224 It is tohy of Methodism 



he held on the enchained assembly, would take us all 

 with him to the third heaven. Some of the hearers 

 appeared motionless as statues, absorbed in thought, 

 and charmed with the grand scene before them, while 

 strong emotions were rolling in waves through the ex- 

 cited congregation; and as the man of God was about 

 to descend from his lofty elevation, thrilling shrieks 

 burst out from the awakened crowd in the gallery. 

 Immediately, some of the preachers who were ac- 

 quainted there pressed through the multitude to con- 

 duct these sighing penitents down to the altar; and 

 soon they were seen weeping and trembling, and urg- 

 ing their way along to the consecrated spot, where a 

 prayer-meeting was immediately opened and ardent 

 supplications offered up to Heaven in their behalf. It 

 is believed that more than one hundred souls were 

 awakened during the session of that Conference. Noth- 

 ing could be calculated more effectually to touch the 

 feelings of the human heart, to wither the shoots of 

 pride springing up in it, and to melt down its hard- 

 ness, than was the strain of original eloquence which 

 characterized the preaching of this excellent man. 

 Originality was indeed a prominent feature of his 

 preaching. Endowed with all the qualifications which 

 are necessary to constitute an impressive, natural pub- 

 lic speaker, he imitated no one, and drew always from 

 his own resources. The ornaments and flowers which 

 embellished his sermons were not gleaned from the 

 fields and gardens cultivated by any scientific master, 

 but were the natural production of his own fertile 

 mind. His style was a mixture of the sublime and the 

 pathetic, and might be considered alternately a very 

 good specimen of each in purely extemporaneous 

 productions. To ihe rules of rhetoric, or the arts of 



