55 



111 Aug'Ust of that year. Atteudauce on the tirst day, about 2,000, 

 increased to 15,000 before it closed. Each succeeding year lias been a 

 success. Great good has been accomplished through the blessing of 

 God, and this camp meeting is firmly established in the hearts of the 

 people. The grounds are held by purchase and lease. 



Francis Asbury, the name by which this Association is called, is 

 that of the first superintendent aud resident Bishop in this countiy, 

 and is, to us, a name of blessed memory. He was born in the year 

 1745, in the parish of Hands worth, in Stalfordshire, England. He was 

 converted at fourteen years of age, and at twenty-one» he was travell- 

 ing and preaching under the Wesleys. This was in 1766, the natal year 

 of Methodism in America. In Sept.j 1771, he sailed for these shores, 

 and landed in Philadelphia after a wearisome voj'age of fifty days. He 

 at once entered upon that peculiar labor that was followed by him 

 through forty-five j'ears to the end of his life — the life of a States- 

 man, Evangelist and Bishop combined. He foUnd in America, only ten 

 ministers and six hundi'ed members of this church. At his death there 

 were 211,000 members, and 3,000 ministers. His sermons in this coun- 

 try are estimated at 16,500, or one for every day in all these years. 

 His travels, on horseback entirely, throughout the whole length and 

 breadth of the region inhabited by civilized men, in the States and 

 Canadas, at 270,000 miles, or 6,000 per year. He presided at two hun- 

 dred and twenty-five annual conferences, and Ordained more than 1,000 

 preachers. These conferences must have required the consecutive time 

 of four yeai's. In 1784, the connection with England was severed, and 

 Bishop Coke was sent over to ordain Asbuiy for the bishopric, and 

 head of the church on this Continent. It will be impossible for us to 

 bestow even a cursory glance at the subsequent work of this wonderful 

 man ; but whoever will read his life and study its connection with the 

 church in this country, will say that he was the greatest christian or- 

 ganizer in our history, and that he has wrought more deeply into the 

 religious thought and feeling of the country than anj^ other. He was 

 constautlj^ upon his travels His name was a household word, and the 

 children loved him. In the spring of 1816, in his 7lst year, he is upon 

 his great tour. He has come up through the Carolinas into Virginia. 

 He is in Richmond, worn, weak and sick, but it is the Sabbath, and he 

 must preach. Kind friends bear him in their arms iuto the church and 

 seat him in the midst of the multitude that had thronged to hear him 

 once more. His text was, "For he will finish the work and cut it 

 short in righteousness." It was his last efi"ort,and he died within a 

 few days near Fredericksburg. His ashes rest in the city of Baltimore. 

 His life was one of constant travel and toiL He had no home on the 

 earth. His salary was sixty-four dollars per annum, from which, for 

 years, he contributed to the support of an aged mother in England ; 

 but the result of his labor is a present membership of the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church in the United States of 2,000,00(5, with an aflilliated 

 population of 8,000,000. 



Mr. G. D. Phippen, gave an account of the floral collections made 

 during the morning, which, owing to the great heat of the day, were 

 quite small for this region. 



Mr. Phippen concluded his remarks by reading a paper from Mr. 

 Samuel H. Wadleigh, of Georgetown, upon the Indian Pipe, Monotro^ 

 pa unijtora, which Mr, Wadleigh thought should not be regarded as a 



