22P> History of Methodism 



heat of his zeal, did not perceive, and interrupted him 

 in the most pleasant manner — ' Good, good, brother,' 

 said he; 'that is just what it wants; pour on a little 

 oil; it will go easier; let it be mollified.' The effect 

 was what might be expected : all asperity of feeling at 

 once subsided. 



" The secret of Bishop George's eminent usefulness 

 as a Christian minister lay chiefly in his deep and 

 earnest piety. Amidst all his cares and labors, he 

 never neglected his private devotions. When he was 

 deprived of the privilege of the closet, by the restrict- 

 ed circumstances of the families with whom he so- 

 journed, he would retire to some grove, and seek ont 

 there a solitude where he might commune with his 

 God. Often, when traveling with him, have I accom- 

 panied him in the twilight of evening, or in the dawn 

 of the morning, and witnessed the fervor of his devo- 

 tions. He seemed fully aware that without that love 

 to God and man, which can be kept alive only by con- 

 stant watchfulness and prayer, all human efforts are 

 but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 



"Perhaps the most marked feature in Bishop 

 George's character was his extreme diffidence. Al- 

 though he possessed fine colloquial powers, and was 

 ready enough to bring them into exercise in a circle of 

 his intimate friends, he studiously avoided the company 

 of strangers, or maintained a distant and reserved man- 

 ner, which not unf requently left an unfavorable impres- 

 sion. No persuasion could induce him to leave his 

 chamber to mingle in the social circle, whose object 

 he suspected to be merely to spend an hour in com- 

 monplace conversation, or, what he dreaded still more, 

 to gratify the ancient Athenian propensity, ' to tell or 

 to hear some new thing.' From every thing of this 



