magnetizing power on occasion, but in every-day work, intellectual, social, and spiritual. Ministers should be the most diligent students of social science in the land. Uneducated men who can not enter into the thought and spirit of the young and attract cultivated and genuine people to them who have no pre-eminence in knowledge, tact, or godliness, only drag down those whom they do influence, and repel those whom the Church needs, and who need the Church.

The ignorant ministers, so-called, approved by Mr. Wesley, were men of sound common-sense, indefatigable students, full of the Word of God, with natural gifts and great grace. They were the D. L. Moodys of Wesley's day, and wisely Mr. Wesley recognized and used them. Their bad grammar and infelicitous rhetoric were early corrected by the persistent and prayerful study of that great English classic, the Holy Bible. Such "ignorant" ministers are a God-send to the Church, and it is an abuse of terms to call them ignorant, though they may not know a word of Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. High school youth, however critical, will never fail to acknowledge the power of their earnestness, and will never detect trifling inaccuracies in speech when the soul is on fire.

There are elements of Church life which, although human, are legitimate factors in success, elements which are not substituted for the divine, but without which the divine seems limited in its action.

The wise use of natural agencies with an implicit trust in the superintending and divine agent is the law of Church success.

The smooth stone from the brook, the sling in the skilled hand of the Benjamite are wise methods with which to make fervent prayer effectual. David's victory in Saul's armor would have required a greater display of miraculous interposition than was necessary in the boy's own normal and accustomed mode of assault. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts." But then the Spirit makes "might" mighty and "power" effective. It is not Paul who works, but Almighty God; but then Almighty God works through Paul, and the native qualities, the antecedents, the training, the varied attainments of Paul become apparently as important elements in the work of God as the Spirit who employed them.

When the Church would do efficient service in the world, it must use wise and legitimate world-methods, cultivate an esprit de corps, build up permanent institutions, organize and dominate society, honorably accumulate and discreetly employ financial resources, secure compactness and vigor, put men of worth and force into position, win the strongest elements in the community (when such winning involves no compromise of principle); provide intelligent and godly administration within the Church itself, that the periodical changes in the pulpit and pastorate may not affect the stability and steadiness of the Church administration; promote broad culture, provide safe and social recreations in lieu of forbidden frivol. ities, create atmosphere, build up by personal, intellectual, social and spir ⚫itual influence a vigorous Church centre, and thus win, charm, train, and wield the best youth of the community.

The Church must recognize the age-atmosphere, social and intellectual, a tone of the times made up of certain elements, controlling home, school, literature, parlor, street. The evil elements in this age-atmosphere the

Church must detect and neutralize by recognizing and organizing the elements that are legitimate and good.

I repeat, with emphasis, that those elements are useless without God's life, but invaluable as media of his life.

Methodism, a doctrine and a spirit, is a protest against human wisdom without divine energy in it, but may it not be in danger of ignoring the human wisdom and thus of losing the divine endowment? Our work may be slip-shod, fragmentary, and spasmodic, because of our theories of special seasons and special baptisms and special calls, and through our frequent changes in administration and our exaltation of uncultivated and narrow people to places of trust in the Church.

It is good to have abiding with us the Spirit of God, but it is good to have common sense, and to use the great Methodist law of adaptation.

There is a country neighborhood in which the church building is going into dilapidation. It is filled with ill odors of old air and unrefined kerosene. It lacks ventilators, and ropes and pulleys on the sashes; lines of sooty leakage decorate the wall. The young people of the community, who find no such offense in the public school-house, wonder why it must be found in the church. They are told that our Church is "for the poor," and that "æsthetic people are not needed among Methodists," and the poor take charge. And, what with poor purses, and poor sense, and poor taste, and poor preachers, and poor preaching, there is little growth, except a spasmodic growth, which lasts a few weeks in Midwinter, and leaves the Church physical in no better condition than it was before; and, this administration continuing, the Church goes down. Its best people, and most of its young people, pass into other communions. All this is un-Methodistic. It is un-Wesleyan. It overlooks the divine order of cleanliness, sweet air, green grass, tasteful architecture, and decoration.

Let us rather labor for social progress and general culture, foster true taste, provide vigorous preaching, and attract crowds of bright, young high-school people, awakened and ambitious farmer boys, shop girls, mechanics, men and women of industry, good sense, respectability, and sound character; and let these all constitute a Church which goes after the poorest and lowest and most guilty, to bring them up into industry and economy, lofty aim, and divine peace.

Fervent piety is the safeguard of the Church, but it must be piety with common sense, piety with sound culture, piety with a knowledge of human nature, piety with consummate tact, piety with a present and felt indwelling of the divine Spirit of wisdom, love, and power.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

15

THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF METHODISM IN CANADA.

JOHN A. WILLIAMS, D. D.

ON the first day of June, 1867, under the authority of an act of the Imperial Parliament, the provinces known as Eastern and Western Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united federally under the name of the Dominion of Canada. Since that time, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba have come into the federation. Canada has a superficial area of three million five hundred thousand square miles, and a population of nearly five millions. My aim, in the time allotted to this paper, is to attempt to trace the genesis, genealogy, and growth of Methodism in the Dominion, the variety of its methods, and its present position.

The history of Methodism in Canada goes back nearly to its first settlement by English-speaking people, and is interwoven with the civil and religious progress of the country. Mr. William Black, of Halifax, through the instrumentality of some emigrants from Yorkshire, who seem to have been members of Mr. Wesley's Societies in England, was savingly converted, in the year 1779. He soon after engaged in evangelistic efforts, and was successful in forming several Societies. In his earnestness and zeal, he visited Dr. Coke, in Baltimore, and was present at the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the Christmas Conference of 1784, at which time Freeborn Garrettson and James O. Cromwell volunteered their services, and were appointed by Dr. Coke to Nova Scotia. In the latter end of February, 1785, they arrived in Halifax, and, in conjunction with Mr. Black, succeeded in establishing the work of God in that province. At the close of Mr. Garrettson's labors, which extended over two years, there were six hundred members in the Societies. In 1791, Mr. Black visited Philadelphia and New York, received ordination, first as deacon, and then as elder, from Dr. Coke, and returned to the province with six additional preachers. The appointment of preachers to the Eastern Provinces by the American Conference ceased about 1805, at which time Dr. Coke assumed the direction of the missions of the English Conference. This work was afterwards known as Mission Districts, and in 1855 these districts were formed into a conference, known as the Wesleyan Conference of Eastern British America, embracing seventy circuits and missions, eighty-eight ministers, and thirteen thousand one hundred and thirty-six members.

In 1763, Canada was ceded to the British crown by the French: But little progress was made in the settlement of the western part of the newly acquired territory until the close of the Revolutionary War, about 1783. What is now the province of Ontario was almost an unbroken wilderness, the only settlers being a few French families who had located themselves in the vicinity of the forts and trading-posts, and along the bays and lakes from Montreal to Detroit. In 1791, the province of Upper Canada was separated from Lower Canada, and received a form of government better suited to its needs than had formerly existed. The popula

tion at that time did not exceed twenty thousand, made up principally of families from the United States, some hundreds of soldiers who had served in the war, and a few emigrants from Britain.

Methodism was introduced into Upper Canada through the labors of three local preachers-George Neal, a young man named Lyons, and James McCarthy. But the event that led to the introduction of organized Methodism into the country was a visit made by William Losee, in the year 1790. He was a probationer in connection with the New York Conference, and came over to Canada to visit his friends, and preach as he had opportunity. So successful were his efforts that a petition was forwarded to the New York Conference, requesting a missionary to be sent to Canada. Losee returned to the work, with instructions and authority to form a circuit. The first class was organized in Adolphustown, on Sunday, February 20, 1791. Losee was a one-armed man, of about twentyseven years of age, unencumbered, and active. He traveled extensively through what is known as the Bay of Quinte country. A great awakening attended his ministry. The people received the Word with gladness. A great and effectual door was opened for the Gospel which has never been closed. Thus, providentially, and in this simple manner, was Methodism introduced into the chief province of the Dominion, and its success is seen in the fact that, at the close of its first decade, it had five circuits, eleven ministers, and eleven hundred and fifty members; and at the close of the second it had risen to the number of twelve circuits, eighteen ministers, and two thousand seven hundred and ninety-two members. Those were days of glorious revivals, of divine visitation, of powerful conversions, of heroic endurance, and, considering the sparseness of the population, the settlements being in many instances sixty miles apart, of glorious success. A nobler, braver, or more sacrificing class of men are not to be found today than were the rank and file of the first Methodist preachers that came to Canada. They performed prodigies of labor; they swam rivers, forded creeks, plodded through swamps, encountered snow and rain, heat and cold; amid pain and weariness, hunger, and almost nakedness, they did the work of evangelists, and succeeded in laying the foundation of a Church the influence of which pervades our whole country. They were men of breadth of soul, of large sympathies, and of fine feelings. Alas! many of them broke down in their work, and, after enduring scorn, derision, and disparagement, went early to their reward.

"Their ashes lie

No marble tells us where."

But here, and now, on this Centennial occasion, as we are looking over the past, and recording the wonderful achievements wrought by the grace of God through the agency of Methodism, I mention the names of Losee, Dunham, Wooster, Keeler, Coleman, Case, Nathan Bangs, and Coates, with others I have not time to name, but think of names,

"Sacred beyond heroic fame,"

cherished in the memory of Canadian Methodism, and worthy of a place among the illustrious men to whose labors under God we owe so much.

The third decade, embracing the period of the war known as the War of 1812, was fraught with disasters to Methodism. Many of the preachers, being American citizens, left the province, and only those of Canadian or

British birth, such as Whitehead, Ryan, and Prindle, remained. In the course of five years the Church lost nearly one-half of its membership. On the restoration of peace, the preachers returned to their circuits in the province, but the strong national and political feeling greatly obstructed the progress of the work. In 1818, the Genesee Conference held its session in Elizabethtown, Ontario, under the superintendency of Bishop George-the first conference held in British territory. At this conference there were sixty preachers present, of whom twenty-two were employed in the Canadian work. At this conference a great revival commenced, which largely affected the entire country, and resulted in an accession to the Church of one thousand five hundred members. Yet these were troublesome times. Owing to the feelings engendered by the war, the progress of Methodism was regarded as inimical to the supremacy of the government. Its ministers were looked upon as political spies, and by many were treated with ridicule and scorn. They were denied the right of solemnizing marriage, even of their own people, and the people were denied the privilege of security of any property for burial or Church purposes. Notwithstanding this, the work prospered and maintained its influence upon the community. But the troubles and annoyances to which the Church was subjected led to a desire for separation from the Church in the States, and the General Conference of 1824, to meet the wishes of the Canadian Church, ordered "That there shall be a Canadian Conference under our superintendency, bounded by the boundary line of Upper Canada." The first Canadian conference was held in Hollowell, now the town of Picton, Prince Edward County, on the 25th of August, 1824, Bishops George and Hedding presiding, and consisted of thirty preachers, the membership of the Church being six thousand one hundred and fifty. A strong desire was expressed for a separate and independent existence, and a memorial was presented to the bishops, to be laid before the annual conferences, stating the reasons for the separation, the principal of which related to the state of the country, the jealousies awakened by the government, and the fact that the Methodists were treated as aliens. These things rendered it expedient that there should be a separation. The conference and the people were also much agitated by the question of lay representation. Henry Ryan, one of the presiding elders, took the lead in the agitation. He was ahead of his time by fifty years.

The discussions and contentions growing out of the questions of what was known as the "Clergy Reserves were of no particular disadvantage to the Church. It was now a powerful and an influential body, and gave its influence in favor of the party opposed to a dominant Church, such as the English Church at that time assumed to be. The principles for which the Methodists contended, and which ultimately prevailed, were, first, that all Christian Churches should be put on the same footing as the Church of England in respect to rights of property and all other civil privileges; second, that the Church of the minority of the population ought not to be established with exclusive or particular privileges; third, that no exclusive system of education should be established in the province, but that all classes of the population should be countenanced and assisted in the promotion of education. It was not to be expected that the enunciation of these views, and the zealous and persistent maintenance of them, would be allowed without opposition. The dominant party was fierce in its denunci