In South Carolina. 57 



to Benjamin Ingham a few weeks before the time ap- 

 pointed for his departure to America. 



Like the Wesleys, Mr. Ingham was descended from 

 a minister who was ejected from the Church of En- 

 gland by the black Bartholomew Act of 1662. He 

 Avas born at Osset in Yorkshire, June 11, 1712, entered 

 Queen's College, Oxford, at eighteen years of age, and 

 at twenty joined the Holy Club. He was ordained 

 deacon by Bishop Potter, June 1st, 1735, preaching the 

 same day to the prisoners in Oxford Castle; and when 

 he received Mr. Wesley's challenge to accompany him 

 to America, he was engaged as the reader of public 

 prayers at Christ Church and St. Sepulcher's Church, 

 London. He was a sort of ecclesiastical itinerant, going 

 often far beyond the precincts of London proper, and 

 preaching in many of the surrounding villages with 

 such singular success that great numbers of the people 

 were powerfully impressed, and had lasting cause to 

 be grateful for his youthful and earnest ministry. He 

 observed strictly the directions of his letter, and in 

 about three days sent the following answer: "lam 

 satisfied that God's providence has placed me in my 

 present station. Whether he would have me go to the 

 Indians or not, I am not as yet informed. I dare not 

 go without being called." In a private interview 

 shortly after this, Mr. Wesley told him in substance 

 that if he required a voice or a sign from heaven, as 

 in the case of St. Paul, that was now not to be expected, 

 and a man had no other way of knowing God's will but 

 by consulting his own reason, and his friends, and by 

 observing the order of God's providence. He thought, 

 therefore, that it was a sufficient call to choose that 

 mode of life which one had reason to believe would 

 most promote his Christian welfare, setting forth at 



