150 History of Methodism 



Such were the men chosen by Bishop Asbury to 

 establish Methodism in Carolina. In aid of their 

 operations he planned an early visit to the South, and 

 determined to take with him also, as a traveling com- 

 panion and co-laborer, Jesse Lee, from the Salisbury 

 Circuit in North Carolina. Mr. Lee was also a native 

 of Virginia, and entered the itinerancy in 1783. Al- 

 though not regularly educated for the gospel ministry, 

 nor possessing those rare talents which command the 

 admiration of mankind, he yet exhibited much native 

 genius, had a clear understanding of the method of 

 salvation by grace, and evinced an ardent love for the 

 souls of men. With his intimate friends he was frank 

 and familiar, and often enlivened conversation with 

 sudden strokes of wit and amusing anecdotes, which, 

 however, always had a religious tendency. His ap- 

 pearance in the pulpit was plain yet dignified, simple 

 but commanding. His style was unadorned with the 

 flowers of rhetoric, but his armory abounded with 

 apposite quotations of Scripture, which were often en- 

 livened by the introduction of a fitting anecdote, and 

 made impressive by striking and familiar illustrations. 

 In the estimation of his contemporaries he ranked " as 

 the best every-day preacher in the Connection." If 

 in the judgment of some he occasionally descended 

 from the dignity of his solemn subject by quaint ob- 

 servations, he generally corrected the seeming evil 

 effect by regaining at once the gravity of the minister 

 of God, and urging upon his hearers the necessity of 

 holy living. Sometimes, as if instantaneously moved 

 by inspiration, or a sense of the tremendous impor- 

 tance of his subject, he burst forth in those impas- 

 sioned exclamations which are 'rather calculated to 

 overwhelm with astonishment than to convince the 



