438 History of Methodism 



in the ministry, for^ soon both were taken from labor 

 to reward. The little society which they had raised 

 W6re now as sheep scattered in the wilderness, bnt 

 the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls did not long 

 leave unprotected the lambs • of his fold. Among a 

 number of carpenters from Chatham dock-yards, sent 

 out by the British Government to English Harbor, in 

 Antigua, Mr. John Baxter, an acceptable local preach- 

 er in the London District, consented to go. On the 

 first Sunday after his arrival, he went to St. Johns, a 

 distance of twelve miles, and in the open air, under 

 the shade of a large tree, he preached to the few de- 

 spised disciples of Christ and to a mixed multitude of 

 blacks and whites. Finding the work of God extend- 

 ing on all sides, he left his situation under the king 

 and gave himself up wholly to the service of the 

 sanctuary. It was not long before he required 

 another laborer in the vineyard, and Jeremiah Lam- 

 bert entered from America. 



" In the year 1785," says Mr. Warrener, " I told 

 Mr. Wesley that I was at his and the Lord's disposal, 

 to go to America or wherever I might be wanted. At 

 the Conference held in Bristol, the following year, I 

 was appointed to go to Antigua, as an assistant to 

 Mr. Baxter. ' My appointment was the first that had 

 been made by the Methodist Conference to the West 

 Indies." 



Dr. Coke was intrusted by Mr. Wesley, during his 

 life, with the chief management of the missions, in 

 the establishment of which he had been the principal 

 agent. After the death of Mr. Wesley, the Confer- 

 ence appointed him the general superintendent of 

 their missions, and in the year 1793 for the first time 

 permitted a general collection to be made through the 



