In South Carolina. 253 



mind was athirst for knowledge. His parents were 

 devout Christians, and lie was trained up in the nurt- 

 ure and admonition of the Lord, with all the blessed 

 sanctities of a Christian home shedding their influ- 

 ences on his mind and character. At an early period 

 he was brought under deep religious concern, sought 

 the pardoning mercy of God through Christ, and 

 reached a comforting sense of acceptance in the full, 

 unreserved commitment of his soul to Christ crucified 

 as the only source of salvation to the sinner. Not 

 long afterward he felt an impression distinct and deep 

 that he was called by the Holy Spirit to the work of 

 the gospel ministry. It was the judgment of his 

 brethren that he was not mistaken in this, and he was 

 accordingly licensed to preach in 1812. At the ses- 

 sion of the South Carolina Conference, which was held 

 in Charleston in December of that year, he was ad- 

 mitted on trial into the traveling connection, in his 

 nineteenth year, and sent for 1813 to Saltketcher Cir- 

 cuit, in South Carolina; 1814, Bladen in North Car- 

 olina; 1815, Warren in Georgia; 1816, Charleston; 

 1817-18, Wilmington; 1819, Columbia; 1820-21, Au- 

 gusta; 1822-23, Savannah; from 1824 to 1826, presid- 

 ing elder of Charleston District; 1827-28, Charleston; 

 1829, Athens and Greensborough; 1830, Athens and 

 Madison; 1831-32, Augusta. At the General Confer- 

 ence held in Philadelphia in 1832 he was elected, with 

 Dr. John Emory, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church, and for three quadrennial terms met with 

 distinguished ability the claims of the high office 

 conferred upon him. In 1844 the proceedings of the 

 General Conference, which convened in the city of 

 New York, rendered the name of Bishop Andrew very 

 notable beyond the sphere even of his own ecclesias- 



