard by Joan of Arc. Horace Bushnell 
 used to tell of his grandmother, a godly 
 woman, up in the wilds of Vermont, who 
 started a religious public service, had her 
 timid husband make the prayers, and called 
 into service the talents of an unchristian 
 young man of the region for the reading 
 of a printed sennon from Sunday to Sun- 
 day. After a time she reached the con- 
 clusion that he had the making of a preacher 
 in him, and said to him one day as he came 
 from the pulpit that God wanted him to be 
 a Methodist minister. "But I am not a 
 Christian," he said. "No matter, you are 
 called to be a Christian and a preacher both, 
 in one call, as Saul was." That young man 
 was Elijah Hedding. 
 
 Methodism has never believed, as some 
 good people seem to believe these days, 
 that "anyone who feels a turn for it, in the 
 ordinary sense of the word, is entitled to 
 enter the ministry." It surely was not so 
 in the early days of Methodism. .Whitefield
 
 The Summoning Voice 31 
 
 struggled long and hard between an inclina- i 
 tion for the stage and the conviction that he 
 must preach. "I have prayed a thousand 
 times," he said, "till the sweat has dripped 
 from my face like rain." It may be that 
 Methodism has stood for a more marked 
 call than some other denominations, but it 
 most assuredly has believed in the necessity 
 of a distinctive call. The Old Testament, as 
 has been said, is largely a record of "calls" ; 
 likewise the biographies of Methodist 
 preachers. So far as I am familiar with the 
 biographical literature of Methodism I do 
 not recall a single instance where one of 
 our preachers has taken the field except 
 upon command. Bishop Scott testifies that 
 after his conversion the burden of the Lord I 
 came upon him and the Spirit of God com- 
 missioned him to preach with the solemn 
 words, "Away! Away! labor for God and 
 souls." 
 
 Thus also was Freeborn Garrettson 
 called to preach. It was not long after the 
 happy experiences of grace recorded in the 
 preceding chapter that he received "a strong 
 impression" that he should go immediately 
 to a certain place and declare to those whom 
 he might find there what the Lord had done 
 for him. He mounted his horse, went to
 
 32 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 the designated place, found a company of 
 friends and relatives, but the cross was 
 too heavy for him, and after remaining 
 there for several hours "without bearing 
 testimony," he returned home in "deep dis- 
 tress of soul." That was the beginning of 
 a conflict which was to continue for nearly 
 a year before Garrettson's surrender to God 
 was complete. 
 
 Shortly after this he felt it to be his duty 
 to hold religious meetings in various places, 
 principally at his own house, and at that of 
 his brother John, where a blessed work of 
 grace broke out. He had not yet joined 
 the Methodists, though his leanings were 
 now in that direction. God was leading him 
 gradually. He had read some of Mr. Wes- 
 ley's writings and had some considerable 
 knowledge of Methodist people, but at the 
 beginning of his Christian life he felt a 
 distinct repugnance to being known as a 
 Methodist. It was his purpose to nurture 
 his spiritual life by monastic fastings and 
 in the gloom of cloister silences, but this 
 unnatural and unscriptural resolve was as 
 swiftly shattered by a shaft of religious ex- 
 perience as a forest tree is riven by light- 
 ning. What a wonderful teacher the Holy 
 Spirit is! Garrettson's opposition to the
 
 The Summoning Voice 33 
 
 Methodists shortly began to melt away. One 
 Sunday he went to the church where he 
 had been accustomed to worship, and no- 
 ticed, possibly for the first time, that before 
 the service the people "gathered in little 
 companies, the old men talking about the 
 price of grain, their farms and crops, and 
 the younger people about horse-raising and 
 the like." The scene shocked his sensitive 
 religious feelings, and the sermon later con- 
 vinced him that there was no spiritual food 
 for him there. That evening he went, to 
 use his own phrase, "to hear Methodist 
 preaching," and it was of the sort to stir 
 his soul to its depths, and he went home de- 
 termined "to choose God's people for my 
 people." A few days later he journeyed ten 
 miles to attend a class meeting, "and was 
 convinced that it was a prudential means"; 
 and was his conclusion not a right one? 
 The leaven of God's purpose for him was 
 working. The next step which Garrettson 
 was led to take was to invite Mr. Rodda, a 
 Methodist itinerant whom he had already 
 met, to come to his house and preach. 
 If he did not want to become a preacher — 
 and there is abundant proof that he did not 
 — that was a dangerous thing for him to do, 
 for those early Methodist preachers were
 
 34 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 on the watch everywhere for recruits. The 
 very next day after Rodda's arrival he per- 
 emptorily told Garrettson that he must ac- 
 company him on his circuit, which the young 
 man did, exhorting the people by Rodda's 
 direction. But at the end of nine days Gar- 
 rettson announced his intention of return- 
 ing to his home, and when Rodda pressed 
 him for the reason Garrettson told him 
 bluntly that he "was not disposed to be a 
 traveling preacher," as if that settled the 
 question. 
 
 The details of Garrettson's struggles to 
 escape what he must have suspected was 
 the will of God for him would seem almost 
 incredible to modern readers. They were as 
 realistic and as wearing upon his health as 
 were those of Saint Francis. Rankin, hav- 
 ing heard that his mind was in a tumult 
 respecting the ministry, sent for him and 
 gave him such salutary advice that the 
 storm-tossed soul was comforted for the 
 moment, but almost immediately Satan 
 again buffeted him, and once more he is 
 in doubt. He has an engagement to speak 
 but is unwilling to use a text, and finds him- 
 self unable to speak with any degree of 
 freedom. As he journeyed to another ap- 
 pointment he was in so great perplexity
 
 The Summoning Voice 35 
 
 through doubt and fear that he even wished 
 his horse would throw him and thus end his 
 life. When he preached in his native place 
 to a multitude who had come from far and 
 near to hear him, just as he gave out his 
 text, "The great day of his wrath is come, 
 and who shall be able to stand ?" the burden 
 of responsibility was so overpowering that 
 he fainted and fell to the ground. Thus 
 the conflicts continued month after month. 
 There is a famous passage in his Journal 
 which shows the straits he was in : "It was 
 now the enemy told me there was no way 
 for me to prevent or get clear of those 
 itinerating impressions than to alter my 
 condition in life. The thought was pleas- 
 ing, insomuch that I employed carpenters 
 to put an addition to my house." "The 
 object was soon fixed on and I paid her a 
 visit, told her my mind, and set a time when 
 I should expect to know her mind"; but, 
 as he quaintly says, "the hand of the Lord 
 was against it" ; for the night before he was 
 to learn her decision he had a vision of his 
 duty, and to quote his own words, "When 
 I went downstairs I met the object in the 
 hall and told her that I was convinced that 
 the Lord had a greater work for me to do, 
 and gave up the matter and withdrew to
 
 36 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 my home." But not yet even was his de- 
 cision fixed. The enemy of his peace told 
 him that the more he went among the 
 Methodists, especially the preachers, the 
 more his mind would be exercised about 
 traveling. It was the itinerancy that af- 
 frighted him, as it has many others since 
 that day. He was willing to preach near 
 his home, but the thought of wandering up 
 and down the earth, he knew not where, 
 appalled him. In a letter to Mr, Wesley in 
 1785, nearly ten years after his joining the 
 noble band of Methodist itinerants, he said, 
 "Eight months elapsed after I was called 
 to preach before I was willing to leave my 
 all and go out. I wanted to live in retire- 
 ment, and had almost got my own consent 
 to sell what I had in the world and retire 
 to a cell. God withdrew himself from me. 
 ... I was worn away to a skeleton. . . . 
 Strong impressions I had to go forth in 
 Jehovah's name to preach the gospel. When 
 I thought of it I was pained to the very 
 heart; it seemed like death, so great was 
 the sense I had of my weakness and 
 ignorance." 
 
 But at last the struggles came to an end. 
 Let Garrettson himself tell the story: "One 
 day under deep distress I returned to my
 
 The Summoning Voice 37 
 
 room, and appeared to be weary of life. 
 I threw myself on the bed and within a few 
 minutes was in a sound sleep, and I thought 
 the devil came into the room and was about 
 to lay hold on me. I thought the good angel 
 spoke to me and said, 'Will you go and 
 preach the gospel?' I cried out, 'Lord, 
 there are many who are more fitted for the 
 work than I am; send them, for I am too 
 ignorant.' The good angel said, 'There is a 
 dispensation of the gospel committed unto 
 you, and woe is unto you if you preach 
 not the gospel. Will you go and preach the 
 gospel?' I knew it to be the voice of that 
 same blessed Jesus that showed me that 
 my sins were forgiven at the time of my 
 conversion. There the devil was waiting 
 and ready to drive me away. I cried out, 
 'Lord, if thou wilt go with me I will go to 
 the ends of the earth, or to the very mouth 
 of hell, to preach the blessed gospel.' In a 
 moment I saw the devil vanish away, and 
 I awoke filled with joy; yea, my soul was 
 so happy and I had such a strong confidence 
 that I thought I should never doubt again. 
 I wanted to tell somebody of the exercise 
 of my mind, and forever adored be the name 
 of the Lord, he made a way for me." The 
 die was cast; henceforth for more than a
 
 38 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 half century he was to be a Methodist itin- 
 erant preacher, and of all the goodly com- 
 pany of itinerants there was no one who had 
 a higher sense of the honor which had been 
 conferred upon him by the divine summons 
 to preach the gospel, or who realized more 
 fully the necessity and import of such a set- 
 ting apart for the work of the ministry. In 
 1816 there was published "An Open Letter 
 to the Rev. Lyman Beecher," in reply to a 
 pamphlet written by him, and which, it 
 seemed to the members of the New York 
 Conference, contained some animadversions 
 on the Methodist ministiy. The letter was 
 written by Garrettson, and its publication 
 authorized by the Conference. In it he 
 says, among other things : 
 
 "Had you pointed out some Scripture 
 marks of a call and qualification for the pure 
 ministry, I should have thanked you; but 
 you seemed to lay the whole stress on your 
 seminaries, regularity, and settlement, all 
 of which are only the letter. As you neg- 
 lected the most important part, permit me 
 to touch on a few particulars. The first is, 
 the soul-regenerating grace of God, and the 
 knowledge of him as a sin-pardoning God. 
 The second is, a call from God to the work. 
 The third is, a qualification for the work.
 
 The Summoning Voice 39 
 
 "But how shall it be known that a man 
 is called and qualified for the work? 
 
 "i. He should have an evidence of God's 
 love, and be so enlightened respecting divine 
 things, as in some good degree to under- 
 stand the spirituality of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and to know the way of salvation. 
 2. A gift to edify, and a cordial reception 
 from ministers and people, and to be made 
 a blessing to the Church; 3. A pure love 
 for souls; 4. Blest in his labors in bringing 
 souls to Christ ; 5. A love for study, and a 
 thirst for more grace and wisdom; 6. A 
 humble, pious walk with God, accompanied 
 by integrity of soul in his work. He can 
 say, 'Follow me, as I follow Christ,' giving 
 evidence to the flock that he takes the over- 
 sight not for filthy lucre, but of a ready 
 mind. .Whom the blessed God thus sets 
 apart to minister in his sanctuary, he owns 
 and blesses." 
 
 This was written forty years after he had 
 heard and obeyed the Voice, and it scarcely 
 need be said that his own life furnished the 
 most complete confirmation of his opinions 
 as here expressed concerning the prerequi- 
 site qualifications for a successful ministry.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 IN THE SADDLE 
 
 Ryle says that Christianity was saved to 
 the world in the eighteenth century by 
 "spiritual cavalry who scoured the country 
 and were found everywhere." Stevens, in 
 his History of American Methodism, uses 
 the same figure when he refers to the Metho- 
 dist itinerants as "evangelical cavalry." A 
 glance through the table of contents of that 
 book more than justifies such characteriza- 
 tion: "Rapid Advance of the Church," 
 "Methodism Enters Kentucky," "Garrett- 
 son Pioneers Methodism up the Hudson," 
 "Asbury Itinerating in the South," "Mc- 
 Kendree Goes to the West," "Colbert in 
 the Wilderness," and the like. In every 
 chapter you feel the rush and haste of those 
 restless men. Every page breathes the re- 
 sistless impulse of the Methodist evangelism. 
 That classic of our Methodist literature, 
 Asbury 's Journal, abounds with references 
 to his travels. Day after day he writes down 
 with wearisome regularity, "I went," "I 
 rode," "I came." During the forty-seven 
 years of his itinerant career he rode more 
 
 40
 
 In the Saddle 41 
 
 than two hundred and seventy-five thousand 
 miles, almost all of them on horseback. One 
 cannot understand early Methodist history 
 unless he reads it as Asbury and Garrettson 
 and the other itinerants traveled — in the 
 saddle. About the time that Garrettson 
 first heard of the Methodists the movements 
 of the few itinerants who had already taken 
 the field were so rapid that it is with diffi- 
 culty that we follow them. Work for the 
 year 1772 was planned on a large scale: 
 Boardman was to enter New England, 
 Wright to go to New York, Pilmoor to 
 attack the South, and Asbury to remain in 
 Philadelphia. In the autumn of that year 
 Wesley directed Asbury to act as superin- 
 tendent, and immediately the young leader 
 started for the South, preaching as he went. 
 In Baltimore he arranged a circuit of two 
 hundred miles, with twenty-four appoint- 
 ments, to be covered by him every three 
 weeks, and it was on one of these rounds 
 that Garrettson first saw and heard him. 
 This same year Wesley sent reinforcements 
 to America, Thomas Rankin and George 
 Shadford, the former a Scotchman of rare 
 energy and commanding success, the latter 
 one of the most beautiful characters of early 
 Methodism, and to whom Wesley gave the
 
 42 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 famous parting injunction : "I let you loose, 
 George, on the great continent of America; 
 publish your message in the open face of the 
 sun, and do all the good that you can." 
 
 In July, 1773, the first American Con- 
 ference assembled' in Philadelphia. An old 
 print shows ten clerically frocked preachers 
 in attendance: Thomas Rankin, Francis 
 Asbury, Richard Boardman, Joseph Pil- 
 moor, Richard Wright, George Shad ford. 
 Captain Thomas Webb, John King, Abra- 
 ham Whitworth, and Joseph Yearbry, all 
 Europeans, and all bent on the evangeliza- 
 tion of the New World. Perhaps the most 
 important action taken at this Conference 
 was that the preachers should exchange at 
 the end of every six months, which was what 
 Asbury had desired from the beginning — 
 "a circulation of preachers" — and undenia- 
 bly one of the chief means of the unpre- 
 cedented growth of Methodism in its first 
 half century. Despite all the toils and hard- 
 ships it involved, the early preachers re- 
 garded the itinerancy as one of the most 
 glorious institutions of their Church. The 
 history of the Christian Church would seem 
 to confirm their views. More than once has 
 Christianity been saved to the world by 
 wandering preachers. They were itinerants
 
 In the Saddle 43 
 
 who in the early centuries of the Christian 
 era made Christianity the dominant rehgion. 
 Eight hundred years later, when religion 
 had become a stench and a scandal, and the 
 entire hierarchical system, like a stranded 
 ship, was breaking in pieces, there appeared 
 one day an itinerant, Saint Francis of Assisi, 
 who so influenced men that in a few years, 
 from the sierras of Spain to the steppes of 
 Russia, from the Tiber to the Trent, the 
 Baltic Sea and the Thames, the old faith 
 in its fullest vigor was preached in almost 
 every town and hamlet. The great Ref- 
 ormation in the sixteenth century, of which 
 John Wycliffe was the Morning Star, was 
 heralded by the preaching of his itinerant 
 priests; the Evangelical Revival of the 
 eighteenth century was due in largest meas- 
 ure, under the blessing of God, to the 
 chivalrous loyalty, the unflagging zeal, the 
 persistent faith and toil of Methodist itin- 
 erants. What heroes they were! and with 
 what superb abandon they went to their al- 
 most superhuman tasks ! Literature does 
 not disclose finer specimens of manhood, 
 nor record deeds of more splendid valor. 
 
 Garrettson entered upon his long itin- 
 erant career in 1775, though it was not until 
 the following year, at the Conference held
 
 44 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 in Baltimore, May 21, 1776, that he was 
 formally received into the noble company 
 of Methodist itinerants, men who, to use his 
 own expression, were "thrust out" into the 
 ministry. Was it not prophetic that he who 
 was almost literally to live in the saddle was 
 converted on horseback ? It would seem so. 
 Garrettson's first appointment was to 
 travel the Frederick Circuit with Daniel 
 Rodda, where, under constant buffetings of 
 Satan, repeated suggestions that he turn 
 back home, and other trials so great that 
 he was "tempted to envy the creeping in- 
 sects," he nevertheless preached so effect- 
 ively that many were awakened. At the 
 end of six months he went to Fairfax Cir- 
 cuit, where he labored three months, when 
 Rodda thought it expedient to send him 
 into the region known as New Virginia, 
 where the people became so deeply attached 
 to him that when he preached his farewell 
 sermon the people were "bathed in tears," 
 and entreated him not to leave them. His 
 appointment the next year was to the 
 famous Brunswick Circuit, where he was 
 associated with Watters, at whose "preach- 
 ing house" the Conference had been held, 
 and John Tunnell, who was received on 
 probation this year, a name fragrant to
 
 In the Saddle 45 
 
 the Methodists of that early day, who after 
 notable labors in the Middle States was 
 sent in 1787 to East Tennessee, where he 
 died three years later, his brethren bearing 
 his remains back over the mountains that 
 he might sleep among the hills of Virginia. 
 What a brotherhood that of those early 
 itinerants was ! With what ties of affection,, 
 a common purpose, religious fervor, and a 
 deathless devotion they were bound to- 
 gether ! When Garrettson reached his cir- 
 cuit and began to preach such scenes of 
 grace were witnessed that the people felt 
 him to be "a young Shadford," a significant 
 characterization inasmuch as a few years 
 before Shadford had swept as a flame of 
 fire through all that region. Garrettson 
 now itinerated southward into North Caro- 
 lina, and at the Conference held at Lees- 
 burg, Virginia, in 1778 (which was presided 
 over by Watters, the senior native itinerant, 
 Asbury being in seclusion because of the 
 war then in progress), he was appointed to 
 Kent Circuit, in Maryland. Here as else- 
 where during these troublous years his faith 
 was severely tested by the opposition which 
 the preaching of those sturdy Methodist 
 itinerants provoked, and by the prejudices 
 against the Methodists which were created
 
 46 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 by the conditions, political and otherwise, 
 incident to the Revolutionary War. Gar- 
 rettson seems to have had almost more 
 than his share of persecution. His recital 
 of some of his hardships in a letter v^^ritten 
 to John Wesley from Halifax in 1785 reads 
 like Saint Paul's account of his sufferings 
 in Second Corinthians: "Once I was im- 
 prisoned ; twice beaten, left on the highway 
 speechless and senseless; once shot at; 
 guns and pistols presented at my breast; 
 once delivered from an armed mob in the 
 dead of night on the highway by a sur- 
 prising flash of lightning; surrounded 
 frequently by mobs; stoned frequently; I 
 have had to escape for my life at dead 
 time of night." But he lacked Paul's gift 
 of climax or he could have told a more 
 thrilling story. His experiences were cer- 
 tainly thrilling enough. Much of the op- 
 position was natural. It was of the sort 
 which is always stirred up by the faithful 
 preaching of the gospel. Paul met with 
 it in almost every place. Wesley was 
 repeatedly menaced by mobs. Garrettson 
 was evil spoken of, refused permission to 
 preach, and annoyed in petty ways. 
 
 The rage of his enemies oftener, how- 
 ever, took a more intimidating form. To
 
 In the Saddle 47 
 
 a funeral which he conducted a woman 
 came with the avowed intention of shoot- 
 ing him, but was thwarted of her design. 
 At another service, as he was giving out 
 a hymn, some twenty roughs rushed at him, 
 the ringleader seizing him and pressing a 
 pistol against his breast; but Garrettson 
 had seen God in a dream and was not per- 
 turbed. He began to exhort, and soon the 
 entire congregation was in tears. One 
 day while riding in Queen Anne County, 
 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a man 
 who had formerly been a judge intercepted 
 him, and taking his horse by the bridle 
 began to beat the preacher over the head 
 and shoulders with a club, calling mean- 
 while for his servants to assist him. When 
 Garrettson saw some of them coming with 
 a rope he thought it time to beat a retreat, 
 which fortunately he was able to do, only 
 to be overtaken a little later and so cruelly 
 beaten that he fell from his horse un- 
 conscious. Providentially, as he says, a 
 woman who had a lancet with her passed, 
 and, bleeding him, as was the custom, he 
 was restored to his senses, though it was 
 supposed for a time that his injuries would 
 prove fatal. One of his friends was shot, 
 but not mortally, for entertaining him. He
 
 48 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 himself was in constant peril. At Dover, 
 Delaware, he had scarcely dismounted be- 
 fore he was surrounded by a mob, who 
 cried lustily, "Hang him! hang him!" 
 When he made an appointment to preach 
 at the side of a river he was threatened 
 with drowning, but one "dressed like a 
 soldier" attended him on his journey, saying 
 to him, "I heard you preach at such a time, 
 and believe your doctrine to be true. I 
 heard you were to be abused at the river 
 to-day, and I equipped myself and have 
 ridden twenty miles in your defense, and 
 will go with you if it is a thousand miles 
 and see who dare lay a hand upon you !" 
 
 Garrettson's severest trials, however, 
 were not the issue of his religious activity, 
 but in consequence of his refusal on consci- 
 entious grounds to take the "state oath" 
 as it was called, that is, an oath of allegiance 
 to the United States of America, as re- 
 quired of all citizens when the war with 
 Great Britain was begun. He declared 
 himself a loyal American and a friend to 
 the cause of freedom, but when he refused 
 to take the oath because he thought it was 
 so worded as to bind him to take up arms 
 when called upon — and he felt no dispo- 
 sition to bear "carnal weapons" — he was
 
 In the Saddle 49 
 
 told that he must leave the State, or go to 
 jail. The fact that he was a Methodist 
 preacher augmented the feeling against 
 him. All the Methodists were under sus- 
 picion throughout the war, and particularly 
 during the early years; there were good 
 reasons for it. Wesley's "Calm Address 
 to the American Colonies" would have 
 created prejudice against them if nothing 
 else had been said or done, but several of 
 the preachers were indiscreet. Rankin 
 spoke so freely and imprudently on public 
 affairs as to cause fear that his influence 
 would be dangerous to the American cause. 
 Rodda was so unwise as to distribute 
 copies of the king's proclamation, and left 
 the country under circumstances unfavora- 
 ble to his reputation and hurtful to the 
 interests of religion. When the times were 
 about at the worst Shadford returned to 
 England, and, indeed, two years after the 
 Declaration of Independence not an Eng- 
 lish preacher remained in America except 
 Asbury, who, at the risk of his life, de- 
 liberately resolved to continue to labor and 
 to suffer with and for his American 
 brethren. His sympathies were undoubt- 
 edly with his countrymen, but his unerring 
 judgment, however, foresaw the inevitable
 
 50 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 outcome. Lednum tells of a letter which 
 Asbury wrote to Rankin in 1777 in which 
 he expressed his belief that the American 
 people would become a free and independ- 
 ent nation, and declared that he was too 
 much knit in affection to many of them to 
 leave them, and that Methodist preachers 
 had a great work to do under God in 
 America. The letter fell into the hands of 
 the authorities in the Colonies and pro- 
 duced a change in their feelings toward 
 him, but before this change took place there 
 was much suffering. 
 
 It was asserted that the Methodist body 
 was a Tory propaganda, though I can find 
 no proof to establish the contention. In 
 New York the leading members were 
 thorough Loyalists; elsewhere the member- 
 ship was divided in political sentiment, as 
 were all communities at the time; but it is 
 an indisputable fact that the prejudice 
 against the Methodists was pronounced, 
 and this prejudice was evidenced in much 
 hostility. Jesse Lee, our first historian, 
 says: 'Tf a person was disposed to perse- 
 cute a Methodist preacher it was only nec- 
 essary to call -him a Tory and then they 
 might treat him as cruelly as they pleased." 
 Judge White was arrested on the charge
 
 In the Saddle 51 
 
 of being a Methodist, and presumptively a 
 Tory, but after five weeks' detention was 
 acquitted. Asbury was compelled to go 
 into retirement for many months; part of 
 the time in almost absolute concealment. 
 The native ministers who had been raised 
 up, Watters, Gatch, Morrell, Ware, and 
 Garrettson, were true-hearted Americans, 
 and while the moral views and conscien- 
 tious scruples of some of these, and many 
 otiier Methodists, were not on general 
 principles favorable to war, they were con- 
 sistently loyal, even though many of them 
 suffered persecution. It was a common 
 experience for the preachers to be "hon- 
 ored" with tar and feathers. Caleb Pedi- 
 cord was cruelly whipped, and carried his 
 scars to the grave. Joseph Hartley was im- 
 prisoned, and during his confinement 
 preached through the gratings of his win- 
 dow to crowds of people. In many places 
 our preachers were insulted, beaten, and 
 maimed. Garrettson, because of his re- 
 fusal to subscribe to the oath, was the 
 object of more frequent attacks than any 
 other preacher of the time. But he was 
 without personal fear, and when friends 
 at Salisbury, knowing that a mob was lying 
 in wait for him, urged him to escape, his
 
 52 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 answer was, "I have come to preach my 
 Master's gospel, and I am not afraid to 
 trust him with body and soul." On another 
 occasion a company of twelve men made 
 him a prisoner and started to take him to 
 jail some distance away. While they were 
 en route, suddenly the darkness of the 
 night was shattered with "a very uncom- 
 mon flash of lightning, and in less than a 
 minute all my foes were dispersed." But 
 finally, in 1780, he was taken before a 
 magistrate in Dorchester County, Mary- 
 land, and put in jail at Cambridge, the keys 
 being hidden to prevent his friends from 
 ministering to him. "I had a dirty floor 
 for my bed," he writes, "my saddlebags 
 for my pillow, and two large windows open 
 with a cold east wind blowing upon me, 
 but I had great consolation in my dear 
 Lord and could say, 'Thy will be done.' " 
 But he was by no means forsaken. Asbury 
 wrote "to comfort him imder his imprison- 
 ment," and sent him a volume of Ruther- 
 ford's letters. He also interceded for him, 
 visiting the governor of Maryland on his 
 behalf, with the result that Garrettson was 
 soon set at liberty. Like Chrysostom he 
 could say, "I bless God that I am not 
 afraid of the jail." Whatever happened
 
 In the Saddle 53 
 
 to him was for the furtherance of the 
 gospel. As he once wrote after he had 
 been stoned, "This is but trifling if I can 
 win souls to Jesus." This period of trial 
 for Garrettson and the other preachers 
 was not without fruitage. Stevens says 
 that not only did the Revolution prepare 
 the societies for their organization as a dis- 
 tinct denomination, but it can be affirmed 
 that American Methodism was born and 
 passed its whole infancy in the invigorating 
 struggle of the Revolution, and that its 
 almost continual growth in such apparent 
 adverse circumstances is one of the marvels 
 of religious history. To this growth Gar- 
 rettson contributed his full share, both in 
 the heroic endurance of the trials which 
 awaited him in every place and 'in the 
 abundance of his labors and the zeal and 
 success with which he prosecuted the work 
 to which he had consecrated his life. 
 
 His labors during this period were tre- 
 mendous, despite the grave impediments in 
 his way. For instance, when he went to 
 Sussex Circuit in 1781, Cornwallis was 
 harassing the people of Virginia with his 
 army, a condition unfriendly to the spread 
 of Christianity. As this was the time of the 
 siege and surrender of Cornwallis at York-
 
 54 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 town, he could hear the roar of cannon day 
 and night. Lednum, an historian of Metho- 
 dism, says that as the sum of this particular 
 year's labor Garrettson traveled about five 
 thousand miles and preached some five 
 hundred sermons. These figures need not 
 surprise us when the urgency of that early 
 Methodist evangelism is recalled. Sin was 
 an appalling fact, souls were in peril, the 
 day of judgment was drawing on, men 
 must be warned of their danger and told 
 of a Saviour, and so Garrettson pushed on. 
 
 Thus from 1775 till 1784 he traveled and 
 preached in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and North Caro- 
 lina, finding formalism and sin, churches 
 abandoned and going to decay, and lost 
 sheep, and leaving extensive circuits, vig- 
 orous societies, and people who blessed God 
 for sending his servant among them; aid- 
 ing in a multitude of ways, more than any 
 man of the times, save Asbury, to give 
 character and success to the denomination 
 from New Jersey to South Carolina. In 
 September, 1784, when on the point of de- 
 parting for this last-named State, that he 
 might press the battle to the gates of the 
 far South, Dr. Coke, who had been em- 
 powered by Mr. Wesley to organize the
 
 In the Saddle 55 
 
 American societies into an independent 
 Church, arrived in America, and his com- 
 ing, together with the rush of the impor- 
 tant events which followed, indefinitely 
 postponed his proposed expedition. When 
 Coke had met Garrettson in Delaware, and 
 had conferred with Asbury and other 
 preachers, and it had been decided to call 
 a General Conference at Baltimore, he 
 wrote in his Journal : "Here I met with an 
 excellent young man, Freeborn Garrettson. 
 He seems all meekness and love, and yet 
 all activity. He makes me quite ashamed, 
 for he invariably rises at four in the morn- 
 ing, and not only he but several others of 
 the preachers. Him we sent off, like an 
 arrow, from north to south, directing him 
 to send messengers to the right and left 
 and to gather all the preachers together 
 at Baltimore on Christmas Eve." And this 
 the appointed herald of the Christmas Con- 
 ference did. "I set out for Virginia and 
 Carolina," he writes, "and a tedious journey 
 I had. My dear Master enabled me to ride 
 about twelve hundred miles in about six 
 weeks; and preach going and coming con- 
 stantly. The Conference began on Christ- 
 mas Day."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE MISSIONARY 
 
 The day before Christmas, 1784, there 
 might have been seen riding along a road 
 leading into Baltimore a cavalcade more 
 interesting in some ways than Chaucer's 
 Canterbury pilgrims. There was not to be 
 seen such diversity of dress as shown in 
 Stothard's picture of that famous English 
 band of pilgrims, for this Maryland pro- 
 cession was made up of soberly dressed 
 Methodist preachers, who had been guests 
 of Henry Dorsey Gough, a man of large 
 wealth, whose home. Perry Hall, some 
 twelve miles from the city, was for years 
 both a preaching place and haven of rest 
 for the itinerants. These were serious men 
 who were riding that day from Perry Hall 
 into Baltimore, for they were about to en- 
 gage in the most important conference of 
 Methodist preachers ever held in America; 
 confident of divine guidance, for hitherto 
 had Jehovah helped them; audacious be- 
 cause a continent now free stretched out be- 
 fore them to be taken for Christ. At ten 
 o'clock the next morning the first session 
 
 56
 
 The Missionary 57 
 
 of the famous Christmas Conference as- 
 sembled. Coke, as Wesley's representative, 
 was in the chair. Of a total of eighty or 
 more preachers nearly sixty were present, 
 and of these we know the names of twenty- 
 nine. 
 
 Beyond question the most conspicuous 
 figure was Francis Asbury, who had been 
 picked by Wesley for the general superin- 
 tendency, but there were other men present 
 equally worthy of notice, as, for instance, 
 Whatcoat and Vasey, recently arrived in 
 America, accredited messengers of Wesley; 
 Reuben Ellis, "an excellent counselor and 
 steady yokefellow in Jesus" ; Edward 
 Dromgoole, an Irishman and a converted 
 Romanist; John Haggerty, a trophy of 
 John King's zeal, and who could preach 
 both in English and in German; William 
 Gill, pronounced by Dr. Benjamin Rush, 
 the eminent physician, "the greatest divine 
 he had ever heard"; Thomas Ware, after- 
 ward the founder of the denomination in 
 New Jersey, and a successful preacher for 
 a half century; Francis Poythress, who the 
 year previous had borne the standard across 
 the Alleghanies ; Joseph Everett, "the 
 roughest-spoken preacher that ever stood 
 in the itinerant ranks"; Le Roy Cole, who
 
 58 Freeborn Garretlson 
 
 was to live long, preach much, and do much 
 good; William Glendenning, an erratic 
 Scotchman; Nelson Reed, small of stature 
 but mighty in spirit; James O'Kelly, then 
 a most laborious and popular evangelist 
 but later a rebellious controversialist ; John 
 Dickins, one of the ablest scholars of early 
 Methodism ; William Black, the first apostle 
 to Nova Scotia, who had come to plead for 
 helpers; Caleb Boyer and Ignatius Pigman, 
 the former the Saint Paul and the latter 
 the Apollos of the denomination; Jonathan 
 Forrest, who was to be privileged to see 
 the Church, which in this historic assembly 
 he helped to found, increase from about 
 15,000 members to 1,000,000, and from 
 80 or more traveling preachers to over 
 4,000 ; and Freeborn Garrettson, tall, broad- 
 shouldered, high-browed, grave but with 
 a kindly smile, serene and self -poised, and 
 as worthy as any of these named or any of 
 the others present to sit in this first great 
 Conference of the Church. 
 
 It is not within the scope of my purpose 
 to tell of the momentous work of this Con- 
 ference beyond indicating somewhat of its 
 significance to Garrettson, and as denoting 
 his right to be counted among the makers of 
 our Methodism. After a great battle in
 
 The Missionary 59 
 
 which the carnage had been fearful and the 
 valor and heroism of the soldiers were sub- 
 lime, the victorious commander presented 
 to the survivors a medal with the name of 
 the battle and the simple inscription, "I was 
 there." Freeborn Garrettson was present j 
 when the Methodist Episcopal Church was > 
 organized, its name determined upon, its 
 first bishops consecrated, and where he 
 himself was ordained an elder, and was 
 likewise present at practically every im- 
 portant gathering in the interests of the 
 Church from that notable day until his 
 death in 1827. 
 
 It has been said that the itinerancy as 
 orgfanized at the Christmas Conference was 
 a great missionary system, and this is true. 
 But Methodism from the beginning was 
 missionary in spirit. Others besides its 
 great founder felt that the world w^as 
 Methodism's parish. How else can the 
 coming of Boardman, Pilmoor, Rankin, 
 Shadford, Asbury, and others to these far- 
 away shores be explained? George White- 
 field crossed the Atlantic thirteen times. 
 Thomas Coke sailed almost every sea, and 
 was buried in the Indian Ocean. The sense 
 of responsibility and the faith of those 
 Methodist pioneers knew neither barriers
 
 60 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 nor limitations. Their field was the world, 
 Christ had died for all men. How absurd 
 would have sounded to them any talk about 
 a "home field" or a "foreign field"! In 
 their Bible they read only world-state- 
 ments — "God so loved the world," "Go ye 
 into all the world" ; and to them, as it must 
 be to us, the missionary appeal was a world- 
 appeal. Whoever lifts an honest voice in 
 Christ's name in whatever place stands at 
 the center. With those early Methodist 
 preachers it was not so much where they 
 labored as how successfully. They were 
 men who were willing to work anywhere, 
 if they could help along the kingdom. So 
 when John Wesley in the Leeds Conference 
 in 1769 said, "We have a pressing call from 
 our brethren at New York; who is willing 
 to go?" he was not required to repeat the 
 question. 
 
 It was very natural, therefore, that at the 
 Christmas Conference the eyes of those 
 missionary preachers should be upon the 
 far horizons, and that when William Black, 
 a Yorkshireman, through whose efforts in 
 1780 Methodism had been started in Nova 
 Scotia, told of the prosperity of Zion in that 
 land of snow and frost, and declared he 
 must have help, the Conference was sympa-
 
 The Missionary 61 
 
 thetic with his plea and appointed Freeborn 
 Garrettson and James O. Cromwell to that 
 growing work. These men received their 
 appointment with unfeigned joy, and em- 
 barked about the middle of February, 1785. 
 They reached Halifax after a stormy 
 voyage of two weeks, found some "true 
 friends of the gospel," one of whom hired 
 a house for public worship, and within a 
 week Garrettson had formed a society, con- 
 sisting of six or seven members, Crom- 
 well soon went to Shelburne, Garrettson 
 remaining at Halifax, but with the idea of 
 making a tour through the country later. 
 He remained in this difificult field for two 
 years, in constant peril from the difficulties 
 and dangers of an unsettled country and 
 from the severities of the weather. Joshua 
 Marsden, of the Wesleyan Conference, 
 who went to Nova Scotia in 1800, in his 
 "Narrative" of the mission says: "Those 
 who are accustomed only to the cold of 
 England cannot conceive of the intense! 
 severity of the winters in Nova Scotia; the 
 snow is often from four to six feet deep; 
 the ice upon the rivers is two feet thick ; the 
 cold penetrates the warmest rooms, the 
 warmest clothes, and will render torpid the 
 warmest constitutions; it often freezes to
 
 62 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 death those who lose their way in the woods, 
 or get bewildered in the thick and blinding 
 fury of a snowdrift." But perils and dis- 
 comforts were the common lot of the Metho- 
 dist itinerants, and they were never daunted 
 by them. Garrettson had a rough time in 
 Nova Scotia, once nearly losing his life in a 
 snowstorm, and again in crossing a swollen 
 river. What a striking account of this period 
 this is: "After visiting the cities and towns 
 and traversing the mountains and valleys, 
 frequently on foot, with a knapsack to my 
 back, up Indian paths in the wilderness 
 where it was not expedient to take a horse, 
 and having frequently to wade through 
 morasses leg-deep in mud and water, and 
 having frequently to satisfy hunger with a 
 piece of bread and pork from my knapsack, 
 and to quench my thirst from the brook, 
 and to rest my weary limbs in a solitary 
 wilderness on the leaves of the trees, I may 
 truly say I went forth weeping, but thank 
 God he was with me, and in every place his 
 power was felt, and I may say souls were 
 awakened and converted to God, and 
 though I had to depend upon my private 
 funds for clothing and traveling expenses, 
 under my views of the prosperity of Zion 
 I felt myself amply compensated for all my
 
 The Missionary 63 
 
 toil and never for a moment regretted the 
 hardship of my lot in that cold, wild coun- 
 try." He returned to the United States in 
 the spring of 1787 by direction of Mr. 
 Wesley, leaving a small Conference of 
 preachers and some six hundred members, 
 all of whom were attached to him and de- 
 sired his return. There is a pathetic touch 
 in the closing sentence of his Journal of 
 his missionary life in this barren land : "My 
 little funds were so reduced I had to sell 
 part of my little traveling library, and after 
 all when I came to my native place I had 
 but one guinea left." Buckley, in his His- 
 tory of Methodism, says that "Garrettson's 
 influence in Nova Scotia was almost equal 
 to that of Wesley in Europe and Asbury 
 in the United States" ; and the influence of 
 these years in the mission field of Nova 
 Scotia upon himself was quite as pro- 
 nounced. All through his long life he dis- 
 played the spirit of a missionary, and one 
 of the last acts of his life was to make a 
 bequest, the income of which would be suf- 
 ficient to support a single missionary, as he 
 expressed it, until the millennium.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE NEW YORK CONFERENCE 
 
 While Garrettson must ever be regarded 
 as one of the guiding and molding person- 
 alities in giving a formative character to 
 American Methodism in general, he was in 
 a large and peculiar sense the founder of 
 Methodism in the region extending north- 
 ward from New York city, even as far as 
 Canada, and continued the conspicuous 
 representative of that whole territory for 
 thirty years. The story of how he came 
 to lead the hosts of God in this particular 
 part of the field of battle glows with 
 romance and abounds with indications of 
 the divine purpose. 
 
 We have just seen how he left Nova 
 Scotia at the bidding of Mr. Wesley, who 
 had a high opinion of the young missionary 
 and held him in much affection. His letters 
 to him read like those of Paul to Timothy, 
 and Garrettson in his replies signed himself 
 "Your affectionate though unworthy son." 
 It was Mr. Wesley's wish that Garrettson 
 should be made the superintendent, or 
 bishop, of the Methodist societies in the 
 
 64
 
 The New York Conference 65 
 
 British dominions in America, and through 
 Dr. Coke intimated his desire to the Con- 
 ference held in Bahimore in May, 1787, 
 and at which Garrettson was present. The 
 proposal was apparently received with 
 warm approval by the members of the Con- 
 ference. Garrettson, when asked by Bishop 
 Coke if he would accept the appointment, 
 replied that he would upon certain con- 
 ditions, namely, that he would visit the 
 lands in question, and if cordially received 
 would return to the next Conference for 
 ordination to the office of superintendent. 
 Whereupon Coke gave him a commenda- 
 tory letter to the brethren in the West 
 Indies, and Garrettson made his plans to 
 start as soon as the Conference adjourned. 
 He was absent from the Conference for a 
 time, and during his absence something 
 happened, for when the appointments were 
 read, to his utter bewilderment he found 
 himself presiding elder of the work in the 
 Peninsula, the scene of his earlier labors. 
 
 What happened or why will probably 
 never be known; it is one of the mysteries 
 of our denominational history. The change 
 in the mind of the Conference created much 
 discussion at the time, but the reason for 
 it was never given. Bangs attempts a sola-
 
 66 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 tion in this fashion: "Probably knowing the 
 vahie of his services in the Lord's vine- 
 yard, and being comparatively young as a 
 Church, they were unwilling to have him 
 so entirely separated from them." That 
 may have been the reason, but I am in- 
 clined to believe as being more probable 
 that they refused the appointment because 
 Wesley and Coke both desired it. That 
 Conference was not cordially sympathetic 
 with the expressed wishes of Wesley and 
 Coke; it was even hostile at times. Most 
 of the members were out of sorts with Dr. 
 Coke for what they regarded as his "ar- 
 bitrariness," and because of his propensity, 
 as some thought, to stir up strife among 
 the preachers. Lee, our first Methodist 
 historian, says, "The Doctor saw that the 
 preachers were pretty generally united 
 against him, acknowledged his faults, 
 begged pardon, and promised not to med- 
 dle with [their] affairs again when out of 
 the United States." 
 
 There was also discussion, at times bit- 
 ter, at this Conference, as to the relations 
 of the American Methodists to Wesley, the 
 outcome of which gave him great offense. 
 He wanted Whatcoat to be made joint 
 superintendent with Asbury, but the
 
 The New York Conference 67 
 
 preachers would have none of it and 
 voted against it. It would seem as if those 
 preachers were in no mood to support any- 
 thing which either he or Dr. Coke pro- 
 posed. They were friendly to Garrettson, 
 but unfriendly to his sponsors. Garrettson 
 was confessedly disappointed and annoyed, 
 but in later years he must have blessed God 
 many, many times that the Conference 
 took the action which it did. How often^ 
 it transpires that our greatest happiness! 
 is to be found in the shadow of our! 
 most grievous disappointments! Had he 
 gone to the West Indies, in all human prob- 
 abilities he never would have met, as he 
 did a short time later, the gracious woman 
 who in 1793 became his wife, and there- 
 after was his companion and helpmeet in 
 the highest sense. Nor would he likely 
 have been assigned to the work which 
 yielded the largest returns of his entire 
 ministry, and with which his name will 
 always be associated. 
 
 It all came about in this way : After hav- 
 ing spent three months in the Peninsula, 
 at the particular request of Bishop Asbury 
 Garrettson set out for Boston to open the 
 work in that region, and it was by the 
 merest chance that not he but Jesse Lee
 
 68 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 became the Apostle to New England. 
 When on his journey he reached New 
 York he found John Dickins in poor 
 health, and Woolman Hickson, the other 
 stationed preacher there, at the point of 
 death. The situation was so critical that 
 he consented to remain and take charge of 
 the society until Conference, which met 
 that year in Old John Street Church, being 
 the first to be held in New York. It was 
 an important session. There were urgent 
 requests for preachers for many new 
 places. It providentially happened that 
 "many young itinerants, stalwart, and 
 flaming with the zeal of the gospel, had 
 appeared in the field about New York," 
 and at the request of Bishop Asbury Gar- 
 rettson was asked to take charge of the 
 band and "to extend the march of the 
 Church up the Hudson." This appoint- 
 ment made Garrettson "very uneasy in 
 mind," and he prayed for direction. God 
 answered him in a dream. It was a won- 
 derful vision. "It seemed," he says, "as 
 if the whole country up the North River, 
 east and west, even as far as Lake Cham- 
 plain, was laid open to my view. The next 
 day I requested the young men to meet 
 me, and I told each of them where to begin
 
 The New York Conference 69 
 
 and the way they were to go in forming 
 their circuits, and I told them that I should 
 go on to the extreme parts of the work, 
 visiting the towns and cities, and on my 
 return I should visit them and hold their 
 quarterly meetings, and I had such a strong 
 confidence in God that there would be a 
 work that I appointed a time for each 
 quarterly meeting and requested the 
 preachers to take a public collection at 
 every place where they preached. Ac- 
 cordingly, on my return I found my expec- 
 tations fully answered, for the Lord was 
 with the young men and began a glorious 
 work, and their little salary was nearly 
 made up at the first quarterly meetings, 
 and before winter set in they all had com- 
 fortable circuits." The members of this 
 glorious company of intrepid and success- 
 ful pioneers were Peter Moriarty, who of- 
 ficiated at Garrettson's wedding, six years 
 later; Albert Van Nostrand, Andrew Har- 
 pending, Cornelius Cooke, whose last will 
 and testament, by which he committed his 
 son to the care of Bishop Asbury to be 
 educated at Cokesbury College, with funds 
 for the purpose, is in my possession ; Sam- 
 uel J. Talbot, Darius Dunham, David Ken- 
 dall, Lemuel Smith, and Samuel Wigton.
 
 70 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 As was to be expected, their energetic 
 heralding of the gospel provoked discussion 
 and started vague rumors. One startled 
 man said: "I know not from whence they 
 come, unless from the clouds." Others 
 said, "They seem to be good men"; still 
 others, "Nay, they are deceivers of the 
 people." Garrettson fell in with a traveler 
 who had come from beyond Lake Cham- 
 plain, where he had seen several of the 
 preachers, and who excitedly told him the 
 current report, that "the king of England 
 had sent to this country a great many min- 
 isters to disaffect the people and bring 
 about another war" — a result likely to fol- 
 low because of the unparalleled activity of 
 these preacher-agents of England! Gar- 
 rettson was able, fortunately, to ease the 
 man's mind, who after the conversation 
 "seemed satisfied and much affected." Nor 
 was it without personal peril that Garrett- 
 son pushed the battle, but as in other fields 
 of labor nothing unnerved him, and nothing 
 hindered the resistless onward march of 
 the Church under his superb leadership. 
 He was preeminently a leader, with gifts 
 for oversight, administration, and inspira- 
 tion, and no diocesan bishop ever wielded 
 greater authority or carried forward enter-
 
 The New York Conference 71 
 
 prises to a larger success than did this 
 episcopos of the Hudson River Valley. 
 Coke in his Journal in 1789 says: "In the 
 country parts of this State, Freeborn Gar- 
 rettson, one of our presiding elders, has 
 been greatly blessed and is endued with an 
 uncommon talent for opening new places. 
 With a set of inexperienced but zealous 
 youths he has not only carried our work in 
 this State as high as Lake Champlain, but 
 has raised congregations in most of the 
 States of New England and also in the 
 little State of Vermont within about one 
 hundred miles of Montreal." He. traveled 
 between five and six thousand miles a year 
 through a large part of New York State, 
 parts of Connecticut and Vermont, and 
 even to Boston and Rhode Island. His 
 New York District extended from New 
 Rochelle to Lake Champlain, and from the 
 Eastern States westward to Utica, then 
 quite a new and unsettled country, and it 
 was his practice to go round this district, 
 about a thousand miles, once every three 
 months, preach upward of a hundred ser- 
 mons, then return to New York, where he 
 usually remained about tw^o weeks. In 
 three years there were more than three 
 thousand members, — twelve circuits, em-
 
 72 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 bracing nearly all the territory now in- 
 cluded in the New York and Troy Con- 
 ferences, having been formed. In 1789 one 
 of his preachers on the Newbiirgh Circuit 
 pushed southwest into the Wyoming Val- 
 ley, which was soon added to the list of 
 regular appointments. In 1793 Garrettson 
 was appointed to the Philadelphia District, 
 but the next year he was returned as Pre- 
 siding Elder on the Dutchess District, and 
 settled at Rhinebeck, and ever after, for 
 more than thirty years, although he made 
 frequent excursions to the South and East 
 and to other parts of the country, his chief 
 labors were within bounds of the New 
 York Conference, a Conference which has 
 had a notable history from its organization 
 to the present time. Garrettson preached 
 in nearly every charge within its bounds, 
 was presiding elder of various districts 
 many times, and more than once was ap- 
 pointed Conference missionary, an appoint- 
 ment designed to give him an opportunity 
 to travel at large, blessing all the societies 
 with the quickening influences of his wide 
 knowledge of denominational affairs and 
 his rich experiences of grace in Jesus Christ. 
 He was an itinerant to the end of his life. 
 ,When he had come to his life's evening he
 
 The New York Conference 73 
 
 said with much feehng, "1 have been an 
 itinerant now fifty-two years, and were 
 I called back fifty years I would cheerfully 
 retrace them in so glorious a cause in pref- 
 erence to sitting on a splendid earthly 
 throne." It is to such self-denying devo- 
 tion, to such fixedness of purpose, to such 
 apostolic zeal, to such indifference to suf- 
 fering, and to such glad-hearted willing- 
 ness to make the greatest sacrifices for the 
 gospel's sake that we are indebted for the 
 establishment of our Methodism, its spirit, 
 its development, and its progress within 
 the bounds of the New York Conference 
 and throughout the United States and the 
 world. What trumpet-tongued voices these 
 are which so mightily speak to us from the 
 glorious past ! 
 
 "You spring from men whose hearts and lives are 
 
 pure; 
 Their aim was steadfast, as their purpose sure : 
 So live that children's children, in their day. 
 May bless such fathers' fathers as they pray."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE HOME ON THE HUDSON 
 
 A STRANGER, meeting Bishop Asbury on 
 the prairies of Ohio, asked him abruptly, 
 "Where are you from?" Asbury repHed, 
 "From Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 
 Baltimore, or almost any place you please." 
 This was literally true ; he was a man with- 
 out a home. Not so Freeborn Garrettson. 
 To him it was given to have one of the 
 most beautiful and far-famed of early 
 Methodism's conspicuous homes, of which 
 there were not a few. Who does not know 
 of Perry Hall, the country home of Henry 
 Dorsey Gough, of which mention has al- 
 ready been made, said to have been one of 
 the most elegant country residences in 
 America at the time, or of the spacious 
 mansion of Governor Van Cortlandt, the 
 first lieutenant-governor of New York 
 State, and elected eighteen times to that 
 same office — that hearty Methodist whose 
 influence helped Methodism throughout the 
 State, or of Richard Bassett's in Delaware, 
 or of General Russell's, whose wife was a 
 
 74
 
 The Home on the Hudson 75 
 
 sister of Patrick Henry, on the West Vir- 
 ginia Heights, or of Governor Tiffin's in 
 Ohio, all "God's chosen cities of refuge 
 for the Methodist itinerants" ? Garrettson's 
 home would compare favorably with any 
 of these named, both as to location and 
 ampleness, and in no one of them was a 
 more gracious hospitality shown. 
 
 This home, which was called Wildercliffe, 
 was situated on the east bank of the Hud- 
 son River at Rhinebeck, about three miles 
 from the village, on high ground which 
 commanded a fine view to the west and to 
 the south. Asbury, who often visited the 
 place, and who called it "Traveler's Rest" 
 — Boehm, his traveling companion, says, 
 "The bishop delighted to visit that model 
 household" — speaks of the "good, simply 
 elegant, useful house" with its "beautiful 
 land and water prospect." The chief 
 feature in the landscape was the noble 
 Hudson, the house being near enough to 
 the river to give the impression that the 
 river was a part of the place. To the south 
 the view stretched forty miles away to the 
 Highlands at West Point, and westward 
 across the river and the woodlands and 
 waving fields on the opposite bank, up the 
 slopes of the low-lying hills beyond, and on
 
 76 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 to the blue Catskills. The outlook was 
 grandly beautiful, and we can easily enter, 
 in some measure at least, into Garrettson's 
 feehngs as in the last years of his life he 
 was wont to seat himself in his chair be- 
 neath the trees and praise God audibly and 
 with tears as he gazed on the enchanting 
 prospect. In tranquil beauty the spot could 
 scarcely be surpassed. Not long before his 
 death Bishop Janes wrote to Miss Garrett- 
 son: "I doubt not you enjoy as keenly as 
 ever the remarkable and almost redundant 
 natural beauties with which your heavenly 
 Father has surrounded you. Though your 
 eye may become dim they will never fade 
 from your mind." 
 
 But more remarkable even than the 
 "natural beauties" of the place was the at- 
 mosphere of the home. Dr. Bangs relates 
 a conversation with a Presbyterian woman 
 of New York, who was intimate with Mrs. 
 Garrettson, and who after a visit to the 
 family at Rhinebeck expressed her admira- 
 tion for the order which prevailed there. 
 "I do not mean," she said, "the order of the 
 farm or of the house, but I mean the re- 
 ligious order which prevails throughout 
 every department ; the orderly arrangement 
 for family devotions, and the orderly man-
 
 The Home on the Hudson 77 
 
 ner in which the servants and all attached 
 to the household attend to their religious 
 as well as to their other duties." And who 
 was responsible for all this? Garrettson? 
 Yes, in part. But Garrettson, like Asbury, 
 was to the end of his days a wanderer over 
 the face of the earth. Most of the early 
 preachers when they married located, but 
 not Garrettson. If ever a Methodist itin- 
 erant had social allurements or a home 
 of luxurious ease to draw him out of the 
 ranks of the traveling preachers it was he. 
 But his sense of obligation was far too 
 strong to permit him to cease traveling, even 
 though he was most happily married and 
 had an unusually comfortable home. Had 
 he been inclined to locate it is more than 
 doubtful if Mrs. Garrettson would have 
 encouraged him in it. Some two years after 
 their marriage she wrote in one of her 
 letters to him: "I hope, my dear, you will 
 find your soul more than ever engaged in 
 the work of the Lord, and that you will 
 improve every opportunity to bring glory 
 to God. Keep ever in view the importance 
 of every living soul you meet with, and let 
 none pass without a word in season; 'tis 
 expected from you and God has laid it on 
 you. I despair of ever being a shining
 
 78 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 light ; but I would wish to see you the most 
 pious man in the world." 
 
 No sketch of Freeborn Garrettson can be 
 written without more than a passing notice 
 of this remarkable woman, who, though she 
 did despair of being a shining light, was 
 fbeyond question, for more than a half 
 ■century, the most notable woman of Amer- 
 ican Methodism. Lady Huntingdon did not 
 wield a more beneficent influence in Eng- 
 land than Catharine Livingston Garrettson 
 did in America. In the first place, she was 
 well born. Her father was Judge Robert 
 R. Livingston, the head of a family of great 
 distinction and of historical importance. 
 The Livingston family, it is stated, was the 
 wealthiest family in New York State, as 
 well as one of the most honored in the 
 Americaij Colonies. Judge Livingston was 
 a man of the highest character. Chief 
 Justice Smith, who knew him well, was 
 wont to say that were he banished to some 
 lonely isle, and given the choice of one book 
 and one friend, the book would be the 
 Bible and the friend Robert R. Living- 
 ston. Catharine Livingston's mother was 
 Margaret Beekman, the daughter of Colonel 
 Henry Beekman, one of the first settlers 
 and largest landholders of Rhinebeck, a
 
 The Home on the Hudson 79 
 
 descendant of William Beekman, who was 
 governor of what is now the State of Dela- 
 ware under a commission from Sweden, 
 and, like Judge Livingston, of the best line- 
 age of the Colonies, and who helped to 
 create its highest social life. The Living- 
 ston home was at Clermont, a name which 
 will forever be associated with Robert Ful- 
 ton's conquest of the Hudson River, having 
 been given to the first steamboat which he 
 proudly navigated up the river, in honor 
 of Chancellor Livingston, the distinguished 
 son of Judge Livingston, and who was as- 
 sociated with Fulton in the enterprise. 
 There Saturday, October 14, 1752, Cath- 
 arine, the sixth child of the family, was 
 born. It will be recalled that Freeborn 
 Garrettson was bom August 15 of this 
 same year, and was therefore only two 
 months her senior. 
 
 Catharine Livingston had every reason 
 to be proud of her ancestry and of her re- 
 lationships. She often spoke of one of her 
 ancestors, John Livingston, a noted Presby- 
 terian preacher of Scotland, a zealous Cov- 
 enanter, twice suspended from his pastoral 
 office because of his opposition to the gov- 
 ernment, and finally exiled in 1663. This 
 was the Livingston who, when he was but
 
 82 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 conversion. It is difficult at this distance 
 of time to realize all that this decision to 
 cast in her lot with the Methodists involved 
 or cost her. She moved in the highest 
 ranks of society, was a correspondent of 
 most of the distinguished women of her 
 day, enjoyed the personal acquaintance of 
 President Washington, and while after her 
 conversion she carefully avoided every ap- 
 pearance of evil, it is said that even late in 
 her prolonged life she could hardly help 
 showing some chagrin when mentioning the 
 fact that she had declined an invitation 
 from him to dance with him at a party, the 
 reason at the time, however, being not one 
 of conscience but the fact that she had 
 engaged herself to another partner. Her 
 religious decision required courage, firm- 
 ness of purpose, and indifference to the 
 .speculations and banter of her friends. 
 The change which she made was a radical 
 one, and soon excited comment and even 
 some objections. Her own family were 
 more or less embarrassed and perplexed. 
 Edward Eggleston is responsible for the 
 story that after her conversion one of 
 her brothers, seeing the joyousness of 
 his favorite sister's Christian life at home, 
 took her part in the family, but at the same
 
 The Home on the Hudson 83 
 
 time said to her, "Catharine, enjoy your re- 
 ligion here at home all you please, but for 
 heaven's sake don't join those Methodists; 
 why, down at the ferry, nobody belongs to 
 them and there is nothing of them only 
 three fishermen and a negro." Whereupon 
 the sister, "one of the fairest flowers of 
 our colonial life," blushed and spoke with 
 much resolution : "Well, what if, as you 
 say, now nobody belongs to the Methodists ; 
 I will join them and then you will say some- 
 body does." This story probably has a 
 real basis of fact in the suggestion of her 
 brother-in-law. Dr. Tillotson, who, when 
 a class was to be formed in Rhinebeck, 
 urged Miss Livingston, inasmuch as there 
 was only one other who desired to join, 
 one Jeremiah Van Auken, "to wait until 
 there were more members," to which ad- 
 vice she gave this characteristic reply: "I 
 join, Mr. Tillotson, that there may be 
 more." 
 
 It was just before this incident that 
 Freeborn Garrettson, then scarcely thirty- 
 five years of age, but a veteran in the serv- 
 ice, appointed to labor in the State of New 
 York with numerous young preachers whom 
 he was to superintend, making his first 
 journey northward, traveling by land and
 
 84 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 preaching wherever an opening might be 
 made, reached Poughkeepsie, where he re- 
 mained several days. While there he re- 
 ceived a note from Dr. Tillotson, who was 
 himself from Maryland and had heard 
 much of Garrettson in his native State, in- 
 viting him to his house at Rhinebeck. The 
 invitation was accepted and, accompanied 
 by one of his young preachers, he went to 
 Rhinebeck, where a most gratifying wel- 
 come was given them. Wakeley, in his 
 "Lost Chapters Recovered," says that it was 
 in New York at the house of John Staples 
 that Garrettson first saw Miss Livingston; 
 but he is in error, for on the written state- 
 ment of Miss Garrettson the first meeting 
 took place at this time. Often in later 
 years Mrs. Garrettson described the visit. 
 Mr. Garrettson preached several times dur- 
 ing the few days he spent at Dr. Tillotson's 
 to increasing congregations, and when he 
 departed, Rhinebeck had been added to the 
 circuit then forming. When he left he car- 
 ried with him letters of introduction to Mrs. 
 Livingston at Clermont, which was his 
 first stop on his journey up the river. His 
 coming to Clermont made a profound 
 sensation. At the breakfast table that 
 morning Mrs. Livingston recited a text
 
 The Home on the Hudson 85 
 
 which had been deeply impressed on her 
 mind during the night, "This day is sal- 
 vation come to thine house," and when in 
 the course of the day a stranger unex- 
 pectedly came they remembered. His holy 
 bearing, devout conversation, and earnest 
 prayers were truly felt in the family, who 
 were often affected to tears. "He need 
 not change his form to be an angel," said 
 one of them. "O," said another who lived 
 at a little distance, "when you have prayers, 
 please send for me." 
 
 But while they were strangely moved by 
 his conversation and the religious services 
 which he held on the occasion of that visit, 
 when subsequently it became known that he 
 was interested in Miss Livingston, opposi- 
 tion to their marriage developed which oc- 
 casioned both of them much sorrow. Their 
 correspondence during this period, and 
 indeed throughout their entire married 
 life — hundreds of their letters are pre- 
 served at Drew Theological Seminary — 
 is singularly beautiful. Not infrequently 
 before their marriage she refers to the "sit- 
 uation" which, she felt, "called for grace 
 and wisdom," in such passages as these: 
 "They all continue with respect to tem- 
 porals as when you left. No one seems
 
 86 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 inclined to speak to me, and I feel not the 
 least freedom to begin the subject. . . . 
 I am happy [though], and nothing does 
 offend me." "I received your letter and 
 was pleased to find that you had taken the 
 resolution of going to Clermont. By the 
 time you read this the result of your con- 
 ference will be determined. I have great 
 hopes you will be kindly received. Should 
 it be otherwise I should have great need 
 of uncommon support. There is nothing 
 gives me more disquietude than that of not 
 being permitted to receive your visits. My 
 situation is on that account more painful 
 than I can tell you, and throws an embar- 
 rassment over me that I can by no means 
 conquer, and shall never be reconciled to. 
 'Tis this that led me to press you to once 
 more see my brother." 
 
 During the period when Garrettson was 
 forbidden to come to Clermont they met at 
 Miss Livingston's sister's house, but neither 
 of them liked the idea of meeting thus clan- 
 destinely. It was her mother who was 
 most opposed. One of her sisters assured 
 Miss Livingston that her happiness was 
 dear to most of her brothers and sisters, 
 and that what opposition any of them might 
 feel would disappear if only her mother
 
 The Home on the Hudson 87 
 
 could be prevailed upon. This opposition, 
 while not violent, was disquieting and an- 
 noying. Mrs. Livingston was not favora- 
 ble to her daughter's going to the quarterly- 
 meetings which Mr. Garrettson held, and 
 while she did not forbid it would not give 
 her the money necessary for the journey. 
 Later Miss Livingston came into some 
 property, and it was evidently their purpose 
 to take a house in Albany, Miss Livingston 
 writing that she expected sixty pounds 
 soon, and that she would get some things 
 for housekeeping. "I should be grieved," 
 she adds, "if you should continue to have 
 any fears on my account. The luxuries of 
 life I am principled against; I wish them 
 not; they long since lost their power to 
 please a soul that is on the wing for eter- 
 nity." It would appear from the corre- 
 spondence that the situation was most acute 
 in 1793, when there were threats of disin- 
 heritance, but the loss of property did not 
 daunt her, and we find her writing such 
 sentiments as these : 
 
 "My Dearest Friend: Without know- 
 ing of certain conveyance for this I sit down 
 to tell you that I love you more perhaps 
 than I have ever done." 
 
 In another letter, after stating that con-
 
 88 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 ditions had not changed, she concludes 
 thus : 
 
 "Farewell, best of men; God loves, 
 and let that suffice. Assured of his favor, 
 what have we to fear from outward circum- 
 stances however gloomy. I am my be- 
 loved's and my beloved is mine." 
 
 In April she writes from New York, 
 where she is visiting 
 
 "Every expression of regard from you, 
 my best friend, is dear to me; I thank you 
 for them and wish myself more deserving. 
 I should have written you before, but knew 
 not until I heard from you where to di- 
 rect. God grant us a happy meeting in the 
 country. [The letter tells of her plan to 
 go to visit the Tillotsons at Rhinebeck the 
 following week.] Oh, when will the dark 
 clouds of displeasure be dispelled? There 
 must be a cause why the Lord permits this 
 opposition to his will. Still love and pray 
 for your affectionate 
 
 "Catharine Livingston." 
 
 Almost immediately after this her 
 mother withdrew her opposition and gave 
 her hearty consent to the marriage, and 
 Catharine Livingston, as Walpole said of 
 Lady Margaret Hastings's marriage with 
 Ingham, "threw herself away on a Metho-
 
 The Home on the Hudson 89 
 
 dist preacher." The wedding took place 
 June 30, 1793, in the First Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church in Rhincbeck, New York, the 
 ceremony being performed by the Rev. 
 Peter Moriarty, and directly after the cere- 
 mony Mr. and Mrs. Garrettson partook of 
 the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to- 
 gether. 
 
 Berridge said that John Wesley and 
 George Whitefield had only been saved 
 from making a shipwreck of the cause by 
 God's sending them "a pair of ferrets" for 
 wives. Garrettson never ceased to bless 
 God for the noble woman whom God gave 
 to him. Their home life was beautiful be- 
 yond words. As has been stated in another 
 place, after their marriage Garrettson was 
 stationed at Philadelphia, where the yellow 
 fever was raging with unusual virulence, 
 but Mrs. Garrettson did not hesitate to take 
 the risk, and accompanied him. The spring 
 following they returned to New York, 
 where Garrettson purchased a farm at 
 Rhinebeck, setting up housekeeping in an 
 old Dutch farmhouse some miles from the 
 river but near the church. This first dwell- 
 ing was a humble one, suited to their narrow 
 income, for since Mr. Garrettson would not 
 take a salary, and since, during his first
 
 90 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 years in the itinerancy, he had suffered 
 serious financial loss, though his income 
 was still sufficient for his moderate wants, 
 and as Mrs. Garrettson's income at this time 
 was also a limited one, their experiences 
 during the early years of their married 
 life were more in unison with that of their 
 brethren than has commonly been supposed. 
 In this place they lived five years, and here 
 it was that their only child, Mary Ruther- 
 ford Garrettson, was born in 1794. At the 
 end of this period he made an exchange 
 for the place which for many years was 
 to be a Methodist shrine. That year, hav- 
 ing the house to build, Garrettson did not 
 travel, but remained at home to look after 
 its construction. They moved into it in 
 October, 1799, and Mrs. Garrettson wrote 
 in her diary: "The first night in family 
 prayer, while my blessed husband was 
 dedicating it to the Lord, the place was 
 filled with His presence who in days of old 
 filled the temple with His glory. Every 
 heart rejoiced and felt that God was with 
 us of a truth. Such was our introduction 
 into our new habitation, and had we not 
 cause to say with Joshua, 'As for me and 
 my house we will serve the Lord'?" 
 
 Garrettson had felt no little anxiety
 
 The Home on the Hudson 91 
 
 about the propriety of building what was 
 for those days an unusually fine house, but 
 he made it a matter of prayer and the Lord 
 gave him answers of peace. It was not 
 ostentatious, but commodious and attract- 
 ive. There were piazzas running around 
 the house, from which one could enter the 
 parlors and sitting-room through low win- 
 dows. Within the house was much antique 
 furniture, an ample library, many historical 
 relics; the walls were adorned with family 
 portraits, among them that of Chancellor 
 Livingston and other members of the Liv- 
 ingston family; and pictures of Garrettson 
 and Asbury hung side by side. Here the 
 most generous hospitality was dispensed. 
 Thither came the most distinguished states- 
 men, soldiers, and scholars of the time, and 
 here with the grace and tact that came of 
 high breeding and true goodness of heart 
 Mrs. Garrettson presided. Here, too, it 
 was that Garrettson was seen at his best. 
 Bishop George once remarked how agreea- 
 bly disappointed he had been in visiting 
 Garrettson at his own house. Having only 
 seen him occasionally at the General Con- 
 ference, and having been under the necessity 
 of differing from him on questions of ec- 
 clesiastical polity, he had formed the idea
 
 92 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 that Garrettson was austere in his manners 
 and somewhat bigoted in his views; "but," 
 said the bishop, "when I had the happiness 
 of visiting him under his own roof and of 
 observing the quiet order of his household, 
 the happiness of his disposition, the kind- 
 ness and attention with which he treated his 
 friends and visitors, all my prejudices were 
 banished and I now think that the worth 
 of Brother Garrettson has not been duly 
 estimated." Garrettson was peculiarly at- 
 tached to his brethren in the ministry, and 
 the prophet's chamber of his home was 
 rarely vacant. Dr. Bangs says that Gar- 
 rettson never seemed so happy as when in 
 the society of his brethren. To those of 
 them with whom he was intimate he would 
 unbosom himself without reserve. His 
 house was the free resort of all who could 
 visit him, and they were royally enter- 
 tained. To his house, his table, and his 
 heart Methodist ministers always received 
 a cordial welcome. Asbury, Whatcoat, 
 McKendree, Waugh, Hedding, Bangs, Lee, 
 Abbott, and practically every man of note 
 in our Church in America, Reece, Hannah, 
 Thornton, Arthur, Pope, and Rigg from 
 over the sea, Nott and Potter and other 
 distinguished representatives of other
 
 The Home on the Hudson 93 
 
 Churches visited in this quiet Methodist 
 home, and not one of the long Hne of wel- 
 come guests ever left this hospitable man- 
 sion without saying with Asbury, "I do 
 believe God dwells in this house." 
 
 Mrs. Garrettson's solicitude for the itin- 
 erants was genuinely tender and altogether 
 practical. "If any of our brethren should 
 want linen," she wrote Mr. Garrettson, 
 "send me the measure of the wrist and 
 collar. I have a remnant of linen which 
 will make two shirts and treasure an in- 
 clination to serve them." Her ministries 
 to her husband during his frequent and 
 protracted absences from home were con- 
 stant. "I send you the Digester, a tea- 
 kettle, carpet, some butter, and a pot of 
 currant jelly," she writes. Again, "You 
 often complain of colds ; I wish you would 
 wear a flannel waistcoat next your skin; 
 this would effectually prevent it." She 
 possessed great personal dignity, and to 
 the end of her days gave no evidence of 
 abatement of intellectual vigor. Even in 
 extreme age she continued to manifest a 
 lively interest in ecclesiastical and political 
 events with a fine perception of their ulti- 
 mate results, and with an eye ever fixed upon 
 their moral and religious bearings. With
 
 94 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 warm friendships among her kindred, and 
 constant intercourse with the circle of 
 wealth and political influence to which her 
 family position attached her, and with the 
 utmost refinement which the best social 
 culture could impart, she aspired chiefly 
 for holier sympathies and gloried most of 
 all in counting herself a fellow citizen with 
 the saints and of the household of God. 
 She died in 1849, ^iid Dr. Olin, then presi- 
 dent of Wesleyan University, could say 
 without exaggeration in the sermon which 
 he preached at her funeral, "I have not 
 known another Christian at once so humble 
 and prayerful and withal so fearless and 
 confident." For more than thirty years 
 after Mrs. Garrettson's death the same gen- 
 erous hospitality was dispensed at Wilder- 
 cliffe by Miss Garrettson, who possessed a 
 mind of vigor and versatility, was a lover of 
 books and nature, had a brilliant imagina- 
 tion, and was a writer of considerable merit. 
 In the later years her wonderful memory 
 and rare descriptive gifts enabled her to 
 picture with ease the historic days with 
 which her parents were so conspicuously 
 identified. She died in 1879.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE PREACHER AND TEACHER 
 
 Jesse Lee, who felt aggrieved that a 
 notice of the Christmas Conference failed 
 to reach him, says in his quaint way that 
 Freeborn Garrettson undertook to travel to 
 the South, but "being fond of preaching 
 by the way" he failed to give timely notice to 
 those preachers who were in the extremi- 
 ties of the work, and that for this reason 
 they were not present. Garrettson surely 
 did love to preach. He was not always a 
 popular preacher, especially in the early 
 years, because of his conscientious scruples 
 against war and of his attitude toward 
 slavery, but he preached his conviction al- 
 ways, being resolved, as he said, "to be 
 found in my duty and to keep back no 
 part of the counsel of God," no matter 
 what happened to him personally. Nor was 
 he without his faults as a public speaker. 
 His voice was unmusical and harsh, "and 
 usually keyed too high. This was so preju- 
 dicial to his success that before their mar- 
 riage Mrs. Garrettson wrote to him: "May 
 I again presume in the name of a sister to 
 
 95
 
 96 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 mention what I think is a fault in your 
 speaking? When you are earnest you lose 
 the natural tone of your voice. Everything 
 that is unnatural seems to give pain. I al- 
 ways think you hurt yourself by the exer- 
 tions you then make, and have no doubt 
 but you do ; though you may not be sensible 
 of it at the time. The effect on your audi- 
 ence is disagreeable. It appears like anger. 
 Speak strong words, they are proper, they 
 are often necessary, but let it be in your 
 own tone of voice, which is soft and per- 
 suasive." 
 
 But while Garrettson had little fame as 
 an orator, he was mighty as a preacher, 
 judged by the effects produced and the re- 
 sults. And this must always be the final 
 test of sermons: Do they accomplish their 
 purpose? Garrettson was not a scholarly 
 man. He made no pretensions to accurate 
 scholarship. Sometimes it might seem that 
 he was even hostile to an educated ministry, 
 as, for instance, when speaking of primi- 
 tive Methodist usages and how candidates 
 were received into the ministry, he said : "I 
 do not ask how many languages he under- 
 stands or whether he can solve the prob- 
 lems of Euclid. Bunyan and Abbott had 
 very little learning, but the power of God
 
 The Preacher and Teacher 97 
 
 accompanied them. Knowing how to navi- 
 gate a ship or solve the most difficult ques- 
 tion in algebra has very little to do with the 
 cure of souls," That was the great thing 
 with him, "the cure of souls"; and his 
 preaching and his labors were all to that 
 end, "It gives me much more pleasure to 
 be a means of bringing sinners to Christ 
 than to be thought a great preacher," he 
 says. Yet what a preacher he was ! As- 
 bury in his Journal tells of "a great church- 
 man, who after hearing Garrettson a second 
 time was seized with conviction on his way 
 home and fell down in the road and stayed 
 a great part of the night crying to God for 
 mercy. It was suggested to him that his 
 house was on fire; his answer was, 'It is 
 better for me to lose my house than my 
 soul.' " Garrettson's converts were numbered 
 by the thousands, "It may fairly be ques- 
 tioned whether any one minister in the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, or indeed any 
 other Church during the same period, has 
 been instrumental in the awakening and 
 conversion of more sinners than he ;" — this 
 was Bangs's conclusion. His fidelity in soul- 
 winning was so great as to gain the ap- 
 proval of the incomparable Asbury, who 
 records that Garrettson talked to the land-
 
 98 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 lord of a certain tavern on the subject of 
 religion, and prayed with him at night and 
 in the morning, though the man would not 
 consent to call his family together. Asbury 
 adds this comment: "Brother Garrettson 
 will let no person escape a religious lecture 
 that comes in his way. Sure he is faithful, 
 but what am I?" 
 
 Dr. Neale, the translator of so many of 
 the beautiful hymns of the Eastern Church, 
 once told of having seen in an English 
 country church, in the rector's pew, a paper 
 which looked like a placard but which on 
 investigation proved to be a sermon headed 
 "On the vanity and uncertainty of human 
 life," and labeled "in case of an accident." 
 He didn't propose to be sermonless if by 
 any chance he should forget his discourse 
 and leave it at home. The subject of the 
 sermon held in reserve was always timely. 
 Garrettson, though he did say when he 
 first began to preach that his Bible at cer- 
 tain times seemed so small that he could 
 not find a text, was never without a theme. 
 He realized, as do few men, that the spirit 
 of the Lord God was upon him, having ap- 
 pointed him to preach glad tidings to the 
 meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to 
 proclaim liberty to the captives and the
 
 The Preacher and Teacher 99 
 
 opening of the prison to them that are 
 bound. Preaching, with him, was always 
 serious business. Some one has spoken of 
 a certain style of orator "who mounted the 
 rostrum, threw back his head, and left the 
 consequences with God." But that was not 
 Garrettson's style; his was "the preaching 
 of a man aiming to be useful, aspiring to 
 be good instead of great, penetrating by 
 the arrows of truth into the sinner's heart, 
 and pouring the balm of consolation into 
 the wounded spirit. It was deep, experi- 
 mental, and practical." One who heard 
 him often thus describes him: "His action 
 in the pulpit was not graceful, though it 
 was solemn and impressive. His sermons 
 were sometimes enlivened by anecdotes of 
 a character calculated to illustrate the 
 points he was aiming to establish. He was 
 likewise deficient in systematic arrange- 
 ment and logical precision. This deficiency, 
 however, was more than made up by the 
 pointedness of his appeals to the conscience, 
 the aptness of his illustrations from Scrip- 
 ture, the manner in which he explained and 
 enforced the depth of Christian experience, 
 and the holy fervor of spirit with which 
 he delivered himself on all occasions. Like 
 most other extemporaneous speakers, his
 
 100 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 mind sometimes seemed barren, and he 
 failed, apparently for want of words, to 
 express that on which his understanding 
 appeared to be laboring. At other times 
 his heart appeared full, his mind luminous, 
 and he would pour forth a stream of gospel 
 truth which abundantly refreshed the souls 
 of God's people with the 'living waters.' 
 And although his gesticulations were some- 
 what awkward, there was that in his man- 
 ner and matter which always rendered his 
 preaching entertaining and useful; and sel- 
 dom did the hearer tire under his adminis- 
 tration of the word of life — point, pathos, 
 and variety generally characterizing all his 
 discourses." 
 
 Garrettson was a believer in the system 
 of Methodist theology as held by Wesley, 
 Fletcher, and others, and taught the Wes- 
 leyan doctrines all his life. Methodism was 
 not a new theology, as we all know, though 
 its preaching was in a real sense doctrinal, 
 its effectiveness being proof of this fact, 
 for the preaching which does not bring the 
 central truths of the gospel home to the 
 hearts of men cannot show such results as 
 were seen in the Evangelical Revival of the 
 eighteenth century. Wesley was not a theo- 
 logian in the sense that Augustine was;
 
 The Preacher and Teacher 101 
 
 his chief business was not to define meta- 
 physical theology, but to bring men into a 
 saving relation with a personal God and 
 thereby into a joyous religious experience. 
 The same may be said of Garrettson. His 
 theology was for use. Especially did he 
 seek to inculcate his belief in the doctrine 
 of sanctification. A few years after he 
 began to travel, while in North Carolina, 
 he received the full baptism of the Holy 
 Spirit, which, as did Nathan Bangs, he 
 liked to refer to as "perfect love." This 
 experience he rejoiced in continually and 
 taught everywhere, and was himself a wit- 
 ness to its truth; for no man. Dr. Bangs 
 says, ever gave more irrefutable evidence 
 of the holiness of his heart and the blame- 
 lessness of his life. 
 
 He was a stanch defender of the faith, 
 and sometimes was drawn into controversy. 
 In Rhode Island he was much annoyed with 
 Socinian teachings which were being in- 
 culcated in certain places, and preached 
 against Socinianism. Never did his zeal 
 show itself more intensely on any subject 
 than when the real divinity, the eternal deity 
 of Christ was called in question. He pub- 
 lished a tract on this subject which showed 
 his deep concern for this cardinal doctrine
 
 102 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 of Christianity. He felt it necessary on 
 another occasion to preach against the pe- 
 cuHar sentiments of the Anabaptists, and 
 was always ready to defend the tenets which 
 he held. 
 
 His writings, while not extensive, were 
 important, his first publication being an ac- 
 count of his early labors in the itinerancy, 
 and the second a vigorous pamphlet against 
 slavery. We have already seen how at his 
 conversion Garrettson liberated all his own 
 slaves, and thereafter his opposition to 
 slavery as an institution was most pro- 
 nounced and at times would seem to have 
 been much in advance of his Church, al- 
 though as early as 1780 the Conference of 
 that year pronounced its judgment upon 
 slavery as contrary to all laws, divine and 
 human, and hurtful to society. 
 
 Garrettson was also a leader in the tem- 
 perance movement, taking ground in 1822, 
 when the new chapel was built in Rhine- 
 beck, that not a drop of spirituous liquor 
 should be used by the workmen in its erec- 
 tion. When told that such a thing was un- 
 heard of, and that it would be quite 
 impossible for mechanics to labor without 
 rum to strengthen them, he was obdurate 
 and the work was accomplished in accord-
 
 The Preacher and Teacher 103 
 
 ance with this prohibition. His attitude 
 in regard to the drink evil was most re- 
 markable, when the social practices of the 
 times in which he lived and the circle in 
 which his family moved are taken into con- 
 sideration. Garrettson was by nature and 
 grace a foe of all kinds of evil, and had 
 both capacity and courage for reforms. 
 
 As the years multiplied he became more 
 intense in all his work. "I am now bending 
 over eternity and must soon go the way of 
 all the earth. I endeavor in every sermon 
 I preach to deliver it as if it were my last. 
 I often think of my dear old friend, Bishop 
 Asbury, who spent the last shred of his 
 valuable life in the service of his great Mas- 
 ter. I wish to do good, to be greatly taken 
 up in my blessed Master's work, that my 
 last days may be my best days." And God 
 gave him the desire of his heart.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE ECCLESIASTIC 
 
 Garrettson's ecclesiastical life covered 
 the first half century of Methodism in 
 America, and the record of his life for that 
 period, on the authority of Stevens, is prac- 
 tically the history of the denomination. 
 From the first Conference which he at- 
 tended in Baltimore in 1776 to the last one, 
 held in Troy, New York, in 1827, the year 
 of his death, he was one of the conspicuous 
 makers of Methodism, being active and 
 zealous from the beginning of his ministerial 
 career, and giving invaluable aid at all 
 times to the shaping of its polity and the 
 carrying forward of its enterprises. Once 
 he had joined the Methodists he was a rigid 
 denominationalist, jealous of the traditions 
 of Methodism, a lover of discipline and 
 order, standing always for a strict interpre- 
 tation of its early usages, cautiously con- 
 servative, and ever manifesting the most 
 stern and inflexible opposition to any in- 
 novation upon the established doctrines of 
 the Church. 
 
 With Asbury and a few others he with- 
 104
 
 The Ecclesiastic 105 
 
 stood the earliest attacks upon Wesleyan 
 Methodism in 1778 and 1779, when a serious 
 schism was threatened, although Garrettson 
 did not like the use of that term in con- 
 nection with the brethren in Virginia who 
 had urged that the sacraments might be 
 administered by certain preachers who 
 should be chosen for that purpose, holding 
 that they had been misrepresented; but be- 
 yond question the situation was a critical 
 one, and it required all the combined wis- 
 dom, prudence, and forbearance of Garrett- 
 son, Asbury, and Waiters to avert the 
 disaster and effect a reconciliation. Asbury 
 was tactful, but not more so than Garrett- 
 son. I doubt if there was a man in the 
 itinerancy then or during his lifetime who 
 had greater skill as a pacificator than Gar- 
 rettson. His ability as a peacemaker 
 amounted to genius. While he was a man 
 of pronounced opinions, and at times was 
 diametrically opposed to the proposals of 
 some of his brethren, he was never an "ir- 
 reconcilable." As he said late in life, "On 
 the General Conference floor my brethren- 
 know that I have spoken the sentiments of 
 my heart freely, always in favor of what I 
 believed to be old Methodism, and I have 
 upon all occasions as strenuously con-
 
 106 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 tended for peace and unanimity in the body 
 and submission to the decisions of the 
 majority." 
 
 Garrettson was one of the first of the 
 American preachers with whom Dr. Coke 
 conferred upon his arrival in 1784, and 
 when he unfolded to him the plan of Mr. 
 Wesley, Garrettson writes, "I was some- 
 what surprised when Mr. Wesley's plan of 
 ordination was opened to me, and deter- 
 mined to sit in silence." That was so 
 characteristic of Garrettson, his unwilling- 
 ness to commit himself until he had thought 
 the matter through ! Wesley was his 
 "father in God," Dr. Coke had come to 
 America with the title of superintendent, 
 but the young American, who had had 
 nearly ten years of varied experiences in 
 Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and 
 elsewhere, was their peer, with an inalien- 
 able right to individuality of judgment, a 
 right which he always maintained. 
 
 We have seen that Garrettson was the 
 "herald" of the Christmas Conference, and 
 in the deliberations of that body he gave his 
 counsel freely in all matters pertaining to 
 the organization of the Church, and in all 
 the important discussions he was a con- 
 spicuous figure. He must not be thought of
 
 The Ecclesiastic 107 
 
 merely or chiefly as an itinerant preacher- 
 evangelist, he was one of the wisest and 
 most constructive counselors of the period. 
 Asbury placed the highest reliance upon 
 him. They frequently conferred together. 
 Asbury was a most welcome guest in the 
 home on the Hudson, where, sitting before 
 the blazing fires of that hospitable mansion, 
 they discussed the difficult questions of 
 administration and planned for further 
 itinerant advances. Whenever the leaders 
 of the Church assembled Freeborn Garrett- 
 son was of the number. His name is to be 
 found among the members of the famous 
 Council, which was convened by Asbury in 
 1789. Nearly five years had passed since 
 the Christmas Conference, and there had 
 been no general meeting of the preachers. 
 Asbury did not see the need of a General 
 Conference, and proposed the formation 
 of a Council, to be composed of men se- 
 lected by himself, and with almost plenary 
 powers. It met with much opposition and 
 was only twice assembled. Garrettson was 
 present both times, but the scheme was not 
 to his liking. It was too much of a close 
 corporation, there was too great power 
 vested, according to Asbury's plan, in the 
 head of the Council, and Garrettson was a
 
 108 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 consistent opponent all his life of exces- 
 sive episcopal authority. At the General 
 Conference of 1792, during the memorable 
 controversy which was aroused by James 
 O'Kelly, one of the most consecrated of 
 the preachers but with a fiery love of free- 
 dom, in his effort to secure a constitutional 
 check to the absolute authority of the bishop, 
 Garrettson supported him in the debate, but 
 when O'Kelly's proposition was defeated, 
 and he withdrew from the Conference, Gar- 
 rettson refused to follow his example and 
 was made a member of the committee ap- 
 pointed to treat with him. Garrettson 
 could never be charged with recalcitrance. 
 He once expressed an unwillingness for 
 climatic reasons to accept an assignment to 
 a certain field, and was long troubled there- 
 after in his conscience. But when he found 
 himself in a minority he did not sulk, nor 
 did he threaten. 
 
 The refusal of his brethren at the Con- 
 ference in 1787 to comply with Mr. Wesley's 
 request that he be made a superintendent 
 was a disappointment, but it did not sour 
 him. Stevens thinks that the reason why 
 Garrettson was not elected a bishop at this 
 time was because the preachers did not 
 regard this Conference as a General Con-
 
 The Ecclesiastic 109 
 
 ference. It must be remembered, however, 
 that Wesley had requested Bishop Coke to 
 hold a General Conference at this time, 
 and that much important business which 
 properly belongs to a General Conference 
 was done. As I have suggested in another 
 place, the failure to elect Garrettson was 
 probably due to the very evident hostility 
 to Coke and Wesley, which was manifested 
 in a variety of ways. One cannot help 
 wondering what modifications our general 
 superintendency would have undergone, if 
 any, had the members of the Conference 
 been in a mood to do as Wesley requested. 
 It may be that there would have been some 
 form of diocesan episcopacy, which cer- 
 tainly would have had the approval of Gar- 
 rettson. His opinion on this subject was 
 most pronounced. At the last General Con- 
 ference which he attended, that of 1824, 
 according to Dr. Bangs the sessions were 
 prolonged much beyond the usual time be- 
 cause of the extended debates on lay repre- 
 sentation. "Though Mr. Garrettson, in co- 
 incidence with the majority of his brethren, 
 thought it inexpedient, under present cir- 
 cumstances," he says, "to grant the prayer 
 of the petitioners for a lay representation, 
 yet he seemed to think that some modifica-
 
 1 1 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 tion in the general outlines of the govern- 
 ment might be usefully introduced. From 
 what he has recorded in his Journal on 
 this subject, it appears that he adhered to 
 the last to the opinion that each Annual 
 Conference should have its bishop, to travel 
 annually through its bounds, to preside in 
 its sessions, and to station, with suitable 
 counsel, the preachers." Garrettson having, 
 like Bishop Simpson, so strong a preference 
 for a local diocesan episcopate, and being 
 so firmly persuaded of the advantages of 
 this kind of episcopal supervision and 
 leadership, believing that better and more 
 permanent good could be obtained for the 
 Church by such a fixedness of episcopal 
 jurisdiction, and the question having been 
 so frequently discussed in their home, both 
 Mrs. and Miss Garrettson requested that 
 his views should be published in his biogra- 
 phy. There is before me as I write a letter 
 from Nathan Bangs to Mrs. Garrettson, in 
 which he says that he "submitted the subject 
 to the Book Committee and book agents and 
 they unanimously advised to suppress it." 
 The reasons given for this action are in- 
 teresting reading. In brief they are as 
 follows: An authorized publication issued 
 from the Book Rooms should not contain
 
 The Ecclesiastic 1 1 1 
 
 sentiments in contradiction to the general 
 economy of the Church as sanctioned by 
 the officers of the Concern; and, moreover, 
 no good would be accomplished by the pub- 
 lication of the "plan," "as there is no proba- 
 bility of his views being carried into effect." 
 And so the "article in question" was ex- 
 cluded from the Life of Garrettson which 
 was brought out by the Book Concern 
 within a few months after the date of the 
 letter from which I have quoted. But it may 
 be that this ecclesiastical statesman who held 
 so tenaciously to these heretical views of 
 episcopal supervision was not altogether 
 wrong. He may have been wiser than his 
 generation. Possibly it may be seen after 
 a time, when redoubt after redoubt at the 
 great centers in particular shall have been 
 taken, that what we need is not so much 
 general superintendency as local leadership. 
 The New York Conference met in New 
 York May 20, 181 1. Both Bishop Asbury 
 and Bishop McKendree were present. One 
 may read that the principal business was the 
 election of delegates to the first delegated 
 General Conference, to be held in the same 
 city the following year. Henry Boehm, 
 Bishop Asbury's traveling companion, who 
 was also present, says: "There was con-
 
 1 1 2 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 siderable excitement and some electioneer- 
 ing," which may have been due to the fact 
 that this was the first of the Conferences to 
 elect delegates under the new order ! Free- 
 born Garrettson headed the delegation, as 
 he did at every subsequent election except 
 1820 until his death. 
 
 In more than one of these quadrennial 
 Conferences the question of an elective pre- 
 siding eldership was debated, Garrettson 
 favoring it in every instance. At the im- 
 portant Conference of 1808, in some re- 
 spects quite as important as the Christmas 
 Conference, when Bishop Asbury retired 
 from the Conference while a letter to him 
 from Bishop Coke was read, he called Gar- 
 rettson to the chair; and later in this same 
 Conference, when the debate on presiding 
 elders had run its course, it was Garrettson 
 who moved that the vote be taken by ballot, 
 which was done, with the result that the 
 battle again went against the champions of 
 an elective presiding eldership. Again in 
 1812 this question was a foremost one, as 
 indeed it was in many subsequent General 
 Conferences, and concerning Garrettson's 
 attitude in the matter his biographer says: 
 "In respect to the question on which the 
 General Conference have long been divided
 
 The Ecclesiastic 1 1 3 
 
 in sentiment, namely, whether the presiding 
 elders should continue to be appointed as 
 they now are by the bishops, or be elected 
 by the Annual Conferences, it is well known 
 that Mr. Garrettson was in favor of their 
 election by the Conferences. This is men- 
 tioned merely as an historical fact, without 
 entering into the merits of the question, pro 
 or con, or intending even to express an 
 opinion in relation to it, any farther than 
 to say that, whether right or wrong, no 
 doubt can be entertained but that Mr. Gar- 
 rettson acted from the purest motives, and 
 according to the best dictates of his judg- 
 ment." 
 
 But Garrettson needs no apologies for his 
 words or actions. The views which he advo- 
 cated were not unworthy either of his heart 
 or his intellect; they are still held by many 
 devotedly loyal Methodists, and there have 
 been some indications here and there in our 
 denominational history which would seem 
 to denote that there is at least some con- 
 siderable basis even now for an honest dif- 
 ference of opinion in this and the other 
 questions of church polity to which Garrett- 
 son gave so much thought.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 HIS PERSONALITY 
 
 What about Garrettson himself? What 
 manner of man was he? For, after all, it 
 
 fis the person which counts in every work, 
 and in no realm of life more than in the 
 ministry. It is the commonplace of homi- 
 \letical literature that what a preacher is 
 /determines in the end the effect of what he 
 ■ teaches. Holiness of life is a prime requi- 
 site for the successful preaching of the 
 Word; it is itself a sermon. As Massillon 
 said, "The gospel of most people is the lives 
 of the priests whom they observe." Men 
 I will not believe a preacher who does not 
 himself exemplify the cardinal teachings 
 of the New Testament. Vanity, inordinate 
 ambition, self-esteem, avarice, pride, and all 
 other sins are fatal to ministerial efficiency. 
 How often do we hear it said, "I would 
 have enjoyed that sermon if I did not know 
 the man!" It was Garrettson, more than 
 what he said, that influenced men. He was 
 indeed "an example of believers, in word, 
 in conversation, in charity, in faith, in 
 purity." "My first conviction when a boy," 
 
 114
 
 His PersonaKty 1 1 5 
 
 said an eminent Presbyterian minister, "was 
 received from observing Mr. Garrettson as 
 he was walking by. There was something 
 so holy, so heavenly in his expression that 
 I was strongly impressed with the truth of 
 religion," Garrettson's power being largely 
 in his goodness. 
 
 He was a man of much prayer. He once 
 said of Bishop Asbury that he prayed the 
 most and prayed the best of any man he 
 knew, and I doubt not that the mighty As- 
 bury felt the same concerning him. It was 
 Garrettson's common practice whenever he 
 visited a place to repair at the first oppor- 
 tunity to the church for private prayer. 
 Those early Methodists believed in the effi- 
 cacy of prayer. No matter, however trivial 
 seemingly, could be determined without 
 divine guidance, which they sought and 
 found. Like Asbury, Garrettson spent a 
 part of every hour in prayer. He said that 
 the sweetest hour in the twenty- four was 
 the hour from four to five in the morning 
 when he talked with Jehovah. God's min- 
 isters do not always find their revelations 
 when standing on the altar steps ; some of 
 their most glorious visions come when they 
 are alone with God. Luther used to say 
 that he could not get on without two hours
 
 1 1 6 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 a day for his private devotions. Dr. Ed- 
 ward Norris Kirk, a Congregational min- 
 ister of rare ability, confessed that his 
 power as a preacher depended upon the de- 
 gree of his communion with his Lord. Gar- 
 rettson was a man of power, being a man of 
 prayer. "That which gave such efficiency 
 to his labor in the gospel," says his bi- 
 ographer, "was the 'unction of the Holy 
 One' which rested upon him. No man, I 
 believe, was more deeply sensible of the 
 indispensableness of the Holy Spirit to en- 
 able the minister of Christ to succeed in his 
 work than Mr. Garrettson. Deriving all 
 his doctrines and precepts from the pure 
 fountain of divine truth, the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, he made these his daily study; and 
 being deeply conscious that he must have the 
 enlightening and sanctifying influences of 
 the Holy Spirit to enable him rightly to 
 understand and apply these truths, he was 
 assiduous in his addresses to the throne of 
 grace, firmly believing that God would 'give 
 the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.' The 
 success, therefore, which accompanied his 
 public labors is not attributable to the force 
 of human persuasion, or to the 'words of 
 man's wisdom,' but to the 'demonstration 
 of the Spirit' which accompanied his word."
 
 His Personality 1 1 7 
 
 Like many of the most successful preach- 
 ers of the Christian centuries, Garrcttson 
 was a Mystic, "a friend of God," as the 
 Christian Mystics of the fourteenth century 
 were called, and finding his Lord "in the 
 inward way." Like Bunyan and others, he 
 saw visions and dreamed dreams. "In a 
 dream, in a vision of the night, when deep 
 sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon 
 the bed, then he openeth the ears of men, 
 and sealeth their instructions." Both Mr. 
 and Mrs. Garrettson profoundly believed 
 in such spiritual influences. Their Journals 
 and letters disclose what deep impressions 
 were made upon them by "visions of the 
 night," yet neither failed at all times "to 
 try the spirits." How sane Garrettson was 
 in the matter may be judged from this para- 
 graph of his : "Some suppose that we ought 
 not to put any dependence in dreams and 
 visions. We should lay the same stress on 
 them in this our day as wise and good men 
 have done in all ages. Very great discov- 
 eries were made to Peter, Paul, and others 
 in their night visions. But is there not a 
 danger of laying too much stress on them? 
 We are in danger from a variety of quar- 
 ters: let us therefore bring everything to, 
 and try it by the standard ; taking the Spirit
 
 1 1 8 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 for our guide, and the written word for our 
 rule, we sliall without doubt go safe." He 
 was neither fanatical nor foolish. 
 
 Of Garrettson's singleness of purpose 
 there is abundant evidence. This last sum- 
 mer in London I found in a bookshop an 
 old volume of sermons, the title of the first 
 one of which attracted my attention; it was, 
 "Second Motive in the Ministry." The 
 writer made his meaning plain in the first 
 paragraph, in which he referred to two per- 
 sons of the Scriptures, "both of whom 
 seemed to have not only the outward vo- 
 cation but who were apparently sound at 
 the heart, but who gradually sank beneath 
 one besetting sin which slowly and surely 
 preyed on the vitals of their spiritual life — 
 Balaam and Judas." The sin was the sin 
 of covetousness, and was the admission of 
 a second motive into the pursuit of the 
 spiritual vocation, and each after passing 
 through stage after stage of self-deception 
 came to a fearful and hopeless end. Ther-e 
 are other second motives ; it is hard to keep 
 an eye single to the glory of God, but this 
 Garrettson did. Personal, selfish ambitions, 
 which are so destructive of the high ideals 
 of the soul, were utterly foreign to hfs 
 thought and feeling, nor was he tempted to
 
 His Personality 1 19 
 
 covetousness. During the entire course of 
 his ministry he never received any pecuni- 
 ary compensation, being fortunately so 
 situated as not to need it. The purity of 
 his intention was never questioned. He was 
 devoid of all subtlety and guile, and being 
 honest and sincere himself he could not in- 
 dulge in a suspicious temper toward others. 
 It was once said to Robert Hall concerning 
 Christmas Evans, "He has only one eye"; 
 Hall replied, "Ah, but that's a piercer ; why, 
 sir, it is an eye to light an army through 
 a wilderness in a dark night." Such was 
 Garrettson's power of spiritual leadership, 
 and it lay in this : he seems to have had but 
 one thought, namely, to please God. This 
 was his primary motive, and no secondary 
 motive entered in to deflect him from the 
 straight course which he had marked cut 
 for himself. He compelled confidence by 
 the regnant purity of his motives and the 
 dominant tone of his life. Like Paul, 
 throughout his entire career he could say, 
 "I seek not yours, but you." 
 
 Mrs. Garrettson, in a letter which she 
 wrote after his death, gives a beautiful inti- 
 mate portrait of him : "Though my dearest 
 friend" — she almost invariably referred to 
 him as her "dearest friend" ; I do not recall
 
 120 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 a single instance in all her correspondence 
 where she addressed him by his Christian 
 name, it is always "My dear love," or "My 
 very dear friend," or "My dearest husband" 
 — "was often away, his punctuality in writ- 
 ing made his absence less tedious. I have 
 now upward of a hundred letters, written 
 from various places, in all which he speaks 
 of the heavy cross he finds in being absent 
 from a family he so much loved; but still 
 was enabled to rejoice in the work to which 
 the Lord called. When he had been home 
 for any length of time he became absent- 
 minded and often in great heaviness. When 
 we walked together I would try and divert 
 his mind by calling on him to view all 
 nature in her loveliness. 'O, yes,' he would 
 say, 'it is all very beautiful; and God is 
 very bountiful to us, my dear; but the 
 burden of the Lord! souls are perishing; 
 and this country is no field for me.' There 
 was a continual conflict, so that I dared not 
 make the least opposition to his visiting 
 the churches ; for this was his element, and 
 in this he was blest and made a blessing to 
 others. . . . How many visits he made to 
 Baltimore, to the Eastern Shore of Mary- 
 land, to Washington, Georgetown, to Phil- 
 adelphia, Connecticut, Boston, Newport,
 
 His Personality 121 
 
 Schenectady, Albany, New York, and other 
 places, since we married, I am not able to 
 enumerate; but all will tell in luminous 
 characters, in that day when he and the chil- 
 dren God has given him shall assemble at 
 the judgment seat of the Most High. All 
 times of the night, and often at the break 
 of day, has he landed from the steamboat, 
 and come to his welcome home, to bless and 
 praise our God together for keeping us 
 while apart, and uniting us again in health 
 and safety at his footstool. ... A more 
 forgiving temper never existed in any mere 
 mortal. He could keenly feel, but never to 
 resent, never to retaliate. . . . While he 
 was always ready to make amends, if he 
 supposed that at any time he had spoken 
 too hastily, he well knew at the same time 
 what was due to his character and standing 
 in the Church of God. ... He was eco- 
 nomical from principle, and always tried 
 to instill into his family and in those over 
 whom he had influence the right use of 
 money. Show and parade he detested, call- 
 ing it Saul's armor. He gave \vhat he 
 could and never laid up one cent of income. 
 With a small property he has done more 
 than many with ten times his means. With 
 regard to himself, I always thought him too
 
 122 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 sparing, and often urged him to more per- 
 sonal liberality. If he had been a man of 
 the world he would have become very rich. 
 With respect to his diet, no one need be 
 more temperate. He was almost too ab- 
 stemious. Of animal food he ate very 
 sparingly, sometimes none. He was very 
 diligent, indeed, indefatigable, until the end 
 was accomplished." 
 
 All in all his was a strong personality. 
 He was a man of cordial spirit, unostenta- 
 tious, without affectation, a Christian 
 gentleman of the finest type, of rare con- 
 versational gifts and an amiable simplicity 
 of manner, given to hospitality, unfailingly 
 conscientious, ever more ready to commend 
 than to censure, a lover of men, generously 
 forgiving those who despitefully used him, 
 without the passion of revenge, "of in- 
 vincible gentleness," and with the heart of 
 a hero.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE ITINERANT'S LAST JOURNEY 
 
 "The path of the righteous is as the 
 dawning Hght, that shineth more and more 
 unto the perfect day," More than one 
 saint has confirmed the truth of this beauti- 
 ful proverb, and none more than Mr. Gar- 
 rettson. As the years muhipHed his Hfe 
 became more and more glorious. The last 
 years, as to activity, were much like his 
 other years. He was an itinerant unto the 
 very end. At the Conference which was held 
 in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1817 he was 
 returned as supernumerary, an appointment 
 which hurt him somewhat until he was as- 
 sured that it was made with a view to his 
 convenience, and in order that he might be 
 at liberty to labor wherever he thought he 
 could be most useful. He was thus given 
 an "appointment at large" and continued 
 to itinerate as before, even when his grow- 
 ing infirmities made it difficult for him to 
 travel extensively. Still, as in other years, 
 he must go out into the highways and by- 
 ways seeking for the lost. "My mind," he 
 says, "is after precious souls." Even when 
 
 123
 
 124 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 he remained at home for a short time now 
 and again "to bless his household," he 
 preached on the Sabbaths. Friends came to 
 visit him; itinerant preachers, always wel- 
 come, stopped on their journeyings to see 
 him and counsel with him. The flowers in 
 the garden at Wildercliffe bloomed for him, 
 and the loved ones of the home circle 
 counted it a joy to minister unto him. "I 
 have had sweet seasons, in reading, writ- 
 ing, and family devotions," he writes. But 
 the aging itinerant hero must away! He 
 revisits the scenes of his early triumphs; 
 again he journeys to Connecticut, Rhode 
 Island, and Massachusetts. "In five months 
 I have traveled about a thousand miles, and 
 preached whenever and wherever I could 
 find an opening." He makes still another 
 tour of the South, continuing to show an 
 active interest in all the affairs of the 
 Church. In 1819 he helped to form the 
 Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church, being one of the committee 
 of three designated to prepare the consti- 
 tution. In 1826 he preached his semicen- 
 tennial sermon before the New York Con- 
 ference, and was again appointed Con- 
 ference missionary, and returning home 
 was accompanied by Bishops McKendree
 
 The Itinerant's Last Journey 125 
 
 and Hedding. Shortly after this, as will 
 be seen by the following letter which ap- 
 peared in The Christian Advocate in 1829, 
 Mr. Garrettson and his daughter went to 
 Schenectady. "The other day," the writer 
 of the letter says, "while I was at the house 
 of his much-respected and bereaved widow, 
 I had the pleasure of looking over the last 
 entry which Mr. Garrettson made in his 
 diary, and of reading the last sentence which 
 he ever wrote therein. I was particularly 
 struck with it. It was written June 8, 1826, 
 while at the house of his friend Dr. Nott, 
 in Schenectady. It was as follows: 'Wed- 
 nesday, 8. I am pleasantly situated and feel 
 a pleasure in retirement. God is good to 
 me.' I was not less struck with a little note 
 directly opposite, supposed to have been 
 penciled by one of his spiritual children, 
 Rev. Ezekiel Cooper, which I here take the 
 liberty to transcribe. It is as follows : 'He 
 will not return to us, but we shall follow 
 him. The close, "God is good to me"; 
 — ^the last words, O my Father! Here he 
 stops ! He says no more to us. But no 
 doubt his last words in this diary — "God 
 is good to me" — he will repeat forever! 
 E. C, Sept. 3, 1829.' " Thus the years 
 passed, filled with the goodness of God.
 
 126 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 For several months before his death he 
 seemed to feel the uncertainty of his life, 
 and an impression of the shortness of his 
 stay made him reluctant to stand for elec- 
 tion as a delegate to the General Conference 
 of 1828. He was elected, however, though 
 before the Conference assembled he had 
 entered upon his reward. In August, 1827, 
 he went to New York to spend Sunday, 
 expecting to return the first of the week. 
 Sunday morning, August 19, he preached 
 in the Duane Street church what proved 
 to be his last sermon, from the text, "But 
 grow in grace," and administered the sacra- 
 ment. The following day, in the home of 
 his lifelong friend, Mr. George Suckley, he 
 was seized with his last illness. The itin- 
 erant had made his last journey. He who 
 had been in the saddle almost constantly 
 for fifty-two years was now to find rest 
 from his labors. His wife and daughter 
 hurried to him and remained with him 
 through the days of terrible pain, but days 
 also of quiet endurance and triumphant 
 faith. His daughter, in a letter to the Rev. 
 Richard Reece, who was the representative 
 of the British Wesleyan Conference to the 
 General Conference in 1824, and who be- 
 came a strong friend of the Garrettsons,
 
 The Itinerant's Last Journey 127 
 
 gives an account of this last illness from 
 which I quote: "As he descended into the 
 dark valley his views of the efficacy of the 
 atonement became more and more enlarged. 
 . . . Toward the last his strength was so 
 much exhausted that articulation became a 
 painful effort; but he would often, in a 
 languid, feeble voice, say, 'I want to go 
 home; I want to be with Jesus, I want to 
 be with Jesus,' ... A day or two before 
 his departure I heard him say, 'And I shall 
 see Mr. Wesley, too.' It appeared as if he 
 was ruminating on the enjoyment of that 
 world, upon the verge of which he then was 
 — enjoyments which he said a Christian 
 could well understand. His mind seemed 
 employed with subjects for the sweetest 
 feelings of love and adoration. When asked 
 how he did, he would answer, 'I feel love 
 and good will to all mankind,' or, 'I see a 
 beauty in the works of God' — forgetting 
 that the infirmities of the body were the 
 subject of the inquiry. He had resigned 
 his wife and daughter into the hand of 
 God, and so great was his desire to be 
 with Christ that parting with us was 
 robbed of its bitterness. . . . Never can I 
 hope to give you more than a faint idea 
 when the spirit achieved that last victory
 
 128 Freeborn Garrettson 
 
 and was ushered into the joy of the Lord. 
 Encircled by his kind and affectionate 
 friends, his brethren and his sons in the 
 gospel, my venerable father lay apparently 
 unconscious of everything that concerned 
 him. We felt truly that he was only leav- 
 ing the Church militant to join the Church 
 triumphant. Just as the period of his de- 
 parture approached one of the preachers 
 broke forth in prayer, a prayer so elevated, 
 so holy that it seemed to wrap the hearers 
 above all sublunary consideration, and as 
 he commended the dying saint into the 
 hands of God he prayed that the mantle of 
 the departing patriarch might rest on his 
 surviving brethren. His prayer seemed 
 answered; a divine influence pervaded the 
 apartment; two of the preachers almost 
 sank to the floor under a glorious sense of 
 His presence who filleth immensity." 
 
 The last words which fell from his lips, 
 spoken with the reverence of an adoring 
 child of God, and with the exultation of a 
 war-scarred veteran and conqueror, were, 
 "Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty! 
 Hallelujah ! Hallelujah !" It was the morn- 
 ing of the 25th of September, 1827. The 
 long journey had come to an end.
 
 This book is DUE on the last 
 date stamped below. 
 
 i "^^^'^ 
 
 !MU^ 4 ^9^^ 
 
 PEcro w}"} 
 
 
 ) 
 
 
 REMINGTON RAUD INC. 20 213 (533) 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 I ir SOI ITHFRM RFGIONAl 1 IRRARY FACll ITY 
 
 AA 000 701 429 3 
 
 B3C 
 
 8195 
 G19Ti;
 
 \ 
 
 ^:S'