222 History of Methodism 



clays, or turned aside from the course he had marked 

 out for himself, to be present at a quarterly or a camp 

 meeting. While his administration at the Conferences 

 was unusually acceptable, his preaching everywhere 

 attracted great attention, and some of his pulpit efforts 

 on these tours are represented as having been sur- 

 passingly eloquent. The Rev. Samuel Luckey thus 

 describes his preaching on a pleasant Sabbath morn- 

 ing in June, 1816, in John Street Church, New York: 

 " The subject of the discourse was the conquest 

 which Christ had achieved over sin and death. He 

 announced his text — ' When he ascended up on high, 

 he led captivity captive ' — and, from the moment he 

 uttered it, had complete command of his audience. 

 The picture he drew of sin, and the desolations it has 

 wrought, was truly terrific. Like a mighty cataract, 

 he rushed on with constantly increasing impetuosity, 

 till every nerve that had braced itself to resist was un- 

 strung, and his hearers seemed passively to resign 

 themselves to an influence which was too strong for 

 them. At a felicitous moment, when the feelings of 

 his audience would bear to be directed into a different 

 channel, he exclaimed, in the language of holy tri- 

 umph, and in a manner and tone peculiar to himself, 

 'But Redemption smiled, and smiled a cure! ' His train 

 of thought was now changed, but the power of his elo- 

 quence was not at all diminished. Sin had been per- 

 sonified as the tyrant-monster, swaying his demon- 

 scepter over our race, and death in his train, dragging 

 the conquered millions to their dark abode. A might- 

 ier than these was now introduced — the sinner's Friend, 

 and the Conqueror of death. He came to destroy the 

 works of the devil, and to delive'r those who, through 

 fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bond- 



