And State Papers 243 



Catholic, and Dutch Reformed Churches each had 

 developments in special places. The great growth 

 of the Methodist Church, like the great growth of 

 the Baptist Church, began at about the time of the 

 Revolutionary War. To-day my theme is purely 

 Methodism. 



Since the days of the Revolution not only has the 

 Methodist Church increased greatly in the old com 

 munities of the thirteen original States, but it has 

 played a peculiar and prominent part in the pioneer 

 growth of our country, and has in consequence as 

 sumed a position of immense importance through 

 out the vast region west of the Alleghanies which 

 has been added to our Nation since the days when 

 the Continental Congress first met. 



For a century after the Declaration of Independ 

 ence the greatest work of our people, with the ex 

 ception only of the work of self-preservation under 

 Lincoln, was the work of the pioneers as they took 

 possession of this continent. During that century 

 we pushed westward from the Alleghanies to the 

 Pacific, southward to the Gulf and the Rio Grande, 

 and also took possession of Alaska. The work of 

 advancing our boundary, of pushing the frontier 

 across forest and desert and mountain chain, was 

 the great typical work of our Nation; and the men 

 who did it the frontiersmen, the pioneers, the back 

 woodsmen, plainsmen, mountain men formed a 

 class by themselves. It was an iron task, which 

 none but men of iron soul and iron body could do. 

 The men who carried it to a successful conclusion 



