"Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by G. Lane & C. B. Tippett, in the Clerk's Office of the District. Court, of the Southern District of New York." TO THE MEMBERS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN,-We think it expedient to give you a brief account of the rise of Methodism, both in Europe and America. "In 1729, two young men, in England, reading the Bible, saw they could not be saved without holiness: followed after it, and incited others so to do. In 1737, they saw, likewise, that men are justified before they are sanctified: but still holiness was their object. God then thrust them out to raise a holy people."* In the year 1766, Philip Embury, a local preacher of our society, from Ireland, began to preach in the city of New-York, and formed a society of his own countrymen and the citizens; and the same year, Thomas Webb preached in a hired room near the barracks. About the same time, Robert Strawbridge, a local preacher from Ireland, settled in Fre * These are the words of Messrs. Wesley themselves. |