sage, if they could not procure it we would sell our coats and shirts to procure it for them. I most earnestly beg an interest in your prayers, and trust you and many of your brethren will not forget the Church in this wilderness."

This appeal was laid before the Conference in 1768, but laid over for full consideration until the next year. At Leeds in 1769 Wesley asked who was ready to volunteer for America, and Joseph Pilmoor and Richard Boardman-experienced and able men, -both of whom had been considering the Appeal of 1768, volunteered for the new mission field in the West, while the father of foreign missions, William Carey, was but a boy of eight. The Minutes of 1769 contain this characteristic entry:

Question 13. We have a pressing call from our brethren at New York-(who have built a preaching-house) to come over and help them. Who is willing to go? Answer: Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor.

Question 14. What can we do further in token of our brotherly love? Answer: Let us now make a collection among ourselves. This was immediately done and £50 were allotted towards the payment of debt, and about £20 given to our brethren for their passage.

Certainly this spectacle of a handful of poor preachers-there were now about a hundred men on the roll, not all of whom were at the Conference-with their paltry income giving £70 or even half of it to the American mission is one of the most pathetic in history.

The missionaries landed on October 20, 1769, and immediately began their work.

When I came to Philadelphia," writes Boardman to Wesley, November 4, 1769, “I found a little society and preached to a great number. I left Brother Pilmoor there and set out for New York. Coming to a large town on my way, and seeing a barrack I asked a soldier if there were any Methodists

belonging to it. 'O yes,' said he, 'we are all Methodists, that is, we should all be glad to hear a Methodist preach.' 'Well,' said I, 'tell them in the barrack that a Methodist preacher, just come from England, in tends to preach here to-night.' He did so and the inn was soon surrounded with soldiers. I asked, 'where do you think I can get a place to preach in ?' (It then being dark). One of them said, 'I will go and see if I can get the Presbyterian meeting-house.' He did so and soon returned and told me that he had prevailed, and that the bell was just going to ring to let all the town know. A great company soon got together and seemed much affected. The next day I came to New York." This readiness to enter every open door, and to try to open one if it were shut, was characteristic of early Methodist preachers, and was one cause of their

success.

An agreement was immediately drawn up that there should be preaching Sunday morn

ings and evenings, also on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, that the preacher should meet the society every Wednesday evening, and that each preacher having labored three months should receive three guineas for clothes. Such were the modest beginnings of the concerted effort of the British Methodists to extend the cause in America.

CHAPTER IV

THE FIRST CONFERENCES

AFTER 1769 other preachers were sent over by Wesley; of the lives of these and others I shall have something to say in a subsequent chapter. Under their labors the work rapidly spread and consolidated. But to coordinate it with Wesley and his system, the great disciplinarians Asbury and Rankin believed it was necessary to bring the preachers together for common action. They met therefore for their first Conference in Philadelphia on July 14-16, 1773, viz., Rankin, Boardman, Pilmoor, Asbury, Wright, Shadford, Webb, King, Whitworth and Yearby, -all travelling preachers, but all unordained. The reports of membership were as follows: New York 180, Philadelphia 180, New Jersey 200,